On November 16, 1990, a film about a young boy who was left alone at Christmastime and had to ward off a couple of careless robbers turned out to be a fun-filled little family yarn that quickly became a classic. The film that made Macaulay Culkin into one of the greatest child stars of all time, Home Alone, is now a staple of any holiday movie marathon. And while you might be able to quote the movie’s dialogue word for word, here are 25 things you might not know about it. So relax and have fun, you filthy beasts.
1, Home Alone wouldn’t exist without Uncle Buck.
John Hughes had the concept for Home Alone while working on Uncle Buck, a film that also starred Macaulay Culkin. There is a scene in which Culkin’s character questions a potential babysitter through a mail slot since he is always willing to play the precocious one. Similar conflict between Culkin and Daniel Stern occurs in Home Alone, however this time it happens through a doggy door.
2, Macaulay Culkin was assigned the character of Kevin McCallister in Home Alone particularly for him.
Director Chris Columbus, though, still put more than 100 additional mischievous preteens through a series of auditions for the role. Which was really in vain because Culkin excelled in the job.
3, There were other Culkins who appeared in Home Alone besides Macaulay Culkin.
Kieran, Macaulay’s younger brother, played Fuller, Kevin’s bedwetting cousin, in Home Alone. Kieran made his acting debut in the movie, but since then, he has gone on to have an amazing career in films including The Cider House Rules, Igby Goes Down, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and FX’s Fargo. For his work in HBO’s Succession, Culkin was nominated for a Golden Globe in 2019 and 2020 for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Limited Series, or Motion Picture Made for Television.
4, Chris Columbus learned a very valuable lesson from the casting of Kieran Culkin in Home Alone.
As the director of Home Alone 2, Mrs. Doubtfire, and two installments in the Harry Potter series, Columbus (who also created the scripts for Gremlins and The Goonies) has gone on to establish himself as one of Hollywood’s top family-friendly filmmakers since the release of Home Alone. But he did take away one thing from Home Alone: working with a child actor also means working with the child’s family.
Columbus stated to The Guardian in 2013: “I was lot younger and I was really too stupid to think about the family situation as well.” “At first, we didn’t know a lot about the family; however, as we shot, we discovered a little more. The tales are scream-inducing. A young person who sincerely
5, For more than 25 years, the movie Home Alone held the Guinness World Record.
Home Alone took first place at the box office in its first weekend, earning $17,081,997 in 1202 locations. The film remained at the top of the charts for a full 12 weeks and was still in the top 10 in June of the following year. It was the highest-grossing movie of 1990 and set a Guinness World Record for highest-grossing domestic live-action comedy. It kept that position for a considerable amount of time—27 years, to be exact—until the Chinese blockbuster Never Say Die dethroned it as the leader in 2017.
6, Home Alone’s title became a verb as a result of the film’s exceptional success.
Who Killed Hollywood? is his book. And Other Essays, the late, great, Oscar-winning screenwriter William Goldman acknowledged that Home Alone’s unexpected popularity led to the coining of the phrase “to be Home Aloned,” which refers to other movies that suffered at the box office as a result of Home Alone’s extended and successful run. A number of executives told me, “My picture got 40, but it would have done 50 if it weren’t for Home Aloned,” according to Goldman.
7, Home Alone produced more than one follow-up.
The success of the first film resulted in a full-fledged franchise, with four sequels, three video games, two board games, a novelization, and other kid-friendly goods. While all of the main, original cast members returned for Home Alone 2: Lost In New York (with Columbus again directing a script by Hughes), the success of the original led to a full-fledged franchise (including the Talkboy).
8, Poland loves Home Alone.
In Poland, where the movie has been shown on national television since the early 1990s, screenings of Home Alone have developed into a Christmas custom. And its acceptance has only grown. It was the most watched show to telecast during the season in 2011, drawing more than 5 million viewers.
9, The Mccallister house from Home Alone has grown to be a popular destination for travelers.
The kitchen, main staircase, and ground-floor landing seen in the movie were all filmed in this five-bedroom house, which is located at 671 Lincoln Avenue in Winnetka, Illinois. (The kitchen and all other first-floor rooms, excluding the dining room, were filmed on a studio.) The house was held by John and Cynthia Abendshien when it served as one of the film’s locations, and they sold it for $1.585 million in 2012.
10, The Home Alone movie’s Kevin’s tree house was not included in the rental agreement.
The home was not initially a part of Kevin’s backyard treehouse. It was built especially for the film and destroyed after production.
11. All of Home Alone was shot in the Chicago area.
The McCallister family is in Paris while Kevin is at home in Illinois, which is the key plot element, however the entire production was filmed in the Chicago region. Actually filmed at O’Hare International Airport were the sequences that were meant to take place at Paris Orly Airport. What about those plush business class seats they’re using to get to Paris? These were constructed on the basketball court of a nearby high school, which also served as the location for the scene in which Kevin runs through a flooded basement. The “basement” in issue, however, was actually the school’s swimming pool.
12. Robert De Niro turned down the role of Harry Lime in Home Alone.
Likewise, Jon Lovitz. The role was taken over by Joe Pesci at that point. A nice side note: Orson Welles is a little bit referenced in the character. (Welles’ character in Carol Reed’s The Third Man had this name.)
13, In Home Alone, Joe Pesci went all Method on Macaulay Culkin.
Joe Pesci tried his best to stay away from Macaulay Culkin on the set so that the young actor would actually be terrified of him in order to obtain the most genuine portrayal possible. And considering that the young actor is still physically scarred from one unintentional altercation, nobody can blame him for feeling a little scared. Culkin remembered to Rule Forty Two, “In the first Home Alone, they strung me up on a coat hook, and Pesci says, “I’m going to eat all your fingers off, one at a time.” And he bit me during one of the practices, breaking the skin.
14, Joe Pesci was not employed to direct a “family-friendly” film like Home Alone.
It’s natural that Pesci, who is most known for playing the heavy in films like Raging Bull, Goodfellas, and Casino, wasn’t quite acclimated to the entire family-friendly environment on the set of Home Alone and used a few f-bombs as a result. Columbus advised Pesci to use the word “fridge” instead of his penchant for using four-letter words.
15. Daniel Stern had a four-letter word slip-up on the Home Alone set, too.
And it wasn’t removed from the movie. When he tries to get his shoe through the doggie door, he says, “s***” (look for it at the 55:27 mark on the DVD).
16. In real life, Harry and Marv may not have survived Kevin’s brutal attack in Home ALone.
shots from a BB gun to the groin and forehead? A can of paint and a blazing hot iron to the face? A blowtorch to the head that is on fire? A single eight-year-old commits an awful lot of violence against the Wet Bandits. So much so that by the end of the night neither of them should have been conscious, let alone walking. For The Week in 2012, Dr. Ryan St. Clair made a prognosis regarding their ailments’ likely course of action. Here are some of the highlights, however reading the entire piece is well worthwhile: The iron should have resulted in a “blowout fracture,” which, if improperly healed, might have resulted in “severe deformity and debilitating double vision.” the blowtorch, too? Dr. St. Clair claims that “the skin
17. The ornaments that Marv steps on in Home Alone would cause the least amount of damage.
Dr. St. Clair remarked, “Walking on ornaments seems rather small compared to everything else we’ve observed thus far. “If I were Marv, my facial fractures would be more of a problem.” Thankfully, the alleged glass ornaments were simply candies. (However, Stern wore rubber feet for his barefoot sequences simply to be safe.)
18. Is there a spider on Stern’s face? Yes, it’s true.
A tarantula is once placed on Marv’s face by Kevin. Daniel Stern consented to let it happen, but he would only allow for one take, and it was in fact a genuine spider. What didn’t exist? That shriek made my blood boil. Stern had to mimic the scream and have the sound added later in order to avoid startling the spider.
19. John Candy finished shooting Home Alone in a single day.
But boy, was that a long day—23 hours to be exact. John Candy frequently appeared in John Hughes’s films, and the polka-playing good guy he plays in Home Alone, Gus Polinski, was modeled by John Candy’s persona in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.
20. Kevin’s older sister is an accomplished judoka.
Hillary Wolf, who played Kevin’s older sister Megan in Home Alone, earned the lead role in Joan Micklin Silver’s Big Girls Don’t Cry… They Get Even two years later. She also made an appearance in Home Alone 2, but since then, she hasn’t been seen on a big screen. But she’s not here for no good reason: She competed for the United States on the summer judo team in 1996 and 2000.
21, There is no point in attempting to obtain a copy of Angels With Filthy Souls.
The gangster film starring Jimmy Cagney that Kevin draws inspiration from throughout Home Alone? Don’t waste your time looking for it on eBay. It is not true. Its follow-up, Angels With Even Filthier Souls, which appears in Home Alone 2, isn’t either.
22. Senior The screenplay didn’t include Marley at first.
The reportedly frightening neighbor who ends up teaching Kevin about the value of family wasn’t in the original plot. Columbus, who believed the movie needed a deeper dosage of sentimentality, suggested adding him.
23. The snowstorm in the movie was advantageous for the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
When the Home Alone movies were finished shooting, the production company gave some of the plastic and wax-based fake snow they had constructed to the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Since then, it has appeared in several of their projects.
24. Marv was supposed to have gotten a spinoff.
The 1995 movie Bushwhacked, directed by Greg Beeman and starring Daniel Stern as a delivery man on the run after being falsely accused of murder, was initially intended to be a Home Alone prequel. The plot would have been essentially the same: Marv would have been falsely accused of the same murder after renunciating crime.
25.You might think that Elvis is in Home Alone if you think he’s still alive.
Without a fun little conspiracy idea, no blockbuster film would be complete. Elvis Presley, who (allegedly?) passed away in 1977, makes a cameo appearance in the movie Home Alone. Yes, that is accurate. The King is still in good health. and earning a job as an extra in Hollywood.
