Stranger Things' David Harbour goes full John McClane as Santa Claus in first Violent Night footage

David Harbour in Stranger Things — (Image credit: Netflix)

The first footage from Violent Night was shown at CinemaCon, and it sees Stranger Things star David Harbour going full John McClane as… Santa Claus?

In the film, a group of mercenaries take a family hostage on Christmas Eve – and Saint Nick must save the day.

Per Screen Rant, the footage – which has not been released to the public just yet – opens with the poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas." A family's home is raided by the mercenaries, then Father Christmas himself arrives. Calling himself "jolly ol' Saint Nick," Santa electrocutes a man with a Christmas tree star, uses a sledgehammer, and beats another mercenary with a pool ball-filled sock. Plus, he's got some elves helping him out.

"Escape is great. I'm a big fan. But what about movies that make you sweat? Don't you love action movies? Who doesn't love a great action movie, right? How about Christmas movies?" Harbour said on stage at CinemaCon (H/T ComicBook.com) "So, what about a movie that's a great action movie, and the greatest Christmas movie in one? Die Hard. Fucking Die Hard."

He continued: "What if kick ass director Tommy Wirkola and the badass producers at 87North, you know, the maniacs who did Atomic Blonde and John Wick and Nobody and Hobbs and Shaw, were behind it all? And, wait a minute, what if I starred in it as fucking Santa Claus? Oh, do I swing a motherfucking hammer? Yes. What you're about to see is not an actual trailer, I don't think, but you better not cry to somebody. You better not pout. I'm telling you why. Because Santa Claus is coming to town. Let's fucking go."

John Leguizamo (John Wick), Alex Hassell (The Tragedy of Macbeth), Edi Patterson (Knives Out), and Beverly D'Angelo (National Lampoon's Vacation) co-star.

In the meantime, check out our guide to all of 2022's upcoming major movie release dates for everything else the year has in store.

I'm the Deputy Entertainment Editor here at GamesRadar+, covering all things film and TV for the site's Total Film and SFX sections. I previously worked on the Disney magazines team at Immediate Media, and also wrote on the CBeebies, MEGA!, and Star Wars Galaxy titles after graduating with a BA in English.