Home Alone: The Holiday Heist

Plot

The Baxter family move from California to Maine and settle into their new house during the Christmas season. 10-year-old Finn Baxter (Christian Martyn) and his older sister, Alexis (Jodelle Ferland), are technophiles, who isolate themselves from their parents Curtis (Doug Murray) and Catherine (Ellie Harvie) and the outside world. Finn is always playing his video game, "Robo Infantry 3" and Alexis is always on her phone. Encouraged by his dad to socialize, Finn befriends his neighbor, Mason (Peter DaCunha), who informs him about the legend of a smothered gangster whose ghost haunts the Baxters' new home, leaving Finn paranoid.

While the family leaves their home to go Christmas shopping, a group of thieves and Miss Kathleen Gideny's (Angelina Hantseykins) henchmen consisting of Sinclair (Malcolm McDowell), the glamorous Jessica (Debi Mazar) and their new safecracker Hughes (Eddie Steeples), carry out their plan to break in and steal an old, long lost Edvard Munch painting valued at $85 million, unaware the house is occupied. They are unable to locate the painting in the basement safe, and as the Baxters return home, the thieves quickly flee. At night, Curtis and Catherine leave for a Christmas party hosted by Catherine's new boss, Mr. Carson (Edward Asner). Finn and Alexis stay behind; however, Finn's controller is confiscated by his parents. He is not permitted to play video games and Alexis can only use her phone for emergency calls.

That night after having seen the party invitation earlier, the thieves plan to return, thinking the house will be cleared of the entire family. Sinclair confides in Jessica and Hughes that the painting they seek is The Widow, a portrait of his great-grandmother and her family that was stolen decades ago. Meanwhile, Finn adventures in the house and finds a spare controller. He starts playing video games. Searching for new batteries for his controller, he accidentally drops one that rolls down into the basement. Finn has Alexis accompany him to retrieve it and they find the safe unlocked and a secret room behind it, which houses the painting Sinclair is looking for. Frightened by the portrait, Finn flees and Alexis accidentally triggers a trap and ends up locked in the room.

As an ongoing snowstorm worsens, Curtis and Catherine are forced to stay at the Christmas party, worrying about their kids at home. With Alexis locked behind the safe, Finn goes to shop for supplies at a hardware store to break her out, only being able to afford string which is useless. After stumbling across Sinclair, he overhears the trio discuss plans to break into his house. Rushing home, Finn tells his online video game friend and young college student, Simon (Bill Turnbull) about the situation, but Simon is initially oblivious. Finn sets up numerous booby traps around the house, including ice on the patio (a trap from the original film), a snow blower blowing marbles in the garage, a carton full of tar, a coal-filled stocking, some nasty-tasting gingerbread cookies, and cotton balls and flour flying out of the sink. The thieves are forced to go through the booby traps, getting injured as they do so, with the glamorous Jessica getting covered in tar. Soon enough, Curtis and Catherine are able to drive home. Using Finn's gamertag and his parents' credit card details, a concerned Simon contacts them to warn about the danger their kids are in, but they call the police on him instead, thinking that Simon kidnapped them.

Back at the house, Sinclair, Jessica, and Hughes capture Finn and detain him in the van. Sinclair and Hughes go to open the safe. Mason, however, saves Finn by throwing snowballs at the leather-clad Jessica, who is now very dishevelled from her normal glamorous state as she has been through the booby traps. She is eventually knocked out by the snowballs. Sinclair and Hughes gain entry to the safe, finding the painting and Alexis, who threatens to destroy it. Finn flees and frees Alexis, while triggering the trap that locks the duo in the basement, which is seen on Simon's television by Simon and the police officers who detained him. With Jessica encased inside a snowman, the police arrive to arrest the burglars. The family receives four museum passes and $30,000 as a reward for capturing the criminals and recovering the painting. As an apology, Finn's parents send Simon a plane ticket to return home and spend Christmas with his family.

On Christmas Day, Finn receives a snowboard and an expansion pack to "Robo Infantry 3". Alexis gets a tablet computer, and Finn and his dad get a camping guide. Finn decides to take a break from video games and go snowboarding with Mason, who is now his best friend. The final scene shows the criminals having their mug shots taken at the police station as a female police officer splices a copy of the mug shots into a portrait.

Cast

Production

Originally titled Home Alone: Alone in the Dark, development for the film began in March 2012 as a co-production between ABC Family and Fox TV Studios. Both production companies previously co-produced Home Alone 4 in 2002. The movie was filmed in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Home media

The film was released on DVD on October 29, 2013, in the United States and Canada. It was released in Region 4 on November 12, 2014. In Region 2, the film was released in 2013 but was initially only available on downloads and online streaming and its distribution there remains mainly focused on those formats. On November 2, 2015, the film was released on DVD in the United Kingdom as part of a box set of all five Home Alone films exclusively on Amazon.co.uk.