Why "Die Hard" is a Christmas movie

[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.