Ask Lemmy

My dad was arguing that it wasn't because being set at Christmas isn't enough, and said a bunch of things typical of a Christmas movie to have; while I countered with a list of things that happen in Die Hard that met his criteria.

"Someone needs to receive a gift."

"McClane was gifted a machine gun."

"There needs to be a miracle."

"It's a miracle John survived."

"It needs to capture the feeling of Christmas."

"Have you never spent time with your relatives at Christmas? It feels just like being held hostage at Nakatomi Plaza."

Even Plex agrees:

subtract chrismas from the plot: you have no chrismas party filling a finished floor of the office tower with future hostages; you have no cross-county traveling hero to save-the-day. becomes a six page script and an easy in-and-out for snape and co.

I mean if a movie like It's A Wonderful Life can be a Christmas movie, despite most of it not having anything to do with Christmas, then so can Die Hard.

Gremlins is also a Christmas movie.

So is Mortal Kombat from the 90s. It’s all about people fighting to be number 1. Just like Christmas shopping.

There are 2 kinds of people, those who say die hard is a Christmas movie, and those who are wrong.

The real Xmas movie is Eyes Wide Shut

No and I'm tired of people pretending it is. Now, Gremlins on the other hand.

Why Die Hard is a Christmas Movie:

• there's a grinch who spoils the party
• "You're, uh...?" "Clay. Bill Clay." (checks directory to see if naughty or nice)
• need help? call a plump do-gooder (the cop at the donut shop)
• anxiously expecting a vehicle to land on the roof
• "It's Christmas, Theo! It's the time of miracles, so be of good cheer!"
• a good guy climbs down the chimney / elevator shaft

The last thing it seemed like many perceived they had in common was Tiger King.

Now it's support for murder as a necessary means of change.

This is progress.

Yippee Kai Yay, motherfucker.

In the same way that tomatoes are fruit and bananas are berries.

No, we agree that “Die Hard is a Christmas movie” is a fun proposition to entertain, either because it’s edgy and freaks the mundanes with its audacious disregard for cherished norms, or (more recently) because it’s a fun meme, with own line of commercially available ugly Christmas sweaters and knowingly ironic greeting cards. Though the meme eventually will become so overexposed that quoting from Die Hard on Christmas will become as basic and mid as dressing up in a Santa costume and drunkenly making an arse of yourself with several hundred similarly attired dudes.

Hell yeah! Of course, best Christmas movie ever. Multicasting it over the corporate network since last Monday and won't kill the process before 2025!

now i've got a machine gun ho ho ho!

This is such an exhausting topic. Anyone saying it isn't a Christmas movie either hasn't seen it recently enough to remember it or they're being contraian. It takes place during Christmas, a Christmas party even. It has Christmas music woven into the soundtrack. The b plot is the main character fixing his marriage (a common theme of Christmas movies is fixing families).

To be honest, I sort of would view people arguing that it isn't a Christmas movie like people arguing Red One isn't a Christmas movie because it is primarily an action movie. Red One is more obvious due to the marketing and the fact it's literally about saving Santa after he is kidnapped, but it's still very moreso an action movie than other similar titles (The Santa Clause also has a kidnapped Santa subplot and a team of elite elves rescue him, but it is much more minor).

Haters will say this is fake:

So is Gremlins.

One of my friends had this take on it:

Die Hard can't be a Christmas movie because Die Hard is actually good.

To me, Die Hard is a Christmas movie because it is set on Christmas Eve. I don't think it technically counts as a Christmas movie, but that just makes me consider it a Christmas movie even harder

I think its important to establish why it's a Christmas movie. I consider it one not just because it's Christmas time in the movie but because it's heavily Christmas themed the entire movie. For this exact same reason I think other movies also fall into this category like gremlins and terrifier 3.

Every movie that's set during Christmas is a Christmas movie. I'm watching Eyes Wide Shut with my wife tonight

My wife claims

• die hard is not a Christmas movie

Yet

• the sound of music is

She's so gorgeous but sometimes I just don't understand her.

Diehard is 100% a Christmas movie, however, Die Hard 2 which also takes place at Christmas time, is NOT a Christmas movie, as the fact that it's Christmas is coincidental and not at all integral to the plot.

It's about a man at a Christmas party that has gone incredibly wrong. It's a Christmas movie

Bruce thinks it’s a Bruce Willis movie.

… he gets a pass.

Die Hard, the grade school musical?

Yes, along with the dress being blue.

Why is it always Die Hard? 29 Alternative Christmas Movies That Aren't Die Hard

Absolutely. There can be zero disagreement on this.

Well, yeah. What else would it be?

No.

That's like saying Flight Club is a movie about soap.

Every scene in this movie is a work of art. It's so rare for a movie to check as many boxes as this one does so perfectly. it has humor, a love story, action, Alan Rickman, a heist, and most of all Christmas!

Happy holidays everyone! Hoping you can all get together and have a few laughs with your loved ones.