Kevin McCallister is the 8 yr old protagonist in the first Home Alone movie and the 10 yr old protagonist in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York City. He is portrayed by Macaulay Culkin.
After getting into a fight with his older brother Buzz McCallister because he purposely ate Kevin's cheese pizza, Kevin is sent to the third floor of the house by his mother Kate. The next morning as the family prepares to leave, Kevin is still sleeping. His cousin Heather mistakes Mitch Murphy, Kevin's neighbor who was just about to leave for vacation too as Kevin.
Marv & Harry, two bandits, start robbing houses in his neighborhood. They plan to Kevin's house, too, but he scares them off multiple times.
Biography[]
Home Alone[]
At age eight, Kevin is the youngest of five children (his brothers and sisters are Buzz, Megan, Linnie and Jeff) born to Peter and Kate McCallister and he has six cousins (counting one who is a daughter not of Frank McCallister, but of Rob). He is subject to ridicule by his older siblings, mostly Buzz. One Christmas, his family leaves for Paris and accidentally leaves him behind. Kevin has fun without the ever present nuisance of his family, but he slowly grows lonely, until he discovers that Old Man Marley is actually a very nice man and the rumors about him are never true. Things get worse when two dimwitted yet violent criminals, Harry and Marv a.k.a. "The Wet Bandits", target his lavish house to be robbed. Kevin, without any protection, decides to booby trap the entire house and the two, despite being horribly disfigured by Kevin's torment, the two capture Kevin in a house that they had already robbed, but before they can kill him, Old Man Marley beats the two into unconsciousness with a snow shovel. The two are then arrested as Kevin's family comes home for Christmas morning, where he acts like nothing happened during the week as Kevin sees Old Man Marley reuniting with his son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter at the window and Buzz becomes shocked and angry about his room wrecked by Kevin.
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York[]
In the sequel, the family decides to head to warm Florida for Christmas instead, but Kevin mistakenly follows a man who looks like his father onto a plane bound for New York City. Kevin is alone, but has his father's money in his bag. He decides to enjoy his time in the biggest city in the country, so he lives it up and gets a suite at the Plaza Hotel. However, Marv and Harry, now renamed "The Sticky Bandits", have also arrived in New York via fish truck and escaped from a prison in Chicago during a prison riot and discover that Kevin is alone and lost in New York City.
Out for revenge, the two attempt to kill Kevin, but he defeats them by using his surroundings to his advantage. Kevin then goes to the home of his uncle, which is under renovation while they are away and still in Paris since the previous film. After Kevin discovers that the Pigeon Lady is actually a very nice person and is not scary at all, Kevin booby traps the entire place and foils the robbers, but they get to Kevin before he can escape. Chasing him into Central Park, the two attempt to shoot Kevin, but the revolver is covered in lacquer wood stain which the two got covered in earlier and won't fire.
The Pigeon Lady throws pigeon food onto the two burglars and they get attacked by swarms of pigeons. The cops then arrest the two after Kevin sets off fireworks. Kevin's family arrives for Christmas at the Plaza Hotel after Kevin reunites with his mom and his family, but his father gets enraged that he had spent a lot of money on room service.
Home Alone 4: Taking Back the House[]
In the fourth movie, Kevin's parents are getting divorced and after getting bullied by Buzz and Megan he decided to visit his father and his father's girlfriend for the visit of a royal family. After he arrives the mansion and meets Natalie Kalban, his father's girlfriend, Mr. Prescott the butler and Molly the maid. Later as Kevin gets left alone, he encounters his archenemy Marv Murchins and his wife Vera, and defeats the villains by flooding the mansion.
When his father and Natalie got back hey refuse to believe Kevin's explanation, especially since Mr. Prescott claims to have seen nothing. Kevin discovers that the security cameras were turned off during the break-in, which makes Kevin believe that Mr. Prescott is working with Marv and Vera.
As the mansion is prepared for a party for the royal family's arrival, Peter and Natalie go to pick them up, while Kevin notices Marv and Vera disguised as caterers. He traps Mr. Prescott in the freezer, overhears Marv and Vera's plan to kidnap the prince for ransom, and forces them out of a window. The royal family is unable to attend the party because their flight was canceled, so Peter and Natalie decide to announce their engagement instead. Marv and Vera run back into the house and pursue Kevin, who accidentally ruins the party by running into the guests and knocking over an ice sculpture that turns out to be a frozen Mr. Prescott. Angered, Peter sends Kevin to his room, refusing to believe his story and accusing him of trying to sabotage his relationship with Natalie, who threatens to evict him if he misbehaves again. He gets a call from his mother as and they have a nice conversation.
The next day Kevin decides to put an end to Marv and Vera's scheme, after his dad and Natalie went to pick up the royals he locks Mr. Prescott in the basement but he finds out that Molly is the traitor and Marv's mother. After he gets locked in the basement and Mr. Prescott admits that he turned off the cameras during the initial break-in as he was taking an unscheduled break from his duties because he despises Natalie, let alone working for her; he and Kevin then apologize for misjudging each other.
After several failed attempts to call Kate, Kevin escapes via the house's dumbwaiter and uses the traps he setted. After he knocked out Marv and Vera, he briefly got captured by Molly until he got saved by Mr. Prescott as they became good friends. After his family arrived, the villains got arrested, Peter and Kate decided to remarry, Mr. Prescott resigned from his position as butler and The Royal Family decided to spend Christmas with his family.
Home Sweet Home Alone[]
He was mentioned in home sweet home by buzz when he called in the 289 to mess with him when Max Mercer is home alone.
Personality[]
Many people in the McCallister family think that Kevin is nothing more than a helpless child. As he is the youngest, he is the one constantly being picked on by his older siblings such as his sister and especially his brother Buzz and was also picked on by his cousins. Because of this abuse, Kevin was actually overjoyed when he thought that he had made his family disappear. Kevin was normally argumentative, stubborn, and even aggressive which are traits one would find in an eight-year-old boy. Often times when he acted up in the house, especially when he is saying mean things it was due to his family bullying him.He was capable of fighting back, and on some level was even cruel such as attacking Buzz twice, once when he maliciously ate his cheese pizza and when he humiliated him during a choir. This also goes from throwing four bricks at Marv from a tall building and making the pizza man that he ordered think he was being shot at by playing a gangster movie. He also laid well-planned traps that put the robbers, Harry and Marv in massive physical pain and could have even killed them (especially in the second movie).
He can be confused at times such as when he thought that Old Man Marley was a serial killer who murdered his family when he was actually a very kind man as the rumors about the old man being dangerous were not true at all. This happened again when he was lost in New York and ran away screaming from the Pigeon Lady simply because of her appearance, however, she is actually a lonely yet kind-hearted woman. Despite originally fearing these people, they ended up saving Kevin from The Wet/Sticky Bandits. It is possible that he had learnt to stop judging people by their appearances, however, in the fourth film, he became unsure of his father's girlfriend, Natalie's butler Prescott because of his hostile attitude however this grumpiness was brought on because of frustration on how tiring his job and eventually saved him. There are times when Kevin can be wise beyond his years such as giving advice to Old Man Marley to rebuild his relationship with his estranged son which he did. And once again in New York when she told the Pigeon Lady to start loving again.
Despite these peoples' outward opinions of him, Kevin is not nearly as immature as they make him out to be, (although granted when he was left home alone he took the opportunity to scream like a madman, jump up and down on his parents bed, watch gangster movies, and an excuse to eat more junk food than he could manage), however, once Harry and Marv attempted to break into his house, he became more responsible, doing laundry (despite him being afraid of the furnace) and even going shopping. He was also able to defend his home from the Wet/Sticky Bandits, using very intricate traps to injure and incapacitate them. All in all, Kevin was extremely loyal to his family (especially to his mother) even if they may drive each other crazy.
Trivia[]
- Kevin and his family are absent from Home Alone 3, which was originally to feature a teenage Kevin facing a different set of burglars. However, Macaulay Culkin had quit acting 3 years prior, and had grown tired of the role and had no interest in returning. They do not even appear in Home Alone: The Holiday Heist.
- An error of continuity is that Kevin is confirmed to be eight in the first film and ten in the second one, when it was specifically mentioned several times in Home Alone 2 that it takes place only one year after the events of the first film, meaning that he should technically be 9.
- In December 24, 2015, Macaulay Culkin returned as an older Kevin in the first episode of the online series DRYVRS.
- In December 2018, a 38-year old Macaulay Culkin reprised the role of Kevin in a Google Assistant commercial. In the ad, Culkin, re-enacted scenes from the movie with Google Assistant and other 21st century appliances.
- Many of the shots that focus on Kevin in the beginning of the movie are filmed from above his head, making him seem small and helpless. At the end of the movie, Kevin is mostly shot from below, making him seem taller and more confident.
- The movie that Kevin watches on video tape is not a real movie, but footage specially created. It was called Angels with Filthy Souls. Along with other similar era references in the movie, this is a play on Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) starring James Cagney.
- During rehearsal for the scene where Harry attempts to bite off Kevin's finger, Joe Pesci actually bit Macaulay Culkin, leaving a small scar.
- Macaulay Culkin and Joe Pesci were somewhat enemies in real life. During the filming of the first Home Alone, Pesci accidentally bit Culkin after getting too serious with his role, leaving a permanent scar. Culkin angrily berated Pesci, saying "I don't care how many OSCARS you have, or whatever, don't go biting a nine-year-old! What the heck's wrong with you!?". It is also said that Pesci intentionally avoided Culkin on set in order to make him genuinely frightened by the sight of him. Their next altercation occurred on the set of Home Alone 2 when Culkin jokingly asked Pesci why he never smiled. Pesci told him to shut up. The feud between Culkin and Pesci may have inspired the first "The Joe Pesci Show" skit on Saturday Night Live (where Jim Breuer portrayed Pesci); the skit ended with Pesci hitting Culkin on the head with a paint can (a reference to a scene from Home Alone) and saying that he laughed when Culkin's character died in a scene from My Girl. However, Culkin and Pesci held some respect for each other, as Pesci (and everyone else) on-set was amazed with how mature and professional Culkin was. He even told Entertainment Weekly, "Mac is not like a nine-year-old. He's an old man already.
- There's a popular, humorous theory since 2014 that Kevin McCallister grows up to become John Kramer, the main antagonist of the Saw films. The theory indicates that after his encounters with Harry and Marv, Kevin becomes mentally disturbed and starts making more complex and lethal traps over the years. Both Macaulay Culkin and Saw director James Wan have given their approval to the theory.
Feature films[]
- Home Alone
- Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
- Home Alone 4: Taking Back the House
- Home Sweet Home Alone (mentioned)
Portrayed by[]
- Macaulay Culkin (Home Alone 1 & 2)
- Mike Weinberg (Home Alone 4)
Family[]
- Peter McCallister (father)
- Kate McCallister (mother)
- Buzz McCallister (brother)
- Jeff McCallister (brother)
- Megan McCallister (sister)
- Linnie McCallister (sister)
- Frank McCallister (uncle)
- Leslie McCallister (aunt)
- Fuller McCallister (cousin)
- Rod McCallister (cousin)
- Tracy McCallister (cousin)
- Sondra McCallister (cousin)
- Brooke McCallister (cousin)
- Rob McCallister (uncle)
- Georgette McCallister (aunt)
- Heather McCallister (cousin)
- Penelope McCallister (grandmother)
- Unnamed grandfather
- Anna McCallister (wife)
Friends[]
- Old Man Marley
- Pigeon Lady
- Mr. Duncan
- His family
Enemies[]
- Marv & Harry
- Vera Merchants
- Molly Merchants
- Buzz McCallister (sometimes)
- His family (sometimes)
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