The extradition of General Esperanza- Seriously??
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Die Hard 2
dazfiddy — 10 years ago(March 12, 2016 03:54 AM)
So General Esperanza, a former US ally is being extradited to the United States for drug smuggling. He needs money as his military aid has been cut off by Congress. Esperanza's government send him to the United States with one(!) idiot soldier on a military transport!Even more ludicrous, the plane is due to land at a civilian airport during the peak Christmas holiday period. Members of the Justice Department are sat in public for all the world to see.I know DH2 is just a blockbuster action movie, but please!
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Stevicus-2 — 10 years ago(March 12, 2016 05:38 AM)
So General Esperanza, a former US ally is being extradited to the United States for drug smuggling. He needs money as his military aid has been cut off by Congress. Esperanza's government send him to the United States with one(!) idiot soldier on a military transport!Even more ludicrous, the plane is due to land at a civilian airport during the peak Christmas holiday period. Members of the Justice Department are sat in public for all the world to see.I know DH2 is just a blockbuster action movie, but please!
All of these are good points, but yeah, it's an action movie, and action movies rarely make sense.
What I could never understand is why Col. Stuart and Co. were so loyal to a foreign general as to carry out this huge operation to rescue him.
The thing about drug kingpins is that they're so easily replaced. Take out one, and there are ten others ready and willing to take his place. So there was no particular reason for Stuart to view Esperanza as so indispensable. Yet, he commits some of the most heinous crimes, including mass murder, just to save this low-life who could have been easily replaced and was pretty much useless anyway. -
dazfiddy — 10 years ago(March 13, 2016 03:27 AM)
Colonel Stuart clearly admired Esperanza, regarding him as a "great man" who was fighting Communism in his country.He probably did not see him a drug kingpin.
During a walkie talkie exchange with McClane, he outlines the reason he is taking over the airport.It would not be a stretch to believe that Stuart was recruited by Esperanza to devise a plan to prevent his extradition to the US. I often thought that Stuart was based in part on Oliver North of Iran-Contra fame, a dangerous zealot who believes that the ends justifies the means. -
Stevicus-2 — 10 years ago(March 13, 2016 10:51 AM)
Yeah, I get what you're saying, although I don't think Stuart really cared all that much for his country or about fighting communism. He was just in it for the money. They seemed to take great pleasure in wiping out a SWAT team of American police officers.
If it's purely a practical business concern, then Stuart could just do business with whichever general replaced Esperanza. Whoever Esperanza's replacement might have been, if he was US-approved, then it's almost certain he would have been just as ardently anti-communist as any other Latin American dictator we've supported.
Even if they successfully rescued Esperanza, he couldn't return to his country and set himself up as leader, so he'd be an exile for the rest of his life. He would no longer be of any value to Stuart, since he would not be able to operate his drug business. Stuart himself ended his career as well, so he would also have to remain a fugitive in exile for the rest of his life. And considering what he did, there'd be more than a few people in the US government who would want Stuart's head on a plate covered in Esperanza sauce. -
costumrs — 9 years ago(January 14, 2017 09:40 PM)
Colonel Stuart clearly admired Esperanza, regarding him as a "great man" who was fighting Communism in his country.
Far more likely that Col. Stuart saw Esperanza as a very rich man who was going to pay him a very large amount of money.