12 Festive Facts About Home Alone That Will Get You in the Holiday Spirit
As Home Alone celebrates its 35th anniversary, we open some behind-the-scenes gifts that helped make the movie a holiday classic.
Since its 1990 release, Home Alone has become one of the most treasured and rewatched holiday films of all time. Written and produced by John Hughes and directed by Chris Columbus, the hilarious tale of eight-year-old Kevin McCallister, left behind when his family travels to Paris, has quite simply endured, booby traps and all.
Still, there are plenty of behind-the-scenes facts to discover about the classic movie that you can fire off next time you’re sitting down to a traditional Home Alone rewatch. Here are just some of the best…
1. You Win Some, You Lose Some
Home Alone was a massive success for 20th Century Fox, grossing $476.7 million worldwide on a budget of about $18 million and spawning five sequels, but it could have been a huge dub for Warner Bros. instead, had the studio not handed the movie over to Fox after balking at some extra budgetary dollars. Whoops!
2. What If…?
The film only exists because of real-life parental paranoia. Writer and producer John Hughes conceived the story after worrying during a family trip to Europe that he might forget his kids, which led him to ask: “What if you left your kid behind?” When Hughes returned from the trip, he blitzed through a first draft of the script in nine days, which seems quick if you don’t know that he wrote The Breakfast Club and Weird Science in two.
3. Potty Mouth Pesci
Joe Pesci’s time on the movie as one of the villainous Wet Bandits later led to several revelations. The role of Harry Lime had originally been offered to both Robert De Niro and Jon Lovitz before Pesci accepted, but since he’d just finished Goodfellas and was used to relentlessly swearing, Pesci had to make up a gibberish language to use instead of dropping F-bombs when he was annoyed. This all led to Lime’s signature Yosemite Sam-style muttering.
4. Finger Food
Pesci also really bit Macaulay Culkin’s finger during a rehearsal and avoided interacting with him off‑camera so that Culkin’s fear of him seemed real. No word on whether he went full method and left some taps running around the neighborhood, though.
5. All Mapped Out
The map that Kevin uses to plot his incredible booby traps in the house looks like it was drawn by a real child because it was. Culkin drew it himself for authenticity.
6. Let It Snow
The movie couldn’t afford snow for scenes shot outside the house, but when a blizzard hit on the second day of shooting, the crew had to keep begrudgingly adding snow as filming continued, including fake snow made from potato flakes.
7. Anyone for Tennis?
Catherine O’Hara, who co-stars as Kevin’s panicked mom, often had to deliver her lines in scenes with child actors via a tennis ball on a stand rather than the actual child, because restrictions on child working hours meant the kids weren’t always present when her close-ups were filmed. But her time with Culkin certainly left a lasting impression – he’s been known to still call O’Hara “Mommy” when he runs into her.
8. Cheap Candy
The late John Candy filmed all his scenes as polka king Gus Polinski in a single day and improvised his iconic monologue. The beloved actor was reportedly only paid scale rate for the cameo, earning just $414. Columbus says Candy was still bitter about it when they worked together again on a different project later.
9. Spider Sense
The tarantula placed on Marv’s face during the film’s climactic home invasion was a real spider, but actor Daniel Stern only agreed to the shot if it was just one take. He also had to mime his terrified reaction rather than scream because that might have frightened the spider. Weird to think that the tarantula could have been the one bricking it at that particular moment, but there we go.
Speaking of Marv, the scene where he steps on Kevin’s ornaments barefoot wasn’t as painful as it looked: the ornaments had to be made out of candy so that Stern didn’t cut his feet. Mmm, forbidden, delicious foot ornaments…
10. Marley Saves the Day
Old Man Marley, the elderly gentleman who tells Kevin his distressing backstory and eventually rescues him from the Wet Bandits, may seem integral to Home Alone and its satisfying ending now, but the character wasn’t originally supposed to be in the movie. Columbus only added him in later to give the film more emotional depth.
11. Gym a Tonic
The power of set design makes viewers feel as if all of Home Alone’s interior scenes are shot in a real, cozy house, but Columbus and co. filmed the basement stuff in a pool at New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois, and built interior sets in the school’s gym.
12. One Tree Kill
The tree Kevin chops down in the backyard scene was an actual tree on the property of a house in Winnetka. The house’s owners only discovered this after seeing the film and being amazed at how realistic the tree felling was. Returning home to check the backyard, they finally noticed the missing tree. Hey, they probably got over it eventually!
Written by
Kirsten Howard has paid their dues. Yes sir, the check is in the mail.