“My favorite Christmas movie is ‘Die Hard’” is perhaps the most tired phrase that I hear this time of year. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good movie that is set around Christmas time. But the movie buffs who flaunt this phrase ignore the fact that John McTiernan’s “Die Hard” (1988) is just not a Christmas movie.
“Die Hard” tells the story of John McClain, a New York City cop who visits his wife at her Los Angeles office when the building is occupied by terrorists attempting to break into a vault. Christmas makes a good setup for the plot. It’s the reason why an NYPD officer would be in Los Angeles and why the office building would be nearly empty, giving villain Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) and his entourage the opportunity to attack. Christmas is additionally the reason why that particular office building is still occupied; the company is Japanese owned, and Christmas is not observed the same way in Japan.
But outside of the setting, “Die Hard” simply does not have any Christmas themes in it. It has very little to do with Christianity, given that it’s a brutal action movie, even on a secular level, it doesn’t feel very Christmas-y. Family is a big value of Christmas, and. Sure, John McClain has an arc of realizing that he needs to care for his family more, but it really ends there.
But couldn’t this make it a Christmas movie? “Home Alone” (1990), for example, is similarly about a robbery, and it has some slapstick violence in it too. But there’s one thing that really sets these two films apart: intent. And this can be seen in the release dates. “Home Alone” was released Nov. 16–a bit early, but after Halloween, putting it firmly within the Christmas season. But Die Hard was released on July 15. If the directors meant it to be a Christmas movie, they would have released it near Christmas to leverage the holiday spirit for monetary gain. Releasing it in July clearly shows that it was quite plainly made to be an action movie, not a holiday movie. So, long and short of the matter, “Die Hard” is just not a Christmas movie, sorry.