Home Alone is an American 1990 comedy Christmas film written and produced by John Hughes and distributed by 20th Century Fox. The film stars Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McCallister, an 8 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 burglers, Harry and Marv, who are played by Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern. Kevin eventually manages to outwit them with a series of booby traps. The movie had four sequels and three video games. The fifth and final sequel will be released in November 2015.
Plot Summary
At the beginning of the film, the McCallister family prepares to spend Christmas with Peter and Frank's brother Rob in Paris, France, gathering at Peter and Kate's home in Chicago the night before their flight. 8-year-old Kevin, Peter and Kate's youngest son and the main protagonist of the film, finds himself the subject of ridicule from the other children.
Buzz pretends to throw up on the floor after eating Kevin's cheese pizza on purpose. After reacting calmly at first, Kevin then runs over and pushes him, Buzz accidentally spill the milk on the airline tickets and passports. After getting into an argument with Buzz, he is sent to his third floor bedroom of the house as a punishment, wishing his family would disappear. The family accidentally leaves Kevin asleep in bed, as a power outage resets the time and causes them to wake up late. A neighbor boy named Mitch Murphy is mistaken for Kevin in a headcount, and the family hastily departs to the Chicago O'Hare International Airport, for a flight to Paris-Orly Airport.
During the flight, Kate realizes that they have left Kevin behind, and once everyone is in Paris, she immediately tries to book a return flight back to Chicago. Kate manages to fly into Dallas and Scranton, but the flight to Chicago was out of order. However, she does manage to hitch a ride with a man named Gus Polinski and his polka band, the Kenosha Kickers, who are driving to Milwaukee after their flight was canceled in a blizzard.
Meanwhile, Kevin wakes up to find the house empty and is overjoyed to find that his wish came true. He gets away with taking Buzz's life savings, practicing shooting Buzz's BB gun, jumping on the bed, watching Angels With Filthy Souls,and eating a large amount of junk food such as a big ice cream sundae. However, Kevin finds himself scared by the appearance of the Chicago Police Department (called by his parents to check on Kevin via payphone from Paris-Orly), his next door neighbor "Old Man" Marley, who was rumored to have murdered his family many years earlier by Buzz, and the appearance of The Wet Bandits, Harry Lyme and Marv Merchants, who are breaking into other vacant houses along the block.
The Wet Bandits are aware of which houses are vacant, as Harry impersonated a police officer doing wellness checks on families before the holidays. On Christmas Eve, Kevin manages to overhear Harry and Marv discuss plans for breaking into his house that night. After conversing with a fake Santa Claus and heading into a church, where he watches a local choir perform in hopes to have his family return, Kevin encounters Marley, and comes to realize that he is a nice man and that none of the rumors about him are true. Kevin finds out that Marley has been estranged from his son for quite some time after an argument for an unknown reason many years before Kevin and his family moved next-door and suggests that he reunite with him for Christmas.
His own spirits lifted by encouraging Marley, Kevin returns home to prepare a series of booby traps about the house before 9:00 pm. Harry and Marv, who were initially fooled by Kevin's illusions that the house is occupied, now realize that he is home alone and attempt to break in, running into the various traps. After the two spring almost every trap in the house, Kevin flees to the second floor of the house, and dials 9-1-1 from a landline.
Harry and Marv manage to chase Kevin out of the house; he then flees to the vacant neighboring home, which was unlocked and unoccupied. The Wet Bandits trap Kevin when he runs to the top of the stairs connecting the basement and the first floor. They decide to do the same things that Kevin did to them and Harry decides to bite Kevin's fingers off one at a time first, but Marley sneaks in and knocks them out unconscious with his snow shovel, thus saving Kevin's life, and takes Kevin home. Shortly after Kevin is safely returned home, Harry and Marv are arrested. Additionally, the police were aware of every house The Wet Bandits have hit because of Marv's habit of leaving the household's water running to leave their mark. Kevin then places some food and milk as Kevin has set up Christmas all by himself.
Kevin wakes up the next morning to find that his mother has returned as Kevin reconciles with his mom. Shortly afterward, the rest of the McCallisters, having traveled directly to Chicago from Paris, arrive. Kevin and Buzz have a moment of reconciliation. Kevin tells his family that he bought groceries and laundry supplies while Kevin's family were away, but keeps silent about his encounter with Harry and Marv, but Peter finds Harry's missing gold tooth and wonders what it is.
Kevin then goes over to the window and smiles upon discovering that Marley took his advice, and watches as he and his son reunite and reconcile. While hugging his granddaughter, Marley looks up, sees Kevin and, smiling, waves to him as a sign of thanking him, and Kevin, also grinning, waves back. At the end of the film, Buzz interrupts Kevin's musings by calling out, "Kevin! What did you do to my room?!" immediately as Kevin runs off, and then the credits roll.
Cast
Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McCallister
Daniel Stern as Marvin Murchens
John Heard as Peter McCallister
Roberts Blossom as Old Man Marley
Catherine O'Hara as Kate McCallister
Angela Goethals as Linnie McCallister
Devin Ratray as Buzz McCallister
Gerry Bamman as Frank McCallister
Hillary Wolf as Megan McCallister
Larry Hankin as Officer Balzak
Michael C. Maronna as Jeff McCallister
Kristin Minter as Heather McCallister
Daiana Campeanu as Sondra McCallister
Jedidiah Cohen as Rod McCallister
Kieran Culkin as Fuller McCallister
Senta Moses as Tracy McCallister
Anna Slotky as Brooke McCallister
Terrie Snell as Leslie McCallister
Jeffrey Wiseman as Mitch Murphy
Virginia Smith as Georgette McCallister
Matt Doherty as Steffan
Ray Toller as Rob McCallister
Billie Bird and Bill Erwin as Ed and Irene
Gerry Becker and Victor Cole as Officers
Porscha Radcliffe and Brittany Radcliffe as The Cousins
Clarke Devereux as Officer Devereux
Dan Charles Zulcoski as Pizza Boy
Lynn Mansbach as French Woman
Alan Wider as Scranton Ticket Agent
Hope Davis as French Ticket Agent
Dianne B. Shaw as Airline Counter Person
Tracy J. Connor as Cashier
Kenneth Hudson Campbell as Santa Claus
Mark Beltzman as Stosh
Ann Whitney as Drugstore Clerk
Richard J. Firfer as Store Manager
Jim Ortleb as Herb
Kate Johnson as Police Operator
Michael Hansen and Peter Panteleo as Airport Drivers
Jean Claude Sciore as French Gate Agent
Monica Devereux as Flight Attendant
Edited for Television
When aired on Disney Channel, Fox, NBC, or ABC Family, some scenes were edited like:
- When Kevin asks Buzz if he could sleep in his room to avoid sleeping with Fuller (who wets the bed when given a lot to drink), Buzz normally says: "I wouldn't let you sleep in my room if you were growing on my ass!", but in some instances, he says "I wouldn't let you sleep in my room if you were growing on my butt!".
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