Home Alone

Home Alone
Home Alone Movie Poster
Directed by	Chris Columbus
Written by	John Hughes
Produced by	John Hughes
Starring	Macaulay Culkin Joe Pesci Daniel Stern John Heard Catherine O'Hara Roberts Blossom John Candy
Cinematography	Julio Macat
Edited by	Raja Gosnell
Music by	John Williams
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release dates	November 16, 1990 (USA)
Running time	103 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$15,000,000 US (est.)

Home Alone is a 1990 comedy film written and produced by John Hughes and directed by Chris Columbus. It stars Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McCallister, an eight-year-old who is mistakenly left behind when his family flies to France for a Christmas vacation. While initially relishing his time alone, he is later threatened with two house burglars, whom he outwits by rigging the house with booby traps.

Most of the film was shot in the Chicago suburbs of Winnetka, Illinois and Wilmette, Illinois. Any other shots, such as those of Paris, are either stock footage or faked.

Plot

After a fight with his older brother Buzz concerning some Little Nero's Pizza, Kevin McCallister is sent up to the third floor for the night, and wishes his family would simply disappear. After a power line failure which neutralizes all the alarm clocks, the rest of the family rushes to leave to go on a Christmas vacation to Paris, France, thus Kevin's wish is fulfilled. This results in Kevin being accidentally left home alone and experiences what it is like to be independent for the first time. At first, he is happy to be the man of the house, helping himself to Buzz's life savings, eating all the ice cream in the fridge, riding down the stairs using a winter sled, reading pornography, along with some other mischievous things. He also goes shopping, unintentionally stealing a toothbrush after being scared by the presence of the so-called South-Bend Shovel Slayer named 'Old Man' Marley (Roberts Blossom), a tall, wide-eyed looking old man. Kevin flees the store while still holding the item, visits a Santa Claus and cuts down and dresses a Christmas tree.

Later in the film, Kevin realizes that his new situation has some down sides to it, also. He is scared by Old Man Marley again, and has to protect his home from two bumbling burglars - Harry Lyme and Marv Murchens (Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern), who have their eyes on the block. Luckily, they are scared away thanks to Kevin putting the lights on in the basement, which in turn made the burglars think people were in the house. These two thieves do return twice, but fail again each time. The first time, they mistake life-size figures being moved on a train set and disc player to be real people. The second time, Kevin plays Angels with Filthy Souls and explodes pellets in a frying pan, which makes Marv think that somebody was shot; the Wet Bandits decide that they are better off telling the police about a supposed killing if questioned. Of course, these were clever tricks performed by Kevin, who consequently is left in safety on both occasions.

Meanwhile in Paris, Kate McCallister (Kevin's mother) is nearly dying of worry, and desperately tries to hook a flight. Eventually, she manages to swap her (admittedly faux) Rolex watch, $500, and some more jewelry for an economy seat back to the U.S., though not Chicago, but in fact Scranton.

However, Harry still can't grasp the fact the house was teeming with life the night before, and now it's as silent as could be. He decides to check up on things, and looks through one of the downstairs windows, where little Kevin is putting decorations on a Christmas tree. Kevin sees Harry's face in the reflection of an ornament, and calls upon his fictitious dad to help him decorate, when obviously he isn't there. Harry turns away, but not because he can hear Kevin, but because he has decided to give the house one final shot, even with the kid there.

Just before they leave, Kevin spies on the two bandits conversing in the street, and understands that he will have a lot to deal with tonight, as Harry has stated he is coming back at exactly 9:00 PM tonight.

Missing his family more than ever, Kevin decides to give the nearby church a visit, where he runs into the Shovel Slayer who he ran from before. Confused, Kevin listens him out and finds out that he is not a murderer, but simply on duty salting the sidewalks, and is lonely after having an argument with his son, who left him years before. This scene is perhaps the most emotional scene in the film, and along with the scene before it, where Kevin looks through the windows of houses, where he sees people enjoying Christmas, with the well known Somewhere In My Memory theme playing, which makes it even more upsetting.

Noticing that the clock is nearing 9 o'clock, Kevin has to say farewell to the old man, and he rushes home to defend his house against the burglars. He draws up a battle plan, and gets working. He lays Micro Machines across the floor, heats up the door knob on the front of the house using a heat emitting rod, ties a blow torch to the back door, positions paint cans over the banister, and lays tar across the basement stairs, amongst other booby traps.

The two bandits do eventually show up, as Kevin sits down to eat his macaroni and cheese. The next ten minutes see the two burglars falling for every single trap set (and getting hurt very badly.) At one point, Marv nearly catches Kevin, though he is torn from him as a tarantula is placed on his head, making him scream with fear; Kevin runs off, jumps on to a homemade ski-lift made from a bike's handlebars, and crashes into his tree house. He then cuts the rope he glided across while the two fools try to climb across, Harry exclaiming he is not going through the 'fun house' again. Kevin decides to make tracks, and runs to the neighboring house, the Murphys, where he is greeted by Marv and Harry, at the foot of the basement stairs, and is pegged neatly onto the door. Having finally turned the tables on Kevin, the two of them decide to think aloud what they will do with him. As Harry is about to bite into one of Kevin's fingers, Old Man Marley appears with a snow shovel, and hits the pair of them on the head, knocking them out; he then unhooks Kevin from his helpless state, picks him up, and takes him back home.

The police eventually arrive (thanks to Kevin phoning them pretending to be Mitch Murphy in a low voice and saying his house is being robbed) and arrest both Harry and Marv. They also find out that the houses they had robbed always had the water running, like the Murphy's house did.

With the robbers gone, Kevin awakens the next morning thinking his family have come home, though there is no sign of them until a low rumble can be heard (a van full of Polka Players escorts Kate (Kevin's mother) home, after she managed to hitch a ride with them from Scranton). Kevin's mother enters and gazes at Kevin from across the foyer. They then embrace in a hug, seconds before the rest of the family arrive (catching the flight Kate didn't want to risk waiting for), and Kevin is reunited.

Nobody can believe Kevin's story, and Peter (Kevin's dad) finds a gold tooth (from Harry Lyme) on the wooden flooring, to which Kate cannot give an answer. The story/film ends with Kevin looking out the window in a freeze frame, waving to Old Man Marley, who is seen with his family, and then the picture turns into credits upon Buzz angrily asking Kevin what he did to Buzz's room.

Cast

The movie made Culkin a world-renowned actor. The film also features Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern as the "Wet Bandits," a bumbling pair of burglars named Harry and Marv who want to rob the McCallister home, believing it to be an easy target with the entire family seemingly absent. However, the duo run into numerous booby traps set throughout the house by the resourceful Kevin. Catherine O'Hara, Roberts Blossom, and John Heard also co-star.

• Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McCallister: Kevin is an eight-year-old smart-mouthed and an extraordinarily clever kid living in suburban Chicago whose parents accidentally leave him at home when they go on a family vacation to Paris.
• Joe Pesci as Harry Lyme: Harry is the smarter of the two criminals known as the "Wet Bandits," whose plan it is to loot every house on the McCallister's wealthy suburban neighborhood before the residents come home from their Christmas vacations. He often mutters "ratcha fatcha" whenever he falls into one of Kevin's traps.
• Daniel Stern as Marv Murchens: Marv is the dopier of the group, he foolishly leaves the water running on the Murphy's house but probably his most sensible moment was where he to tried to stop Harry from robbing the McCallister's house with Kevin inside it.
• Roberts Blossom as Old Man Marley: Marley is a local man who was thought to be the alleged "South Bend Shovel Slayer."
• Catherine O'Hara as Kate McCallister: Kate is Kevin's mother. Loses her son and gets stuck in a blizzard at the airport in Scranton, Pennsylvania. She desperately tries to get back to him at all costs, even if she has to "sell her soul to the devil himself."

Minor roles are played by Gerry Bamman, Devin Ratray, Kieran Culkin (Macaulay's younger brother), Michael C. Maronna, Hillary Wolf, and Angela Goethals. In addition, John Candy, a frequent collaborator of Hughes, has a supporting role as a polka band player. John Williams created the musical score, which was nominated for an Oscar.

Taglines

• A Family Comedy Without the Family.
• When the McCallister family left on their Christmas vacation, they forgot one minor detail...Kevin. But don't worry. He cooks, he cleans, he kicks some butt.
• Yesterday, he was just a kid. But, tonight, he's a home security system!

Trivia

• The movie opens with the ballad Dance of the Sugar Plum Faerie.

Video games

Home Alone video games were released for the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Sega Genesis, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Game Gear, the Game Boy, the Sega Master System, the Amiga as well as personal computers.

• The first Home Alone game was released in 1991.
• The Home Alone NES game is a cult classic game beloved in vintage game circles for its odd gameplay, quirky glitches, and extreme difficulty.
• The Home Alone game on the SNES system was the first to use screen captures and character's voices from the movie in its gameplay.
• A video game titled Home Alone was released for the Playstation 2 in 2006.

Sequels

• Home Alone 2 (1992)
• Home Alone 3 (1997)
• Home Alone 4 (2002)
• Home Alone (2008)(remake)

Home Alone 2 brings back the original cast from the first movie. The 3rd has completely different actors, and a different storyline. Home Alone 4 goes back to Kevin, but has a new cast.

Box office performance

In its opening weekend, Home Alone grossed $17 million in 1,202 theatres, averaging $14,211 per site and just 6% of the final total. Home Alone proved so popular that it stayed in theaters well past the Christmas season. It was the #1 film at the box office for 12 straight weeks, from its release weekend of November 16-18, 1990 through the weekend of February 1-3, 1991. It would remain a top 10 draw at the box office until the weekend of April 26 that year, which was well past Easter weekend. It would make two more appearances in the top 10 (the weekend of May 31-June 2 and the weekend of June 14-16) before finally falling out of the top 10.

By the time it had run its course in theatres, Home Alone was the third highest grossing movie of all time, according to the home video box. In total, its cinema run grossed $477,561,243 worldwide.

See also

• Uncle Buck
• Home Alone 2
• Home Alone 3
• Home Alone 4

External links

• Home Alone at IMDb
• Home Alone at Rotten Tomatoes