Did you miss the sixth 'Die Hard' movie starring Denzel Washington?

If you came of age in the 1990s watching action films, you probably know Denzel Washington as a fixture of the era—though you might not remember Ricochet. It landed back in 1991 with a cast that should have set it up for action-thriller royalty, but for all sorts of reasons (cape-wearing criminals and box office timing included), it didn't carve out the place in movie history you might expect. Still, there are some genuinely odd corners to the Ricochet story worth poking through—hidden Die Hard connections, almost-Dirty Harry destiny, and a backstage game of musical chairs involving script rewrites and casting near-misses. Let's dismantle it together.

Ricochet hit cinemas in 1991, but Cape Fear—plowing similar ground—released just five weeks later and dominated the box office.

Denzel Tries Something New

For context, by the time Ricochet rolled out, Denzel Washington was still balancing the sheen of Oscar-gathering early roles in films like Glory with the pressure to prove he wasn't just another awards-season flash. He'd grabbed nominations for Cry Freedom and would go on to the towering Malcolm X, plus a run of '90s thrillers—The Pelican Brief, Philadelphia, Crimson Tide, and so on. But not every project got a victory lap. Ricochet sits somewhere in the middle: stylish, well-acted, but clearly not destined to dominate VHS shelves like Die Hard or Lethal Weapon.

The director, Russell Mulcahy of Highlander and a stack of '80s music videos, aimed for an adrenalised fever dream rather than your standard cop thriller. Denzel's Nick Styles starts as a rookie LAPD officer from South Central, who keeps his distance from childhood mate and drug dealer Odessa (Ice-T). When Styles puts away the utterly deranged Earl Talbott Blake (John Lithgow), his televised heroics turn him into a public darling and fast-track him to Assistant District Attorney with the full family package. The dream, naturally, doesn't last.

Cut to eight years later—Blake's broken out of prison, Style's life is a target, and the revenge on offer is a slow-motion destruction, publicly humiliating Styles and flipping the hero tale on its head. Out of options, Styles looks for help from the very friend he once left behind. It's noir with '90s action mileage and an extra helping of humiliation.

When Die Hard Met Ricochet

Here’s where things get properly weird. Ricochet and Die Hard actually exist in the same cinematic universe. It’s not just a shared LA setting—there’s a literal character crossover. Mary Ellen Trainor’s Gail Wallens, the news reporter stirring up the media circus in Die Hard, rocks up again in Ricochet, broadcasting on Styles's fall from the heights. That’s a clear wink from screenwriter Steven E. de Souza, who penned both flicks.

It doesn’t stop there. Nods to Die Hard sprout up in the third act, with Styles kitted out in dirty vest and wielding a Beretta 92 (the McClane signature). De Souza could have got more mileage by referring to McClane directly, but the DNA is plain to see if you know where to look. It’s about as much shared universe as action cinema ever half-attempted back then.

The Almost-Dirty Harry Movie

Now for the biggest what-if: Ricochet nearly ended up as a Dirty Harry film. Original spec script credit goes to Fred Dekker (Monster Squad, Night of the Creeps). He was a massive Eastwood fan and genuinely believed his script would give Dirty Harry new teeth. Turns out, Eastwood wasn't up for it—and the reason is oddly revealing, even if you’ve seen every Callahan scowl.

Dekker recalled what happened in an interview, explaining:

Dekker told The Flashback Files, 'My producer Joel Silver claims to have sent it to Clint. He said that Clint thought it was "too grim" for him.'

When Eastwood passed, Dekker tried his hand at recruiting Kurt Russell (Snake Plissken himself) for the lead and even considered directing the film. It fizzled. Dekker described his failed persuasion:

'There were about five seconds when I was going to direct it. I met with Kurt Russell about playing the cop ... Before I went into that office, I should have said: "I have to convince Kurt Russell to do this movie!" But I failed to win him over.'

From there, legendary action writer Steven E. de Souza got a hold of the script, reworking the story but keeping the core: a cop, a career criminal, and a mounting spiral of revenge. The set-up would have worked for Dirty Harry; instead, with Denzel and John Lithgow, it became a standalone slab of LA ultraviolence with a mean streak.

Box Office Bad Luck and a Scorsese Brick Wall

Even with a 75% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, Ricochet never found its following. Timing did it no favours—Martin Scorsese's Cape Fear, frankly a more intricate attorney-stalked-by-a-psycho story, arrived in cinemas just weeks later and vacuumed up both attention and cash, grossing $182 million and nabbing Oscar nominations. In that film, Nick Nolte's lawyer character really isn't innocent—he’d buried evidence, giving Robert De Niro’s avenging ex-con an actual grievance—while Ricochet stuck to a simpler, sturdier morality play. Still, with Scorsese putting the genre through the psychological meat grinder, no one was going to look twice at Mulcahy's colder, pulpier vision.

• Ricochet was almost a Dirty Harry film scripted for Clint Eastwood.
• The finished film stars Denzel Washington, John Lithgow, and Ice-T.
• It's secretly connected to Die Hard via returning anchor Gail Wallens and directorial/screenplay overlap.
• Despite solid reviews, box office returns were poor, partly thanks to Cape Fear launching five weeks later.
• Martin Scorsese’s Cape Fear, also a psycho-lays-waste-to-lawyer film, made $182 million and earned Oscar nominations.

If nothing else, Ricochet remains a curiosity: a Denzel action movie that could have been a tentpole franchise, or a Dirty Harry swan song, but instead ended up an odd cousin to Die Hard. And yet, Denzel stuck with the genre—The Equalizer series and Man on Fire remind us what happens when he finally gets the right vehicle.