When one thinks of Christmas movies, light-hearted classics like It’s a Wonderful Life, Elf, and Christmas Vacation usually come to mind. However, since its release, there’s been much debate about whether the action movie Die Hard, starring Bruce Willis, fits into the category of a Christmas movie. We’re here to argue that it absolutely does.
Die Hard centers around John McClane, an NYPD cop who is visiting his estranged wife and kids in LA for the holidays. Driven in a limo by his comedic foil, Argyle, Officer McClane goes to a Christmas Eve party at his wife’s workplace to see if she’ll let him stay for the holidays.
His plan goes awry when a group of German terrorists, led by criminal mastermind Hans Gruber, holds all the occupants hostage except him (he was on a different floor). Throughout the film, John goes through various challenges to defeat the bad guys, redeem himself in his wife’s eyes, and save the hostages.
On paper, Die Hard’s status as a Christmas movie seems questionable. Sure, it takes place on Christmas Eve and has some family themes, but German terrorists and hostages? That doesn’t exactly sound like the plot of your run-of-the-mill holiday film.
Plus, it’s an R-rated movie with a decent amount of killing, shooting, and expletives.
To counter that, we’d like to point out how the famous Christmas flick Home Alone has a similar plot (and also came out after Die Hard). Both movies have criminals attempting to take over a building, a lone protagonist fighting off the hostile forces, and elaborate action sequences. For people who don’t consider Home Alone a Christmas movie (you’re insane), we argue our point by noting how several Christmas movies released recently contain much more violence and as much action as Die Hard.
The most obvious examples are Violent Night and Terrifier 3. Violent Night is a gory action movie that centers around a drunken, vulgar version of Santa who protects a family from a group of criminals who raid their house and take them hostage (sound familiar?). It includes people getting killed with sledgehammers, tons of blood, and gunfights.
Terrifier 3 is about an immortal serial killer, Art the Clown, who violently tears and rips people apart. It’s considered one of the most violent films of all time, including scenes (all shown graphically on camera) of a young couple in the shower being attacked by a chainsaw, rats being forced down a woman’s mouth, scalping and skinning, severed heads, axe murders, and people blowing up.
For those saying Die Hard is violent, we think you’re just sensitive. Both of these movies make Die Hard look like Mickey Mouse.
Instead of just comparing Die Hard to other Christmas movies, let’s examine the film itself. In our opinion, the best argument for Die Hard being a Christmas movie is that, contrary to what many say, Christmas IS central to the plot. John McClane wouldn’t have been visiting his wife at her office if it wasn’t the holidays. In addition, we can infer as the audience that the criminals purposefully chose that day because they knew all the employees would be there for the Christmas Eve party.
Also, the film contains several nods to Christmas. For one, Christmas is mentioned 18 times in the script, there are tons of decorations such as a Christmas tree and lights shown throughout, and there are four Christmas songs on the soundtrack.
Dean Monaco, a sophomore and movie aficionado, adds, “Die Hard absolutely is a Christmas movie, and it’s the best one at that.”
