Timeless and nostalgic are two words that perfectly describe the Home Alone movies.
Some watch them to bring back childhood memories or laugh a little, while others might watch them during a Christmas movie marathon.
Here, you’ll discover the origins of the Home Alone movies, details in some scenes you might’ve missed, and how Home Alone almost didn’t make it into the cinemas. So, keep on reading, ya filthy animal!
Home Alone ended up having five sequels.
Chris Columbus only directed the first two Home Alone movies, both of which starred Macauley Culkin as Kevin McCallister.
Speaking of Kevin, he is featured as a character in just three of the movies. In the third appearance, in Home Alone 4, Kevin was played by Mike Weinberg.
Also, while all films from the franchise are Christmas movies revolving around a child being left all alone at home, there’s a subtle difference in the plot of each Home Alone movie.
For example, in Home Alone 3, Alex Pruitt was left home alone due to chickenpox while everyone needed to go out.
The first Home Alone was written in just nine days!
In 1989, John Hughes listed everything he needed to bring before leaving his home for a family vacation trip to Europe. And while doing so, he jokingly told himself that he shouldn’t forget his kids.
He jotted the idea down, and when he returned from vacation, he immediately got to work.
After completing it in nine days (which Hughes thought was slow), Hughes sent the script to Chris Columbus, asking him to direct the movie.
It took 27 years before another live-action comedy film earned more domestically than Home Alone.
In 1990, Home Alone earned $285 million in the U.S. and Canada. Some films (like Meet the Fockers and The Hangover) came close to beating their record but ultimately fell short.
Home Alone’s time at number 1 ended in 2017, though, after the Chinese comedy Never Say Die surpassed $285 million in gross income.
However, if we take into account inflation, Home Alone‘s gross income would actually be about half a billion dollars!
Home Alone 3 was nominated for the worst sequel in 1998.
The movie received a nomination for the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Sequel, a satirical accolade dedicated to disappointing films. Other categories include Worst Actress of the Decade, Worst Written Film, and Worst Drama.
It didn’t win the award, though, as there was a more disappointing film than Home Alone 3 during the 18th Golden Raspberry Awards: Speed 2: Cruise Control.
Macaulay Culkin’s brother appeared in Home Alone.
Macaulay’s brother, Kieran, played the role of Kevin’s younger cousin, Fuller.
During this time, Kieran was only seven years old (Macaulay was ten) and had no idea that his brother was the star of Home Alone. In fact, he wasn’t even aware of what the film was about.
Kieran continued performing as Fuller in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. He played a crucial role in this film because he was the one who realized Kevin was left home alone!
Donald Trump had a cameo in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.
After accidentally taking a plane to New York, Kevin needed a place to stay. Thankfully, he had his father’s credit card, which allowed him to stay at the Plaza Hotel.
And this is where Trump appeared in the movie, playing the role of an adult who helped Kevin find the lobby.
The thing is, Donald Trump wasn’t wanted in Home Alone 2. Unfortunately for the director, though, he owned the Plaza Hotel, and for him, the payment for the filming location wasn’t enough.
Trump was so intent on appearing in the movie that he refused to allow the hotel to be used unless he was given a cameo.
John Candy was only paid $414 for his cameo in Home Alone.
Columbus said that Candy accepted the role of Gus Polinski (who helped Kevin’s mother return to Chicago) as a favor for his friend, Hughes.
However, according to Home Alone’s director, he felt resentful since he was one of the lowest-paid actors in the film despite being at his peak as a comedian in the 1990s.
Here’s the twist, though. Candy’s biographer stated that the late Canadian actor and comedian was offered a small portion of the film’s profits but rejected it. If so, I don’t blame Candy for feeling bitter!
“Keep the change, ya filthy animal” was from a made-up film.
One of the most iconic moments in Home Alone is when Kevin uses a line from a gangster film to scare away the pizza delivery boy.
But sadly, that clip wasn’t from a real movie. Instead, the fake film paid homage to Angels With Dirty Faces.
The idea came from Home Alone’s cinematographer, Julio Macat, who also used the fictional film for Home Alone 2: Lost in New York when Kevin stayed at the Plaza Hotel.
20th Century Fox took over the production of Home Alone from Warner Brothers.
Home Alone began at Warner Brothers with an initial budget of $10 million, which grew by $4 million early in production.
When Columbus requested an increase to $17 million, Warner Brothers put their foot down and said he would have to cut corners.
Thankfully, Home Alone’s financial problem was solved after 20th Century Fox came into play and agreed with their proposed film budget.
Kevin’s house in Home Alone is located in Winnetka, Illinois.
A lot has changed in the Illinois house since Home Alone was filmed.
First, the driveway isn’t there anymore. You also won’t see the treehouse since it was built specifically for the movie.
That doesn’t stop hordes of tourists from making pilgrimages to the house where Kevin fought off burglars.
There’s now a pretty solid fence around the property to keep eager tourists at bay.
Home Alone‘s interior scenes were filmed in a high school gym!
Filming inside the house in Illinois was a burden for the film crew due to the small space. So, to film comfortably, they decided to build a set in the gymnasium of New Trier Township High School.
By the way, it’s also the location where some scenes from teen comedy Ferris Bueller’s Day Off were filmed – you might recognize it, particularly for the iconic “life moves pretty fast” scene.
The tarantula on Marv’s face was real.
They were supposed to use a mechanical toy when Kevin placed a tarantula on Marv’s face.
However, the director wasn’t pleased with the result since it looked too unrealistic. So, they decided to use a real one instead.
Interestingly, the tarantula had a name! His name was Barry. Fortunately, spiders don’t have ears, so Barry wasn’t too traumatized in that hilarious scene when Marv screamed his lungs out.
Almost all scenes in Home Alone have the colors red and green.
From the wallpapers to the landline phone, red and green is everywhere! Seriously, even the pizza delivery guy’s uniform doesn’t escape this treatment.
If you haven’t figured out why yet, it’s pretty simple: Home Alone is a Christmas movie, and what other colors represent Christmas so perfectly?
Buzz became a police officer.
In Home Sweet Home Alone, Buzz (Kevin’s older brother) appeared as a police officer, receiving a report that a kid had been left home alone while his parents were on vacation.
Buzz then claimed it was a prank call from his brother, Kevin, saying he does it yearly as payback for accidentally leaving him alone twice while they went out of town.
Afterward, Buzz tried to prove his point by saying the house had a McCallister home alarm system. And while Buzz didn’t say it in the film, some fans believe that Kevin is the entrepreneur behind this alarm system.
Google recreated Kevin’s scenes in Home Alone as a grown-up!
It’s not just Buzz that came back as an adult. Kevin did as well! But sadly, the adult version of Kevin didn’t appear in another Home Alone movie.
Instead, Macaulay Culkin returned to play Kevin McCallister for a Google marketing campaign for their voice-controlled virtual assistant.
The clever advertisement saw Kevin recreate some scenes from Home Alone but with the addition of him using Google’s product.
Macaulay Culkin has a permanent scar because of Home Alone.
While the lead actors in Home Alone had their stunt doubles, they still performed some stunts, and injuries were inevitable.
With Culkin, though, his scar came from Joe Pesci accidentally biting his fingers.
Pesci’s character, Harry, was to hang Culkin up on a hook and threaten to bite all his fingers off, one by one. While rehearsing, Pesci actually did bite Culkin – so hard that he got a scar!
Joe Pesci had a hard time preventing himself from swearing on set.
I mean, who doesn’t want to swear when you’re in pain? But in the case of Pesci, he had to use an alternative expression, as Home Alone was a family-friendly film.
So, throughout the movie, Pesci uses gibberish to replace the curse words he wants to say. Try re-watching some scenes, and you can actually tell which curse words Pesci was referring to!
Culkin’s stunts were performed by a 30-year-old stuntman.
Finding a stunt performer for a kid can be challenging. After all, it’s hard to find an adult with the same height as a nine-year-old boy.
Fortunately, they found pint-sized Larry Nicholas, a 30-year-old veteran stuntman.
If you pay close enough attention, you can spot Nicholas in certain scenes, like when he rides the zipline or sleds down the stairs.
Kevin’s aftershave scene was improvised.
This scene was also one of the most memorable moments in Home Alone, to the point that it became a meme. However, Kevin screaming while his hands were on his cheeks wasn’t the initial plan.
The director’s instruction was to put his hands away before screaming. However, Culkin forgot to remove his hands, which led to the hilarious scene that even made the film crew laugh.
The artificial snow in Home Alone was made from potatoes.
CGI wasn’t too advanced then, and filming when it was snowing wasn’t exactly possible. So, the prop team did what they could – and that was to use flakes of potato!
Home Alone wasn’t the first to use potato flakes for snow in films, though. In fact, it was often used before the film industry started relying on visual effects.
The only problem was that using it for numerous takes can cause the set to look like a city of mashed potatoes!
When you think of Home Alone, I bet the first two movies come to mind. If you’ve never seen the following four, or just chosen to forget them, we don’t blame you – the first two were good enough!
And despite watching them hundreds of times, the Home Alone movies still find a way to make us laugh till our tummies hurt.
However, you might’ve been too busy laughing that you didn’t notice things like Kevin’s stuntman or every scene including red and green.
If so, this might be your sign to watch the Home Alone movies again!
