Why "Die Hard" is a Christmas movie

[jmowreader]

Besides being set at Christmas, a Christmas movie needs at least one of three plotlines:

An interpersonal conflict between two or more of the main characters that is resolved favorably by the end of the film.
A villain who tries to destroy Christmas, and is foiled.
A character who has a personal demon he defeats to become a whole person once again.

In classic Christmas cinema, an example of the first plotline is in Miracle on 34th Street, where the characters who aren't Kris Kringle try to get Kris committed to a mental hospital for thinking he's the real Santa Claus. This is also the plot of every Hallmark Channel Christmas movie, as well as "Kirk Cameron's Saving Christmas," where Kirk - who still believes Christmas is a Christian holiday - convinces Christian, his brother-in-law, that all the commercialism and pagan elements of the modern holiday are really Christian symbols.

The most obvious example of the second plotline is the Grinch, who despises Christmas over its commercialism then learns to love it when he sees commercialism is not the most important part of the holiday. This is also the plot of "Home Alone."

And the third is in A Christmas Carol, where Scrooge is converted from what he was to a joyous person through the visits of the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future.

Die Hard is a special Christmas movie in that they managed to fit all three plotlines into the movie in a way that makes sense: the first one is seen in John and Holly's marriage, which at the beginning of the film is so bad John plans to stay at his retired captain's home in Pacoima rather than Holly's house while he is in "fuckin' California." The villain, naturally, is Hans and his gang of bad guys who break into the building to steal the $640 million in "negotiable bearer bonds" while making it look like it's a terrorist attack rather than a heist. One does have to wonder why the global and highly successful Nakatomi Corporation didn't put battery backup on their vault if the seventh seal - a reference to the Seven Seals in the Bible's Book of Revelation - required electricity to operate but that's an issue for another day. Police Sergeant Al Powell - a cop so traumatized by a bad shooting he'd been involved in earlier in his career that he was consigned to a desk, then worked with John throughout the movie over the radio and found it within himself to kill the last gang member to save John and Holly - is the third plotline.

So...now we have a Christmas movie. Ho, ho, ho.

[odins folly]

1. Agreed

And to prove it, TBS has 24 hours of Ralphie and Paramount network has 24 hours of John....

[buzzycrumbhunger]

2. LOL

Die Hard may be fun, but the ultimate edgy Christmas movie is The Lion in Winter.

[malthaussen]

9. You've got two great actors playing the roles they were born to play.

It's a fantastic movie.

-- Mal

[ProfessorGAC]

3. Disagree

If the exact same movie was set around a Valentine's Day visit, or a summer visit to see his kids, it would have changed nothing.
The "ruining Christmas" angle doesn't work for me either, because Gruber isn't trying to ruin Christmas. He trying to steal money. Did he ruin Christmas for a handful of people? Yes. But, that wasn't his goal.
And, I don't see the transformative "battling demons" in McClane. Other than being a cop too dedicated to the job to allow the marriage to work, I think he was ok to begin with.
I am unconvinced, despite all the mental gymnastics I've seen over the years, that it's a Christmas movie.

[jmowreader]

5. Al Powell had the demons, not John McClane

[Midwestern Democrat]

6. Agreed - the movie was released in July, so it was hardly considered Christmas fare by the studio.

They needed a reason for a smallish number of employees of a corporation - including the top boss - to be gathered after hours in an otherwise empty skyscraper - and the most obvious reason for such an occurrence would be an office Christmas party - that's the only reason, IMO, why Christmas is even referenced in the movie.

[catbyte]

8. Well, Miracle on 34th Street was released in June 1947 and yet it's a Christmas movie.

Just sayin'

[underpants]

11. Based on a 16 year old book with no established leads filmed on a construction site

Based on “Nothing Lasts Forever” 1979 by Roderick Thorp. A sequel to “The Detective” a 1968 film with Frank Sinatra. This was in the Towering Inferno/Poseidon/Airport genre.

Willis did have a lead role (Blind Date with Kim Basinger) and the TV show Moonlighting but that was it.
Alan Rickman had no movie credits this was his debut performance.
Bonnie Bedelia was by far the most established star.
Neither lead was on the original movie poster which focused on the setting - the building.


Nakatomi Plaza was the Fox Studios headquarters which was under construction. The police staging area is clearly a construction site complete with scenes on big piles of dirt n a few shots. Much of the movement of the film is focused on the elevators because those are always the first things finished.

$25-35M budget which was pretty cheap.

[Wounded Bear]

4. Careful you don't strain your back reaching like that...

[Mike 03]

7. I've come to accept that "Die Hard" is a Christmas movie

Is a key factor that the movie has to take place around Christmastime, conveyed to the audience by music and scenery?

Your analysis is pretty good, except that #2 is really key to having a Christmas movie. Because actually almost every drama ever made has:

An interpersonal conflict between two or more of the main characters that is resolved favorably by the end of the film.

I would cut "favorably" and just say the conflict is "resolved," because many films don't have happy endings.

Is that one of the criteria for a Christmas Movie--that the conflict be resolved favorably, so we have a happy ending? That makes sense.

And this one, criteria #3:

A character who has a personal demon he defeats to become a whole person once again.

That seems to me to be a general definition of drama, going back to Shakespeare. In a really good work of drama, both of those qualifications (#1 and #3) are both met, because there is the external dramatic premise and the internal struggle that makes character change possible in the first place.

Anyway, I enjoy your analysis.

[Intractable]

10. What makes it a Christmas movie is that it is a treat.

Most action movies suck compared to the first Die Hard.

[LeftInTX]

12. It's an "anti-Hallmark" Christmas movie

Full disclosure: Never seen a Hallmark Christmas movie or Die Hard