Die Hard director John McTiernan provides a response to the ongoing debate about whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie. The first Die Hard film was released in 1988, and starred Bruce Willis as NYPD officer John McClane who fights to save his wife and other party guests after they are taken hostage by German terrorists during a party. Die Hard spawned four sequels (Die Hard 2, Die Hard with a Vengeance, Live Free or Die Hard, and A Good Day to Die Hard), and remains one of the most well-regarded action thrillers to date.
Though the most memorable aspects of Die Hard lie in images of Willis shimmying through an air vent, and other stellar action sequences, a somewhat-joking debate has been struck since Die Hard’s release concerning part of the film’s exposition. The film starts during a Christmas party held at the Nakatomi Plaza in Los Angeles, and the events of Die Hard take place mostly over a single day, which is Christmas Eve. This fact has led to a debate on whether or not Die Hard can or should be considered a Christmas movie. Of course, it would not be a conventional choice within the commonly-watched Christmas movies, as it is far bloodier and action-packed than the likes of classics like A Christmas Story or Frosty the Snowman.
Now, director McTiernan gives his opinion on the long-held debate. In a recent interview on The Empire Film Podcast, McTiernan was prompted to speak on whether or not Die Hard should be considered a Christmas movie, with the interviewer resolutely remarking that of course, it should be considered a Christmas movie given its setting on Christmas. McTiernan admitted that Die Hard “wasn’t intended as a Christmas movie.” The director noted that although this was not his intention, it is not for him or the interview to decide if Die Hard should be considered a Christmas movie or not, but rather “for the audience to say.” The director also discussed the reasons behind Die Hard being “deliberately built around Christmas.” Check out the full statement from McTiernan below:
“It’s not for us to say, it’s people. It’s for the audience to say. If the audience decides they want to make it a Christmas movie, it’s a Christmas movie. It turns out that way. It wasn’t intended as a Christmas movie, or the fact that it was deliberately built around Christmas, but not intended to be a Christmas movie. But the fact that it was a Christmas movie had a lot to do with, you know, cause it’s actually, from a distance, politically very strident, and the only reason that survived was that the people in the studio who would have stopped that were deceived because they thought it was just an action movie about a Christmas party that goes wrong.”
McTiernan’s response is perhaps the most nuanced answer to the is-Die–Hard-a-Christmas-movie debate to date. Even if Die Hard specifically being a “Christmas movie” was not part of the film’s intention, it is fascinating to see why McTiernan and the other Die Hard creators intentionally set the film around Christmas. Hiding a “politically very strident” film behind the guise of a Christmas action movie was a clever move to get studios to sway to what McTiernan and his team wanted to create. Even if McTiernan did not believe it at the time, it seems that the people in the studio did think of Die Hard as some form of Christmas movie.
Even with his well-reasoned and complex answer to the Die Hard Christmas question, McTiernan does not offer a definitive answer as to whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie. By respecting the fact that the perception of Die Hard is in the hands of it audience, McTiernan also leaves room to respect the ongoing discussion on whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie. Thus, the great Die Hard Christmas debate will likely still be ongoing.
