Home Alone 2: Lost in New York

For the video game based on this film, see Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (video game).

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Chris Columbus
Written by	John Hughes
Produced by	John Hughes
Starring	Macaulay Culkin Joe Pesci Daniel Stern John Heard Tim Curry Brenda Fricker Catherine O'Hara
Cinematography	Julio Macat
Edited by	Raja Gosnell
Music by	John Williams
Production company	Hughes Entertainment
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date	November 20, 1992 (1992-11-20)
Running time	120 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$20 million
Box office	$358,994,850

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York is a 1992 American Christmas family 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 Home Alone. The film stars Macaulay Culkin in the lead role as Kevin McCallister, while Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern reprise their roles as the Wet Bandits. Catherine O'Hara, John Heard, Tim Curry, and Brenda Fricker are also featured.

The movie was filmed 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. Despite receiving mostly negative reviews from critics, the film became the second most financially successful film of 1992, earning over $173 million in revenue in the United States and over $359 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 followed in 2012. Culkin did not appear in any of them nor did the rest of the cast.

Plot

The night before their flight to Miami for Christmas, the McCallister family gathers at the Winnetka, Illinois home of Peter and Kate McCallister. Their ten-year-old son Kevin sees Florida as contradictory to Christmas because of the lack of Christmas trees. During the school Christmas pageant, Kevin's older brother Buzz humiliates him during his solo, causing Kevin to retaliate, thereby ruining the performance. Buzz later apologizes for his actions, but Kevin, seeing that Buzz's apology was insincere, and still upset about the family's decision to go to Florida for Christmas, refuses to apologize for his, and he storms up to the third floor bedroom of the house. During the night, Peter unknowingly resets the alarm clock and causes the family to oversleep. In the confusion and rush to reach the airport on time, Kevin boards a flight bound for New York City, carrying Peter's bag containing his wallet and a large amount of cash; the family is unaware that he is missing until after they land in Miami. In New York, Kevin tours the city and tricks the staff at the Plaza Hotel into giving him a room with Peter's credit card. During a visit to Central Park, Kevin is scared by the appearance of a homeless woman tending to pigeons.

On Christmas Eve, Kevin tours the city in a limousine and visits a toy store where he meets its philanthropic owner, Mr. Duncan. Kevin learns that the proceeds from the store's Christmas sales will be donated to a children's hospital. Duncan gives Kevin a pair of ceramic turtledoves as a gift, instructing him to give one to another person as a sign of eternal friendship. After encountering the Wet Bandits Harry and Marv (who recently escaped from prison), Kevin retreats to the hotel, where the hotel's concierge Mr. Hector confronts Kevin about the credit card which has been reported stolen (In Miami, when Kevin's parents reported Kevin missing, Peter realized that Kevin was in possession of his credit card, and the police convinced him to report it stolen, so they could locate Kevin easily). Kevin flees after evading Mr. Hector, but is captured by Harry and Marv. The duo discuss plans for robbing the toy store that night, before Kevin escapes.

The McCallisters travel to New York after locating the stolen credit card and Kate searches the city for Kevin. Meanwhile, Kevin goes to his uncle Rob's townhouse only to find the house vacant and undergoing renovations while Rob and his family are in Paris. In Central Park, he comes across the pigeon lady. When Kevin gets his foot caught while running away, she frees him. The pair watch an orchestra perform while Kevin discovers how her life has fallen apart and how she dealt with it by taking care of the pigeons in the park. Kevin vows to the pigeon lady that he will be her friend.

Kevin later returns to the townhouse and rigs it with numerous booby traps. Kevin arrives at the toy store during Harry and Marv's robbery, throws a brick through the window, setting off the store's alarm, and leads the pair to the townhouse, springing the traps. When the duo close in on Kevin, he flees the townhouse and calls the police. Harry and Marv are able to catch Kevin and attempt to kill him in Central Park. The pigeon lady incapacitates the duo with her pigeons and Kevin sets off fireworks he had bought earlier to signal the police. Shortly after, Harry and Marv are arrested. While at the toy store, Mr. Duncan finds a note from Kevin attached to the brick explaining what happened.

Meanwhile, Kate remembers Kevin's fondness for Christmas trees. After witnessing Kevin making a wish at the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, Kate meets him there and they reconcile. On Christmas Day, a truckload of gifts arrive at the McCallister's hotel room from the toy store. Kevin and Buzz reconcile and Buzz allows him to open up the first present. Kevin goes to Central Park to give the pigeon lady the second turtledove. At the hotel, Buzz receives the bill for Kevin's stay from Cedric. Peter suddenly calls out, "Kevin, you spent $967 on room service?!", at which point Kevin runs back to the hotel.

Cast

• Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McCallister, a nine-year-old boy (but claimed to be ten-years old) 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, a concierge at the Plaza Hotel who is suspicious of Kevin.
• Brenda Fricker as the Pigeon Lady, an eccentric lady who tends to pigeons in Central Park who becomes Kevin's friend.

The cast also includes: Eddie Bracken as E.F. Duncan, owner of the Duncan's Toy Chest toy store; Rob Schneider as Cedric, the Plaza Hotel's bellhop; Dana Ivey as Mrs. Stone, the Plaza's desk clerk; Ralph Foody as Johnny, a gangster who appears in the film "Angels with Filthier Souls" (a sequel to "Angels with Filthy Souls"); Devin Ratray as Buzz McCallister, Kevin's brother who gets him into trouble and Mike Maronna as Jeff McCallister, Kevin's other brother; Hillary Wolf as Megan McCallister and Maureen Elisabeth Shay as Linnie McCallister, Kevin's sisters; Gerry Bamman as Frank McCallister, Kevin's uncle; and Terrie Snell as Leslie McCallister, Kevin's aunt. Kevin's cousins are portrayed by Jedidiah Cohen as Rod McCallister, Senta Moses as Tracy McCallister, Daiana Campeanu as Sondra McCallister, Kieran Culkin as Fuller McCallister, and Anna Slotky as Brooke McCallister. Donald Trump (uncredited) makes a cameo appearance as the man in the Plaza Hotel. Rip Taylor, Jaye P. Morgan, and Jimmie Walker cameo as celebrities. Ally Sheedy cameos as an NY Ticket Agent. Chris Columbus has an uncredited cameo as a man in "Duncan's Toy Chest."

Distribution

Marketing

Numerous video games based on Home Alone 2 were released by THQ for such systems as the Sega Mega Drive, 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 used by Kevin in the film was originally a non-working prop during shooting. It was later released due to a popular letter writing campaign by fans along with the film by Tiger Electronics (currently under Hasbro).

American Airlines had product placement in the film with the McCallisters making their trip on the airline's two Boeing 767s. The airline became part of the film's release on home video.

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.

Home media

The film was first released on VHS 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 Disc 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 Disc in 2013.

Reception

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York received mixed reviews from film critics. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film two out of four stars and stated that "cartoon violence is only funny 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." Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 24% based on reviews from 25 critics. However, Owen Gielberman of Entertainment Weekly magazine gave it a positive review.

Box office

The film 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. $173,585,516 was taken in the United States and a total of $358,994,850 worldwide.

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.

As in the novelization of the first film the McCallisters live in Oak Park, Illinois and the crooks are named as Harry Lyme and Marv Murchens.

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 McCallister. 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).

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.

Original Score

Untitled

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.

1. Somewhere in My Memory (3:49)
2. Home Alone (2:01)
3. We Overslept Again (2:46)
4. Christmas Star (3:18)
5. Arrival in New York (1:41)
6. Plaza Hotel and Duncan's Toy Store (3:45)
7. Concierge and Race to the Room (2:04)
8. Star of Bethlehem (3:28)
9. The Thieves Return (4:35)
10. Appearance of Pigeon Lady (3:19)
11. Christmas at Carnegie Hall (O Come All Ye Faithful / O Little Town of Bethlehem / Silent Night) (5:02)
12. Into the Park (3:49)
13. Haunted Brownstone (3:01)
14. Christmas Star and Preparing the Trap (4:17)
15. To the Plaza Presto (3:22)
16. Reunion at Rockefeller Center (2:36)
17. Kevin's Booby Traps (3:41)
18. Finale (3:55)
19. Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas (2:51)

Original Soundtrack Album

Untitled

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic

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 alternate tracklisting. 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 tracklisting

1. "All Alone on Christmas" (4:14) (Darlene Love)
2. "A Holly Jolly Christmas" (2:14) (Alan Jackson)
3. "Somewhere in My Memory" (3:58) (Bette Midler, composed by John Williams, lyrics by Leslie Bricusse)
4. "My Christmas Tree" (2:35) (Home Alone Children's Choir, composed by Alan Menken, lyrics by Jack Feldman)
5. "Sleigh Ride" (3:44) (TLC)
6. "Silver Bells" (4:15) (Atlantic Starr)
7. "Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas" (2:40) (John Williams)
8. "Jingle Bell Rock" (2:09) (Bobby Helms)
9. "Cool Jerk (Christmas Mix)" (2:39) (The Capitols)
10. "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" (2:14) (Johnny Mathis)
11. "Christmas Star" (3:16) (John Williams)
12. "O Come All Ye Faithful" (3:26) (Lisa Fischer)

Home Alone Christmas tracklisting

1. "All Alone on Christmas" (Darlene Love)
2. "A Holly Jolly Christmas" (Alan Jackson)
3. "My Christmas Tree" (The Fox Albert Choir)
4. "Somewhere in My Memory" (John Williams)
5. "Silver Bells" (Atlantic Starr)
6. "Sleigh Ride" (TLC)
7. "Christmas All Over Again" (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers)
8. "Please Come Home for Christmas" (Southside Johnny Lyon)
9. "Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas" (John Williams)
10. "Carol of the Bells" (John Williams)
11. "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" (Mel Torme)
12. "O Come All Ye Faithful" (Lisa Fischer)

The Deluxe Edition

Untitled

On the film's 10th 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

1. Home Alone (Main Title) (2:07)
2. This Year’s Wish (1:47)
3. We Overslept Again / Holiday Flight (3:19)
4. Separate Vacations* (1:58)
5. Arrival in New York** (2:59)
6. The Thieves Return (3:28)
7. Plaza Hotel (3:04)
8. Concierge (1:31)
9. Distant Goodnights (Christmas Star) (Lyrics by Leslie Bricusse) (2:05)
10. A Day in the City (:59)
11. Duncan's Toy Store (2:41)
12. Turtle Doves (1:29)
13. To the Plaza, Presto (3:27)
14. Race to the Room / Hot Pursuit (4:08)
15. Haunted Brownstone (3:02)
16. Appearance of the Pigeon Lady (3:21)
17. Christmas at Carnegie Hall (5:15) O Come, All Ye Faithful / O Little Town of Bethlehem / Silent Night

Disc Two

1. Christmas Star - Preparing the Trap (Lyrics by Leslie Bricusse) (4:22)
2. Another Christmas in the Trenches (2:33)
3. Running Through Town (1:16)
4. Luring the Thieves* (4:02)
5. Kevin’s Booby Traps (7:23)
6. Down the Rope / Into the Park (5:06)
7. Reunion at Rockefeller Center / It’s Christmas (5:21)
8. Finale (2:00)
9. We Wish You a Merry Christmas (Traditional) and Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas (Lyrics by Leslie Bricusse) (2:51)
10. End Title (1:32)
11. Holiday Flight (alternate) (2:32)
12. Suite from “Angels with Filthy Souls II” (:56)
13. Somewhere in My Memory (Lyrics by Leslie Bricusse) (3:57)
14. Star of Bethlehem (Lyrics by Leslie Bricusse) (3:32)
15. Christmas Star (Lyrics by Leslie Bricusse) (3:23)
16. Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas (orchestra) (2:23)

Sequels

Main article: Home Alone 3

The sequel, Home Alone 3, followed in 1997. Afterwards, Home Alone 4 and Home Alone: The Holiday Heist would follow in 2002 and 2012, respectively.

See also

• New York City portal
• Comedy portal
• 1990s portal

External links

• Media related to Home Alone 2: Lost in New York at Wikimedia Commons
• Home Alone 2: Lost in New York at IMDb
• Home Alone 2: Lost in New York at the TCM Movie Database
• Home Alone 2: Lost in New York at AllMovie
• Home Alone 2: Lost in New York at Rotten Tomatoes
• Movie Locations Guide.com - Maps and directions to Home Alone 2 Filming Locations