Is Die Hard Really a Christmas Movie? Not Even Bruce Willis & Director Agree

Die Hard (stream it here on Peacock!) famously unfolds over the course of Christmas Eve. Its bad guys rudely bust in on a legitimately festive Christmas office party. Run-D.M.C.’s “Christmas in Hollis” bumps in the background at one point, and heck — one of John McClane’s sickest franchise burns even comes via some snide Santa’s-helper sweatshirt graffiti: “Now I Have a Machine Gun Ho-Ho-Ho.”

If all that and more (like John’s wife being named “Holly,” of all things) doesn’t add up to putting one of the greatest action flicks of all time squarely in the Christmas-flick camp, then what in the Yippee Ki‐Yay of Yuletide movie bona fides ever will?

The Die Hard Christmas debate: Bruce Willis & John McTiernan weigh in with different takes

Sadly, the ageless debate over whether to dub Die Hard an official Christmas film isn’t likely ever to truly be settled. When not even director John McTiernan and leading man Bruce Willis seem to agree on the 1988 action classic’s status as a go-to holiday watch (or not), how can there be any concord among the movie’s evergreen legion of fans?

Yep, both McTiernan and Willis have weighed in on their classic creation’s Christmas-flick merits over the years, and it all adds up to a big case of seeing these sorts of things through the subjective eyes of their different beholders. To be fair, Willis’ past comments on the issue have seemed more tongue-in-cheek than McTiernan’s: “Die Hard is not a Christmas movie!" Willis teased (via IGN) at his own Comedy Central Roast in 2018. “It's a G**damn Bruce Willis movie!” Sure, the setting for his brash pronouncement was sorta silly… but technically, Willis did pick a side all the same. 

McTiernan, though, has apparently thought a bit deeper on the topic, treating fans to occasional musings on how Die Hard’s Christmas-Eve setting came as a deliberate creative choice. Comparing the movie’s everyman-versus-authoritarianism theme to It’s a Wonderful Life in a 2021 American Film Institute feature, McTiernan explained there’s an intentional “joy” baked into Die Hard that, for him, captures at least a sliver of the spirit of Christmas.

“[Producer] Joel Silver sent me the script three, four times, and it was about these horrible leftist terrorists that come into the sort of Valhalla of capitalism — Los Angeles,” McTiernan recalled. “And they bring their guns and their evil ways, and they shoot up people just celebrating Christmas. Terrible people; awful! ... And I kept saying to Joel, ‘I don’t want to make that.’"

But, McTiernan added, “There was a joy in it” as Die Hard’s creative team began to grasp his goal of pitting an honest cop like McClane against the kind of bad guys who’d dare to hatch their scheme in the midst of holiday happiness. “We hadn’t intended it to be a Christmas movie, but the joy that came from it is what turned it into a Christmas movie.”

Whichever side of the debate your sleigh lands on, Die Hard definitely doesn’t slot snugly beside Elf or How the Grinch Stole Christmas as a family-friendly fun flick that you can set the kids in front of and forget. But if your holiday binge tendencies veer more toward R-rated action-comedy bangers like Violent Night or Bad Santa, then calling it a Christmas movie won’t elicit a peep of protest from us… just be sure not to tell Bruce Willis the same thing. 

Die Hard is streaming on Peacock here.