Home Alone is a classic Christmas movie for a good reason. It’s celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, but many people watch it every year because it holds up very well. There are 14 main booby traps that Kevin utilizes to try and deter the burglars from continuing to look through the home. Here are the 14 booby traps that Kevin sprinkles all throughout the McCallister household.

• BB Gun

The first “booby trap” isn’t much of a trap. As burglars Marv and Harry try to look through the doggy door, Kevin simply uses his BB gun to shoot the burglars, letting them know that they’re in for a bit of a surprise. If the burglars had heeded his warning, the rest of the movie might never have happened.

• Icy Front Steps

There are some steps that lead up to the home’s front door. Taking advantage of Chicago’s bitterly cold weather, Kevin pours water all over the steps. This leads to Harry falling over multiple times as he attempts to approach the home’s front door.

• Icy Basement Steps

The cold Chicago winter is the same tactic Kevin uses for the basement steps outside. Marv, attempting to go in through the basement, slips on the first step, then falls down all the rest of the steps due to the slippery ice covering them. He also keeps slipping as he’s trying to open the basement door, as the ice is covering the area directly in front of the door.

• Fake Overhead Lightbulb Cord

Once Marv enters the basement, he fumbles around in the dark for a minute before finding what he assumes to be the cord for the lightbulb. However, Kevin has actually connected the pull string to a hot iron, which falls down the laundry chute and hits Marv in the face. This could also be the most deadly booby trap if Home Alone wasn’t a slapstick movie.

• Red-Hot Doorknob

Meanwhile, Harry is trying to get in the old-fashioned way – through the front door. Kevin tries to stave him off by heating the doorknob with an electric barbecue lighter. The red-hot metal burns Harry’s hand, branding him with the “M” monogram that’s on the doorknob, and he has to stick it in the snow to soothe the pain. This is the first large-scale booby trap that Kevin is able to pull off, and he seems extremely excited by the fact that his trap worked.

• Tar-Covered Basement Steps

As Marv tries to get out of the basement, he has to come up the interior staircase. However, Kevin has covered the steps in tar. Marv loses his shoes and socks and steps on a nail barefoot, causing him to once again fall down the stairs. This also serves to remove his shoes and socks for the rest of the movie.

• Blowtorch

With his front door attempts thwarted, Harry instead decides to go around to the back. However, the movement of entering through the back door triggers a blowtorch trap, which sets fire to the top of his head. Mimicking his earlier attempts to fix previous traps, Harry has to stick his head in the snow.

• Tarred and Feathered

Continuing through the home, Harry accidentally walks into plastic wrap, which covers him in strong caulking glue. As he stumbles around with caulking glue all over him, he triggers a fan, which blows feathers all over him. This is very reminiscent of “tarring and feathering,” albeit in a much less potentially deadly manner.

• Glass Christmas Ornaments

Marv, who is still barefoot due to the basement tar, tries to climb in through the back window. However, Kevin has scattered glass Christmas ornaments underneath the window, which Marv steps on barefoot, embedding glass shards into his feet.

• Toy Cars

Marv and Harry meet up in the home and swear to find Kevin, who’s the one responsible for all this. They’re extremely angry at this point, thinking basically only of revenge. As they try to go up the stairs, however, they trip on toy cars that the young boy has placed at the foot of the stairs. This causes them to have a difficult time even getting to the stairs.

• Paint Cans

The two bandits continue to try and make their way up the stairs. As they pass underneath Kevin, he swings full paint cans from the top of the railing, knocking them into both of the bandits. These paint cans serve to knock them both back quite a bit.

• Tripwire

Harry spots Kevin at the top of the stairs and attempts to lunge after him. However, in his anger at what Kevin’s done all throughout the house, he doesn’t realize that the boy has strung a tripwire over the top of the stairs. This causes him to trip yet again, allowing Kevin to continue to retreat back into the home.

• Tarantula

Marv is able to corner Kevin, but that doesn’t mean that Kevin is out of options. He throws his brother’s pet tarantula at Marv, who freaks out and tries to get away. Even though this wasn’t planned, it still counts as a booby trap because of how well it helps Kevin.

• Rope to the Treehouse

The last booby trap of the movie occurs when Kevin escapes to a treehouse that’s connected to the rest of the home with a rope. As Marv and Harry try to climb across, Kevin snips the rope with pruning shears. The two burglars swing down and across, hitting the home’s brick wall with a terrifying thud. This is another potentially deadly trap, although the comedic nature of the movie keeps it from turning out that way.

Conclusion

There are all sorts of incredible booby traps in Home Alone, and that’s one of the reasons it has such an enduring charm.  People love Home Alone for all sorts of reasons, including a number of No matter what your favorites are, another viewing in 2022, the 30th anniversary of this classic movie, will definitely remind you why it’s such a classic. Visit mccallisterhouse.com to read even more about the movie.