Holiday Watch: Die Hard (1988)

Watched:  12/20/2025

Format:  Peacock

Viewing:  Unknown

Director:  John McTiernan

One of the great points of relief for me this year has been that, at long last, people are being shamed on social media for asking if Die Hard (1988) is a Christmas movie.  It is.  We're done.  Shut up.

What younger audiences won't know is how much Die Hard changed the game for action movies.  

I'll often point to Commando (1985) as the template for action movies, and in some ways, that's right.  But it also reflects the kind of movie being made where our hero was already a super soldier we understood stood above other men.  He could walk through a hail of gunfire without so much as a scratch and dispatch 100 anonymous henchmen before tangling with the Big Boss at the end of the movie.  And in the 1980's, action heroes were guys like Stallone, Schwarzenegger and Chuck Norris.  

Die Hard suggested that much more of a common man could be an action hero in the right situation.  He'd get the crap beat out of him, he'd get injured, he'd make mistakes, but as long as he kept a cool head and remembered Bonnie Bedelia needed him now, he just might save the day. 

I think it's also key to look at the angle of masculinity in this movie in comparison to most cop-oriented action movies.  John McClane is a father and husband.  He is not meeting a cute flight attendant along the way.  He is not protecting a sexy witness he will bed as soon as the credits roll.  His primary problem in life is that his wife doesn't actually need him at all, and he can't change.  She's a successful 1980's corporate shark, and he's a New York cop who can't imagine himself not being in New York or doing what he does.  But he just happens to be in Los Angeles at the right time, when she actually *does* need him.  

By the way, it's hard not to notice that John has a wandering eye, but we don't talk about that.

In a way, all the chatter in the movie about cowboys is key here.  John McClane is Shane - is there any use for him in this world of glass skyscrapers and corporate finance?  Westerns were many things over the years - as much setting as genre - and we do get movies about everymen as much as we do John Wayne enforcing the law on the frontier (see: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance for one of the more interesting looks at the western myth).  

The 1980's were seeing the sea-change of women not just entering the workforce, but seeing the start of of women's careers eclipsing those of their spouses.  I have no idea how this spoke to grown men in 1988 - I was 13 and didn't blink at the concept, I had friends where it was clear Mom was pulling in the big bucks from Texas Instruments while Dad did something less lucrative.  I assume this is pretty common these days.  

For bonus points, Bedelia's character is named Holly in a Christmas movie.  Well done, Die Hard.  Very Hallmark Movie.

For the most part - for an actioner of this era, the writing is insanely sharp.  Not just in that every plant has a payoff - but they clearly thought through things like "if someone pulls a fire alarm, what do the thieves do so it's not a problem?"  They needed for Hans and Co. to be smart and capable, and so... they are.  Their plan for robbing Nakatomi is actually rock solid.  As inhuman as it is to blow up 30 people on the roof, it sure would lead to confusion as to what happened and cover their escape.  Would bearer bonds not lead authorities directly to the crooks?  I kind of think they would if one showed up with hundreds of millions in bearer bonds, but it's a neat idea.

But, yeah, Hans knows the press would get involved, and don't just show it happening, it's a key plotpoint.  The crooks knowing what the FBI playbook is - equally important.  

John has to *also* be smart, and so the movie worries about how he's going to do things.  And over and over, it shows his asymmetrical approach is pretty good working against people with a plan.  Heck, chucking a body onto Al's cop car isn't half bad for alerting police something is up.

I'd also argue the humor in Die Hard is some of the best in an action movie.  John is funny.  Hans is hilarious.  Ells is a clown and Holly gets in some good lines.  Heck, the Deputy Commissioner is hysterical.

And as much as I think Die Hard returned us to the idea of everyman action heroes, "Yippee-kai-yay, Motherfucker" may be one of the most important lines delivered in a movie in the 1980's.  It's our turning point for John as he engages with Hans and Co., certainly - and is the point at which Hans realizes he can't cow or insult McClane into hiding.  I don't know of another movie that managed to quite pull off that "fuck you" moment quite so well from the era, but it also gave a couple of generations a battlecry for when we know we're making the unsafe, unadvisable decision and hoping for the best.

The movie also gave us Bruce Willis as movie star, which was unexpected.  He was a TV star and back then not too many TV stars managed to cross over to the big screen and succeed long term.  But Willis' charisma and persona fit perfectly into the film, and it was off to races.  

We also got America's first look at Alan Rickman, who was different from all the militarized goons we were used to, or well-muscled thugs that often made up action movie threats at the time.  Slick, smart, a chameleon to meet the moment, Hans Gruber was a new kind of villain.  And it's impossible to imagine anyone else pulling off the part with the same panache.  

The only thing I wish the movie had more of is (1) William Atherton, who is just terrific as the reporter, and (2) more of what Nakatomi looks like from Al's POV.  I mean, we kind of need to see the C4 go off the way it happens in the movie.  But I would love the entire sequence just from Al's POV as the building suddenly blows the @#$% up out of nowhere.  

Either because of or in spite of Bedelia having the hairstyle all of my middle-school teachers were trying for, she's truly an under-discussed fox, but has the secret weapon of a sexy voice.  Well done, Bonnie Bedelia.