It's Christmas Eve, and there's an employee party in progress on the 30th floor of the Nakatomi Corporation building. New York City Detective John McClane becomes the only hope for a small group of hostages, one of whom is his estranged wife, trapped in a Los Angeles high-rise office building when it is seized by a group of terrorists headed by Hans Gruber, who plan to steal the 600 million dollars locked in Nakatomi's high-tech safe.