Was the villain in Die Hard 3 really a stutterer?
 

This has kind of bugged me for awhile now. Any review I ever read of Die Hard with a Vengeance seems to mention the villain (Simon, played by Jeremy Irons) was a stutterer.

I maintain he was not a stutterer. Instead, during his initial phone conversation with John McClane, he stuttered on purpose to make the police suspect he was off balance and just some crazy loon rather than a guy with a master plan to steal all the gold from NYC.

You notice he never stutters again for the entire movie until near the end where he says, "And remember. This was all made possible thanks to the g-g-g-g-gullibility of the New York Police Department!"

So notice where he chooses to stutter - on the word "gullibility." The guy isn't stuttering. He's making fun of the NYPD for believing he was a stutterer.

Or maybe I'm just reading too much into it. Thoughts?

You're right.

Yes, I thought he was making fun of all the police profiling.

He was originally scripted to stutter through the whole picture, but scrapped that idea when Michael Palin left the project and was replaced by Jeremy Irons.

How is this even a question? Is there anyone who actually thinks he was a stutterer?

He did stuttered during the celerating speech with his fellow soldiers near end of the movie.

lol as a joke, yeah.

He obviously was not a stutterer.

If he were actually a stutterer, the Stutterer Support League and ACLU would've been all over the movie crying discrimination and offensiveness. :)

He was a stutterer.

The stutter at the beginning was something the police used to help identify him. When the Feds came in and confirmed his identity, you'd think they'd have mentioned something like "he's not really a stutterer," if he hadn't.

The idea that the stutter at the beginning made the police think he was "unhinged" is frankly an offensive suggestion. Stuttering is not a sign of someone being unhinged. The most the police inferred from the stutter is that McClane was able to upset him at that moment.

As for the end, stutters typically get more pronounced when the stutterer has to talk in pubic. He was giving a speech to his whole crew, which likely made him slightly nervous.

As for why he didn't stutter at any other moment in the film, I just took it to mean that he had the stutter mostly under control. There are degrees of stuttering.

Like in The Sixth Sense, when Cole provoked his teacher and he lost his strutter control.

If you actually believe a single word of what you wrote, you need to rewatch the movie.

The only way it could have been more obvious Gruber was faking the stutter to throw off the police would be if he looked at a henchman and said "I don't really stutter. I did that to throw off the police."

He was not a stutterer. He did have IBS though.

LOL!

LOL!

LOL! Most braindead analysis ever.

Let me make it perfectly clear: He was toying with the police. That's why the stutter. To throw them off. that's why the Helsinki payphone, that's why playing with their telephones, that's why sending the cops around town: misdirection and distraction to divert their attention from what the real deal was: A big heist.

Remember, Simon "Peter Krieg" Gruber was just as cynical and money-lusting as his brother. Killing McClane in the process was just a bonus, not the objective.

This was a guy who ran his own rogue army squad consisting of I don't know how many vigilantes and terrorists - a guy who's an ex-Colonel.

This guy had things UNDER CONTROL - it's clear throughout the entire movie.

Why do you think he stuttered on "g-g-g-g-gullibility"? The very WAY he stuttered on that word should tell you he wasn't actually stuttering. the fact he stuttered on the word "gullibility" - the fact he was criticizing and mocking the police department on their incompetence (seeing how he could confuse them by setting up games here and there).

Seriously, get a brain. Your analysis is horrible. Of course, I hope you are joking.

Hear hear.

This is about as braindead was people arguing it was "sweat" that fell from Hannibal's eye at the end of "Hannibal" (cuffs scene) instead of a tear, and presenting ridiculous arguments arguing their doomed case.

I think you're joking, but this is pretty much what happened with A Fish Called Wanda.

^^ Weren't they also the ones that wanted to "retire" Porky Pig?

http://www.metronights.com/clients/a.../strutter1.jpg

:scratch2:

Michael Palin was supposed to be in Die Hard 3! Whoa.

Who cares.

:lol:

rotfl

If you didn't post this I was going to! First thing I thought of seeing the word "stutter" so much was "Strutter".

I understand all that other stuff was designed to throw the police off, I just don't see how the stutter fits into that at all. How does whether or not he stutters affect anything the police then do? At best, it made the police think he was upset at what McClane said, but the hanging up on McClane did that as well.

Do this little mental exercise: Remove both stutters from the film. How does doing that in any way affect the plot?

Actually, it was the way he stuttered on the second one that made me not consider it a feint. Jeremy Irons simply sold the second stutter too well: it seemed like a real stutter instead of an obviously fake one, which is what would be called for there.

Also, are we supposed to believe that Gruber told his entire crew beforehand that he was going to fake a stutter for the police? Because either he did that inexplicable action, or a good portion of his listening audience during that speech are going to be like, "what's with the stutter?"

Personal insults aside, I simply stated what my impression of the Gruber's character based on my viewings of the film. It's taken this thread for me to actually "analyze" what I thought was just a little character flourish. I'm actually sorry it has, because now I can see how it could've been a plot point, a horribly executed plot point, but still.

It's been a while since I've seen the movie, but didn't the FBI say that his stuttering was medically related to his headaches.. which is what ultimately took him down?

time to save this thread:

<object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/OTyw6cq86kY&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/OTyw6cq86kY&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>

??? Wow I love the movies but that is possibly one of the worst songs I have ever heard...

Anyway on the stutter, I think he was faking it.