“Die Hard” (ダイ・ハード), Original Release Japanese Movie Poster 1988, B2 Size (51 × 73 cm) J197

This is an original Japanese B2 theatrical poster produced for the Japanese release of Die Hard—John McTiernan’s era-defining action thriller starring Bruce Willis as NYPD detective John McClane. Released at the end of the 1980s, the film reset the modern action template: a single, contained location; escalating set-pieces; and a protagonist defined as much by exhaustion and grit as by heroics.

Poster design
A brilliantly high-impact Japanese design built around the film’s core iconography: the towering high-rise (Nakatomi Plaza) rendered as a vertical centrepiece, crowned by a blast of fire and smoke, with the night-city sprawl slicing in from the left. At right, a stark, close-cropped portrait of McClane locks the image to a human scale—panic, focus, and determination in one frame. The huge red katakana title 「ダイ・ハード」 anchors the bottom like a siren, with dense copy promising a “40-storey battlefield” spectacle—pure late-’80s action marketing at its most powerful.

Condition
Excellent. Please review the photos—they show the exact poster for sale.

It is not a reproduction or a reprint.
Certificate of Authenticity included.

It is over 37 years old!