Home Alone/Trivia

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Actor Allusion: As the hotel concierge (played by Tim Curry) flees from the hotel room in the second movie when he is threatened by a recording of Kevin's uncle, the recording says "Oh, you're cooking, Frankie!", which is an allusion to Curry's previous role as Dr. Frank N. Furter from The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
  • Classic Movie, Commercial Sequel: In 2018, Macaulay Culkin recreated his role for Google Assistant.
  • The Danza: Alex D. Linz as Alex Pruitt.
  • Defictionalization: Kevin's Talkboy from the second film.
  • Doing It for the Art: Daniel Stern was so committed to the role of Marv, and to the concept of Marv and Harry being the Wet Bandits, that in fact, a number of Marv's antics (sticking snowglobes to the dashboard with gum, stepping on and walking across glass ornaments, trying to pry open the back door with a crowbar before giving up and just opening it, the stupid look on his face before getting hit with a flying paint can, the "Why the hell are you dressed like a chicken?" line he says when he sees Harry covered in feathers) were ad-libbed by Stern.
  • Hey, It's That Guy!: Amongst the kids are Big Pete, Maya Driscoll, Delia Fisher, Wallace Wells and Randi the desk clerk.
  • I Am Not Spock: Macaulay Culkin is now forever associated with this role. In the commentary, he acknowledged it as both a blessing and a curse.
  • The Other Darrin: Daniel Stern refused to go near the script of the fourth film, so Marv is played by French Stewart. And he's also dressed like Harry, for some reason.
    • And, of course, the entire McCallister family is played by different actors.
      • Linnie McCallister was actually played by two different actresses, one in each of the first two films.
  • Real Life Relative:
    • Kevin's younger cousin Fuller is Macaulay Culkin's little brother Kieran.
    • The elf that Kevin meets before talking to Fake Santa in the first movie, and the New York airport desk clerk in the second movie was the then-wife of cinematography Julio Macat.
    • A few of director Chris Columbus's relatives also appear in the first two movies as extras.
  • Similarly Named Works: "Home Alone" is also the name of an unrelated public service video that shows viewers what to do if they're at home by themselves (i.e., if someone calls on the phone, don't say you're home alone, etc).
  • Star-Making Role: For Macaulay Culkin.
  • Technology Marches On:
    • This movie would last 15-20 minutes if filmed today; cell phones. Both the DVD commentary and CollegeHumor pointed this out. Instead, the setup would have to involve Can You Hear Me Now?.
    • Part of the first movie's central premise is that Kevin *enjoys* being alone and feels like as it is "his house," he must defend it. The cell phone idea assumes that Kevin even has access to a cell phone; many parents do not let children under the age of 12 have one.
      • Sadly, this is not the case anymore.
    • Out of all the valuables in the McCallister house coveted by the Wet Bandits, Harry mentions that the house likely contains multiple VCRs.
  • Typecasting: Be honest, when have you not seen Joe Pesci play a criminal?
  • Unintentional Period Piece: As any keen viewer will point out today, the plots of the first two Home Alone films are so strongly reliant on the analog, pre-9/11 world of the early 1990s that they would be largely improbable in the 21st century.
    • Home Alone
      • If this film were made in 2012, Kevin's parents could have just called him on a cell phone as soon as they discovered he was missing; (His parents discovered he was missing during the flight to Paris. They had to wait until they landed, but were still unable to call the house due to the phone lines being down).
      • Harry and Marv probably would have never discovered that Kevin was alone at the house (Kevin had fooled them repeatedly into thinking that the house was heavily occupied. It was only after Marv overheard a message from Peter McCallister being recorded onto an answering machine of a neighboring house they were burglarizing that they began to piece together the fact that Kevin was alone in the house and was screwing with them. Answering machines are all but gone today, in favor of private, electronic voicemail, not forgetting that many homes no longer have landline phones anyway.)
      • On top of that, the lax pre-9/11 airport security is on full display as well. Kate McCallister is able to barter a plane ticket off of a fellow traveler right in the terminal; anybody who attempted something like that today would probably be detained on suspicion of being a terrorist.
      • Or, there's the fact that the McCallisters would have never been able to make it through post-9/11 airport security in time to make their flight in the first place, giving them ample time to discover that Kevin is missing and go back home to get him, preventing the plot of the film from ever unfolding.
    • If "Home Alone" were made today, that could still make for an interesting plot: The McCallisters wake up late due to a power outage, run off to the airport in attempt to still make their flight which they miss due to not being able to get through security and into the terminal in time, discover that Kevin is missing, then go running around the airport and suburban Chicago trying to find him. Fearing the worst, the eventually discover that they simply left him behind at the house by mistake.
      • For a simple answer, this trope is pretty much played straight: director Chris Columbus has said that he and John Hughes wanted very much for Home Alone to have a "timeless" look and feel to it so that ten, fifteen, twenty, etc. years down the line, it could still be viewed and enjoyed by people and it not seem "dated". Unfortunately, this wasn't the case.
    • Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
      • No way in today's world would anyone even consider just letting a kid under age 10 with no boarding pass or parent/guardian around board a fully-booked flight to New York.
      • Even by 1992 standards, that is still a pretty boneheaded move on the airline's part. True, the attendant that let him on the plane did ask him if he saw his father and Kevin said yes after seeing a man from the back who was wearing the same style of coat as his dad was wearing. However, even before the hijackings of 2001, the flight attendant would have walked up to the man and said "Excuse me sir, are you this boy's father?"
      • An even more boneheaded move was letting the McCallisters flight take off with Kevin's unaccompanied baggage, post-Lockerbie (though we don't know if Kevin's baggage was checked to Miami as part of someone else's checked bags).
  • What Could Have Been:
    • According to director Chris Columbus, and early promotion posters, the original Home Alone music score was to be composed by Bruce Broughton, who ultimately got caught up with scoring The Rescuers Down Under, and was unavailable to score Home Alone.
    • Also, according to Columbus, John Hughes wanted to film Home Alone 2 and Home Alone 3 back-to-back, but 20th Century Fox declined to do so.
      • Hughes' original concept for Home Alone 3 was to be about Harry and Marv doing a Heel Face Turn, moving to the suburbs, next door to each other, raising their own families, while Kevin does a Face Heel Turn, and is released from jail, when he decided to exact revenge on Harry and Marv.
    • Sigourney Weaver was considered for the role of Kevin's forgetful mom, but didn't get it. Probably would have clashed with her protectiveness in Aliens anyway.
    • Harry was written with Robert De Niro in mind.
    • Uncle Frank was written with Kelsey Grammer in mind.
    • And if Home Alone 4 was successful? We would've had a TV series about it on ABC Family. Within the film, Kevin's parents didn't get back together in an earlier script. The ending was rewritten in case they ended up making the show.
    • In the commentary for the first film, Chris Columbus said that he had planned for Home Alone 3 to be filmed right after Home Alone 2, which would've starred Macaulay Culkin again (though it is unknown if there would be any difference between the original idea of Home Alone 3 and the one starring Alex D. Linz).
    • According to AMC's Story Notes, Joe Pesci once said that his idea for a 3rd film would be Kevin lost in Hawaii, or a beach resort.
    • In the original script, Uncle Frank was the real mastermind behind Harry and Marv robbing the McAllister house.
    • Daniel Stern refused to reprise his role as Marv in the fourth film, saying it was "An insult, total garbage." Day-um. Keep in mind he has A Christmas Story 2 on his resume.
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