Plot Patrol
Plot Patrol is the ultimate ride-along for film fans who love a good cop story. Whether it’s gritty realism, pulpy thrills, or gloriously bad procedural nonsense. Host Duncan McCauley takes the badge and the popcorn in hand, breaking down famous detective dramas and crime thrillers with the help of real-life officers, legal experts, and the occasional smart-mouthed cinephile.
Each episode, we put a movie or TV show under investigative scrutiny, asking the big questions: Would this arrest hold up in court? How much paperwork would this take? And how does this loose cannon still have a job?
From Zodiac to Hot Fuzz, True Detective to The Wicker Man, Plot Patrol blends sharp analysis, wry humor, and behind-the-scenes insight to separate fact from fiction in the world of on-screen crime.
Plot Patrol
Episode 4: Die Hard: Ho Ho Ho, Now I Have a Plot
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In this festive episode of Plot Patrol, we put the cuffs on Die Hard—the Christmas action classic that somehow smuggled one of the tightest plots in cinema history into a skyscraper full of broken glass and machine guns. Host Duncan McCauley is joined by retired NYPD detective DelVecchio to assess whether John McClane is a believable New York cop, how realistic the LAPD response really is, and just how many internal investigations would follow a night like this.
Bare feet, bad decisions, excellent structure. Ho ho ho indeed.