For the majority of us, the holiday season isn't truly upon us until John McClane shouts "yippee ki yay", and we see Hans Gruber plummet to his death. But for others, the Die Hard franchise doesn't conjure up the same kind of cozy, holiday spirit that the likes of Love Actually do.
Watch as Brooklyn Nine-Nine does Die Hard:As such, the debate as to whether Die Hard can be considered a Christmas film rages on year after year. This time around, however, it looks like we finally have official confirmation - and from the NYPD and LAPD nonetheless.
On Christmas Eve, the New York Police Department took to Twitter to share their appreciation of John McClane. The NYPD put aside their rivalry with the Los Angeles Police Depatment, and wrote: "On this Christmas Eve, we’d like to acknowledge our partners at @LAPDHQ who have been working with us to protect Christmas since Hans Gruber’s 1988 attack on Nakatomi Plaza. #DetectiveJohnMclean #YesItsAChristmasMovie."
Spelling mistakes aside, it's as close as we're going to get to official confirmation...
Of course, the LAPD couldn't miss out on the fun. They responded with their own tweet which read, "On this Christmas Eve, we too would like to acknowledge our partners at @NYPDnews for their continued partnership-they’ll always be more than welcome to follow in McClane’s footsteps & come to the (better) coast & have a party. Yippie Ki Yay & ho ho ho. #YesItsAChristmasMovie."[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/LAPDHQ/status/1077250973926535169]]
The film's screenwriter, Steven E. de Souza, has previously cleared up such speculation by asserting that Die Hard is, indeed, a Christmas movie.
When CNN's Jake Tapper tweeted de Souza last Christmas Eve, asking: "I’m sure you've weighed in on it before, but I’ve never heard you or Jeb Stuart offer your take on whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie," the screenwriter replied: "Yes, because the studio rejected the Purim draft #DieHardIsAChristmasMovie." He then added, "Plus a woman about to give birth features prominently."
Naturally, the people of the internet were all for it. "Watch Die Hard every Christmas, one of my top 5, to each his own," one Twitter user asserted, while another corroborated: "I've never understood the dilemma: the setting, the score, the whole party, everything screams Christmas in the film."
Another, however, took a more critical stance, writing: "It's not a Christmas movie. It's just a movie that takes place at Christmas. The movie would be no different if it was the CEO's birthday party. Having a Christmas party was just the excuse for the building to be mostly, but not completely, empty."
Well, whether or not you agree that Die Hard is a Christmas movie, one thing is for sure: no one can go a full year without hearing John McClane shout "Yippee Ki Yay, motherf*cker".
