'Die Hard' is a Christmas movie, and here's the trailer to prove it

Is 'Die Hard' a Christmas movie? This trailer might convince you it is.

Editor’s note: This story was originally published in 2018.

Every year around this time, the debate over whether or not Die Hard is a Christmas movie is reignited. As we explained in 2017, it is definitely a Christmas movie, and it turns out that Twentieth Century Fox agrees with everyone of that mindset.

The studio actually called it “the greatest Christmas story ever told” in a recently released new Die Hard trailer that frames it as a Christmas comedy and not an action film, like the original trailer. The whole movie takes place at Christmastime with a Christmas party on Christmas Eve being taken over by terrorists.

Die Hard is a Christmas movie, even if Bruce Willis doesn’t think so. According to The Washington Post, Willis said in July: “Die Hard is not a Christmas movie. It’s a g–d— Bruce Willis movie”.

Previously, our criteria for determining what’s a Christmas movie was the holiday playing a pivotal role in the movie or advancing its plot. And because that is absolutely the case here, it was probably relatively easy to create the new trailer centered around Christmas.

Everyone’s entitled to their opinion on this annual debate, but even the Die Hard screenwriter thinks it’s a Christmas movie. More via The Washington Post:

Steven E. de Souza, the film’s screenwriter, is firmly in the “ ‘Die Hard’ is a Christmas movie” camp. He told The Washington Post’s Alex Horton, who has seen “Die Hard” four times and believes it is “the most iconic action flick of the 1980s,” that the film’s producer, Joel Silver, had predicted the movie would get played at Christmastime for years.

Here’s a regular trailer for Die Hard to compare with the Christmas one:

And the one released earlier this year to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the film: