Home Alone 2: Lost in New York is a 1992 American Christmas comedy film written and produced by John Hughes and directed by Chris Columbus. It is the second film in the Home Alone series and the sequel to the 1990 film Home Alone. Macaulay Culkin reprises his role as Kevin McCallister, while Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern reprise their roles as the Wet Bandits, now known as the Sticky Bandits. Catherine O'Hara, John Heard, Devin Ratray, Kieran Culkin, Gerry Bamman, Tim Curry, Rob Schneider, Dana Ivey, and Brenda Fricker are also featured. The film was rated PG for comic action and mild language
Eddie Bracken, Ally Sheedy, Bob Eubanks, and Donald Trump make cameo appearances.
The film was shot in Winnetka, Illinois, O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Miami, and New York City (which was star Culkin's hometown at the time). The exterior of Duncan's Toy Chest in New York City was filmed outside of the Rookery Building in downtown Chicago. Also, the film became the second most financially successful film of 1992, earning over $173 million in revenue in the United States and $358 million worldwide against a budget of $20 million.
Home Alone 3 followed five years later in 1997, Home Alone 4 followed in 2002, and Home Alone: The Holiday Heist was released in 2012. Culkin did not appear in any of them nor did the rest of the cast
Plot[]
| Spoiler Warning: The following contains important plot details of the entire film. |
Macaulay Culkin stars as Kevin McCallister, who is once again separated from his family during one of their Christmas travels. The opening plot to Home Alone 2 is similar to the plot in the first movie. This time, the family is going to Miami, Florida for Christmas a year after the events of the first movie (which Kevin finds weird because of the lack of Christmas trees in Florida). The film begins as the family is packing the night before; Kevin is getting ready for his school choir concert. However, the concert does not go well; during Kevin's solo, his oldest brother Buzz (Devin Ratray) plays a prank by placing two candle-shaped flashlights behind Kevin's ears to make them look like they are glowing, and playing Kevin's head like a drum which makes the audience laugh. Kevin responds by punching Buzz, which knocks down the entire choir group and makes the cardboard Christmas tree fall onto the piano, also causing the pianist to fall.
At home, Buzz apologizes to his family for his prank, but then he calls Kevin a trout sniffer when no one is looking, which leads Kevin to snap at the family for letting Buzz get away with everything, and retreat upstairs to the third floor, refusing to apologize to Buzz and to the rest of the family as well as reiterating his disgust with the family's decision to travel to Miami. When Kate reminds him of what happened last year, he responds by saying that if he had his own money he'd go on his own vacation, by himself, and that he'd have the best time of his life.
That night, a newspaper blows onto the front door revealing that the Wet Bandits have escaped from jail. When the airport vans come the next morning, the McCallisters find that they are late again (this time because Peter unplugged the alarm clock and forgot to reset it when he plugged it back in), and make an extreme rush getting ready, just like in the first film. Kevin makes it to O'Hare International Airport this time, but loses sight of his family as he tries to get batteries for his Talkboy out of his father's (John Heard) bag. Seeing a man who is wearing the same color coat as his father, he follows him toward a flight to LaGuardia Airport in New York City and doesn't realize where he is until the plane lands. While in New York, he decides to make the most of his accident. He meets several people, including a lady (played by Brenda Fricker) who enjoys caring for pigeons, but creeps Kevin out at first.
While Kevin did not make it to Miami, his luggage did. Peter pulls Kevin's bag off the carousel and passes it down the line to his cousin, Fuller (Kieran Culkin), who realizes that Kevin did not embark on the flight to Miami. The Miami Airport security staff decides to call O'Hare in hopes that Kevin is still in the airport. When they find out that he is not at O'Hare, everyone wonders where he could be. After being asked to see a recent photo of their son, Peter realizes that he does not have his wallet with him. Peter realizes this because his wallet was in his bag and Kevin took it as they were going into the airport, Kevin now has the wallet. Since Peter's wallet has credit cards in it, security informs him that Kevin can be tracked when and if he uses any of the credit cards.
Meanwhile, Harry and Marv (Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern), the "Wet Bandits" from the first film also arrive in New York City, via a fish truck, as it turns out they recently escaped from a prison in Chicago during a prison riot after spending nine months, and immediately begin seeking a new target to regain their fortune. Marv also comes up with a new nickname for the duo—the "Sticky Bandits," based on his new ability to steal things by wearing gloves covered with double-sided masking tape.
In New York, Kevin decides to find a place to stay. He decides to go the Plaza Hotel (after hearing about it on a TV game show the night before), using Peter's credit card to check in. He tells the lady at the front desk that he's in New York with his Dad on a business trip and since Kevin couldn't go to the meeting, his father brought him here, she buys the story. While Kevin has the time of his life sleeping in a big room, eating junk food and watching gangster movies but the concierge, Mr. Hector (Tim Curry), is suspicious of Kevin the moment he sees him there, going as far as sneaking into his room to prove Kevin a fraud. This ends in failure when he is caught by Kevin using an inflatable clown to impersonate Frank McCallister singing in the shower (which Kevin had recorded earlier on his Talkboy), he runs out afraid. Meanwhile the McCallisters are stuck in their motel room due to the rain and start wondering if Kevin is okay.
The next day, Kevin decides to hire a limousine to take him around town and pays a visit to Duncan's Toy Chest, a huge toy store in New York City's Times Square. Duncan is a mysterious but benevolent philanthropist who tells Kevin about his intentions to donate his Christmas profits to the children's hospital. As Kevin donates money that he doesn't want to Duncan, he allows Kevin to take a gift off the store's Christmas tree for donating and suggests a pair of ceramic turtledoves, which Kevin gladly accepts. Duncan instructs Kevin to keep one and give the other to someone special, so this way, he and that person will be friends forever. Meanwhile, back at The Plaza, Mr. Hector has his suspicions confirmed—that Kevin has (technically) used a stolen credit card to check in and is a fraud, just as he suspected.
Kevin's plan, however, begins to fall apart after he leaves. First, he runs into Harry and Marv on the street outside the store. Harry recognizes Kevin, and a chase subsequently follows, but Kevin thwarts them by causing them to slip on necklace beads. Kevin gets back to the Plaza Hotel to find Mr. Hector waiting for him and tries to get him to save him from Harry and Marv, but Mr. Hector informs Kevin of his discovery about Peter's credit card and begins chasing him through the hotel with several employees and security staff in tow.
Kevin is able to escape by employing a trick he used in the first film, playing a black-and-white gangster movie at full volume to trick the staff into believing that someone is being shot in the room (this time, the movie is Angels with Even Filthier Souls, a sequel to Angels with Filthy Souls from the first movie). Kevin uses the service staircase to escape the hotel, but he is intercepted by Marv and Harry in an alley. Marv rips up Kevin's plane ticket to Miami and reveals to Kevin that he and Harry are planning to rob Duncan's Toy Chest, unaware that Kevin is recording the conversation. Kevin is able to escape by tricking a woman into punching Harry and Marv, and then fleeing into Central Park and stows away in the back of a hansom cab.
Down in Miami, where the family is staying at a motel that forces them to share one room, Kate answers a phone call from airport security saying that Kevin has been located in New York. She learns that Kevin has used Peter's credit card, but is on the run from the police. The McCallisters decide to leave and head to New York as soon as possible to find Kevin and clear his name. Kevin, meanwhile, finds his Uncle Rob and Aunt Georgette's penthouse, which is being renovated. He then begins walking through Central Park at night, coming across scary people. Scared out of his mind, he confronts the pigeon lady again, but this time gets his foot stuck between two rocks when he tries to run away. After she frees him, he apologizes for running, and the two go to Carnegie Hall to watch an orchestra play Christmas music from a loft. Kevin learns that the pigeon lady's life has fallen apart because of a lack of trust in people and a lack of friends, and promises to be her friend if she needs one. The pigeon lady, although flattered, tells Kevin not to make promises he can't keep; she also tells Kevin that good deeds cancel out bad deeds and good deeds on Christmas Eve count extra. With this in mind, Kevin departs from the pigeon lady.
While on his way, Kevin walks by the Children's Hospital and waves to a child staring out his window. He remembers what Mr. Duncan told him earlier, then what Marv had told him about the robbery. Kevin is filled with determination to do a good deed, and he dashes to Uncle Rob and Aunt Georgette's penthouse to begin what he calls "Operation Ho-Ho-Ho," which, while along the same lines as the plan from the first film, features even more booby traps.
Just as the McCallisters arrive in New York, Peter and Kate confront the staff at the Plaza for letting Kevin get away, or rather scared him off. The staff offers the McCallisters a complimentary suite as a token of their apology, and Peter decides to go down to the police station to see what they are doing to find Kevin. The insulted Kate, however, insists on roaming the streets herself to look for Kevin against the advice of both Peter and the staff.
When Kevin is done booby-trapping the house, he walks over to the store with a wood plank and a bucket just in time to see Harry and Marv start stealing cash from the store. He takes two pictures of their crime and then throws a rock with a note to Mr. Duncan through the window, which sets off the alarm. Kevin uses the wood plank and bucket to make a makeshift seesaw. Harry is first out of the window and steps on one end of the plank; he immediately realizes what is going on and warns Marv not to jump on the other end, but he does and causes Harry to fly through the air and smash the roof of a parked car nearby.
The robbers then chase Kevin back to the penthouse, where Harry tries to get Kevin to give him the camera. Kevin responds by throwing bricks off the roof of the penthouse at Harry, but each brick he throws hits Marv. Eventually, the Sticky Bandits reach Kevin in the house, but only after dealing with the booby traps along the way (which include another meeting with Harry and a blowtorch, which ends with him sticking his head into a toilet filled with paint thinner which nearly causes the penthouse to explode, and Marv falling through a hole in the floor and having a shelf full of paint fall on him, then getting electrocuted by a sink hooked to an arc welder as he tries to clean it off).
Once Harry and Marv team up to catch Kevin, they first deal with a retreaded trick from the year before (getting bombed with paint cans); only this time, Kevin throws a heavy pipe that causes them to fall through the hole in the floor and cuts the rope causing the pipe to fall on them. When they recover they then find that Kevin has tied a string from a doorknob to a tool chest at the top of a staircase. When Harry pulls the knob, he does not realize that he pulled the string; and the tool chest thunders down the stairs and forcefully breaks the door off its hinges, and pins the pair into the wall behind them. Eventually, Kevin climbs down a kerosene-soaked rope; just as Harry and Marv climb down on it, he lights it on fire, causing them to let go of the rope and fall down, sending cans of varnish into the air and splattering all over them as they land. Kevin escapes into the park and calls 9-1-1, but just as he is about to continue running, he slips and falls on a patch of ice, which allows Harry and Marv to catch up with him. The burglars swipe the tape and photos and Harry pulls out a pistol. As Harry to shoot Kevin, the pigeon lady returns. Harry and Marv's attention turns to her, allowing Kevin to escape; and he tries to shoot her, but because his pistol is covered in varnish he could not pull the trigger. The pigeon lady then throws her bucket of birdseed on Harry and Marv, and the pigeons attack them.
Kevin then sets off some fireworks, which he bought earlier, to signal the police. As the thieves are arrested, the police come across Kevin's photos and tape, further incriminating the Sticky Bandits. Furthermore, the cash they stole is recovered, and the employees of Duncan's Toy Chest are notified. Mr. Duncan receives Kevin's note and realized that Kevin did what he had to do.
Meanwhile, Kate is frantically searching New York City for Kevin. She stumbles across two police officers in Times Square, and while talking to them she states that Kevin deserved to be at home with his family around a Christmas tree. Suddenly remembering what Kevin had said earlier about Christmas trees, Kate deduces that Kevin must be at Rockefeller Center and says to the policemen that he is there. Her intuition proves correct, as Kevin is standing near the center's Christmas tree, wanting to at least see his mother so he can apologize to her. The two embrace and apologize to each other, then head back to the hotel.
The next morning, Christmas Day, Mr. Duncan sends a whole truckload of presents to Kevin and his family at the Plaza Hotel as a reward for Kevin's role in the arrest of Harry and Marv. Buzz decides to make amends and says that had it not been for Kevin getting on the wrong plane, they would not be in the suite with the Christmas tree and gifts in the first place, and thinks it's only fair that Kevin get to open up the first present. While everyone else is opening their presents, Kevin notices that his turtledoves are on the room's Christmas tree and heads across the street to the park. He finds the pigeon lady and gives her one of the turtledoves, which serves as a symbol of their friendship. Meanwhile, Kevin's room service bill from his first stay at The Plaza is delivered to the McCallisters' room by Cedric totaling $967.43. Buzz receives it and passes it along to Peter, who screams at Kevin from the hotel, "KEVIN! YOU SPENT $967 ON ROOM SERVICE?!!" Upon hearing that, Kevin begins to run in the opposite direction of the hotel, and the movie ends.
| Spoiler Warning: All spoilers have been stated and have ended here. |
Cast[]
- Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McCallister, a boy who is the youngest son of the McCallister family.
- Joe Pesci as Harry, the short leader of the Sticky Bandits, formerly called the Wet Bandits.
- Daniel Stern as Marv, the tall member of the Sticky Bandits, formerly called the Wet Bandits.
- John Heard as Peter McCallister, Kevin's father.
- Catherine O'Hara as Kate McCallister, Kevin's mother.
- Tim Curry as Mr. Hector, who works as a concierge at the Plaza Hotel and who is suspicious of Kevin.
- Brenda Fricker as the Pigeon Lady, an eccentric lady tending to pigeons in Central Park who becomes Kevin's friend.
- Eddie Bracken as E.F. Duncan, owner of Duncan's Toy Chest.
- Rob Schneider as Cedric, the Plaza Hotel bellhop.
- Dana Ivey as Hester Stone, the Plaza Hotel desk clerk.
- Ralph Foody as Johnny, a stereotypical fictional gangster in Angels with Even Filthier Souls (a sequel to Angels with Filthy Souls)
- Donald Trump (cameo) as Plaza Hotel guest
- Rip Taylor, Jaye P. Morgan, and Jimmie Walker (cameo) as themselves
- Ally Sheedy (cameo) as New York ticket agent
- Chris Columbus (uncredited cameo) as Duncan's Toy Chest patron
The McCallister family includes Gerry Bamman as Frank McCallister, Kevin's uncle; and Terrie Snell as Leslie McCallister, Kevin's aunt. Devin Ratray as Buzz McCallister, Kevin's oldest brother who often gets him into trouble and Kevin's other brother is portrayed by Mike Maronna as Jeff McCallister, Hillary Wolf as Megan McCallister and Maureen Elisabeth Shay as Linnie McCallister as Kevin's older sisters, and cousins Jedidiah Cohen as Rod McCallister, Senta Moses as Tracy McCallister, Daiana Campeanu as Sondra McCallister, Kieran Culkin (Macaulay Culkin's younger brother) as Fuller McCallister, and Anna Slotky as Brooke McCallister.
Release[]
Marketing[]
Numerous video games based on Home Alone 2 were released by THQ for such systems as the Sega Genesis, the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy and personal computers, mostly in late 1992. A separate hand-held game was released by Tiger Electronics. Numerous board games were also released, some based around play cards, while another was a close emulation of the classic Mouse Trap.
The Talkboy cassette recorder was produced as a tie-in for the movie by Tiger Electronics based on specifications provided by John Hughes and the movie studio, and sold particularly well after the film was released on home video.
American Airlines again had product placement in the film with the McCallisters making their trip on the airline's two Boeing 767-200s. In the first film, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 was used. For the release of the first two films on home video, the airline became a sponsor.
Coca-Cola products make several appearances in the film, including in scenes when Kevin rides a limousine and when Kevin's cousin Fuller wakes up at the Plaza Hotel. Notably, Pepsi products appeared in the first Home Alone film instead.
Box Office and Reaction[]
The film opened to $31.1 million from 2,222 theaters, averaging $14,008 per site. While it started off better than the original, the final box office gross was much less.= $173,585,516 was taken in domestically and $185,406,165 overseas. That represents an overall drop of 25% from the original worldwide gross. Critics gave little support for the film. Home Alone 2 opened to $31.1 million from 2,222 theaters, averaging $14,008 per site. While it started off better than Home Alone, the final box office gross was much less. $173.6 million was taken in the United States and a total of $359 million worldwide. The film was released in the United Kingdom on December 11, 1992, and topped the country's box office that weekend.
Critical response[]
Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 28% based on 29 reviews, with an average rating of 3.7/10. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale.
Critical reaction was rather mixed. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times commented that the film's gags were overly cartoonish and too sadistic. He also stated that "Cartoon violence only works well in cartoons, which makes it funny only in cartoons. Most of the live-action attempts to duplicate animation have failed, because when flesh-and-blood figures hit the pavement, we can almost hear the bones crunch, and it isn't funny." Another critic called the film "Money grubbing sequilitis at its most pathetic." One critic went so far as to say that Kevin was the true villain of the film, and that Harry and Marv were the victims. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an 18% "Rotten" rating with Critics, and a 62% rating with Users. Other critics stated that only fans of the first Home Alone will like the sequel.
Despite the critical failure, the film has since gained a cult following.(citation needed)
Home media[]
The film was first released on VHS and Laserdisc on July 27, 1993. It was re-released in 1997 along with Home Alone on VHS. It was later released on DVD on October 5, 1999 as a basic package, with no special features other than theatrical trailers for the film and its predecessor and successor. The film was released on Blu-ray in 2009 with no special features, and was released alongside Home Alone in a collection pack the following year. The film was reissued again on DVD and Blu-ray in 2013 and 2015.
Video Games[]
Just like the first Home Alone movie, video games based on the sequel came on such systems by THQ as Genesis, NES, SNES, and Game Boy, mostly in late 1992.
- Home Alone 2 released on Sega Genesis.
- Home Alone 2 released October 1992.
Music[]
John Williams returned from the first installment to score Home Alone 2. While the film featured the first film's theme song "Somewhere in My Memory", it also contained its own theme entitled "Christmas Star". Two soundtrack albums of the film were released on November 20, 1992, with one featuring Williams' score and the other featuring contemporary Christmas songs featured in the film. Ten years later, a 2-disc Deluxe Edition of the film score soundtrack was released. A separate hand-held game was released by Tiger Electronics.
Score[]
- Original Score
| Home Alone 2: Lost in New York – Original Score | |
|---|---|
| John Williams | |
| Length | 63:20 |
| Label | Arista Records, 20th Century Fox Records |
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York – Original Score is a 1992 soundtrack composed by John Williams, who also scored the first installment in the franchise. While the soundtrack is mostly a repeat of the first film's material, there are a few new prominent themes such as "Christmas Star" and "Plaza Hotel and Duncan's Toy Store". Ultimately, the soundtrack fell out of print.
- "Somewhere in My Memory" (3:49)
- "Home Alone" (2:01)
- "We Overslept Again" (2:46)
- "Christmas Star" (3:18)
- "Arrival in New York" (1:41)
- "Plaza Hotel and Duncan's Toy Store" (3:45)
- "Concierge and Race to the Room" (2:04)
- "Star of Bethlehem" (3:28)
- "The Thieves Return" (4:35)
- "Appearance of Pigeon Lady" (3:19)
- "Christmas at Carnegie Hall" ("O Come All Ye Faithful" / "O Little Town of Bethlehem" / "Silent Night") (5:02)
- "Into the Park" (3:49)
- "Haunted Brownstone" (3:01)
- "Christmas Star and Preparing the Trap" (4:17)
- "To the Plaza Presto" (3:22)
- "Reunion at Rockefeller Center" (2:36)
- "Kevin's Booby Traps" (3:41)
- "Finale" (3:55)
- "Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas" (2:51)
Soundtrack[]
- Original Soundtrack Album
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York – Original Soundtrack Album is a 1992 soundtrack album that contains music from or inspired by Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. The album eventually was discontinued and later re-released as Home Alone Christmas in 1997 by Sony BMG with an alternative track listing. Both versions feature tracks of John Williams' score, though the tracks are of different songs between the original album and its re-release.
- Original Soundtrack Album track listing
- "All Alone on Christmas" (4:14) (Darlene Love)
- "A Holly Jolly Christmas" (2:14) (Alan Jackson)
- "Somewhere in My Memory" (3:58) (Bette Midler, composed by John Williams, lyrics by Leslie Bricusse)
- "My Christmas Tree" (2:35) (Home Alone Children's Choir, composed by Alan Menken, lyrics by Jack Feldman)
- "Sleigh Ride" (3:44) (TLC)
- "Silver Bells" (4:15) (Atlantic Starr)
- "Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas" (2:40) (John Williams)
- "Jingle Bell Rock" (2:09) (Bobby Helms)
- "Cool Jerk (Christmas Mix)" (2:39) (The Capitols)
- "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" (2:14) (Johnny Mathis)
- "Christmas Star" (3:16) (John Williams)
- "O Come All Ye Faithful" (3:26) (Lisa Fischer) (Does not appear in the film) (Possibly a bonus track)
- Home Alone Christmas track listing
- "All Alone on Christmas" (Darlene Love)
- "A Holly Jolly Christmas" (Alan Jackson)
- "My Christmas Tree" (The Fox Albert Choir)
- "Somewhere in My Memory" (John Williams)
- "Silver Bells" (Atlantic Starr)
- "Sleigh Ride" (TLC)
- "Christmas All Over Again" (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers)
- "Please Come Home for Christmas" (Southside Johnny Lyon)
- "Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas" (John Williams)
- "Carol of the Bells" (John Williams)
- "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" (Mel Torme)
- "O Come All Ye Faithful" (Lisa Fischer)
- The Deluxe Edition
| Home Alone 2: Lost in New York – The Deluxe Edition | |
|---|---|
| John Williams | |
| Length | 1:39:49 |
| Label | Varèse Sarabande |
On the film's tenth anniversary, Varèse Sarabande released a two-disc special edition soundtrack entitled Home Alone 2: Lost in New York – The Deluxe Edition. The soundtrack contains John Williams' cues found on the previous releases as well as additional compositions that were left out from the final film. This release is also known for resolving a mastering error that caused the music to be inaccurately pitched.
- Disc One
- Home Alone (Main Title) (2:07)
- This Year's Wish (1:47)
- We Overslept Again / Holiday Flight (3:19)
- Separate Vacations*(1:58)
- Arrival in New York**(2:59)
- The Thieves Return (3:28)
- Plaza Hotel (3:04)
- Concierge (1:31)
- Distant Goodnights (Christmas Star) (Lyrics by Leslie Bricusse) (2:05)
- A Day in the City (:59)
- Duncan's Toy Store (2:41)
- Turtle Doves (1:29)
- To the Plaza, Presto (3:27)
- Race to the Room / Hot Pursuit (4:08)
- Haunted Brownstone (3:02)
- Appearance of the Pigeon Lady (3:21)
- Christmas at Carnegie Hall (5:15) O Come, All Ye Faithful / O Little Town of Bethlehem / Silent Night
- Disc Two
- Christmas Star - Preparing the Trap (Lyrics by Leslie Bricusse) (4:22)
- Another Christmas in the Trenches (2:33)
- Running Through Town (1:16)
- Luring the Thieves*(4:02)
- Kevin's Booby Traps (7:23)
- Down the Rope / Into the Park (5:06)
- Reunion at Rockefeller Center / It's Christmas (5:21)
- Finale (2:00)
- We Wish You a Merry Christmas (Traditional) and Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas (Lyrics by Leslie Bricusse) (2:51)
- End Title (1:32)
- Holiday Flight (alternate) (2:32)
- Suite from "Angels with Filthy Souls II" (:56)
- Somewhere in My Memory (Lyrics by Leslie Bricusse) (3:57)
- Star of Bethlehem (Lyrics by Leslie Bricusse) (3:32)
- Christmas Star (Lyrics by Leslie Bricusse) (3:23)
- Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas (orchestra) (2:23)
Novelization[]
Home Alone 2 was novelized by Todd Strasser and published by Scholastic in 1992 to coincide with the film. It has an ISBN of 0-590-45717-9. An audiobook version was also released read by Tim Curry (who played the concierge in the film).
As in the novelization of the first film the McCallisters live in Oak Park, Illinois and the crooks are named as Harry Lime and Marv Merchants.
In the beginning of the novelization, a prologue, which ends up being Marv's nightmare in prison, he and Harry sneak away from the cops and return to Kevin's house to seek revenge on Kevin. Kevin bolts into the garage with Marv and Harry in hot pursuit. Harry and Marv end up triggering extra traps that Kevin had set up in the garage. Kevin watches as Marv ends up triggering a trap where a running lawnmower falls on his head (This was a trap featured in Home Alone 3).
Injuries Suffered by The Robbers[]
Several of these booby traps are similar to the ones that Kevin used for his suburban Chicago home in the first movie; though the robbers think that they have learned from their mistakes, Kevin is still one step ahead.
Harry[]
- Thrown high into the air (shortly after realizing that he is standing on a makeshift seesaw just outside the store window, courtesy of an excited Marv's stupidity and inadvertently jumps onto the other end) and lands on his back, smashing a car, flattening its roof seriously injuring himself.
- Slips off a green soapy ladder and lands on his back because the bottom rung is coated with green lubricant grease (which was bought from Duncan's Toy store).
- A bag of DIY tools falling on his head with a monkey wrench clunking him last.
- Gets his head burned (again) with a ceiling-mounted flamethrower and foolishly tries to put it out in the toilet, unaware that the toilet is filled with highly-explosive kerosene. He not only blows the waterline up, but the explosion is seen in four windows brightly, and gets his face and bald head covered in soot, and his face and teeth covered with ash.
- Climbs up another ladder to chase Kevin, but the sabotaged ladder breaks and falls flat on his face. This time, he didn't lose any teeth like he did in the previous movie.
- Smashed in the face with a pipe and falls down two floors.
- Pushed into the wall with a tool chest and getting his nose twisted.
- Falls down a long way off a burning rope and gets covered in varnish.
- Attacked by pigeons after getting coated in bird seed.
Marv[]
- Twisted his ankle when he lands on the makeshift seesaw just outside the store window.
- Hit four times in the head with bricks thrown by Kevin (mostly because Harry ducked them) from the roof of the building (a three story house), when he and Harry are trying to con Kevin into giving up the Polaroid photo evidence.
- While tinkering with the front door knob, gets shot in the bottom, groin, and nose by a staple-gun carefully positioned at the keyhole.
- Misses the hole in the floor right inside the main entrance and falls face first down two floors into the basement just when he was about to go in; Kevin had earlier removed the boards that would have covered it up.
- Slips on soapy floor like Harry on the ladder and slides into paintshelves, which fall on him and drench him in various paint colours.
- When trying to turn on the water taps to clean the paint off, severely electrocuted by an unused washing machine sink arc welder which are hooked up to a power generator by crocodile clips to within an inch of his life, showing his skull, especially as Kevin turns up the voltage.
- Smashed in the head by a 100 lb cement bag from a great height. When trying to climb up, tests the rope by yanking it and it seems fine. However, the rope is only anchored by a 100lb bag of concrete mix and when he actually tries to climb up it, his weight pulls the concrete bag off of the third floor and it hits him before he can figure out why the rope has lost slack..
- Smashed in the face with a pipe and falls down two floors.
- Pushed into the wall with a tool chest and getting his nose twisted.
- Falls down a long way off a burning rope and gets covered in crimson paint.
- Attacked by pigeons.
Both[]
- Slipped on beads.
- Get hit by a lady's purse after Kevin pinches her butt. After she is, she realizes one is Marv, who she met one day and after, Kevin says Harry did it and both get hit.
- Remembering what happened last year, the two robbers avoid the two paint cans, and they fake their injuries to convince Kevin that the attack was successful. Assuming there are only two paint cans, they rush up but both are only to get smashed in the face with a lead pipe and smacked with the cans at the same time, causing them to fall backwards into the paint cans, and through the foyer hole to the basement. They fall down two floors (second time for Marv though). Kevin then cuts the ropes holding it and it rolls down the stairs and smacks the two again.
- Gets smashed with the detached pipes after falling to the floor.
- Pushed into the wall with a tool chest and getting their noses twisted.
- Falls down a long way off a kerosene-soaked burning rope and gets covered in crimson paint after Kevin lights it on fire from below. They are nearly at the roof of the three-story house when they let go, though their fall is broken by a scaffold (although others argue that crushing the scaffold could cause pain in its own right). The cans of varnish or crimson paint that was stored on the scaffold boards tumbles down and blankets the robbers, tossed up in the air and tumbles down, blanketing the robbers in crimson viscous liquid.
- Attacked by pigeons when the bird woman throws a bucket of birdseed on them. Because of the crimson varnish from the previous fall, the birdseed sticks to their clothes and faces.
Sequels[]
A second sequel, Home Alone 3, followed in 1997. Two additional television movie sequels, Home Alone: Taking Back the House and Home Alone: The Holiday Heist, would follow in 2002 and 2012, respectively.
Trivia[]
- The song that Uncle Frank is singing in the shower is "Cool Jerk", as performed by The Capitols.
- The McCallaster family, and Kevin are shown flying, respectively, to be flying on Boeing 767-223/ERs to Miami and New York respectfully, but the cabin mock-up(?) is that of a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 aircraft, which they flew on in the first movie (sans Kevin).
- As they had in the first film, American Airlines also had very prominent product-placement in the film, with Kevin and his family completing their respective plane trips on AA flights.
- Kevin was eight in the last film and ten in this one. However, according to the characters the last film occurred only one year before. This could be explained if Kevin's birthday was somewhere around Christmas (ie, if Kevin was born on December 17 and the family left in the first movie on the 15th, he still would have only been 8 years old; if they left on the 19th in the second movie, he would've just turned 10; this situation is complicated however and highly unlikely, as some celebration of Kevin's birthday would have been mentioned).
- The "Talkboy" hand-held tape recorder used by Kevin was specially designed for the movie. After its success at the box office, Tiger Electronics produced Talkboy tape recorders for purchase; many versions of the device followed suit, including a pink-colored "Talkgirl", a "Talkboy" pen, and "Talkboy, Jr.", a pocket-sized version of the recorder. It was incredibly popular among kids, sadly though in 1998 it was discontinued.
- Donald Trump makes a cameo appearance. He is the man giving Kevin directions when he first enters the Plaza Hotel.
- Fun 100, a Canadian pop punk band, has a song about Home Alone 2 entitled "Lost in New York".
- Angela Goethals, who played Kevin's sister Linnie is the only member of the original cast not to appear in Home Alone 2.
- You can never survive being hit in the face/head by bricks dropped from the roof of a 3+ story building. Bricks dropped from anywhere near that height would have caused tremendous catastrophic fracturing of the skull as well as enormous brain damage and Marv would have been killed.
- While the family is in Florida, they're watching It's a Wonderful Life on TV again, this time in Spanish (it was in French in the first movie).
- As of September 11, 2001, this movie has rarely been played on television, due to shots of the World Trade Center.
- When Marv prys open the chest filled with money, he says, "Happy Haunnakka, Marv", implying that he may be of Jewish.
- Harry still has the burn mark on his palm that he got from the first movie, when he tried to open the house's front door and burned his hand on the superheated doorknob; he greets Kevin with it at the loading dock of The Plaza Hotel.
- The tool chest that falls down the stairs and pins the burglars to the wall was a Craftsman.
- When Kevin is watching "Fly Bait" he says "She's Rat Bait!" instead.
- The green slime that Kevin purchases at Duncan's and ultimately uses to foil the Sticky Bandits, was marketed after the film was released.
- Home Alone 2 had promotional ties with the soft drink Sprite. During the film's release, Fox aired commercials featuring Culkin on the set of the movie, enjoying the beverage with a young girl. The film also had a promotional deal with Hardee's restaurants which offered give-away posters. The film also had a tie-in with Life brand cereal.
- Like the film Angels With Filthy Souls in the first film, Kevin's hotel video rental Angels With Even Filthier Souls is not a movie but rather specially-created footage. Both movies were an homage to the 1939 film Angels with Dirty Faces. The cheating woman in Even Filthier Souls is played by Claire Hoak, an actress between 1989 and 1999.
- Kevin watches "The Grinch" in this movie, just like in the previous Home Alone movie.
- On Brand New's 2003 Album Deja Entendu, they have a song entitled, Okay, I Believe You, But My Tommy Gun Don't". This is taken from a line in "Angels With Even Filthier Souls" movie inside this movie.
- Like most scenes in Home Alone, Kevin wears brown shoes (though in the beginning of Home Alone he is seen in trainers), he seems to like brown shoes more than his former white trainers.
- In this film, Kevin seems to not need any presents (this was his request in Home Alone after visiting Santa).
- However, as again, Kevin's same request was that he didn't want any presents (this was his request in Home Alone after visiting Santa).
- The 1-800 number featured in the film is the actual direct line to the Plaza Hotel's reservations desk. Kevin uses to call the hotel to make a reservation is 1-800-759-3000, at at one time was the actual number to the Trump Hotel.
- Following the attacks of September 11, 2001, the scene in which Kevin visits the World Trade Center was removed from many television broadcasts of the film, presumably to avoid creating painful memories that would subtract from the otherwise cheerful montage.
- Duncan's Toy Chest was, but no longer a fictional store loosely based upon F.A.O. Schwarz, it now trades internet only in the UK. It was created on the lower levels of the Rookery Building in Chicago, Illinois.
- One of the film's teaser trailers (which doesn't appear on any of the DVDs for some reason) has a panoramic view of the New York skyline, zooming into the Statue of Liberty... which puts its hands on its face much like in the poster.
- This would be the last Home Alone film that would be a box office and critical success.
- Home Alone 2 was proudly sponsored by American Airlines.
- The game show Kevin is watching near the beginning of the film entitled "Ding Dang Dong" that had Bob Eubanks as host was a parody of the lottery game show "The $100,000 Fortune Hunt" that ran in Chicago at the time. It even used the actual props and set of the said show. This game show was filmed and aired in Chicago for on WGN and not in New York as it was said in the movie.
- Many say that as a child, Marv's electric shock in the film scared them as a child, possibly due to Marv becoming a skeleton towards the end of the electrocution. Now most think it's the highlight of the film.
- Many scenes mention about happenings "last year", including Kevin being left alone and Harry and Marv being hit by paint cans. "Last year" was actually two years ago, as Home Alone 2 was released almost exactly two years after Home Alone.
- During the Christmas, 1992 shopping season Hallmark Cards made available gift sets of two turtle doves. One of the doves was boxed separately to simplify the sharing of the second dove.
- There actually are Christmas trees in Florida. The Norfolk Island Pine is a tropical pine tree that pretty much grows all over the southern half of Florida. It does especially well in areas from around Charlotte County, Palm Beach County and everywhere in between, all the way south to Key West. According to the full article, it may not be a true pine, but it still makes a great Christmas tree. In addition, there is also the Florida Slash Pine which will pretty much grow anywhere in the State of Florida, even in the panhandle.
- According to the room service bill that Buzz was examining, it reveals that Kevin had spent $967.43 on a lot of dessert items which was: two chocolate cakes, six chocolate mousses with chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry ice cream topped with M&Ms, chocolate sprinkles, cherries, nuts, marshmallows, caramel syrup, chocolate syrup, strawberry syrup, whipped cream, and bananas, six custard flans, a pastry cart, eight strawberry tarts, and 36 chocolate-covered strawberries. If Kevin did eat all of those items in real life he would have ended up with not only diabetes but also cavities.
- In some television airings, the shot of Kevin on the top of the South Tower of the World Trade Center is shortened to just show Kevin taking pictures with some of the tower behind him. The original shot pans away and shows both the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center as well as the rest of Manhattan.
- In 2020, when the film played during Christmas, Donald Trump's cameo was cut.