On the Fourth Day of Die Hard, My True Love Gave To Me...

Die HardThe 1980s were famous for the bombastic action films released during the decade. Featuring big burly men fighting other big burly men, often with more guns, bombs, and explosions than appear in Michael Bay's wildest dreams, the action films of the decade were heavy on spectacle, short on realism. And then came a little film called Die Hard that flipped the entire action genre on its head. style films don’t necessarily lend themselves well to sequels. When you have a hero, and everyman, that gets caught in a life or death situation and has to battle a bunch of thieving terrorists to survive, it’s hard to imagine how that same person could then end up in that exact same situation again and again. Most Die Hard clones resort to having the hero be a cop or other law enforcement type so that fighting robbers and/or terrorists are part of their job, but other films don’t have that luxury and seeing the same character do the same thing over and over stretches credulity. Hell, it only took four films for John McClane to go from everyman cop to superhero invincible supercop. These kinds of things aren’t easily repeatable.

A film like Becky would strain greatly to put its heroine in the same situation twice. She’s a child, so automatically she doesn’t have a job that puts her in harm’s way regularly. She also dispatches all the villains in front of her very effectively. That wouldn’t seem to leave much room for anyone to come back for revenge, precluding a kind of Die Hard With a Vengeance sequel. To be able to return to the character, without stretching credulity, the character has to go looking for trouble. She can’t be like Kevin McCallister and magically end up home alone multiple times while the same robbers come for her over and over. It just wouldn’t work.

Instead, sequel film The Wrath of Becky wisely put the heroine into a different role. She’s not doing another Die Hard here (which technically means we really shouldn’t count it for “The Five Days of Die Hard”, but it’s my feature and I do as I like) but, instead, going out for revenge on her own, letting a new set of bad guys (very deserving bad guys, mind you) feel her “wrath”. And it works. It’s a leaner, meaner, even more violent film than the first one, but that perfectly suits the angry girl at the center of this growing film series.

The Wrath of Becky finds our titular Becky (once again played by Lulu Wilson) out on her own. An opening, animated montage lets us see her go from home to home, running away from any foster parents that try to take her in, preferring the open road (and a little light larceny) over having anyone that tells her what to do. She does eventually settle down, renting a room from Elena (Denise Burse), a kindly older woman who doesn’t ask too many questions and doesn’t judge Becky for her eccentricities (of which she has many).

Things take a turn, though, when Becky pisses off three dudes at the diner she works at. She’s rude to them almost immediately (easily clocking them as white supremacists, whom she holds in very low regard), and then dumps a cup of scalding coffee on one of them. They go after her for revenge, following her home so they can attack her at night. The attack leaves Elena dead and Becky knocked unconscious, plus the jerks steal her dog, Diego. So Becky arms herself, gets her gear together, and chases after them, easily following the few clues they left to find them at the compound of Darryl (Sean William Scott), the leader of their white supremacist cell, right as they’re on the verge of committing a massive terrorist attack. Good thing Becky is there to lay down some serious carnage.

The upside of shifting The Wrath of Becky away from the standard Die Hard format is that it also cuts away a lot of fat from the story. While we do learn a bit about the white supremacists and their plans, enough so that we know they’re real assholes that deserve what’s coming to them, the film doesn’t have to invest deeply in their plots and schemes because, clearly, we’re never going to get to see them. A different version of this film could have focused on the attack at Elena’s house, doing a Die Hard there, while another would have said, “lets have Becky chase them down at the rally they were planning to attack, and do a big confrontation in front of the crowds. That’s not how The Wrath of Becky handles it, though, keeping the story focused and restrained.

Considering the film was made on a microbudget, that does make sense. But it also means that the film can be tight and quick without dragging things out. We have bad guys, a very violent good guy, and the two can battle each other out without worrying about deeper meanings or longer storylines. Sometimes it’s really nice to just have a film that gives you exactly what it says on the tin, and that’s how The Wrath of Becky operates. Here’s Becky, now watch as she delivers her wrath.

With that said, it also means that we don’t get a very deep film, either. There are hints of a larger world beyond Becky’s scope – the key she still carries around from the first film, the larger terrorist organization of which she’s only taken out a single cell – that this film, with its specific story, can’t get into. Naturally it would be ludicrous to think that a sixteen year old would somehow be able to take out an entire terrorist organization (clearly that’s what she should do in the third film, if one gets made) but you also can’t help but feel like the film is trying to reach for more even has it keeps its focus narrowed down. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, if further adventures are forthcoming, but it does leave this film feeling just a little unfinished in the end.

And on that track, I can’t help but also mention that the ending is a tad… over the top. Without spoiling things, the film goes from “crazy, but in a grounded way” to “truly fictional” due to a couple of specific choices on the part of the screenwriters. It’s worth noting that this film was written by a different team, written and co-directed by Matt Angel with story credit and co-direction from Suzanne Coote, and so the film does have a different voice from the first movie. That leads to a film that feels connected because its main character is the same, but that doesn’t necessarily feel like it takes place in the same world. The first film was very grounded and the sequel, eventually, is not.

But then, how believable is it that a sixteen year old could become this mercenary death machine? Becky goes from angry Kevin McCallister to vengeful Sarah Connor in the span of two films, and whether that makes sense or not for the character it does feel like the film is pushing her to be a big hero that her twelve year old version could have possibly been one film earlier. It works in the confines of this movie, but it does mean that you can’t think too hard on it because then, well, it would all fall apart.

Although credit is due to the actors for keeping things as grounded as they are. Wilson is great, once again, as Becky, giving her all the rage she needs to feel like a well-honed murder machine. But it’s Sean William Scott that really steals the show. He plays the terrorist leader and while at first glance you probably think, “Stiffler?” very quickly Scott makes you forget all about the comedic roles he played before. His Darryl is dark, cold, and mean, so different from what Scott has played before that you get lost watching this new character. He’s great.

And that’s why The Wrath of Becky really works. It invests in itself, letting its small, focused story play out properly with two leads really giving it their all. It’s not the same kind of film as its predecessor, but that’s not a bad thing. It just means this film can find its own way, and get to its own violent ends as it needs to. But if a third film comes along, it has to go all in on the violence, the story, and the ridiculous ends. It’s all or nothing at this point because The Wrath of Becky set it all up for us.