“Come out to the coast, we’ll get together, have a few laughs….” NYPD officer John McClane just happens to find himself at his estranged wife’s Christmas party in a Los Angeles skyscraper when terrorists take over the building. What comes next is a cat-and-mouse game that utilizes the limitations of a single, contained locale to incredible effect. It would also help Bruce Willis make the jump from TV wisecracker to tough-guy movie star, firmly establish John McTiernan as a first-rate action director and become such a successful concept that it gave birth to a million “Die Hard but on a [fill in the blank]” pitches. Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker!