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"A family comedy without the family."

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Home Alone is a 1990 American comedy blockbuster film directed by Chris Columbus written and produced by John Hughes and distributed by 20th Century Studios.

Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin), an eight-year-old boy whose wish of his family to disappear comes true when they mistakenly left him at home when they go on a vacation to Paris for Christmas.

While initially relishing time by himself, he is later greeted by two thieves, Harry and Marv, who are played by Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern, respectively. Kevin eventually manages to outwit them with a series of booby traps.

It was followed by five sequels: two theatrical films, two made-for-television films, and a Disney Plus original film.

The first sequel, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, is the only film in the series to feature more than one cast member from the original film. Home Alone 4 features characters from the first two films, but played by different actors. Home Sweet Home Alone only features Devin Ratray reprising the role of Buzz McCallister.

Plot[]

The McCallister House[]

The McCallister family prepares to spend Christmas with Peter and Frank's brother, Rob, in Paris, France. They gather at Peter and his wife Kate's home in Chicago the night before their flight. 8-year-old Kevin, Peter and Kate's youngest son, finds himself the subject of ridicule by his cousins and siblings.

As the family rushes around the McCallister home, packing their things, a questionable police officer stands in the foyer, attempting to find an adult to speak with. Meanwhile, Kevin complains to his parents about his uncle Frank and he is instructed to pack his suitcase. However, his siblings refuse to help him, which causes Kevin to complain that he is fed up of living in a house full of people and rants that he wants to live alone when he grows up and gets married.

Home alone 3

Kevin, Rod, and Buzz watching Marley shoveling

Kevin goes to his older brother, Buzz, to ask him if he can sleep in his room for the night because he knows that his little cousin Fuller will wet the bed that they will be sharing. Disappointed for even asking, Buzz replies “I wouldn't let you sleep in my room, if you were growing on my ass!” Later Buzz tells him and their cousin Rod McCallister that their next-door neighbor, Old Man Marley is the "South Bend Shovel Slayer," who is rumored to have murdered his family and half of the people on the block in 1958. Rod asks why the police didn't arrest him, and Buzz tells them that the police have never found the bodies and that he salts the neighborhood sidewalks with the remains of his victims, adding that the salt turns the bodies into mummies; this frightens Kevin.

A Little Nero's Pizza man arrives at the home and waits alongside the questionable police officer. Frank comes and takes the pizza, but leaves the responsibility of paying for it to his brother and does not stay around to speak with the questionable officer. Peter briefly speaks with the officer, who inquires about the security of their home and he is taken by Buzz to go eat pizza and Kevin rushes to the kitchen to get his favorite pizza.

During dinner, Buzz shoves plain cheese pizza (to which he and Kevin were supposed to share) into his mouth. Kevin looks for cheese pizza – his favorite – and when he does not see any, he asks if anyone ordered some. Buzz responds that it was all eaten and he would have to throw it up to give Kevin any. This annoys Kevin and he sees Fuller smirking at him when he drinks a can of Pepsi. Knowing Fuller was deliberately doing this to pee on him while sleeping, Kevin is angered further. Buzz then begins to feign throwing up, asking for a plate from Kevin. Angry that Buzz ate his plain cheese pizza, Kevin snaps and pushes Buzz back, which causes Buzz to accidentally spill milk on the airline tickets and passports, Peter to knock over a full open bottle of Pepsi onto the pizza and Frank's pants, and Fuller's head to get pinned between a chair and the wall. An infuriated Kate breaks up the fight between Buzz and Kevin and demands Kevin to explain his behavior. He replies that it is Buzz's fault for eating the whole plain cheese pizza on purpose, then begins ranting on how he hates sausage, olives, onions, and similar toppings. Kevin is interrupted by Uncle Frank who shouts, "Look what ya did, you little jerk!" This causes Kevin to notice his family glaring at him for the mess. Kate sternly drags Kevin out of the kitchen (after Jeff calls him "such a disease"), pays the pizza boy, and briefly speaks with the questionable officer of their vacation before taking Kevin upstairs; before leaving, the officer tells her that he has already spoken to her husband and that the home is "in good hands".

Kate angrily informs Kevin that there are 15 people in the house, and he is the only one who has to make trouble, with Kevin replying that he is the only one who's getting dumped on. Kate tells him that he's the only one who's acting up as she leads Kevin to the third-floor bedroom, which in reality is the attic playroom of the house. Kevin apologizes and begs his mother not to send him up there, acknowledging that Fuller will wet his bed; while Kate agrees to move Fuller somewhere else to sleep, she rejects his apology and sends him upstairs regardless. Kevin angrily tells Kate that everybody in the family hates him, so Kate sarcastically suggests asking Santa Claus for a new one. When Kevin spurns that he doesn't want a family, a frustrated Kate wishes to not see him again for the rest of the night, but Kevin angrily wishes to not see her or anybody else again for the rest of his life. Hurt and stunned, Kate retorts that he'd feel sad and lonely without a family, but Kevin denies it. Kate firmly warns Kevin that it might happen if he says it again, only for him to yell that he never wants to see them again...wishing that they would all disappear while lying on the bed.

Family departure and Kevin left alone[]

During the night, high winds pick up, causing a tree branch to fall over and land on an electricity wire, resulting in a power failure. The next morning, when Kate taps the alarm clock, which is flashing 12:00, she picks up her watch to check the time, discovering that they've slept in. The family desperately rushes to pack their stuff to catch the vans that will take them to the airport. Mitch Murphy, a neighbor across the street, is mistakenly counted in a head count, and the family hastily depart to the airport.

Home alone 6

Kevin watching Angels with Filthy Souls

Kevin wakes up to find the house empty as the family's flight takes off. Upon realizing he is home alone, he is overjoyed to find that his wish came true and begins doing whatever he wants, such as jumping on his parents' bed and getting into Buzz's belongings, including his BB gun. He then eats junk food as he watches Angels with Filthy Souls, a film that he was prohibited from watching the night before by Uncle Frank; however, the film's shooting scene ultimately startles him, that he paused the movie and calls for his mother.

Kevin is missing, trouble in Paris[]

During the flight, a sleeping Kate wakes up, worried that the family has forgotten something. She asks Peter if they turned off the coffee machine, locked the doors, and closed the garage. Peter admits that he did forget to close the garage. Kate, however, thinks it's something else they forgot, then after Peter asks what they possibly could have forgotten. Kate finally realizes what they have left behind, screaming "Kevin!" out loud. Meanwhile, Kevin sleds down the stairs in his home and out the front door. After her realization, Kate is comforted by the family, who offer nothing that soothes her guilty conscience. Kate realizes what kind of terrible mother she is.

Once the family is in Paris, Kate calls the police in Chicago, has Peter book a return flight, and has Frank's wife and her sister-in-law, Leslie call everyone in Kate's address book. Kate reaches the Village Police Department on the phone and requests them to send someone to check on Kevin and tell him that the family will be returning home. However, the department misunderstands her inquiry at first and finally sends an officer, who knocks on the door, but Kevin is too afraid to answer the door. The officer judges that there is nobody home and the house is secure.

Kate and Peter attempt to book a return flight back to Chicago, but find that everything is booked. She decides to stay at the airport to be on standby in case a seat opens up as the rest of the family goes to Rob's house. As the McCallisters watch a French dub of It's a Wonderful Life, Peter tries calling someone on the phone to assist in reaching Kevin while Frank brings out shrimp, ignoring his sister-in-law and Rob's wife Georgette's calls that the shrimp was going to be eaten later. Kevin's sister, Megan, expresses her worry about Kevin to Buzz, but he insists that their brother will be completely fine.

After much haggling, Kate convinces couple Ed and Irene to give her their seats on their flight to Dallas.

The Wet Bandits introduced and Kevin's first personal encounter with Marley[]

The "Wet Bandits" Marv and Harry — the latter happening to be the supposed police officer — observe the neighborhood, planning robberies around the security information Harry has gathered about each home. As Kevin takes a nap whilst How the Grinch Stole Christmas plays on the television, Harry and Marv attempt to break in, but Kevin hears them and turns on a light, causing them to flee as he hides under his parents’ bed.

Thinking that he is no longer afraid, Kevin comes out of hiding and goes outside, declaring that he is not afraid anymore. However, he encounters Old Man Marley and screams in fear before running back inside.

First encounter with the Wet Bandits[]

After showering, Kevin uses his father's grooming products, including his aftershave, causing Kevin to scream from the burning sensation in pain. He then goes to Buzz's room and attempts to climb the shelf to reach his "life savings" but causes all of the shelving to fall on top of him. While on his walk, Kevin notices the Wet Bandits' van in the Murphy driveway and notes that he thought the Murphy family had gone to Florida. As the burglars raid the Murphy home, they hear a message on their phone from Peter indicating that the McCallisters are not home.

Kevin goes to a drugstore to buy a toothbrush and asks if it is approved by the American Dental Association. As the store's staff attempts to confirm, Old Man Marley enters with a crudely bandaged hand and places it on the counter, causing a frightened Kevin to flee the store and unintentionally shoplift the toothbrush. A police officer pursues Kevin but loses sight of him at an ice-skating rink after being tripped over by a skater with a hockey club. Kevin walks home, dismayed that he has become a criminal.

After Marv leaves the water running in the Murphy home — much to Harry's disapproval — they argue and almost run over Kevin in their van. Kevin finally recognizes Harry and starts to run as the suspicious burglars follow him. He reaches a church and loses sight of the bandits by posing as part of the church's Nativity scene display. He then runs home, declaring that he will be ready when the burglars return.

Regretting his wish[]

Later that night, the burglars arrive outside the McCallister home, but Kevin has constructed an elaborate silhouette display, making Marv and Harry think that there are people there. Kevin then orders a cheese pizza for himself and directs the pizza boy to the back door as he plays and pauses parts of Angels with Filthy Souls, convincing that one of the characters in the film is speaking with him and, eventually, shooting at him, making the pizza boy flee the property. As he settles for the night, Kevin watches Johnny Carson on television and begins to regret his wish.

Christmas Eve[]

In the morning, as Kevin readies himself for the day, he lip syncs to the Drifters' version of "White Christmas" and once again screams from his father's aftershave as Buzz's tarantula roams free after escaping as a result of Kevin accidentally breaking the shelving. Soon after, Kevin goes to the grocery store, where he encounters an inquisitive cashier. As he walks home, the grocery bags break. He then returns home and does laundry.

Harry sends Marv to check the house. Kevin, noticing Marv's presence, turns on Angels with Filthy Souls and enhances the film's sound of gunfire with firecrackers in a pot. This scares Marv away from the home; Marv then reports the events of Angels with Filthy Souls to Harry, thinking that they actually happened inside the home. The duo nap until they observe Kevin cutting down a tree and realize that he has been deceiving them. As Kevin decorates the tree, he sees Harry's reflection in an ornament and feigns calling for his father. He opens a window and overhears Marv and Harry planning their break-in to the McCallister home at 9:00, making Kevin want his family back.

Kate eventually reaches Scranton, but all flights to Chicago are unavailable because of an influx of travelers. Desperate to return home, she is overheard by Gus Polinski, the "Polka King of the Midwest" and his polka band, the Kenosha Kickers, who are driving to Milwaukee after their flight was canceled. He offers to allow her to ride with them in a Budget truck, dropping her off in Chicago along the way. Kate accepts the offer and rides with the polka band. As the band rehearses "Deck the Halls" in the truck, Gus offers to let her play his clarinet, which she refuses.

Friendship with Marley and setting the traps[]

After going to a Santa Claus impersonator and requesting he ask the real Santa to bring his family back instead of presents, Kevin goes to the church, where he sees a local children's choir perform and encounters Old Man Marley, coming to discover that he is actually a very friendly and kind man and that none of the rumors about him are true. Kevin learns the real reason the rumors were spread; Marley has been estranged from his son for quite some time, thus separating him from his granddaughter, who is singing with the choir. Kevin urges Marley to make amends with his son for Christmas and Marley agrees.

Kevin putting tar on the stairs

Kevin putting tar on the stairs

As the children's choir sings an unaccompanied version of "Carol of the Bells", the bell in the church tower strikes 8:00. His own spirits lifted by encouraging Marley, Kevin returns home to prepare a series of booby traps around the house before 9:00 p.m. First, he rolls up the doormat by the staircase, placing Micro Machine cars, trucks, and airplanes on the floor. He continues on by dousing the front steps as well as the outside basement stairs outside with water, which instantly freezes. After hooking a glowing hot BBQ starter onto the doorknob of the front door, Kevin coats the inside basement stairs with tar, leaving the last few steps untouched, placing a piece of sandpaper with a long nail into an upward shingle on one of them. Next, he creates an escape route by connecting a rope from the attic window to his tree house. In the kitchen, he squirts caulking glue onto a sheet of plastic wrap, then piles a cart high with pillow feathers and an electric fan. Then, he places glass Christmas ornaments down on the floor next to a window. Finally, he grabs two paint cans with ropes tied to them after preparing an iron and blowtorch.

Springing the traps[]

Harry and Marv arrive and decide to go through the back door. As Kevin blesses his macaroni and cheese dinner, the clock strikes nine, and he runs to the kitchen, pumps the BB gun and says, "This is it. Don't get scared now" before hiding by the door. Harry and Marv torment Kevin at the back door and Kevin shoots Harry in the crotch with Buzz's BB gun through the dog door. Marv sticks his head through the dog door and is shot in the forehead.

Harry goes around to the front door but unknowingly slips on the icy stairs with Marv doing the same at the basement steps, sliding down on them to the door and struggling to stand on the frozen ground. Harry again attempts going up the front steps but falls again. Marv finally manages to stand and enters the basement. When he attempts to turn on a light bulb, he instead pulls an iron down the laundry chute and is hit in the head.

Harry once again attempts to climb up the stairs and is successful this time. He grabs the doorknob, which burns his hand, which he cools in a pile of snow. Marv struggles up the tar-covered basement steps—losing his shoes and socks in the process—and falls down them after stepping on the nail protruding upward.

Harry then attempts to enter through the back door, but his head is burned by a blowtorch as he enters. He then cools his head in the snow. Meanwhile, Marv leaves the basement and slips again. Harry rushes through the back door, knocking down the blowtorch, and angrily asks, "Where are you, you little creep?!" Marv rushes to a window.

Kevin torments Harry, who then walks into the glue-covered plastic wrap and has the feathers blown onto him by the fan. A barefooted Marv enters through a window, stepping on the glass ornaments below him and angrily yelling, "I'm gonna kill that kid!" The burglars join back up again and slip on the Micro Machines. They then try chasing Kevin up the stairs, but are struck by the paint cans, one of which knocks out Harry's gold tooth. Kevin calls the police, reporting a burglary in the Murphy home. The burglars chase him, while Harry trips over a wire, knocking him unconscious, and Marv manages to grab Kevin's leg on the attic steps. Kevin grabs Buzz's tarantula Axl and puts it on Marv's face, allowing him to escape. Marv screams and throws the tarantula on an unconscious Harry's belly as Kevin ziplines to the treehouse using bike handlebars. Marv, trying to hit the tarantula, accidentally hits Harry in the chest with his crowbar.

After Harry hits Marv three times with the crowbar, the bandits pursue Kevin again as he reaches the treehouse. They try climbing over to the treehouse, but this is foiled by Kevin cutting the rope with a pair of hedge clippers, causing them to be swung into the side of the house.

The bandits defeated[]

Kevin then flees to the nearby Murphy home across the street and enters through the flooded basement thanks to Marv. However, the Wet Bandits ambush Kevin at the top of the basement steps. They discuss doing the same things to Kevin that he did to them, Harry threatening to first bite Kevin's fingers off; luckily for Kevin, at the last minute, Marley intervenes and hits Marv and Harry with his snow shovel, knocking them unconscious, thus saving Kevin, and returning him home.

Shortly after Kevin is returned home safely, Harry and Marv are arrested. Additionally, the police have now become aware of every house the Wet Bandits have targeted because of Marv's habit of leaving the household's water running as a "calling card". Marv tells the police about their crimes which causes Harry to kick him twice as they get in the police car. As the police car drives away, Kevin sarcastically waves at Harry, who hopes that he and Marv will return one day for revenge.

After Kevin cleans the remains of the traps, he then places some cookies and milk on a table for Santa (as well as some carrots for the reindeer), having set up Christmas all by himself. Kate speaks with Gus, guilty of leaving Kevin behind and thinking that she is a bad parent. Gus insists that she is not a bad parent compared to any of those in his band, and he recounts a story of leaving one of his own children at a funeral parlor.

Christmas Day reconciliation[]

Kevin wakes up the next morning and calls for his mother but is disappointed to find that he is still alone. Kate then arrives and the two reconcile before Peter and Kevin's siblings arrive, having caught the flight that Kate did not want to wait for (while Kevin's uncle, aunt and cousins are still in Paris). Buzz becomes glad that Kevin didn't burn the house down. When Kate asks Peter to find an open store to buy some milk, Kevin reveals to them that he had gotten groceries for Christmas (milk, eggs, and fabric softener), but more or less "just hung around" while his family was away. Kevin does not disclose his encounter with Harry and Marv, though Peter finds Harry's gold tooth on the floor and wonders what it is.

Kevin goes over to the window and smiles upon discovering that Marley took his advice, and watches as he and his son reunite and reconcile. While hugging his granddaughter and daughter-in-law, Marley looks up, sees Kevin and, smiling, waves to him as a sign of thanking him, and Kevin waves back. Buzz interrupts Kevin's musings by calling out, "Kevin! What did you do to my room!?" causing Kevin to run off.

Cast[]

Deleted scenes[]

Edited for Television[]

Whenever it has aired on Disney Channel, Cartoon Network, NBC, AMC, FOX, or ABC Family/Freeform, ABC, some scenes were edited like:

  • When Kevin asks Buzz if he could sleep in his room to avoid sleeping with Fuller (who wets the bed when given a lot to drink), Buzz usually says "I wouldn't let you sleep in my room...if you were growing on my ass!", but in some instances, he will say "I wouldn't let you sleep in my room...if you were growing on my butt!".
  • On ABC, the scene where the pizza car knocks over the lawn jockey is cut.
  • The line “Fuller! Go easy on the Pepsi!” was removed due to national television staff finding it offensive to diabetic people.
  • On ABC, the part where Peter talks about how he used to travel in the family station wagon is cut
  • On ABC, the part where Kevin says "Buzz, your girlfriend. Woof!" is cut
  • Kevin would then say, "Down here, you morons!" and "Down here, you idiots!" instead of "Down here, you big horse's ass!"
  • In the scene where Kevin watches Angels With Filthy Souls, it would delete "ya filthy animal". He would then say, "Keep the change". It would then cut to Kevin who was yelling "Mom!" However, in later airings on Freeform, "ya filthy animal" was reinstated.
  • On ABC, the part where Kate is transferred to different departments is cut
  • In the scene where the cop is sent to check on Kevin, the part where he says “There’s no one home, the house looks secure, tell ‘em to count their kids again” is cut. Instead, when he gets on his walkie talkie, it cuts to a commercial break.
  • On ABC, the scene with Harry and Marv in the Murphy's house is cut.
  • At the end, Buzz said, "Kevin, what in the world did you do to my room!?" instead of "Kevin, what did you do to my room!?"
  • When Marv drops his shoe through the doggy door, he does not say, "Shit!".
  • The entire movie is in a lower pitch when aired on AMC or its affiliated channels.
  • However, in later airings, Freeform restored all of the original scenes unedited.

Trivia[]

  • The title of Buzz's Playboy Magazine, Broadcast Nudes: TV Newscaster Bares All, as well as its cover is a play on James L. Brooks' 1987 movie Broadcast News, which was also distributed by Home Alone distributor 20th Century Fox.
  • This movie was filmed from 14th February to 14th May 1990.
  • Even though Frank is acting mean when he says to Peter, "you be positive, I'll be realistic", since their plane leaves in 45 minutes, he is actually right; it takes at least 30 minutes to get from Winnetka to O'Hare and they had fifteen people trying to make an international flight.
  • Harry and Marv's van is a grayish blue Dodge Ram van.
  • The only film to feature Angela Goethals as Linnie McCallister; Maureen Elisabeth Shay later replaced her in Lost in New York.
  • When Kevin zip lined across his yard, it was clearly a stunt double.
  • When Marv was walking through the snow, Daniel Stern was wearing rubber feet.
  • Also, when Marv stepped on the ornaments, the ornaments were made out of glass candy.
  • There is a cut scene were Rob and Georgette are welcoming the family with a poster, only for the clan to rush through the sign, ripping it.
  • When it shows Kevin on a sleigh about to ride out the front door, it is obvious that the angle Kevin is at should make him crash into the wall.
  • When Kevin speeds out the front door on the sleigh, there is no way he can get a lot of elevation since the stairs leading up to the front door are very small.
  • Catherine O'Hara revealed in 2014 that Macaulay Culkin still calls her "Mom."
  • The picture Kevin finds of Buzz's girlfriend was a picture of a boy made up to look like a girl because director Chris Columbus thought it would be too cruel to tease a girl in that manner. For this, Columbus chose the film's art director's son to play the part.
  • The movie that Kevin watches on video tape is not a real film, but footage specially created. It was called Angels with Filthy Souls. Along with other similar era references in the movie, this is a play upon the movie Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) starring James Cagney. Kevin uses it on the pizza boy and later Marv. Both times, Kevin was successful in scaring them away.
  • Almost all of Gus Polinski's dialogue was improvised by John Candy.
  • Marv's line, "Why the hell are you dressed like a chicken?" was improvised by Daniel Stern. In the original script, the line is, "Why the hell did you set yourself on fire?".
  • In the original script, after the fan blows the pile of feathers on Harry, Kevin says, "Do you guys give up?". In the final cut, Kevin says the line after the Wet Bandits slip and fall over the Micro Machines, and it is extended to, "You guys give up, or you're thirsty for more?". The extension was improvised by Macaulay Culkin.
  • During rehearsal for the scene where Harry attempts to bite off Kevin's finger, Joe Pesci actually bit Macaulay Culkin, leaving a small scar.
  • Joe Pesci kept forgetting that he was filming a family movie during his character's on-screen outbursts, so director Chris Columbus advised him to say "fridge" instead of the f-word.
  • When Marv drops his shoe through the back door of Kevin's house while Kevin's washing dishes, he says a swear word, "shit." In the original script, Buzz McCallister, Harry, and Marv were supposed to swear a lot more frequently. For example, when Rod asks Buzz who will feed his tarantula, he says in the script: "He just ate a shitload of mice guts." When Kevin enters the room, he originally called him "dick rash" instead of "phlegm wad." In an alternate version of the deleted scene "Sleepless in Paris," Buzz claims that Kevin acted like an asshole instead of a jerk. It is not known if any of these instances were filmed and then re-shot.
  • The microwave macaroni and cheese that Kevin gets from the grocery store asking the cashier if it's any good and is almost about to eat, which he doesn't, is Kraft Dinner.
  • All of John Candy's scenes were filmed in 23 hours.
  • Director Chris Columbus auditioned over 200 kids to play the role of Kevin, because he didn't want to use the first kid in front of him, which was Macaulay Culkin who was requested by Writer John Hughes. However, he saw that no other kid has as much talent as Macaulay, so Columbus gave Culkin the role.
  • The nail Daniel Stern stepped on was actually made of rubber because he could actually crush it with his foot and feel no pain.
  • At the beginning of the film, the 1964 Rankin/Bass special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is playing on the TV.
  • During the police department scene, a piece of the donut fell on the phone receiver. Because of that, the producers had to film every take with the donut still on the receiver until it fell off because of continuity reasons.
  • This is the only Home Alone movie to use the short version of the 1981 20th Century Fox logo.
  • When Kevin makes the sign of the cross before his macaroni and cheese dinner, he touches his right shoulder, then his left shoulder. This is a religious gesture practiced by Orthodox Christians. This gesture is also practiced by Catholics, but they touch their left shoulder first, then their right shoulder.
  • John Heard and Catherine O'Hara both played supporting characters in the 1985 film After Hours, sharing a brief scene together.
  • Four actors in this film were born in 1977: Hillary Wolf (Megan), Angela Goethals (Linnie), Devin Ratray (Buzz) and Michael C. Maronna (Jeff).
  • In the original script, instead of flying on an American Airlines McDonnell Douglas DC-10 to Orly Airport, the McCallisters fly to Charles de Gaulle Airport on an Air France Boeing 747. Also, instead of taking two flights, one from ORY to DFW and another from DFW to AVP, Kate takes an American Airlines flight to Detroit Metropolitan Airport via Boston Logan International Airport.
  • In the audio commentary, Chris Columbus' "Not that it's an albatross" line is a reference to Wilbur the albatross in The Rescuers Down Under, also played by John Candy.

Goofs[]

  • When Aunt Leslie says "Fuller! Go easy on the Pepsi", it is quite clearly a close-mic voiceover recorded off set (most likely in post-production), as the rest of the dialogue has a completely different natural reverb to this line.
  • When Kevin arrives home after speaking to Old Man Marley at the church, he runs right in the house without unlocking the front door - he left his house unlocked even though he knew that there were burglars in the area.
  • In the battle plan, on one side of the house, there are Christmas ornaments, while the other side has glue on plastic wrap, a fan, and feathers. Harry and Marv meet each other on one side, but when Kevin says "Come and get me," they come from both sides to the foot of the stairs.
  • Buzz tells Megan that they live in the most boring neighborhood in America where nothing dangerous will ever happen. However, earlier in the movie he seemed to really think that Old Man Marley was a real serial killer living there, although he could have just been trying to scare Kevin and Rod.
  • When Tracy asks Heather if she ordered the pizza, Tracy calls Heather "Tracy" by mistake.
  • When Kevin is shooting at the toys that fall down the laundry chute, he is closing the wrong eye for aiming a rifle.
  • In the church, Old Man Marley's granddaughter is seen with red straight hair. However, when Kevin looks out his window on Christmas Day and sees Old Man Marley hugging his granddaughter, she has brown curly hair instead of the appearance in the church.
  • The night Harry and Marv break in to the house Kevin sits down and blesses his macaroni and cheese dinner just before the stroke of nine. This draws obvious attention to his plate. Later just before Harry is covered with feathers you can see a completely different plate with three sections of food on it.
  • Kevin has a pizza delivered to the house even though the phones are supposed to be down. There is never any indication of if, or when, the phones were restored, but according to the technician working on the lines when the McCallisters leave, it was going to take a couple of days to patch them up. In the preceding scene, Kevin's father was trying to reach Kevin or someone who could help.
  • When Harry grabs the heated doorknob with the "M" engraved on it, he grabs it with his knuckles at 9:00, facing left. After he puts his hand in the snow to cool it, he looks at it and sees the "M" upright on his hand.
  • When Kevin goes across the street to his neighbor's house entering through the flooded basement his clothes are soaked as he rushes up the stairs. In the next scene where he goes through the door to run into Harry and Marv his clothes are dry.
  • Just before Marv and Harry step into the small pile of toy cars and slip up at the bottom of the stairs, Harry had been covered in feathers. In the next shot, there are no feathers on him at all, which mysteriously disappear.
  • Towards the end of the movie, Kevin calls the police from his parents' bedroom. This should be impossible, as the phones are out, which is why his parents could not reach him.
  • Harry is seen wearing a wedding ring in the shot where Marv tries to kill the spider that is on Harry's chest. Later in the movie Harry is no longer wearing the wedding ring.
  • The stained glass window in the church is different in the interior and exterior shots. Seen from outside, it has four panels, while inside it has seven.
  • When the characters are in the upstairs hallway, the walls change back and forth from being covered with a hunt club green wallpaper to being painted in a shade of green slightly different from the wallpaper. This is because some of the scenes were recreated on a sound stage at New Trier High School and they had to try and match the colors as best they could.
  • Immediately after landing in Paris, Peter McCallister leaves a message on the Murphys' answering machine while Marv and Harry are burglarizing it. The phones are still supposed to be down, and since the Murphys live across the street from the McCallisters, their phone service should be down as well.
  • Kevin purchases a large bottle of laundry detergent at the grocery store. While walking home, the two plastic grocery bags he is carrying burst spilling their contents. The bottle of detergent is not among the contents that spill.
  • While setting traps in preparation for the burglars, Kevin douses all the stairs outside his house with water. They freeze in a short time, indicating it to be quite cold. However, later when we see Kevin running across the Murphy's driveway, not only are there visible liquid puddles, but he runs at a full sprint without so much as a slip.
  • When Kevin is at the top of the stairs getting his sled ready, one shot shows him throw his scarf over his right shoulder and it slips down his arm. In the next shot, from behind, the scarf is clearly thrown behind his shoulder.
  • When Kevin and Buzz are first seen fighting over the pizza Kate rushes over to break it up, in the next shot when Peter is throwing away the napkins, Buzz is seen running his hands through his hair, and Kate is calmly speaking with Kevin, and in the next shot after Aunt Leslie asks Fuller if he's okay, Kate is seen attempting to break up the fight again and yells at Kevin.
  • When Peter calls the Murphy home while Harry and Marv are robbing it, Marv picks the entire phone off the table. At this point a receiver is visible on the phone. In the next shot of Marv, it is gone. If it was, in fact, supposed to fall off, the answering machine would have been cut off anyway.
  • The Christmas ornaments Kevin places by the tree under the window change positions repeatedly.
  • After the McCallisters realize they've overslept and are frantically running around the house, Heather goes up the same set of stairs twice.
  • When the McCallisters take off for Paris Orly from Chicago O'Hare, they are on board a McDonnell-Douglas DC-10, a tri-jet. When they land in Paris, they are on board a Boeing 757, a twin jet. Given that flight appears to be non-stop, the fact that they took off in a plane with three engines and landed in a plane with two engines is an error.
  • The blind spot mirrors on the burglars' van change positions and sometimes disappear between shots.
  • When Kevin walks up to the church at night, there is a door clearly in the very center of the building. When Kevin is shown inside the church, there is a baptistery in the center where the door was on the outside.
  • When Marv goes to look and see if anyone is home, Kevin is washing up and has his sleeves rolled up. He plays Angels with Filthy Souls and gets fire crackers out. He reaches into a drawer to get a lighter and we only see his arms where his sleeves are down. When you see a full view of him, his sleeves are rolled up again.
  • Kate tells the pizza boy that her brother-in-law drove in from Ohio earlier that day with his family, yet later in the film only Kate and Peter's cars are seen in the garage. There is no other vehicle parked anywhere near the house.
  • While Kevin is in the kitchen with the whole family. Buzz is clearly stuffing the last piece of Kevin's pizza in his mouth. In the next shot he is shown with half a piece of pizza in his hand and his mouth is not stuffed.
  • After Harry touches the heated doorknob and Kevin flees from the door at 1:20:48-1:20:51 on the DVD, the charcoal lighter cord runs out of the foyer into the next room from which the camera is shooting. Later, when Harry and Marv are hit with paint cans at 1:24:18, the door and the red-hot charcoal lighter can be seen in the background, but its cord does not leave the foyer.
  • When Kate is losing her temper with the desk agent in Scranton, her coat changes in how open or closed it is between shots.
  • When Marv is trying to enter the basement, there's snow on each side of the entryway. When the camera angle changes to show him from inside the basement, the snow is gone.
  • When Harry and Marv are in the van and Harry is listing the automatic light cues, when Harry lists #671, the McCallisters' house, we can see the lights turn on in their reflection on the van's windshield. However, in the next shot, which is of the house, we can see the lights turn on again.
  • When the cop starts to chase Kevin for stealing the toothbrush, they run past a woman in a red coat with a skate on her shoulder twice.
  • When Harry and Marv follow Kevin in their van, they initially stop when they are slanted on the road. After the stop for when Kevin turns around to look at them, they are fixed perfectly against the curb.
  • When Kevin first uses the BB gun to shoot the figurines down the laundry chute, he pumps the rifle forward and then back at 23:21 on the DVD. Later in the film when he prepares to shoot Harry and Marv through the dog door, he pumps the rifle back and then forward at 1:16:12.
  • During most of the film, the pictures hung on the wall going up the main staircase are consistently fifteen in number, with Peter and Kate being the lower-most bottom-row photos, and Kevin being the one at the very top end, by itself. However, in a couple of scenes there are only 14 pictures - no Kevin up top; completely different non-closeup photos where Peter and Kate should be; and several other pictures are different too. The scenes are: When Kevin is crazily running around celebrating his newfound freedom at 22:22, and later when he is running upstairs screaming after seeing Old Man Marley in front of the house at 32:07.
  • When the shopping bag bursts while Kevin is walking home from the store, the milk carton rolls a couple of times on the sidewalk. Realistically, a full carton of milk would just fall flat and not roll, due to the weight, making it appear that the carton was empty and not heavy, thus was able to roll a bit upon hitting the sidewalk.
  • When Harry slips down the stairs while trying to go in through the front door, he drops his crowbar and doesn't pick it up, but in the next long shot the crowbar is no longer on the ground right next to the steps.
  • When Kevin is watching TV in the kitchen, there is a gingerbread house next to the TV in shots directly facing the TV. But when the shots are from the side (on Kevin watching TV), the gingerbread house is not there.
  • When Kevin accidentally steals a toothbrush from a drug store, the cop who chases him falls on the ice after getting hit by a hockey player. He lands on his back and his hat starts to fall off his head and his arms are pushing the hat back on his head, but when the cop looks up and sees that Kevin got away, he is lying on his stomach and his hat is off his head.
  • When Kevin is rifling through Buzz's trunk, a box of Junior Mints moves around between shots.
  • We see Kevin purchase and use a big bottle of laundry detergent. Yet at the end of the film, he tells his family that he bought "fabric softener".
  • When Johnny in the "Angels with Filthy Souls" movie shoots Snakes with the Tommy gun, it makes just a few brief thin-sounding bursts of rapid-fire. Yet when Kevin is playing back his "clipped/rearranged" version of the movie to scare away the pizza-delivery guy, the gunfire is much deeper-toned and lasts a lot longer, and the individual ammo-round-discharge sounds are slower and more spaced out.
  • Right after Marv hits Harry with the crowbar, due to the tarantula being on his chest, the Michael Jordan poster can be seen in Buzz's room on the door all intact. However, Kevin had previously cut the poster out to make him look like a person at the party the previous night and had him going around on a train.
  • Harry protects his burnt hand with a handkerchief when he climbs along the rope towards the tree house, but alternating shots show the tail of the handkerchief either sticking out or not.
  • After Kevin steals the toothbrush, he slides between a hockey player's legs. The hockey stick was between the player's leg in the first shot, the next shot when Kevin slides through the player's legs the stick is off to the player's side.
  • When Marv grabs Kevin by the leg as Kevin attempts to run up the stairs and into the attic. Kevin puts Buzz's tarantula on Marv's face in order to force Marv to let go of his leg. Kevin was carrying Buzz's rifle on his back and it hadn't occurred to him to whack Marv with it which could have knocked out Marv or hit him in the arm, which the pain would have forced Marv to let go.
  • While Kevin is holding shears to cut the rope in the tree house, a few inches ahead of where he is to cut you can see something that looks like fishing line that is holding up the rope. This line is visible twice, as he appears with the cutters and again just as he is cutting the rope.
  • When Kevin walks into Buzz's room looking for his family after being left alone, on the bottom right of the frame, you can see a crew member's leg.
  • When the female police officer transfers Kate to Sgt. Balzak in the Crisis Center, a crew member's reflection is seen in the glass just above the stenciled word "center."
  • When the police officer is chasing Kevin, the shadow of the camera is briefly visible on Kevin's back.
  • When Kate phones the Chicago Police from France, she calls them on a payphone that is a BT model that would not be seen in France.
  • When the whole family arrives in Paris (which is really the underground walkway under the O'Hare Airport Hilton, that connects the terminals at O'Hare, and looks like it may include parts of the old Terminal 4), Kate uses a public phone to call home. But this device could not be French, because all phones available in France in the 90s required telephone cards and we clearly hear an operator instructing Kate to insert coins.
  • When the plane takes off from Chicago, it is morning. It takes about seven or eight hours to fly from Chicago to Paris, and Paris time is seven hours ahead of Chicago time. That would put them in Paris around one or two in the morning. Yet when the plane arrives in Paris, it is already broad daylight.
  • As the family bids farewell to Kate at the Paris airport, tail colors of an Eastern Airlines jet are visible outside the gate window. Eastern was a domestic U.S. airline and would not have serviced Paris.
  • When Kate calls the police from France, the woman answers the phone "Village Police Department," but when the officer goes to the McCallister home, he clearly has a City of Chicago flag on the right shoulder of his jacket.
  • American Airlines has never flown a morning flight between Chicago and Paris.
  • The plane shown landing at Scranton Airport is a McDonnell Douglas DC-10. The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Airport has never had regular service from a DC-10 by any airline. The largest planes to land at Scranton are Boeing 737s and Airbus A320s. DC-10s are far too large to be accommodated by the airport for non-emergency situations.
  • The plane in the movie is a McDonnell-Douglas DC-10-10, which was flown by American Airlines, however it was only used for domestic flights due to its limited range of 3500 miles. There was a long-range version used for intercontinental flights, the DC-10-30, but that one had three sets of rear landing gear. It is clearly visible during the takeoff scene that this one only has two sets of rear landing gear, so it is definitely a DC-10-10 which could have never made the trip from Chicago to Paris.
  • When Marv picks up the answering machine while Peter is leaving a message the phone comes off the hook which would have affected the answering machine message being recorded.
  • The Daisy BB gun shown on Buzz's wall is used as a pump-action; however, the real model is lever-action.
  • Kevin manages to set up all of his traps in less than an hour. Several of those traps would take at least an hour to do by themselves. For example, the water on the porch and basement steps would not freeze into a thick layer of ice within an hour.
  • Kevin's Daisy Red Ryder air rifle (notable by the distinctive shape of its trigger-guard and lever), has an additional pump-action mechanism which The Daisy Red Ryder has never had, and which would be unnecessary besides, due to the lever.
  • When Kevin finally gets caught by the burglars at the neighbor's house, they pick him up and hang him from a door hook in the kitchen by his sweater. If this was a regular knitsweater, Kevin's body weight would cause the sweater to constrict into his neck and in effect strangle him. But it does not, revealing it to be that a brace is present or that it is a specially rigged sweater.
  • Aside from Megan (Kevin's elder sister) and to a lesser extent Kate, the rest of the family does not seem to be concerned about Kevin's welfare while abroad.
  • As Harry is driving down the driveway after a burglary, he is wearing his black knit cap. Just after he hits the brakes to avoid hitting Kevin he pokes his head out to tell Kevin to be more careful and his cap is missing. However, he can clearly be seen removing his hat as he is winding the window down to speak with Kevin, which is why he is not wearing it in subsequent shots.
  • On the phone with the French operator, Peter yells "I am looking for my son! Do you know where he is?" This seems a silly question since Peter should already know that Kevin is at the house, but in an earlier scene a police officer goes to the McCallister house and does not receive a response to repeated knocks and bell-ringings. It is likely that the police would have relayed this information back to the McCallisters and that this would explain Peter's frantic mood.
  • In a scene where a police officer arrives to pick up Kevin and bring him to his family, he kept knocking until he decided no one was home. In reality, a police officer would not assume anyone is home when Kevin was in the house as they would actually get him to come out of the house so that they could bring him to his family.
  • When Kevin is sliding down the steps the sled is lined-up with the stairway, when he goes out the door, the sled is now lined-up with the doorway. He should have just crashed into the wall and not gone out the door.
  • After Marv is hit with an iron, a wrinkle can be seen in the mark on his face revealing that the iron print was actually a plastic sticker. It can also be seen later when Kevin puts the tarantula on Marv's nose.
  • When the McCallisters are leaving in the morning and Mitch Murphy is speaking with the van driver, he is mouthing the driver's lines (the first time the driver speaks).
  • The iron Marv pulls down has round holes, but the imprint it leaves on his face has rectangular ridges rather than round. Since the ridges on his face are caused by the holes in the iron, the shapes should match.
  • When Marv slips at the bottom of the stairs near the basement door, the "ice" moves underneath, being a sheet of Plexiglas.
  • As Kevin flies through the air outside the front door after he sleds down the stairs, you can see the rollers on the bottom of the toboggan.
  • When Kevin cuts the rope in the treehouse, the rope clearly has far too much slack for even a single person, let alone Harry and Marv, to hang from it.
  • Harry's stunt double can be seen when he first slips off Kevin's front steps. It is also the same stunt double in the behind shots as he holds onto the side railing while trying to climb the steps.
  • Obvious stand-in for Harry as he walks towards the front door in the side-on shot. This person is much taller than Joe Pesci.
  • While Jeff is zipping up his bag as Kevin tells him he never packed a suitcase, you can clearly see a newspaper protruding out.
  • When Old Man Marley hits Marv with the shovel, it shows that Marv's body is a mannequin.
  • When Kevin is shooting the toys by the rifle into the laundry chute, you can see that the third bullet doesn't hit the mark (the toy) but clearly passes above it (can be seen as a small dot of somewhat metallic color) and yet the toy falls down the chute.
  • On the grocery store cashier's register monitor, no changes whatsoever occur during the transaction.
  • When Marv is hit in the face with the iron, if you look closely before he falls down you can see that the iron hits him on the forehead, but when he sits up, the iron has left an imprint that covers his entire face.
  • Obvious stunt double in the long shots of Kevin swinging across to the treehouse.
  • Each time that Kevin leaves his home and returns, he only turns the knob to enter the home. Clearly, he never uses a key. When he knew that the burglars would be coming back at 9:00 pm, he leaves the church, arrives home and runs directly into the house indicating it was already unlocked.
  • When Marv and Harry are arguing in the van, they realize they are about to hit Kevin and screech to a stop. But the distance they had to stop was not enough time to avoid hitting Kevin. Nor did the distance shown at first match the next scene.
  • When Harry and Marv are climbing across the rope and Harry tells Marv to go back, we see them from behind, then when it cuts to the shot facing them front-on, Kevin can be seen in the background about to cut the rope. If you look closely this is not Kevin, it is his stand-in.
  • When Marv is climbing the basement stairs, his bare foot comes down on a nail which then makes him fall off the stairs. However, the shadow of his foot appears next to the nail rather than over it.
  • Near the end of the film, as Kevin looks out of the window to see Marley reunited with his son, a hand holding a camera is clearly visible.
  • When Marley is shown hitting Harry and Marv with the shovel, it is a double swinging the shovel.
  • In the film that Kevin is watching, Angels with Filthy Souls, Johnny shoots Snakes with a Thompson machine gun. Snakes is standing in front of a door with a glass window. At the short range that Johnny shoots him, at least some of the bullets would have gone right through Snakes and broken the window.
  • When Kevin almost gets hit by the Wet Bandits’ van, Harry tells him he needs to watch out for traffic. However, Harry is in the wrong here because one of the rules about driving is "always yield to the pedestrian, they have the right-of-way."
  • When Harry and Marv look around for Kevin at the church, the camera is in Harry's view for 2 seconds, he can be seen wearing his beanie, but in the next shot, he is not wearing his hat.
  • When Kevin is running home to prepare for Harry and Marv's arrival, he runs from the church in green pants, but when it cuts to him making it home, his green pants turned into jeans, then when Kevin is setting up the micro-machines, he's wearing green pants again. That's because this scene was filmed in more than one day.
  • On AMC (TV Channel) airings, the closed captions misinterpret Chuck Berry as "Chuck Berring".
  • When the Kenosha Kickers play "Deck the Halls" in the Budget truck, the sounds the band members' instruments make do not match with the visuals.
  • In the Disney+ release of the English audio description dub, when the Wet Bandits fall asleep while spying on Kevin in their van, the narrator refers to Harry as "Henry."

Gallery[]

External links[]


Home Alone franchise
Films Home AloneHome Alone 2: Lost in New YorkHome Alone 3Home Alone 4Home Alone: The Holiday HeistHome Sweet Home Alone
Novelizations Home AloneHome Alone 2: Lost in New York (Todd Strasser)Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (A.L. Singer)Home Alone 3
YouTube :DRYVRS: Just Me In The House By MyselfHome Alone Wet Bandit Resurfaces and Responds to Kevin MacCalister's Threatening VideoHome Alone Again with the Google Assistant
Soundtracks Home AloneHome Alone 2: Lost in New YorkHome Alone 3
Video games Home AloneHome Alone 2Home Alone (2006)
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