The following contains spoilers for Rick and Morty Season 6, Episode 2, "A Mort Well Lived," which debuted Sept. 11 on Adult Swim.
One of the things there'll never be a shortage of on Rick and Morty is pop culture references. Season 6 already had jokes made at Iron Man's expense, while promos have connected the series to properties such as God of War. This helps cement the show as something traversing all corners of movie, TV and gaming history, leaving its own signature on them.
In "A Mort Well Lived," Rick and Morty leaned heavily into an action classic: Die Hard. The 1988 movie galvanized director John McTiernan as a legend in the genre, just a year after he put out Predator. However, rather than make fun of the popular flick, Rick and Morty paid homage, with many deep cuts and Easter eggs in what was essentially a remix.
Rick and Morty Had a Hans Gruber
The late Alan Rickman, before he scared fans as Harry Potter's Severus Snape, had his most sinister role as the terrorist, Hans Gruber, at Nakatomi Plaza. In this case, Game of Thrones' Peter Dinklage suited up to take over the Blips and Chitz arcade. Little did he know, Rick is plugged into a game to try to save Morty and show the cynical kid he loves him. Alien Hans didn't care when he found out, though, because he just wanted to live up to his predecessor -- made even funnier by the fact he wrote books on Die Hard, notably a hardcover called "The Nakatomi Paradigm." To top it off, Alien Hans also cursed weird, nodding to Hans being German and pretending to be American to dupe John McClane.
Rick and Morty Transformed Summer into John McClane
Rick tasked Summer with taking down the villains, leaving her solo unlike most of their other missions. He told her to do a Die Hard, which had her crawling around in vents, using walkie talkies, shooting villains under tables, and taunting the enemies, like John McClane did. Even Alien Hans chided her, thinking she was an expert and enthusiast who saw the movie so many times. It's why he even urged gunmen to shoot the glass of the arcade games, nodding to McClane getting cut up while barefoot. Little did Alien Hans know, though, Summer was winging it as she never watched the movie, coming off as an improvising warrior who would have certainly impressed her idol, Space Beth.
Rick and Morty Used the Taped Gun Gimmick
One of Die Hard's most epic moments came when McClane taped a gun to his back to fool Hans and his minions in the finale. It led to McClane shooting them, eventually causing Hans to fall to his death. Summer mimicked that moment after getting ahold of Alien Hans' book and willfully doing one thing from the movie. It led to Alien Hans' death, surprising the other goons who were shocked Summer pulled off this iconic move. Oddly enough, this paid tribute to Season 1 when Rick had the family watching interdimensional cable, which resulted in an actor made from corn shooting a Hans pastiche via this trick.
Rick and Morty Homaged Die Hard 3's Repulsive Sign
Die Hard with a Vengeance had a big twist where Hans' brother, Simon, was the villain aiming to get revenge on McClane. Early on, he made him wear a racist sign in Harlem to get Black people there to assault McClane, working a cerebral game. The post-credits to this Rick and Morty episode nodded to the TV edit, which had McClane wearing a sign that said, "I hate everybody" instead. The alien poked at fun how ineffective this same sign is as he had a hostage wearing one on an ice planet. He then admitted he missed his brother, nodding to how Simon lost Hans, and while he didn't work with his sibling, he still liked him.
Rick and Morty airs Sundays at 11:00 p.m. on Adult Swim.