 It s Christmas Eve, one year after the Nakatomi Plaza siege that took place in Los Angeles. Lieutenant John McClane of the LAPD is at the Dulles International Airport in Arlington, Virginia, waiting for the flight his wife Holly is on, as their kids are visiting Holly s parents in nearby Washington DC. It won t be easy getting Holly to her parents  house because her mother s car, which John is using at the moment, has been towed. There is also a breaking news story that all of the networks are covering. At the Escelan Airport in the Republic of Valverde, an airplane carrying General Ramon Esperanza has taken off, on course for the Dulles International Airport. Two years ago, Esperanza led his country s army in a campaign against communist insurgents, and it was a campaign that was fought with American money and advisers. Esperanza s fall from power caused ripples not only in his country s recent election, but in the USA as well, when high ranking Pentagon officials were charged with supplying Esperanza with weapons despite the congressional ban, but mounting evidence that Esperanza s forces have violated the neutrality of neighboring countries made Congress withhold funds. Esperanza is accused of replacing those funds by going into the business of cocaine smuggling, and now, Esperanza is being transported to the USA to face drug charges. Using her airplane s phone, Holly informs John that the airplane will land half an hour late...but it ll actually be much later than that. On Holly s airplane, one of her fellow passengers is Richard "Dick" Thornburg, the news reporter who filed a restraining order against Holly after Holly knocked out two of Dick s teeth last year. The restraining order says that Holly is not to be within 50 feet of Dick. The control tower staff, led by chief of air operations Trudeau and his chief engineer Leslie Barnes, is worried about the weather. As one snowstorm system moves out, another one is moving in, which means that all incoming flights are delayed, and Washington DC International airport has just shut down because they re totally iced, and they re sending their incoming flights to Dulles, increasing the tower staff s workload then the control tower s communications systems are crippled by a rogue military unit led by Colonel Stuart, who is a supporter of Esperanza. Stuart and his men are stationed in a nearby church. Trudeau alerts the staff that all aircraft approaching the Dulles sector but not in the Dulles landing pattern are to be diverted to an alternate airport. The rest of the incoming flights, including Holly s, are to hold at the outer markers. Trudeau also mentions that the staff may have just bought itself about 2 hours, and after that, the airplanes that are low on fuel will start falling out of the sky. Stuart calls the tower and says that Esperanza s airplane will be arriving at Dulles in 58 minutes, and that the airplane is not to be met by anyone, and that it will land on a runway of his designation, and at the same time, he wants a 747 cargo conversion, fully fueled, placed at his disposal. The tower staff has 2 minutes to advise the incoming flights to hold at the outer markers, then the staff will be able to receive only, as the ability to send out communications to the airplanes will be disabled. Stuart also says that any attempt to restore the tower s systems will result in deadly penalties. Holly s airplane is one of the 18 airplanes that are circling over the airport, running out of fuel, and that makes John extremely desperate to stop Stuart and Esperanza, and help the airport restore its communications so the airplanes can safely land that is, if he s not slowed down by inept airport police Captain Carmine Lorenzo.