Home Alone is a 1990 American Christmas comedy film directed by Chris Columbus and written and produced by John Hughes. The first film in the Home Alone franchise, the film stars Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McCallister, an eight-year-old boy who defends his suburban Chicago home from a home invasion by a pair of robbers after his family accidentally leaves him behind on their Christmas vacation to Paris. The cast also features Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern, John Heard, and Catherine O'Hara.
Hughes conceived Home Alone while on vacation, with Warner Bros. being originally intended to finance and distribute the film. Warner Bros. shut down the production after it exceeded its assigned budget, but it quickly resumed under 20th Century Fox following meetings with Hughes; Columbus and Culkin were hired soon afterwards. Filming took place between February and May 1990 on location across Illinois.
Home Alone had a sneak preview across 1,000 theaters on November 10, 1990, and was theatrically released in the United States on November 16. It received mixed-to-positive reviews and grossed $476.7 million worldwide, becoming the second-highest-grossing film of 1990. It made Culkin a child star and was the highest-grossing live-action comedy for two decades. It was nominated for two Academy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards. Home Alone has since been considered one of the best Christmas films. In 2023, Home Alone was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Five sequels have been released: Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), Home Alone 3 (1997), Home Alone 4: Taking Back the House (2002), Home Alone: The Holiday Heist (2012), and Home Sweet Home Alone (2021).
Plot
The McCallister family is preparing to spend Christmas in Paris, gathering at Peter and Kate's home in a Chicago suburb the night before their departure. Their youngest son, Kevin, is the subject of ridicule by his older siblings because of his immaturity. During a scuffle with his oldest brother Buzz, Kevin accidentally ruins the family dinner; while cleaning up the mess, Peter inadvertently throws away Kevin's flight ticket. As punishment, Kate sends Kevin to the attic, where he angrily berates his mother and wishes his family would disappear. During the night, heavy winds cause a power outage that resets the alarm clocks and leads the family to oversleep. The next morning, in the chaotic rush to leave for the airport, Kevin is accidentally left behind.
Kevin wakes to find the house empty and, thinking that his wish has come true, initially enjoys his newfound freedom. He ransacks Buzz's room, buys and eats whatever he wants, and watches violent movies. However, Kevin soon becomes frightened by his next door neighbor, Old Man Marley, who is rumored by Buzz to be a serial killer who murdered his own family in the 1950's, as well as the "Wet Bandits", Harry and Marv, a pair of burglars who have been breaking into other vacant houses in the neighborhood and have targeted the McCallisters' house. Kevin tricks them into thinking that his family is still home, forcing them to put their plans on hold.
Kate realizes mid-flight that Kevin was left behind. Upon arrival in Paris, the family discovers that all flights for the next two days are fully booked. While the rest of the family stay in Peter's brother's apartment, Kate manages to get a flight to the United States, but it is a flight to Dallas, Texas.
On Christmas Eve, Kate ends up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where all flights to Chicago are fully booked. She ends up riding with a polka band who are driving to Milwaukee and whose leader, Gus Polinski, offered to let her ride with them to Chicago after overhearing her desperation to get home. Meanwhile, Harry and Marv finally realize that Kevin is home alone, and Kevin overhears them discussing plans to break into his house. Kevin starts to miss his family and asks the local Santa Claus impersonator if he could bring them back for Christmas. He goes to a church and watches a choir perform, then meets Old Man Marley, who dispels the rumors about him. He points out his granddaughter in the choir, whom he is unable to spend Christmas with, as he and his son are estranged; Kevin suggests that he should reconcile with his son.
Kevin returns home and rigs the house with booby traps to take on the burglars. Harry and Marv break in, spring the traps, and suffer various injuries. While the duo pursues Kevin around the house, he calls the police and flees, then lures Harry and Marv into a neighboring home which they previously broke into. They catch him and prepare to get their revenge, but Marley, who is next door checking on his son's house, intervenes and knocks them unconscious with his snow shovel. The police arrive and arrest Harry and Marv, having identified all the houses that they broke into due to Marv's destructive characteristic of flooding them.
On Christmas morning, Kevin is disappointed to find that his family is still gone. He then hears Kate enter the house and call for him; they reconcile and are soon joined by Peter, Buzz, Jeff, Megan, and Linnie, who managed to return by catching a flight to Dallas and then a connecting flight to Chicago. Kevin keeps silent about his encounter with Harry and Marv, although Peter finds Harry's knocked-out gold tooth. Kevin then observes Marley reuniting with his son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter. Marley notices Kevin, and the pair wave to each other knowingly.
Cast
Credits adapted from the American Film Institute.
Production Development Writer and producer John Hughes conceived Home Alone while preparing to go on vacation. He said: "I was going away on vacation, and making a list of everything I didn't want to forget. I thought, 'Well, I'd better not forget my kids.' Then I thought, 'What if I left my 10-year-old son at home? What would he do? Hughes wrote eight pages of notes that developed into the screenplay. Imagining that children are naturally most scared of robbers, Hughes also worked that aspect into the plot of the film.
Home Alone was initially set to be financed and distributed by Warner Bros. Hughes promised that he could make the movie for less than $10 million, considerably less than most feature film production budgets of that era. Concerned that the film might exceed that amount, Hughes met secretly with 20th Century Fox before production to see if they would fund the project if Warner Bros. proved inflexible. According to executive producer Scott Rosenfelt, a copy of the script was "clandestinely" delivered to Fox, bypassing the legal restrictions that would have otherwise prevented Fox from seeing it until the project was in turnaround. Early in production, the budget grew to $14.7 million. Warner Bros. demanded that it be cut by $1.2 million; the producers responded with a memo arguing that the budget could not be cut any further. Unconvinced, Warner Bros. shut down production the next day, but it quickly resumed when Fox took up Hughes on his offer. The final budget grew to $18 million.
Hughes had asked Patrick Read Johnson to direct, but he was committed to directing Spaced Invaders (1990). He turned to Chris Columbus, who had left National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989) before shooting started because of a personality clash with starring actor Chevy Chase, who Columbus said treated him "like dirt". Hughes gave him the scripts for both Home Alone and Reach the Rock (1998); Columbus chose to direct Home Alone, as he found it funnier and liked the Christmas theme. Columbus did an uncredited rewrite of the script; among his contributions was the character of Old Man Marley, which he created to give the story a more serious layer, as well as a more emotional, happier ending.
Casting
Hughes suggested to Columbus that they cast Macaulay Culkin as Kevin, because of his experience while shooting Uncle Buck (1989). Columbus met with 200 other actors for the part, as he felt it was his "directorial responsibility". John Mulaney was asked to audition for the role of Kevin after being scouted in a children's sketch comedy group, but his parents refused the opportunity. Columbus finally met with Culkin and agreed he was the right choice.
Before Catherine O'Hara and John Heard would be cast as the parents, considerations for the roles included Susan Sarandon, Kirstie Alley, Blythe Danner, Joanna Cassidy and Candice Bergen for Kate, and Sam Waterston, David Dukes and Danny Aiello for Peter. James Stewart and Vincent Gardenia had been considered for the role of Marley before Roberts Blossom was chosen.
Robert De Niro was considered for the role of Harry, but after Jon Lovitz turned it down, Joe Pesci was cast. He informed the producers he was "offer only", so the producers did not audition him. Tim Curry, Joe Pantoliano and Zack Norman were also considered before Pesci ultimately accepted the role. The role of Uncle Frank was written for Kelsey Grammer, but was given to Gerry Bamman when Grammer was unavailable.
Daniel Stern was cast as Marv, but before shooting started, he was told that the production schedule had been extended from six weeks to eight. He dropped out after as he would not be paid more for the extended schedule. Daniel Roebuck was hired to replace him, but after two days of rehearsal, Columbus felt he was lacking chemistry with Pesci and brought back Stern. Roebuck later said that, although he was upset to be fired from the production, he now believed the experience was "a little blip of unimportance". Chris Farley auditioned for the role of the Santa Claus impersonator, but he failed to impress Columbus.
John Candy was available for only one day to film his scenes, which took 23 hours to shoot. He was paid only $414, since he did the film as a favor to Hughes. In return, he was the only actor Hughes allowed to go off-script; according to Columbus, all his dialogue was improvised.
Filming
Principal photography took place from February 14, 1990, to May 8, 1990, over a course of 83 days on an $18.3 million budget.Weekly Variety Magazine; February 14, 1990; Page 28Daily Variety Magazine; May 8, 1990; Page 18 The house exterior scenes were filmed on location at a three-story single-family house located at 671 Lincoln Avenue in the North Shore village of Winnetka, Illinois, where many of Hughes's previous films had also been shot, but at different houses. The only interiors of the house used for filming that made it to the finished film were the main staircase, attic and most of the first floor landing, while all the other interiors of the house were duplicated on a sound stage to allow more room for equipment and crew. These sets were built in the then-disused gym of New Trier High School's west campus, previously used by Hughes for Uncle Buck and Ferris Bueller's Day Off, where the production company had already set up its offices. 671 Lincoln Avenue later became a tourist attraction. The tree house in the backyard was built specifically for the film and dismantled after filming ended.
Kevin runs away from his third encounter with Marley in Hubbard Woods Park in Winnetka. In addition, the scene where Kevin wades in his neighbor's flooded basement was shot at the empty swimming pool of the aforementioned campus of New Trier High School, with the American Airlines DC-10 first class cabin interiors done on the basketball courts. The church exteriors were shot at Trinity United Methodist Church in Wilmette, Illinois, while the interiors were shot at Grace Episcopal Church in Oak Park, Illinois. Filming also took place over four sixteen-hour days at O'Hare International Airport, which served for both itself and Orly Airport in Paris. John Candy filmed his cameo appearance for the film over the course of one day at Meigs Field.