Die Hard Themes

John McClane is a man's man. He knows his way around a weapon, smokes cigarettes, and swears like a sailor. He's also terrible at talking about his feelings and has a marriage on the rocks. In othe...

The weird thing about violent action movies is that the characters hardly ever talk about the violence they're experiencing and perpetrating. And yet, in movies like Die Hard, there's violence in p...

In Die Hard, unlike another classic 80s movie, greed is not so good. It's what drives Gruber to take an entire skyscraper hostage, and it's what makes Ellis the smarmy dude he is. Greed gets a lot...

If you just looked at the establishment law enforcement officers in Die Hard, you'd be forgiven for thinking that this movie is a moral parable about the consequences of being an idiot. Thank goodn...

Villain's gotta vill. Hero's gotta save the day. Bureaucrat's gotta get in the way. In Die Hard, everyone does their duty—it's just that their duties often clash. And, to be fair, some people are...