Yippee Kay Yay… (The only movie that doesn’t depresses me in Xmas)
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.”
Haha this is very funny.
Plus, he gets his wife (and kids, by extension) back at the end.
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).
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.
I just think it’s a nondenominational winter season celebration movie.
You do realize this makes you wrong?
In the same way that tomatoes are fruit and bananas are berries.
Technically correct. The best kind of correct.
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
Also, it’s about a man attending a party in order to fix his family, and he needs to learn to let go of his pride. Classic Christmas movie message.
Jumping on here, because this is often overlooked. If you didn’t know the title of the film, and someone played the first 20 mins to you you’d expect a hallmark film. Going to see the estranged wife, trying to repair a relationship, the awkwardness at the Christmas party.
The whole thing subverts Christmas movie tropes. It’s not just an action movie set at Christmas. It’s a Christmas movie which gets hijacked.
Even the final scene plays on the parody with the ‘snow’ falling, the comedy comeuppance for the nuisance bad guy, and then they kiss and drive off as ‘let it snow’ plays.
If only there were Lemmy gold…
The best I can do is the ol’ feddit.uk handjob. Handshake, I meant handshake!
Real reasons:
- Happens during a Christmas party.
- Christmas music in the score.
- B plot involves family mending which is a common trope of Christmas movies.
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.
Christmas being part of the plot is irrelevant - The Wizard of Oz is a Christmas movie. I think what makes Diehard a Christmas movie is simply that people like to watch it at Christmas.
Who says the Wizard of Oz is a Christmas movie?
About 75 years of tradition - until the 3 major TV networks lost their dominance it was always on during Christmas season. I don’t watch them anymore so I don’t know if they still play it.
Oh, hard disagree, I don’t believe playing a movie at Christmas time is what makes a movie a Christmas movie.
I thought this was a closed deal? Of course it is a Christmas movie.
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.
It is literally set at a christmas party. Without christmas, that movie doesnt happen
That’s a glib technicality, but not sufficient to make it a “Christmas movie” in the usual sense. The Christmas party is a plot device, and could have been replaced with a different one without significantly altering the plot of the film.
The Muppets Christmas Carol is my favourite Christmas movie.
“Life is made up of meetings and partings. That is the way of it.”
THE GOOSE 🗣️🗣️🗣️
I’m in the UK and the premiere was on the 27th November.
It certainly was aimed as a Christmas movie for a lot of the world.
Everyone keeps saying that, but it could be a random party. It’s not particularly important that the party is Christmas, the company could be having an Easter celebration or even just a random party for a specific milestone for the company. As far as I remember, there’s nothing particular about being Christmas other than the decorations.
Thats a pretty thin argument. “If you replace this part of the movie, it could be completely different!”
Is home alone not a christmas movie because they also could have taken any vacation and left their kid at home?
Home alone has to be set during Christmas, these are crucial parts of the plot:
- The entire block travels at the same time
- Houses have decorations, which are used as traps
- Houses have lights that turn on at a specific time
- It has to be set during winter
So if you could have a different holiday during winter where lots of people decorate their houses to turn on lights at a specific time, then it wouldn’t necessarily be a Christmas movie. Otherwise you need to change crucial points of the plot.
Other examples are Jingle all the way or Nightmare before Christmas you can’t change the Christmas theme in those movies. I mean, you can but you’ll end up with a very different movie. Whereas if you change Christmas on Die Hard for any other party event only the decoration changes, the plot of the movie would be essentially the same.
“If Elf was about a human raised by bunnies and then Buddy helped a family learn the true meaning of Easter it would be an Easter movie! So Elf isn’t a Christmas movie.”
That’s what this argument sounds like to me. You’re hyper focusing on one tiny element of the story. Yes, there are not many Christmas parts, but taken together they are sufficient to make a Christmas movie. If the party wasn’t Christmas themed you’d still have Christmas themed misic and a movie about a man trying to fix his family (super common Christmas trope).
It’s a movie about a man attending a Christmas party in order to patch things up with his wife and spend the holidays among his family. But the only way to do that, and to defeat the greedy villain, is to let go of their pride. And also there’s guns and stuff.
It’s a Christmas movie in the same way Addams family is a wholesome family. They obviously are, and you only disagree if you’re unable to look past the surface.
Leaia is a Disney Princess.
While I agree that people shouting about it being a Christmas movie is annoying, it definitely is a Christmas movie. It has all the trappings of a Christmas movie and Christmas music is in the score.
I like to pretend that John McClane is Santa trying to get gifts to the hostages.
In as much as home alone and Batman is a Christmas movie.
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.
I don’t wanna be the party pooper here, but Die Hard is a specifically American Christmas Movie. I’m not saying that other people can’t or shouldn’t enjoy it as a Christmas Movie if so inclined.
But as a German what we “traditionally” watch as Christmas Movies/Shows is something completely different (though also varying greatly from region to region and family to family. I for one still enjoy “Weihnachten bei den Hoppenstedts” a lot my father mostly insists on seeing “Familie Heinz Becker feiert Weihnachten”. A movie a lot of people consider to be a Christmas Movie as far as I can tell is “Drei Haselnüsse für Aschenbrödel”.
Again I’m not saying that people can’t consider “American” Christmas Movies as their own or make them their traditions a friend of mine insists that “In Bruges” is the ultimate Christmas Movie. I just think saying “We all agree” is making it to simple
Edit: Read some more comments and maybe I misunderstood the premise. I’m not saying “Die Hard is not a Christmas Movie” what I’m trying to say is “Christmas Movies are what people make their Christmas Movie regardless of if they are Christmas-y” if I started watching Shrek at every Christmas it would be my Christmas Movie. But I feel what OP wanted to say was “There are Movies that are considered Christmas Movies because of the content and Die Hard should be considered one of them”.
I think the joke is that Die Hard obviously isn’t a traditional Christmas movie. But the story is literally set at Christmas. Many people like Die Hard more than traditional Christmas movies, so when their family members start voting om which Christmas movie to watch this year, they steadfastly nominate Die Hard with the argument that “it really is a Christmas movie, the internet agrees”
what I’m trying to say is “Christmas Movies are what people make their Christmas Movie regardless of if they are Christmas-y”
It’s more Christmasey than you may remember, when is the last time you watched it?
So is Gremlins.
Yesss, I always forget that one! Have you seen Gremlins 2?
