The Secret Christmas Movies To Watch After Die Hard

Let’s face it: if you’re already watching Bruce Willis fighting Alan Rickman, then you obviously like a heavy dose of action in your Christmas movies.

In that case, we have the perfect film to create a double feature. After you roll credits on Die Hard, it’s time to watch Lethal Weapon, a film that might just be the best buddy cop movie ever made.

While Christmas doesn’t play a huge role in the plot of this movie, it’s very abundant in the setting.

Christmas lights are present at both the shocking opening of the film (involving a woman jumping to her death right before “Jungle Bell Rocks” plays) and the end when Mel Gibson and Gary Busey square off in front of Donald Glover’s highly decorated home.

For horror fans, perhaps the most memorable Christmas moment involves when Tom Atkins gets fatally shot by a bullet that goes clear through the eggnog carton he is drinking from.

Batman Returns isn’t exactly subtle in its holiday influences; nonetheless, film buffs usually reach for other Christmas movies to watch after Die Hard, including Gremlins and Edward Scissorhands.

Forget Johnny Depp, though…if you really want to get weird with a Tim Burton movie this holiday season, you need to watch Batman Returns.

The entire film takes place around Christmas, and that means scenes are filled with Christmas trees and other decorations from the very beginning. There are also plenty of appropriately campy jokes, including villains being wrapped up as Christmas presents.

What we love best, though, is seeing Gotham City covered in a thick layer of snow that makes Burton’s gothy aesthetic pop right off the screen.

Iron Man 3 is one of the most criminally underrated Marvel Cinematic Universe films, and it also happens to be a lowkey Christmas movie.

Like Lethal Weapon, it doesn’t make the holiday a major plot focus, but festive settings and events pepper the film.

In our mind, that makes it at least as much of a Christmas movie as Die Hard.

In this film, you’ll see Tony Stark attend a Christmas pageant, create a bomb out of an ornament, and even say, “Merry Christmas.”

In addition to all these surface details, it provides solid Christmas themes by focusing on Tony Stark overcoming his personal demons, becoming a better person, and even learning to be a father figure.

Compare that to Die Hard, where the only thing Bruce Willis really learns how to do is kill without wearing any shoes.

The Princess Bride is more of a stealth holiday film than some of these other entries. For instance, none of the fantastical characters or action scenes our protagonists encounter have any explicit holiday theming.

However, the fact that this is the perfect Christmas movie to watch after Die Hard has been hiding in front of you the whole time.

Next time you watch The Princess Bride, pay close attention to the setting when the grandfather is reading the book to his grandson. There is snow falling outside to denote the Christmas setting, and there are plenty of decorations around Fred Savage’s room.

Grandpa even turns the book into a Christmas gift, which gives you the perfect excuse to give yourself the gift of watching this movie after you finish Die Hard.