Another holiday season has arrived, which means Die Hard fans are once again debating the age-old question of whether or not the film is indeed a Christmas movie. Those arguing for Die Hard to be considered an official Christmas movie point to the holiday setting and how much of an effect it has on the overall tone of the film. Others say that the Christmas elements are not so important and that Die Hard is just an awesome action flick that just so happens to be set during the holiday season.
Previously, Bruce Willis addressed the debate, and it appears John McClane himself isn’t a part of the Christmas movie camp. During his Comedy Central roast in 2018, the actor said that “Die Hard isn’t a Christmas movie, it’s a g*ddamn Bruce Willis movie!” Perhaps Willis was joking, but he hasn’t said anything since that time to suggest he feels any different.
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In any case, Bruce’s mother, Marlene, has her own opinion. She tells TMZ that “Die Hard is NOT a Christmas movie,” feeling pretty confident in her answer. Her reasoning is that while Die Hard is set at Christmas time, that’s not an essential element of the movie, so it shouldn’t be considered a holiday classic along the lines of It’s a Wonderful Life, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and Home Alone.
The Willis family might be leaning one way, but the debate is certainly far from over. Die Hard director John McTiernan admitted last year that the film wasn’t originally intended to be a Christmas movie. While it was set during the holidays, the original script was much grittier. Taking some cues from It’s a Wonderful Life, McTiernan chose to inject the holiday spirit more heavily into the film, bringing about a certain “joy” that wouldn’t be there otherwise. Some would say this means that Die Hard is in fact a Christmas movie.
“I said, ‘Okay, if you want me to make this terrorist movie, I want to make it where the hero in the first scene when the limo driver apologizes that he’s never been in a limo before. The hero says it’s alright. I’ve never ridden in a limo before. Okay, working class hero.’ And Joel understood what I meant. And he said, okay,” McTiernan explained.
He added, “So we started to work on it… And 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.”
Clearly, the debate goes on, and we’re no closer to getting a definitive answer to this discussion than we ever were before. Perhaps it just wouldn’t truly be the holiday season without the annual debate over whether or not Die Hard is a Christmas movie.
