The Iconic Guns of Die Hard, America’s Favorite Christmas Movie

It’s that most wonderful time of the year again. The lights are up, people are in the giving mood, and it’s finally cold. Winter is my favorite time of the year. With winter, we get Christmas, and with Christmas, we get Die Hard. What started as a meme has evolved into a full-blown holiday tradition. The movie takes place during the festive season and to be fair, a lot of Shane Black movies are Christmas action flicks.

Still, Die Hard now runs on several channels during Christmas and it’s as popular as Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer and A Christmas Story. For gun nerds, though, Die Hard features four truly iconic firearms that were propelled to stardom (at least in part) by the movie. The difference between Die Hard and other action flicks was that they almost seemed to make characters of the firearms.

Not only did the film use what are arguably excellent guns, but they were more than just props. In most movies and stories, we have a ‘hero’ gun. A gun that stands out that our hero uses to overcome adversity and win the day. Die Hard seemed to make most of all its guns, even when they were carried by the venal villains. Die Hard is based on a novel called Nothing Lasts Forever and the book had the same attitude about guns as does the movie.

Let’s examine the four iconic firearms used in the film and compare them to those used in the 1979 novel.

The Beretta 92F

John McClane, an veteran NYPD detective, carries a Beretta 92F in a leather shoulder rig. The 92F was cutting-edge back in in 1988. In the 80s, Beretta was killing it. They’d won the XM9 trials, and the military adopted the M9 in 1985. As a result, the 92F appeared in tons of popular action movies. Heck, Die Hard and Lethal Weapon use the same 92F, recognizable by the extended slide release.

The 92F featured a double-stack magazine and held a staggering 15 rounds of ammunition. Coming out of the police revolver era, that was high-tech. The gun featured a DA/SA design, with a safety that doubled as a de-cocker and Beretta’s novel exposed barrel and open slide system.

John McClane carries the gun throughout the film. Even when he upgraded guns, he kept the 92F holstered and ready. McClane punctuates the end of the film with the Beretta and put those pesky German thieves in their place.

For the sticklers out there, our hero used a Browning Hi-Power in the novel. The Hi-Power is also a double stack 9mm that was carried by our hero in a shoulder rig, but it’s easy to see why they went from Hi-Power to Beretta for the 1988 film.

The HK P7M13

The villainous leader, Hans Gruber, carried something sleeker, the ultra-awesome HK P7M13 pistol. The famed squeeze cocker was developed after the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre when German Police forces wanted to upgrade from their .32 ACP Walthers. The P7 series uses a gas-delayed blowback system combined with a grip cocking device that cocked the gun’s striker as the shooter applies pressure to the grip.

The P7M13 used a double-stack 13-round magazine and is chambered 9mm parabellum. HK entered the P7M13 into the XM9 trials, but lost out to the Beretta, much the same way Hans ultimately lost to McClane in Die Hard. That said, the P7 does a fantastic job of matching Hans Gruber’s vibe.

The HK pistol is refined, purposeful, and like Hans, it’s made in Germany. Gruber’s was a stainless model, occasionally equipped with a short stainless suppressor.

In the book, Gruber wielded a Walther. It’s not specific which Walther, but I have to imagine it would have been a PPK. The script originally called for Hans to tote a PPK, but Walther wasn’t totally shunned. You can see a PPK and a P5 in the hands of some of Hans’s goons.

The Heckler & Koch MP5

The HK MP5 is the long gun of choice for most Gruber’s gang. Heckler & Koch produced a high-tech submachine gun in the 1960s. Unlike other SMGs of the era, the MP5 featured a closed-bolt design and a delayed blowback system. With the MP5, shooters got a lightweight, light-recoiling and reliable sub gun that armed police forces and counter-terrorist teams around the world for decades.

In Die Hard, it was in the hands of the baddies. Well, it was until McClane killed a Gruber henchman and retrieved his MP5, which lead McClane to creatively proclaim, “Now I have a machine gun Ho-Ho-Ho.”

In the film, the guns are chopped and converted into HK94s. The 94s featured 16-inch barrels and semi-auto actions. Film industry armorers commonly chopped and converted HK94s for movie use.

The same gag (ho-ho-ho) was pulled in the book, but instead of the MP5, our hero got himself a Thompson. The Thomspon would have been outdated in 1979 and it seems much more plausible that the Gruber’s Teutonic terrorists would have been outfitted with the HK.

The Steyr AUG

The Steyr AUG was ten years old in 1988, but it was still a striking weapon. It had a polymer body, a bullpup format, and an integrated optic. It was an odd rifle at the time, and even in 2024 it’s still a striking gun. Karl, who seems to be Gruber’s second-in-command and main muscle, carries the AUG. It’s a perfect gun to make one of the bad guys stand out.

The AUG is a 5.56 caliber rifle with a 20-inch barrel that’s extremely compact due to its bullpup design. The integrated 1.5X optic was well ahead of its time and the gun’s semi-translucent magazine made it stand out, too. The gun has a quick-change barrel, which we see in use in the movie as Karl assembles the weapon.

The most famous AUG scene has Karl seemingly coming back to life with his AUG ready to fire.

In the book, several bad guys, including Karl, carry AKMs. In 1979 they were some of the shorter, lighter battle rifles of the era, and East German terrorists thieves would have predictably had access to them. It’s been a while since I read the book, but I don’t think book Karl came back to life wielding an AK.

Yippee Ki-Yay

Die Hard will always be a legendary action flick. My oldest son and I watch it at least once each Christmas. The film combines memorable characters, great action, and good humor against a Yuletide backdrop to give us a delightful and enduring action flick. Plus…the gun’s rule.