New York cop John McClane, who has been a cop for 11 years, has just arrived in Los Angeles on Christmas Eve. For the past six months, John's wife Holly and their two kids Lucy McClane and John McClane Jr. have been living in Los Angeles without John. In New York, Holly had a good job that turned into a career, and Holly was promoted to a powerful position in the Nakatomi Corporation. The promotion called for Holly to move to Los Angeles to work in the Nakatomi Plaza, a 40-story skyscraper where the uppermost floors are still under construction. John stayed behind in New York because John didn't think Holly would make it in Los Angeles and that she would come crawling back to him in New York, so John figured that there was no reason to pack his things for the move to Los Angeles. A limo driver named Argyle drives John to the Nakatomi Plaza, and John heads to the 30th floor, where a Christmas party is going on. John gets into an argument with Holly in the office of her drug using co-worker Harry Ellis, because Holly uses her maiden name Gennero instead of the name McClane on her nameplate in her office. Holly leaves the room to give a speech. While he's by himself in the office, John is wishing that this argument hadn't happened. A few minutes later, a group of German terrorists, led by Hans Gruber and his right hand man Karl, enter the building and take everyone hostage on the 30th floor. John is able to avoid being taken hostage because Hans and his men don't even know that John is in the building. Hans takes Holly's boss Joseph Yashinobo Takagi to an office where Hans demands that Takagi give him the computer code key that will allow Hans and his men to start opening the building's safe so they can steal the $640,000,000 in negotiable bearer bonds that are in the safe. Takagi refuses to cooperate with Hans, so Hans kills Takagi, and John witnesses it. Hans then tells his technology expert Theo to start working on getting the safe opened, and after John alerts LAPD Sergeant Al Powell about the situation, John is forced to kill Karl's brother Tony. Now, Karl wants revenge on John, and John must keep Karl off his back and work on his own to rescue the hostages from Hans, because other than Powell, the LAPD is not much help.