Is Die Hard a Christmas movie? Short answer: Yes, yes it is. Long answer: Read this.
Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year. Movie theaters and television rerunning old specials and movies or premiere new titles around that time of year that constantly remind us how the power of family is the greatest gift of all and miracles will happen. Everyone has his or her favorite traditional movie to kick back and watch next to a warm fireplace. Die Hard is definitely no exception. John McTiernan’s 1988 action/thriller is highly regarded by many as not only one of the greatest action movies ever made, but also one of the best all-time Christmas movies ever made. Other people debate how the plot of the movie is so action-packed and too dark and bleak that it becomes unrelated to Christmas as a result. So why is Die Hard regarded as a Christmas movie by so many?
Firstly, what is the typical formula for a Christmas movie? Dozens of made-for-TV yuletide specials appearing on channels such as Hallmark and Oxygen follow a simple narrative, regularly involving a family or family member in distress. A lonely parent raising a sick child, a stranger or estranged family member changes a family’s life, a normal person meeting Santa Claus, Christmas Day almost ruined, etc. A majority of those films are romantic dramas or comedies. Die Hard on the other hand appears to be the least traditional Christmas story from a narrative standpoint: a New York City police officer (played by Bruce Willis), who was only visiting his estranged wife’s workplace at a Christmas Eve party, ends up fighting a team of terrorists after they seized the building and taken hostages including his wife. However, Die Hard follows the Christmas movie formula by celebrating the holiday and subtly playing by its own conventions.
Christmas movies often play up traditional Christian themes and the true meaning of Christmas such as kindness, faith, and family. For instance, It’s a Wonderful Life drives home the importance of family and how people are interconnected. Die Hard also makes the importance of family the centerpiece through the story. Bruce Willis’s street-smart hero John McClane and Bonnie Bedelia’s Holly Gennaro-McClane (née Gennaro) are planning a divorce by the beginning of the movie; both being selfish in their desires for their family’s future and then, over the course of the film, begins to rekindle their love and care for each other in the face of death. Even the terrorists themselves are greedy and coldhearted men who like Ebenezer Scrooge either change their ways or fail in their plan to ruin somebody’s holiday by the end of the movie.
Christmas movies share similar conventions like all genres. Christmas is celebrated by millions of families and friends and visual represented by overly decorated trees, wreaths, fairy lights, snowmen, etc. These decorations are always placed in the foreground and the background. The interiors of the Nakatomi Plaza, Die Hard’s main setting, is decorated with Christmas trees and Santa Claus figurines, the holiday being mentioned every so often (“It's Christmas, Theo. It's the time of miracles, so be of good cheer and call me when you hit the last lock.”), and the film even closes with “Let It Snow!” performed by Vaughn Monroe. Composer Michael Kamen progressively hooks the audience in by interpolating strains of “Winter Wonderland” and sleigh bells throughout the score in intense and action scenes.
Furthermore, Die Hard was not the only action film to take place during the holiday season. One example is Lethal Weapon, a 1987 buddy cop film featuring two cops who uncover a drug-trafficking ring and spends Christmas Day together by the end. Despite both Lethal Weapon and Die Hard sharing Christmas as their backdrop (both were released in the summer), Michael Kamen as composer and Joel Silver as their producer, the films were marketed differently. Lethal Weapon’s theatrical trailer sold on the premise of an older, more seasoned Danny Glover partnered with the younger, voile Mel Gibson without once mentioning Christmas. Die Hard’s trailer, on the other hand, poses the film as a Christmas movie in the first fifteen seconds before cutting to the action. Die Hard not just takes place during Christmas; it enthusiastically embraces all the Christmas spirit it can.
All in all, Die Hard is a true-blood Christmas movie. At first glance, it is an 80’s action movie that happens to be on Christmas Eve. Looking back at it, the movie turns out to be one bombastic celebration of Christmas in every sense of the word. It delivers great action, infectious humor with some vulgar language, memorable characters, the re-bonding of a family that had grown far apart, and of course breath-taking suspense. Whereas some Christmas movies like It’s a Wonderful Life and Lethal Weapon take place during Christmas and use the holiday as only a supporting element, Die Hard fully immerses itself in the holiday spirit as shown in the visuals, heard in the dialogue and music, and feels like a big, fun party with a lone cop against all odds, trigger-happy terrorists, an epic escape from a rooftop explosion. What else is left to say other than: "Welcome to the party, pal!"
"Yippee-Kay Yay, motherf---er!"
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