The 1988 action movie Die Hard taught us so much: the importance of “making fists with your toes” after a long flight, the idiocy of saying “I guess you’re just going to have to kill me” to a terrorist, and the four most crucial ingredients in a Twinkies snack cake. Amazingly, today is both the 25th anniversary of Die Hard and the official relaunch day of the Twinkies brand.
Coincidence or not, it gives us the perfect excuse to reestablish the link between the two pop-culture touchstones and heckle Hostess about their continued failure to harness the significant cachet of Sergeant Al Powell (a.k.a. Reginald VelJohnson) in its marketing strategy. The video below captures the twin, key scenes that name-check Twinkies and includes the following very important exchange between Bruce Willis’s wise-cracking terrorist thwarter John McClane and the LAPD’s resident Twinkies expert:
McClane, trying to fire down a 1,000-year-old Twinkie: “What do they put in these things anyway?”
Powell: “Sugar-enriched flour, partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, polysorbate 60, and Yellow Dye No. 5. Just everything a growing boy needs.”
