Before we delve into the unfortunate trajectory of the “Die Hard” saga, here’s the good news: You can watch the films in the order they were released. That’s right, there’s no spin-offs, prequels, inter-quels, or mid-quels muddling up the timeline here — just good old fashioned sequels, racking up one after another. (Thankfully, a planned “Die Hard” prequel died harder than Hans Gruber).Here’s the correct order in which to watch the “Die Hard” movies:
-
“Die Hard” (1988)
-
“Die Hard 2” (1990)
-
“Die Hard with a Vengeance” (1995)
-
“Live Free or Die Hard” (2007)
-
“A Good Day to Die Hard” (2013)
As the films go on, they get a little more absurd and a little further away from the realism that helped make the first movie (bombastic though it was in places) such a refreshing change of pace in the late ’80s. But it’s worth watching them in chronological order because, aside from the fact that that’s literally how the in-world timeline plays out, it’s interesting to see how the same material is reinterpreted across two and a half decades of action movie-making — interesting and also, kinda sad…
