Home Alone: Difference between revisions

Before he goes up into the attic, however, he tells his mother that he [[I Wished You Were Dead|never wants to see her or anyone else in the family again]]. The next day, the family oversleeps due to a power outage, and they hurry to the airport on the way to France.

 

 

Kevin works to prevent them from reaching for his house, using mannequins and cardboard cut-outs mounted on moving toy trains and record players. Along the way, he tries to avoid an [[Misunderstood Loner With a Heart of Gold|elderly neighbor, who is said by Buzz to be a serial killer]]. Later, however, it turns out that the neighbor is harmless, and has simply lived in recluse due to an argument he had with his son years ago. Kevin convinces him to make up for it by calling his son. Later on, Kevin sets up traps in his house to prevent the burglars from reaching for their valuables, and the extensive climax chronicles the slapstick that ensues.

 

 

The movie, being such a success (it was the biggest hit of that year and finished its theatrical run only behind ''Star Wars'' and ''E.T.'' as the 3rd-highest grossing film in history), inevitably was followed by a few sequels.

A fourth sequel, ''Home Alone 5: Afraid of the Dark'' has been confirmed to be in the works, and is going to be released on ABC's 25 Days of Christmas in 2012.

 

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=== This film series contains examples of: ===

* [[Angrish]]: Harry speaks it often in the third acts of both films, because [[Bowdlerise|they couldn't let Joe Pesci swear]].

** You can only make out a few sentences like "That's it, you little..." and "I'm gonna rip his head off!".

** Averted by Marv, who utters an S-bomb at one point (and if you can't hear it, it's in the subtitles on the DVD). It's right around when he loses his shoe through the doggy door.

* [[Ash Face]]: In the second film, after Harry soaks his burning head in a toilet full of kerosene, the entire first floor of the house blows up, but luckily Harry survives with only a burn on his scalp and a damaged hat and ash on his face.

* [[Big Never]]: Marv, although in a context that just makes him look foolish.

* [[Big No]]: Harry screams one in the second film while Kevin throws a rock through a window to trip the toy store alarm, and expose the Bandits.

* [[Bloodless Carnage]]: The Wet/Sticky Bandits get hit by all sorts of painful traps, but not a drop of blood appears in the movies. Not really noticeable except for a few cases, like when a nail goes through Marv's foot.

** In ''Home Alone 3'' one of the spies has a ''running lawnmower'' dropped onto his ''face''. We hear agonizing screaming and the scene cuts away. The next time we see him, all he has is a wacky new haircut.

** In the second film: Columbus himself makes a cameo holding his daughter Elenore in the Toy Store.

* [[Car Cushion]]: In the second movie, Kevin tricks Harry and Marv into getting onto a makeshift see-saw, launching Harry into the air and onto a car.

** "Remember, if this makes the papers, we're no longer the Wet Bandits, we're the Sticky Bandits!"

* [[Cassandra Truth]]: ''Home Alone 3'', in which the spies escape before the police arrive, resulting in a lecture that "false alarms are no joking matter".

** Justified a bit in that Pesci just came from doing ''Goodfellas'', where he elevated F-bombs to an art form.

** It's also justified both times for why they didn't do the above: in the first film they don't have a gun (which makes sense- they expect to be robbing empty houses on an empty street), and by the time they grab Kevin are too pissed off to worry about tying him up. In the second Harry does have a gun and is prepared to use it...but again, he doesn't get the chance until he's put through hell first, by which point its too late.

* [[Fat and Skinny]]: Harry and Marv, respectively.

** Joe Pesci really isn't that fat, but he is much shorter and heavier than Daniel Stern.

** "Don't you know a kid always wins against two idiots?"

* [[Gold Tooth]]: Harry has a gold tooth, which produces a rare live-action [[Twinkle Smile]]. When Kevin recognizes it he realizes Harry was the same man posing as a police officer at the beginning of the film.

** [[Gratuitous Spanish]]: ...and then watching it ''en Español'' in the second, even though Florida is an English-speaking U.S. state, although Spanish may count as another language in Florida too.

* [[Groin Attack]]: [[Overused Running Gag|Way too many to count...]]

* [[Ham to Ham Combat]]: Harry and Marv during the brief scene in the second movie where they try to trick Kevin into thinking they've been hit with paint cans(only for them to be hit with an iron pipe for real a moment later)

* [[Heartwarming Orphan]]: In the second film, one waves to Kevin from a window of the children's hospital and Kevin waves back, just before Kevin sets off to foil Harry and Marv's plan.

* [[Hoist By His Own Petard]]: When the Wet Bandits are finally caught at the end of the first, the cops are able to identify which houses they robbed since Marv would leave the houses' sinks running as a calling card. Marv was proud of this, while Harry shakes his head.

** This is also how the Bandits planned to punish Kevin before Old Man Marley intervened - by putting him through his own traps.

* [[Jerkass]]: Harry, Buzz and Uncle Frank. Also, the hotel Concierge in the second film.

** Kevin an be a bit of a [[Jerkass]] too; then again, most of his family are. Apart from Buzz and Frank, his sister(?) calls him "les incompetent", and his older cousins call him "completely helpless" and "such a disease". His younger cousin constantly wets the bed- in the second film, its implied he does it on purpose, or at least finds it amusing that Kevin might have to share a bed with him for that reason.

* [[Karma Houdini]]: Buzz in the second. Sure, Kevin pushes him down after the electric candle debacle, but Buzz ''still'' gets away with conning the whole family with an insincere apology after the fact, and suffers no retribution.

** In the first movie, he gets away with [[It Makes Sense in Context|taunting him over pizza, which causes Kevin to bum rush him afterwards]].

{{quote| '''Kate McCallister:''' Peter, I'll be fine. The way I'm feeling right now, no mugger or murderer would dare mess with me! }}

** Also, the pigeon lady in the second movie.

* [[Match Cut]]: In ''Lost in New York'', when Kevin is watching ''[[How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Animation)|How the Grinch Stole Christmas]]'' and it gets to the part where the Grinch makes his famous smile, the scene fades to the concierge making a similar smile after catching Kevin using a stolen credit card.

* [[Mickey Mousing]]: In the second film, the orchestra plays three stings when Kevin dials each of the numbers in 911.

* [[Misunderstood Loner With a Heart of Gold]]: Old Man Marley in the first film, the Pigeon Lady in the second, {{spoiler|both of whom end up saving Kevin's ass in the end.}} Also to some degree, Mrs. Hess in the third.

* [[No Endor Holocaust]]: Kevin must have had a [[Cleanup Crew]] for ''most'' of the house (save Buzz's room, evidently), at the end of Home Alone 1. In less than 12 hours (9pm-daybreak the next morning), all of his traps are neatly put away, the crushed Christmas ornaments Harry stepped on as he climbed through the window are swept away and didn't damage the floor's finish, the front doorknob and mechanism were unharmed from being super-heated, thankfully his family doesn't slip on the ice on the front steps.

* [[No One Should Survive That]]: Oh so many, particularly in the second film, the most [[Egregious]] example being Harry surviving an explosion after sticking his burning head in a kerosene-filled toilet.

* [[Oh Crap]]: For Kevin ''and'' the audience near the end of the second movie. It turned out {{spoiler|Harry ''wasn't'' bluffing from an earlier scene; he really DID have a gun in his coat pocket.}}

** Also everyone in the world flies on American Airlines, apparently.

** The VHS for the first film even contains an AA ad featuring footage from the movie.

* [[Rear Window Witness]]: In the third, the protagonist is home sick from school and witnesses the burglary of a neighbor's home, but can't get anyone to believe him.

* [[Recycled Premise]]: The second film was ''Home Alone'' in New York, the third film was ''Home Alone'' with spies as the bad guys, and the fourth film was ''Home Alone'' in a smart house.

** Kevin and his family do not understand how to tip people.

*** Actually, in one scene where the bellboy reveals he still has "some tip left over" (a stick of gum), Kevin flashes a wad of cash and grins, implying that he probably does know how to tip and is just screwing with the bellboy.

* [[Sanctuary of Solitude]]: Kevin is lonely on Christmas night for the first one, so he goes to the church to hear the choir sing.

* [[The Scream]]: Parodied once per movie.

* [[Tempting Fate]]: From the second film: "You want to throw bricks? Go ahead; throw another one!" and "You got any ''more''?!" Both of which result in more bricks thrown at Harry and Marv.

* [[They Wasted a Perfectly Good Sandwich]]: In the first movie, Kevin makes a nice, hot, steaming bowl of mac n' cheese. He brings it to the table, sits down, picks up his knife and fork... and the robbers show up. He promptly leaves it on the table without touching it.

{{quote| '''Kevin:''' ''You can mess with a lot of things, but you can't mess with kids on Christmas.''}}

* [[Those Two Bad Guys]]: Harry, the brains, and Marv, who's [[Too Dumb to Live]] and just goes along with Harry's plans.

** His reaction to finding out an unescorted minor has been committing fraud to stay at the hotel is essentially to chase said minor out onto the streets rather than calling any kind of social services or police.

*** He told Kevin that he was going to call the police, prompting Kevin to run. He probably did, given that Kevin's family knew where he was staying later on. Though, by that point he probably phoned the police because he thought an armed maniac was living in that room, and only allowed Kevin to run onto the streets because Kevin escaped, and he thought the maniac was a bit of a higher priority.

* [[Would Hurt a Child]]: Harry and Marv aren't this way at first, but after the hell Kevin puts them through, they understandably want his head on a platter. Especially in the second film, when Harry flat out states that he has no problem "knocking off a youngster".

* [[Xanatos Roulette]]: The positioning of many of the traps qualify, but most [[Egregious|egregiously]] the trick used in the third movie to switch {{spoiler|one of the spies' guns for a fake}}.

*** The blowtorch only works if you assume that Kevin knew Harry's exact height ''and'' could be sure that he, not Marv, would be the one to come in that way.

*** Since Marv is taller than Harry, it would still burn Marv, just not on his head. It does require not being placed too high to burn Harry, however.

* [[Your Princess Is in Another Castle]]: "Kevin! What did you do to my room?!"

** And in the sequel: "Kevin! You spent $967 on room service?!"