10 Christmas Action Movies To Watch If You Love Die Hard

Don’t believe the haters: Die Hard is and always will be a Christmas film. It’s the story of a modern-day Santa Claus, John McClane, spreading some much-needed Christmas cheer during a particularly tense hostage situation. He’s a man who spends much of the movie finding out who is naughty or nice. To top it all off, McClane is going up against the ultimate Ebenezer Scrooge – Hans Gruber – a Christmas party pooper who hijacks the festive celebrations at the Nakatomi Corporation for his own nefarious gains. If anyone was ever deserving of a big lump of coal come Christmas Day, it’s “Hans booby”.

But Die Hard is not just a Santa parable. It’s also about families like Holly and John spending time over the holiday season arguing like cats and dogs and then making up. It’s also a story of friends coming together on Christmas in much the same way John and Al Powell do at the end of the film. All these years later, that still brings a tear to the eye. And if you thought Die Hard is the only Christmas action movie out there, you were wrong.

10 The Long Kiss Goodnight

Die Hard 2 director Renny Harlin and Lethal Weapon writer Shane Black teamed up for this sharp-witted and super-cool spy action thriller set over the festive holidays. The Long Kiss Goodnight stars Geena Davis as Samantha Caine, a seemingly ordinary suburban homemaker and mum who, after taking a bump to the head while preparing for Christmas, begins to recall memories from her previous life as a secret agent and assassin.

Slowly but surely her memories and her particular set of skills begin to come flooding back, which is just as well when her old secret agent chums show up intent on silencing her once and for all.

9 Cobra

There will be those who claim that just because a film is set at Christmas doesn’t make it a Christmas movie, but few if any films can get away with having the action unfold around December 25th and not have a little festive feeling to it.

Cobra is a case in point. To some, it appears a straight-up Sylvester Stallone action effort, chronicling the efforts of LA cop Marion “Cobra” Cobretti as he goes up against crazed cult “The Brave World”. But whether it’s the copious number of decorations or inspired supermarket showdown, the Christmas spirit pervades all the action.

8 Enemy of the State

Enemy of the State is one of the finest festive action flicks out there; a Jerry Bruckheimer production combining director Tony Scott with star Will Smith to fine effect. It’s a tale of Christmas shopping gone awry for Smith’s Robert Clayton Dean, a Washington lawyer who, while out trying to find a gift for his wife, ends up being handed a tape showing a major political figure being “taken out” in a plan orchestrated by one of his rivals.

Pretty soon, Dean’s life begins to fall apart and he’s forced to go on the run from shady government types with no intentions of bringing him in peacefully.

7 Lethal Weapon

Writer Shane Black has a habit of setting his movies around the festive holidays and it is no different with Lethal Weapon. The antics of Mel Gibson and Danny Glover as Riggs and Murtaugh may be the stuff of buddy cop movie legend, but there’s a surprisingly seasonal undertone to much of the action.

It’s a film about friendship and offering a helping hand to your fellow man in their hour of need. It also features main villain Gary Busey blowing up a TV showing A Christmas Carol and a climactic fight outside a suburban home decked out in Christmas lights.

6 Ronin

While Ronin is set at Christmas, much of the familiar festive décor and general feeling of the holiday season is largely absent. But the fact of the matter is that it takes place around December 25th and still has all the ingredients of a great Christmas Day movie.

It’s a spy thriller and heist movie all rolled into one with a great cast led by Robert de Niro as Sam, an ex-CIA agent hired by Irish terrorists to steal a briefcase before the Russian mafia gets hold of it. It’s a lot of fun and features the decade’s best car chase.

5 Behind Enemy Lines

Behind Enemy Lines serves as a timely reminder that there’s no break for our heroes in the forces, even if it is Christmas. That’s not all this movie has going for it though. Playing against type, Owen Wilson stars as Lieutenant Christ Burnett, a US naval flight officer who, after being shot down over Bosnia during the Bosnian Civil War, uncovers evidence of the disturbing real-life genocide that was occurring at the time.

Loosely based on real events, this is a well-paced action effort with Wilson ably supported by his commanding officer, played by Gene Hackman. It also spawned three direct-to-video sequels.

4 First Blood

John Rambo’s cinematic debut is about as sobering an action movie as you could ever find. It’s about a Vietnam veteran and Green Beret who finds himself violently goaded into a one-man war against the cruel and corrupt local law enforcement of Hope, Washington while the town gears up for Christmas.

Standing in stark contrast to the subsequent Rambo sequels, First Blood works on two levels. It’s a Die Hard meets Home Alone style actioner about one guy taking on a crew of cops using an array of booby traps. Yet it’s also a painful examination of the mental anguish suffered by many veterans.

3 Invasion USA

Chuck Norris co-wrote and starred in this Cannon Films classic. He plays Matt Hunter, a retired CIA operative forced back into action to take down old adversary and Soviet commander Mikhail Rostov (Richard Lynch).

Rostov is leading an army of hundreds of vicious guerilla soldiers intent on destroying the US as they know it. Worse still, their reign of terror has coincided with the busy festive season. It’s a scenario that forces Norris’s Hunter to ditch the Christmas jumpers and egg nog and head out into battle. A cheesy but fun B movie actioner, Invasion USA is worth watching for the shopping mall shootout alone.

2 The Bourne Identity

Matt Damon’s very first outing as Jason Bourne is a surprisingly festive affair – not that audiences or Bourne himself would know for that matter. Discovered by fishermen, wounded and suffering amnesia, Bourne divides his time during the movie between fighting shadowy secret agent types across Europe and trying to figure out who he is.

Yet arguably the biggest twist comes when he heads to a safe house in the French countryside only to discover – spoiler alert – a Christmas tree. Quite possibly the worst time of year to forget who you are. Or maybe the best, depending on how you feel about the holiday season.

1 Die Hard 2

Like all good sequels, Die Hard 2 is bigger and better – not least when it comes Christmas. It is an all-too-familiar scenario with Bruce Willis’s John McClane stuck at an airport on Christmas Eve waiting for his wife’s delayed flight to land.

Things then take an interesting turn when McClane uncovers a plot that has seen all of the incoming flights – including his wife’s – held hostage by terrorists on the ground who have taken over the air traffic control system. Brasher and boasting lots more snow, Die Hard 2 can be enjoyed as a festive double-header or as an alternative to the antics in the Nakatomi Tower.