FAQ

Alex has the chicken pox and is home from school. Father Jack (Kevin Kilner) is in Cleveland, brother Stan (Seth Smith) and sister Molly (Scarlett Johansson) are in school, and mother Karen (Haviland Morris) needs to run errands and go into work. Karen asks old Mrs Hess (Marian Seldes) from across the street to be available in case Alex should need anything. Meanwhile, four international thieves—Petr Beaupre (Olek Krupa), Alice Ribbons (Rya Kihlstedt), Burton Jernigan (Lenny von Dohlen), and Earl Unger (David Thornton)—have stolen a valuable computer chip and inadvertently lost it when their bag got switched with Mrs Hess' bag while going through a security check at the airport. The computer chip, which was hidden in a remote control car, is then given to Alex as payment for shoveling Mrs Hess' sidewalk. The thieves want the chip back, so they're determined to search every house on Washington Street until they find it.

The first movie in the Home Alone series, Maman, j'ai raté l'avion ! (1990) (1990), was based on a screenplay by producer John Hughes. The movie has subsequently been novelized by Todd Strasser. The concept for Home Alone came from a scene in L'oncle Buck (1989) (1989) in which Macaulay Culkin, who plays Miles Russell in Uncle Buck and Kevin McCallister in Home Alone and Home Alone 2, fires off a series of questions to a would-be-babysitter through a letterbox opening in the front door. In Home Alone 3, also written and produced by John Hughes, Kevin McCallister is replaced by eight-year-old Alex Pruitt (Alex D. Linz) as the lead character who is home alone. It was followed by Home Alone: Taking Back the House (2002) and Maman, la maison est hantée ! (2012) (2012).

Other than the fact that both Kevin McCallister and Alex Pruitt live in Chicago, there is no connection between the movies. Alex and Kevin are not friends or cousins, and the two families do not live on the same street. The McCallisters live on Lincoln Boulevard, whereas the Pruitts live on Washington Street.

As Alex puts it, "It's the times." Karen has outfitted Alex with a beeper, and she says that she will call him every half hour. She orders him to go online all day and promises to keep her connection open. In addition, Alex has her cell and fax numbers. "We're wired," Alex sums it up.