Surprising Christmas Classic Returns to Theaters

A controversial Christmas classic is back in theaters for the Holiday Season. That's right Die Hard is playing in select theaters. Across the United States, you can go see Bruce Willis crawl through Nakatomi Plaza on the big screen once again. 20th Century Studios decided to cheekily enter the "is Die Hard a Christmas movie debate" by letting the fans argue about it while it's in theaters. John McClane ends up being mentioned amongst other Holiday movie protagonists pretty often these days. But, for every person that would see him standing alongside Buddy the Elf, there are just as many people that won't even hear of such a thing. Funnily enough, Die Hard originally hit theaters during July of 1988 and this seems to be a largely Internet-fueled argument. 

Back in 2018, Willis actually addressed the "Christmas canonicity" of Die Hard himself. During Comedy Central's roast of the actor, he explained, "Die Hard is not a Christmas movie. It's a Bruce Willis movie so yippee-ki-yay to all you motherf--kers and good night!" That would seem pretty definitive. But, honestly, when has that stopped the public from arguing about a topic with the kind of shelf life that Die Hard has. For now, they'll have to settle for a really entertaining action movie rather than a consensus among fans.

Is Die Hard A Christmas Movie?

For more on this debate, we can turn to director John McTiernan. He had an interview in 2020 where he laid out how much Die Hard changed from the script to the screen. Previous versions of the Willis movie had a stern hand and the filmmaker asked for some substantial changes. One of those big pivots was injecting a little bit more holiday spirit into the proceedings. So, count this one as a vote for Die Hard as a Christmas movie.

"Joel Silver sent me the script three, four times," John McTiernan said in a 2020 interview. "And it was about these horrible leftist terrorists that come into the sort of Valhalla of capitalism, Los Angeles, and they bring their guns and their evil ways and they shoot up people just celebrating Christmas, terrible people, awful. And it was really about the stern face of authority stepping into put things right again, you know? And I kept saying to Joel, I don't want to make that."

"In fact, everybody, as they came to work on the movie began to get, as I said, this idea of this movie as an escapee," he continued. "And there was a joy in it. Because we were, we've had changed the content. And that is how Die Hard became, we hadn't intended it to be a Christmas movie, but the joy that came from it is what turned it in to a Christmas movie. And that's really the best I can tell you about it."

What's Going On With Bruce Willis?

Fans might not be aware but Bruce Willis has been diagnosed with neurodegenerative disorder frontotemporal dementia. That means he won't be acting anymore and is resting with family while getting care. A lot of his projects have been in the limelight this year. Moonlighting is finally streaming on Hulu and the creator of the show visited his friend. Glenn Gordon Caron told The New York Post that Willis is still very much himself and pleased that people are still enjoying his acting.

"I know he's really happy that the show is going to be available for people, even though he can't tell me that," Caron shared. "When I got to spend time with him we talked about it and I know he's excited… The process [to get 'Moonlighting' onto Hulu] has taken quite a while and Bruce's disease is a progressive disease, so I was able to communicate with him, before the disease rendered him as incommunicative as he is now, about hoping to get the show back in front of people."

Will you see Die Hard on the big screen? Let us know in the comments!