John McClane is off-duty on Christmas Eve in the nation's capital when a team of terrorists, in town to rescue a drug lord from justice, has taken over a major international airport, holding thousands of travelers hostage. Amidst a blinding blizzard, McClane must race against time to defeat the terrorists and their murderous leader while also contending with an inept airport police chief, the stubborn head of the Army's anti-terrorist squad, and the knowledge that his wife is trapped in a plane desperately low on fuel, circling overhead.