Christmas or Otherwise, Die Hard Reflects How The System Is Designed to Stymie Everything (Particularly in the Event of an Emergency or Special Circumstance)

While Die Hard, to those who don’t look beyond its big-budget, explosive-filled surface, might seem like just another “light” action movie, the John McTiernan-directed feature has quite a lot to say about how The System (in its proverbial nature, applying to all bureaucratic layers of government and infrastructure, as well as the long-standing societal system that’s been in place to keep humans on the tit of consumerism). 

Written by Steven E. de Souza and Jeb Stuart, the narrative is centered around, theoretically, a “boy gets girl back with valor” kind of story. That boy being John McClane (Bruce Willis) and that girl being Holly Gennero (Bonnie Bedelia)—formerly McClane. However, in the six months since the two went their separate ways, with Holly moving herself and their children to Los Angeles for the sake of a promotion that would advacnce her career, the “missus” decided to go “miss.” John, meanwhile, has remained in New York to fulfill his “destiny” as a cop in that specific city. For, like Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) in Beverly Hills Cop, Los Angeles isn’t seen as a “serious” place for police work to those from gray and dreary climes. It hasn’t got the same “grit,” as far as McClane is concerned. Alas, though he thought he was going to have a bit of a holiday, it turns out that L.A. certainly does have enough grit, as it were, to keep him plenty occupied. 

This is realized soon after McClane rolls up to the Christmas party at Nakatomi Plaza, where his wife was only half-expecting him to appear. And yes, she’s glad that he did. Unfortunately, the duo quickly remembers why they’ve been separated, getting into a spat about John and his unwillingness to support Holly in her career ambitions. Before they can delve deeper, Holly is interrupted by her assistant, who tells her she’s expected in the main area to deliver a speech to “the troops.” However, it turns out that John will be the only “troop” in the building that night once Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) and his crew of highly-trained, well-prepared “associates” enter the scene.

Among the members of his team posing as a group of terrorists are Theo (William Atherton), the resident “computer geek” tasked with cracking the code of opening the multi-layer vault, Karl (Alexander Godunov), Hans’ right-hand man and “runner-up” in charge, Franco (Bruno Doyon), Tony (Andreas Wisniewski), Alexander (Joey Plewa), Marco (Lorenzo Caccialanza) and a few others in between. The true purpose of their plan? Not terrorism, but rather, stealing six hundred and forty million dollars’ worth of untraceable bearer bonds. Thus, a key part of the plan is for Hans and co. to fake their own deaths (and, of course, run off into the sunset with the loot) by blowing up the rooftop of the building when it’s all over. 

And, despite McClane’s ceaseless interference in those plans, The System at work—the one that Hans counts on to ensure they’ll get away with it all—still very much favors them. And it all starts with the police’s refusal to believe McClane when he manages to get through to an emergency line on a walkie-talkie. When the police do overhear it, one of them tells him rotely, “This channel is reserved for emergency calls only.” McClane then sarcastically bites back, “No fuckin’ shit, lady! Do I sound like I’m orderin’ a pizza?”

And so it is that, as though under duress (and briefly broken from the spell of bureaucracy), the officer tells the dispatcher, “See if there’s a black and white that can do a drive-by.” Sadly for McClane, they send the lamest duck for the job, Al Powell (Reginald VelJohnson)—the type of cop who takes his snack break very seriously and doesn’t want to do too much investigative work when it comes to anything, let alone being told to check out the Nakatomi building. Nonetheless, that’s who McClane gets stuck with—in fact, Powell turns out to be the only one on his side from the police force. The only one questioning the “standard operating procedure” that the deputy chief, Dwayne T. Robinson (Paul Gleason, essentially reprising his role as Richard “Dick” Vernon in The Breakfast Club), keeps following to the letter. And when the FBI comes in to “take over,” they only make matters worse by doing everything out of the “universal terrorist playbook” (“and they’re running it step by step,” as Powell tells McClane). Just as Hans had anticipated they would.

For he knows the unstoppable juggernaut of “protocol” that The System bulldozes everyone with can be easily used to his advantage. Complete with the FBI’s demand of the electricity company (PG&E, California’s monopoly owner of all things gas and electric) to turn off the power grid where Nakatomi Plaza is located. While this follows the “standard protocol” for “smoking out” terrorists engaging in a hostage situation, it doesn’t take into account that Hans is no ordinary “terrorist”—because he’s not a terrorist at all. Just a brilliant and innovative thief that will wield the power outage to unlock the final door of the vault.

When the electrical grid manager onsite insists he needs authorization from downtown and Robinson adds that he needs authorization from the mayor (adding a meta layer to how The System fucks The System, too), Agent “Big” Johnson (Robert Davi) retorts, “Authorization? How about the United States fucking government?” In other words, there’s only, in the end, one system that can raze all others—but only when certain purposes suit that “main” system’s ends. All other systems are but arms of the government (both state and federal), designed to stymie and slow everything in the event of an emergency or special circumstance.

While, in “the mind” of The System, everything it does is for the “good” and “protection” of “the people,” oftentimes it achieves just the opposite, leaving those in peril to die on the vine while waiting for help as those who might actually be able to decide to delay that process by “simply “following the “chain of command” in order to do so. 

As Die Hard shows, were it not for a “rogue” like McClane defying all notions of “correct” code and convention, a great many people would have died. Gone up in flames just as Hans intended—all while banking on The System’s inability to comprehend anything outside of “normal” behavior, terrorist or otherwise. 

So it is that an exchange like the abovementioned one between McClane and the officer he’s trying to talk to on the radio channel is emblematic of so much more. Even of why someone like Luigi Mangione might knock off the CEO of an insurance company that now uses AI to handle its own system. That exchange being, “They are fortifying their positions while you’re jerkin’ me off on the radio!” But the person that might be able to assist McClane does not respond to emotion, only protocol, as she responds, “Sir, I’ve already told you, this is a reserved channel. If this is an emergency call, dial 911 on your telephone. Otherwise, I’ll have to report this as an FCC violation.” And then The System wonders why people “go insane,” using that “insanity” against them to put them into the worst part of The System for good: a “correctional” facility.