“Die Hard,” a 1988 action film released to critical acclaim, is often seen today as one of the best films in the genre.
However, the film is also talked about in another regard: whether or not it’s considered a Christmas movie.
After a skyscraper is hijacked by terrorists on Christmas Eve during a Christmas party, police officer John McClane (Bruce Willis) realizes he’s the only person who can save his wife and the rest of the hostages.
The movie includes roughly seven musical references to the holiday, including “Jingle Bells” and “Let It Snow.”
The movie’s usage of the Christmas theme and setting is also used as a way to engage the audience instead of a simple visual setting. This can be seen in McClane’s display for the terrorists with a body wearing a Santa hat with the words “Now I have a machine gun HO-HO-HO” left behind.
Get The Daily Illini in your inbox!
However, if the references and nods to Christmas are so apparent, why is this debate still so prevalent?
The most recent movie in the Christmas-action genre is 2022’s “Violent Night,” a movie about Santa saving a family from a group of mercenaries that are holding them hostage.
In an interview with Metacritic, “Violent Night” screenwriter Josh Miller credits “Die Hard” for inspiring the film.
“We never hid the fact that it was … an idea of, ‘What if you did ‘Die Hard,’ but with Santa Claus?’” Miller said.
Aside from “Die Hard” and “Violent Night,” some other notable action movies that take place on Christmas are “Die Hard 2” and “Lethal Weapon.” By extension, you could also include several horror movies such as “Krampus” and “Black Christmas.”
When comparing the amount of Christmas action movies to the amount of your average feel-good Christmas movies, action-oriented movies often get overlooked or forgotten due to the large amount of the latter.
“Die Hard” is often disputed on whether it’s a Christmas movie because the sequels — except for “Die Hard 2” — drift away from the Christmas theme.
Everyone’s opinion is going to depend on their own experience with the film, but I believe “Die Hard” is as much of a Christmas movie as other classics associated with the holiday.
