15 Things You Didn’t Know about Home Alone

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, which means families everywhere are watching Christmas movies almost daily, and we love it. One of the best movies to watch this time of year is Home Alone. It’s the story of an ungrateful little boy who is accidentally left behind when his family goes on vacation during Christmas. The young boy is then the target of some Christmas thieves who target his home, and he’s forced to make sure that they can’t get in to take his family’s belongings – all while his parents are doing everything in their power to get home from France despite the bad weather and delayed flights.

It’s a family favorite, and no matter how many times you’ve seen this amazingly hilarious movie, you’ll never quite understand everything there is to know about the movie. We have a little list here of 15 thing we bet you didn’t know about the movie that will just make it all the more entertaining and enjoyable for you the next time you watch it.

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Buzz’s Girlfriend Isn’t A Girl

It’s everyone’s favorite part; when Macaulay Culkin finds the photo of Buzz’s girlfriend and promptly announces she is “Woof.” It turns out, the director did not want to make a real teenage girl feel the horror of being made fun of, so he had makeup dress up his son to look like a girl and then take his photos. He doesn’t make a particularly attractive girl, so it worked out for everyone. And how much do you love the director for keeping the feelings of teenage girls everywhere in mind when he made this decision?

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The Movie Box

The iconic moment in which Kevin McCallister, played by Macaulay Culkin, is screaming with his hands on his face on the box of the movie (remember, this was before DVDs and Blu-Ray) was actually inspired by something a little more famous. Remember the gorgeous painting by famed artist Edvard Munch? The Scream was the inspiration for this pose, and it worked out pretty well. In fact, the actor actually makes this face one more time when he’s using his dad’s aftershave in the bathroom after taking a long, hot shower to his favorite tunes.

Photo by Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images for the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival

No Thanks, Robert De Niro

Did you know that the famous actor Robert De Niro was offered a role in Home Alone to play one of the criminals? Well, he was, but he turned it down. He probably turned it down because he wanted to savor the fact that he was a bit time movie star and starring in a little kid’s movie wasn’t something he thought would be good for his career. Well, guess what? This is one of the most iconic, classic holiday films of all time and we are willing to be that he sometimes thinks back to the moment he said no thanks and wishes he’d had a different answer. He would have made a pretty good criminal against an 8-year-old. Additionally, Jon Lovitz also turned down the role.

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The Tarantula

In the scene where one of the robbers, played by Daniel Stern, ends up with a giant tarantula on his face, he’s not really screaming. Despite the sound of the high-pitched screaming, he had to mimic the sound and remain completely quiet so as not to scare the spider. Yes, there’s a giant spider on your face and you want to make sure you don’t scare it; sounds about right. The screaming was taped and later added to the movie for the protection of all 8-legged creatures on the set. And believe that the actor said that the film crew better get that shot in one take, because he was not doing it again. Who can blame him?

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The F-Bomb

Joe Pesci played the other robber in this hit film, and it seems he kept forgetting that the movie was being made for families and kept using an inappropriate four-letter word that begins with an F. The director couldn’t get him to stop, so he told the actor he had to replace all his F words with the word “fridge” to keep things family-friendly and appropriate. Next time you watch, look for the hesitation in his words when he does this.

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Elvis is in the Building

People who love Home Alone also love Elvis, and they believe that he had a part in the film. People who watched this movie are convinced that the king is not dead. They’re certain than one of the ‘extras’ standing behind the woman who plays Kevin’s mother in one of the airport scenes is actually Elvis, and that the movie crew either accidentally got him in the film or that they purposely used him because they love the idea of messing with people’s minds.

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Rubber Feet

We all know that Kevin McCallister took it upon himself to try and thwart robbers in his home from getting into his house and potentially killing him by throwing obstacles in their direction. One was a lot of glass on the ground, which was actually just molded candy. However , the robbers actually wore rubber feet so that they could go through the stuff on the ground without hurting themselves, only pretending to be hurt for the cameras.

Photo by Mark Mainz/Getty Images

Kevin’s Dad

Chris Columbus, producer and director of the movie, actually wanted to consider some very famous faces to play Kevin’s dad. That included Harrison Ford, Dan Aykroyd, and even Kevin Costner. However, he remembered John Heard from the early 80s film, “Cutter’s Way,” and decided he would be perfect for the role, so he cast him successfully. He was one of the many characters who were initially thought of and planned for in the film, much like Macaulay Culkin’s character and John Candy’s character.

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Mrs. McCallister

Catherine O’Hara is the woman who played Mrs. McCalister, and she was the actress who won the role over several of the other actresses who were being considered for the role. These actresses included some very famous faces including Sigourney Weaver, Geena Davis and even Jamie Lee Curtis. She just had what it took to be the mother of the little boy who accidentally got left behind when the family went to Paris for the holiday season.

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A Family Affair

Chris Columbus wanted to keep the cast as much in the family as possible, so he decided to actually cast as many of his family members in the film as possible. His wife, his daughter and even his in-laws all had small parts playing roles such as plane passengers, flight attendants and even the man who tells the McCallister’s to count their kids again when they realize that one might actually be missing from their family vacation.

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Scars Happen

In the scene in the end of the film where Joe Pesci’s character bites the finger of Macaulay Culkin, he actually bites it, hard. He bit the little kid so hard that he accidentally left a permanent scar on the finger of the actor, which he still has today. Of course, it’s kind of cool to say that your scar is one that the iconic Joe Pesci gave you when he bit you in the midst of filming one of the most famous family movies of all time.

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The House is Real

There were no sound stages or sets on this film. The house that was used as the McCallister’s house in the movie, the big and beautiful brick home, is a real home just outside of Chicago. The movie was filmed here, and the house is now one of the most famous houses in the area. It just goes to show that you don’t need a lot of fancy stuff to film a good movie; you can do it practically at home. Or at least, someone’s home; our bet is that this famous house is pretty expensive thanks to being famous.

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Macaulay Culkin Was the Inspiration for this Movie

When Macaulay Culkin played a child who interrogates a babysitter through a mail slot in the movie “Uncle Buck,” which also starred John Candy, the Home Alone movie was born. It was just this one scene that caused someone to think about this film, create it and then bring it to life for all to enjoy. And even though they knew who they wanted to play Kevin McCallister the entire time, they still let hundreds of kids audition for the role.

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John Candy Improvised

His role in the movie didn’t seem too big, but John Candy’s scenes were completely filmed in 23 hours and he pretty much improvised his entire personal story at the end of the movie, and it was one of the most memorable and heartwarming parts of the film. He did this based on his own feelings, and he wasn’t even supposed to share a personal story about his own children, he just thought that it would be a good fit for the film; and it was.

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The Movie within the Movie

Angels With Filthy Souls; it’s the film that Kevin McCallister uses to make his robber friends and the pizza guy think someone is really home, but the movie is actually not real. This comes as a shocking surprise to some fans of Home Alone who want to find the movie to watch. The scenes from the movie within the movie were filmed for Home Alone, and they were sort-of derived from a long-ago film called Angels with Dirty Faces starring the iconic Jimmy Cagney. It’s one of the least-known facts about this particular family film.