No, Die Hard Is Not A Christmas Movie

By: Rick O’Donnell

No, this isn’t a hit piece nor clickbait. This debate will go on as long as PlayStation vs Xbox or “Does pineapple belong on pizza. No matter the stance you take, Die Hard can be a fun tradition for your holiday viewing. If your family gathers around on Christmas morning to watch this Bruce Willis classic, fantastic. It makes it a Christmas tradition, does not make it a Christmas movie.

Here’s the thing about Die Hard. Yes, it is set at Christmas and does have a few tropes in there involving the holiday. However, it’s just the backdrop of the movie. It does not affect the integrity of the plot. This debate has gotten to the point that there are even YouTube videos, etc, claiming that Die Hard is just Home Alone for adults.  Yes, the movies do share similarities, but their plots are two totally different movies.

In Die Hard, John McClane is attending a holiday party with his wife. Terrorists take over the high-rise tower, and John must move about in silence and take them out one by one. They’re not there to steal Christmas presents, or holiday bonuses, or anything like that. The criminals are breaking into Nakatomi Tower to steal bearer bonds. Nothing about the movie changes if you take Christmas out of the movie. Yes, you could say that without the Christmas party, John McClane would have no business at the tower. However, office parties are a common thing. It could just as easily be a New Year’s Eve party, a financial celebration for a more profitable quarter, or someone’s retirement party. The event could happen on a random Tuesday in August, and nothing would change.

In Home Alone, the Wet Bandits are staking out a wealthy neighborhood, trying to rob homes while families are away on the holidays. You can’t take Christmas out of the movie and have it be just as believable. The only other likelihood that a large group of families would be away for the holidays is Thanksgiving, which is the busiest travel holiday of the year. Families typically don’t travel like that for any other holiday. Even if you take holidays out of the picture altogether, families do go away for the summer, but they’re more likely in random intervals, and the warmth of the season, the neighborhood would be full of people outdoors, raising the chances of being caught. Not to mention, that the whole reason they’d be breaking in on Christmas would be to steal valuables from the home, which could include lavish gifts bought for loved ones. Take the holiday out of the movie, and it’s a completely different movie.

Look, I love Die Hard as much as the next guy. It’s a staple of the action genre, and very much can be one of your favorite holiday traditions. Despite all that, I cannot put it in the Christmas movie sub-genre. There’s a big difference between a backdrop of a movie that tells the time of year and one that is central to the plot of the whole film. Unfortunately, despite our love for the movie, Christmas is not essential to the plot of Die Hard.