Michael found refuge in Discovery‘s Jeffries Tubes, where she was able to try to access the ship’s systems, just like McClane crawled through the skyscraper’s air conditioning shafts to hide. John also snagged one of the terrorists’ radios, which he used to call for help, and eventually made a friend on the ground in uniformed LAPD beat cop Sgt. Al Powell (Reginald Veljohnson). Likewise, Michael made her own distress call for help to her mother Gabrielle (Sonja Sohn) on Ni’Var. Of course, the villains had access to their radio signals, and Zareh (Jake Webber), the leader of the Regulators, taunted Burnham just as Hans did McClane on their walkie-talkies.
Burnham not only proved to be just as much of an action star as McClane, but she also ended up barefoot just like Die Hard‘s hero cop. One of the Regulators found Michael in the tubes and, as they fought, Burnham opened the airlock, which blew the bad guy into the airless void of Federation headquarters, taking Michael’s boots with her. Michael was undaunted and hit Zareh back on the comm, telling him, “You’re gonna need more Regulators!”, just like McClane zinged Gruber with what became his catchphrase: “Yippie-ki-yay, motherf—-!”
McClane and Gruber did come face-to-face at gunpoint in Die Hard, but John was able to outsmart Hans, kill the mastermind, and save his wife Holly (Bonnie Bedelia). Comparatively, Michael had a difficult choice to make. She forced Stamets to leave the ship, despite his pleas to let him jump Discovery back to the Verubin Nebula to rescue his stranded and dying family, Dr. Hugh Culber (Wilson Cruz), Adira (Blu del Barrio), and Captain Saru (Doug Jones). Meanwhile, Zareh found Burnham and held her at gunpoint to end the episode. It remains to be seen in Star Trek: Discovery‘s season 3 finale if Michael can dispatch Zareh by dropping him from a great height to his death the way Hans Gruber unforgettably met his end in Die Hard.
Star Trek: Discovery season 3 streams Thursdays on CBS All-Access and Fridays internationally on Netflix.
Originally from https://screenrant.com/star-trek-discovery-die-hard-references/