Following tradition, once again, I watched Die Hard near Christmas—because, no matter Bruce Willis’s take on it, this film is DEFINITELY a Christmas movie.

And how could it not be? In a movie full of symbolism (more on that in a bit), we have an ending that portrays matrimonial reconciliation after a crisis. More than that, it resembles a Christmas portrait: the tree (or what’s left of it, as the building), the artificial snow in L.A. (the sheets of paper floating mid-air after the explosions), and the Christmas sleigh (the limo).

McTiernan laid out a whole game of duplicity in his characters that flows beautifully throughout the runtime. The similarities between the terrorists and the executives in how they alienate their workers from personal and ethical values. A believable, humanized protagonist who must literally and metaphorically stand his ground to survive the turmoil he’s thrust into. And, again, last but not least, Christmas itself as a thematic backdrop for a confrontation where true feelings of affection prevail in the end.

I feel like I can never stress enough how clever every script and directorial choice is, proving that the action genre can and should deliver much more than what’s typically expected. It manages to combine elegance with brutal spectacle in the same sentence, featuring a plot that builds and pays off perfectly—from the subversion of the notion of who has the power in charge of the situation to the numerous badass lines delivered by the protagonist.

While some may call it cliché, these same people probably fail to understand that every cliché has intrinsic value; otherwise, it wouldn’t have become a standard. Die Hard has been ripped off countless times by now (even by some of its own sequels), but what most imitators fail to grasp is the perception and attention to detail that make this movie stand out.

Die Hard is an everlasting reminder that a good action movie should, first and foremost, be a good movie independent of its genre tropes. Relying on unreal environments, over-the-top stakes, expository dialogue delivered through incessant yelling, CGI overuse, and overpowered leads to cover up plot holes, lack of charisma and bad direction for silly commercial purposes only contributes to the sad state of today’s “adult boy” cinema. It’s easier and lazier to purposely forget what was once considered a good standard—something that took effort—in order to churn out the never-ending stream of mediocrity we see in most comic adaptations, remakes, and reboots today.

And for that, we must give credit where it’s due. In this case, props to Die Hard!