With Christmas just around the corner, a familiar debate has resurfaced: is Die Hard a Christmas movie?
This topic has sparked discussions in many households across the nation. Despite Die Hard premiering almost four decades ago, the debate remains as lively as ever.
The film, released in 1988, is set during the Christmas season, but the holiday itself doesn’t significantly influence the storyline, leading to differing opinions on its classification as a Christmas film.
Die Hard follows the story of John McClane, a New York City policeman played by Bruce Willis, who travels to reconnect with his estranged wife and their two daughters on Christmas Eve.
While the events of the film are set in the festive period, they diverge significantly from typical Christmas themes. This raises the question: should Die Hard be classified as a Christmas movie?
According to Home Alone star Macaulay Culkin, it is not.
“No, no it’s not. Don’t fight me!” Culkin stated in a recent interview with Mythical Kitchen. “It’s based around Christmas, but if it were also St. Patrick’s Day, it would still work. But you couldn’t do Home Alone on Memorial Day. It doesn’t work that way.”
Reflecting on his influence on holiday films due to his role as Kevin in Home Alone and its sequel, Culkin asserted: “I’m the godfather of Christmas nowadays. My opinion has some sway in this argument.”
Despite some fans asserting that Die Hard is indeed a Christmas movie, Bruce Willis, who portrays the lead character, shared his own perspective during his Comedy Central roast in 2018.
Willis cut to the chase, declaring: “Die Hard is not a Christmas movie. It’s a Bruce Willis movie so yippee-ki-yay to all you motherf**kers and good night!”
However, the film’s director, John McTiernan, expressed a different opinion in a 2020 interview: “Joel Silver sent me the script three, four times. And it was about these horrible leftist terrorists that come into the sort of Valhalla of capitalism, Los Angeles, and they bring their guns and their evil ways and they shoot up people just celebrating Christmas, terrible people, awful.
“And it was really about the stern face of authority stepping in to put things right again, you know? And I kept saying to Joel, I don’t want to make that.”
McTiernan continued: “In fact, everybody, as they came to work on the movie, began to get, as I said, this idea of this movie as an escapee. And there was a joy in it. Because we were, we’ve had changed the content.”
“And that is how Die Hard became, we hadn’t intended it to be a Christmas movie, but the joy that came from it is what turned it into a Christmas movie. And that’s really the best I can tell you about it.”
It seems this debate will continue without a universal agreement anytime soon.