If ‘Home Alone’ Is A Christmas Movie, Then So Is ‘Die Hard’
Let me start by saying I’m not interested in debating whether or not Die Hard is a Christmas movie. I personally believe that it is. If you don’t, that’s fine. But when the climax of a film includes jolly laughter and a rhythmic build of sleigh bells, you get to be a Christmas movie. No, instead, I would like to reframe the debate using an outside qualifier: Home Alone.
Home Alone and Die Hard are more similar than you think. And if you believe that the 1990 John Hughes family comedy is a Christmas movie — and by all accounts, it is — then you must accept Die Hard as a Christmas movie, too.
Home Alone is Die Hard for kids.
I’ll spare you the in-depth plot summaries and assume you have a passing familiarity with these films. Why else would you be reading this? Unless you’re my grandma doing your part to pad my traffic. In which case, thanks, grandma.
Let’s start with the obvious similarity, on which the Die Hard debate tends to hinge. Unnecessarily, in my opinion.
Both take place during Christmas, but neither is about Christmas. They use the holiday season as a way to propel the plot forward. In Home Alone, the McCallisters travel to Paris to visit relatives for the holidays, and their son Kevin gets left at home. In Die Hard, John McClane travels to L.A. to visit his wife and kids for the holidays and terrorists hold his wife’s company hostage. Sure, both touch on the spirit of the holidays, and crack plenty of Christmas jokes, but neither is about Christmas itself.
Both protagonists are left alone to thwart thieves who use the Christmas holiday for thieving. The terrorists in Die Hard use a relaxed holiday office party to take hostages and steal millions of dollars worth of valuables from the corporate vault. In Home Alone, Harry and Marv identify which neighborhood families are going out of town for Christmas, so they can burglarize those particular houses.
Both films are gratuitously violent. Yes, Die Hard is bloody and characters get their heads blown off. But both John McClane and Marv get their feet sliced up by glass — Die Hard just shows you the blood. For being considered a blood-free “family film,’ Home Alone has some brutal scenes. Ask yourself this: which movie’s violent moments make you more uneasy?
- The thud of company president Mr. Takagi’s brains being introduced to a glass office wall, or the crackling sound of Harry’s bubbling blistered hand after it’s been melted by a red hot doorknob?
- A terrorist being shot half a dozen times through the bottoms of his feet, or Marv plopping his bare feet down onto jagged Christmas ornaments after having just put a nail through one foot?
- The blond Fabio terrorist having a chain wrapped around his neck and strung up, or Marv trying to kill a tarantula by clubbing Harry’s chest with a crow bar?
- Two FBI agents in a helicopter getting enveloped by a rooftop explosion, or Marv getting hit in the face with a clothing iron from two floors up?
- Cops in a military vehicle getting blown up by a rocket or Harry’s head being roasted with a blow torch, fusing his knit cap to his skin?
- A terrorist getting shot with a real gun or Harry getting shot in the dick with a pellet gun?
I think the point has been made. Die Hard’s violent, action movie-ness doesn’t disqualify it from being considered a Christmas movie. And just because the McCallisters’ house decor is apparently red and green year ‘round, that doesn’t give Home Alone carte blanche to do anything it wants under the Yuletide banner.
(Yes, go look — the McCallister’s whole house is red- and green- themed. Not the Christmas decorations. The couches, the curtains, the kitchen tile, the pots and pans, the wallpaper — everything. In retrospect, it’s weird.)
Both protagonists have fights with their loved ones at the start of the film which ultimately separates them from their family. John McClane argues with his estranged wife, Holly, when he discovers she’s not using his last name anymore. Holly walks out of the room, and that’s when the terrorists strike. Kevin argues with his mom after she orders him to his room, where he wishes his whole family would “just disappear.” That’s where it’s left before his family “disappears” to the airport the next morning without him.
Both protagonists have an “asking for forgiveness” moment in the film. Over the walkie talkie, John McClane asks Sergeant Powell to tell Mrs. McClane he’s sorry for being such a jerk. Kevin asks a pretend-Santa to tell the real Santa — whom he assumes the pretend-Santa works for — that he doesn’t want any presents this year; he just wants his family back.
Both films have newly befriended supporting characters with mini arcs that involve overcoming fears developed during a past traumatic experience. In Die Hard, Sergeant Al Powell tells McClane about the time he accidentally shot a kid, and that he hasn’t drawn his weapon since. Old Man Marley tells Kevin about his estranged son, with whom he had an argument years ago and hasn’t spoken to since.
Marley is seen reconnecting with his son at the end of Home Alone, and Powell draws his weapon again to save the day in Die Hard’s final scene.
Both of these supporting characters also save the protagonist’s life. Old Man Marley clobbers Harry and Marv with a shovel when they’ve captured Kevin. Sergeant Powell shoots the terrorist to save McClane’s life (among others) in the aforementioned final scene.
You could also argue that both these supporting characters are a mystery to the protagonist until the end.
In both films, police are sent to check out the scene early on, but conclude that everything’s fine and leave. (As the cop leaves in Die Hard, however, McClane drops a body on the squad car and fires wildly at Sergeant Powell to get his attention.)
In both films, the villains impersonate other people, and small clues reveal their identity to the protagonist. In Die Hard, John McClane knows “Bill Clay” is actually terrorist leader Hans Gruber after noticing Gruber wears the same watch as the other terrorists he’s already killed. In Home Alone, Kevin recognizes one of the Wet Bandits when Harry smiles and reveals a gold tooth. It’s the same smile Kevin saw at the start of the film when Harry visited the McCallister house dressed as a cop.
Both obviously feature plenty of Christmas and holiday music. Die Hard opens with sleigh bells. When McClane arrives in L.A., Argyle the limo driver even says explicitly, “This IS Christmas music” as Run-D.M.C. starts playing. Home Alone’s score has become recognizable Christmas music of its own.
Both end with the main character and previously-scorned loved one reuniting with a renewed sense of togetherness. John hugs his wife and Sergeant Powell. Kevin hugs his mom.
And, of course, the bad guys lose in both films.
But which villain would you rather lose like? Hans, who probably dies instantly, albeit from a thirty story fall, or the Wet Bandits, who are still alive and going to prison, but now with a lifetime of physical therapy?
So there you have it! If Home Alone is a Christmas movie, then so is Die Hard.
Yippee-ki-yay, ya filthy animals.
