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Whats more, he was a televisioncomedyactor.
What was he doing running around in an undershirt with a machine gun like Stallone?
But he had a strategy.
As that date neared, Fox began to sweat its $5 million investment.
Lucky for Fox, when audiences saw the movie, they liked it.
When its sequel hit theaters two summers later, it out-grossed the original.
So what made it stick?
To the contrary, it seems abundantly clear that audiences were not solely engaged by the pictures mindless thrills.
Sure, its a high-body-count shoot-em-up, packed with effects and action setpieces.
And thats where Williss value lay.
And to that end, Willis conveys a vulnerability that was far from the norm.
Willis knew what he was doing.
People know someone like him hes not some superhero, some Rambo.
Hes tired and he feels pain and hes afraid.
It was bullshit, and most of us knew it.
And weve spent a lot of time since then digging the shards of glass out of our feet.
