On our last podcast, Alex Hall suggested that I should write an essay on why I think Die Hard should qualify as a Christmas movie. While sitting at the Funny Stop on Friday evening, Susanne and I started to discuss how Die Hard, besides being a Christmas movie (in my opinion), has parallels to Hallmark Channel holiday movies. A large number of Hallmark movies have the same formula as follows: a small town setting, romantic story line, Christmas spirit, conflict resolution, family and community value, and a happy ending.
Following said formula, some comparisons from what little I know of Hallmark movies and differing to Susanne’s knowledge of them, Die Hard has our protagonist, Detective John McClane, arriving in L.A. to visit his recently estranged wife at her company’s annual holiday party happening on the 30th floor of Nakatomi Tower. After looking for his wife in the company directory, he notices that she is using her maiden name Gennaro instead of McClane. Once John arrives at the party, our hero is introduced to a sleazy executive for the Nakatomi Corporation, Harry Ellis, whom John doesn’t feel too easy with. While John tries to relax and unwind from the flight and tense reunion, a group of terrorists and thieves crash the party and hold everyone hostage after killing Mr. Takagi, President of Nakatomi Trading. Starting with this, we have the first three conditions met, albeit the small town setting is replaced with a private holiday party.
The romantic storyline is there as both parties are career-driven and have decided to pursue their paths– John has traveled to L.A. to see his family and possibly reconcile with his wife; Harry is considered a rival as John doesn’t seem to like him from the introduction. Also, with the party happening during Christmas Eve, the Christmas spirit shows with additional references throughout the film such as “Ho, Ho, Ho, now I have a machine gun,” as Tony is shown wearing a Santa hat after being killed and sent down to the party in the elevator to taunt Hans Gruber, leader of the terrorists. As far as conflict resolution, we see John introducing his wife to Sgt. Al Powell as Holly Gennaro, who then corrects John that McClane is her last name. There is even a subplot of Sgt. Powell accidentally killing a child during an incident years earlier. In the process of saving John and Holly from one of the terrorists, he discharges his revolver, killing the terrorist, something that he didn’t think he would be able to do again in the course of his career.
The film finally has its happy ending as we see the happy couple kissing through the back window of the limo as bearer bonds and various debris falls like snow around the scene. As Argyle, the limo driver says after closing the door for our lovers, “If this is their idea of Christmas, I gotta be here for New Years.”
Surprisingly, besides being a quintessential Christmas movie to me, I’ve discovered that Die Hard may actually be a contender for the Hallmark Channel. Yippee ki-yay mother….
