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Home Alone’s ‘Wet Bandits’ are medical miracles

Adam Taylor does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Lancaster University provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation UK.

The festive movie season is upon us, and one of my perennial favourites is Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. I will die on this hill: it is better than the original. But rewatching it as an adult raises an awkward question. How on earth did the Wet Bandits survive the first film at all, let alone escape without lasting injuries?

Joe Pesci Left a Scar From Biting Macaulay Culkin’s Finger in Home Alone

The accidental bite happened as the duo was running lines before filming the climactic scene

Macaulay Culkin still has fond memories of being on the set of Home Alone with Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern back in 1990, but he also has scars: notably one on his finger, from when Pesci accidentally bit Culkin’s index finger during the climactic scene of the film.

Culkin discussed the incident during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Thursday night, telling Kimmel that the bite took place as the trio were running lines and Culkin was being hung by his shirt. “[Pesci] gets to the part where he’s like, ‘I’m going to bite off each of these fingers off one at a time,’ and, um, he actually bit me,” Culkin said, noting that Pesci was immediately embarrassed. “Not only did he bite a nine-year-old, he bit a vulnerable nine-year-old,” he said, referencing the fact that he was hanging by his shirt at the time. He showed off the scar, and clarified that Pesci was, of course, very sweet: “I didn’t squeal on him, I think that’s why he liked me,” said Culkin. Watch the full interview below, with the bite story beginning around the 3:30 mark.

A Few People Got Hurt Filming the ‘Home Alone’ Movies, But Only Macaulay Culkin Was Scarred

One of his co-stars got a little…mouthy with him during rehearsals

When you make a movie containing as many violent stunts as Home Alone, it stands to reason that the people involved will end up with some bumps and bruises afterward. Cartoonish as those scenes may appear on-screen, somebody has to take the hit, or the fall, or the flame to the head…twice. In the first two Home Alone movies, three main cast members walked away with injuries (that we know of).

Take Daniel Stern, who played the bumbling Wet Bandit robber Marv, for example. While filming the original Home Alone, he gave himself a bloody nose after pulling his head through the doggie door too quickly. As he revealed in a 2015 Reddit AMA, however, the worst injury he sustained was during the making of Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. “There’s a scene where I have to climb a tower of old TV sets, bookcases, and other seemingly simple bits of debris,” Stern said. “I must’ve hit every corner of every chair and table, take after take. When I was getting out of my costume at the end of the day, I noticed a lot of bruising on my legs…and three days later, both legs were purple [from] toes to you know where.”

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