On Christmas Eve, tough New York detective John McClane arrives in Los Angeles with the aim of reconciling with his estranged wife, Holly, at the Christmas party of her employer, the Nakatomi Corporation. But the party is violently disrupted by a group of heavily armed criminals led by the charismatic Hans Gruber. Outmanned, outgunned and ill-equipped for the task at hand, McClane calls in the help of a local beat cop in his crusade against Gruber.