Bruce Willis’ older children have entered the yearly debate about whether Die Hard is a Christmas film.
“I’ve collected all three Willis girls,” Rumer Willis began in her Instagram Story on Tuesday, December 19, which she filmed while in the car with sisters Scout Willis and Tallulah Willis. (Bruce, 68, shares his three older daughters with ex-wife Demi Moore. He also shares daughters Mabel, 11, and Evelyn, 9, with wife Emma Heming Willis.)
“It’s a f–king Christmas movie,” Scout, 32, chimed in. “It takes place during Christmas.”
Rumer, 35, concluded, “It’s a Christmas movie.”
The 1988 film has been the subject of widespread debate over the years as fans argue about whether it belongs in the Christmas movie genre. While it takes place on Christmas Eve, the plot of Die Hard centers around a police officer who tries to save his wife and several other people taken hostage by terrorists.
Bruce previously gave his own opinion on whether it should receive the holiday label — and he said it shouldn’t.
“I did this roast for one reason and for one reason only — to settle something once and for all,” he said at a Comedy Central roast in 2018. “Now, please listen very carefully. Die Hard is not a Christmas movie. It’s a goddamn Bruce Willis movie. So, yippee ki-yay to all of you motherf–kers!”
Die Hard director John McTiernan “didn’t consciously make it a Christmas movie,” author Larry Taylor shared in his 2018 book, John McTiernan: Rise and Fall of an Action Movie Icon, but noted that McTiernan, 72, “made sure to weave certain elements of [Christmas] into the tapestry of the film.”
“It would keep the holiday season right behind the action, and it would help alleviate some of the stress of the intense action,” Taylor explained.
The Willis sisters reigniting the Die Hard Christmas debate comes nearly two years after the family announced that Bruce has been battling aphasia, which affects his abilities to communicate. In February, they shared his condition had progressed after he was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, an untreatable brain disorder impairing speech and motor skills.
A source exclusively told Us Weekly earlier this month that Bruce has “good days and bad days,” but within the last two months “there are many more bad days than good.”
“This experience has brought the whole family even closer together,” the insider added. “No one knows how much time Bruce has left, so they’re soaking up every moment they get with him.”
A second source told Us that Bruce “is declining” but noted that “he’s in great hands and has his family and close friends supporting him.”
“Once Bruce was diagnosed, everyone came together to keep his memory of the family intact and to be there as a constant reminder [that they] love him,” the second source shared. “[Everything] revolves around him.”
