
The odds of one family leaving the same child behind on a family vacation for two consecutive years are extremely slim. Those odds, however, will be dramatically increased if the first instance results in several hundred millions of dollars in worldwide profit.
Such was the case with Home Alone, a surprise smash for 20th Century Fox and producer/writer John Hughes that had kids around the globe begging for a sequel. And so, despite the odds, precocious Kevin McCallister (played by precocious Macaulay Culkin) again found himself abandoned and alone in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.
This time around, the McCallister extended family is planning a Miami, Florida vacation. Kevin, still feeling put-upon (especially from older brother Buzz), mistakenly follows a man who looks like his father onto a New York-bound plane. Mom doesn’t realize the slip-up until the gang is in Miami baggage claim.
Arriving safely in the Big Apple, Kevin uses his father’s credit card to check into the Plaza Hotel for a five-star vacation of his own. But even chauffeured trips to the toy store and bottomless ice cream sundaes start to leave you empty after awhile, and Kevin finds a more meaningful holiday activity in befriending a homeless “Pigeon Lady.” Trouble lurks, however, in the form of Harry and Marv, the would-be crooks from the first film. The two have escaped federal custody and are looking to knock over a few toy shops. Kevin overhears their plan and lays out a series of all-new booby traps, setting up another slapstick coup de grace.
Nearly all of the original cast returned for the sequel, with new turns from Tim Curry as a snooty concierge, Rob Schneider as a bellhop and Brenda Fricker as the Pigeon Lady. The familiar formula worked a second time, as Home Alone 2 became one of the top-grossing hits of 1992. A third Home Alone arrived in 1997, with a new cast and even more pratfalls.