FILM · 1990 · USA
Home Alone
- Directed by
- Chris Columbus
- Runtime
- 103 min
- Studio
- Hughes Entertainment, 20th Century Fox
311 archived facts 8 topics 1 source Last reviewed Sep 2026
Eight-year-old Kevin McCallister makes the most of the situation after his family unwittingly leaves him behind when they go on Christmas vacation. When thieves try to break into his home, he puts up a fight like no other.
Summary: TMDB
All facts (311)
- #001
Joe Pesci deliberately avoided Macaulay Culkin on set because he wanted Culkin to think he was a bad person.
- #002
In 2014, Catherine O'Hara revealed that Macaulay Culkin still calls her "Mom."
- #003
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Joe Pesci was used to adding profanity to most of his scripts and kept forgetting he was making a family film during his character's on-screen outbursts, so director Chris Columbus advised him to say "fridge" instead of the f-word. Many of Pesci's unintelligible, pained mutterings were his way of avoiding swearing.
- #004
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The picture Kevin finds of Buzz's girlfriend was actually a photo of a boy made up to look like a girl, because director Chris Columbus thought mocking a girl that way would be too cruel. The child in the photo was the son of art director Dan Webster.
- #005
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The line "You guys give up, or are you thirsty for more?" was improvised.
- #006
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Macaulay Culkin drew the map his character uses to set up the traps.
- #007
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The Playboy pages Kevin examines were taped together so that the young Macaulay Culkin would not see any nudity. The cover was from the July 1989 issue.
- #008
Everyone on set admired how mature and professional Macaulay Culkin was. Joe Pesci told Entertainment Weekly, "Mac is not like a nine-year-old. He's an old man already."
- #009
Macaulay Culkin's stunt double was a very short 30-year-old man.
- #010
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Many of the shots focusing on Kevin at the start of the film are taken from above his head, making him look small and helpless. At the end of the film Kevin is mostly shot from below, making him appear taller and more confident.
- #011
During production, Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern were indifferent about the film's potential, and neither believed it would be a big success. Their extraordinary performances in the film were deliberate.
- #012
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Marv's question to Harry, "Why the hell are you dressed like a chicken?", was improvised by Daniel Stern. In the original script it was "Why the hell did you set yourself on fire?"
- #013
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Writer and producer John Hughes worried that mothers would never believe a parent could forget one of their children. Chris Columbus recalled, "John really filled in every possible logic hole, and the audience always bought it."
- #014
Although John Hughes fiercely defended his script and insisted everyone say their lines as written, he allowed his friend John Candy to improvise. This was in fact a trademark of writer and producer Hughes, who also had the five students in The Breakfast Club (1985) improvise telling each other why they were in detention. Nearly all of Candy's dialogue in the film is improvised.
- #015
Roberts Blossom considered this film one of the high points of his career after its release. Blossom said children usually recognized him from the role of Old Man Marley and would ask, "Aren't you the guy…?"
- #016
When the original composer backed out, John Williams stepped in. Chris Columbus jokingly suggested Williams even though they never thought they could get him, but after seeing an early cut of the film he was "enchanted" and happily came on board.
- #017
The film entered the Guinness Book of Records as "Highest Box-Office Gross - Comedy," grossing 477 million dollars worldwide.
- #018
John Candy filmed his role in only one day, even if it took twenty-three hours. Nearly all of his dialogue was improvised. His role was potentially inspired in part by the character he played in Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987), which John Hughes wrote and produced.
- #019
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John Candy took the role of Gus Polinski as a favor to John Hughes and was paid a set fee (the Screen Actors Guild minimum). The character was inspired by the real-life Jan "Polka King" Lewan, a Pennsylvania resident whose polka band toured worldwide.
- #020
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The scene in which Kevin crosses in front of the driveway just as Harry and Marv are coming down and stops just in time to avoid hitting him was achieved by having Macaulay Culkin walk backwards as the van drove backwards past him, while some crew members rocked the van to create a dramatic effect. The film was then shown in reverse.
- #021
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The film Kevin watches on the videocassette is not a real film but footage created specifically for the movie. It was called "Angels with Filthy Souls." Along with the other similar period references in the film, it is a play on Angels with Dirty Faces (1938), which starred James Cagney.
- #022
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During rehearsal for the scene in which Harry tries to bite Kevin's finger, Joe Pesci actually bit Macaulay Culkin and left a small scar.
- #023
Because of child labor laws, Macaulay Culkin was allowed to work only five hours a day on set. The crew scheduled scenes around his timetable and mostly put him in front of the camera alone.
- #024
When nine-year-old Macaulay Culkin got tired on set, he would lie down on the floor and sleep between takes.
- #025
Director Chris Columbus's greatest childhood fear was burglars. This was one reason he wanted to make this film.
- #026
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The ornaments Marv steps on were actually made of candy.
- #027
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The concept for this film emerged during the shooting of Uncle Buck (1989), also written and produced by John Hughes, in a scene in which Macaulay Culkin played a character who interrogates a prospective babysitter through the front-door mail slot.
- #028
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Daniel Stern wore rubber feet for his barefoot scenes, similar to Bruce Willis as John McClane in Die Hard (1988).
- #029
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The last scene shot for the film was the one in which Kevin runs through the water-filled basement. Because a flooded set always leaks water, the set was built specifically inside the local high school's swimming pool so that all the water could be drained instantly.
- #030
According to Chris Columbus, during his interview with Alec Baldwin on Baldwin's podcast "Here's the Thing," John Heard said he was unhappy working on this film and thought it would be terrible. After seeing the finished product and its subsequent success, however, Heard apologized to Columbus while they were shooting scenes for Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), and his character broke before the first take because he wanted to tell Columbus. Columbus says footage of Heard's apology is still on videocassette.
- #031
Although the role was written by John Hughes specifically for Macaulay Culkin, several hundred other children were auditioned by Chris Columbus. According to the DVD commentary, Columbus hesitated to cast Culkin because Hughes had cast him very recently in Uncle Buck (1989) and he did not want to appear in the film community as a pushover. After auditioning all the other young actors, however, he realized Culkin was in fact the best choice for the role.
- #032
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The scene in which Kevin takes a toothbrush was the first scene shot for the film.
- #033
The exterior of the McCallister house was shot in front of a house on the outskirts of Chicago. Because it was too small to film inside and Chicago had no large film studios, the interior was built entirely inside an abandoned high school. The crew also set up their offices there.
- #034
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Director Chris Columbus was going to ask Joe Pesci to perform the "How am I funny?" speech from GoodFellas (1990) on set. In fact, Pesci was to have a similar scene with Daniel Stern, questioning him defensively about whether he had an advantage. The scene was cut.
- #035
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The image of Kevin with his hands on his face and screaming, used on the poster and the video box, was improvised by Macaulay Culkin. He had forgotten to pull his hands away while screaming. It became the film's most famous scene.
- #036
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The sled Kevin uses to slide down the stairs can also be seen next to the television while Kevin watches How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966), in Chris Columbus's office. The entire cast signed it.
- #037
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The scene in which Harry's head is scorched with a welding torch was achieved with a technique known as "Pepper's Ghost," using a glass panel placed at a forty-five-degree angle and a hair dryer (also at a forty-five-degree angle) blowing a real flame from a dark off-screen area onto a black-headed dummy. The flame seen on screen is actually the reflection of the flame in the glass. If you look carefully, you can sometimes see the edges of the dummy's head because the position of Joe Pesci's head is slightly further back.
- #038
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Macaulay Culkin fell ill with a cold during filming. Production was paused while he recovered, except for one particular scene. In the scene where Kevin is chased by a police officer after accidentally stealing a toothbrush, Macaulay's voice was very hoarse, his face was pale, and his eyes were red and swollen.
- #039
The film is regarded as a traditional Christmas film in Poland. It has aired on national television every year during the Christmas season since 1990. In 2010, the film was set to not be broadcast in Poland, but it aired after protests by more than 90,000 people. In 2011, the film aired on 23 December and, with more than five million viewers, became the most popular program broadcast during the Christmas season in Poland.
- #040
When the producers first cast Daniel Stern as Marv, Stern agreed to six weeks of shooting. When they later told him they needed him for eight weeks but the studio would not pay him more, Stern turned the offer down. On the studio's recommendation, Daniel Roebuck took over the role of Marv from tape because he was willing to work for a lower fee than Stern. According to Roebuck, after a two-day meeting with producers who were "cold" toward him, he was told he was no longer needed because his screen tests showed a lack of chemistry with Joe Pesci. The studio eventually gave in to the producers' wishes and brought Stern back, since he and Pesci had been friends since appearing in I'm Dancing as I Can (1982) and had great chemistry. Roebuck earned a hefty paycheck for his troubles, but only on the condition that he not take any other acting work until the film was completed. Roebuck, who was able to make a down payment on a house with the money he received for not working on the project, saw the rejection as a major blow to his ego and suffered from his experience with this film for a long time.
- #041
Chris Columbus had previously been hired by John Hughes to direct National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989). After meeting with Chevy Chase, however, Columbus realized the two would not get along and asked Hughes whether there were other projects he could work on instead. This film was one of the options offered to him.
- #042
To get Macaulay Culkin to memorize his lines, Chris Columbus bribed him by promising to let him play Nintendo, and the strategy worked.
- #043
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The snow in front of Kevin's house at the end of the film was actually mashed potatoes.
- #044
Ralph Foody and Michael Guido were originally cast in the opposite roles of Snakes and Johnny, but Foody was recovering from knee surgery during filming and could not perform the fall, so the roles were switched. Guido often joked that this swap meant his character was one of the few actors who died and therefore could not return for the sequel.
- #045
The huge success of this film and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) allowed Chris Columbus to move on to more successful projects such as Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) and the first two Harry Potter films.
- #046
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To support a stronger Christmas feeling, red and green are the main recurring colors throughout the film and appear quite prominently in almost every scene. This includes furniture, clothing, food containers and all the wallpaper.
- #047
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The trailer included deleted and alternate scenes: a television announcer warns viewers to be on the lookout for the Wet Bandits. In the supermarket scene, the supermarket manager stands behind the checkout girl and in the theatrical scene asks Kevin the questions the checkout girl asks him, and just before Kevin goes home there is additional dialogue between Harry and Marv in which Marv says, "Kids are stupid. I know I was," and Harry replies, "You still are, Marv."
- #048
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At around fifty-three minutes in, despite making a family film, Daniel Stern once used the "s" word, which can be heard as he retrieves his boot from the dog door and is also shown in the English subtitles.
- #049
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The car that "Santa Claus" (whom Kevin talks to about wanting his family back) is driving before he stops is a 1980 Honda Civic hatchback. The actor really did stop on camera as he drove it away.
- #050
Chris Columbus cast Joe Pesci because he was one of his heroes, but he never thought he would cast him in such a broad comedy role.
- #051
The child who plays Kevin's cousin Fuller is Kieran Culkin, Macaulay Culkin's brother, in his first feature film.
- #052
In December 2018, Macauley Culkin recreated his role and some of the scenes from this film in a television commercial for the "Google Assistant" product. Although Culkin had previously been through a rather bad period because of concerns about people's health in his private life, in the commercial he appears as almost exactly the same Kevin, only an older version.
- #053
The wax and plastic snow used in this film was given to the Chicago Lyric Opera when filming ended. It has since been used in numerous opera productions.
- #054
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The appearance of Marv and Harry was based on Fagin, the thief in Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist.
- #055
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The scene with the tarantula on Marv's face was shot in only a single continuous take, the only thing the director could convince Daniel Stern to do. The tarantula trainer warned that if he screamed with the tarantula on his face it could startle the spider and possibly cause it to attack him, so Daniel Stern had to scream completely silently while the tarantula was on his face, and the scream sound had to be edited in later. Recalling discussing this with the trainer, Stern said: "I thought, 'How did you train it?' He said, 'We can't really train it,' and I said, 'Okay, you know, would it mind if I yelled at it?' And he said, 'It can't hear.' I said, 'Okay. Well… should we take the needle out?' And he said, 'If we take the needle out, it'll die.' I said, 'But if you don't, I'll die.'".
- #056
After casting Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern, Chris Columbus felt confident enough to cast actors and actresses who had been his heroes growing up, such as Catherine O'Hara after seeing her work on SCTV (1976), John Heard, and later Tim Curry and Rob Schneider in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), because they were all open to cinema.
- #057
The role of Uncle Frank was written with Kelsey Grammer in mind.
- #058
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The "evil furnace" in the basement was operated by two men carrying fishing rods and flashlights.
- #059
In a November 2020 interview, director Chris Columbus revealed that John Candy, a major star by that point, did the airport camera footage as a favor to the film's producer and screenwriter John Hughes and improvised almost all of his lines. Although he had agreed to a modest fee, Candy later regretted the decision: because all his scenes were shot in one day (albeit during a 23-hour shoot), Candy was unhappy that he was paid only 414 dollars for his efforts, less than even the man playing the pizza delivery guy earned.
- #060
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Some scenes in Home Alone were shot at a three-story single-family house at 671 Lincoln Avenue in Winnetka, Illinois. The kitchen, the main staircase, the basement and much of the first-floor landing were filmed inside the house, while the dining room and all the ground-floor rooms except the kitchen were built on a soundstage. The house was built in 1921 and has five bedrooms, a fully converted attic, a detached two-car garage and a greenhouse. The "Kevin's tree house" in the backyard was built specifically for the film and was demolished after principal photography ended.
- #061
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John Candy's polka musician role is a nod to The Shmenge Brothers, a sketch he did for SCTV (1976) in which he and Eugene Levy played the polka-playing brothers Yosh and Stan Shmenge. Catherine O'Hara appeared alongside them in the mockumentary The Last Polka (1985).
- #062
Chris Columbus's previous film had not done well at the box office, and he feared he would never direct again, but John Hughes then sent him the script for Home Alone. Columbus said it was one of the best things he had ever read.
- #063
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A fake burned head was used for the blowtorch scene. It still sits in Chris Columbus's office.
- #064
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A scene removed from the DVD shows a photo of Marv (Daniel Stern) and Harry (Joe Pesci) singing their own deranged version of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town."
- #065
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"Angels with Filthy Souls" initially had no title and was referred to in the script only as "Gangster Movie." The title was devised during shooting, when they realized they needed a label for the videotape Kevin puts into the VCR, as a tribute to Angels with Dirty Faces (1938).
- #066
Old Man Marley was not in the original script.
- #067
In May 2011 the Winnetka, Illinois house used in Home Alone was put up for sale at $2.4 million. It sold for $1.585 million in March 2012. The house is promoted as a tourist attraction and cited as an example of "How to Get Your Home in the Movies."
- #068
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Chris Columbus wanted the booby trap that hits Marv in the face to use an object thrown from the laundry room, but he could not find anything to use. His brother-in-law suggested a clothes iron, and that iron was used in the film.
- #069
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Director Chris Columbus's least favorite booby trap in Home Alone is Harry being covered in feathers, because compared with the others in the series it is very "soft."
- #070
Chris Farley auditioned for Santa Claus.
- #071
At the start of the film, while Kate is on the phone, she can be heard explaining that the family put their dog in a kennel for the holiday and why their house has a dog door, although the dog is never shown or mentioned in the sequel.
- #072
Director Chris Columbus and crew members were impressed by ten-year-old Macaulay Culkin's professionalism. In a retrospective interview, cinematographer Julio Macat said Culkin behaved better on set than some of the adult actors.
- #073
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When Devin Ratray was asked in later life what happened to Buzz, he said he probably went to prison. Ironically, Ratray reprised the role in the later sequel Home Sweet Home Alone (2021), in which Buzz is a police officer. That same year Ratray was arrested for domestic assault and battery of his then-girlfriend, and several years later he came under investigation following rape allegations. After pleading guilty, he received a three-year suspended sentence for the assault.
- #074
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As the McCallisters run toward the arrivals section of the Paris airport, Uncle Rob and his family can briefly be seen on the other side of the glass doors holding a large paper "Welcome" sign. A scene in which the McCallisters ignore the sign and walk over it, splitting it in two, was included on DVD and Blu-ray but cut from the film.
- #075
Producer John Hughes first hired Chris Columbus to direct National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989), but before cameras even started rolling Columbus realized after meeting him that he could not work with the difficult Chevy Chase. So, even though he badly needed the job at that point in his career, Columbus decided to leave the project. He feared it would end his career, but Hughes then brought him in to direct Home Alone, which a year later became a huge hit and earned more than six times what Christmas Vacation made on a budget nearly $10 million smaller.
- #076
Robert De Niro turned down the role of Harry. He was replaced by Joe Pesci, who worked with De Niro on Raging Bull (1980), GoodFellas (1990), Casino (1995), The Good Shepherd (2006) and The Irishman (2019).
- #077
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Old Man Marley is a reference to Jacob Marley, the dead business partner of Scrooge in Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol.
- #078
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The fifteen members of the McCallister family were meant to travel to Paris, but the film glosses over some of the relationships between them. The McCallister family consists of three brothers, Peter, Frank and Rob, along with their wives and children. The families break down as follows: Peter and Kate McCallister live in the Chicago suburb of Winnetka and have five children, Buzz, Linnie, Megan, Jeff and Kevin. Frank and Leslie McCallister are from Ohio and have four children, Tracy, Brooke, Sondra and Fuller. Rob and Georgette McCallister have five children and live in Paris with three of them, Rob's job promotion having temporarily relocated them elsewhere. Their eldest daughter Heather and their son Rod stayed in the United States to finish high school and traveled to Peter and Kate's in Chicago to fly to Paris with the other two McCallister families to meet their parents. Rob and Georgette appear only briefly, since most of their scenes were left on the cutting room floor, but they are shown with their three younger children: unnamed twin girls and a young son named Stefan, whose name is given only in the film's script. Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) reveals that Rob and Georgette kept a residence in New York while in the United States.
- #079
The police station was actually a high school office.
- #080
Cinematographer Julio Macat used A Christmas Story (1983) as an inspiration for the look of Home Alone, which made it one of the last major productions to use carbon arc lighting, which Macat felt gave a warmer and richer light. These lights fell out of use because they could run for only about 20 minutes at a time and required an exhaust system when used indoors. In addition, the production designers worked red and green, the colors traditionally associated with Christmas, into nearly every scene, usually through interior design elements, clothing and food items.
- #081
Chris Columbus sold the scripts for Gremlins (1984) and The Goonies (1985) to Steven Spielberg, but his career did not really take off until the huge success of Home Alone.
- #082
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The uncle says they will never make their flight in 45 minutes. In fact, the trip from the real house on Lincoln Ave in Winnetka to Terminal 3 at O'Hare (where the American Airlines gates are) takes about 29 minutes. Because this was more than a decade before 911, security consisted of little more than belt-fed x-ray machines for luggage; anyone could also go all the way to the departure gates without even a boarding pass, but after the events of September 11 the FAA required passengers to obtain a boarding pass before passing through airport security.
- #083
Home Alone was recycled by Warner Bros. Because of the budget, 20th Century Fox grabbed the rights and it earned 477 million dollars worldwide, an enormous amount for such a cheap film.
- #084
For the sled scene they built a ski ramp on the stairs and ran a test with no one on it, and the sled flew more than 30 feet. So they installed a brake system on it to make the stunt safer for the stuntman. But when they did more takes it moved too slowly, so before another take, while the director shouted "action," the stunt coordinator switched off the brake. That was the take used in the final product.
- #085
Because of child labor laws, Macaulay Culkin could not work after 10 p.m., so for the pizza delivery scene his shots were filmed inside the house in the mornings and the pizza delivery man's shots were filmed outside at night.
- #086
According to director Chris Columbus, the film performed "%500 better" with test audiences after John Williams's score was added.
- #087
It was the highest-grossing film of 1990 domestically. Ghost (1990) was the highest-grossing film of the year worldwide.
- #088
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The novel written by Todd Strasser gives some details that are not explained in the film; in particular, Buzz's pet tarantula is named "Axl," Peter's job is given as that of a successful businessman, and Kate is a fashion designer, which explains the mannequins in the basement, the two sewing machines and the money used to pay for the pizza in the film and used by Kevin for his room service order in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992).
- #089
Sandra Macat, who played Santa's Elf, took on the role of Flight Attendant in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992). At the time she was married to the film's cinematographer, Julio Macat.
- #090
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Chris Columbus envisioned a scene in which the furnace came to life, rose up on four legs and chased Kevin up the stairs. The scene would have cost more than $1 million, so it was trimmed down to just the furnace firing up and saying Kevin's name.
- #091
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Kevin's homemade booby traps may reflect Chris Columbus's fondness for the inventions that appeared in films he wrote, such as Gremlins (1984), The Goonies (1985) and Young Sherlock Holmes (1985), all produced by Steven Spielberg. Columbus and Spielberg are big fans of the James Bond films, perhaps because of the gadgets in them.
- #092
The music John Williams prepared for this film is a song titled "Somewhere In My Memory." It was mainly used in the scores of the first two "Home Alone" films. He made several different recordings of the song, however. The full vocal version of the song appears on the Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) soundtrack alongside Bette Midler.
- #093
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In the extended version of the scene in which the family is in Paris, Frank (Gerry Bamman) serves the children shrimp, calls Fuller (Kieran Culkin) a "punk" and tells him to get off the couch and sit on the floor, while Megan (Hillary Wolf) confronts Buzz (Devin Ratray) and Kevin (Macaulay Culkin), calling Buzz "cruel" because he is not worried about Kevin being left home alone, and Buzz says Kevin deserved to be left behind. The extended version shows how truly malicious Buzz and Frank are, and that Frank also treats Fuller badly, just as he treats Kevin.
- #094
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American Airlines, which had a product placement in this film, acted as a sponsor and partner for the release of the film's home video. The same was later done for the 1992 sequel Lost in New York.
- #095
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Several members of Chris Columbus's family had small roles in this film: his mother-in-law and his daughter Eleanor Columbus were passengers on the plane. His wife Monica Devereux-Columbus was a flight attendant, and his father-in-law played the police officer who delivers the line "tell them to count their kids again."
- #096
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In an interview with Roger Ebert, Richard J. Firfer commented on his role that was cut from the film: "In the original 'Home Alone,' I had a small role as a grocery store manager. I was in the background at a computer while the cashier talked to Macaulay Culkin. The scene was later reshot with me standing next to the cashier and saying the lines. The second version was used in the film's trailers and as the intro to TV interviews with the cast. It was even shown at the Oscars for Culkin's entrance as a presenter. Whatever their reasons for doing it, I'm grateful to the producer and the director; the speaking part got me into the Screen Actors Guild."
- #097
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The house where most of this film was shot is actually located at 671 Lincoln Ave in Winnetka, IL, just outside Chicago. The filmmakers therefore used the house's real address when Kevin and Harry refer to the location. Since then, however, the house has been blurred on Google Maps Street View, along with several other houses in the neighborhood (including the "Murphy" house across the street), because local residents have had to deal with thousands of people driving by and/or walking around taking photos. The crowds are reported to be much worse during the holiday season.
- #098
This film was such an unexpectedly huge financial success worldwide that its distributors, Twentieth Century Fox, delayed the release of Edward Scissorhands (1990) from the other 1990 Christmas releases because they feared they might lose money due to the huge success of Home Alone and the rival Disney film Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989). Although the latter had already opened in US theaters, its release was shifted for the rest of the world. Edward Scissorhands rolled out gradually in other territories from March 1991 through July 1991.
- #099
Joe Pesci's character Harry Lime takes his name from Orson Welles's character in The Third Man (1949).
- #100
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In the original script, the film ended on a freeze frame as Peter asks Kevin what he did while the family was away. Kevin witnessing Old Man Marley's reconciliation with his son was added because Old Man Marley's advice to Kevin about reconciling with his son was left unresolved.
- #101
Macaulay Culkin improvised the aftershave scream and the lip-sync to "White Christmas."
- #102
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The church Kevin attends is actually made up of two locations. The exterior is Trinity Methodist Church. The interior is Grace Episcopal Church. Both are located in the Chicago area.
- #103
In keeping with John Hughes's philosophy that pain is funny, the filmmakers tried to make the stunts as painful as possible. When it came time to shoot, however, the stunts looked so realistic and painful that the crew did not dare laugh or even look at the camera monitor, fearing the stunt performers were actually hurting themselves (which never happened). The stunt team worked so hard to fall backward from as high as possible that such stunts were later called a 'Home Alone stunt' for years afterward.
- #104
In the staged Christmas party scene, Kevin wears an orange speaker-like device around his neck. This is the new 1970s product known as a "laugh box," and it is the source of the laughter audible throughout the scene. (The laughter is hard to hear because of the music, but it is especially noticeable when the camera focuses on the mannequin spinning on the record player.)
- #105
In 2023 it was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry, deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant."
- #106
According to an article published in The Wall Street Journal, the owners of the McCallister house said they were first approached by a location scout who had previously worked with John Hughes. They were initially asked whether they could shoot in a house they owned before they owned the house featured in this film, Uncle Buck (1989). They were trying to sell it at the time and did not want to take it off the market for several months during filming, so they turned the offer down. After moving into their home, the couple was offered a second film, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989), and this time they decided to decline because they were renovating.
- #107
Almost the entire crew of Home Alone also worked on Only the Lonely (1991) and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992).
- #108
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In the scene where Kevin shoots Marv in the forehead with Buzz's BB gun, the hats were not real and were animated in post-production.
- #109
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In the dinner-table fight scene, a rubber chair was used to slam Kieran Culkin's (Fuller) face into the wall.
- #110
The airplane cabin interior set was built over the basketball courts of New Trier High School's old campus. American Airlines provided the plans and the seats.
- #111
Home Alone overtook Beverly Hills Cop (1984) as the highest-grossing comedy in domestic box office revenue and held that record for roughly 30 years, until Deadpool (2016) finally took it.
- #112
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When Harry touches the hot doorknob and burns the letter M into his hand, a small musical motif from Indiana Jones and Raiders of the Lost Ark plays in the background. Both films were scored by John Williams and both involve a villain having an image burned into his palm.
- #113
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The heating tool Kevin used to heat the doorknob was an electric, charcoal-powered device meant for barbecue grills.
- #114
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The original script included a post-credits scene in which Marv and Harry, in prison at Christmas, watch the film Angels with Filthy Souls on TV with other inmates. When they hear the dialogue from the film Kevin used to trick them, they look at each other.
- #115
Contains a major spoiler — show
Little Nero's Pizza is a parody of Little Caesar's Pizza. Caesar and Nero are famous names from Roman history.
- #116
When casting the role of Kevin McCallister, Chris Columbus had seen Macaulay Culkin in Uncle Buck (1989) but first wanted to try other children, while John Hughes was set on Culkin. Columbus met Culkin in New York, was very impressed by him and thought he was wonderful. Columbus brought five more children into the auditions, but none of them resembled Culkin. Columbus went with Culkin because he did not have such a perfect look and connected instantly with the children in the audience. Columbus knew the cameras would love him, and he was extremely funny.
- #117
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Chris Columbus storyboarded several scenes in which Kevin's dreams bring the house to life. One was a demonic oven that comes alive in the basement and chases him on all fours up the stairs, and another had several toy nutcrackers coming to life along with the house. The scenes were too expensive on such a limited budget, however, and the ideas were abandoned.
- #118
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The film is regarded as a child's version of Die Hard (1988). Both films center on protagonists who are left alone after family disputes and act single-handedly to fend off burglars.
- #119
Danny DeVito was initially considered for the role of Harry.
- #120
On set, Macaulay Culkin jokingly said he would direct the film for Chris Columbus.
- #121
Many people consider the film's portrayal of how the police would behave if a "home alone" situation occurred to be unrealistic. The writers and directors had in fact consulted a local police officer, Jeff Jefferson, and wrote all the police scenes with him. The writers and directors were confident in their plans and were puzzled by the audience's reaction. Five years later, Jeff Jefferson was arrested for child neglect for leaving his own children alone over the previous six years.
- #122
According to William Goldman, the film's success led to the creation of a Hollywood expression: "to be Home Aloned," meaning a rival film's box office revenue was reduced by this film's impact.
- #123
Contains a major spoiler — show
In 2015, Macaulay Culkin reprised the iconic role of Kevin McCallister in the first episode of the internet comedy series "DRYVRS." In the series, Kevin has grown up and become a long-haired, disheveled, foul-mouthed, tough and mentally unstable psychopath. He tells Jack (Jack Dishel) about the events of "Home Alone," then kidnaps a car thief who tries to steal his car, ties him up and tortures him. The episode ends with a blood-faced Kevin screaming his signature line at the car thief.
- #124
Home Alone was initially a Warner Brothers production, when the producers said they could make the film for 10 million dollars. During pre-production, however, it became clear they could not make it for less than 14.7 million dollars. While Warner considered whether to approve the budget, director Chris Columbus was secretly meeting with Twentieth Century Fox studio executive Tom Jacobson and studio head Joe Roth, who liked the story and said they would approve the budget immediately. When Warner would not go above 13.5 million dollars and shut down the project, Fox moved at once and took it over. Executive producer Scott M. Rosenfelt walked behind the Warner executive who announced the shutdown, passing all the offices to reassure the team that they had already been picked up by another studio. The takeover raised the budget to 17 million dollars. Following Twentieth Century Fox's acquisition by Walt Disney Pictures in March 2019, the first three Home Alone films became available to watch on Disney+.
- #125
Christopher Lloyd was reported to have turned down the role of Marv.
- #126
Appearing on a 2018 episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (2014), Macaulay Culkin admitted that one major plot point in Home Alone always bothered him: why didn't Kevin call the police when the burglars tried to break in? Although he eventually does so while the burglars are inside the house, the answer is actually quite simple: Kevin recognized Harry as the police officer who came to question his family at the start of the film, so he may have thought the police could not be trusted. And he probably still believes the police are looking for him because of the accidental theft after Old Man Marley scared him out of the store.
- #127
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When Kevin attacks Buzz and spills milk all over the counter, Peter tries to clean up the spill to save the passports and tickets. As he throws away the wet napkins, he accidentally throws away a plane ticket too. The ticket can be seen in the trash with Kevin's name written on it in black pen. The next morning Kevin was again accidentally left home alone because his cousin mistook the curious neighbor kid for Kevin while counting.
- #128
When Heather does the headcount, she says there are 17 people in total (7 from Kevin's family, 6 from Uncle Frank's family, 2 of Kevin's cousins from Uncle Rob, and 2 drivers). This odd number means the group will be split 8-9 between the two minivans. Since Kevin is missing, both minivans have eight people, but each group assumes they are in the van with eight and suspects nothing.
- #129
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The editor of this film is the voice on the answering machine while Harry and Marv rob their first house. He later made his directorial debut with Home Alone 3 (1997).
- #130
It was included on the American Film Institute's list of five hundred films nominated for its 2000 list of the 100 Funniest American Films.
- #131
The flag above Kevin's bed on the third floor is the flag of Chicago, the city where the scene was shot.
- #132
Macaulay Culkin said he considered buying the house and turning it into a fun house: "I had half a mind to buy it -- just for giggles," Culkin told a crowd at the Rosemont Theatre in Illinois during a screening of the film, according to The New York Times. He said he wanted to turn his former fictional home into a "movie fun house" where people could sled down the stairs just as Kevin does in the film. So why didn't he? "I got kids," Culkin said simply, referring to his two sons with actress Brenda Song. "I'm busy, man."
- #133
At the start of the break-in, the McCallister doorknob burn on Harry's (Joe Pesci) hand is a homage to the main poster used to advertise M (1931).
- #134
Buzz was named the second-greatest film bully of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
- #135
Federal Reserve economists estimate that Peter and Kate McCallister would need to earn $305,000 a year (about $756,000 in 2025) to afford their home. Today that figure would place them in Chicago's top-earning 1%.
- #136
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During the "I've made my family disappear" montage, Kevin imagines several family members saying horrible things to him. With the exception of his brother Buzz threatening to feed him to his tarantula, all of these memories appear as scenes elsewhere in the film's standard cut.
- #137
Alan Rickman was considered for the role of Harry Lyme. Rickman had worked with Macaulay Culkin's aunt Bonnie Bedelia on Die Hard (1988).
- #138
Contains a major spoiler — show
While Kevin defends the house alone, he lets his macaroni and cheese go cold, leading many people to wonder what happened to it and even whether Kevin ate it at all. Google apparently wondered the same thing: in 2018 it released a commercial in which Macaulay Culkin is about to eat the same meal, only to see the clock strike nine and hear Harry and Marv getting into the car. Culkin asks Google Home to run Operation Kevin, lock all the doors, turn on the lights and run the Roomba with a basketball-player cut, and happily finishes his meal.
- #139
When director Chris Columbus's next film, Only the Lonely (1991), was released in theaters, this film was still showing in theaters. This film was in eleventh place, while the second film opened in fifth place on its opening weekend.
- #140
Filming began on February 14, 1990, and ended on May 16, 1990.
- #141
While director Chris Columbus was staying at his wife's home in Chicago after the birth of their first child, writer and producer John Hughes sent him two scripts, one of which was for this film, which he fell in love with and which generated great interest, and he felt he could really make a strong film out of it. He and Hughes hit it off immediately, and Hughes gave him the directing job.
- #142
Rowan Atkinson auditioned for the role of Harry. Bob Hoskins also turned the role down.
- #143
Contains a major spoiler — show
The Playboy issue Kevin finds in Buzz's room is from July 1989, and Erika Eleniak is the July Playmate. It was the same issue featured in Under Siege (1992), in which Erika Eleniak played a significant role.
- #144
Kirstie Alley was considered for the role of Kate McCallister based on her performance in Look Who's Talking (1989). Alley turned the offer down, however, because she was working on Look Who's Talking Too (1990).
- #145
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On the plane, as Kate and Peter try to think of what they forgot to do, Peter says he forgot to close the garage. In several earlier scenes, when Kevin realizes he is home alone, he runs outside and finds the cars with the garage doors genuinely open.
- #146
Jeremy Irons, often known for playing villains, was offered the role of either Harry or Marv, but turned down both roles due to scheduling conflicts.
- #147
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At the airport in Paris, the woman using the payphone speaks to Kate in French, saying "Que faites-vous" (meaning "What are you doing?"), then "Que se passe-t-il?" ("What's going on?"), and when Kate takes the phone from her she says "Rendez-moi le telephone," ("Give me back the phone"), after which the McCallisters finally take the phone from her.
- #148
Al Pacino was offered the role of either Harry or Peter McCallister, but turned down both roles due to a scheduling conflict.
- #149
Old Man Marley, played by Roberts Blossom, is said to be a serial killer. Blossom's most notable role before this film was the lead in Deranged (1974), a fictionalized version of serial killer Ed Gein.
- #150
Daniel Stern says that even 20 years after the popular holiday film's release, he and Joe Pesci still find time for each other. "I see him once a year," Stern says of Pesci. According to Stern, he and Pesci had met years before Home Alone, during the filming of a 1982 drama. "We did a really bad movie together called I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can, where we played mental institution [patients]," he says. Despite the fact that he and Pesci, whom he describes as a "blessing," "got cut out of the movie," Stern says he has supported the Goodfellas star ever since, including his passion project, music. "One of the things I like to tell people about Mr. Pesci is that if you want to know who he really is, listen to his music. He's the most brilliant jazz singer," Stern tells PEOPLE. "He has a beautiful tenor voice. So he makes me cry when he sings those kinds of Sinatra songs."
- #151
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Near the beginning of the film, Kevin's brother Jeff puts a toothbrush in his pocket. In the famous aftershave scream scene, Kevin claims he cannot find his toothbrush. After Jeff puts a toothbrush, most likely his own, in his pocket, Linnie tells Kevin that their mother probably packed his bag for him, which increases the likelihood that Kevin's toothbrush was already packed rather than in Jeff's pocket. Since Kevin was told to get ready, however, it is open to interpretation.
- #152
The airport clerk who buys the family's plane tickets never questioned why one person from the group was missing. This is because Peter had unknowingly thrown away Kevin's ticket the previous night while wiping up the milk at the counter, so the clerk counted the number of people who were given tickets.
- #153
The iron and the welding machine are the only traps Kevin sets that are not shown.
- #154
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A scene was filmed in which Peter (John Heard), Heather (Kristin Minter), Linnie (Angela Goethals) and Jeff (Michael C. Maronna) are seen lying in bed, unable to sleep because they are worried about Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) and miss him, but it was cut.
- #155
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John Heard is seen reading Thomas McGuane's novel "Nobody's Angel" on the plane. McGuane and Heard had both previously been married to Margot Kidder.
- #156
The ornaments Marv steps on after climbing out the window were made of candy. Daniel Stern insisted on walking on them barefoot. His screaming reaction in this film is acting.
- #157
The slogan on the "Oh-Kay Plumbing" van used by Harry and Marv is "Your flood control experts." This is funny because Marv wants them to call themselves the "Wet Bandits," and they leave the water running after robbing houses.
- #158
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Journalists have several times jokingly asked doctors and medical personnel to analyze the injuries the Wet Bandits sustain during the film. All of them concluded that the Wet Bandits are injured in a life-threatening way, and some said they probably would not survive the film.
- #159
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Macaulay Culkin has a larger family in real life than his character does in this film.
- #160
Over the years, many viewers have wondered how Kevin's parents could afford such a large house, five children and seven plane tickets to Paris. In a 2024 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, director Chris Columbus explained that he and John Hughes had discussed the matter and that Kate "was a very successful fashion designer," while Peter "could have, based on John Hughes own experience, worked in advertising, but I don't remember what the father did." The novelization states that Peter is a successful businessman.
- #161
Although detractors have often pointed out that Kevin being left home alone could only happen if logic were stretched, John Hughes's script actually goes to some length to address many of the perceived gaps in the plot and presents it as a serious series of coincidences. First, milk is spilled on the counter, and while Peter is cleaning the milk off the table he accidentally throws away Kevin's passport and plane ticket. Then, the next morning the family oversleeps and, rushing out the door, Peter and Kate forget in their haste that Kevin was sent up to the third floor. The neighbor boy Mitch is accidentally counted by Heather during the headcount. Given that there should be 17 people in total (including two drivers), they should have been split 8-9 across the airport vans, but both groups assumed they were in a van of 8. Finally, the boarding agent at the airport counted only the tickets handed to her, and since Kevin's were accidentally thrown away, she did not notice that one person was missing.
- #162
Jon Lovitz turned down the role of Harry Lyme.
- #163
It was President Gerald Ford's favorite film.
- #164
When Kate meets Gus Polinski, the Polka King of the Midwest, they are at Scranton Airport. According to the lyrics of "Pennsylvania Polka," the Pennsylvania Polka started in Scranton.
- #165
Clips from It's a Wonderful Life (1946) are shown in this film, in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), which Columbus directed, and in Gremlins (1984), which Columbus wrote.
- #166
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The Christmas decorations at the airport were made specifically for the film and were donated to O'Hare by the producers after filming was completed. They were later reused in Lost in New York. Since then, O'Hare Airport has put up these decorations during the Christmas season.
- #167
On the Home Alone Family Fun Edition DVD, both 26-year-old Macaulay Culkin and director Chris Columbus gave this piece of trivia in a commentary: despite Kate's objections, it would have been better for her to wait with the rest of the family, because as seen in the film, the rest of the family arrives not long after she leaves.
- #168
Chris Columbus rewrote the script, adding the character Old Man Marley, without being credited in the title.
- #169
Chris Columbus said that Macaulay Culkin was an incredibly charming child.
- #170
When Kevin first wakes up and realizes his family has left him behind, he turns on the kitchen television and Miracle on 34th Street (1947) comes on. You see Maureen O'Hara in one of the first scenes of that film. A year after this film, Chris Columbus brought O'Hara back to the screen for the first time in twenty years in Only the Lonely (1991). That film was also produced by John Hughes, starred John Candy and gave Macaulay Culkin a small role.
- #171
There is a cardboard cutout of Michael Jordan in this film. Jordan was Macaulay Culkin's favorite basketball player.
- #172
John Heard was cast because Chris Columbus liked his work in Cutter's Way (1981).
- #173
The film's cast includes two Oscar winners: Joe Pesci and Kieran Culkin.
- #174
Macaulay Culkin and John Candy both appeared in Uncle Buck (1989), which was also written and produced by John Hughes. Unlike in Uncle Buck, Culkin and Candy do not share a single scene together in Home Alone.
- #175
Contains a major spoiler — show
A scene was shot in which the family in Paris is unable to sleep and worries about Kevin, with loud snoring, and everyone except Buzz feels bad about how they treated him, while Buzz clearly does not worry about or care about Kevin. The scene was cut.
- #176
The shot in which Kevin is nearly hit by Harry and Marv in the van was actually reversed. Two crew members rocked the van, and then Joe Pesci reversed the van down the driveway. The sound effects were to be dubbed in later. If you look closely, you can see the shot is played backwards, because the van's exhaust appears to be sucked into the exhaust pipe.
- #177
Contains a major spoiler — show
In the scene where Harry is hit on the stairs and the paint can strikes him, he falls onto Marv, who then says, "You're missing some teeth!" If you listen closely, you can actually hear Harry's gold tooth bounce off the ground after he lands face-down on top of Marv.
- #178
Contains a major spoiler — show
While talking with Old Man Marley, who speaks of his strained relationship with his son, Kevin says that no matter how angry he is with his father, he keeps talking to him, especially during the holidays. In real life, Macaulay Culkin had a very strained relationship with his father, so much so that the two no longer spoke.
- #179
The Nero's pizza chain featured in the film has a slogan: "No Fiddlin' Around." This is a reference to the Roman emperor Nero, who is said to have played the fiddle while Rome burned in 64 AD. However, this is impossible, since the fiddle was not invented until the fifteenth century.
- #180
A board game based on the film was released in 1991.
- #181
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Kevin says, "had a friend who got nailed because there was a rumor he wore dinosaur pajamas." The previous year's National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989), also written by John Hughes, had a scene in which Clark Griswold wears pajamas covered in small dinosaurs.
- #182
Keanu Reeves and River Phoenix were considered for the role of Buzz. They had appeared together in I Love You to Death (1990) and My Own Private Idaho (1991).
- #183
At the start of the film, Harry commits another crime besides burglary: he impersonates a police officer.
- #184
As of May 2024, the house used in Home Alone was listed for sale at a price of over $5 million.
- #185
Peter tries to speak French to the operator in Paris, saying "Parlez anglais" ("Speak English?") and then "Est-ce que un kişi qui parle anglais la?" ("Is there a person who speaks English?"). Before giving up and speaking English, he says, "I'm looking for my son, do you know where he is?"
- #186
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In real life, no wide-body aircraft ever flew to Scranton International Airport, Kate's unexpected stop in the film.
- #187
Chris Columbus admitted that all the prank gags were dangerous and required the stunt performers to face a serious risk of injury. He and the crew would laugh at the shots on set and then immediately fall silent, holding their breath while waiting for confirmation that the stunt performer was all right.
- #188
At the start of production, Bruce Broughton, who had previously worked with Chris Columbus on Young Sherlock Holmes (1985), was hired as the original composer. His name appeared on the first printing of the posters. Broughton turned down the offer instead to work on The Rescuers Down Under (1990), which led the producers to ask John Williams half-jokingly, thinking they could never land such a high-profile composer. Fortunately, after attending the first screening, Williams liked the film and was happy to collaborate.
- #189
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Initially, the price of 10 pizzas was $122.50. That comes to an average of $12.25 per pizza, excluding tip. Kevin's plain cheese pizza was later priced at $11.80, while he pays $12. That amounts to a tip of about 1.7%.
- #190
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Kevin and Old Man Marley share a similar character arc in the film. Kevin fights with Buzz and later argues with Kate, wishing he had no family and never wanted to see them again for the rest of his life. He is then accidentally left home alone. Old Man Marley tells Kevin that he became estranged from his son after an argument. The film ends with Kevin reuniting and making peace with his family, and Old Man Marley reuniting and making peace with his son.
- #191
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Filming locations: the interior church scene was shot at Grace Episcopal Church (924 Lake Street) in the western suburb of Oak Park. The church's exterior scenes were shot at Trinity United Methodist Church (1024 West Lake Avenue, Wilmette, Illinois), north of Chicago.
- #192
Dean Martin's song "I'll Be Home for Christmas" was supposed to be included in the film but was cut.
- #193
While the children in the main McCallister family (Buzz, Megan, Jeff, Linnie and Kevin) are all different ages, with Buzz the oldest at thirteen or fourteen and Kevin the youngest at eight, in real life the actors who play Buzz, Megan, Jeff and Linnie are all the same age, born in 1977, while Macaulay Culkin remains the youngest, born in 1980. In that order, Devin Ratray (Buzz McCallister), born in January; Hillary Wolf (Megan McCallister), born in February; Angela Goethals (Linnie McCallister), born in May; and Michael C. Maronna (Jeff McCallister), born in September, were all born in 1977 — a once-in-a-lifetime situation for anyone who loves this film: this film has 4 actors who were all born in 1977.
- #194
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When Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) turns on the television in the kitchen, Miracle on 34th Street (1947) is playing. Writer and producer John Hughes co-wrote (with George Seaton) and produced Miracle on 34th Street (1994).
- #195
Contains a major spoiler — show
In the scene where Kevin fights with Buzz, while Buzz is eating Kevin's pizza, Frank crudely and disgustingly calls Kevin a "little jerk" when the Pepsi spills in his lap. If you watch the film again carefully, you see Peter knock over the Pepsi bottle and spill it in Frank's lap.
- #196
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At the start of the film, the audience is shown that Kevin is banished to the couch in the attic the night before the trip. The attic, whose beams have no notable insulation, would have left the attic at below-freezing temperatures without insulation — especially in Chicago in mid-December — making it far from an ideal place to sleep, let alone for an eight-year-old child; so in theory Kevin would have developed hypothermia from being in the attic at sub-zero temperatures.
- #197
Production start times had to be shifted from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. to allow Joe Pesci to play nine holes of golf before filming.
- #198
Contains a major spoiler — show
At the start of the film, while everyone is eating pizza and Kevin is causing a commotion, Kevin MacAllister's boarding pass can be seen in the trash when Peter throws away paper napkins. This means that even if Kevin reached the airport, he could not board the plane because he had no boarding pass.
- #199
In early August 2019, Twentieth Century Fox's new owners, The Walt Disney Company, announced that this film would be among the first batch of existing Fox films to be remade for its Disney+ streaming service. Fans of the film joked that it would only be a short film, since Kevin would only need to make a call using a mobile phone. The film Home Sweet Home Alone (2021) premiered in 2021 and was a standalone sequel in which Devin Ratray reprised the role of Buzz McCallister. It received extremely negative reviews, which also suffered from the excessive use of CGI and highlighted uncreative, sanitized versions of the booby traps. Viewers also criticized the absence of the cartoonishly wild violence of the first two films, which, as many doctors have said, would in reality be life-threatening or potentially fatal. In fact, a fan theory suggests that the character Kevin grows up to become the Jigsaw character in the violent Saw film series.
- #200
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When Kevin asks the store owner whether the toothbrush is "approved by the American Dental Association," she examines it and instead says, "I don't know hun, it doesn't say." The ADA seal has been applied to products such as toothbrushes since 1931. He was looking for a seal, and she should have told him that if the seal is not there, it is not approved.
- #201
Dennis Hopper was briefly considered for the role of Harry Lyme, but director Chris Columbus decided to overlook him because his villain role in Blue Velvet (1986) was one Columbus found too surreal and frightening for a children's film. Columbus chose Joe Pesci instead, despite Pesci being known for being very profane, because he had some experience with comedy through Easy Money (1983) and Lethal Weapon 2 (1989).
- #202
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The scene in which Megan talks with Buzz about Kevin was longer, with extra dialogue in which Heather scolds Buzz and calls him cruel; Buzz then says that Kevin deserves to be left behind, that he wanted it, and that he is not worried about Kevin.
- #203
Sharp-eyed viewers may notice that near the end of the film, when Kevin comes downstairs on Christmas morning, the milk and cookies are unfortunately still sitting where Kevin left them on the table by the fireplace, because there is no adult in the house to make sure the treats get eaten.
- #204
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At 1:13:45, while Kevin locks the front door, he is holding the toothbrush he is playing with in his left hand. These are scenes that were shot a day or two earlier.
- #205
On The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, Daniel Stern said he wished Jack Lemmon had played Harry, because Stern had always wanted to work with Lemmon.
- #206
The McCallisters' house is a larger version of Neil Page's house in John Hughes's other popular film "Planes, Trains and Automobiles."
- #207
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Joe Pesci's (Harry Lime) only screen time with Kevin's family in this film and in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) is at the beginning of this one, when he disguises himself as a police officer at the McCallister house. His co-star Daniel Stern (Marv Murchins) never gets to act alongside Kevin's family in either film.
- #208
Contains a major spoiler — show
Chicago can be very cold, since the all-time record low of -27° occurred just five years before this film was shot. Although the McCallister house is in Chicago, its attic has uninsulated bare beams, but it is used as an empty room.
- #209
Contains a major spoiler — show
After Kevin says grace before eating his macaroni and cheese dinner, he crosses his chest, implying that he and his family are Catholic or Episcopal.
- #210
Both Home Alone 1 and 2 have video game adaptations. The later films in the series do not.
- #211
John Hughes initially wanted Patrick Read Johnson to direct, but he was busy making Spaced Invaders (1990) at the time.
- #212
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This is Hope Davis's (French Ticket Agent) first theatrical film.
- #213
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Harry (Joe Pesci) wears a wedding ring throughout this film. You can first see it when he dresses as a police officer, and he wears it for the rest of the film. No possible wife is ever mentioned in this film, but it is therefore implied that he is probably divorced or that it is part of his disguise while posing as a police officer.
- #214
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In the box where Buzz hides his money, we see an All-Star Fred McGriff 1989 Fleer baseball card.
- #215
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Frank and Buzz are the family members who treat Kevin worst, bullying him, antagonizing him and treating him badly. In a deleted scene, Frank jokes to Kevin that everyone in France will call him "yank," and then pulls down Kevin's pants. When Peter accidentally spills soda on Frank's lap, Frank nastily calls Kevin a "little jerk." Buzz will not let Kevin sleep in his room, Buzz eats Kevin's entire cheese pizza and threatens to throw up all over Kevin. In a deleted scene, Buzz threatens to nail Kevin to Marley's front door if he does not get out of the bedroom, and Buzz calls Kevin a "gutless butterfly."
- #216
31 years after the film's release, Devin Ratray was arrested on December 23, 2021, on allegations that he tried to strangle his girlfriend in a hotel room; Devin Ratray denied the charge. Devin Ratray's character in the film, Buzz, is a diabolical bully who cruelly torments Kevin.
- #217
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Gus Polinski, cousin Heather, Old Man Marley, the Pizza Boy and Mitch Murphy (the boy across the street) are the only characters from this film who are not in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992).
- #218
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Uncle Frank resembles the famous Charles Dickens character Ebenezer Scrooge, since both are tight-fisted with money. Frank refuses to pay the pizza delivery driver, using the excuse that this is not his house; he takes advantage of getting free champagne; and in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) he does not pay for the trip to Paris or Florida. Kevin even calls him "Mr. Cheapskate" in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992). Also, like Scrooge, Frank is generally a grumpy and rude person.
- #219
Dudley Moore and Phil Collins were considered for the role of Harry.
- #220
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Harry and Marv's van is a 1986 Dodge Ram.
- #221
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The American Airlines plane taking the McCallisters to Paris is shown as a McDonnell Douglas DC-10, but the model depicted in the takeoff scene is the -10 series, as indicated by the absence of a center-main landing gear. This DC-10 variant has a range of only 3,500 miles, making transatlantic or transpacific travel impossible and limiting it to domestic and short-range international flights. The only DC-10 models with transatlantic or transpacific range are the -30 and -40 series.
- #222
This is a real Tommy Gun film prop from the 1930s that Chris Columbus managed to track down for his fake black-and-white film.
- #223
Joe Pesci and Catherine O'Hara appeared in Betsy's Wedding (1990). That film frequently featured Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy, who were directed by John Hughes.
- #224
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Home Alone was released in November 1990, but the events of the film take place in December 1990, meaning the film came out before the actions depicted in it. We know it is December 1990 because a calendar is shown while Kevin fires his gun at the toys.
- #225
Stars Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern appeared in 1990, the same year as this film's premiere, in films inspired by the life of gangster Henry Hill. Daniel Stern appeared in "My Blue Heaven," inspired by Hill's life in witness protection, while Joe Pesci appeared in "Goodfellas," a more direct adaptation of Hill's life.
- #226
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The McCallisters' neighbor tells the shuttle driver that his family (the Murphys) are going to Florida for the Christmas holiday. In Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), the McCallisters go to Florida for the Christmas holiday.
- #227
At the time of its release, this was the fourth highest-grossing film worldwide after E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) and Ghost (1990).
- #228
Joe Pesci improvised the lines: "Shut it Marv!" "Go back!" and "What are you scared Marv, you afraid?"
- #229
Contains a major spoiler — show
In the original draft of the screenplay, Harry and Marv worked for Uncle Frank, who hired them to rob Kate and Peter's house. He even instructed them to kill Kevin, so Kevin being left home alone was intentional: Uncle Frank had Buzz eat Kevin's pizza to make Kevin angry and get him sent to the third floor as punishment. He then cut the power line so that the family would forget Kevin in the chaos. None of this was used in the final draft.
- #230
Contains a major spoiler — show
Frank says "Dikkat, dikkat" in French, then "Mes petits enfants" ("My little children"), and in English, "Would you like a little shrimp, huh?"
- #231
Joe Pesci was not the first choice for the role of Harry. Many actors were considered for the part, including Robert De Niro, Jon Lovitz, Christopher Lloyd, Bob Hoskins, Dudley Moore, Phil Collins, Danny DeVito, Kevin Pollak, Rowan Atkinson, Michael Biehn, James Caan, Kevin Kline, Tommy Lee Jones, Ray Romano, Jack Nicholson, John Stamos, Brad Garrett, Gene Hackman and Kurt Russell.
- #232
Contains a major spoiler — show
In the scene where Kate realizes she forgot Kevin, the book Peter is reading is Thomas McGuane's "Nobody's Angel."
- #233
Sigourney Weaver, Diane Keaton, Holly Hunter, Jodie Foster, Glenn Close, Geena Davis, Jamie Lee Curtis, Stockard Channing, Carrie Fisher, Madonna, Daryl Hannah, Kelly McGillis, Lea Thompson, Linda Hamilton, Helen Hunt, Laura Dern, Jane Seymour, Anjelica Huston, Sharon Stone, Michelle Pfeiffer, Jessica Lange, Marilu Henner, Debra Winger, Jennifer Gray, Annie Potts, Kelly Preston, Maureen McCormick, Bette Midler, Meg Ryan, Lynda Carter, Kim Cattrall, Gates McFadden, Ally Sheedy and Mary Steenburgen were also considered for the role of Kate McCallister.
- #234
Gilbert Gottfried and Kevin Pollak were considered for the role of Harry Lyme.
- #235
Tim Allen, Michael Keaton, Bryan Cranston, Ted Danson, Richard Gere, John Lithgow and Christopher Reeve were considered for the role of Peter McCallister.
- #236
Jeffrey Jones was considered to play Peter McCalister because of his chemistry with Catherine O'Hara, who played Kate, after the two had portrayed a married couple in Beetlejuice (1988) two years earlier. However, director Chris Columbus modestly rejected the idea and wanted John Heard, whose performance in Cutter's Way (1981) had inspired him to choose Heard for the role.
- #237
Max Wright of ALF (1986) was offered the roles of Peter McCallister, Uncle Frank McCallister, Uncle Rob McCallister (despite being in a deleted scene) and Harry, but he turned down all four roles.
- #238
Old Man Marley gives Kevin an explanation containing a message similar to the one Jacob would give Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, since Marley would also be Jacob's surname.
- #239
From 1993 to 1996 and again in 1998, NBC aired the film at 8 p.m. As part of its holiday promotions, the Thanksgiving evening time slot (Jurassic Park (1993) aired in its place in 1997, and this film aired on NBC a week before Christmas). The film aired on NBC until 1999, when it was broadcast on the Sunday after Thanksgiving weekend in its final airing on NBC. The film also aired for twenty-four hours on FX on Thanksgiving in 2009.
- #240
Contains a major spoiler — show
Buzz (Devin Ratray) tells Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) and Rod (Jedidiah Cohen) that Old Man Marley (Roberts Blossom) killed his family in 1958, the year Chris Columbus was born.
- #241
Although it is not explicitly stated in this film or in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), the novelizations of both films reveal that Rod is the son of the New York McCallisters, Rob and Georgette. The novels also state that after the New York McCallisters minus Heather moved to Paris, Rod moved to Ohio to continue his high school education and live with Frank and Leslie. This element is subtly explained by Kate to Harry (disguised as the Chicago Police Department checking on the houses), when Harry asks whether there was a reunion, Harry added that the US-based McCallisters had gathered in Chicago for their trip to Paris the next day, that Rob had moved his family there after a job promotion, and that their older children (Heather and Rod) continued their education in the United States and that Rob and Georgette paid for travel expenses so they could be together during the holidays.
- #242
To promote the film, Catherine O'Hara hosted the April 13, 1991 episode of Saturday Night Live. During the series' "In/Out" segment written by David Spade, Spade made a joke about kissing the series' host in order to appear in the Home Alone sequel. Although Spade did not appear in the sequel, his castmate and friend Rob Schneider played the comic Cedric.
- #243
Next to the van Harry (Joe Pesci) uses is "Oh-Kay Plumbing." Pesci is remembered for the character Leo Getz, who says "OK, OK, OK, OK" in the Lethal Weapon films.
- #244
In the scene where Kevin looks through Buzz's private stash, a box of Junior Mints can be seen. In the twentieth episode of the fourth season of Seinfeld (1989), "The Junior Mint," the main characters of the "Home Alone" films were mentioned.
- #245
Tim Curry, Joe Pantoliano and Zack Norman were considered to play Harry Lyme. Curry took on the role of the Hotel Concierge in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992).
- #246
Warren Beatty was considered for the role of Peter McCallister.
- #247
Joe Pesci and John Candy appeared in JFK (1991). In the director's cut of this film, John Larroquette, who worked with Macaulay Culkin in Richie Rich (1994), appeared.
- #248
At one point, Deidre Hall was considered for the role of Kate McCallister.
- #249
John Heard and Daniel Stern appeared in C.H.U.D. (1984).
- #250
Home Alone is the highest-grossing Christmas film in domestic box office revenue. It was also the highest-grossing film worldwide until it was surpassed by The Grinch (2018).
- #251
When Kevin hides under his parents' bed from the Wet Bandits, popcorn can be seen on the floor from earlier in the film when he was eating and jumping onto the bed.
- #252
Macaulay Culkin is the nephew of Bonnie Bedelia, who starred in Die Hard, another film in which a lone hero must fend off thieves at Christmas time.
- #253
In Hungary, the film's title means "Tremble, thieves!" or "Shake with fear, thieves!" The title foreshadows Kevin's elaborate traps, with which he beats and humiliates the would-be thieves, making it one of the most spoiler-heavy yet most fitting international titles.
- #254
Robin Williams, one of the actors considered for the role of Peter McCallister, starred in Chris Columbus's Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), Nine Months (1995) and Bicentennial Man (1999).
- #255
The trailer was narrated by Don LaFontaine.
- #256
James Rebhorn was considered for the role of Uncle Frank.
- #257
A different version of the fictional film "Angels with Filthy Souls" was included on the DVD as a bonus feature.
- #258
Contains a major spoiler — show
It's a Wonderful Life plays at Rob McCallister's house in Paris. Both It's a Wonderful Life and this film are preserved in the National Film Registry, the former in 1990 and this film 33 years later, in 2023.
- #259
Contains a major spoiler — show
In Escape from Alcatraz (1979), Doctor Dalton (Roberts Blossom) cuts off his own fingers in protest. In this film, Old Man Marley (Blossom) saves Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) from having his fingers bitten by Harry Lyme (Joe Pesci).
- #260
James Stewart and Vincent Gardenia were considered to play Old Man Marley. According to the Academy Museum, which acquired the film's casting archives, "[Stewart's] agent was interested and he was available, but they ended up going with Roberts Blossom." This would have been among the last films for both men before Gardenia's death in 1992 and Stewart's death in 1997.
- #261
While filming the final scene, Joe Pesci accidentally bit Macaulay Culkin's finger. Culkin still has the scar.
- #262
John Candy shot all of his scenes in a single 23-hour day.
- #263
Both John Heard and Catherine O'Hara died at the age of 71. Heard died in 2017 and O'Hara in 2026.
- #264
Susan Sarandon, Blythe Danner, Candice Bergen and Joanna Cassidy were considered to play Kate McCallister.
- #265
James Ryan plays a stockbroker's son. When the cashier woman tells him, "Jimmy, stop that boy," she is actually referring to his character by name.
- #266
Catherine O'Hara and John Candy appeared together in the series SCTV (1976). This is the only film they made together.
- #267
Larry Hankin and Roberts Blossom both appeared in Escape from Alcatraz (1979).
- #268
Daniel von Bargen was considered for the role of Uncle Frank.
- #269
Catherine O'Hara and John Heard appeared in both After Hours (1985) and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992).
- #270
Contains a major spoiler — show
Chris Columbus had previously directed Adventures in Babysitting (1987), which opens with the hero lip-syncing to The Crystals' "And Then He Kissed Me." In early 1990, Joe Pesci appeared in GoodFellas (1990), where the same song is used over the entrance to the Copacabana scene.
- #271
The film's 1991 United Kingdom VHS included a trailer for another 20th Century Fox comedy, Big (1988). John Heard appeared in both films.
- #272
Macaulay Culkin is implied to have voiced Kevin's angry scream when Kevin attacks Buzz, because Kevin is shown with his teeth closed as he attacks Buzz.
- #273
Tim Robbins was considered for Marv Merchants.
- #274
Contains a major spoiler — show
This is one of two films, both scored by John Williams, in which Joe Pesci and John Candy appear back to back (by year). The other is JFK (1991). Pesci also appeared in Williams's Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992).
- #275
All the cast members said the film set had a fun atmosphere and that they genuinely enjoyed making the film.
- #276
Kevin's father, Peter McCallister (John Heard), shares his character's name with the main villain of Lethal Weapon.
- #277
Fred Willard was considered for the role of Peter McCallister.
- #278
Lance Kinsey was considered for the role of Peter McCallister.
- #279
Contains a major spoiler — show
The original script had Kate returning from Paris via Charles de Gaulle–Detroit–Boston instead of two flights, one from Orly (ORY) to Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) and another from DFW to Scranton (AVP). Both of these routes list the carrier as American Airlines.
- #280
Three years later, Kristin Minter, who played the daughter Heather, gave a nude performance in the film Flashfire (1993) in order to take on more mature roles.
- #281
One of the baseball cards seen in Buzz's collection is a 1989 Fleer Fred McGriff card.
- #282
Alongside this film, Twentieth Century Fox was also shooting Marked for Death (1990) in Chicago at the same time.
- #283
In the first few scenes featuring the old man Marley, a four-note riff can be heard that is exactly the same as Father Dowling's theme music.
- #284
The professions of Peter and Kate McCallister are never explained in the film, and fans have speculated about them for decades. Macaulay Culkin finally offered his own theory in 2025: "I think [Kevin's] dad was a corporate lawyer, which is how they could afford all that nice stuff and live in a nice neighborhood. His mom was an interior designer, which is why the house was so nice."
- #285
When Kevin makes the sign of the cross before his macaroni and cheese dinner, he touches his right shoulder first and then his left. This is a religious gesture practiced by Orthodox Christians. The gesture is also practiced by Catholics, but they touch their left shoulder first and then their right.
- #286
Jon Voight was accepted for the role of Peter McCallister.
- #287
John Candy (Gus Polinski) played Tom Hanks's brother in Splash (1984). Catherine O'Hara (Kate McCallister) played the mother of Tom Hanks's son Colin Hanks in Orange County (2002). John Heard (Peter McCallister) worked with Tom Hanks in Big (1988).
- #288
Michael Ironside was considered for the role of Uncle Frank.
- #289
In the scene where Kevin throws his house party and dances with strings attached to all the dancing mechanisms, he is wearing something resembling A. L. F. The sound box was tied to his neck.
- #290
This is Tracy J. Connor's debut.
- #291
This is the second film in which Joe Pesci plays a plumber. In the 1983 classic "Easy Money," in which he starred alongside Rodney Dangerfield, Pesci plays Nicky Cerone. He owned "Nicky's Royal Flush Plumbing." He had the line "Who am I? I'm the guy who put the bathrooms in this joint!"
- #292
When Home Alone first came out in 1990, it received mixed and positive reviews.
- #293
This film brings together two regular German dubbing voices from The Simpsons: Norbert Gastell and Sabine Bohlmann. Sabine Bohlmann is the German voice of Lisa Simpson, and Norbert Gastell was the German dubbing voice of Homer Simpson for about 26 years until his death.
- #294
Both this film and Young Sherlock Holmes (1985) feature the piece "It's Christmastime." The former was directed by Chris Columbus, and the latter was written by him.
- #295
John Heard, Ralph Foody and D. Danny Warhol appeared in The Package (1989).
- #296
This is Kristin Minter's debut.
- #297
Paula Newsome's first appearance.
- #298
Home Alone features four actors born in 1977: Hillary Wolf (Megan), Angela Goethals (Linnie), Devin Ratray (Buzz) and Michael C. Maronna (Jeff).
- #299
John Candy (Gus Polinski) and Larry Hankin (Officer Balzak) both appeared in Armed and Dangerous (1986); John Candy played Frank Dooley and Larry Hankin played Kokolovitch.
- #300
When Harry burns his hand on the doorknob and gets a mark on his palm, it is a direct homage to Raiders of the Lost Ark, where Toth takes the hot medallion.
- #301
In the film's original script, the McCallisters traveled to Paris using an Air France Boeing 747 (-100 or -200) to Charles de Gaulle Airport instead of an American Airlines McDonnell Douglas DC-10 to Orly Airport. The same element in the script also shows Frank and Leslie seated in the middle row directly across from Kate and Peter.
- #302
Sam Waterston, David Dukes and Danny Aiello were considered to play Peter McCallister.
- #303
Three men named John worked on this film: John Hughes (writer/producer), John Heard (Peter McCallister) and John Candy (Gus Polinski). Sadly, all three have died: John Candy on March 4, 1994, John Hughes on August 6, 2009 and John Heard on July 21, 2017.
- #304
Terrie Snell genuinely enjoyed playing Aunt Leslie in Home Alone 1 and 2.
- #305
In both this film and its sequel, Kevin clearly has a psychic bond with his mother. The same was true of Macaulay Culkin's and Burt Lancaster's characters in "Rocket Gibraltar."
- #306
The first and last names of the actress who plays Kate McCallister (Kevin's mother), Catherine and O'Hara, are respectively another form of the diminutive Kate (Catherine) and a three-syllable version (O'Hara) of the two-syllable surname O'Hare. As a kind of coincidence, Chicago's O'Hare airport is where Kevin's mother, Kate McCallister (Catherine O'Hara), is found boarding the plane that leaves for France without her.
- #307
Contains a major spoiler — show
Devin Ratray (Buzz) reprised his role in Home Sweet Home Alone (2021). Apart from this film and Home Alone 2: Lost In New York (1992), he is the only original actor to have played his role again.
- #308
At the time of its release, this was 20th Century Fox's second highest-grossing film worldwide after Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977). At that time these were the studio's only two films to gross over $400 million worldwide.
- #309
Special effects coordinator William Purcell used "360 tons of shaved ice, 6,250 yards of snow blanket, 11,000 gallons of airport runway foam, 6,000 pounds of potato flakes, 1,000 pounds of mini fiber, and polyurethane snow" to create the fake snow.
- #310
Roberts Blossom and D. Danny Warhol appeared together in Doc Hollywood (1991).
- #311
The station wagon seen in the McCallister garage after everyone but Kevin has left for the airport is a Buick model, the Buick version of the same-era Oldsmobile station wagon that would appear in the Nickelodeon TV series The Adventures of Pete & Pete. Because Kevin's father is named Peter, a name sometimes shortened to Pete, Pete is also the name of a character in the Nickelodeon series played by Mike Maronna, whose father drives him around in an Olds wagon. In Home Alone, the character Jeff, also played by Maronna, was to be Peter McCallister's son and Kevin's brother. In summary, a man named Peter was to be the father of a character who plays Pete in a series featuring a similar model of car.
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