For most people, watching this 1990 classic is a holiday tradition
Summary
-A young boy, left home by mistake by his family, who were en route to Paris for the holidays, defends his home against two bumbling burglars during Christmas Eve
-Macaulay Culkin: Kevin
-John Heard: Peter
-Catherine O'Hara: Kate
-Joe Pesci: Harry
-Daniel Stern: Marv
-Roberts Blossom: Old Man Marley
-Angela Goethals: Linnie
-Devin Ratray: Buzz
-Hillary Wolf: Megan
-Gerry Banman: Uncle Frank
-John Candy: Gus Polinski
-Kristen Minter: Heather
-Kieran Culkin: Fuller
-Terrie Snell: Aunt Leslie
-On set, Joe Pesci purposely avoided Macaulay Culkin because he wanted Culkin to think he was legitimately mean
-As of 2014, Macaulay Culkin still refers to Catherine O'Hara as "Mom"
-Both Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern felt different about how the movie would turn out. So they both did over the top performances during shooting, not believing the movie would turn out as successfully as it did
-During an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Joe Pesci told them "Mac is not like a nine year old. He's an old man already." Everyone else on set was stunned by how professional and mature Macaulay Culkin was
-Despite insisting the lines in the script be delivered as written, John Hughes, the producer, allowed John Candy to improvise his lines
-The stunt double for Macaulay Culkin was a very short 30 year old man
-Roberts Blossom, who played Old Man Marley, considered this to be a high point of his career. People would stop him on the street and ask "Aren't you the guy..."
-When the original music composer stepped out, John Williams stepped in. Despite never meeting director Chris Columbus, Williams saw an early cut of the film and was amazed and happily offered his services
-During takes, Macaulay Culkin would sleep on the ground if he got tired
-As a kid, Chris Columbus feared burglars. As such, it's a part of why he wanted to make a movie involving burglars
-Because of child labor laws, Macaulay Culkin was only allowed to work five hours a day
-In order to get Macaulay Culkin to memorize the lines, Chris Columbus made him a promise to let him play with his Nintendo system and it worked
-The success of this movie and the following sequel, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York provided Chris Columbus the opportunity to move on to other films, including the first two films of the massively successful Harry Potter series and Mrs. Doubtfire
-Originally, the role of mean Uncle Frank was written with actor Kelsey Grammer in mind
-The actor who played Kevin's cousin Fuller is actually Macaulay Culkin's real life brother Kieran Culkin, who made his acting debut in this movie
-The exterior shots of the McCallister house was filmed in front of a house in a suburb on the outskirts of Chicago. The interior shots of the home was built inside an old, abandoned high school
-The police station was actually an office in a high school
-Sandra Macat, who played the Santa's elf Kevin encounters, appeared in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, playing a flight attendant
-Harry Lyme, the character Joe Pesci played, got his name from the Orson Welles movie The Third Man (1949)
-The scene where Marv had the tarantula on his face was done in one take. The spider trainer told Daniel Stern that if he screamed, it would startle the spider and cause it to attack. Daniel Stern had to do the scene and do a silent scream while the scream audio was added in at a later time
-During the scene where Kevin is staging a Christmas party at his home, to fool the burglars into thinking his family is still there, he is wearing an orange speaker-like item around his neck. This is a laugh box, a 1970s-era novelty item that produces the laughter heard in the scene. While difficult to hear over the music, it's heard far better in the scene where the mannequin is spinning on the record player
-The flag on the wall above Kevin's bed is the flag for Chicago, where the movie was filmed. This flag is also featured on the uniforms of the Chicago Police Department
-Alan Rickman was one of the considered actors to play the role of Harry Lyme. He had worked with Bonnie Bedelia, who is Macaulay Culkin's aunt in the 1988 film Die Hard
-While Peter and Kate are trying to get a flight home to Chicago from a French AA ticket agent, an Eastern Air Lines Boeing 727 is seen in the background. Despite being done at Paris Orly Airport, it was actually filmed at a terminal of Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. Eastern Air Lines never did any Europe-based flights or other international flights. Trans World Airlines (TWA) and Pan American World Airways (Pan Am) did more international flights in the 1980s
-Despite people thinking that this film seemed realistic in how police would treat a "home alone" situation, writers and producers actually worked with a real Chicago police officer named Jeff Jefferson. He had assisted the writers and producers and wrote the police scenes. Ironically, five years later, Jeff Jefferson himself would be arrested by police for child neglect after it was discovered he left his own children alone for the last six years
-The airport attendant taking the tickets for the McCallister family never asked why there was a person missing from their group. It was because Peter had mistakenly thrown away Kevin's ticket after cleaning up the spilled milk from the previous night. This led to the attendant counting as many people as she'd received tickets for
-The plumbing van Harry and Marv drive says Oh-Kay Plumbing with the slogan "Your flood control experts." It's ironic because they are known as the Wet Bandits, who flood houses with water running from faucets after running them
-The ornaments Marv steps on were made of sugar. He insisted on stepping on them barefoot and the screaming reaction was not real, just acting
-The reason there is a Michael Jordan cardboard cutout featured in this movie is because Michael Jordan is Macaulay Culkin's favorite basketball player
-In addition to home invasion and burglary, Harry Lyme commits another crime-impersonating a police officer
-The Funko POP! company released figures of Kevin McCallister and Harry Lyme
-31 years after this movie was released, on December 23, 2021, Devin Ratray, who played Buzz, was arrested by police after it discovered that he tried to strangle his girlfriend in a hotel room
-Michael Douglas, Kevin Costner, Charles Grodin, Jim Belushi, Christopher Lloyd, Rick Moranis, Alan Thicke, Jeff Daniels, John Ritter, Ed O'Neill, among many others, were considered for the role of Peter McCallister, Kevin's dad
-Diane Keaton, Holly Hunter, Glenn Close, Linda Hamilton, Helen Hunt, Laura Dern, Anjelica Huston, Annie Potts, Maureen McCormick, Mary Steenburgen, among many others, were considered for the role of Kate McCallister, Kevin's mom
-Joe Pesci is known for heavy profanity in his films. He had to work extra hard to avoid using any profanity in this film, since it was a family Christmas film
-When Kevin looks through Buzz's steamer trunk at the end of his bed, he finds a picture of Buzz's girlfriend. He proceeds to say "Buzz! Your girlfriend. Woof!" The picture is actually of art director Dan Webster's son, who was made up to look like a girl. Chris Columbus thought it would be too cruel to make fun of a girl like that
-The Playboy magazine Kevin finds had pages taped together so Macaulay Culkin wouldn't see any nudity. The issue was from July 1989
-The movie Kevin watches, Angels with Filthy Souls, was not a real movie. It was specially created. It was a play on words of the classic 1938 James Cagney film Angels with Dirty Faces
-While rehearsing the scene where Joe Pesci attempts to bite off Macaulay Culkin's finger, Joe Pesci actually bit Macaulay, leaving a small scar
-For any of the barefoot scenes, Daniel Stern wore rubber feet. Much the same way that Bruce Willis did as John McClane in 1988's Die Hard
-While filming, Macaulay Culkin came down with a cold. He was given time off to recover, except for one part. While attempting to buy a toothbrush, his voice is hoarse, he is pale and his eyes were red and puffy from watering so much
-To strongly promote that this was a Christmas movie, red and green are the prominent colors featured all throughout the movie
-When Kevin talks to "Santa", the car he is getting into was a 1980 Honda Civic hatchback. It did actually stall out as the actor was attempting to drive away
-Despite being a family movie, Daniel Stern accidentally swore. He said the "s" word when getting his boot through the dog door. It can be heard in this scene
-The rundown look for Harry and Marv was based on Fagin, the iconic thief in Charles Dickens' classic story Oliver Twist
-When leaving the house to go to the airport, Uncle Frank complains that the flight to Paris leaves in 45 minutes and that they would never make it. In reality, the journey from the house to Chicago's O'Hare International Airport would take only about 29 minutes. Since this was done before 9/11, security was much more relaxed and only consisted of belt-fed x-ray machines for luggage. Not only that, anyone could go all the way to the departure gates without so much as a boarding pass
-In an interview, when Devin Ratray, who played Buzz, was asked what happened to Buzz later in life, he replied that he probably went to prison. Ironically, Ratray was arrested in 2021 for domestic assault and battery against his then girlfriend and a few years later, a suspected rape
-Old Man Marley is a tribute to Jacob Marley, one of the old business partners of Ebenezer Scrooger in the classic Charles Dickens' story A Christmas Carol
-The inventions Kevin used to fend off the burglars were inspired by Chris Columbus' love of inventions. These types of inventions also appeared in 1984's Gremlins, 1985's The Goonies, 1985's Young Sherlock Holmes, which were produced by Steven Spielberg. Both Spielberg and Columbus are big fans of the James Bond films
-The item Kevin uses to heat up the front doorknob is an electric charcoal tool for barbecue grills
-When Kevin goes after Buzz for eating all of the cheese pizza, milk gets spilled and a plane ticket on the counter gets coated in milk. When Peter is cleaning up, he accidentally throws away a plane ticket, which happened to belong to Kevin. The ticket is seen with Kevin's name on it. The following morning, Kevin is left home alone because his cousin is doing a head count and counts the nosy neighbor kid, thinking it was Kevin
-The July 1989 Playboy issue Kevin finds in Buzz's steamer trunk featured actress Erika Eleniak for Miss July. This same issue was featured in 1992's Under Siege, which also featured Erika Eleniak
-Journalists had asked medical professionals if the Wet Bandits would have survived any of the injuries they sustained. The medical professionals stated these were life threatening injuries and that they would not likely survive the injuries
-When Kevin is banished to the attic, there is a pull out sofa bed. There is no visible insulation in the rafters, which would leave the attic, in Chicago temperatures, sub-zero cold. This would not be an ideal place to sleep
-Prior to eating the macaroni and cheese he prepared, Kevin crosses his chest after praying, suggesting that he and his family are either Catholic or Episcopal
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