Die Hard (1988)

Many actors and actresses have tried to make the leap from TV to the big screen, and many have failed, but Die Hard is yet another film that launched the movie career of not one but two of its stars. Bruce Willis was already a household name in North America from his then-four-year stint co-starring alongside Cybill Shepherd on TV's Moonlighting, but his movie career was going nowhere fast until the character of New York City cop John McClane came along. In Die Hard, McClane decides to surprise his estranged wife, Holly (Bonnie Bedelia), at her company's Christmas party in Los Angeles when German terrorist Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman in his feature film debut) takes everyone hostage. McClane manages to slip away unseen and proceeds to take on Gruber's group singlehandedly. While the weather outside might be frightful, it isn't much better inside. McClane's "yippee-ki-yay" phrase also entered mainstream culture and was used in each of the four sequels that were spawned from this movie.