DIE HARD--THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION

Here’s how you can tell when a movie has become part of the pop-culture firmament: The title can be used as descriptive shorthand. Sometimes that’s a bad thing (like Ishtar), but in Die Hard’s case, it’s more of a ratification — Die Hard on a plane (Passenger 57), Die Hard on a boat (Under Siege), Die Hard on a mountain (Cliffhanger). The seemingly simple formula — take a working-class hero, confine him, add a damsel in distress and a bunch of villains, usually terrorists, and shake well — often flummoxed imitators, and this new six-disc boxed set will help you see for yourself why the franchise started by director John McTiernan’s tense thriller has been so difficult to duplicate.