[hirundo]

I suggest that air ducts should not be considered part of Nakatomi Space.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/PlayingWith/AirVentPa...

Because rather than being inventive uses of architectural spaces they're generally lazy plot devices.

Now I have a reason to go back and watch Die Hard again to see if John crawls through air ducts.

[the_af]

He does use them, in fact this is one of the pictures in the article!

The villains catch up to his use of vents though.

I think Die Hard is fair use of this trope, because it popularized or codified it. Back when Die Hard opened, a lot of these tropes were far less common; in fact they've become common because of the movie. Many later action thrillers owe a lot to John McClane.

[jameshart]

That’s definitely a missing aspect of the TVtropes dataset - what is the influence timeline of the trope? Which instances are referencing other instances? When did it transition into cliche? When was its tropiness punctured to make it into something that could be parodied or lampshaded?

While I’d agree post-Die-Hard vent spelunking is likely to nod to the Die-Hardness of the situation, the trope had a long life before Nakatomi.

[sumtechguy]

And nearly got killed because of it. On of the bad guys heard him going thru them and ran a line of bullets thru it. The movie was great on tension. At any moment he could die, and die hard.

[hirundo]

You just spoiled my excuse to watch Die Hard again.