Many Home Alone fans have probably only chanced upon Home Alone 3 during ABC's 25 Days of Christmas movie marathon, or have seen the film as part of Disney+'s Home Alone collection. The 1997 addition to the Home Alone franchise has received an undeserved amount of vitriol from fans over the years. While the film may lack many of the beloved elements of Home Alone and Home Alone: Lost in New York, like Macaulay Culkin's Kevin McCallister or New York City at Christmastime, the film has many of its own enjoyable moments and is a unique approach to the holiday family comedy.
Opening in Hong Kong, Home Alone 3 introduces an international crime element to the Home Alone formula by setting up a plot to steal an American Air Force computer chip that can hide missiles from detection. Thieves in pursuit of this chip end up in a quiet Chicago neighborhood, and are pitted against precocious Alex Pruitt. While there is still a heavy reliance on slapstick humor, and many of the traps used to stop the villains would definitely kill people in real life, the addition of espionage and international intrigue leads to the development of more creative methods of protecting Chicago's suburbs.
Creative Technology for a Thrilling Heist
The Innovative Use of Tech in the Story Helps Home Alone 3 Stand Out in the Franchise
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In Home Alone and Home Alone: Lost in New York, burglars Harry and Marv are armed with only some crow bars and a gun, and Kevin sets up traps using various toys and other odds and ends found throughout the house. But in Home Alone 3, the young hero Alex Pruitt and his adversaries, Petr Baupre's team of criminals, are equipped with some impressive tech. The villains have gadgets that look like they belong in a James Bond movie, like cameras hidden within gloves and sunglasses. The villains' high-tech gear helps incorporate the aesthetics of the spy thriller and heist genres into the holiday film, making Home Alone 3 a unique amalgamation of different styles.
Macaulay Culkin's Kevin had far more tools at his disposal when facing off with Harry and Marv, but in Home Alone 3, Alex and the villains are more evenly matched, pushing Alex to get creative in the way his gadgets are used, like in the way he uses his brother's parrot to create a distraction with an answering machine. Alex's additions to store-bought tech and his homemade gadgets, like a rube goldberg machine used to feed his pet fish, add whimsical and playful elements to the film's visuals, in addition to showing Alex's ingenuity.
Smarter Villains Create More Engaging Conflict
Beaupre and His Team Are a Much More Menacing Threat than Harry and Marv
Petr Beaupre and his team of international super criminals are sleeker and deadlier than the grubby and bumbling Harry and Marv from the previous Home Alone films. From the moment Beaupre and his crew appear on-screen, the audience is aware of the higher stakes at hand. The team looks chic, modern, and cool in their leather jackets and dark shades and stick out in comparison to the cheerful holiday surroundings of the Chicago suburbs. They are innovative and creative in the way they employ surveillance technology and use disguises to move undetected through Alex's neighborhood, unlike the Wet Bandits who always leave a very obvious trail of clues behind them.
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The change from cartoonish burglars to intimidating international thieves also creates an entertaining juxtaposition within the family comedy. It's funny to hear the villains' serious responses to the slapstick events of the film. Lenny Von Dohlen as the robotic Burton Jernigan plays it hilariously straight as he gives a serious description of the movements of Alex's toy car. Beaupre never underestimates Alex's abilities, even after discovering his age, and analyzes his traps and tricks in the manner a James Bond villain would assess 007's activities. Aleksander Krupa as Beaupre is chillingly creepy, ruthless and calculating in pursuit of his goal. Beaupre's coldness makes him an engaging foil for Alex's optimism and playful personality.
The Chicken Pox Forces Alex to Get Creative
Keeping Alex Stuck at Home With the Chicken Pox Opens New Possibilities for Traps and Gadgets
Even though Kevin McCallister's house is the main setting of Home Alone, Kevin is able to move freely through his neighborhood, unlike Alex Pruitt who is home sick with the chicken pox for the majority of Home Alone 3. Keeping Alex trapped in his house leads to the creation of more inventive gadgets and helps show off Alex's detective skills. Stuck inside, Alex uses a telescope to observe the movements of Beaupre's team and sees them checking their watches, cleverly deducing that they are a team of criminals casing the neighborhood.
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A clear science whiz, Alex doesn't let the chicken pox keep him down and hooks up a video camera to his television to create a surveillance system to monitor the villains' movements. He also attaches a video camera to his toy car, to enter neighborhood houses and spy on Beaupre's team. Previously used in a prank on crotchety Mrs. Hess, Alex is able to manipulate the television set in the neighborhood houses, allowing him to create distractions to confuse the villains. Limiting Alex's physical movements led to more inventive uses of his intelligence, creating more engaging and hilarious clashes with Beaupre's crew.
Like the Boy Who Cried Wold, No One Believes Alex
Alex Struggles to Get the Police and His Family to Believe There are Criminals on the Prowl
Throughout Home Alone 3, Alex Pruitt tries in vain to get the Chicago police department and his family to see the threat posed by Beaupre and his team. The Chicago police are called to Alex's neighborhood multiple times, each time Beaupre and his team escape without detection, leading people to believe Alex is untrustworthy. This questioning of Alex's sanity makes his struggle to stop Beaupre even more nerve-wracking, showing how alone Alex is in his fight. In a truly frustrating scene, Beaupre's team calls Alex's mother, Karen, pretending to be the parents of one of his friends. When Alex attempts to stop the call, Beaupre's team is able to convince Karen that Alex shouldn't be taken seriously, making it painfully clear to the audience that the family won't be able to help defend the neighborhood.
The sense of Alex as a solitary soldier makes the final showdown with the villains more thrilling. When Beaupre's accomplice, Alice Ribbons, ties up Mrs. Hess and leaves her to freeze to death in a garage. It's made even more terrifying knowing there's only Alex to save her. Alex's inability to disprove his family's doubts adds a great deal of emotional tension to the film's climax.
Instead of Paris or Miami, Alex's Family is Home for the Holidays
The Presence of Alex's Family Throughout the Film Creates Intriguing Conflicts
In Home Alone and Home Alone: Lost in New York, Kevin McCallister's family is far away, unable to stop him from engaging in dangerous activities. In Home Alone 3, Alex Pruitt's family is home with Alex for the majority of the film. In the first Home Alone movie, Kate McCallister has to rely on pay phones to reach the Chicago Police department, but in Home Alone 3, there are cell phones, beepers, and laptops that make Alex's parents easily accessible. The constant presence of Alex's family pushes the filmmakers to get more creative about how to give Alex opportunities to pursue Beaupre. Alex's parents are given jobs that frequently take them away, helping develop their characters more. Scenes of Karen Pruitt working from home are probably relatable to many parents who had to balance working from home with childcare during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The family's presence also helps develop the sibling characters. A young Scarlett Johansson plays Alex's older sister Molly, who, with older brother Stan, torments Alex with snide remarks and cruel verbal jabs. Molly and Stan add interesting conflict to Alex's mission to protect their home. Their continued presence also makes for a more satisfying reveal when the family realizes Alex is right in the film's finale.
Alex Is His Own Character
Alex is a Distinctly Different Person From Kevin
Many of the Home Alone sequels attempted to recreate the Kevin formula, but without Macaulay Culkin's acting abilities, these other versions of Kevin fail to capture the nuances of the original character. Kevin is more than a smart-alecky kid with a house full of toys. There are also feelings of alienation and the desire to prove one's worth that are absent from the characters in later sequels. Home Alone 3 is able to stand apart from later sequels by creating an entirely new character in Alex Pruitt. Kevin begins as a very naive child who is forced to grow up through his experiences in the film. Alex is like a middle-aged detective with decades of experience, trapped in a kid's body.
Multiple scenes show off Alex's inventiveness and detective skills before Beaupre's team strikes, like the way he rigs his toy car to ask his mom for water. Alex also gives descriptions of Beaupre's team using language common in a police report. In addition to helping his character stand apart from Kevin, Alex's personality fits well with the heist elements of the film, making his story similar to a police procedural, a unique change from the usual formula of a family comedy.
Despite being dismissed by the majority of the Home Alone fandom, Home Alone 3 is an enjoyable and creative holiday family comedy. The film mixes elements from multiple genres to create an interesting story and avoid copying the previous films in the franchise. Through incorporating elements of heist and spy movies, the film makes the characters of Alex and Beaupre's team distinctly different from Kevin, Harry, and Marv. By creating more capable villains and giving them a more deadly goal, Home Alone 3 is able to avoid the issue other Home Alone films struggle with, where the audience sympathizes more with the down-on-their-luck burglars than the snotty rich kid. The smarter villains force the filmmakers to give Alex more creative solutions to protect his house, resulting in a slightly less repetitive use of slapstick and Looney Tunes-esque violence, and making Alex come across as an extremely intelligent and inventive character.
Alex's bubbly laugh and the creative deployment of colorful toys and gadgets help give the film a joyful Christmas vibe similar to the previous Home Alone films, impressively balancing out the more serious international crime drama elements of the story. If Home Alone fans open their minds, maybe Alex Pruitt and his toy car could drive into a spot on people's Favorite Christmas Movie lists.
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Home Alone 3
PG
Comedy
Action
Crime
A young boy is left to fend for himself when his family accidentally leaves him home alone during a business trip. His house becomes the target of international spies searching for a top-secret microchip, leading to a series of inventive traps and escapades as he defends his home.
Where to Watch
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*Availability in US
Director Raja Gosnell
Release Date December 12, 1997
Franchise(s) Home Alone
Cast Alex D. Linz , Haviland Morris , Rya Kihlstedt , David Thornton , Lenny von Dohlen
Writers John Hughes
Runtime 102 Minutes
Main Genre Comedy
Sequel(s) Home Alone 4 , Home Alone: The Holiday Heist
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