The Actual Impact Of The Home Alone Booby Traps

For many of us, it’s not truly Christmas until we’ve seen an eight-year-old launch a full on attack against a couple of blokes - Merry Christmas, you filthy animals. 

There was no injury young Kevin McAllister thought too brutal to inflict on The Wet Bandits - also known as Harry and Marv - a scolding hot doorknob, swinging metal paint cans to the head and let's not forget that he put tar on his stairs, knowing the would-be burglar would have to take his shoes off, followed by a nail which goes right through Marv's foot. Incredible levels of evil genius, if you ask me.

But if, like me, you’ve now grown up and wondered just how much damage Kevin would have actually done to Harry and Marv in Home Alone, then you are not alone. 

In fact, YouTuber Jake Roper was so curious he enlisted the help of a ballistics doll to look at three of the traps Kevin carried out on the Wet Bandits - and finally answered the age-old question: could Harry and Marv have survived?

Twentieth Century Fox

In the video, Jack tries out the hot door knob trick, the paint can to the head and then the crowbar to the chest, which Harry whacks Marv with to get rid of the spider.

Flinging a 13lb metal paint pot over the stairs and into the ballistic dummy's head, Jack explains: "As the paint falls, it picks up speed. It works out to about 17mph. If you give it a bit of a shove, you have a 13lbs gallon of paint coming at your face at 20mph.

"It's like getting bareknuckle punched by Mike Tyson twice at one time.

"It is six times more than the force required to break your nose. Your head would snap back at 266G, which means there is a 100 per cent chance you would get knocked out and a 42 per cent chance your skull would crack."

Twentieth Century Fox

This, alongside the crowbar to the chest, meant the dummy was left with a punctured heart and lungs, broken ribs and a smashed skull. Well, I think I speak for all of us when I say, should you find yourself at the centre of a would-be break in this Christmas just call 999 - don't be like Kevin.

Topics: Christmas, TV and Film

Claire Reid

Claire is a journalist at LADbible who, after dossing around for a few years, went to Liverpool John Moores University. She graduated with a degree in Journalism and a whole load of debt. When not writing words in exchange for money she is usually at home watching serial killer documentaries surrounded by cats. You can contact Claire at [email protected]