Die Hard (1988) is directed by John McTiernan and stars Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Bonnie Bedelia, Reginald VelJohnson, De’voreaux White, Paul Gleason, William Atherton, Hart Bocher, James Shigeta, Alexander Godunov, and Robert Davi. The film begins with New York City cop John Mclane (Willis) as he travels to Los Angles in order to spend the holidays with his estranged wife and kids. John and his wife, Holly (Bedelia) are clearly still in love but moved away from one another in order to pursue their own career paths. When John arrives at Holly’s office building to attend their annual Christmas party, things quickly turn for the worst. A group of armed criminals storm the building and take the entire party as hostages. The only person able to escape their initial siege is John. With police nowhere to be found, John is forced to enact his own style of guerilla warfare in order to save his wife along with the rest of the hostages. But directly in John’s path is the suave but conniving leader of the criminals, Hans Gruber (Rickman). Hans forces John into a game of cat and mouse where John is pushed to the absolute limit. 

The cast here is great across the board. Willis finds the perfect balance between badass and fun, his physicality being a big selling point here. He gets beaten to a bloody pulp throughout and manages to make the audience feel every blow. He’s capable and tough but never feels like your typical 80’s action hero. Most heroes from this era are completely indestructible brutes with chiseled abs that would make Greek Gods tremble. Willis isn’t particularly buff and every victory feels desperately earned. He gets his ass kicked before he finally triumphs, making those triumphs all the more effective. 

Bonnie Bedelia as John’s wife is a particularly strong character for this era of film. It really subverts how wives of any kind were usually portrayed in action films. She’s smart, capable, and even drops her husband’s last name prior to the events of the film. 

Alan Rickman really steals the show here. To me, this is sort of the modern template for the perfect action movie villain. He’s evil and violent but it’s balanced by his suave nature. It feels as if he’s equally likely to make you a friend as he is to shoot you in the face. He’s evil, but not stupid. I find that many modern action movies struggle with avoiding the pitfall of making the villain stupid/a joke. If the point is to make the villain formidable/frightening, they should rarely be stupid. Stupid isn’t scary. Stupid and evil is slightly scary. Smart and evil is terrifying. 

The film also really shines due to its interesting cast of side characters. Reginald VelJohnson as Sergeant Powell is a fun character. He’s the only cop throughout the course of the film that is on John’s side. He loves Twinkies and has some great back and forth with John. The character isn’t all that unique, but has a certain x-factor that’s a bit contagious. He also receives his own little character arc that ends up being much more important than one might expect. De’voreaux White is a ton of fun as the limousine driver, Argyle. He’s a small character that leaves a big comedic impression. Likewise, this character gets a sort of mini-arc by the end of the film. That’s one of the awesome things about this movie. Even the smallest characters receive at least some level of development. Nobody is forgotten about by the end of the film. Likewise, all the small henchmen characters are visually distinguishable. Obviously there are too many of them to each receive an arc, but at least they don’t blend together. We don’t know their names or anything about them but we notice as soon as one of them goes missing. The last performance that I want to shine a light on is Hart Bocher. He plays Ellis, an overconfident salesman who has a weakness for cocaine and John’s wife. He’s just such an effectively annoying and hilariously unhinged character that I smile every time he’s on screen. 

The setting here is one of the film’s more successful details. Having the entire film take place in an empty office building during the holidays is completely genius. There’s a believable and simple reason why no one is there. This setting results in the film feeling nicely contained, but not so contained that it lacks variety. There’s also a good amount of variety in the action. It’s not just one fistfight/gunfight after another. John is forced to defeat the villains through ingenuity and a little bit of luck.

As for the romance between Holly and John, I felt it was really effectively done while being sort of in the background. There are these subtle moments that help you understand the deep nuance of their relationship. We don’t need to be told because we can see it in their eyes. 

Not a single moment in the film drags or feels remotely uninteresting. There is this perfect balance of action, comedy, Christmas, heart, stakes, and brutal violence. The film does the rare thing of consistently topping itself. The action and stakes consistently increase as opposed to hitting a peak and then dwindling down. This, along with the general machismo of the characters results in this being the ultimate guy movie. This is no surprise considering that this was directed by the same man who directed Predator (1987), also considered one of the best “guy movies” of all time. This is all the more supported by how the film ends. Instead of embracing his wife to end the film, John shares a moment of brotherly love with Sergeant Powell. Reflecting what bros of any age would be doing after seeing this for the first time. That all being said, this is such a great movie that I feel it transcends singular gender interest. It also helps that the film is extremely quotable. After almost every death, John has some sort of great one-liner: “Come out to the coast, we’ll get together, have a few laughs.” 

My few nitpicks with the film are precisely that: Nitpicks. I just want to make it clear that these don’t necessarily diminish the film in any way, they’re just worth pointing out. When John encounters his first henchman, he eventually kills the guy by tackling him down a flight of stairs. The henchman breaks his neck in a way that is completely cheesy. The fall doesn’t look that painful and it’s accompanied by an unconvincing snapping sound. It just really stands out in a film filled with so many believable practical effects. Another nitpick relates to the character of Thornburg played by William Atherton. Thornburg is a TV journalist who is reporting on the situation. He eventually is the reason that Hans Gruber is able to discover that Holly and John are married. The thing is, we cut to Thornburg’s character multiple times and I couldn’t help but feel that it was all completely unnecessary. Though, he does become a more prominent character in the eventual sequel. The last nitpick has to do with the famous debate about whether or not Die Hard should be considered a Christmas film. Although I do believe Die Hard is objectively a Christmas film, I would never personally recommend it to someone who wants a film that provides those classic Christmas feelings.

Overall, Die Hard is a near perfect film. Almost everything you want is here. Besides a few small nitpicks, I have nothing bad to say about it. It’s not the best Christmas movie of all time, but it sure is the best action movie of all time. A