Each December, the classic 1988 action film Die Hard is the subject of much debate and memes about its status (or lack thereof) as a Christmas movie. This year, however, the Ukrainian government is celebrating the film’s story for a completely different reason.
In a tweet by the Defense of Ukraine Twitter account posted Monday, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine released an edited trailer for Bruce Willis’ film, which ties the film’s plot to this year’s invasion of the country by the Russian army is compared. Accompanied by Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych’s “Carol of the Bells” and Frank Sinatra’s rendition of “Let it Snow,” the video cuts scenes from the film, which stars Bruce Willis as New York detective John McClane as he tries to To rescue hostages Takeover by German terrorists led by Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman), with text describing the plot.
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“This Christmas, Ukraine celebrates the festive story of how an arrogant terrorist’s military special operation was thwarted by a rowdy outsider,” reads the text that opens the video. “It was the perfect plan with nothing left to chance until everything went wrong. The war you never wanted is the one you can’t afford to lose. This Christmas, the ancient story of David & Goliath applies to us very closely.”
The video also shows footage from modern-day Ukraine, including video of a Christmas tree lit up in the colors of the Ukrainian flag and an explosion that occurred during a military effort. The video also edits some scenes from the film to reference the Ukrainian-Russian conflict, including changing a dead terrorist’s shirt from reading “I’ve got a machine gun now, ho-ho-ho” to “machine gun” with ” HIMARS” to replace the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System used in the war effort.
Another edit juxtaposes Rickman’s quote from the film “I read about them in Time Magazine” with the cover of Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Person of the Year issue.
In the caption of the tweet accompanying the video, the Defense of Ukraine account wrote: “An underdog who wins against the bad guys. That’s the kind of story we all enjoy. Dedicated to all die-hards at the front. Ukraine will win!” The tweet ended with “Yippe Ki-Yay…!” referring to Willis’ most famous line in the film.
Watch the Ukrainian government video below.
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