About

Shots Fired At Nakatomi Plaza refers to an image macro and copypasta meme referencing the Christmas Eve showdown at Nakatomi Plaza in the 1988 Die Hard action movie. The image resurfaces during Christmas celebration as the movie takes place during the holiday season, being often shared by fans of the movie on X, former Twitter, Reddit and IFunny.

Origin

The origin of the meme can be traced back to the 1988 film Die Hard, where a terrorist takeover occurs at the Nakatomi Plaza during a Christmas party. The phrase “Shots fired at Nakatomi Plaza” was added to a satirical TV news headline, acting like the incident was happening live.

X^[1] user @gideonscorral posted the earliest known version of the meme on December 25th, 2017, writing “BREAKING NEWS: Police, SWAT, and FBI are surrounding Nakatomi Plaza at this hour after a police officer was reportedly fired upon. The police officer had stopped by the building after receiving what was initially reported as a false fire alarm on the 32nd floor. #YippeeKiYay.” The post received roughly 35 likes and 11 reposts in seven years. (seen below)

Spread

The meme gained traction across various social media platforms, especially during holiday seasons when Die Hard is often debated as a Christmas movie.

For instance, on December 24th, 2023, X^[2] user @CommodoreBlog posted an edited news report about “shots fired at Nakatomi Plaza,” which garnered over 52,000 views and 321 likes in a year. (Since deleted, YouTube repost seen below)

On December 24th, 2018, Reddit^[3] user girolski07 posted a meme referencing the Brooklyn 99 comedy TV show and the Die Hard Nakatomi Plaza (seen below), which received roughly 771 upvotes and 11 comments in six years.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References