“Die Hard 2” (ダイ・ハード2), Original First-Release Japanese Movie Poster 1990, Rare B1 Size (72.8 × 103 cm) GA31
This is an original Japanese B1 theatrical poster produced for the first Japanese cinema release of Renny Harlin’s blockbuster action sequel Die Hard 2 (ダイ・ハード2), starring Bruce Willis as NYPD detective John McClane. The film was produced in 1990 and opened theatrically in Japan on 21 September 1990, distributed domestically by 20th Century Fox.
Set one year after the events of the original Die Hard, the film finds McClane at Washington Dulles International Airport on Christmas Eve, waiting for his wife Holly’s flight to arrive. He discovers that a group of former military operatives led by Colonel Stuart, played by William Sadler, has seized control of the airport’s systems as part of an operation to free an imprisoned foreign military leader. With aircraft circling overhead, communications compromised and the airport descending into chaos, McClane once again finds himself as the one man capable of intervening. Directed by Renny Harlin, the film was adapted from Walter Wager’s novel 58 Minutes and also stars Bonnie Bedelia, William Atherton, Reginald VelJohnson, John Amos and Franco Nero.
Poster design
A spectacular Japanese first-release composition built around Bruce Willis’s enormous portrait, the fiery destruction of Dulles Airport and a passenger jet descending through a crimson-black sky.
McClane occupies almost the entire left half of the sheet, his face dramatically divided between intense illumination and deep shadow. The treatment immediately reinforces the character’s defining combination of vulnerability, exhaustion and stubborn resilience, while the right side explodes into full-scale disaster imagery: a commercial airliner descends through smoke and fire toward an airport terminal engulfed in an enormous orange-red inferno.
Across the top, the huge Japanese title ダイ・ハード2 is rendered in brilliant dimensional red lettering, preceded by Bruce Willis’s name and the memorable yellow campaign line:
「また、戦場へ来てしまった運の悪い奴！」
— approximately “Once again, the unlucky guy has ended up on the battlefield!”
The Japanese synopsis copy at upper right immediately establishes the new setting:
Washington D.C. — an emergency at Dulles International Airport. A terrorist group has seized control of the air-traffic system. The airport is completely paralysed and panic spreads — and once again, “that man” is there.
The lower-right corner reinforces the international branding with the compact BRUCE WILLIS / DIE HARD 2 title treatment, while the extensive original production credits run along the bottom edge.
The combination of deep black negative space, Bruce Willis’s monumental close-up, a burning airport, descending aircraft and huge red Japanese typography makes this an exceptionally powerful sequel to the equally striking Japanese campaign for the original Die Hard.
Rare B1 format
This is the considerably larger Japanese B1 format, approximately 72.8 × 103 cm (28.7 × 40.6 inches)—roughly twice the surface area of the standard Japanese B2 theatrical poster.
The B1 format gives the huge Bruce Willis portrait and airport inferno dramatically greater presence, transforming an already iconic action image into a commanding large-format display piece. Original first-release B1 posters survive in substantially smaller numbers than their standard B2 counterparts, making examples for major late-1980s and early-1990s action classics particularly desirable.
It is nearly 36 years old!
Condition
Excellent+ overall. The poster retains exceptionally strong colour, contrast and surface presentation, with the deep black field, fiery reds and oranges, Bruce Willis portrait and enormous red title remaining superbly vivid.
Once framed, this large B1 poster will display exceptionally well.
Please review all photographs, including the front, detail and verso imagery—they show the exact poster for sale.
It is not a reproduction or a reprint.
Certificate of Authenticity included.
