“This holiday season, Ukraine celebrates the festive tale of how an arrogant terrorist’s special military operation was thwarted by a scrappy underdog,” reads the video’s opening text.
Every December, classic 1988 action movie “Die Hard” is the subject of numerous debates and memes about its status (or lack thereof) as a Christmas film. This year, though, the Ukraine government is celebrating the film’s story for a very different reason.
In a tweet from the Defense of Ukraine Twitter account released Monday, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine released an edited trailer for the Bruce Willis film, comparing the plot of the movie to this year’s invasion of the country from the Russian army. Set to “Carol of the Bells” from Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych and Frank Sinatra’s rendition of “Let it Snow,” the video cuts scenes from the film, which stars Bruce Willis as New York detective John McClane as he attempts to save hostages of a German terrorist takeover led by Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman), with text describing the plot.
“This Christmas, Ukraine celebrates the festive story of how an arrogant terrorist’s special military operation was thwarted by a scrappy underdog,” the text that opens the video reads. “It was the perfect plan with nothing left to chance, until it all went wrong. The war you never wanted is the one you can’t afford to lose. This Christmas, the age-old story of David & Goliath hits close to home.”
The video also features footage from modern day Ukraine, including video of a Christmas tree lit with the colors of the Ukrainian flag, and an explosion that occurred during military efforts. The video also edits some scenes from the film to reference the Ukrainian-Russian conflict, including altering a dead terrorist’s shirt that says “I now have a machine gun Ho-Ho-Ho” to replace “machine gun” with “HIMARS,” referring to the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System being used in the war efforts.
Another edit juxtaposes Rickman’s quote from the film “I read about them in Time Magazine,” with the cover of Volodymyr Zelensky’s Person of the Year issue.
In their caption of the tweet that accompanied the video, the Defense of Ukraine account wrote: “An underdog who wins against the bad guys. This is the kind of story we all enjoy. Dedicated to all the die hards on the front line. Ukraine will win!.” The tweet ended with “Yippe Ki-Yay…!,” referencing Willis’ most famous line in the film.
Watch the Ukraine government’s video below.
An underdog who wins against the bad guys. This is the kind of story we all enjoy.
Dedicated to all the die hards on the front line.
Ukraine will win!
Yippee Ki-Yay…! pic.twitter.com/JaZzqlOZA7— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) December 26, 2022
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