Some ‘Home Alone’ Fans Think Elvis Presley Is Still Alive (And Appeared In The Movie)
Did the King of Rock and Roll end up in the iconic Christmas movie?
More than 30 years on, Home Alone is still one of the world’s most popular Christmas movies. Portraying the young Kevin McCallister is widely believed to be one of Macaulay Culkin’s most iconic roles, and the film is still bringing laughter and happiness to viewers who tune in to watch him take on the Wet Bandits.
As with any popular movie, Home Alone has become so famous that it’s attracted the creation of several fan theories. Fans of the film have claimed everything from Kevin’s uncle leaving him home on purpose to the McCallister family being a cult.
One of the fan theories attached to the film that’s harder to believe is that Elvis Presley has a small role in the film.
Perhaps this would be more feasible if Presley hadn’t already been dead for over 10 years by the time the film came out. But is there any validity to this theory? Is this something new about Elvis that’s just come to light? Read on to find out!
‘Home Alone’ Delighted Fans Early On
Widely considered to be one of the best Christmas movies ever, Home Alone is the story of a young boy called Kevin whose family accidentally leaves him home alone when they take off for a Christmas vacation in Paris.
He has the time of his life at home without any parents and any rules, until his house becomes the target of two thieves known as the Wet Bandits. With no parents to protect him, Kevin devises a series of booby traps to defend himself and his house from the robbers.
Home Alone has too many hilarious scenes to count as Kevin outsmarts the two robbers. But there’s one scene in particular that fans haven’t been able to stop talking about, and it’s not because the scene is overly funny—it’s because they think Elvis Presley is an extra.
The ‘Home Alone’ Scene Where “Elvis” Appears
Midway through the film, which was one of the top Christmas movies of the ‘90s, we see Kevin’s mom in Scranton airport arguing with an airline employee. She’s trying desperately to get back home to Chicago where she unknowingly left her son unsupervised.
As she barters with the airline employee, the camera shows a bearded man standing behind her left shoulder. Wearing a turtleneck and a sports coat, the man bears a striking resemblance to Elvis Presley.
Why The Theory Might Have Some Validity
Home Alone premiered in 1990. With Elvis having passed away in 1977, it would seem impossible that he appeared in the movie. Not only was he already deceased at that point, but Elvis was the biggest star on the planet. If he were alive, why would he take a role as an extra?
Skeptics of the theory have pointed all this out, but some Home Alone fans argue that it could still be the King in the Christmas flick. As Vice points out, the man looks a lot like Elvis, has the same shaped head and the same kind of hair, and he also appears to move his neck in the same way that Elvis did.
He’s also wearing a turtleneck, which is curious as Elvis reportedly felt insecure about his long neck and would often try to hide it.
‘Home Alone’ Director Chris Columbus Weighs In
This fan theory has gained so much traction that even the film’s director Chris Columbus got wind of it. In his official director’s commentary of Home Alone, he even brought it up with Macaulay Culkin, who portrayed Kevin.
“They are convinced, these people, that this is Elvis Presley,” Columbus revealed to Culkin. “That he’s faked his death, and because he still loves show business, he’s an extra in Home Alone.”
While Culkin just laughed, Columbus went on to confirm, “He’s not Elvis Presley!”
Other ‘Home Alone’ Fan Theories
Elvis Presley secretly appearing in Home Alone isn’t even the strangest theory to be attached to the film. Over the years, fans have come up with several more, one of the most notable being that John Candy’s character, Gus Polinski, is actually the devil.
When Kevin’s mom is in the Scranton airport, in the same scene in which “Elvis” appears, she tells the airline employee, “If I have to sell my soul to the devil himself, I am going to get home to my son.” Seconds later, Gus appears (over her right shoulder no less) and offers her a ride home to her son.
Other dark fan theories suggest that Kevin’s dad is a gang leader (he’s wealthy and becomes nervous when he believes the police have come to his house) and that Kevin is actually dead.
Other Elvis Sightings
One of the reasons why so many fans have bought into the Elvis theory in Home Alone is because a lot of people believe that Elvis faked his own death to escape the horrors of global fame. There have been plenty of reported sightings of him by super-fans since his 1977 death.
He has supposedly been seen at his estate in Memphis, at a restaurant in Clyde, Ohio, and even leaving a hospital with Muhammad Ali in New York City.
But while there’s no solid proof to the contrary, we have to take Chris Columbus’s word for it: the extra in Home Alone is just an extra, not the King of Rock and Roll.
