This is the action thriller that minted Bruce Willis's career, launched a franchise and still stands as a giant of the genre. Recalling the disaster movies of the 1970s, it places a group of people in peril (office workers at a Christmas party in an otherwise empty Los Angeles skyscraper) when suave Alan Rickman and his Euro-terrorists take them hostage. One man (Willis, naturally) is charged with saving them. Director John McTiernan handles the bravura, vertigo-inducing set pieces with aplomb and the script oozes dry wit, but the star of the show is Willis, as resourceful but world-weary off-duty cop John McClane, who just wants to get home for Christmas dinner.

NYPD cop John McClane's plan to reconcile with his estranged wife is thrown for a serious loop when, minutes after he arrives at her office's Christmas Party, the entire building is overtaken by a group of terrorists. With little help from the LAPD, wisecracking McClane sets out to single-handedly rescue the hostages and bring the bad guys down.