In January of 2025, the good folks at Defector.com published a list of 35 topics that have been discussed to within an inch of their life here on the internet. Lucky for me, I haven’t publicly commented on most, if not all, of these topics, so I figured why not dip my toes into the fray on occasion. We will start today with the first question on their list:
Is Die Hard a Christmas Movie?
Die Hard, the now-classic action movie released in July of 1988, stars Bruce Willis as a New York city police officer who travels to Los Angeles to see his estranged wife and kids and ends up interrupting a terrorist attack, saving his wife and (most of) her co-workers from a certain death. At first glance, nothing about this screams Christmas movie. But, the movie’s setup only works because the action takes place on Christmas Eve.
Why is Willis’s Det. John McClane in Los Angeles? To see his family for Christmas. Why is he meeting his wife at her office? It’s their Christmas party. Why are the terrorists attacking now? It is Christmas Eve and, aside from the people at the party, who are needed to give the terrorists the access they need, the building is deserted.
Now, detractors will say that you can strip out the Christmas trappings and have basically the same movie. Which, for the most part, is probably true. That said, those trappings are not stripped out and very much exist in the film, tying it directly to the holiday season.
So, bottom line, is Die Hard a Christmas movie? Of course it is. Is it a traditional Christmas movie. No, I will concede that point. But Christmas drives the plot, in the movie as it actually exists versus some make-believe alternate version. And what embodies the spirit of Christmas more than overcoming obstacles of circumstance to reunite with your loved ones for the holiday?
