It’s a debate that rages around this time every year. No, not what’s the best Christmas song of all time (that’s Darlene Love’s classic, Christmas, Baby Please Come Home). It’s not real tree or fake tree (I loved a real tree as a kid, but as an adult it’s simply too much work and too much cleanup). It’s not even what’s the best classic holiday cartoon.
No, the question that always comes up during the holiday season is this: Is Die Hard a Christmas movie? Released in July 1988, Die Hard propelled Bruce Willis into superstardom and introduced the world to John McClane — the wisecracking New York cowboy cop who always found himself at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Now, I have the easy job — I’m arguing Die Hard IS a Christmas movie. To take the other side, movie buff Dan Johnson has answered the call to play devil’s advocate and take the position that Die Hard IS NOT a Christmas movie. We’ll make our points below in this roundtable-style article. See who you find yourself agreeing with more. You can hit me up on X at @ByAndySilva, while Dan can be found at @dansby_edits. Reach out and let us know what you think!
Does the music indicate Die Hard is a Christmas movie?
Andy: Christmas movies feature Christmas music and Die Hard features Christmas music. From Christmas in Hollis in the limo ride to Winter Wonderland to Jingle Bells to Let It Snow, the undercurrent of Christmas music is evident throughout. How can a movie with holiday tunes from Run DMC and Bing Crosby not be a Christmas movie! I mean, thankfully we didn’t get Bruce’s band’s take on the Ramones’ Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want To Fight Tonight), but you feel the at times subtle holiday spirit throughout. Who could forget McClane getting Sgt. Al Powell’s attention while he hums Let It Snow?
Dan: Right. So I hear you about the music. There’s the office party with the carols and jingles, a few snippets of Christmas classics here or there on speakers as good ol’ John McC is out there obliterating terrorists. We’ve got some festive tunes—no argument there.
But those elements of non-diegetic sound in the movie (the Christmas jingles) are, assumingly, handled with equal editorial importance as the action ballads as Die Hard’s soundtrack. Both soundtrack and any music we hear in the background of action scenes are non-diegetic.
And Die Hard seems to only value Christmas songs as background fodder. Muzak. Whereas the music that’s much more associated with action films in its soundtrack is always foregrounded in action-heavy scenes. We don’t hear any action music in the background of the Christmas party, do we?
Plus—a movie isn’t about something just because of the editorial choices sound teams make in post-prod, right?
Here’s a comparison: did you know that the Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men actually has zero non-diegetic sound, but for Tommy Lee Jones’s two voiceovers and one seconds-long high-pitched frequency? Does that mean that, because there’s no score, no soundtrack, no layered-over-in-post-prod music (like all the Christmas jingles and soundtrack accompaniments would be for Die Hard), that No Country for Old Men is a movie about…nothing? (Aside: That’s actually a wildly fun existential conversation about a fantastic film I’d be willing to have at any time by the way; curious on anyone’s thoughts; love Cormac McCarthy and NCFOM (book and film)—okay, but right. Back to Die Hard.)
Music is a cinematic element. Kudos if it aligns with your narrative. Even more kudos if you can use the music to create a false sense of enchantment in your audience, just as Die Hard did. But I think the Christmas music was for effect; the action music was for the story.
Does the time of year indicate Die Hard is a Christmas movie?
Dan: Time of year is tough! I don’t believe that anyone chooses time of year arbitrarily when beginning their story.
But perhaps there’s a strategy here: What better way to immediately disarm and enchant your audience by having Christmas (for a summer blockbuster release, no less — we need not get into how that aids this argument) be the backdrop to your R-rated one-man-versus-twelve-terrorists plotline?
It’s a similar frame of argument to my thoughts on the music, in that I think the in-the-background of it all suggests Christmas being a for-effect thing in the film. So, too, should we consider that Christmastime is indeed a backdrop to the story. Like props on a stage for a play. It’s not a driving force for McClane’s purpose. It just allows the audience to connect with the movie and hook deeper into—indeed, identify with—the desire to unite family, no matter the treachery. Which — when you consider the Thornburg report, is that really McClane’s driving purpose?
Either way, I grant you, acts of heroism for family are indeed a very appropriate fantasy for Yuletide. To reunite one’s family at all costs.
But, essentially, to some degree, what I’m saying is: arguing Die Hard is a Christmas movie based on spatiotemporal setting (holiday office party, time of year during which the plot plays out) is not altogether unlike arguing Taken is about taking a solo vacation as a single father to Istanbul.
Andy: This is an area where I can clean up. Christmas and the setting of the Christmas party are key to the entire story. Hans and his crew thought seriously about thje best time to attempt to pull off this heist. They clearly chose the night of the Christmas party for a reason. It’s not just that they’re attempting to have a misdirection play on a massive scale, they specifically chose a night when people are not paying as much attention as they normally would.
Christmas is also the whole reason McClane is in California in the first place. He was still in New York (locking up a backlog of New York scumbags, as he explains to Argyle). Were it not for Christmas and the opportunity to see his kids he wouldn’t have even been around to be a fly in the ointment for Hans. Without the Christmas party, without the chance to see Lucy and John Jr. you have no plot. The time of year is a key engine that drives the plot.
And like you said, Dan, the time of year was not chosen arbitrarily. People have other office parties, after all. There are other times when the terrorists could have conceivably pulled off their heist. But none of those other office parties would have drawn McClane across the country.
Does the theme indicate Die Hard is a Christmas movie?
Dan: The big one. I tried to come up with thematic premises most present in our beloved Christmas movies. And family is in most of them. I’m having a hard time seeing McClane’s primary purpose not be family, given that his trip to Nakatomi Plaza is, to a major degree, a family-saving endeavor. Desire, as they say, is the sugar of fiction. But, again, McClane’s got sweet teeth for both family and violence.
But, yes. In any case — here’s where I can see the specific blend of Christmas/family being cited as a theme of Die Hard: it could be argued that, thematically, the desire for McClane to save Lucy and John Jr. are quintessentially Christmas wishes. It is important to note here that Lucy and John Jr. are not at the office party at the beginning of the movie, though. And we never actually see John, Jr. So John McClane needing to embark on a destination-quest to save them at Nakatomi Plaza is where this theme plays out the most. Not in any glorious reunion at the end, a la Home Alone.
But! Then it got me thinking. And I found a comparison I liked.
I’d argue family is as much a theme here as it is in Breaking Bad. Which is to say: Walter White uses his family as a crutch (“ … everything I do I do for you, Skylar!” etc.) to justify or validate or, at the very least, cushion his murderous behavior. Same, a bit, with John McClane and Holly/Jr. It’s wildly clear to all of us that McClane is a man who not only has a taste for violence but has an exquisite talent for it. All Gruber has done, in this case, is give him an opportunity to showcase it, all hidden behind this soft plotline premise of getting to Holly, saving his children. Just as Walter White’s lung cancer prognosis and below-middle-class financial status give him runway to tell himself that all he’s doing is for his family.
Does that mean John McClane’s proclivity for violence should knock points off Die Hard‘s status as a Christmas movie? Maybe a titch. Family safety at the end of an unspeakable ordeal is undeniably a theme for Christmas movies. I just wanted to pose the counterargument: what if John McClane is just a violent dude, and Gruber gives him opportunity to exercise his character-deep violence?
Andy: So, I can’t dispute that John seems unfazed by all the violence occurring around him, with the notable exception of the death of Ellis. And while I don’t know that he is saving his family per se, since as you point out the kids aren’t at the party, so much as he’s attempting to make sure he and Holly get home to them. But I agree that family is a key component of Christmas movies, especially families reuniting. So in that way, his desire to see his kids and the ending seeing the family on a path to come back together (if not permanently, as we’ll find out in Die Hard With A Vengeance) helps put it in line with other feel-good stories of family units being repaired.
And I can’t deny the ultraviolence of this movie, which is a departure from most Christmas movies. However, even amidst the violence there are winks and nods to the holiday throughout, such as the famous scene where McClane sends his first victim back to Hans with a holiday message: Now I Have A Machine Gun, Ho-Ho-Ho. And who can forget that final scene where McClane uses the holiday tape to help in his plan to take out Hans and his henchman under the ruse of a surrender. Once again, what happens if that holiday tape isn’t there? Do McClane and Holly have a happy ending?
So while it’s not Rudolph or Frosty or even the Grinch with snow or jingle bells or Santa, the McClanes, like the people of Whoville, get to have their holiday feast together as a family and after all the holiday accoutrement seen throughout the film it’s hard to argue that the theme of Christmas doesn’t play a vital role in the movie. Sure, Bruce Willis says Die Hard is NOT a Christmas movie, sure Die Hard might have been pitched as “Rambo in an office building.” But look deep into your heart and you’ll know the truth — Die Hard is a Christmas movie. Even the studio knew it to be true. It’s the greatest Christmas story ever to be told.
So who do you agree with? Is Die Hard a Christmas staple for your family? Do you cringe when people cite it as a holiday favorite? Let us know on X at @ByAndySilva, @dansby_edits and @DKNetwork!
