Home Sweet Home Alone is a 2021 American Christmas family comedy film released on Disney+. It's the sixth installment in the Home Alone series. The film features Ellie Kemper, Rob Delaney and Jojo Rabbit's Archie Yates; Devin Ratray, who played Buzz McCallister in the first two films, returns as the character.
Pre-release material has generally stated the film is a remake of the original, though Ratray's appearance makes it a Distant Sequel set in the same universe as the first two movies. Though he doesn't appear physically, Kevin is mentioned by Buzz, and we learn that he's now a successful businessman specializing in home security systems.
Home Sweet Home Alone provides examples of:
- Abnormal Ammo: Max's makeshift firearm discharges billiard bills.
- Agony of the Feet: Marv in the first film gets off easy compared to poor Pam here. Many of the traps and attacks that she encounters target her feet, from having them set on fire to being crushed by weights, and even stepping on Legos barefoot. And unlike Marv, who has no problems running around after stepping on nails or baubles, Pam noticeably limps for the rest of the night after Max sets her feet on fire.
- Amusing Injuries: Zigzagged. Some of the injuries are treated as fun slapstick. Others, like Max badly burning Pam's feet or shooting Jeff in the face with a billiard ball result in serious injuries and the injured party outright crying.
- Anti-Villain:
- Unlike past antagonists, Jeff and Pam aren't malicious; they're just desperate to pay off their mortgage, and they think Max stole the thing they were going to sell to do it. They've even become good friends of Max's family by the end.
- If one considers Jeff and Pam the film's true protagonists, then likewise Max could be considered this. As harsh as his booby traps against them are, he genuinely believes them to be Human Traffickers who want to kidnap and sell him, so one can hardly blame him for pulling out all the stops to defend himself.
- Bad Santa: Jeff dresses up as Santa when he and Pam break into Max's house.
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Played with. Despite the very telling injuries they suffered the night before, both Pam and Jeff look almost none-the-worse for wear outside of the still-healing welt on Jeff's forehead when they speak with their family the next morning.
- Bland-Name Product: Homebot is presented as a stand-in for Google or Alexa.
- Canon Discontinuity: Possible. During his cameo, Buzz mentions that Kevin was only left home alone twice, possibly putting the widely-panned Home Alone 4: Taking Back the House out of continuity. However, they didn’t go on vacation in the film and Kevin wasn’t accidentally forgotten in the film (being left “home alone” on purpose by being placed in the care of the maid and butler), when Buzz specifically mentions Kevin twice being forgotten when they went on vacation, so it can be left up for interpretation.
- Crying Wolf: Buzz gets a phone call about Max being left home alone, but he immediately dismisses it as Kevin prank calling him, since he was just at the house and Jeff and Pam were there, pretending to be the owners. It also seems that Kevin pulls such a prank every year, hence Buzz being more willing to ignore it.
- Distant Sequel: Is one for the first two films, as Buzz McCallister appears as a police officer and references Kevin and the events of them.
- Easily Forgiven: For all of the pain Max puts them through, Jeff and Pam are almightily quick to forgive him and take him under their wing at the end. Not only that but they pay for Max's house to be repaired, arrange for their family to have Christmas dinner with Max's family the following year, and there's no indication that they sought any legal action against Max's mom for their injuries despite the fact that, even though they were technically committing burglary, they'd be well within their rights to and would probably win the lawsuit since booby traps and unsupervised children are kind of, you know, illegal. Of course, the fact that they were still committing burglary presumably helped them decide to let bygones be bygones once everything was straightened out.
- Falling Chandelier of Doom: The last thing to happen to Jeff, Pam, and Max after their realization and reconciliation. This surprises even Max, who said that it was unintended.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: Jeff and Pam's nephew Ollie stole an ornament from a stand at the Christmas fair. It is later revealed that he is the one that swiped the valuable doll.
- Full-Name Ultimatum: Max's mother uses his full name when he acts up at the charity auction.
- Genre Savvy: Max points out a ladder to Jeff. Jeff retorts by asking if Max thinks he's stupid, and jumps for the trampoline below instead. At which point Max collapses the legs on one side of the trampoline, causing Jeff to bounce off the side into a tree, and yes, Max does think he's that stupid.
- Hollywood Healing: Somehow, Pam and Jeff manage to make it through a night of burned feet, flying billiard balls, marshmallow thumbtacks, and falling weights/chandeliers without having to visit a hospital, and the only visible injury on either of them when they hand Max off to his mom is a goose egg on Jeff's noggin.
- Human Pincushion: One of Max's traps is Nerf guns that shoot foam darts with thumbtacks. Pam even says the words pincushion afterwards.
- Losing a Shoe in the Struggle: Pam's boots get burned right off of her feet when Max ignites the lighter fluid-drenched foyer she's standing on.
- Mama Bear and Papa Wolf: The entire motivation behind Pam and Jeff's actions is to keep a roof over their children's heads without having to uproot them. At one point Pam even outright says she'll do whatever she has to for her family.
- One Dialogue, Two Conversations:
- When Jeff and Pam first break into Max's house, they refer to stealing the ugly boy (meaning the doll) to sell to an old lady (likely a collector). Max thinks they want to sell HIM to old ladies.
- Similar to the first example, when Pam is imagining her kids and the doll motivating her to go through with the attempt, she loudly shouts ugly boy. Jeff and Pam's son thinks she is referring to him.
- When Max is describing being left home alone, he uses words that are vague enough to make the woman he is talking to while at church believe that his parents are dead.
- Mistaken for Prank Call: When Buzz gets the call about Max being left home alone, he thinks that it's Kevin prank calling him like he does every year and ignores it.
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: Pam speaks to Jeff in this manner as a pep talk to encourage them to get into Max's house for the first time.
- Reboot Snark: The film, a redo/Distant Sequel of Home Alone for the 2020s, makes one such self-aware joke. In the original film, Kevin is a big fan of the fake movie Angels With Filthy Souls; in the remake, Angels With Filthy Souls got a sci-fi remake, prompting this comment:Hunter: I don't know why they bother trying to remake these classics, they are never as good as the originals.
- Recycled In SPACE: The first installment's Angels With Filthy Souls is redone on a spaceship in color for this release.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: Jeff and Pam believe Max stole a doll that they could easily sell for six digits. However, he only stole a can of soda, and their nephew swiped the doll.
- Simple Solution Won't Work: Max thinks aloud for a moment why he doesn't just calls the police to come deal with the thieves who are trying to break in: if the cops find out that he was abandoned by his parents (even if it was an accident), the cops will surely arrest them for apparent child endangerment alongside the thieves (this is pretty notable because in the other films in the series, the cops finding out the kid is all alone is only met with angry stares to the parents at worst).
- Soda-Candy 'Splosion: One of the implements Max uses against Pam are plastic soda bottles with Mentos. The bottles either fizz in her face when opened or fly into her.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: While Jeff and Pam never try to physically harm Max, they understandably grow considerably more hostile towards him after all the torture he puts them through with his booby traps. This of course makes it seem to him all the more like they're out to get him. Still, their level of "angry" is nowhere near that of previous home invaders, and once they realize it was all a big misunderstanding, they're rather quick to forgive Max.
- Wham Line: "I'm ten years old, why would I want a doll?" At which point Jeff and Pam realize they've made a serious mistake.
- Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Jeff and Pam almost never touch or get close to Max during their attempts to get the doll. After the realization that Max never took it and that he is home alone, they pull what can be considered a Heel–Face Turn, express regret and sympathy, and let him stay with them until Max's mother gets back.
