Harry Ellis, Respect!!!
HARRY ELLIS
Harry Ellis, the guy who wanted to make a deal with Die Hard villain Hans Gruber. While working-class cop John McClane was fighting to stay alive and beat the bad guys, Ellis figured it would be better to treat the murderous terrorists the way he would any high powered business client. And with the cocaine fueled optimism of the rich and stupid, Ellis proclaims: "Hey babe, I negotiate million dollar deals for breakfast, I think I can handle this Eurotrash."
Hans (who for the record isn't really a terrorist, just an exceptional thief) is actually momentarily amused by Ellis's audacity. "Hans, bubby, I'm your white knight," Ellis says to the dumfounded sociopathic mastermind. Ellis's solution is to pretend to be John McClane's good friend, thereby making him a bargaining chip in Hans's eyes. While McClane clearly detested Ellis the moment he met him, he nonetheless does his heroic best to convince Hans that the men are most certainly not friends.
Ellis is the greatest example of someone who has all the confidence in the world when he shouldn't have any. His over the top antics are perhaps the only moment in the movie where McClane and Hans probably agree on anything: that life would probably be better without Harry Ellis. While this fact is almost completely lost to poor Ellis himself, the reality of his situation starts to dawn on him when Hans puts a rather serious looking gun on the table between them.
"What am I a method actor? Hans, babe, put away the gun. This is radio here, not television," he says. But he still doesn't get it, and all of his Rolex-wearing, cocaine snorting, cock of the walk confidence leads to his taking a bullet to the head. In the end, Harry Ellis died doing what he loved: listening to himself talk.