The Hacker Movie Canon: Home Alone

Dennis, I feel like. You're not wrong, Lance. Like I that woman freaks me out like I, I see especially like the first time she shows up, she's just covered in pigeons and then like looking around like very weirdly. It just don't like it. No, not gonna lie. Not a good time. Yeah, the it's interesting. I saw, I, I don't know where I saw this. I think it was like just randomly on Twitter the other day, but like someone was talking about the difference between why Home Alone one is actually better than Home Alone 2 and the reason that they, their rationale was that, you know, Home Alone 1, Kevin like actually thinks that his family has been like that. He's wished them away.

And. More of that like emotional aspect. Whereas in Home Alone 2, he's like, damn it, they forgot me again. Like so it's like that a different emotional level there. So I thought that was kind of an interesting take on it. That is true. I I do tend to forget that part of it that he does like wish that his family would just disappear and then he wakes up the next morning and they're gone. I'm just like, which, yeah, if you're 7 or 8 years old, you're like, damn, it worked.

Like, they're gone. Buzz is gone. That guy sucks. And I wished him away like weird Uncle Frank. Like, I'm yeah, I've got all this leftover pizza and like, you know, soda. I'm pretty happy. Yeah, yeah. But it's funny, Yeah. The differences between them and I don't know, just another off topic thing that I recently saw. Like, I feel like every year around Christmas, like all these facts about Home Alone pop up on social media, which is, you know, stirring the pod and getting people to go watch it.

But someone posted somewhere that that the house like that like massive house that their family owns, It's it has recently been sold or something. And you can look at the pictures and it's now completely like modernized and, you know, different. And yeah, it's got the millennial, millennial Gray look going on, so. Yeah, I, I was just looking at this with my daughter, who loves this movie and the house. You can find it on Zillow.

It's the, you know, estimate is $5.5 million, which seems like like, wow, that's an expensive house, but it's a 9000 square foot house in a really nice Chicago suburb, you know, and it's, it's sold a few times over the years for, you know, a million, 2 million or whatever. And obviously it's a beautiful house in a great neighborhood, but I thought it might have been a little more than that. Honestly, I was like, huh, five.

I was thinking maybe 7 or 8 or whatever actually given the the notoriety of the house, but. History alone. Yeah. Yeah. I've seen, like, I have friends who have gone and taken pictures in front of that house, Like multiple people I know have done that 'cause you can find the address. It's easy to find online. And it's definitely something I would do if I, you know, I've been to Chicago 1000 times, but I don't know, it never really occurred to me, 'cause it's like a it's an easy drive right outside the city.

You can just go do it, Yeah. That's interesting, I didn't know you could just get to it. I mean, maybe that's why it's not priced highers 'cause you know. People 'cause it's annoying, That's a great point. It probably is 'cause there's nothing you can do about that. It's on a public St. You can just stand on the sidewalk and take a picture. And if you're the homeowner, you're like, well, what are you going to do? You know, you knew what you were buying. It's not a surprise. Right, yeah, but yeah, it was funny re watching. I just re watched Home Alone one. I probably haven't seen it as many times as you, but like I've seen it a fair amount of times and it's I always love, you know, watching it around the holidays. But just like the like the pranks that he pulls off are just like so brutal.

Some of them. Like I feel like the older I get, the more I'm like, Oh my gosh, like he just got hit with like a flamethrower to the head and like nail in the foot. It's just like, brutal. It's not just like he throws some matchbox cars on the floor and they slip and fall. There's a lot of like legitimate, you know, brutal torture stuff that happens in this movie. The second one too. It it ramps up some in the second when he's in the abandoned house, but he wrecks this house like that. One of the things, one of the other pieces of trivia about this is they didn't actually shoot in the house. They shot the exteriors of the house, but they built the interiors that you see in an abandoned high school. So that's all sets, like every bit of the interior sets, 'cause you always wonder, you're like, God, how, how would somebody just let their house get trash like this, even for a movie, if they're going to pay you to restore it Like, so, you know, But yeah, Kevin gets up to some

real shit in this movie. You know he is torturing these two dudes. I know. Yeah. And what's funny is that they just keep trying to get back in. Like I would have from the very, very start when, you know, Joe Pesci, like, slips on the ice or whatever. I would have been like, Nope, that's it, I'm going home. No, I'd have a herniated disc and I would have like crawled to the van and been like, sorry, Marv, this shit is not happening this year. I know I did a lot of Recon and walked to, you know, checked out all these houses. But sorry, man, I'm hurt.

Let's get out of here. Not worth it. No, certainly not. But that is kind of a good. You know, one of the parallels to the hacker movies that we love is kind of the persistence of these guys and, you know, they've got their target. They've done all this reconnaissance where, you know, the it's one of the things that I kind of forget about this movie until I watch sit down and watch it from the beginning again, is Joe Pesci's character going door to door in this neighborhood dressed as a cop and try, you know, essentially saying, hey, there's always break insurance around the holidays.

Just want to see if you guys are going on vacation. Oh, really? When, where are you going? And getting all this information from them to set up these burglaries obviously later, but it's a very clever sort of set up for how they get their information about the families and the targets and then figure out their ways in. Yeah, that was definitely some solid Recon there, though. Like I feel like the family, like, you know, they just had their door unlocked. He could just wander right in.

Like that in itself was kind of a red flag. It really is. And there's, I think it's this movie. I they both kind of run together, honestly, but there's this scene on when they actually are on the airplane and Catherine O'Hara, the the mother's character says. I just have this terrible feeling that I forgot something. And, you know, she and her husband are like, well, is it this? Is it that? And her husband says, oh, I forgot to close the garage. That's what it is.

And first of all, you're going to Paris and you left your garage open. What? That's not a small problem. Like you, I don't care what kind of neighborhood you live in, somebody's going into your damn house in suburban Illinois. I'm sorry. You know, So like they were obviously it, you know, they need the parents to be kind of dimwits for this movie to work. But that was the thing that always trips me up. I'm like, you're not concerned that you you can't call a neighbor like old man Marley. I know you're not friendly with him, but call the old man. He's nosy.

He'll go close your garage for you. Doesn't matter if he's perceived to be like, you know. Yeah, a kidnapper. Yeah. He's his old neighbor. Yeah, that this reminds me also every time I watch it of when we were doing war games a few weeks ago with Pete and Zoe. And, you know, Pete brought up the the video that he did. How would war games work if we had two FA And, you know, it's like a 30.

He actually did a video of this that we'll post again. It's like 30. The movie is 30 seconds long because, you know, it just doesn't work. And this is a perfect example of cell phones would kill this movie. You know, this came out in 1990, but even five years later when not everybody had cell phones, but people in this neighborhood probably would have. Yeah, this movie is a 4 minute movie because Catherine O'Hara calls one of their neighbors is like, oh, Susie, can you? I think we left Kevin at home. Can you go get him?

Yeah, right. And then that's the end. Roll credits. The end Roll credits. We'll see you in Paris. Like put him on the next flight. It Yeah, or we're coming home or something. Yeah. Even when they call the the real police and you know, they're knocking on the door and they're just like he's not, you know, like answer it like you can't tell me that they wouldn't like break in if there was a kid like potentially in there. I'm positive they would if the parents are on the phone and they say, OK, yes, you have my verbal permission, go in and see if my damn kid is in the house.

Like this isn't like we left our dog there. You know, they, they even remembered their dog. They put him in a kennel. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Like Kevin, this is the perfect example of, like, the the youngest kid always gets forgotten. Like. Yeah, that's just how it works, you know? Well. If they're in a like how many kids do they have? Like 10 or something. But it's all cousins and shit I think. Yeah, I. I want to say that there's only three kids in the McAllister family.

There's Buzz, Kevin, and then the sister whose name I I don't even know if we ever want her, her name. And all the cousins like Macaulay or Kieran Culkin and all the other. That was crazy. To find out. Isn't that crazy? Yeah. That I was like, wait, he's like the pervy brother in succession. Like, yeah, and he's so cute in that movie in Home Alone too. He's. So cute. He doesn't really say too much, but he's just like sitting there eating pizza and like doing.

But you can kind of see the devilish expressions on his face and stuff that once, if you've watched Succession or anything that Kieran Culkin has done as an adult, you're like, oh, I kind of see it, you know? Formative young years, yeah. He kind of looks like a troublemaker. Yeah, so funny. Yeah. It is, yeah. But the the whole setup, as I mentioned earlier, which I think is really clever in as a, you know, sort of movie plot trope of we have this big family, they're sort of in a rush in the morning.

You know, their alarm clock didn't go off because it got unplugged or whatever it was. And everybody just rushes out of the house. And it's kind of your worst fear as a parent of like, I don't know where one of my kids is for even a few seconds, like a couple minutes is a very like panic inducing thing. If you've ever like lost sight of your kid in a grocery store or, you know, at Target or something, you're just like, Oh my God.

But in 1990, they were just like, well, you know, you guys go on to Paris. I'll, you know, it'll be fine. I'll go get him. You know, even though, like, Catherine O'Hara is panicked, but it's mostly because she feels like a jerk for having let him down. She's not like my kid might be dead at home. Yeah. She's kind of like, I'm a bad mom. Yeah. Yeah, I. Know that's it is so true yeah.

And just the fact that, like, you literally can't get in touch with him, I think it would freak me out the most. You know, listen, if one of our kid, if one of my kids, like I'm not this way, but my wife is, is out of touch for a couple of hours. Like at college. We've got like an international incident is about to happen. Like, yeah, the the Coast Guard is being called and like, it's fine. My parents didn't know where I was 90% of the time when I was a kid.

You know, they had a general idea, but not specifically. They were like, well, he's in the neighborhood somewhere with, you know, Chris and Tony. We. I don't know. Yeah. Out on his bike yeah. That's that's another reason why in today's world, like, you know, a lot of, I guess like millennial parents use a lot more of like hands on technology to even like track, you know, where their, where their kids are. And like, you know, with phones, obviously, but even like putting trackers on backpacks or things like that, just so you don't, you know, where they are.

It's it's so different now. You know, we don't, we don't have that same sense of like, you know, they're out there in the neighborhood. Like we, we know there are other friendly faces, like looking around, you know, looking at them. So it's it's very different in that regard. I mean, not that this is any, that this situation is comparable at all, but. You know, this is like a legitimate kind of emergency that they would put out an Amber Alert for, right? Like right now, like idiot parents left their kids at home and are on a international flight.

Those parents are probably in some pretty serious legal trouble if that happens and they're sending every police officer within a 30 mile radius to that kids house. Like if that happened today, come on. I mean. Yeah, and then in Home Alone too, when it happens again, you're just like, OK, well, just throw your hands up and they're like. And they're making. Have a little visit. Exactly. And the thing that kills me in Home Alone, too, is that when they discover this, they're in Florida and the two parents are in the police station talking to the cop and he's like, has anything like this ever happened before? And she's like, it's kind of a family tradition, but we've never lost our luggage.

I'm like, what? What's wrong with you? I know it's a movie, but whatever. I'm always like, kind of happens every year with us. But what, you take your kids away from you? I'm sorry, you're a terrible parent. Yeah, it's not, it's not a good, not a good moment for. Them And obviously Catherine O'hara's character is written as kind of a flighty, you know, you know, a loving mom, but she's kind of like a dingbat who has like too much on her plate and is just, you know, always missing something.

You're like well OK, but a child, you can forget your passport or you know, your suntan lotion, but your 8 year old kid who had a traumatic incident last year at Christmas? Yeah, yeah. Maybe hold him as you go through the airport, I don't know. Is that right? Yeah, Just have one of those child leashes, you know? Yes, which are horrifying, but in this case might be warranted. In this situation, absolutely. Yeah.

So this movie came out in 1990. It came out for you. Were you born yet? You probably were not right. No, I was. Yeah. It came out a year before I was born. Jesus. Christ. OK, so this is always fun doing things. So Theo, it's my favorite one, but so Macaulay Culkin had been in a couple movies. He had been in Uncle Buck, which is so great. One of my I love that movie so much, another John Hughes related movie.

And I guess he wrote this character directly for Macaulay Culkin because of what he had done in Uncle Buck. And he knew that he could be, he could hold his own with adults, you know, and be kind of the smart ass and you know, but also seem like a little scared or whatever, but could hold his own and wouldn't be overwhelmed by a bunch of really professional trained actors. Right. Yeah, that's I thought that was interesting. I saw. I always like to look at what actors, like, auditioned for different roles too.

And like, it's funny to see obviously there there's no other like, contenders in mind for yeah, for Kevin, but like, I think for Joe Pesci's character. I thought it was funny. I read like on Wikipedia that Joe Pesci was like, I'm not gonna audition. Like if you want me like like. Yep. Right here. So I'm Joe Pesci. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. But there were a couple, I think, like for Uncle Frank, like they were considering Kelsey Grammar, which I was like, that would actually have been amazing if they could have been.

Really good, yeah. Perfect for that role. The funny thing about that is Kelsey Grammar was probably one of the most famous actors on Earth in 1990 or 1989. Like with Cheers, I think there's, I don't know if this is probably during Frasier. He was like a massive TV star. He wasn't really he. He probably was in some movies, but he was not a movie guy. But he was like one of the biggest TV stars on Earth at that point.

So he would have been really good because he's kind of like, he looks a little bit like that actor that plays Uncle Frank, you know, like, kind of bald, like. And he's got kind of that like, kind of weird Uncle energy too, where you're just like, I don't know what that guy gets up to in his spare time. I'm not really sure. Yeah, it's a little a little sketchy. Yeah, but the the other thing that always is so weird to think about what this movie is, this came out in November of 1990, right? So two months before that Goodfellas came out. So Joe Pesci playing an absolute sociopath in Goodfellas. And I remember this is my freshman year of college, so I can remember going to see Goodfellas. I was super excited for that.

You know, De Niro, Joe Pesci, all that kind of stuff. Martin Scorsese, go to see that movie. I was like, okay, that's one of the best movies I've ever seen. And then go home for Christmas break and you see Home Alone and you're like, what in the hell? Like a path from Goodfellas is this goofy, like, you know, bumbling cartoon crook Now how? And they must have shot those back-to-back. So yeah, that just shows you like what an amazing actor Pesci is, honestly. It's got a great range.

Yeah. Yeah, that is. I thought that I read too, that they, they were like trying to get Robert De Niro for that role, right. Which I, I can't envision that at all. Like, you know, which is funny because they both were in Goodfellas, but like, I don't know, that's too much of A stretch for me. Especially then because De Niro had not done any of the like, meet the Fockers, meet the parents. He had done essentially no comedy except for I guess Midnight Run as a comedy. But up until that point he was not a comedic actor. He was the guy you were terrified of, right?

Like Robert De Niro would haunt your dreams. Like taxi driver, Raging Bull. Yeah. The godfather to all those Goodfellas. Yeah. Casino. Like that guy's not funny. I don't. I mean, we know now he could be funny, but not in 1989 for sure, you know? Yeah, it's funny. And then what was funny too that I didn't realize is that Tim Curry was being auditioned for, I think either one of the two antagonists, but he he ended up being in Home Alone too, though.

But I didn't realize that he was like, you know, trying to get into the first, the first one, so. Yeah, I think he was meant to play the the part that Daniel Stern ended up playing the other robber Marv, right? Yeah. But yeah, he ends up being like the hotel manager in home loan too, right? Role for him. So good. Like kind of a sniffling, you know, you go to please jerk.

Yeah, the cameos in that movie are crazy with Rob Schneider as like the the valet or whatever. But yeah, it just the Joe Pesci piece of this always kind of like stops me cold when you just see him like being the goofball in this movie. Obviously he's like meant to be a little bit menacing, but he's you're not like scared of him. And Marv, you know, they're like Marv leaves the water on in everybody's house because you think it's. Funny. You're not scared of that guy. Yeah, which, you know, bring it back to cybersecurity. Great example of an object fail like just like leaving that little tidbit behind in IOC.

Right. Joe Pesci is telling them him that the entire movie, he's like, you idiot, now they're going to know. And he's like, I know, I want them to know. I want credit for all these, all these burglaries. You know, we got to, that's our trademark. And Joe Pesci's like you, dummy. And when they finally get arrested at the end, he's like yelling at him as they're leading him out of the house. And Daniel Stern, you know, Marv is like, make sure, you know, that those are all us, the web, you know, make sure we get credit for all those. Like it's, you know, I could, I could definitely see we've talked about in the past how, you know, APT groups that operate from countries where they are never getting extradited to the US, you know, say Russia or China probably, you know, being, getting some notice from the US government is probably like a, a badge of honor for those folks, right? Like it's like, hey, look, look, they're noticing my work. Look, I'm doing good stuff here.

Like can I get a promotion or what? Like, let's talk about this. I could totally see that, Yeah, I feel like it is a badge of honor for sure. Yeah, you can imagine them having like a little party with some cake and cookies and soda and stuff. Some yachts, some. Lamborghinis. Lamborghinis. Yeah, yeah. So was this one of the movies that was on for you around Christmas every year when you were growing up? Yeah, I think so. This, this was definitely a favorite. Yeah, I feel like I don't like, I'm also a big like elf fan, so you know, things like that as well. But we, we always were watching Home alone. Like you said, it's always on.

It's always on like cable, like what is it, 25 days of Christmas or whatever, like repeat. And now it's on Disney Plus. So it's, it's always fun to watch around Christmas. But I feel like my my favorite part is just like the, like the insults, honestly, like the kids are just slinging at each other in the beginning. It's just like, you know, laying competent and like, like, just ridiculous.

Yeah. It's great because you don't, there's not really any setup for the family. You just kind of get dropped into their, you know, not daily lives, but into their into their life. All you know is that it's this extended family that's going on a Christmas vacation to Paris, which is always one of the other things that's completely insane to me. I don't know, like my, I don't have like a huge extended family, but we if we went anywhere for Christmas, it was to like my grandparents house. It was like a car ride, right?

And that was not, it was like fun or whatever, but weren't flying to Paris to obviously this family is affluent and or whatever, but still taking like 15 people to Paris even in 1990, Like that's an outrageously expensive trip at Christmas. Yeah, and I love how Uncle Frank is just like, you know, like. Freeloader. Full advantage of a of Kevin's family there financially. Uncle Frank doesn't pay for shit in either movie. He's Yeah, I think it.

I don't know if it's this one or the second one where Kevin, like, calls him out on it. He's like, yeah, my dad's paying for all this, you cheapskate. Only taking advantage there. Oh, yeah, look, look, Uncle Frank knows what he's doing. He's like, I think even at the beginning where the pizza gets delivered and the kids like, hey, somebody owes me, you know, like $112 or whatever, and Uncle Frank's like, oh, I left my wallet upstairs and just like, leaves. This guy sucks, yeah. Uncle Frank, the helmet.

Yeah, the the other thing that always gives me anxiety is when they wake up like 45 minutes before the flight is I'm someone that gets to the airport like 3 hours ahead of time for a domestic leave. So, yeah, that always is a little like, I can understand why, you know, in their panic, they might have left, you know, left a kid behind there. It's it is the most anxiety inducing part of this movie for me. Like, not just the part forget about like leaving your kid at home when you're leaving the country. That part where they wake up and realize they're late for their flight and their alarm didn't go off and their ride is already outside and they're just all scrambling to try and get into the van and they're counting heads and handing out tickets and everything.

Like I'd literally like break out in hives watching that because I'm exactly like you, even if I'm flying by myself and, you know, domestically, Yeah, from Boston to DC or something. The simplest thing in the world. I'm at the airport 2 hours early. Like I'm getting there, but obviously Boston traffic sucks, but whatever. Even in 1990, you've been to O'Hare. You can't get through O'Hare. You couldn't even get into the airport in 45 minutes.

I don't care. Like, you're missing that flight. I don't give a shit. You're not making that flight. There's no the. Most unrealistic part of the movie honestly. Not them like forgetting their kid. Yeah, no. No, I I could see that happening. You're not making that flight to Paris. I'm sorry, it's not happening. All 12 of you or whatever it is. You know. Yeah, that, that part gives me the most anxiety. It's horrifying, like thinking that I might miss a flight. Yeah, even with yeah, TSA pre-check, I'm like still there.

Oh. Absolutely. Yeah, that does happen to me sometimes. Like with pre-check and clear whatever and you sail right through and then you get there and you're like, I got like 2 1/2 hours to sit here. I guess I'll read or whatever. Want to see the gate first? Though, Oh, you gotta find the gate. Go find the gate, make sure everything's cool. They haven't switched it. Yeah, it's very true. I'm so glad to hear that. Like it's not just me because my husband is always like, what are you doing? Oh, no, got to do it.

And I'm not the warrior in my family, as you know, but that that stuff, I'm just like, yeah, I got AI think that comes from my dad, who is a pilot. So he's just like, you need to be there at this time. This is they're not going to wait for you. You get there. OK, OK. It's like beaten into my head 40 years ago. Yeah. So I'm and then for the I'm curious like in terms of the pranks like what you're like top three are or something it's like. I think it it's hard to they all kind of like blend together at one point, but I think that there's two cool ones that I really like and one doesn't even. And it's not like something that that hits the two robbers, but the way that Kevin sets up like he has like the mannequins in around the Christmas tree kind of simulating like AI guess like a Christmas cocktail party in his in his house. And he's like pulling the strings and stuff with the silhouettes in the window and

he's got the music going and all that kind of stuff. That's really clever for an 8 year old kid to have come up with that. And I really like when he heats up the doorknob to or actually, is that in the second one? I think that's in the second one. I it's. Also in the 1st. OK, yeah, OK, he does. Yes. He like, heats it up with the blowtorch so that when Pesci's character, I think grabs it, burns his hand and then the the thing that swings down on the stairs to hit them in the face, is it paint hands or something like that?

Yeah. All the sadistic stuff is, is really fun for me. Yeah. Just the messed up stuff. Yeah, what about you? I think the tarantula, of course, is always a good one. Nothing is real. You can tell that's a real tarantula in that shot. I would be so scared to be doing that stunt. Like no. Get out of here with that. That was a good one. I like the well, he does this in the 1st and the second, but the like, you know, using ATV show or movie to pretend like, you know, he's about to shoot up whoever is coming, whoever is intruding and then like scare them off that way.

And then what else? I feel like, I mean, there's, there's so many good ones, but just the, yeah, I guess those two and then like, I don't know, the iron coming down on yeah, Mark's head is always a good one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The recording device part of it, it I think is a really clever little hack inside the movie too. And I, I always wondered how they came up with this, whether it was written in the script originally, or if they realized they needed some way at some point to kind of give him a way to talk to people without actually revealing that he's by himself or whatever, you know, make it sound like an adult. It's kind of the same thing that Ferris Bueller does where he records that, you know, the, it's not the answering machine. It's like the doorbell answering machine, which is a real thing and.

Yeah, yeah. It's kind of that same idea. This this came out after Ferris Bueller, but I, I wonder if they sort of rigged that up during the the the shooting where they were like, we need some way for Kevin to, you know, kind of scare these guys off at some point. And I love for most of my life I thought that was a real movie that he's watching. The angels with dirty faces is.

It not. No. Realize that. Wow. Because later in the second one, he's watching Angels with even dirtier faces. Yeah. It's on like the the, that's hilarious TV in the in the hotel, the VH, you can see like the VHS cover or whatever. Yeah. It's like some fake, you know, James Cagney movie that they just kind of came up with. Yeah. That has like the machine gunfire and like the 1930s dialogue.

Yeah. That's that's hilarious. Yeah. Wow. Interesting. Yeah, it's. Were you ever like, I mean, you have siblings? I have siblings. They, my parents never really like left us alone for any extended period of time. Like we never had, like they never went away for like a four day trip or something where it was like me and my sisters at home and we had to like cook for ourselves or anything like that. They did make that mistake one time when they took my older sister to visit colleges when I was in high school.

Oh yeah, that's. Didn't go well for anybody. A good. Good idea, no? Terrible idea. Yeah, Yeah. Even then, no, my parents didn't leave us. They, they, I feel like they were like, even if we like were, you know, perfectly innocent or whatever, I think they would just be like, what kind of trouble could they find themselves in? Yeah, and not just like intentional trouble, like accidental trouble, you know, like one of you trips down the stairs or, you know, leaves the curling iron on or some, you know, something like that happens. Right.

But yeah, that was that was not a thing that my parents were doing for sure. Yeah, well, because I don't think, well, these parents didn't like intentionally do. That it. Was a thing. But yeah, it was funny. I was thinking about like the like the cybersecurity aspect of this movie too. And like, I, I was trying to like compare like the different tricks that Kevin created to like actual, like security terms or whatever. And oh, I like it.

Yeah. Like, like, I feel like some of the tricks, like if you notice, like in the first one, he left all the doors like not locked and just, they could just come in 'cause he was like, well, I'm gonna capture it. Like I'm just gonna get them like in that way. So like, I was like, huh. This could be like a sandbox like type of situation or something that's like defense in depth, like all that stuff. So all that good stuff? Yeah. I like that that's it's a good way to think about it. And I don't remember if there's a line or kind of an aha moment in this movie where he thinks where he realizes, OK, these two idiots are going to keep coming back. I need to set up all these traps or I feel like it's just more gradual than that.

He realized, you know, they keep coming. So he keeps doing things. I don't think, I don't feel like there's something where he's like, OK, you know, he's not like drawing plans or anything. You know, he's, it's just kind of like he's adapting as these guys keep coming back. Yeah, yeah, I know like before, like the big finale when he like sets up all those multiple traps, there's that like montage of him being like, I think that might have been right after the church scene or something when he gets the pep talk from like the scary old guy. So it's.

Like we need to talk about him. Yeah, yeah, he's a whole different story. But yeah, you. But that's always a funny one when he's like, when Kevin's like setting everything up and you're just like, what is, what is he up to? Like what is he getting into so? Yeah, yeah, the the way that he, I always figure Kevin is a pretty pampered kid, right? Like he lives in this beautiful house in this beautiful neighborhood, loving parents.

They're obviously pretty wealthy. He probably gets whatever toys he wants, you know, that kind of shit. So you would think he'd be kind of useless in a situation like this, Like he wouldn't really know how to fend for himself. But he figures it out pretty quickly. You know, he this is a complete tangent, but the thing that always kills me at the end of this movie is after the family comes home, you know, his mom comes home 1st and they reunite. And then like the rest of the family comes in and he tells them that he went shopping and bought like laundry detergent and like two other things.

And everybody's like, Oh my God, you went to the store. I can't. His dad is shocked that Kevin went to the store and was able to complete a transaction. That's the thing that you're surprised about? Your old kid fended off 2 like burglars for 48 hours and you're just like, wait, you bought fabric softener? Holy shit, kid, we're raising you right. I mean, like I will say Kevin has his life together more than me at this moment, honestly. Like he's like, yeah, he's done there grocery shopping, like, yeah, getting it's like doing his laundry, like, you know, shaving, like do like, you know, just doing all this stuff like that, what young men should be doing. So it's just like for him.

It is funny, though, when he does go to the grocery store and the girl's like, are you here by yourself? Where's your mother? And he's like, ma'am, I'm 8 years old. Do you think I'm allowed to? I would be here by myself, which is funny to me because this doesn't happen anymore either. But when I was eight or nine years old, my parents would just send me into the like, they would drive to the store or whatever the 711 would be like, go in there and buy a gallon of milk, like here's $5, and you just go in. Like nobody would question you or anything like that. Nobody gave a shit.

But like this clerk is like interrogating him of like, where is your mother? How many siblings do you have? Where are they? Where is your dad? You know the whole thing. And he's, but he's got answers like right away. He's like, ma'am, I'm eight years old, you think I'd be in here buying things by myself, blah, blah, blah, you know? Yeah, yeah. And I'm not going to tell you my address because you're a stranger. Very good. Yeah, very clever. And that happens again in the second one. I don't remember, but he's in like a bodega or like a little convenience store in Manhattan.

But but it's the same sort of setup where everybody, people are like, where are your parents? You know, why are you in here by yourself buying whatever it is? Although nobody, nobody in the hotel really cares once he checks into the hotel in the second one. Although I guess the hotel manager does get a little suspicious at one point. And then he kind of comes up into his room and that's when he has like the dummy in the shower and he's doing that thing, which again, what hotel manager is going into a room, let alone into the bathroom in the room like that guy's? There's some problems there too.

Yeah, that that's a little sketchy for sure. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, Kevin does like very quickly adapt to his circumstances and kind of figure out like, OK, I'm on my own. They're probably going to figure this out at some point that I'm here, but they're not coming back right away. So I've got to kind of, you know, figure out how to make Mac and cheese and order pizza and, you know, not die in the next 36 hours. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, he's, he's a smart kid.

He is. He is. And you know, he figures it all out pretty well. Yeah. The laundry. I don't think I knew how to do laundry when I was 8 years old. There's no reason I needed to, you know? Yeah, yeah. And even just like, yeah, I don't know, making food and, yeah, grocery shopping and all that. So yeah. I definitely didn't know how to cook anything when I was 8 years old. No chance. No, yeah. No, absolutely not. No, I would have, yeah, I would have had some real problems at 8 years old being in Kevin's situation.

Yeah. I don't. I don't think we would have survived. No, I definitely wouldn't. I The funny thing is at this point, like if in, you know, whenever my kids were eight years old, if I had left, I don't know how long it would have taken them to figure out that they were alone. Like it just staring at like, well, my kids didn't have smartphones when they were eight, but a kid now an 8 year old that has like an iPad, how long would it be before they noticed that their parents were gone? You know, like, I don't know, your kids aren't that old yet, but I guess once they got hungry or something, whatever they'd be like, huh? Or my parents.

But you can see those kids in restaurants or airports with. Yeah. They're just in their iPads and they would have no idea that their parents left them for like quite a while. But on the plus side, they could use their iPod, iPad to Google or ChatGPT. You know, how do I do the laundry? Very true. Yeah, it's. Also a plus. Very true. Kids are spoiled. Yeah. So we mentioned we mentioned the old man neighbor, which is one of the things that I always sort of forget in this movie too, how big of a role he plays, which is interesting because he does sort of, you know, in that scene in the church that you mentioned gives Kevin sort of a a real life talk.

Like, yeah, your parents still love you. They made a mistake. But you know, when they come back, you got to, you can't really hold it against him. And he, it sort of describes the situation with his son or, or whatever. But, and he's named Marley, which is, you know, obviously the Dickens reference. But I have a lot of questions about that guy. Like he's quite old, lives by himself in the same neighborhood with the $5.5 million house that the Mcallisters live in.

Yeah. How is he surviving on whatever pension he has and Social Security in 1990 to live in this beautiful neighborhood? We don't really see his house. We see his driveway. But what's that guy getting up to? Like, how is he? How does he live in their neighborhood? I have questions as well. Yeah. And he likes to, you know, he shoveling. He's shoveling a lot. Like he's doesn't like to hire help, like getting up there in age, like. Yeah. Just out there spreading salts on the sidewalks and like, looking creepy.

And it's got some real Boo Radley vibes. You know, like the weird neighbor that lives down the street. You're not really sure what his deal is, which I feel like every neighborhood has that person when you're a kid, you know, it doesn't even have to be. There's no reason for it. You're just like, I don't like the way that person looks, you know, when you're 7 years old. Yeah. Yeah, I don't like him. Yeah, I feel like I think I read the director like Chris Colombo or whatever. His name is incredible.

Christopher Columbus, Yeah. Yeah, he which I had no idea that he also like directed, you know, all those, those other movies like Harry Potter and stuff. Yeah, but he actually, I guess he wrote that old man into the script like he and it added like a, you know, an extra little level of a dimension there in terms of making it a little more heart warming at the end and, you know, a little more of a serious note. But that was kind of interesting. Yeah, I think that was a one of those very good decisions during the production of the movie where he realized or somebody realized.

I don't know if it was hammered the direct or I'm sorry, the screenwriter. It was like, we need some other sort of character for Kevin to be able to bounce things off of or have some sort of, you know, contrast with so that he's not just, you know, this kind of little mischief maker. You know, he needs to. There's got to be some learning here. He's got to learn a lesson about this, you know, And yeah, that that guy's really good. He's he's very good in that part.

But yeah, I, I, you can tell that he sort of gets inserted in there a little bit, you know, because you only see one shot of him towards the beginning of the movie. And then all of a sudden he's like there at the, he's there in the church. And then at the end, he's the one that sort of like gets the cops to come, right? Yeah, yeah. He's the one that like, yeah, saved the day. And then he was one. I think he was in one other scene too where he was it like at the grocery store, like something where Kevin just like runs away from. It I think that's right, yeah.

The guy, like the character was probably like, OK, little kids are scared of me. Yeah, I didn't. Want to be that person you know? You know, but at that point in your life, you're like, yeah, I, I understand. I look like. Yeah, I. Get it? I'm kind of a weirdo. Yeah. Yeah, I did want to. I mentioned Goodfellas came out a couple of months before that, before this movie. This is a pretty crazy movie year. It always, I'd love to go back and look at kind of where the box office numbers come out for some of these years. So this is 1990.

This is a crazy movie year. Linds Ghost was #1. Ghost, yeah. Pretty Woman, Home Alone, like 3 original movies that just sort of came out of nowhere and made a ton of money, then Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, whatever. Hunt for Red October, another monster that's on all the time, Total Recall, Die Hard 2 which I love driving Miss Daisy, Dick Tracy, just a terrible movie And Back to the Future part three it was #10 but. And Goodfellas was way down the list. Like Goodfellas did not make a ton of money when it came out, but.

Really had to do. That no, it was like, where is it, Where is it, Where is it? It was like in the 30s somewhere. This is like when we used to make movies, like we used to make more movies, you know, not just like IP sequels and things like that. It's kind of yeah, it's a little depressing because those are that's just like a stacked list. But and I'm trying to think of like, you know, well, I guess we've had a couple like, you know, box office hits this year, but it's nothing compared to that. Like we're not going to be going back in 30 years and, you know, talking about the movies that are that have come out this year, unless I'm missing anything big, but there's. It might be, yeah.

What came out this year? Like like, yeah. Yeah, there's no Home Alone or Pretty Woman. Yeah. No, exactly, no. There's some good movies, but there's not like all time Mount Rushmore classics the way that you know Pretty Woman. How many times do you think you've seen Pretty Woman in your life? A. Lot, yeah. It might be in the hundreds for me, honestly. And it's not even one of my it's just on. Yeah, just and like and like the celebrities to like, like ghost and all like, I don't know, it's just you're not going to get that level of like Hollywood again. No, we used to make movie stars, too. Like Ghosts, Demi Moore and Whoopi Goldberg. Come on.

And Patrick Swayze. I don't even like that movie, but that's like an unassailable cast. Pretty Woman, Richard Gere and Julia Roberts. Like, if you look up movie stars in the dictionary, there's Richard Gere and Julia Roberts, like, staring at you. Yeah. You know, all, all time Hollywood. Yeah. The stars. So where would you do you if you had to pick, if you were going to sit down? You probably haven't shown these. Your kids are still pretty young.

Like, have they? They haven't gotten to these yet. Right. Not yet. I feel like the like, so they're my kids are three and four, so I feel like they're like the the prank scenes are still have been violent. And I'll give you some context here. I tried to put on like actually, this is weirdly like has a relevant thread here, but I don't know if you've ever seen The Nutcracker like with McCulloch. Hey, Culkin. That where he is like, it's like the live version of The Nutcracker on Broadway.

But he was in that he was like the Prince. So I I was like, oh, this is a fun little like Christmas musical thing that I'll put on for them. And they were like instantly terrified of The Nutcracker. So I was like, OK, so that sets the bar for like any other movie that I was thinking of showing them this year. Yeah. That that makes sense. I could see that there's some creepy like images and yeah, the Nutcracker's weird looking man it Yeah, yeah. It's a, it's a little weird. There's the yeah, there's the mouse scene. But anyways, all that to say, I think they still need like a few more years.

I think they need to be 8 before they can see. It I think that's right. And also it will probably give your son some ideas that you don't want him to have of like ways that he could torture his sister, you know? True I I hope he doesn't aspire to be a buzz in the world of Home Alone. Aspire to be a Kevin. Exactly, yes. So yeah, I, I, I think I enjoy watching Home Alone 2 the most. I mean, obviously Home Alone is a classic. Home Alone 2 is a little more fun for me just 'cause it has like the New York kind of aspect to it where he's, you know, running around in the urban landscape. And then like the abandoned house part, not abandoned, but house under construction part of it at the end with that kind of stuff is fun too.

But yeah, the bird lady I could do without. Yeah. Well, is there did there did they make more like I feel like they made like some more that didn't have like the original cast, like maybe home alone three or something. I believe they did straight to. VHS type situation. I yeah, I'm almost positive there's a Home Alone Three that that nobody is in. You know, it's like a movie that doesn't exist that must have gone straight to to video because, yeah, I mean, there's a war games too, as we mentioned a few weeks ago that nobody knows about. Terrible ideas.

Yeah. So this is when they would just make sequels of literally anything if you know, and obviously home alone 2 made a ton of money too, is a huge hit. So but I, I think Macaulay Culkin had probably aged out by and also he was like one of the biggest stars in Hollywood after these two movies and was, you know, I think right after this was probably like My Girl and yeah, The Good Son where he plays like a little nightmare child.

Yeah. Elijah Wood. Yeah, Uh huh. Yeah, don't show that one to your kids anytime soon. Talk. About bad influences, yeah shit. Yeah. So I think, you know, this movie was just on all the time when I was a kid. And then when my kids got to the age where they wanted, you know, where we were showing them these movies, somehow Home Alone 2 became their favorite too. But Elf is the Christmas movie in our house. Elf and A Christmas Story are the 2.

Like my wife loves A Christmas Story more than any other movie on earth. And Elf I think is my daughter's favorite movie of all time. My son is just like, I don't give a shit about Christmas movies, but she loves Elf. Like you, you can't even believe. Yeah, it's a good movie. It's great. I mean it. It must have come like you must have seen that, like when you were, I mean, young enough, right, For it to be like a big like thing for you.

Yeah, I think that was definitely a big one. What's crazy is that I was watching that one the other weekend with my husband and Will Ferrell was our age when he filmed that? Or younger, which is bizarre because he just he has a look about him that he looks like he has always looked like he's like 45 or something. Yeah. And so that was really eye opening at a, you know, at a life level for.

Me. It gets worse as you get older, Lance, where you're just like, wait a second, that happened at the age I am now. Oh, my God. Yeah. Yeah. It's like if you go and look up, you know, Wilfred Brimley in Cocoon, he was like 40 years old when he filmed that movie. He's supposed to be like 75 or something. You know, he was quite young. But yeah, I've heard Will Ferrell talk about that, where he filmed, you know, he was still coming out of SNL. He filmed like old school Elf and Anchorman, like back-to-back to back.

And he thought he did not think any of them were going to be successful at all, especially Elf. He was like, and you can tell there's parts of Elf where he's just running around Manhattan and they don't have permits. Like he's just in that costume, like walking around talking to normal people. He's like, oh, I just ruined my career. I thought I was dead. Like I had no ambitions of ever making movies again after those three. I thought I was like Hollywood poison. And there's like three of her biggest movies you could pass, especially Anchorman and Elf.

He thought he was dead. As an actor. Yeah, really funny. They those were really like, I mean, we're going on a tangent here down a rabbit hole, but like those were like pretty early, like, you know, 2000s type of humor that was like pretty new at the time as well. Definitely yes. Yeah, the other thing was that in Elf I'm blinking on like the dads, the actor that plays the dad. Oh, Ed Asner. Yeah, who I think passed away, but he I'm sorry. Bob Newhart. Bob Newhart.

Yeah, yeah. He, I guess he didn't understand Will Ferrell's humor and was just like, he was like, I don't really get this, but like, I'll go along with it. And I was like, so I'm sure morally, you know, like just from a, you know, perspective of acting in the scene, I'm sure Will Ferrell was rivalled by that. Yeah, And you can kind of tell, especially the scenes where Will Ferrell is like a grown adult, like, sitting on his lap, which, you know, Bob Newhart's just, like, really confused about what the Hell's going on. Like, what am I?

I'm a legend. What am I doing in this stupid movie? Like a grown man is an elf. Yeah. Yeah. It's incredible. Yeah. Yeah. We definitely went far afield, but that's OK. Yeah, Christmas. There's no cyber security tie in the ELF. I'm I'm sure I would have thought of it. I would have found it. Yeah, I wish there was, but sadly, there is not. There's a narwhal and a candy cane forest. And, you know, James Caan for some reason. But those cybersecurity.

All right. Well, this was a joy. I love talking to you about these movies, especially Home Alone. So much fun. And all you hackers out there, go show this to your kids. If they're old enough, they'll enjoy it. It's a good movie. And happy holidays. And I will see you soon. Yeah, awesome. Thanks, Dennis. See ya.