Top 10 Home Alone Traps That Would Kill You

“Home Alone 2: Lost in New York” (1992)

Like most sequels, “Home Alone 2” took everything that was great about the first and ramped it up to eleven. As a result, the traps of the original movie look positively quaint by comparison. In the second film, Kevin somehow rigs a swinging pipe at the top of the staircase. He then throws the pipe directly into the faces of the Sticky Bandits before cutting the rope and dropping it on them. The initial impact would probably be enough to kill Harry and Marv, as heavy pipes will always defeat human skulls. And we’re not sure if the pipe fell on their faces or chests, but then again, it doesn’t really matter. They’re dead either way.

“Home Alone” (1990)

See what we mean? In the second movie, Kevin is rigging up elaborate, swinging pipes. In the first, he’s… pouring water on the stairs. Simplicity aside, it’s certainly effective. It’s also deceptively dangerous. Falling down stairs - especially concrete stairs without any padding - can cause countless debilitating injuries. It can also cause death. Harry and Marv could have easily broken their necks had they landed wrong. Harry even comes quite close, as he slips on the front steps and lands straight on his back. Just a couple more inches, and Harry’s not uttering that funny groan of pain.

“Home Alone 2: Lost in New York” (1992)

Watching traps like this, we think there’s something to that famous “Kevin grows up to be Jigsaw” theory. Knowing that Marv would want to wash off the paint, Kevin rigs a sink to an arc welder and gets to work. Not only does he listen to Marv howl in pain, but he proceeds to turn up the intensity. Now was that really necessary? No, but at least it gave us the hilarious sight of Marv turning into a screaming skeleton. Yeah, he’s definitely dead. There’s just no way his heart would have survived that kind of severe electrocution.

“Home Alone” (1990)

Well it’s no iron pipe, but a full can of paint can inflict some extreme damage in its own right. Harry and Marv each get one to the face, and it’s one of the rare instances in which the movie depicts realistic damage. Marv comments that Harry is missing some teeth, and Kevin’s father even finds his gold tooth on the floor later on. Of course, the reality would be significantly worse. Their entire faces would be ruined, as the can would have shattered teeth and bone alike. And if Harry and Marv were particularly unlucky, they could suffer a brain bleed and die. Paint cans are deceptively simple weapons, but they are no joke.

“Home Alone 2: Lost in New York” (1992)

Marv just never learns, does he? Believing he could climb some random rope, he instead pulls down an entire bag of cement. Eagle-eyed viewers will see that the bag weighs upwards of 100 pounds. Now, we’re not doctors or anything, but we’re pretty sure you don’t want a 100-pound bag of anything landing directly on your head. Marv takes the bag directly to the face but somehow manages to get right back up. In reality, that bag of cement would have snapped Marv’s neck like a twig. There’s a reason construction sites have so many health and safety rules...

“Home Alone 2: Lost in New York” (1992)

And here we have further proof of the “Kevin is Jigsaw” theory. The kid is straight-up savage in this movie. Not only does he set the rope on fire, but he actively smiles and jokes about their impending demise before lighting it. Unable to hold on any longer, Harry and Marv fall three stories to the ground below. Harry crashes through a wooden platform, and Marv lands directly on top of him. But it doesn’t really matter who landed where. They both fell three stories onto hard surfaces, and they likely would have died after suffering multiple fractures.

“Home Alone 3” (1997)

The third movie obviously doesn’t get as much attention owing to the lack of returning characters, but it still contains some solid traps. One of which is especially brutal. Burton Jernigan accidentally activates a lawnmower, and the spinning blades proceed to land directly on his face. Burton walks away no worse for wear, having received nothing but an unfortunate haircut. But come on, we all know that these blades would have shredded him, and he probably would have died from extensive head injuries. The movie actually cuts away from the impact, almost as if it knows that his survival is total nonsense.

“Home Alone” (1990)

Points to Kevin on this one. This trap is genius. Marv pulls on what looks like a light switch, but is actually a string tied to a precariously placed iron. Said iron proceeds to fall through the laundry shoot directly onto his face. This results in one of the most iconic images of the franchise, with the right side of Marv’s face being branded by the hot iron. This is an iron from 1990, so it probably had some good weight behind it. It also picked up some considerable speed on its multi-story drop, so it’s likely that Marv’s face would have been squashed by the weight. If Marv was particularly unlucky that day, the iron could have also broken his neck.

“Home Alone 2: Lost in New York” (1992)

Kevin has a lot of explaining to do when he sees his Uncle Rob again. For one thing, the kid literally blows up his entire bathroom in this sequence. Kevin returns with a fan favorite, once again setting Harry’s head on fire with a blowtorch. Harry suddenly becomes an Olympic gymnast and does a handstand on the toilet to dunk his head in the water. Only, it’s not water. It’s kerosene. The entire bathroom literally explodes, and Harry finds himself with another destroyed hat. In reality, there’s no way Harry survives this. He set off an explosion that was bad enough to be seen and heard from the street. That hat wouldn’t be the only thing to get destroyed.

“Home Alone 2: Lost in New York” (1992)

This trap showcases the masterful balance that “Home Alone” manages to strike between hilarity and brutality. Watching the bricks slam into Marv’s face makes everyone wince and howl with laughter at the same time. Poor Marv gets not one, not two, not three, but four bricks directly to the face. We don’t know if the last three are even necessary, because the first probably would have killed him instantly. The weight and speed of the brick would have shattered Marv’s skull, leaving him with severe head trauma and fatal damage to the brain. Marv’s lucky that he saw eight fingers instead of three. In fact, he’s lucky that he saw anything at all after getting a falling brick to the face.