• Home
  • Articles
  • Using data to determine if Die Hard is a Christmas movie

Using data to determine if Die Hard is a Christmas movie

5 December '21 86 Comments on Using data to determine if Die Hard is a Christmas movie

Ok, enough bickering and fighting.

Let’s settle this once and for all in the only way I know how – going into a topic in way too much detail. As we prepare to enter the year 32 ADH (a.k.a. After Die Hard), the world is gripped by a constantly nagging question.

No, it’s not “Why does everyone call Hans Gruber and his gang ‘terrorists’ when they were clearly bank robbers?”

Today we’re going to use data to answer the question “Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?” Along the way, we’re going to test Die Hard’s Christmas bona fides against all movies in US cinemas for the past thirty years, using a variety of methods.

What is Die Hard?

Die Hard is an action thriller from 1988 in which a grizzled NYPD cop becomes a one-man army to take on a group of German bank robbers who are holding his wife and her unlucky colleagues hostage in a high-rise office block.

The film takes place at Christmas time but Santa is nowhere to be seen (or was deep undercover – the movie doesn’t make that clear). The movie’s plot came from the novel Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorp, which was a follow up to The Detective.  There was a 1968 movie adaptation of The Detective starring Frank Sinatra and so, contractually, a then 73-year-old Sinatra had to be first to be offered the role of action hero John McClane. Fortunately for us, he turned it down and our dirty-vested protagonist was instead played by Bruce Willis.

The movie has been a hit with critics and audiences for just over three decades and it often appears high on lists of top action movies.

In recent years, there has been growing debate as to whether Die Hard should also be included in the pantheon of great Christmas movies and it’s this question which we will settle today.

What is a Christmas movie?

Some Christmas movies are obvious – Jingle All the Way is hands-down a (bad) Christmas movie.

Some movies are obviously not Christmas movies – Last Action Hero is just a bad movie.

The reason Die Hard sparks such fierce arguments is that film appreciation is subjective. Filmmaking is a highly collaborative art without one single ‘creator’ and films are typically designed to be seen by large numbers of people around the world. We are all aware that we have differing preferences but few people consider that we also have differing perspectives on what a ‘movie’ actually is.

I contend that there are three distinct perspectives through which we can consider a movie:

  • Creative. By seeing the film as an artistic work, we can parse the intent of the filmmakers and limit our enquires to what we see and hear while watching it.
  • Commercial. We could focus on the film as a commercial product, made to fuel a capitalist industry which is propelled by marketing and responds to customer demands.
  • Cultural. We could put aside the story within the movie (i.e. the plot) and focus on the story OF the movie. This means considering what a movie means to people, how it is regarded and how it fits in the wider discourse of movies and of culture more broadly.

I have gathered data for each of these perspectives to see what we can discover about the essence of Die Hard’s Christmasness (or its Christmaslessness, as remains to be seen).

Part 1 – Creative

Let’s start by assessing the artistic work of Die Hard (as opposed to the commercial product or cultural icon).

We’ll do this by measuring the Christmas references in the script, on-screen and in the soundtrack.

The script

By going back to the film’s script we are able to see what the screenwriters saw as part of their vision. The word “Christmas” appears 18 times in the script, which is more than the words “explode” (4), “die” (5),”hard” (11), “shoot” (12), “kill” (13) and “blood” (13), although far fewer times than”gun” (73), “terrorist” (51) and “suddenly” (45).

The script also includes a rather meta reference to whether a song (RUN-DMC’s Christmas in Hollis) is Christmassy enough.

Creators’ intent

One of the two credited writers of the film, Steven de Souza has publicly declared “If ‘Die Hard’ is not a Christmas movie, then ‘White Christmas’ is not a Christmas movie”.  He pointed out that, unlike White Christmas, his movie took place entirely at Christmas, featured a Christmas party and the “Christ-like sacrifice” of John McClane walking on broken glass.

However, Bruce Willis is firmly in the “No” camp.  He told the Hollywood Reporter: “Die Hard is not a Christmas movie! It’s a goddamn Bruce Willis movie!

Visual references

There are a total of 21 distinct Christmassy elements in the movie, ranging from Santa hats and Christmas Trees to festive treats and a pivotal piece of “Christmas Greetings” tape. Sadly, I can’t do detailed visual analysis on every movie released over the past thirty years as they would take 1,356,242 hours to watch – or until 6th Sept 2173 if I watch them back to back, which my wife says I’m not allowed to do.

All this means that, so far, we are only able to say that Die Hard “contains some Christmassy elements” but not how it compares to other films.

I have found other movies which are not generally regarded as Christmas movies but which could pass this test – e.g. In Bruges, Trading Places and About A Boy are all set at Christmas time. And non-Christmassy movies with more uses of the word “Christmas” in their scripts than Die Hard include The Apartment (31), L.A. Confidential (24) and Annie Hall (19).

Audible references

Let’s turn to a cultural measure of Christmasification for which we can get large-scale data: songs.  I gathered song listings for three-quarters of all movies released over the past thirty years and identified the songs culturally associated with Christmas. Of these films, 95.5% did not feature any Christmas songs at all. Shame. The prevalence of Christmas songs in modern movies varies considerably but in most years it ends up that between 3% and 7% of movies have at least one such ditty.  This means that having even one Christmas song makes a film unusually Christmassy compared to most other releases. The most widely used Christmas song is Jingle Bells, followed by Deck the Halls and Joy to the World. Note: Jingle Bells wasn’t actually written as a Christmas song but was intended to be about Thanksgiving. Not only is this a bit of trivia to bore your family with over Christmas dinner, but it also sets the stage for our third perspective which looks how artistic products are perceived over time, no matter their creators’ initial intent. More on that later.

Die Hard features Christmas in Hollis, Winter Wonderland, a whistled section of Jingle Bells and a rousing rendition of Let It Snow over the end credits. This means that audibly, Die Hard is more Christmassy than 99.2% of all movies released over the past thirty years.

To conclude this first perspective, it could be argued that Die Hard is a Christmas movie from the point of view of what’s creatively in the movie but it’s far from being a slam dunk case. Plus, there are other movies which would pass some of these tests despite being less Chritsmassy overall.

Part 2 – Commercial

Let’s move on to the commercial side of the movie. This takes us far away from the piece as an artistic work and sees it as a product in the audio-visual distribution machine that is Hollywood. We’ll look at the choices made by the film’s studio, 20th Century Fox, to learn how they viewed the movie at the time of release.

Release dates

A movie’s release date can reveal a lot about how the studio or distributor views the movie. In the past, I have looked at how the annual release calendar contains the same repeating patterns each year and no-one will be surprised to hear that Christmas movies tend to come out around, well, Christmas.

In order to decode the release date, let’s look at the US release dates of movies we are absolutely certain are Christmas movies – those with Christmas-related terms in their title (such as A Bad Moms Christmas, Christmas with the Kranks and Bad Santa).

Over half of such movies were released in November and a further 30% opened in December. 40% of these Christmas movies opened between five, six or seven weeks before Xmas day. By contrast, Die Hard opened in the US in July 1988 and in the UK in February the following year – distinctly un-Christmassy months.

Poster

Next, we turn to how the movie was marketed to moviegoers.  Across all 13,255 movies, only 0.5% have explicitly Christmassy imagery on their main poster (i.e. the posters used on IMDb and Wikipedia).  The most common elements are Santa suits, wrapped presents and Christmas trees with red and green colours taking precedence. Some movie posters make vague references to the season, such as snow or frosted windows, but I did not include these as being Christmassy because otherwise we’re not being serious about this and we might as well include Touching The Void.

None of Die Hard’s contemporaneous theatrical posters featured any Christmas elements, instead sticking to explosions, guns and a big picture of Bruce Willis’ worried-looking face.  However, it’s worth noting that some extremely Christmassy movies do not use Christmas imagery on their posters, such as The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Holiday and Home Alone.

Tagline

The posters for Die Hard used a mix of taglines, including;

  • Twelve terrorists. One cop. The odds are against John McClane… That’s just the way he likes it.
  • 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.
  • 40 stories of sheer adventure!

Not a Christmas reference in sight. Whereas most true Christmas movies highlight how important the holiday season or festivities are to the plot:

  • Krampus – You better watch out.
  • Elf – This holiday, discover your inner elf.
  • The Polar Express – This holiday season… believe.
  • The Escape Clause – ‘Twas the fight before Christmas.
  • National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation – Yule crack up.
  • Home Alone – When the McCallisters went on holiday they forgot one minor detail… Kevin

To conclude the commercial perspective, it’s abundantly clear that 20th Century Fox did not see Die Hard as a Christmas film.

Part 3 – Cultural

Finally, we turn to the last of our three perspectives – viewing the film as a cultural icon, above and beyond the movie or its commercial impact. We will measure this by looking at how many people regard Die Hard as a Christmas movie, when people think about Die Hard and how this is shifting over time.

IMDb user lists

IMDb allows registered users to make public or private lists of films. I found 2,007 public lists which directly purported to contain Christmas movies, such as The Top 100 Christmas movies of all-timeChristmas Movies and 100 Movies set in winter time: Christmas time.

By gathering all of the movies in these lists, we have a dataset of 1,320 feature films which people are happy to publicly describe as Christmassy. Not only that, but we can see which are the most frequently cited. Die Hard is the 22nd most frequently cited movie of all time in Christmas-themed IMDb lists.

Wikipedia page views

If a movie truly is “a Christmas movie” then we would expect to see a significant increase in interest in the movie around the Christmas period.  To see if this is the case for Die Hard, I have gathered Wikipedia pageview data from the past three and a half years for two sets of movies – top action movies and top Christmas movies.  This will show us what kinds of patterns we should be looking out for when we turn to Die Hard’s pageview data.

Interest in action movies does not fit an annual pattern – views are spread fairly evenly through the year. Conversely, page views for Christmas movies spike… well, exactly where you’d expect them to – in December. Let’s look at Die Hard’s page views and see which of these two patterns best matches our film du jour. While not as pronounced as the other Christmas movies, it’s clear that public interest in Die Hard spikes in December.

Google Trends

Finally, let’s look at how public interest in Die Hard changes over a longer period of time. Google Trends allows us to do just that and the chart below shows the results for the term “Die Hard”. The releases of Die Hard 4.0 and A Good Day To Die Hard are the two busiest non-Xmas periods for “Die Hard” references. Once we discount these Die Hard sequels, we can see a clear trend of the phrase being used around Christmas time.

Fifteen years ago, there was little to no cultural link between Die Hard and Xmas.  This started to change in the early 2010’s and by the end of the decade was firmly entrenched.

The final result: Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?

After taking this long journey with me, I’m sure you can appreciate the complexity involved in answering a seemingly simple question. We’ve had to consider what is a movie, who is asking the question (plus who is answering it) and how the perception of movies change over time.

So, is Die Hard a Christmas movie? The neatest summary I can provide is… It may or may not have been, but it most certainly is now.

Although the studio did not intend it to be a Christmas movie, some of the film’s key creators did. Either way, it’s certainly fair to say that Die Hard is regarded as a Christmas movie in popular culture. Like it or not, the association between Die Hard and Christmas is fast increasing and in years to come its Christmassyness will be beyond question.

Future generations will read in wonder that Die Hard was ever thought not to be a Christmas movie and articles such as the one you’re reading now will be seen as nothing but a massive waste of everyone’s time. Imagine that!

Notes

Data for today’s research came from IMDb, Box Office Mojo, The Numbers / Opus and Wikipedia.

Unless otherwise stated, all data relates to the initial US theatrical release of the movies in question.  Wikipedia data relates to the period 1st July 2015 and 14th December 2018.

For each dataset created and used in this research, I have tried to be as complete and thorough as possible. It’s never going to be possible to be 100% comprehensive as much of this work relies on the accuracy of public sources of data. If a Christmas song is featured in a movie but not listed as such on any public movie database then I too would have overlooked it.

There were a few threads I did not have time to explore. A major one is an uptick in screenings of Die Hard, both on television and in cinemas, over the Christmas holiday period. I also could have used my data more broadly, to look at other Christmas movies. This could be a future article if there’s interest.

There were also a few threads I chose not to follow.  For example, some people suggested the number and volume of Christmas-themed merchandise around a movie should be taken into account.  Given the rampant capitalist world we live in, I don’t think this is a reliable metric of anything other than the lengths companies will go to sell us rubbish at Christmas. Game of Thrones is not Christmas-related in any way but you can buy Ho Ho Hodor Christmas jumpers, Jon Snow Christmas tree decorations and ‘Christmas is Coming Jon Snowman’ mug.

I’m very grateful to all of my readers who responded to a call asking for tips on what to track, to the students at Birmingham City University for their ideas last week and to Liora for helping with research and structuring the piece.

Epilogue

If you have a question or objection to any of my methods, please either leave a comment below or drop me a line privately.

If you would like to complain about the result and demand a second referendum then… well, tough. This is the only deal on offer. Ho-ho-ho.

P.S. If you want to hear me chat about the topic you may enjoy this episode of Indie Film Hustle podcast with Alex Ferrari.

Share

Comments

86 comments
  1. and last but not the least every time the song “Let it snow..let it snow ..let it snooooow!
    plays most of my friends jump up and scream “Die hard”!

    Die Hard is definitely as much a X’mas movie as Santa clause is to X’mas!
    we now have sub Genre folks “X’mas action movie!”

    Sorry Bruce!but it had to be said.u are the Santa’ cause’ of this new sub Genre!

    1. This article just warms my data-loving heart. New project, lol! Will see what data I can mine to answer the question at the end regarding when people watch this.

    2. Personally I’d also argue that Let It Snow is not actually as Christmas song; just a general winter song, as it doesn’t once mention anything to do with Christmas in the lyrics.

  2. I thought this was your most interesting analysis yet! Thanks for sharing that. Tbh, I thought you were going to spend more time delving into ‘what makes a christmas movie’ in terms of theme (family, giving, love) and compare the messages of the most popular, indisputable Christmas movies with Die Hard and see if it fit (which I think it does) (but so do so many other movies). Nevertheless, I found your analysis very interesting. cheers (and Merry Christmas!)

    1. Hi Janet. I did actually study that but this article was already too long and so I have held that back for another article looking at Christmas films more generally. It would only inform the first viewpoint (i.e. artistic) and that seems well covered already.

    2. Most definitely not a Christmas movie. A guy doing blow in the office, another guy trying bang an office co-worker and bodies dropping everywhere does not make for a Christmas movie. By some peoples comments, Pulp fiction would be a Christmas movie if they sang jingle bells at some point.

      1. Die Hard is Christmas, but a lot more. I loved it there’s definitely heart in the show/shows. Snow, love, Santa hat, presents. Every year it seems at Christmas time.

      2. Bingo!! The theme and feeling of the movie have to be given much more weight than other factors. If it does not include or evoke the feeling of peace, love, and good will, then no matter what other “Christmas criteria” it does have, there will always be the fatal flaw preventing the movie from being a “Christmas movie.”

        By the way, this movie could have been set during any other holiday or celebratory occasion and not lost a thing in translation. New Year’s Eve would work great – close with Auld Lang Syne over the closing credits and include other New Year songs throughout. Can you really find another Christmas movie where it would work equally well during a different season or event?

        Bruce Willis was right – this is a Bruce Willis action movie!

        1. One of the things left out of the article is that they changed the leading man and lady’s names from Joe and Stephanie to John (which means “Gift of God”) and Holly (a plant traditionally associated with Christmas, and from which it derives its traditional colors). While one might argue that the name “Joseph” is intrinsically Christmassy in its own right, certainly the reason for the season is the gift of God which was the Baby of Bethlehem. Therefore, John’s name was DELIBERATELY made MORE Christmassy, while Holly’s was transformed from something that WASN’T Christmassy to something that WAS. Setting the movie at a different time might not have restricted terrorists from attacking, but certainly wrapping a bow around the names of the characters betrays an intent to enhance the Christmas themes present in the novel.

        2. You said exactly thing I was yelling in my head while I read this article.
          Good article though.
          Just missing the most important thing about a Christmas movie, which is…that it’s about Christmas.

  3. Q: Does Christmas plan an integral part to the story?
    A: Yes John McClain wouldn’t have gone if he wasn’t asked to attend the Christmas party.

    Q: Is there Christmas music in the movie?
    A: ‘Let it Snow’ by Bing Crosby along with some sleigh bells SFX

        1. Summer wouldn’t work for Home Alone since ice was a big theme for the gags.
          However no reason it couldn’t have been in February.

        2. Home Alone is about Christmas. That’s why it’s a Christmas movie.

          Die Hard is not about Christmas. That’s why it’s not a Christmas movie.

      1. It could have been any party, it could have been a birthday party, a business social, etc etc. Christmas is irrelevant to the plot. The music could have been Happy Birthday to You. The story would remain the same.

        1. Who flies across the country, has gifts for his kids, and makes a big deal about reuniting with family for a business social? He didn’t go for the party, he went for his family, to spend Xmas with them, which makes it even MORE chistmassy.

          1. 12 Terrorists, 12 Days of Christmas
            Jon come from the “North Pole” (Aka New York) southward (LA) bringing gifts via Air Tavel
            Jon Arrives to the destination in a Modern Day Sleigh (Limo) while Christmas Music Plays
            Jon Maneuvers through Nakatomi Plaza via tight, cramped spaces (Air Duct and Elevator Shaft, etc) similar to a chimney.
            Jon realizes after arriving at the destination that more gifts were needed and takes action to deliver those gifts (Freedom to the hostages)
            The roof top explosion lights up the sky like a star atop a Christmas Tree
            Jon’s Wife’s name is Holly (A very Christmassy decoration)
            If we keep with the allegory of Jon to Santa, then we have the individual trying to figure out the real story behind the protagonist (Richard Thornburg trying to get the scoop on Jon)

            I mean, what more do you need to show that it is a Christmas Movie.

          2. James, that was brilliant! I will share this analogy with my family (because none of these people I live with agree with me!)

      2. They changed the names from Joe and Stephanie to John (“Gift of God”) and Holly. Deliberately. Given the writer’s comments, this was clearly to enhance the Christmas themes already present in the novel.

  4. Stephen,

    Another fascinating read. A few tangential observations.
    It’s interesting that Die Hard just missed your Top 20 IMDB list by 2 spots. I would be interested to know where Gremlins falls on that list. It is also frequently a “forgotten” Christmas movie by many people even though it would rate higher in all your categories than Die Hard. I feel that it suffers similarly to Die Hard in the fact that it is a multi-genre movie and is thought of as “scary” before it is thought of as “Christmassy”.

    I also read a fascinating and completely accurate observation on Twitter last week where an athlete was asked about his favorite Christmas movies. Not only did Die Hard make his Top 3 list, but he also made sure to note that ” ‘Die Hard’ is basically the adult version of ‘Home Alone’.” And since Home Alone tops your IMDB Christmas (references) List, I just had to mention it. It made me smile, anyway. Cheers!

  5. Die Hard is a very important movie (IMO of course!) because of the innovative set design and the way the lighting is integrated into the set, giving the viewer the feeling of being in a real office building. For that reason alone, it should be on the ‘must-see’ list of every student of film.

    Great article BTW, thanks!

  6. Thank you for this analysis! You’re correct that it is a hotly debated topic, especially in my family of action-movie lovers. Something I have always noted, and regarded as Christmassy, is the use of the last part of Beethoven’s 9th “Ode to Joy” themes throughout the soundtrack to Die Hard. Perhaps I feel it’s relevant because that melody is also used as a relatively-Christmassy Presbyterian hymn (Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee) in the USA. Beethoven didn’t write the 9th for Christmas at all. But as I researched just beneath the surface at Wikipedia, I found this reference: Brasor, Philip, “Japan makes Beethoven’s Ninth No. 1 for the holidays”, The Japan Times, 24 December 2010, p. 20, retrieved on 24 December 2010; in which it is asserted that Ode to Joy is a popular end of year/Christmas-time musical tradition in Japan. Knowing that tidbit makes me appreciate that compositional choice even more, as it ties the Japanese Nakatomi Corp, the German “terrorists” and Christmas hymns all up together in a nice little bow. Kudos to the late Michael Kamen.

  7. Jon Shonebarger III

    As Jay Z once said, ‘Men lie, women lie,numbers don’t.’ You can’t argue with science. As a side note Die Hard 2 is most definitely a Christmas movie and in my opinion the best of the bunch.

  8. The only ornament on my tree is a homemade John McClane crawling through the air ducts. On Christmas I wear a gray sweatshirt with the now infamous words handwritten in red marker. And I always watch Die Hard on Christmas day. As many people like me might say “It just isn’t Christmas until Hans Gruber falls off the Nakatomi building.” Rest in peace Alan Rickman. You always made the best and most unforgettable bad guy. Your are sorely missed.

  9. If you include “Die Hard” as a Christmas movie, then you also have to include “Lethal Weapon”, “Gremlins”, and “Trading Places”.

  10. *Sigh*

    I’m a die-hard Die Hard fan, but it’s simply not a Christmas movie – it’s a movie set at Christmas time.

    The Christmas angle is simply a plot device to ensure that all remaining tenants of Nakatomi Plaza are located within a single space so when the “terrorists” move in, they can easily contain all the hostages with a small team, and have no need to conduct a floor-by-floor sweep to pick up any loose occupants. Plus, it’s the holidays, so it makes sense that this is the time of year that John McClane takes time off from putting away New York scumbags to go visit the family on the other side of the country.

    Now, the scriptwriters & filmmakers, clearly being clever little beavers, decided to play up this angle somewhat and throw in some Christmas tunes and even a few gags, and after all “It’s Christmas, Theo, it’s the time of miracles”, but this just isn’t enough to qualify Die Hard as a Christmas movie. It is neither about Christmas, nor does it involve any Christmas themes, and the plot doesn’t revolve around Christmas or anything especially associated with Christmas. But the ultimate nail in the coffin as far as I am concerned is you could remove all reference to Christmas and the movie would still play perfectly well without any other changes.

    And by the logic “Die Hard is set at Christmas, therefore is a Christmas movie” – Raiders of the Lost Ark must be a magnificent biblical epic; Avengers is a classic New York story; Labyrinth is an awesome heist movie; and Terminator is clearly the ultimate 80s rom-com.

    Having said that, whenever any one asks what’s the best Christmas movie, I’ll always answer Die Hard!

  11. I only have 1 disagreement – You stated at the beginning that they weren’t terrorists, they were bank robbers. That is incorrect. They are stealing from a private vault, not a bank. That makes them burglars.

  12. Frankly, I’m offended by this entire debate. In my humble opinion, Die Hard is not a Christmas movie at all. Just because you put some Santa hats on a few characters in the flick, Does not make its a Christmas movie. ” Oh look, There’s a Christmas tree in the backround at the airport. What a holiday classic” Nonsense, Utter flippin’ nonsense. Die Hard holds no comparisons to real holiday films such as Miracle on 34th Street or A Christmas story.

    1. They changed the names of the main character and leading lady to “Gift of God” (John) and “Holly.” Tell me that doesn’t speak of Christmas.

      1. Speaking Christmas and being a Christmas movie are two totally different things. If someone in back from the future wore a Christmas hat or there were songs relating to Christmas would you then consider that a Christmas movie too?

  13. To add to the cultural element, in Italy the role of non-Christmassy Christmas movie belongs to Trading Places instead. It has been broadcast on Christmas Eve every year since it came out.

  14. Hey, you claim to apply analytics, but where’s your test, training set, logistic regression formulation, use of deep learning and do on ? This is an EDA – exploratory data analysis. A pretty good one too. This is a good Xmas vacation problem for data scientist. Merry Christmas.

  15. That was a great and entertaining read.

    I too agree that Die Hard is a Christmas movie. And for that mater, agree with Richard Gehron that it could very well be an adult Home Alone.

    Now can you figure out what category Big Trouble In Little China should be in?

    That was an interesting movie that defied normal pigeon holing when it came out. Because of that, the studio and distributors failed to advertise it properly. Even today, it’s a hard one to categorize.

  16. My wife and I always watch it at Christmas as a Christmas movie alongside Home Alone, Home Alone 2, Scrooged, Muppets Christmas Carol and Blackadder’s Christmas Carol! This year our daughter was old enough to watch it with us for the first time and even she agreed, it’s a Christmas movie! So in our family at least the Die Hard Christmas tradition has been passed on to the next generation!

  17. The Wikipedia page-view data and the Google search-frequency data are highly self-referentially skewed here – a considerable portion of the lookups will be due to people actually *trying to determine whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie or not* ie: the definition of a Christmas movie becomes “a movie we argue about most”.

  18. Look at some of the names in the movie:

    – ‘Argyle’: cloth pattern associated with winter and frequently used in Christmas stockings
    – Nakatomi Corporation: ‘Nakatomi’ means ‘minister of the center’, denoting an ancient, hereditary office as intermediary between men and deities’
    – Joseph Yoshinobu Takagi: ‘Joseph’ is obvious, ‘Yoshinobu’ means splendid faith’, ‘Takagi’ means ‘tall tree’.
    – John McClane: John is a disciple, ‘McClane’ means ‘son of the servant of Saint John’
    – Hans Gruber: ‘Hans’ means ‘gift from god’

    …and these are just a sample; there are more. After a while, it becomes difficult to dismiss them as coincidences.

    1. “John” also means “Gift of God,” and the name was changed from Joseph to that for the movie.
      Miss Gennaro’s name was changed from “Stephanie” in the book (his daughter) to “Holly” for the movie, a plant associated with Christmas.

  19. Hi Stephen, I’m really intrigued to see the rest of the graph showing the most frequently cited movies in IMDb lists on the topic of Christmas. I’d be most grateful if you could share this with me! Many thanks, Neil

  20. I take no issues with this article on Die Hard being a Christmas Movie (it is). Instead I take issue with Jingle All The Way and Last Action Hero being rated as “bad” movies. Those are both fun and entertaining films. I suppose an analysis of what makes a movie “bad” or “good” is warranted 🙂

  21. This is amazing, and you are my hero of 2020. I can’t wait to get into an argument with someone this Christmas about Die Hard so I can bust this irrefutable analysis out. 10/10 😀

    1. Phenomenal! You solved a disagreement my wife and I had to put my Hans Gruber and John McClane figurines on display this Christmas. Thank you!

  22. I love the analysis and am going to direct any nay-sayers to your page.
    But also: Home Alone is a Christmas movie and Die Hard is basically Home Alone on steroids.
    General themes of Christmas movies that are present in Die Hard:
    A man trying to win the love of a woman at Christmas
    A villain coming between the man and his love at Christmas
    The main character just wanting to enjoy a traditional Christmas
    Someone has died
    A happy ending…
    It’s definitely a Christmas movie.

  23. It seems what you have uncovered is the very essence of art: that the meaning lies with the beholder.

    Commercially iDie Hard was not intended to be a holiday movie, but the creative elements (an office Christmas party being a logical plot device to put a large number of employees in an otherwise empty office park late into the evening on a quiet night in the city) and the cultural elements of people overtime enjoying the movie at Christmas time have turned it into a Christmas favorite.

  24. Dear Stephen, you have made my day. I was searching for script information on Die Hard 4.0 and came across your article. (Note I was not searching for Die Hard – I usually only do that in December – LOL.) My job involves verifying that advertising claims can be statistically supported (ie. are true?). I love your analysis and wish I had more details of the data crunching – but of course, we all know there are lies and then there are statistics … I am more than happy to call Die Hard a Christmas movie, but in the end, my opinion doesn’t matter. Thanks for the entertainment. Your final paragraph is absolute GOLD. Cheers.

  25. Finally, someone with real credentials answered this question. Thank you Stephen, awesome read, as always.
    And I concur, even if not originally thought of as X-mas movie, it has definitely become one.

  26. You might want to check the movie poster for Home Alone again. There’s clearly a set of Christmas lights around the window behind them (as well as snow, although you ruled snow out).

  27. I think it’s challenging to say that it is a Christmas movie because of the Google/Wikipedia etc searches that peak at in December; your own data shows this trend didn’t start happening until the last 15 years or so, which would likely correlate with when the annual is it or isn’t it a Christmas movie started happening – it could just be people looking for information to support their opinion either way.

    On an tangential note – have you done a deep dive on what makes a Christmas song? I would argue Let it Snow (and others) is not a Christmas song, but a general winter based love song – there is not a mention of Christmas anywhere in the lyrics.

  28. Very late to the game, but I wanted to add something that may be of interest. There is Christmas music throughout the movie, as noted. However, some may not consider the song at the beginning (Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy”, being performed live at the company Christmas party, following the opening scene) a Christmas song. However, in Japan it is considered not only a song of peace and of hope, but an essential Christmas tune, even if it wasn’t originally written as such. There is a very good article about it from National Geographic online that goes into the song’s history. In any case, the fact that it was included in a Japanese company’s holiday celebration (even if the company doesn’t actually exist) in America is fascinating to me.

    Another thing that I noticed was the DVD sleeve for the 30th anniversary edition of Die Hard is obviously designed to look like a Christmas sweater. The removable mostly red and green sleeve covers the original poster for the movie, which is on the case, obviously selling it as a Christmas movie.

  29. Every year I watch Eagles Nest, Die Hard, National Lampoon Christmas Vacation. After this Christmas I’m adding Die Hard 2 and Kelly’s Heroes.

  30. Jaime Lee Kallstrom

    I was just referred to this diatribe by a friend of mine, and all I can say is, holy sh*t, you rock! This was a wonderful link to come across and will be used by me over and over to argue with my friends about.

    Diehard is DEFINITELY a Christmas movie!

  31. “Absolutely loved reading this analysis! As a die-hard fan of both Die Hard and Christmas movies, I greatly appreciate the data-driven approach used to determine the true essence of this classic. The insights provided were fascinating, and it’s amazing how one film can generate such passionate debates year after year. Thank you for shedding some light on the matter with such a well-researched and entertaining post. Cheers! – Gary Ford”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Stephen Follows