Production (Home Alone)

As with most of Hughes's films, Home Alone was set—and most of the film was shot—in the greater Chicago area. Any other shots, such as those of Paris, are either stock footage or film trickery. The Paris-Orly Airport scenes were filmed in one part of O'Hare International Airport. The scene where Kevin wades through a flooded basement when trying to outsmart the burglars was shot in the swimming pool of New Trier High School. A mock-up of the McDonnell Douglas DC10 business class was also put together in the school, on the basketball courts. 20th Century Fox picked up the project after Warner Bros.'s rejection when the budget escalated from $14 million to $17 million.

The Home Alone house is a three-story single family detached house used for shooting most of the scenes in Home Alone and the first four scenes of Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.The kitchen in the film was shot in the house, along with the main staircase, basement and most of the first floor landing. However, the house's dining room, and all of the rooms downstairs (excluding the kitchen) were built on a sound stage. It is located at 671 Lincoln Avenue in the village of Winnetka,which is a suburb of Chicago, located about 19 miles (30 km) north of the city in New Trier Township. It was built in 1920 and features 5 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, a fully converted attic, a fireplace, a detached double garage and a greenhouse. "Kevin's tree house" in the backyard was demolished, since it was built specifically for the film. It is listed as a Chicago-area tourist destination, as well as being cited as an example of "How to Get Your Home in the Movies."

In May 2011, the house was listed for sale at $2.4 million.

Home Alone 3

Four internationally wanted criminals named Peter Beaupre (Aleksander Krupa), Alice Ribbons (Rya Kihlstedt), Burton Jernigan (Lenny Von Dohlen), and Earl Unger (David Thornton), have stolen a valuable missile cloaking computer chip for a North Korean terrorist group. They put it inside a toy remote control car to sneak it past security. At San Francisco International Airport, however, Mrs. Hess (Marian Seldes) accidentally takes the bag with the remote control car in it. The four thieves arrive in Chicago and systematically search every house in Mrs. Hess' neighborhood to find the chip. Eight-year-old Alex Pruitt (Alex D. Linz) is given the remote control car by Mrs. Hess for shoveling snow, and soon becomes ill with the chicken pox and must stay home. While at home, Alex sees the thieves through his telescope and calls the police. The thieves leaves Mrs. Hess' house by the time the police come. After Alex reports the thieves again, they still manage to get away, and the police did not believe him. Alex decides to take matters into his own hands, and mounts a camera on his remote control car and attempt to film some footages of the thieves, who are searching in every house to find the chip. He eventually films Beaupre, but the remote control car is discovered before it can get away and Alice takes the tape. Wondering what the thieves want with a remote control car, Alex opens it and discovers the stolen chip. He immediately calls Chicago's Air Force Recruitment Center and informs them about the chip.
The thieves found out that Alex has the chip and decides to go after him. They block off the road to the house, and Alice duct tapes Mrs. Hess to a porch chair in her garage and leaves the door open. By this point, Alex has armed the house with more violent booby traps. After several break-in attempts, they pursue Alex. Alex runs to the attic and goes into the dumbwaiter down to the basement, and runs outside and calls to Alice, Jernigan and Unger. They saw Alex and notice a trampoline below them. Jernigan and Unger jump, but the trampoline gives way and they fall into a frozen pool. Alice then wriggles her way into the dumbwaiter chute, but falls down to the basement. Alex finally rescue Mrs. Hess, and is cornered by Beaupre, but scares him off with a fake gun. Meanwhile, the FBI, who has also been tracking the chip, goes to Alex's school after being tipped off by the Air Force. Alex's family brings the agents to their house, where the police arrest Alice, Jernigan, and Unger. However, Beaupre managed to escape and hides in the snow fort in the backyard. Alex's brother Stan's pet parrot drives the remote control car into the snow fort and threatens to light fireworks which are lined around the inside. Beaupre offers a cracker, but the parrot demands two. Since he only has one, the parrot then lights the fireworks, and escapes. Beaupre's cover is literally blown, and the police arrest him.
Sometimes later, Alex and his family celebrate with his father returning. Mrs. Hess, who befriends Alex after he successfully rescue her, is there along with the FBI and the police while Alex's house is being repaired. In the final scene of the film, while the four thieves are having their mugshot photos taken, they are shown to have Alex's chicken pox.

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