‘Home Alone’ Trivia: 10 Fun Facts And Cameos, Macaulay Culkin Reprises Role

Home Alone is a classic Christmas movie series that is a yearly tradition in many households, and 2015 marks its 25th anniversary. While the original Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York are becoming outdated with advances in technology and communication, fans everywhere still have fun catching up with Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) and the rest of the clueless family every single holiday season. While you may have seen the movies more times than you would care to admit, there are a ton of fun facts and cameos that you may not have been aware of. BuzzFeed, Mental Floss, and IMDB provided the inspiration for many of the facts, but we broke it down into the 10 most interesting ones.

1. Donald Trump Appears in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York

While this is a fairly well-known fact, it is still easy to miss since it happens so quickly. As Kevin walks into the Plaza Hotel, he is amazed by the sheer size and glamour of the fancy establishment. In his search for the lobby, he asks a man passing by for directions. The man turns out to be Donald Trump, and he advises young Kevin that it is “down the hall and to the left.”

2. Robert De Niro Was Originally Picked to Play Harry

How different would Home Alone have been if the first choice for Harry, Robert De Niro, accepted the role instead of Joe Pesci? While Joe Pesci did a great job, De Niro would have added an entirely different element. In the end though, Pesci may have been the best choice as the head of the Wet Bandits. De Niro and Pesci starred in Casino and Goodfellas together, and Pesci was always the more intimidating of the two, despite his small stature.

3. The Tarantula Was Real

While many parts of the Home Alone movies were fake, the tarantula that Kevin’s brother Buzz (Devin Ratray) owned was indeed real. Marv (Daniel Stern) allowed it to be placed on his face, but only agreed to one take. In order to not scare the spider and potentially risk a bite, he did not actually scream during the take. The screaming noise was added in later.

4. Joe Pesci Really Bit Macaulay Culkin and Gave Him a Scar

This is one of the creepier facts of the movie, and supports the idea that Kevin McCallister would be scarred for life, as seen in the recent new video reported by the Inquisitr. In the movie, Harry threatened to take off all of Kevin’s fingers, and actually ended up biting one of them too hard. In the recent reprisal of the Kevin role by Culkin, he talks about being traumatized by the “creepy bald guy” that tried to kidnap him. It would appear that scene would be a huge part of the post-traumatic stress that Kevin McCallister is experiencing.

5. The Picture of Buzz’s Girlfriend Was Actually a Boy

In order to not make fun of a little girl, the director decided to dress up a boy and pass it off as a girl for the picture of Buzz’s girlfriend. When looking at the picture, Kevin was not exactly complimentary, so this made sense.

6. Joe Pesci Avoided Macaulay Culkin on Set to Remain in Character

While many actors like to stay in character the entire time on set, this one was probably frightening for a young Culkin. Pesci avoided Culkin on the set as often as possible, in order to appear as frightening as possible. This probably worked out well in the end, since Culkin probably feared Pesci in real life, which came across nicely in the movie.

7. Uncle Frank Was Originally a Villain

Even though he was a jerk, Uncle Frank (Gerry Bamman) seemed harmless in both of the Home Alone movies. According to IMDB, he was originally supposed to be assisting Harry and Marv in robbing the McCallister house. Since he already seemed to despise Kevin, that would have made an interesting dynamic if he was the real villain.

8. Daniel Stern Cursed by Accident

While it was odd that the robbers did not curse (Culkin references that in his reprisal), Stern actually slipped and said the “s-word” in his ramblings. You can find it by fast-forwarding your DVD to 55:27 on the doggy door scene.

9. John Candy Filmed for 23 Straight Hours

The late John Candy played the polka player in the first Home Alone movie, and his character was a big part in getting Kevin’s mother back to the family home in Chicago on time for Christmas. While he was only on set for one day, it took 23 hours of filming to get all of his scenes completed.

10. Harry and Marv Should Have Died Numerous Times

The murderer version of Kevin McCallister that we just saw in the recent reprisal may actually be not far off from the child that we saw in the Home Alone movies. While Kevin’s traps and gags appeared to be harmless in the movies, they would actually have killed or disfigured the robbers numerous times, according to an article from the Week.

[Photo by David Livingston/Getty Images]