Die Hard Dropping Its Christmas Setting Was A Huge Franchise Mistake

While Die Hard’s second sequel was a solid follow-up, dropping the Christmas setting of the first two movies still ended up being the creative choice that tanked the franchise as a whole. The Die Hard series, like its hero John McClane, was stuck in an unenviable position after the success of the first sequel. Die Hard 2 was a huge hit like its predecessor, but the movie’s decision to land John McClane in another life-or-death scenario on Christmas Eve wasn’t lost on critics or fans. Die Hard 2 got away with some hilariously cheeky self-referential one-liners about how unlikely these events were, but the franchise couldn’t pull this off again.

As such, Die Hard with a Vengeance dropped the franchise’s trademark Christmas setting and Reginald VelJohnson’s Al Powell, while also connecting the sequel’s villain to Alan Rickman’s Hans Gruber. While this was a welcome change, watching the Die Hard movies in order proves that these decisions ultimately cost the series dearly. After the success of Die Hard with a Vengeance, it would be 14 years before the franchise returned to cinema screens with the divisive Live Free Or Die Hard in 2007. In 2013, A Good Day to Die Hard ended the series with its worst reviews ever.

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Die Hard’s Christmas Setting Elevated The First Two Movies

The action franchise’s family focus was underlined with festive themes

Die Hard’s Christmas setting didn’t seem pivotal to the franchise, but this element was missed once it was gone. The stakes of an ordinary everyman trying to get back to his family were raised by the Christmas setting, which made everything from Al Powell talking about his pregnant wife to McClane tearfully reuniting with Holly more moving. What made Die Hard one of Bruce Willis’s best movies was that McClane didn’t feel like an unstoppable killing machine in the vein of Schwarzenegger’s ‘80s action heroes or Stallone’s Rambo. He was just a good guy in the wrong place at the wrong time, and at Christmas no less.

Die Hard 2 took a big risk by doubling down on this, but this paid off because the premise was simply that good. McClane accidentally ending up in the middle of another international incident was exceedingly unlikely, but viewers could still relate to him getting stuck in an airport on Christmas Eve while trying to get back to his family. The stakes of McClane’s first two adventures were self-evident because the experience of coming home for Christmas, despite any number of obstacles, is such a perennial pop culture staple. However, Die Hard with a Vengeance couldn’t bring this back for a third time, thus causing the next installment – and those that followed – to suffer as a result.

Die Hard’s Decline Began With Die Hard With A Vengeance

The acclaimed sequel lost some of what made Die Hard so special

Admittedly, Die Hard with a Vengeance is rightly considered one of the best sequels in the series. Jeremy Irons is a campy joy as Simon, the pacing is excellent, and a typically great Samuel L. Jackson steals the show as McClane’s latest sidekick. However, Die Hard with a Vengeance’s many successes ironically paved the way for two terrible sequels that missed the whole point of McClane’s everyman appeal. By expanding the action of the series from one unfortunate guy stuck in a lone location siege to an action hero taking on city-wide adventures, this sequel facilitated the large-scale, forgettable set pieces of the sequels that followed.

Live Free or Die Hard and A Good Day to Die Hard both featured much bigger, more expansive storylines than their predecessors, a move that was clearly inspired by the success of Die Hard with a Vengeance. However, this failed to win back viewers and critics because both sequels made McClane and his offspring seem indestructible. It was obvious that neither movie was going to kill off either McClane himself or his children, meaning they had no stakes in comparison to the darker, more grounded earlier movies. As a result, killing off John McClane would be one of the only ways for Die Hard 6 to save the series.

Die Hard 6 Should Return To Christmas

Die Hard’s reboot could save the franchise with a festive setting

By now, both of McClane’s kids should be old enough to have children of their own. This means that Die Hard 6 could be set at Christmas and could see the McClanes return for one more adventure that threatens to ruin the family’s festive celebrations. Admittedly, McClane’s children would likely need to do a lot of the sequel’s heroics. However, one good thing about the final two Die Hard sequels is that they established both Jack and Lucy McClane as resilient, tough heroes who inherited their father’s talent for self-preservation.

With that in mind, Die Hard 6 could begin after McClane’s off-screen death and the franchise would still potentially be able to do justice to the tone of the early movies. Bruce Willis’s retirement would likely limit his involvement in any new sequel, but John McClane was never intended to be an immortal character. As such, the best way to get the Die Hard series back on track could be to bring back its original Christmas setting but pass its focus on to a new generation of heroes.