Home Alone director reveals secrets behind film’s wild stunts and the scene he feared would ‘kill’ his stand-ins

The director of Home Alone has lifted the lid on all the movie magic behind his hit holiday film.

Christopher Columbus shot the 1990 Christmas classic in an era that pre-dated computer-generated imagery (CGI) – meaning all the insane stunts required particularly clever work of prop masters and stunt men who were up for anything. 

Now, in an interview which has been resurfacing ahead of the holidays, Columbus, 67, has broken down the secrets behind the film’s action-packed climax, in which robbers infiltrate a seemingly empty home that is actually occupied by young boy. 

In 2021, Columbus spoke with the American Film Institute about the physical feats he put his cast members through – and how he was even ‘terrified’ one of the sequences would kill his stunt men, Troy Brown and Leon Delaney.

That scene in question was the one in which robbers Merv (Daniel Stern) and Harry (Joe Pesci) attempted to infiltrate the home’s second floor. 

But their efforts were thwarted thanks to a booby trap Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) set up in which paint cans were thrown into their faces.

While hilarious on screen, Columbus said ‘no one was laughing’ when they immediately finished filming as they had all thought the men had injured themselves.

‘This was one of the stunts that’s coming up that really was one of the more terrifying stunts that we shot,’ Columbus recalled.

‘We would shoot the stunt. I’d yell “cut!”, the stuntmen would stay in their places, and no one was laughing. We actually thought that they had really hurt themselves.

‘It was only when the stuntman would say, “Yeah, I’m fine. No problem. We’re good! Let’s do another take.” I would go back to the monitor and we’d watch it and then it was funny. And that’s when we realized, “Okay this is working.”

‘But in person, you were always terrified that you were going to kill these guys, because they did it all for real only with padding. There’s no rubber floors or anything like that. These guys did it all for real.’

Fortunately, the paint cans were made out of rubber. 

‘The paint cans were rubber, and the only thing that would protect their faces in this particular situation.’

That wasn’t the only clever use the film made out of the material. 

The nail Merv stepped on as he attempted to sneak into the house was also made out of rubber.

‘This particular stunt, the nail just basically is a rubber nail that lowers when his foot goes onto it,’ he said. ‘It looks as if he’s in tremendous pain.

Merv was put through the wringer in the film – not only did he step on a nail, but he also had to walk barefoot through ornaments.

Behind-the-scenes, Stern was actually wearing rubber feet.

‘Dan Stern is wearing rubber feet through this entire sequence that protect his feet from the ornaments,’ Columbus explained.

‘So if you freeze the frame and look closely, you’ll see that his feet are a little oversized.’

Stern was also forced to let out a ‘silent scream’ in another particularly memorable scene involving a spider.  

A tarantula was to be placed on Stern’s face, but a trainer said a scream could provoke the spider to ‘attack’ the actor.

So Stern ended up letting a ‘silent scream’ instead, and a shriek was edited in afterwards. 

‘We had weeks of discussion about the spider. I said, “we have to put a real spider on your face.” Again, no CGI. He said, “I’m not going to do that.” Finally, I begged him, I said, “We’ll do one take. Put the spider on your face. The spider trainer said well, we’ll put the spider on his face but if he actually screams, the spider could freak out and attack him.

‘So, that did not make Dan feel any more comfortable. So we did one take and it’s a silent scream. He did not utter a word. And that scream is ADR that we added later.’

Another stunt that required coaxing was the scene in which Harry’s head catches on fire.

Pesci initially refused to try the stunt, which would have seen him wear a ceramic helmet that was set on fire.

He was eventually persuaded after the producer had his eight-year-old daughter wear it. 

‘It was like a ceramic helmet that we actually set on fire. This was pre CGI. Joe refused to wear it. Joe said, “there’s no f**king way I’m going to catch my hair on fire.”

‘So we put it on the producer’s eight-year-old daughter to show Joe it was safe and that’s how he agreed to do it.’

Unfortunately, Pesci did endure serious burns.

‘In addition to the expected bumps, bruises, and general pains that you would associate with that particular type of physical humor, I did sustain serious burns to the top of my head during the scene where Harry’s hat is set on fire,’ he told People in 2022.

‘I was fortunate enough to have professional stuntmen do the real heavy stunts,’ he continued.  

Pesci called the film ‘a nice change of pace.’

‘It was a nice change of pace to do that particular type of slapstick comedy,’ he said. ‘The Home Alone movies were a more physical type of comedy, therefore, a little more demanding.’

Home Alone followed a young boy (Culkin) who was accidentally left behind by his vacationing family and is forced to scare away robbers on Christmas Eve. 

It was released in 1990 and remains a holiday classic.