Release OrderRecommended
0 / 5 watchedThe order the films came out, which is also the story order. One straight run covers everything.
- 1 Die Hard Christmas Eve at Nakatomi Plaza. Alan Rickman is Hans Gruber. Directed by John McTiernan.
- 2 Die Hard 2 Christmas Eve again, this time a snowstorm over Dulles Airport. Directed by Renny Harlin.
- 3 Die Hard with a Vengeance New York. McTiernan returns; Samuel L. Jackson co-stars as Zeus Carver. Simon Gruber is Hans's brother.
- 4 Live Free or Die Hard A July 4 cyberattack on US infrastructure. Justin Long co-stars as hacker Matt Farrell. Billed as Die Hard 4.0 outside North America.
- 5 A Good Day to Die Hard Moscow and Chernobyl with McClane's son Jack (Jai Courtney). Weakest reviews of the five. Latest released entry.
About Die Hard
Bruce Willis plays New York cop John McClane across five films released from 1988 to 2013. Each drops an off-duty McClane into a takeover or attack he has to stop almost alone: a Los Angeles tower, a Washington airport, New York City, the US infrastructure grid, then Moscow. Together the five grossed about $1.4 billion worldwide.
Release order is story order, so watch them as they came out. The first two unfold on Christmas Eve, the third across New York, the fourth on July 4, and the fifth sends McClane to Russia with his son Jack. A sixth film about a young McClane fell apart after Disney bought Fox, and Willis retired from acting in 2023, so the series ends here.
Good to know
The sixth film carried the working title McClane and mixed a 1970s origin with present-day scenes. Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura said in 2021 that it was not happening after the Disney-Fox deal. Willis stepped back in 2022 after an aphasia diagnosis and retired in 2023 after a frontotemporal dementia diagnosis, which rules out any return. No reboot or sequel was officially in the works as of September 17, 2026.
Puritans debate whether the first film counts as a Christmas movie. It takes place on Christmas Eve, which is all this guide assumes.
