You can start off your Die Hard-fest with that classic original flick and its first two sequels, 1990's Die Hard 2 and 1995's Die Hard With a Vengeance, on HBO Max. While the first film featured terrorists (well, thieves basically pretending to be terrorists) crashing an office party being held on one of the top floors of a skyscraper on Christmas Eve, the second installment moves the action to Dulles International Airport two Christmas Eves later, where McClane is awaiting the arrival of his wife Holly (Bedelia) from California. Of course, McClane can't just have a normal Christmas with family, presents, and turkey; a band of terrorists, in cahoots with a corrupt Army Special Forces unit, hack into the airport's air traffic control system and begin holding circling planes hostage, demanding the release of the drug-running former dictator of the fictional country of Val Verde. Unfortunately for these goons, they failed to check the passenger manifests for anyone having anything to do with John McClane.
In the third entry in the series, a terrorist calling himself "Simon" gets the attention of the NYPD by blowing up a department store during the morning rush hour. His odd demand: for none other than McClane, who has been suspended from the force, to fulfill a bizarre series of demands beginning with a stunt involving the hapless, hung-over cop parading himself about downtown Harlem wearing a sign with an unprintable message. Harlem shop owner Zeus Carver (Samuel L. Jackson, fresh off his star-making turn in Pulp Fiction) saves McClane's hide, then gets sucked into the shenanigans as it becomes clear that Simon is no ordinary terrorist — he's one with a very personal vendetta against McClane, and he's enacted a plan to get his hands on millions worth of gold bullion while enacting his revenge.
