All About Home Alone

Home Alone is a 1990 American Christmas family comedy film written and produced by John Hughes and directed by Chris Columbus. The film stars Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McCallister, an eight-year-old boy, who is mistakenly left behind when his family flies to Paris for their Christmas vacation. While initially relishing time by himself, he is later greeted by two would-be burglars played by Daniel Stern and Joe Pesci. Kevin eventually manages to outwit them with a series of booby traps. The film also features Catherine O'Hara, John Heard, Devin Ratray, Roberts Blossom, and John Candy. As of 2009, Home Alone was the highest grossing comedy of all time.

Culkin was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, becoming the youngest actor ever to be nominated for the award at the age of 11. The film was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Score.

Plot

The McCallister family prepares to spend Christmas in Paris, gathering at Peter and Kate's home in a suburb of Chicago the night before their flight. Eight-year-old Kevin, their youngest son, finds himself the subject of ridicule from his siblings and cousins. After getting into an argument with his older brother Buzz, he is sent to the third floor bedroom of the house, where he wishes his family would disappear. During the night, a power outage resets the alarm clocks and causes the family to oversleep. In the confusion and rush to reach the airport on time, Kevin is left behind and the family does not realize it until they are already airborne. Once in Paris, his mother and father desperately try to book a flight home.

Meanwhile, Kevin wakes up to find the house empty and is overjoyed to find that his wish came true. He practices shooting with Buzz's BB gun, jumps on the bed, watches a gangster film, and eats a large serving of junk food, but in the process accidentally wrecks Buzz's room. However, he finds himself frightened by the appearance of the Chicago Police Department called by his parents to check on him, his next door neighbor "Old Man" Marley, who was rumored to have murdered his family many years earlier, and the appearance of The Wet Bandits, Harry Lyme and Marv Merchants, who are breaking into other vacant houses on the block.

On Christmas Eve, Kevin overhears Harry and Marv discussing plans for breaking into his house that night. After conversing with a Santa Claus impersonator and watching a local choir perform in a church, he comes across Marley. The two of them talk, and he learns that Marley is in fact a very nice man and the rumors about him are not true. He tells Kevin he is watching the choir because his granddaughter is in it, and he never gets to see her because he and his son have not spoken in years after a big argument they had. Kevin advises him to reconcile with his son.

After leaving the church, Kevin heads home and sets up various booby traps inside the house. Harry and Marv break in. After the two spring every trap in the house, Kevin flees to the second floor of the house and dials 911. They chase him out of the house and he flees to the vacant neighboring home. The Wet Bandits catch him when he runs to the top of the stairs and hang him on a coat hook on the door. Marley has sneaked up behind them and knocks them out with a snow shovel and takes Kevin home. Shortly after, they are arrested.

Kevin wakes up the next morning and is disappointed to see that his family is still gone. He then hears Kate enter the house, calling for him. He goes downstairs and the two of them meet and reconcile. Immediately after, the rest of the McCallisters, having traveled directly from Paris to Chicago, arrive. Kevin keeps silent about his encounter with Harry and Marv, although Peter finds Harry's missing gold tooth and wonders what it is. Kevin and Buzz have a moment of reconciliation. He then goes over to the window and sees Marley greeting his son and his family. As he is hugging his granddaughter, he looks up to see Kevin. He waves at him and Kevin waves back, smiling. He watches as Marley heads inside with his family. Buzz interrupts him by calling out, "Kevin, what did you do to my room?", at which point Kevin runs off and the film ends.

Cast

• Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McCallister: An eight-year-old who comes from a big family and usually gets into trouble with them. One night he wishes for them to disappear and gets his wish, but later on, he learns that it is not really fun being alone. He then defends his house from Harry and Marv by using booby traps.
• Joe Pesci as Harry Lyme: The short leader of the Wet Bandits who break into Kevin's house. He and his partner Marv hit houses that are unoccupied when their owners leave town and get information about their security systems by posing as police officers.
• Daniel Stern as Marv Merchants: The tall member of the Wet Bandits. He has a habit of leaving the water running wherever he and Harry commit burglaries.
• John Heard as Peter McCallister: Kevin's father.
• Catherine O'Hara as Kate McCallister: Kevin's mother.
• Devin Ratray as Buzz McCallister: Kevin's oldest brother.
• Hillary Wolf as Megan McCallister: Kevin's oldest sister.
• Angela Goethals as Linnie McCallister: Kevin's older sister.
• Michael C. Maronna as Jeff McCallister: Kevin's older brother.
• Gerry Bamman as Frank McCallister: Kevin's uncle.
• Terrie Snell as Leslie McCallister: Kevin's aunt.
• Jedidiah Cohen as Rod McCallister: One of Kevin's cousins.
• Senta Moses as Tracy McCallister: One of Kevin's cousins.
• Daiana Campeanu as Sondra McCallister: One of Kevin's cousins.
• Kieran Culkin as Fuller McCallister: One of Kevin's cousins. Kieran is Macaulay Culkin's younger brother in real life.
• Anna Slotky as Brooke McCallister: One of Kevin's cousins.
• Kristin Minter as Heather McCallister: Kevin's cousin and daughter of Rob McCallister.
• Roberts Blossom as Old Man Marley: A kind elderly man and a neighbor of the McCallisters who is said to have murdered his whole family, causing Kevin to run scared of him every time he sees him. He ultimately saves Kevin from Harry and Marv.
• John Candy as Gus Polinski: A member of a band (The Kenosha Kickers) whose flight is canceled due to the weather so he and his band have to catch a ride in a van. He offers to give Kate a ride to Chicago, since it is on the way to Milwaukee, and she accepts.
• Larry Hankin as Larry Balzak, a police sergeant who works in family crisis.
• Ralph Foody as Johnny the gangster in Angels with Filthy Souls
• Michael Guido as Snakes the other gangster in Angels with Filthy Souls
• Ken Hudson Campbell as Santa Claus
• Jim Ortlieb as Herb, the drugstore owner

Music

Main article: Home Alone (soundtrack)

The film score of Home Alone was composed by John Williams. Christmas songs, such as "O Holy Night" and "Carol of the Bells", are featured prominently in the film, as well as the film's theme song "Somewhere in My Memory". The soundtrack was released by Sony Classical in 1990

Video release

The film was released on VHS in 1991 and included a mail-in rebate offer from Pepsi (a product prominently featured in the film).

It was first released on DVD in 1999 as a basic package, with no special features other than theatrical trailers for the film and its sequels. However, it was later re-released in 2006 as a "Family Fun Edition", which included a large number of extras (multiple trailers, deleted scenes, bloopers, commentary, behind-the-scenes featurettes, and more). A Blu-ray release of the Family Fun Edition followed in 2008.

Video games

The first Home Alone game was released in 1991. Home Alone video games were released for the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Sega Mega Drive, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and Sega Game Gear, the Game Boy, the Sega Master System, the Amiga and personal computers. The Home Alone game on the SNES used still images and character's voices from the film in its gameplay. It also features the characters from the film as well as new enemies created for the game including a fat gangster, ghosts, large rats and very large tarantulas. A video game titled Home Alone was released for the PlayStation 2 in 2006, but it was not released in the United States.

Sequels

The film was followed by a commercially successful sequel, the 1992 release Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, which brings back the original cast from the first film Home Alone 3, released in 1997, has completely different actors, and a different storyline. A fourth film followed in 2002, Home Alone 4: Taking Back the House. This film features some of the same characters featured in the first two films, but with a new cast and a storyline that does not fall into the same continuity

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