The producers, writers, and actors of Die Hard meant for the audience to cheer for the protagonist, a blue-collar hero who defeats a team of German terrorists single-handedly. If you met someone who instead was rooting for Hans Gruber, the murderous leader of the terrorists, you could say that they were

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The concept of encoding and decoding media messages comes from Stuart Hall's theory of reception analysis. It suggests that a message is encoded by its creators, then decoded by its audience. Different people may decode the same message in different ways based on their background and personal experiences. So, if someone is rooting for the villain in Die Hard, they are not necessarily being brainwashed by the media or being used as pawns. They may simply be interpreting the movie differently than the creators intended.

The Producers, Writers, and Actors of Die Hard Meant for the Audience