Is there life on other planets? Are humans fundamentally good or evil? Do we have free will? All these questions are merely metaphysical claptrap in the face of the greatest conundrum of the 21st century: Is Die Hard a Christmas movie or not? A source very close to the heart of the matter may finally have an answer for us.
TMZ managed to track down Bruce Willis’ daughters, actors Rumer and Scout Willis, as they ran errands in Beverly Hills on Tuesday and got a make no bones definitive answer on the question that has troubled online pontificators since the beginnings of the internet itself. When posed the question, Scout Willis didn’t even let the questioner finish, much less hesitate. “It’s a Christmas movie,” Willis firmly stated, and repeated her opinion verbatim only a second later.
Perhaps Willis’ matter-of-fact answer will settle the hot debate, which seems to surprisingly arise every yuletide, as to whether or not Scout’s Dad Bruce’s 1988 action classic is as much a Christmas tradition as egg nog, carols, and chestnuts roasting on an open fire. Maybe more so, as roasted chestnuts tend to be thin on the ground these days, but thousands upon thousands of families gather around the living room screen each December to watch John McClane’s annual leap off the roof of Nakatomi tower.
And there’s plenty of evidence beyond Willis’ response. It’s set at Christmas, at a Christmas office party! It’s filled with Christmas music! “Winter Wonderland,” “Let it Snow!,” and “Christmas in Hollis” all appear in the movie. It snows at the very end — in L.A.! That has to be a minor Christmas miracle, right? McLane’s wife is even named Holly, for gosh sakes!
And stats don’t lie. According to a 2017 DISH Network press release, 1.3 million Americans watched Die Hard on Christmas Eve in 2016. That’s even more than watched Miracle on 34th Street! And that’s not all. An additional 2.4 million viewers watched the movie at some other point during the holiday season.
But while numbers don’t lie, the debate will probably continue to be argued as often as whether the toilet paper should go over or under. At least if you hold The McClanes in your heart every holiday season, you can rest easy that the Willis family supports you one hundred percent. Yippee-ki-yay.