High above the city of L.A. a team of terrorists has seized a building, taken hostages and declared war. One man has managed to escape. An off-duty cop hiding somewhere inside. He’s alone, tired… and the only chance anyone has got.
Top 250 #105
Year of Release: 1988
Director: John McTiernan
Cast:
Bruce Willis – Officer John McClane
Bonnie Bedelia – Holly Gennaro McClane
Reginald VelJohnson – Sgt. Al Powell
Paul Gleason – Deputy Police Chief Dwayne T. Robinson
Alan Rickman – Hans Gruber
Regular readers of my site will have seen me mention my wife Carly once or twice in a few posts. Well, the reason Die Hard is todays review is all thanks to her. And another friend of ours I should add. They both asked me what I thought were good Christmas movies. After reeling off a few I threw out Die Hard for them and they both told me Die Hard ‘isn’t really a Christmas movie, is it?‘.
Yes. Yes of course it is!! So I did what all sensible people would do in this position and this week gave Carly the true gift of Christmas – DIE HARD!! 
Exhibit A – dead bad guy in xmas hat
Coming in at number 105 on the IMDB Top 250, Die Hard is an excellent action film, and just reminded me how good the 80′s movies and Bruce Willis were. I would say we all know the story, but as my own wife proved, some people haven’t lived and have never seen it, so here is some plot info for you.
Bruce Willis plays John McClane. He’s a New York cop who has flown out to Los Angeles for Christmas (see Carly, Christmas!), and we quickly learn that his marriage was put on hold after his wife (Bonnie Bedelia) left for the coast to accept a great job offer. She is now a vice president of the multinational Nakatomi Corporation. After McClane says hello to his wife, he heads off to change his clothes. Disaster strikes as the party is disrupted by the arrival of Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) and his heavily armed group of bad guys. The group seizes the tower and secures those inside as hostages, except for McClane, who manages to slip away.
The movie then becomes John McClane vs everyone else as he desperately tries to save the day. Die Hard has everything; explosions, blood shed, guns, smart bad guys, dumb bad guys, bad guys with amazing hair, and most importantly an on-form wise-cracking Bruce Willis. I was surprised how funny Die Hard was, as even though I have seen it so many times over the years, hearing my wife laugh regularly at McClane’s comments and actions was good enough proof that even nearly 25 years after release (25 years, wow) it still holds up so well.
Director John McTiernan creates a perfect balance between the excellent action sequences, the character development and the humour. Oscar nominated for its visual effects, obviously Die Hard looks amazing throughout and the pace is just relentless. There is never a dull moment, and that is normally down to the interaction between the main actors. Whilst Sgt. Al Powell nearly steals the show with his back and forth with McClane, the film rests and succeeds with Bruce Willis & Alan Rickmans characters facing off, in the good old-fashioned ‘baddie vs goodie‘. The final showdown between these two is of epic proportions which sums up the quality of the film and makes sure nothing lets it down.
Die Hard is an incredible action film and created a role and character Bruce Willis has never come close to equalling. It has been often imitated but never bettered, for example, 1994′s Speed was nicknamed ‘Die Hard on a bus’, and 1996′s The Rock was dubbed ‘Die Hard on an island’. It thoroughly deserves its place in the IMDB Top 250, and should be way higher in my humble opinion.
I’m such a huge fan that I even played the video games back in the day. Finding images of them now makes me realise how far video games have come, but I remember vividly at the time playing these how happy I was.
What did my wife think overall? She loved it, but felt it wasn’t quite Christmassy enough. A tree, the odd bit of tinsel and a few passing mentions do not a Christmas movie make in her opinion. But she loved the film enough to watch the sequel the next day (which she thought was much more Christmassy, you will be pleased to know!). Yippie-ki-yay, motherf#&%er!
Yippee-kay-ay Mr Farquhar!!
This is my favorite of the “Die Hard” movies although I continue to watch all of them as I do the Steven Segal flicks for the sheer pleasure of seeing the good guy buck odds and kick the Bee-Jeezus out of the bad guys. Bruce Willis is in his sarcastic prime (still with hair) and has little patience for any fools, “suits” or even dim-witted fellow cops. I think this was the first time I saw Alan Rickman work and I absolutely loved his villain the same way I used to enjoy folks like Basil Rathbone, George Sanders, Conrad Veidt and those slimy-silky but formidable bad guys of favorite films past. If I am remembering correctly, this is also the film where William Atherton’s TV reporter gets his proper response from Bonnie Bedelia — on camera — in the closing scene. I know there are some folks who have wanted to do that to me in real life. Matter of fact, I just remembered, it DID happen. But that’s another story. Oh, almost forgot, I still wish “John” could’ve found some shoes to wear. My feet always feel his pain. The final scene music is the perfect counterpoint to all the violence we’ve seen.
I went through a phase of buying every movie Seagal was in. Love him!
Thats correct about the reporter – that happened to you! Man, you HAVE to share that story with me one day!
Thanks for your comment Garry, always a joy to read
Drove by the Nakatomi Plaza (the Fox Plaza in real life) just yesterday, Tyson. Fine and timely review, my friend.
Thats cool, I was looking at images of the real place, not as exciting as being there in real life I’ll bet!
Thanks Michael
This is an every Christmas film
Most certainly is! Cheers Tim
Absolutely nothing wrong with this movie. One of my favorite action flicks.
Good to hear Ryan, everyone should love Die Hard
My Dad and I are going to sit down and watch all the Die Hard films over Christmas break, which will actually be my first experience with them. Great review Tyson, I’m now more psyched then ever to be finally witness the famous Yippee-ki-yay line.
Your first watch!? Damn, you have some good times ahead! Cheers William, the line appears in the original trilogy but is muted out in the newest one, damn cop outs going for the younger audience!
Sorry, Tyson. I side with your wife here. I dont consider Die Hard a “Christmas Movie” just because its set at Christmas.
You’re right on all other counts, though. Great flick!
Yeah, well, your both wrong
It is the perfect Christmas Movie 
Cheers Fogs, loving the Die Hard love around here
I feel so bad I haven’t seen this yet. Having said that, it is on TV on Tuesday night and I have set it to record. Awesome review, I’m really excited to watch it.
Wow, good times ahead for you!! Hope you like it, come back and let me know!
Thank you
Die Hard is the best Christmas movie, without question. Coincidentally, it’s on TV in the UK right now and I’m watching it as I’m writing this.
Yes it is! Weird, didn’t know it was on, although I do try and time reviews sometimes when I know something is on TV here in the UK, normally horror channel stuff, so I can tell people where to see it
Excellent! It’s funny – I have never thought of this as a “Christmas movie” – but now that we have this community of bloggy friends, I see a ton of people calling this a Christmas Movie. I remember I saw this in the theater and when my friend and i were walking out – our minds were blown!! This movie is fantastic!
Fogs didnt class it as a Christmas movie either. Maybe it was just on over here every Christmas and I caught it on tv from a young age, and then always associated it with this time of year. I dont know, but to me it is!
Fantastic is right, two agreements in a row……..Mayans were definitely right, some big stuff is going down…….
My friend and I have been trying to watch our top 5 Christmas movies over the past few weeks and never even considered this. To be honest I still don’t but as its topped a number of polls and is the only Christmas film (besides Elf) I could get my hubby to watch I thought it was time. I’d heard a lot about Die Hard and the famous quotes but had no idea how good it was. Bruce is brilliant loved his humour and you really want him to come out on top. Garry I’m with you i wish he’d found some shoes I felt his pain. The 2hrs flew by and I loved it so much as Tyson said We watched the second one the next day. Not Christmasy enough for my christmas list though. 🎄🎅⛄❄
Haha, and to think I had to force you to watch Elf too!
One of my favourite Christmas movies (Elf and Scrooged aren’t too far behind). Great review as usual Tyson!
Cheers buddy! Elf is amazing
Grew up with this. I will watch any and every DIE HARD movie made from now until the end of time. Very few movies can become as ingrained into popular culture as DIE HARD has.
Hans Gruber’s death made me
though. He was awesome. One of the greatest Villains ever!
Im with you Shah. Whilst 4.0 (shitty title) wasnt great, I still look forward to part 5.
Sad ending, but perfectly fitting. A great villain I agree
Great write-up man and that a blast from the past on that game. My god, it’s been years since I sat with my PS1 playing that. Happy days man. Happy days!
Cheers Mark!
I know, I watched a few clips from the game, and I cant believe I loved it as much as I did. Maybe in the same way, 5 years from now we will scoff at games played on current gen consoles
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I love the terrorist family portrait.
Bit different right?!
cheers
Great review, “Tyson”. Will definitely be checking this movie out (for the first time :O) over Christmas!
Cheers ‘Fernando’
You’ve never seen it? Wow, hope you enjoy it dude!
Couldn’t agree more. Will never get old. Recently bought the blu-ray set and it still looks great today. Also the ultimate in “Bad guys with machine guns who can’t hit shit” movies!
I really should invest in the Blu Ray set. Maybe this xmas is the time. Thank you!
Your wife and friend and Fogs are right. Die Hard is not a Christmas movie. It may be set at Christmas time, but it isn’t about Christmas. It’d be like calling Back to the Future a movie about the Eisenhower presidency just because it makes a few references.
It is, however, a great film.
Either your right or your wrong. Some will agree with your thoughts some wont. I stand by my thoughts
As long as we agree its a great film all is right with the world!
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