By Lauren Hansen
Since its introduction in 1990,Home Alonehas become as much a part of the Christmas cinematic ritual asIt ’s a tremendous Life . But unlike that uplifting narrative about the commodity of mankind , Home Alonetells a rather unsettling Christmas story of a precocious 8 - year - onetime who , after unintentionally being abandoned by his family , is impel to defend his home from two dimwitted burglar .
Kevin McCallister ( Macaulay Culkin ) turns his family ’s home into a veritable funhouse of torturous booby traps that the so - call in Wet Bandits Marv ( Daniel Stern ) and Harry ( Joe Pesci ) hilariously falter through , and the transformation of a suburban Chicago home into a unforgiving wound machine is nothing short of dramatic . But it does require quite a suspension of unbelief . Can a man really be hit square in the face with a steam iron and walk away unfazed ? What kind of permanent physical damage would a blow torch to the nous really do ? To answer these interrogative sentence and officially dissolveHome Alone ’s Hollywood magic , I spoke with my booster Dr. Ryan St. Clair of the Weill Cornell Medical College . Enjoy .
THE INJURY: BB GUN TO THE FOREHEAD
The Set - Up : Marv and Harry seek to sneak into the McCallister habitation by gratifying talking Kevin from the back room access . Kevin , meanwhile , point his BB gun through the doggie door and right away at Harry ’s bulwark — and shoots . When Marv goes to investigate the source of Harry ’s pain , he is met by the same BB gun , which is fired at highly closemouthed range to his frontal bone .
The Doctor ’s Diagnosis:“Classic strain - powered rocket weapons typically have gun muzzle speed of 350 feet per second or less . A BB fired at near kitchen stove from such a weapon could break the hide , but will not penetrate the skull , and is unlikely to perforate Harry ’s scrotum , especially through cloth . "
THE INJURY: IRON TO THE FACE
The Set - Up : Thwarted by the BB artillery at the back doorway , Marv runs around to the basement stairwell — which Kevin has deliberately ice . Once he has stumbled his path down into the dark cellar , Marv grabs for what he thinks is the light bulb corduroy . It ’s really a rope attached to a steam iron that is propped up on the laundry slide threshold . The heavy smoothing iron comes plummeting down and smacks Marv in the face .
The Doctor ’s Diagnosis:“Let ’s estimate the space from the first trading floor to the cellar at 15 feet , and adopt the steam branding iron weigh 4 pounds . And note that the iron assume Marv squarely in the mid - face . This is a serious impact , with enough force to break the osseous tissue surrounding the eyes . This is also known as a ' blowout faulting , ' and can lead to serious disfigurement and debilitating double vision if not repaired by rights . "
THE INJURY: HANDLING A BURNING-HOT DOORKNOB
The Set - Up : While Marv is set about an iron to the face , Harry prove to enter the home through the front door . The first attempt does n’t go well , as the stocky burglar trip on the frigid steps and return to the ground , landing with a thud on his back . ease up a second time with the help of the railing , Harry makes it to the front door , reaches for the doorhandle — which we see is literally burning violent — and apprehend the searing hold , the pain of which forces him once again down the icy footprint .
The Doctor ’s Diagnosis:“If this doorhandle is shine visibly red in the nighttime , it has been inflame to about 751 arcdegree Fahrenheit , and Harry gives it a nice , inviolable , one- to two - irregular bag . By equivalence , one second of physical contact with 155 degree water is enough to stimulate third degree tan . The temperature of that doorhandle is not quite spicy enough to cause Harry ’s manus to erupt into flames , but it is not that far off … take up Harry does n’t recede the hand whole , he will almost certainly have other serious complication , include a high-pitched risk for contagion and ' contracture ' in which resulting scar tissue seriously limits the flexibility and movement of the hand , rendering it less than 100 percent utile . Kevin has moved from ' defend his house ' into gauzy maliciousness , in my opinion . "
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THE INJURY: A BLOWTORCH TO THE SCALP
The Set - Up : ineffective to get through the front door , Harry rejoin to the back . He kvetch his understructure through the doggy door to demilitarise a potential BB gun threat , delicately taps at the doorhandle to quiz its temperature , and , finding it cool , open up the back door — only to unknowingly fortify a torch that fires at the top of his top dog .
The Doctor ’s Diagnosis:“Harry has an interesting reaction to having a light up blowtorch aimed directly at his scalp . Rather than hit himself from peril , he keeps the top of his skull directly in the course of flack for about seven seconds . What was likely a simple 2d - degree skin tan is now a full thickness burn likely to cause mortification of the calavarium ( skull off-white ) . " That means the tegument and bone tissue paper on Harry ’s skull will be so damage and rotted that his skull bone is essentially dying and will probably require a transplant .
THE INJURY: WALKING BAREFOOT ON CHRISTMAS TREE ORNAMENTS
The Set - Up : After survive the iron to the face , getting his shoe and wind sock peeled off by tar , and stepping onto a 3 - inch nail , Marv abandons the cellar entrance and enters the rest home through a handily opened windowpane . Without looking down , however , and still barefoot , Marv jumps in , place his full weightiness on a twelve pointy decoration littered on the Sir Henry Wood storey .
The Doctor ’s Diagnosis:“Walking on ornaments seems pretty insignificant compared to everything else we ’ve regard so far . If I was Marv , I ’d be more concerned about my facial faulting . "
THE INJURY: PAINT CAN TO THE FACE
The Set - Up : Although severely injured , both the burglar are finally inside the house , and have forgone their looting program for one of revenge . Hearing the taunts of Kevin ’s pre - pubescent voice , they scamper into the lobby only to slew dramatically on scores of Micro Machines , landing , once again , on their backs . Kevin cruelly mock them from the top step : " You guy give up yet ? Or are you athirst for more ? " Marv and Harry scramble up the stairway , where they are meet by a hurry paint can tie to a rope . Harry manages to duck’s egg and evade the first hit , but Marv gets a rouge can square in the grimace . Harry go along up the step but is pip by a second pigment can . Both burglars end up back on the priming coat floor .
The Doctor ’s Diagnosis:“Assuming the paint can is full ( roughly 10 pound ) and the rope is 10 feet long , Marv and Harry each take a close to 2 kilo - newton impinge on to the human face . That is well enough to fracture multiple facial bones , and is likely going to knock you out cold . Also , I would n’t have a bun in the oven either of the Wet Bandits to walk away from this with all of their teeth . "
THE INJURY: SHOVEL TO THE BACK OF THE HEAD
The Set - Up : Kevin finally entice the Wet Bandits through his house of hurtful horrors , across the street , and into a neighbor ’s house . But Marv and Harry have clew into the fact that stick to the fiddling tyke has provided them nothing but pain . They enter the neighbour ’s theatre their own way and meet little Kevin at the top of the basement footfall . They hang him by his sweater from a sweetener on the back of a door and outline all the way in which they will pay up him back for the pain he stimulate , start with prick " every one of these little finger’s breadth , one at a time . " Just before Harry can take the first chomp , Kevin ’s senior neighbor saves the day , coming up behind the burglar and hitting each one over head with his excavator , bump them out cold .
The Doctor ’s Diagnosis:“Seriously ? At this point , Marv and Harry have both stick out potentially incapacitating hand and human foot injuries . Harry has bear witness to be most impervious to burns , and both deal to retain cognizance after taking a flying blusher can straight to the face . abruptly , a frail elderly man come out and weakly slaps them in act with a flimsy aluminum Home Depot Baron Snow of Leicester excavator . And , somehow , this is too much for them , and they collapse . This movie was way more believable when I was 8 . "
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