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EVERY SINGLE YEAR, in late December, an argument erupts on the internet: is Die Hard a Christmas film? You’ll note, however, that nobody ever questions whether its 1990 sequel is one, because Die Hard 2 is absolutely as festive as a film with a triple-digit bodycount can be. Unlike the original, there’s snow everywhere. There’s a reference to “a fuckin’ reindeer flying in from a fuckin’ petting zoo”. And beleaguered cop hero John McClane even drives a sleigh-like snowmobile. “Eggnog, a fuckin’ Christmas tree, a little turkey,” he laments at one point. “But, no! I gotta crawl around in this motherfuckin’ tin can!”
Orchestrating this violent seasonal spectacular, in which another band of terrorists take over Washington DC’s Dulles Airport, proved no simple feat for director Renny Harlin. Not only did logistical problems cause the project to run wildly over budget, but Harlin faced enormous pressure to live up to the original , aka the Greatest Action Movie Of All Time. And then there was the issue of working with Bruce Willis, suddenly a gigantic movie star and not shy about giving his opinion. The Finnish filmmaker, only 30 at the time, gritted his
