Is Die Hard a Christmas Movie?

Submission 28,059

About

Is Die Hard a Christmas Movie? is a viral debate about whether or not the 1988 action film Die Hard is a Christmas movie because it is set during the holiday. The question and classification have been refuted by some who believe those insisting that Die Hard is a Christmas movie only do so to elicit a response (similar Is a Hot Dog a Sandwich?).

Origin

On July 15th, 1988, Die Hard was released in the United States (trailer below).^[1]

While the film, which follows police officer John McClain (portrayed by Bruce Willis) as he attempts to reclaim an office building seized by terrorists, is set on Christmas Eve, the holiday plays a minimal role in the plot. However, in the earliest mentions of the film as a Christmas movie, on December 13th, 2007, the media outlet Slate^[2] included the film on their "guide to overlooked Christmas movies." They wrote:

"Die Hard's most elegant Christmas sneer occurs early in the movie, when McClane sends a dead German down the elevator, strapped to a chair, wearing a Santa hat, with the following written on his gray sweatshirt: 'NOW I HAVE A MACHINE GUN. HO HO HO.' Rickman's line reading is exquisite. With three punctuated Hos, he deftly inverts the joy of those words, expressing all the contempt that the manufactured cheer of Christmas can inspire."

Spread

That year, other blogs and publications, including The Guardian,^[3]^[4] also published arguments for Die Hard as a Christmas movie.

In 2009, Cracked^[5] published the listicle "5 Reasons Die Hard Is The Best Christmas Movie Ever Made." In 2011, Forbes^[8] named the film the "Best Christmas Movie of All Time."

Since 2007, stating that Die Hard is a Christmas movie became a popular talking point on social media websites, such as Twitter (example below, left)

In 2013, others began refuting the assertion. BuzzFeed ^[6] published the article "Stop Saying Die Hard Is Your Favorite Christmas Movie." In the article, they wrote, "I suspect that people think this opinion is unique. It's the betcha didn't see this answer coming that gives it it's oomph. You'll see this opinion trotted out by people who normally claim a psychical inability to pick a favorite film or album or artist."

On November 27th, 2017, in a since-deleted tweet,^[7] Twitter user @_ElizabethMay tweeted a mock conversation with someone who considers Die Hard to be their favorite Christmas movie. Within one month, the tweet received more than 12,000 retweets and 57,000 likes (shown below).

On July 29th, 2018, at the Comedy Central Roast of Bruce Willis, in his closing address, the actor said, "Die Hard is not a Christmas movie. It's a Bruce Willis movie." Uploaded to YouTube that day, the clip received more than 492,000 views in less than one year (shown below, left).

Later that year, on December 18th, 20th Century Fox, the studio that produced Die Hard, released a recut movie trailer for the film, reframing it as an explicit holiday movie. Within two days, the video received more than 265,000 views (shown below, right).