Trivia
John Candy filmed his part in only one day, albeit an extremely long 23-hour day. The story about having once forgotten his son at a funeral home was entirely improvised. His part is obviously inspired by the character he played in Planes, Trains & Automobiles also written by John Hughes.
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The concept for this movie originated during the filming of a scene in Uncle Buck in which Macaulay Culkin plays a character who interrogates a would-be-babysitter through a letterbox.
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The movie that Kevin watches on video tape is not a real film, but footage specially created. It was called "Angels With Filthy Souls." Along with other similar era references in the movie, this is a play upon the movie Angels with Dirty Faces starring James Cagney.
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Joe Pesci's character, Harry Lime, is named after Orson Welles's character from the film The Third Man.
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Jeffrey Wiseman who plays the inquisitive neighbor, Mitch Murphy, auditioned for the role of Kevin McCallister.
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Entered into The Guinness Book of World Records as the "Highest Box Office Gross - Comedy", accumulating $533,000,000 internationally.
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The posters and DVD cases for the movie had Culkin with his hands on his face and screaming, based on the famous painting "The Scream" by Edvard Munch.
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Joe Pesci kept forgetting that he was filming a "family" movie during his character's on-screen outbursts, so director Chris Columbus advised him to say "fridge" instead of the "F-word".
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Despite filming a family movie, Daniel Stern once slipped in the "s-word," which can be heard when he is retrieving his boot through the doggy door at 55:27 on the DVD.
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The car that ''Santa'' (the guy Kevin talks to about getting his family back) starts before it stalls out is a 1980 Honda Civic hatchback. It really did stall on camera as the actor was driving it away.
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Although the part was written especially for Macaulay Culkin by John Hughes, several hundred other boys were auditioned by director Chris Columbus just because he wanted to confirm that Culkin was right for the part.
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The wax-and-plastic artificial snow used in this film was given to the Lyric Opera of Chicago when shooting finished. It has since been used in numerous opera productions.
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Little Nero's Pizza is an parody of Little Caesar's Pizza. "Caesar" was the title used by Roman emperors, such as Nero.
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The issue of Playboy that Kevin finds in Buzz's room is from July 1989, with Erika Eleniak as Miss July.
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In the scene where Harry attempts to bite off Kevin's finger, Joe Pesci actually bit Macaulay Culkin, leaving a scar on his finger.
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From 1993 to 1996 and again in 1998, NBC aired 'Home Alone' during the 8/7c time slot on Thanksgiving evening as part of their holiday promotion (Jurassic Park aired in its place in 1997 and 'Home Alone' aired on NBC a week before Christmas). The film would air on NBC until 1999, in which it aired the Sunday after Thanksgiving weekend in 1999, in which it was the last time it aired on NBC. The film also aired on Thanksgiving Day for 24 hours on FX in 2009.
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John Williams's score for the film is a song called "Somewhere In My Memory." It's used mainly as soundtrack for both Home Alone films; however, he did a couple different recordings of the song itself. The full song done with vocals is on the Home Alone 2: Lost in New York music soundtrack with Bette Midler.
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Daniel Stern agreed to have the tarantula put on his face for exactly one take. He had to mime screaming because the noise would have scared the spider, and the scream was dubbed in later.
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The picture Kevin finds of "Buzz's girlfriend" was a picture of a boy made up to look like a girl because Chris Columbus thought it would be too cruel to make fun of a girl like that.
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There is a legend that Elvis Presley (who died in 1977) makes a cameo in this movie. Many of those who believe that Elvis is still alive maintain that, the heavily bearded man standing in the background of the scene where Mrs. MacCallister is shouting at the desk clerk (just before she meets John Candy) is Elvis.
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Chris Columbus had storyboarded a few scenes in which Kevin would have a dream where the house would come to life. One included the evil furnace in the basement, which would chase him to the stairs, and another which several toy nutcrackers would come to life along with the house. The scenes, however, would have been too expensive on such a tight budget and the ideas were dropped.
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The "evil furnace" in the basement was done by two guys with fishing line and flashlights.
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According to Chris Columbus, Kevin Nordine did all the effects for the film in his parent's basement in Chicago, by drawing all the effects onto the film. He also did the effects for only a few hundred dollars at a time.
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Several of Chris Columbus's family members make cameos in the film: His mother-in-law and his then-infant daughter Eleanor Columbus are both passengers on the plane. His wife Monica Devereux-Columbus is a stewardess and his father-in-law plays the police officer who gives the line "tell them to count their kids again."
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Sigourney Weaver, Diane Keaton, Holly Hunter, Jodie Foster, Glenn Close, Geena Davis, Jamie Lee Curtis, Stockard Channing, Carrie Fisher, Kelly McGillis, Linda Hamilton, Helen Hunt, Laura Dern, Anjelica Huston, Sharon Stone, Michelle Pfeiffer, Jessica Lange, Daryl Hannah, Debra Winger, and Annie Potts were all considered for the role of Katie McCallister.
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Michael Douglas, Kevin Costner, Martin Sheen, Dan Aykroyd, John Travolta, Tom Skerritt, Bill Murray, James Belushi, Chevy Chase, Harrison Ford, Tom Hanks, Sean Penn, Mel Gibson, Sylvester Stallone, Rick Moranis, Dennis Quaid, and Jack Nicholson were considered for the role of Peter McCallister.
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The movie is considered a traditional Christmas movie in Poland. It has aired on national TV during prime time Christmas season every year since 1990. In 2011 the movie aired on December 23rd with an audience of over 5 million, making it the most popular show aired during the Christmas season in Poland. One of the reasons for this is because the movie was one of the first western productions aired in Poland after the fall of communism.
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Director Chris Columbus envisioned a scene in which the furnace came to life, gets up on all fours and chases Kevin to the stairs. The scene would have cost over a million dollars so it was trimmed down to the furnace simply lighting up and groaning Kevin's name.
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The voice on the answering machine when Harry and Marv are robbing their first house is the film's editor Raja Gosnell, who would later direct Home Alone 3.
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The sled next to the TV when Kevin is watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas! is in Chris Columbus's office. It was signed by the entire cast.
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The last scene filmed was the scene in which Kevin is running through the water-filled basement. The scene was filmed in the swimming pool of the local high school.
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The McCallister family lives in Chicago, Illinois, and therefore flew out of O'Hare International Airport. Similarly named Catherine O'Hara starred as the matriarch of the family, Kate McCallister.
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In the box where Buzz keeps his money we see a 1989 Fleer baseball card of All-Star Fred McGriff.
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