Each year during the holidays, a familiar debate springs up: Is Die Hard a Christmas movie? And while it seems to be an unlikely and rather tame question, audiences have very strong opinions about whether or not this cult-classic action thriller, which follows Bruce Willis’s John McClane and his desperate attempt to rescue his wife and 30 other hostages at a holiday party in a business tower in downtown LA on Christmas Eve, constitutes a Christmas film. While it might not be a feel-good Christmas movie like It's a Wonderful Life or even a funny one like Elf, many people assert that it counts. After all, it takes place on Christmas Eve and Christmas is very much a big part of the story.
Is Die Hard based on a book?
While the Christmas debate is fun to trot out each holiday season, there is an even more interesting literary history behind the Die Hard franchise than most fans realize. Die Hard is based on the book Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorpe, about a retired detective named Joe Leland who must rescue his daughter, Stephanie Gennaro, from terrorists when they take over her high-rise office building in LA on Christmas Eve during the office holiday party and hold all of the partygoers, including Stephanie and her children, hostage. Joe just happens to be visiting the office, but he manages to sneak away from the terrorists while barefoot and, with only his police-issue pistol and a radio connecting him to an LAPD officer named Al, takes out the terrorists.
The book was the sequel to a previous novel called The Detective, which starred a younger Joe Leland and was also made into a hit movie in the 1960s starring Frank Sinatra. Rumor had it that Sinatra was excited for Thorpe to write a sequel because he wanted to adapt and star in it. However, by the time Thorpe produced Nothing Lasts Forever 13 years later in 1979, Sinatra was too old to play the physically demanding role. In 1988, producers decided to adapt the book (now out of print) for film, making a few key changes, and call it Die Hard.
What are some other differences between Die Hard and Nothing Lasts Forever?
They aged down the protagonist, John McClane, and made it so that he is rescuing his estranged wife, Holly Gennaro, from the terrorists.
The movie also added a lot of explosives and twists and turns, and changed the name of the villain (portrayed by Alan Rickman in his first major film role) to Hans Gruber.
In the book, both the villain and the hero's daughter, Stephanie, meet a dark end. In the movie, McClane is able to kill Gruber and save his wife, Holly, leading to a happy ending and their reconciliation.
So, is Die Hard 2 based on a book?
The Die Hard film was so successful that it's no surprise that it spawned a sequel, Die Hard 2, set just two years after the original film. Like the first film, this one is also set at Christmastime, and it's also based on a book! Die Hard 2 is based on the book 58 Minutes by Walter Wager, which was published in 1987, shortly before the first Die Hard film was released. The characters were similar enough that producers and screenwriters were able to change a few details to tailor the story to John McClane's life and family, and offer a compelling and action-packed sequel for moviegoers.
What is 58 Minutes about?
In 58 Minutes, protagonist Frank Malone is a divorced NYPD captain who is waiting at JFK airport on Christmas Eve for his daughter to land on her flight from California, where she lives with her mother, so the two can spend the holidays together. As he's waiting, he learns that someone has cut the radar to the airport's communication control tower, leaving 19 planes circling the airport above completely in the dark.
A man, who identifies himself as “Number One,” calls the control tower and claims to have command of the runway lights and all communications for the airport. If his demands aren't met, then he will allow the planes circling above to run out of fuel and crash. And with a blizzard coming in, there's nowhere else for the planes to go. Malone's daughter is on one of the planes waiting to land, and with only 58 minutes to spare before they plummet, he jumps into action to try and save his child along with the hundreds of other innocent passengers.
What are the major differences between Die Hard 2 and ?
Rather than change the cast of characters entirely for Die Hard 2, the book's details were tweaked for the sequel. Instead of Frank Malone, John McClane makes a reappearance. The novel is still set at Christmastime and features him waiting in an airport, but this time he's waiting for a flight carrying his wife, Holly, to land in Dulles International Airport in Washington, DC, rather than JFK in New York City. McClane is a LAPD officer now, so he's off duty when he notices some men behaving strangely in the airport bar and follows them to baggage claim, where a shootout results in one suspicious man dying and the other escaping. When McLane learns that the dead man is a soldier who was believed to be killed in action in Central America, it raises his concerns that some terrorist plot might be afoot. But when he tells the captain of airport security, his concerns are dismissed.
Meanwhile, Holly is flying in a plane across the aisle from the same reporter who callously exposed her identity on live TV two years earlier, putting her life at risk. And outside of Dulles, a US Army Special Forces unit sets up a base of operations in an abandoned church, taking control of the air traffic control systems so they can rescue a drug lord facing extradition. They demand a plane so they can escape with him, refusing to allow any other planes to land until they get what they want. With his wife on one of those planes, McClane allies himself with a janitor named Marvin in order to gain access to the airport and fight the terrorists. When airport security is ambushed trying to stop the terrorists, McClane rushes in and rescues them. The terrorists crash a British plane, killing everyone onboard. McClane also learns that the drug lord the terrorists are trying to rescue has killed his captors and is landing his plane on his own.
McClane faces armed gunman, grenades, and mercenaries in his attempt to stop the terrorists. Meanwhile, the reporter aboard Holly's plane learns of what's happening on the ground through secret radio transmissions and sends out a highly exaggerated news report, causing widespread panic. Holly subdues him with a stun gun. McClane chases the terrorists to the plane that they hope to escape aboard. After a dramatic tussle, he pries open the fuel latch and manages to light the fuel, causing the plane to explode. The explosion illuminates the runway, so the circling planes can land safely. In the end, MClane is reunited with Holly.
Although some liberties have been taken with the character details from the books, and action sequences are greatly exaggerated to make for a more high-stakes and entertaining moviegoing experience, the result is an entertaining franchise of films that has spanned five movies over 20 years. If you're curious about the inspiration for Die Hard 2 and want to explore how it compares to the movie for yourself, why not give 58 Minutes a listen? It's available now on Audible, narrated by R.C. Bray.
