Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?
I guess it can be. It does take place during the Christmas season at a holiday party in the imposing Nakatomi Plaza in Los Angeles.
Movie-going audiences are receiving an early Christmas present this holiday season as the action blockbuster featuring Bruce Willis as NYPD cop John McClane is heading back to theaters, 35 years after its initial release in July 1988, starting December 8, 2023.
But to me, the movie will always remind me of that summer in 1988 when I was 16 years old. I was about to start my junior year in high school. Die Hard would be the first R-rated movie I ever went to.
I was usually too scared to go to any movie that featured violence of any kind. It stressed me out. Still does.
But I was a fan of Willis, who I knew mostly from his TV show Moonlighting, a comedy about a detective agency.
I even loved him in 1987’s Blind Date, which was hilarious with all of its slapstick humor. I remember a scene where he and John Larroquette are fighting over a woman and tackle each other, falling off some kind of railing, hitting a table down below. No one was hurt of course. It was funny.
So when I saw the trailer for Die Hard, I was intrigued.
It looked a little far-fetched, sure, but who could argue with witty one-liners, an everyman hero and a ton of cool explosions? And although I didn’t know who he was at the time, Alan Rickman, who played bad guy Hans Gruber in Die Hard, looked cool even in the commercials.
I volunteered at my local library at the time, and the director of the children’s section – of all people – was telling me all about the movie which she had seen a few days before.
The one thing I distinctly remember her saying was that it wasn’t possible for one man to be shot at that many times. She must have said something complimentary, because when I went home, I immediately asked one particular person to take me – my mom.
My mother was also not the type to go to a movie like Die Hard. Her tastes were a little less, shall we say, loud. But she agreed to come with me.
Going to see this movie with Mom – and the story about how it apparently won her over by the end – remains one of my fondest movie experiences. The movie itself is still one of my top favorites.
Things got off to a shaky start when early on Gruber shoots executive Joseph Takagi when the latter refuses to help Gruber break into a vault. That messy situation upset my mother who, rather loudly, asked me what exactly I had gotten her into.
But the fast pace of the film, as well as the many good performances by the rest of the cast, kept everyone in the theater that day focused and thoroughly entertained.
Who could forget “yippe ki yay MF?” or, “take THIS under advisement,” uttered by McClane as he sends dynamite hurtling down an elevator shaft.
Mom’s interest in the film was confirmed by her reaction to one pivotal scene.
The unscrupulous TV news reporter Thornburg, played by William Atherton, sleazes his way through the unfolding hostage situation at Nakatomi as he tries to get information on the air before his competition.
At one point, through some unethical behavior, Thornburg blows McClane’s cover, putting his wife in jeopardy.
To this, my mother unexpectedly, and again rather loudly, exclaimed, “What a scumbag!”
Now in the interest of transparency, Mom denies my recollection of events, and she may argue I am overstating her enthusiasm, but I maintain that she was, in fact, won over by the smart-mouthed hero who saves his wife and, against all odds, beats the bad guys.
Willis would come back as McClane in four more sequels. Not all of them were all that good, but I quite enjoyed the third and fourth installments.
But nothing beats the original. McClane was at his best, and Rickman as Gruber was a tough bad guy to follow.
I already have my ticket to go see the original again, and I can’t wait.
Die Hard opens on December 8 and will play for at least a week in local markets. Check listings in your area for where and when you can catch the 35th Anniversary presentation.
