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| “ | Oh my God! The quarterback is toast! | „ |
| ~ Theo after a SWAT RV is blown up. |
Theo is a major antagonist of the 1988 action-thriller film Die Hard. He later returns as the main antagonist of its 2020 sequel Advance Auto Parts commercial DieHard Is Back.
He is an African-American hacker who, along with Eddie, assists foreign terrorist Hans Gruber in his plot to rob the Nakatomi Plaza during a Christmas Eve party despite being American. During the heist, while his boss and his men take all the party guests hostage and confront John McClane, Theo stays behind doing all the hacking.
He was portrayed by the late Clarence Gilyard.
Biography[]
Die Hard[]
On December 24, 1988, Theo was a member of the terrorist group led by Hans Gruber to rob the Nakatomi Plaza during a Christmas party in Christmas Eve. He was well-aware of what the group was doing and didn't seem to care much, even though he himself was American along with Eddie. He even participated in full with it, locking the parking lot to ensure no one in the building could leave or escape to alert the authorities. He is depicted as weaselly, insensitive, and arrogant, cracking jokes whenever people are killed because of his group's actions.
During the heist, Theo is responsible for breaking the vault open and robbing the $640 million dollars in bearer bonds, while the others would ensure, that they would get away with it and then flee together in the van prepared to escape with the money undetected. However, while Theo stays behind on his spot doing all the hacking, the American cop John McClane interferes in the heist by killing Tony Vreski and starts doing everything he can to stop Gruber and his men, including Karl Vreski.
Unfortunately for Theo, Argyle spots him in the locked parking lot while making his getaway and crashed against his van to stop him. Immediately afterwards, Argyle got out of the car and knocked out Theo. It is assumed that Theo was arrested by the police after as one of only two surviving terrorists (the other being Kristoff), as all the other fellow terrorists, including Gruber, were killed by John McClane or Sgt. Al Powell.
DieHard Is Back[]
By 2020, Theo had been apparently released from prison and formed a gang of his own, but desired revenge against John McClane and Argyle for ruining his plans. At some point after the Nakatomi Plaza affair, McClane eventually learned of Theo's existence and involvement in the heist. On the night of October 18 that year, Theo was dining and checking his laptop in a restaurant in a city with an Advanced Auto Parts store when suddenly, he spots a retired John McClane, whose car battery had died, walking through the street and looking for the battery store. McClane immediately recognizes Theo and Theo menacingly points at him, calling his men to go after McClane, who runs into the battery store to get a DieHard car battery and escape from the city. Theo's men find him after he escapes through the store's ventilation system and shoot at him, but in a twist of fate, McClane runs into Argyle, who is still working as a limo driver, and asks McClane to get into his vehicle so they can escape.
Theo and his men pursue Argyle's car, shooting at it unsuccessfully, but then, one of Theo's men crashes a truck against Argyle's, knocking him out in a similar way to how Argyle prevented Theo's getaway thirty-two years ago. Anyway, McClane drags an unconscious Argyle to his car and uses the battery, but a demented Theo appears in control of a backhoe, willing to kill McClane and Argyle with his own hands. Without time to lose, McClane warns the recovered Argyle to take the driver's seat and throws the grenade of one of Theo's men into the backhoe cockpit, unnoticed by Theo. He keeps driving the backhoe towards McClane and Argyle, gloating that he will finally kill them, escorted by two cars with his thugs, but then, Theo finally notices the grenade, which explodes, blowing Theo and his backdoe up along with his men's cars, finally stopping the latest threat to John McClane's life and allowing him to peacefully retire from saving the day for good.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Clarence Gilyard was indeed punched for real by De'voreaux White in the scene in which Argyle knocks Theo out, as the filmmakers wanted De'voreaux to be more realistic.
- It's unknown if the Advanced Auto Parts DieHard Is Back commercial is canon to the Die Hard films or not, which could mean that canonically, Theo is still serving time or at the very least is still alive, but given how the commercial doesn't contradict in any way the films and that a Bruce Willis-starring sequel is impossible now due to Willis' retirement from acting in 2022, it's logical to think that DieHard Is Back was John McClane's last stand.
- If the commercial is indeed canon, then Theo is the final antagonist of the series to be defeated.
- Ironically, years after the release of Die Hard, Clarence Gilyard retired from acting and became a teacher, though he occasionally acted in some productions before his passing in 2022, making his character's jokes oddly prophetic.
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 Villains
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