Buena Vista Pictures/20th Century Fox
Famed director Michael Bay has, once again, proven that he is built different, although this time it’s thanks to a movie of his that’s over 20 years old: Pearl Harbor.
While the theory has been floating around the internet for some time now — you can find articles on it from all the way back in 2001 — Twitter recently became aware of the fact that Bay apparently digitally inserted Bruce Willis as John McLane in the background of Pearl Harbor, thus giving the moment an entirely new and viral life.
In Pearl Harbor (2001) Michael Bay decided to digitally insert Bruce Willis as John McClane into the background of a scene. pic.twitter.com/WaSA3bo8AK
— Chris 🇮🇪 (@ThisIsCreation) November 15, 2023
Like many people, one Twitter user did their own research to fact-check the viral tweet with their own Blu-ray copy of Pearl Harbor, and as it turns out, the moment is 100% real.
Just threw on my blu ray to check this out. It’s real. No one with the mind that Bay has. https://t.co/IWORB5jKLz pic.twitter.com/s4fUKhWC4D
— Wyld Eyetalian Stallyn (@ragingbull1990) November 16, 2023
Pearl Harbor, released in 2001, is similar to most Bay movies in the sense that it has massive scale, tons of explosions, and garnered a divisive response: the film has a 24% critics score and a 66% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Despite the divided response to the film, Pearl Harbor was ultimately a financial success at it grossed over $450 million against a $150 million budget.
At the time, Pearl Harbor was a major step up for its starring duo of Ben Affleck and Josh Harnett, who were previously known for their work on films such as Good Will Hunting and The Virgin Suicides, respectively.
Additional cast members include the likes of Kate Beckinsale, Jennifer Garner, Michael Shannon, Dan Aykroyd, Tom Sizemore, William Fichtner, Cuba Gooding Jr., Jon Voight, Alec Baldwin, and more.
Pearl Harbor came in the midst of quite the run for Bay, having previously directed Bad Boys, The Rock, and Armageddon. From there, however, Bay would begin to work on mostly sequels and franchises such as Bad Boys and Transformers (and four of its sequels).
Most recently, Bay directed the already-forgotten Ryan Reynolds Netflix film 6 Underground and the well-received action thriller Ambulance, which hit theaters in 2022.