Hulu Gets The Perfect R-Rated Franchise In Time For Christmas

Look, it never occurred to me when I was a kid that the Die Hard franchise was in any way related to Christmas, but as time went on, and the debate began heating up, I chose my side. Ample evidence holds up Die Hard, at least the first one, as a Christmas movie.

John McClane, Willis’ iconic New York cop, arrives in Los Angeles on Christmas Eve to see his wife. He walks into her company’s building in the middle of a holiday party. He even kills a bad guy and plants a Santa hat on his head. Finally, the movie is filled with Christmas music!

I get that the movie isn’t about Christmas, per se, but I’ve heard the argument that it’s too violent to be a Christmas movie. That can’t be true as Bad Santa is clearly a Christmas movie, as is David Harbour’s Violent Night — not to mention Krampus.

Yes, Christmas movies can be bloody, violent, and scary. The Die Hard franchise has certainly opened itself up to join the Christmas brigade, and I know I sit with my hot cocoa to watch the first three films while wrapping endless gifts for my large family. 

The second Die Hard film in the franchise, Die Hard 2 also takes place on Christmas Eve, two years after the first one, and this time John is meeting his wife, Holly (Hello? Christmas!) at the airport in Washington, D.C. Sadly, her plane is hijacked by some former Special Forces guys, and, of course, John is the only one who can save her.

This follow up to the first is not as good as its predecessor. The story just seemed a little off, there’s not enough to compel you through the more than two hours it takes to resolve the conflict, and the bad guy is just not impressive. 

Now, there’s no arguing that the third, fourth, or fifth films in the Die Hard franchise have anything to do with Christmas. But the third one, Die Hard with a Vengeance, is worth watching every year after the first two for the star power alone.

Of course Willis is back as McClane. This time, he’s in New York City, unemployed, divorced, and soaked in alcohol when the latest bad guy, played by the magnificent Jeremy Irons tugs on his chain. And to help him? Samuel Jackson! 

Yes, Sam Jackson was little known in 1995 when the third movie in the Die Hard franchise was released (though he and Willis did star together in Pulp Fiction one year earlier), and he’s spectacular in his role as a reluctant sidekick to McClane.

These two play off each other so well in the movie, you almost think you’re watching a comedy, except buildings are blowing up and the clock is ticking.

The combination of Irons, Jackson, and Willis is superb, and critics and audiences clearly agreed. The movie got great reviews and made the most box office money of them all up to that point at $366 million. 

The fourth movie in the Die Hard franchise, Live Free or Die Hard, also did quite well, likely, again, because of the cast. This time, McClane’s got his estranged daughter to save, along with a computer hacker played by Justin Long. And the bad guy? Timothy Olyphant.

Olyphant was still barely hitting our radars when he arrived in this franchise as a grinning psychopath. And he killed it! Again, it’s not a Christmas movie, but you gotta watch it once you’ve made it through the first three. 

Finally, the last film in the Die Hard franchise, A Good Day to Die Hard, felt a bit like a throwaway. McClane’s in Russia, now with his estranged son, fighting foreign bad guys on their soil.

I would argue that, based on the fact that this film didn’t do as well as its predecessors, that the supporting cast is an essential element to whether a Die Hard movie will find success.

A Good Day to Die Hard just doesn’t give Willis the crew he needs to get the job done. Certainly nothing like the team he gets in his other films, like Red and The Expendables.

While the story that sparked the Die Hard franchise came from a 1979 novel, Nothing Lasts Forever, it has certainly taken on a life of its own. Before he was diagnosed with Aphasia in 2022 and then with frontotemporal dementia in 2023, Willis had expressed interest in a sixth and final Die Hard film with a really fleshed out conclusion for John McClane.

It is unlikely now that we will ever get that film, but the Die Hard films will live forever as a memory of Willis’ greatness as an action hero. And for some of us, as Christmas movies. This holiday season, on Hulu, you can stream Die Hard, Die Hard 2, Die Hard with a Vengeance, Live Free or Die Hard, and A Good Day To Die Hard.