Home Alone 2: Lost in New York

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
Music	John Williams
Cinematography	Julio Macat
Director	Chris Columbus
Editor	Raja Gosnell
Starring	Macaulay Culkin Joe Pesci Daniel Stern John Heard Tim Curry Brenda Fricker Catherine O'Hara
Producer	John Hughes
Release date	November 20, 1992
Distributed	20th Century Fox
Running time	120 minutes

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York is a 1992 American Christmas family comedy film written and produced by John Hughes and directed by Chris Columbus. It is the second film in the Home Alone series and the sequel to the 1990 film Home Alone.

The film stars Macaulay Culkin in the lead role as Kevin McCallister once again, while Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern reprise their roles as the Wet Bandits, Harry and Marv respectively. Catherine O'Hara, John Heard, Devin Ratray, Kieran Culkin, Gerry Bamman, Tim Curry, Rob Schneider, Dana Ivey, and Brenda Fricker are also featured. Home Alone 3 followed in 1997, Home Alone 4 followed in 2002, and Home Alone 5: The Holiday Heist followed in 2012. Culkin and the rest of the cast didn't appear in them.

Plot Summary

A year after the events in the first film, set around December 22-25, 1991, the McCallister family, led by Peter and Kate, gather to go on a trip for the Christmas holiday - this time to Miami, Florida. 9-year-old Kevin feels resentful of this trip, because (as he says) "there's no Christmas trees in Florida".

At the school's Christmas concert, Buzz humiliates Kevin during his solo in front of the whole audience, causing Kevin to retaliate against Buzz by delivering a swift chop to him, which in turn causes a domino effect that brings down the entire pageant. A large wooden Christmas tree is knocked over as well, crashing down on the pianist, and Peter and Kate become really upset about the Christmas concert.

Later, back home, Buzz apologizes to Kevin and the rest of the family, but Kevin refuses to accept Buzz's apology and to apologize to Buzz for hitting him and goes up to the third floor; he also reiterates his disgust with the family's decision to go to Florida for the holidays and, as he puts it, "spending Christmas in a tropical climate." After berating Kate, he wishes that he had his own money so he could go on his own vacation by himself and have the best time of his life, to which Kate reminds Kevin that his wish to be alone came true last time, so his wish to go on vacation alone might come true this time, to which Kevin replies in an angry, agitated tone, "I hope so!"

The next day, which is the flight from Chicago to Miami, the McCallisters sleep in again (because of Peter accidentally unplugging the radio clock the night before, while looking for his charger, it was plugged into a tap) and rush through the airport to make their flight, and Kevin stops while getting batteries for his Talkboy. Seeing a man who is wearing the same exact color suit jacket as Peter, he follows him toward a flight on a Boeing 767 to LaGuardia Airport in New York City, and in the rush, drops his boarding pass. He explains the situation, and they go ahead and board him, but he doesn't know he's on the wrong plane until he hears the announcement.

Kevin ends up in New York with his father's travel bag and wallet, while his family and his luggage arrive in Miami; when the family realizes Kevin did not make the trip to Miami, Kate yells out "KEVIN!" and faints.

Meanwhile, Harry Lime and Marvin Merchants, the "Wet Bandits" from the first film, have made their way to New York as well, after escaping from prison in Chicago. Deciding to continue their burglary scheme in New York, Harry suggests they target toy stores because of the Christmas rush. Their nickname is changed to the "Sticky Bandits" (which was devised by Marv after he put double-sided masking tape on one of his gloves to steal 14 cents from a Santa Claus on the street). While crossing the street, Marv (who had been looking over his shoulder while wondering what Harry was looking at) has a run-in with a blonde lady, who slaps him for touching her purse.

While thinking of a place to stay while in New York, Kevin walks through Central Park and encounters a mysterious lady tending to pigeons, which surprises him. He then goes to The Plaza Hotel, which he had heard mentioned on a game show the night before, and checks in, pretending to be on vacation with his father, using Peter's credit card from his wallet. As he stays over, Kevin discovers an indoor swimming pool, and has ice cream while watching an Angels With Even Filthier Souls clip. That night, Mr. Hector, the head and concierge of the hotel's staff checks in, only to be fended off by a clown balloon in the shower as the song, Cool Jerk by The Capitals plays (was used earlier when Uncle Frank took a shower). The next morning, while at the hotel, Kevin goes on a tour of New York in a white limousine while having some pizza and Coca-Cola, and arrives at Duncan's Toy Chest, There, he meets the philanthropist owner, Mr. Duncan, who tells him the proceeds from the store's Christmas sales will go to the Children's Hospital. After Kevin donates some money, Mr. Duncan suggests that he take a pair of ceramic turtledoves from the store's Christmas tree as a gift. He then instructs him to keep one and give the other to someone else, as a symbol of friendship.

Kevin leaves the store and runs into Harry and Marv. He retreats to the Plaza Hotel, but Mr. Hector has investigated Kevin's suspicious cover story and believes Peter's credit card to be stolen. Kevin fends off the hotel staff by playing the Angels with Filthy Souls clip again, and flees the hotel only to be recaptured by Marv and Harry. Marv takes his ticket and notes that he is on a round trip to Miami and told him that he got on the wrong plane, and Harry rips his ticket, thus making it so that Kevin could not get back home to Chicago or to Miami with his family. They plan to get their revenge on Kevin for sending them to prison in the previous film. Then, Marv mentions their plan to rob the toy store, which Kevin tape records with his Talkboy, before goosing the lady Marv met the day before. This causes her to strike both Marv and Harry, and, in the process, allows Kevin to thank her for saving his life before escaping in the back of a hansom cab.

In Miami, where the McCallisters are staying in a motel that forces them to share one room and watch "It's a Wonderful Life" dubbed in Spanish (similar to the scene when they were all in Uncle Rob's apartment in the previous film watching it dubbed in French), they receive word that Kevin has been located by tracking Peter's credit card and is at large. The family then catches a flight to New York and once they get to the Plaza, they confront the staff for letting Kevin check into a hotel room in the first place, and letting him escape after making the "discovery". Kate decides to go out looking for Kevin, despite the warnings of Peter and Mr. Hector, while Mr. Hector gives the family a complimentary suite. Before she leaves, Kate slaps Mr. Hector over his warning that "there are hundreds of parasites out there armed to the teeth", and he advises her, "Do bundle up. It's awfully cold outside." She does so, while the rest of the family and their luggage are taken up to the suite.

Using his father's address book, Kevin locates the home of his Uncle Rob, only to find the door locked and the home vacant and undergoing renovation, as Uncle Rob and his wife are still living abroad in Paris. While wandering the streets, Kevin gets scared of some homeless people, two prostitutes, and an intimidating taxi driver when he attempts to get a ride. Finally, Kevin goes into Central Park, where he encounters the Pigeon Lady again. He attempts to run, but gets his foot caught. She frees him and Kevin apologizes for being scared of her. The two watch a Christmas concert in a loft above Carnegie Hall, where the pigeon lady tells Kevin about how her life has fallen apart and how she dealt with it by taking care of the pigeons in the park, leading to her current distraught and homeless state. He promises to be her friend if she needs one, and she smiles.

Then, while walking the streets, Kevin stops at the children's hospital and waves to a sick child, giving him a look of compassion. Remembering what both Mr. Duncan and Marv said, Kevin decides to stop the bandits from robbing the store and rushes back to Uncle Rob's home. There, Kevin uses the renovation materials to set up a series of booby-traps throughout the home.

Kevin arrives at the toy store in the middle of the heist, makes a seesaw using a board and bucket, photographs the two in the process of the crime and finally sets off the store's security alarm by throwing a brick tied with a note to Mr. Duncan through the store's window, shattering it and triggering the alarm. Harry then runs out the window and steps on one end of the seesaw, but before he can warn Marv not to step on the other end, Marv steps on it and sends Harry into the flying to the air, causing him to land on and crush the roof of a parked car nearby. Harry and Marv then chase Kevin to Uncle Rob's house. They ask him to just throw down his camera (thus destroying any evidence of their crimes) and they promise not to hurt him. But instead of his camera, Kevin throws four bricks at Marv from the rooftop, giving Marv a temporary bout of amnesia. As the bandits try to break in, they spring numerous traps and suffer various injuries before finally falling down from a rope (which Kevin soaked with kerosene beforehand) that Kevin set on fire as they climb down on it, and then being covered in varnish.

Kevin flees and calls the police from a pay phone. The bandits catch him when he slips on a patch of ice and take him to Central Park, but the Pigeon Lady arrives and douses them with birdseed, prompting pigeons to swoop down on them and swarm them. Kevin flees and sets off fireworks that he bought earlier to signal the police, who arrest the bandits and find Kevin's photographs and tape recording to use as evidence against them. At the toy store, a police inspector finds Kevin's note and gives it to Mr. Duncan, and he discovers his role in stopping the bandits.

Kate is looking for Kevin in Times Square, and informs two police officers. While speaking with them, she mentions (and remembers) Kevin's fondness for Christmas trees, and requests a ride to Rockefeller Center. Her intuition proves correct, as she then sees Kevin in front of the Rockefeller Center's Christmas Tree, and the two embrace and apologize to each other (a parallel to the first movie's mother-and-son reconciliation scene) before heading back to the Plaza, as Kate explains that the family also hated the palm trees in Florida, just like Kevin.

A truckload of gifts comes to the Plaza Hotel the next morning as a reward for Kevin thwarting the robbery, and Buzz suggests that had it not been for Kevin getting on the wrong flight, they would not be in the suite with the Christmas tree and gifts in the first place. Thus, he decides to let Kevin to open up the first present as a sign of reconciliation.

While everyone else is opening their presents, Kevin runs out into Central Park to give the Pigeon Lady one of the two turtledoves Mr. Duncan gave him, and reaffirms his promise to be her friend. They smile at each other, and then embrace. Shortly after, Kevin's room service bill from his original stay at the hotel is delivered to the suite. Buzz receives it, examines it, and then shows it to Peter, who then yells, "Kevin! You spent $967 on room service?!"

Immediately, Kevin runs back to the hotel, and the film ends.

Cast

• Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McCallister
• Joe Pesci as Harry Lime
• Daniel Stern as Marvin Murchants
• Catherine O'Hara as Kate McCallister
• John Heard as Peter McCallister
• Devin Ratray as Buzz McCallister
• Hillary Wolf as Megan McCallister
• Maureen Elisabeth Shay as Linnie McCallister
• Michael C. Maronna as Jeff McCallister
• Gerry Bamman as Frank McCallister
• Terrie Snell as Leslie McCallister
• Jedidiah Cohen as Rod McCallister
• Senta Moses as Tracy McCallister
• Daiana Campeanu as Sondra McCallister
• Kieran Culkin as Fuller McCallister
• Anna Slotky as Brooke McCallister
• Tim Curry as Mr. Hector
• Brenda Fricker as Pigeon Lady
• Eddie Bracken as Mr. Duncan
• Dana Ivey as Ms. Stone
• Rob Schneider as Cedric
• Leigh Zimmerman as The Model
• Ralph Foody as Johnny
• Clare Hoak as Carlotta
• Monica Devereux as Hotel Operator
• Bob Eubanks as Ding Dang Dong Host
• Rip Taylor, Jaye P. Morgan, and Jimmie Walker as Celebs
• Patricia Devereux and Almee Devereux as Contestants
• A.M. Columbus and Joe Liss as Skycaps
• Teri McEvoy as Agent #3
• Harry Hutchinson and Clarke P. Devereux as Ticket Takers
• Sandra Macat and Venessiaa Valentino as Flight Attendants
• Ally Sheedy as N.Y. Ticket Attendant
• Andre Lachaumette as Passenger
• Rick Shafer as Peter Lookalike
• Rod Sell as Officer Bennett
• Ron Canada  as Cop in Time Squares
• Cedric Young as Cop in Central Park
• William Dambra and Mark Morettini as Cops
• Fred Krause as Officer Cliff
• James Cole as Security Guard
• Donald Trump as himself
• Warren Rice as Doorman
• Thomas Civitano as Plaza Marketing Director
• Daniel Dassin as Waiter
• Donna Black as Health Club Woman
• Abdoulaye N'Gom as Bead Vender
• Peter Panteleo and Michael Hansen as Airport Drivers
• Michael Goldfinger as Limo Driver
• Mario Todisco as Cab Driver
• Clarke Devereux as Eridence Specialist
• Anthony Cannata as Sergeant in Toy Store
• Eleanor Columbus as Little Girl
• Karen Giordano and Fran McGee as Streetwalkers
• Leonard Tepper as Sleeping Man
• Kevin Thomas as Geeky Kid
• Al Cerullo as Helicopter Pilot

Edited for Television

When aired on Disney Channel, Cartoon Network, Fox, NBC, AMC or ABC Family, some scenes were edited:

• Same thing as original film: Kevin says "I'm down here, you idiots!" instead of "I'm down here, you big horses' ass!"
• Marv shouts "YOU KID!" and then throws a brick down to Kevin, instead of "SUCK BRICK, KID!"
• Kevin says "Yeah, with me being beat up on" instead of "Yeah, with me getting crapped on".
• When Fox Studios and ABC Family aired the movie after 9/11, the scene featuring Kevin on the top of the World Trade Center is edited out.
• The television version has about 20 minutes of the film cut out in small instances to run in the time slot of 2 hours plus commercials as the film is exactly 2 hours long. For the full version to be aired on TV, it would probably last 2 and a half hours.

Trivia

• The McCallisters flew out of O' Hare International.
• American Airlines product placement two of their Boeing 767's.
• Michael Jackson visited Macaulay Culkin on set.
• This is the only known Home Alone movie to feature a U.S. President.
• Home Alone 2 (1992) and Home Alone (1990) both featured scenes from How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966)
• This is the only Home Alone movie where the child is not at his actual house.
• The scene where the McCallisters are at Miami International Airport was actually shot at Los Angeles International Airport.
• Two U.S. Presidents are referenced in this movie Donald Trump and Herbert Hoover. Donald Trump is briefly seen when Kevin is looking for the lobby in The Plaza Hotel and Herbert Hoover is mentioned during one of the scenes in Kevin's hotel room.
• Kevin was on the observation deck of the South Tower of the World Trade Center.
• In some airings of the movie, they cut out the scene with Kevin at the World Trade Center due to 9/11.
• Macaulay Culkin was paid $4.5 million to star in this movie, the biggest paycheck ever to a 12-year-old child.
• Several of the cameras froze during production of the film because it was so cold.
• This movie was actually shot at the Plaza in a Central Park suite. The phone number given for the Plaza in the movie was an actual working number.
• All of the children who appeared in the toy store scene were allowed to take their favorite toy home as part of their salary. While it did not actually work, Macaulay Culkin was allowed to keep the Talkboy.
• The only Home Alone film to feature real snow. A snow machine was used for certain scenes but a blizzard engulfed the set before the shoot, providing more snow than anticipated.
• The swimming pool scene was shot at the Four Seasons in Chicago, Illinois due to the fact that the Plaza Hotel doesn't have a swimming pool located on-site.
• In Home Alone (1990), Kevin watches a movie called "Angels with Filthy Souls." In this sequel, he watches that film's sequel, "Angels with Even Filthier Souls."
• Entertainment Weekly had a doctor analyze what the actual effects of the injuries to Harry and Marv would be. Bricks to the face would have caused "at best, brain damage, at worst, death."
• After one scene, Macaulay Culkin asked Joe Pesci why he never smiled. Pesci told him to shut up. At the time, Pesci said, "He's pampered a lot by a lot of people, but not me. And I think he likes that."
• Kevin's room service bill indicates that he ordered two chocolate cakes, six chocolate mousses with chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry ice cream topped with M&Ms, chocolate sprinkles, cherries, nuts, marshmallows, caramel syrup, chocolate syrup, strawberry syrup, whipped cream, and bananas, six custard flans, a pastry cart, eight strawberry tarts, and 36 chocolate-covered strawberries.
• A real version of the Talkboy, the tape recorder Kevin plays with in the movie, was created by Tiger Electronics shortly after the film's release (along with its pink-and-purple counterpart, the Talkgirl).
• The scene when the man sitting next to Kevin on the plane starts speaking in French is translated into Spanish on the DVD's French audio setting.
• The airport scenes were exponentially more difficult to shoot than the first film, because not only did they have to stay operational during filming, but Macaulay Culkin's new-found celebrity required extra protection for him from fans and paparazzi.
• Director Chris Columbus admits on the audio commentary for Home Alone (1990) this film was "to some extent" a remake of the first film.
• The hotel operator with whom Kevin makes a reservation pretending to be his father is played by Chris Columbus' wife, Monica Devereux.
• The toy store - "Duncan's Toy Chest" - is named after the executive producer Duncan Henderson. The toy store itself is the film's version of an actual New York City store, FAO Schwarz. The exterior of the store is that of the Rookery Building in downtown Chicago, Illinois.
• The carpeting was removed from The Plaza lobby for one scene so that Macaulay Culkin could slip and slide on the floor. Plaza owner Donald J. Trump liked it so much, he never replaced it.
• John Candy was at one point going to do a cameo in this movie.
• The address of Uncle Rob and Aunt Georgette's house that's being renovated is 51 W. 95th St. This address is on the Upper West Side, a half-block from Central Park.
• In the original Home Alone (1990), Marv says "Kids are a-scared of the dark". In the sequel, he says almost the same line when Kevin goes into Central Park, changing only one letter and saying "Kids are a-scared of the park".
• Macaulay Culkin's younger brother Kieran Culkin played the role of the bed-wetting cousin, Fuller, in both films.
• Not once during this movie or Home Alone (1990) have Harry and Marv called Kevin by name. They did not have the need to do so despite the fact that they only knew the names of his parents from the details of the first film. All Harry saw at the beginning of Home Alone was a whiny kid who was pitching a fit. The bag that Kevin is holding in front of Duncan's Toy Chest only has the last name and initial on it.
• McDonald's made Happy Meal commercials themed with the movie, after its unsuccessful Batman Returns (1992) market, earlier that same year.
• Macaulay Culkin was living with his family in Manhattan at the time of production.
• Catherine O'Hara was worried her character was not trying hard enough to find Kevin. Scenes were added to show her concern. O'Hara said she practiced her "guilty-sad" face at home.
• Coca-Cola products make several appearances in the film, including in scenes when Kevin rides a limousine and when Kevin's cousin Fuller wakes up at the Plaza Hotel. Notably, Pepsi products appeared in Home Alone (1990).

The bandits have fallen for Kevin's booby traps:

Harry:

• 1. Wooden Board Fling (Marv activated it)
  2. Gooey Ladder
  3. Raining Tools
  4. Flamethrower Switch
  5. Flammable Toilet Water
  6. Half Ladder Fall

Marv:

• 1. Brick Target (also aiming for Harry but missed)
  2. Stapler Door
  3. Falling Basement Pit
  4. Soapy Floor & Paint Collapse
  5. Electro-Sink
  6. Rope Climbing Cement

Both:

• 1. Paint Can KO (failed)
  2. Pillar KO (backup)
  3. Oncoming Toolbox
  4. Rope Climbing Flambé
  5. Raining Cans
  6. Frenzy Pigeons (trap by Pigeon Lady)

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