Which is the Better Badass Christmas Flick? Die Hard or Lethal Weapon?

Posted on by The Tactical Hermit

I concur with the authors choice…John McClaine is one awesome holiday crime fighter! The latest Die Hard was not bad either..putting John McClaine up against the Russian Military was entertaining! Merry Christmas! -SF

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We compared two Christmas flicks that happen to be the best action movies of all time.
You may not think that “Die Hard” and “Lethal Weapon” are Christmas movies at a first glance given they’re both set in Los Angeles and there’s an intense lack of snow that usually lets us know it’s Christmas.

Let’s be clear, they are both Christmas movies, period. “Die Hard” is about a corporate office Christmas party crashed by terrorists who want to steal a metric shit ton of bearer bonds, while “Lethal Weapon” begins with a prostitute leaping from a balcony to the tune of “Jingle Bell Rock.” It’s obviously Christmas in L.A.
While I acknowledge that both movies are epic, classic action movies, and badass of their own accord, a winner must be crowned as reigning supreme.

I set up a grading scale of one to five stars, based on four criteria: badassery of the main character or characters, collateral damage and destruction, tactical weapons handling, and hand-to-hand combat scenes.

Badassery

Die Hard ✮✮✮✮✮

Lethal Weapon ✮✮✮

Die Hard takes this one hands down. John McClane, played by Bruce Willis, defeats an entire terrorist group barefoot, running through broken glass, and repelling off the roof of a building using a fire hose as rope. He’s a New York City cop who loves old westerns, refers to himself as Roy Rogers, and coined the pop culture catchphrase, “Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker.” Additionally, taping a pistol to your back to take out the head bad guy is a pretty slick move.

While I’d like to give Martin Riggs and Roger Murtaugh from “Lethal Weapon” a higher rating — especially considering they’re both Vietnam War veterans with special operations backgrounds — their actions simply didn’t live up to the level of badassery displayed by McClane. Even considering a slick leg choke by Riggs to escape from the electrocution hook, and some brief moments where Riggs shows his suicidal tendencies, the overall timid and fearful approach Murtaugh takes to everything but the final showdown dials back the badassery for “Lethal Weapon.”

When looking for official body counts, the website Movie Body Counts reports that McCLane took out a total of 10 bad guys, while Riggs and Murtaugh combined had a total 21 kills. While Rigg’s had 17 kills, McClane only had 10 terrorists to hunt and kill the entire film, and he was confined in the building with all 10 the entire time and had a finite number of henchmen to pick off.

Read the Remainder at Task and Purpose

Stay Alert, Stay Armed and Have a Merry Christmas (While Staying Dangerous!)

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