"Is this a Christmas movie?" One of the great film school questions.
Yes - it is set on Christmas Eve, there's a family potentially getting together, there's a Christmas party, Christmas music plays over the closing credits.
No - there's no greater theme of gifts, there's not much love to go around, no one really laments that they are about to die hard on Christmas Eve all alone, it could be any other of the 364 nights of the year.
Bruce Willis is John McLane, a New York City detective, on vacation in Los Angeles. He's visiting his estranged wife Holly (Bonnie Bedelia) who has a good job with Nakatomi Industries and he attends their Christmas party on Christmas Eve. But when German robbers led by Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) take over the building to rob it, John becomes a one-man army and the movie turns into a cat and mouse game on who can beat the other first. The lead police office Sgt. Powell (Reginald VelJohnson) provides a nice best friend aspect.
This really set the playbook for the modern action movie: a wisecracking one man army, guns, fist fighting, acrobatics, death defying stunts, car crashes, explosions behind the running man, etc.
* * * * of 5
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