Before Home Alone, Macaulay Culkin Was in a Burt Lancaster Viking Movie. Kind Of.
Long before Home Alone made him a household name, Macaulay Culkin had his big-screen debut in a movie almost no one saw.
It was 1988's Rocket Gibraltar, a strange little dramedy starring Burt Lancaster, and despite a solid cast and sentimental premise, it bombed so hard it barely existed.
- Budget: $3 million.
- Opening weekend: Just five theaters.
- Box office total: A pitiful $187,349 — domestic and worldwide.
Lancaster plays Levi Rockwell, a cranky old writer celebrating his 77th birthday with a chaotic family reunion. Among the many grandchildren is a very young Culkin, making his first on-screen appearance.
Levi tells his grandkids he wants to go out Viking-style — you know, funeral pyre, burning boat, the works. The kids take him seriously and start restoring an old sailboat named Rocket Gibraltar for the occasion. The film builds to a finale that's somewhere between The Big Chill and a Norse mythology fanfic.
Chaos Behind the Camera
Originally directed by Amos Poe, the production ran into trouble and Poe was replaced by Daniel Petrie. The film ended up being dedicated to Raymond Lopez, a crew member who died during production.
Also, in a move that aged like milk, all scenes involving Pam Grier — who played a housekeeper in a romantic subplot with Lancaster — were cut from the final version.
Reports say it was due to concerns about audience backlash over the interracial storyline. Whether true or not, the end result: her character was erased from the film entirely.
That Cast, Though
Even if nobody saw Rocket Gibraltar, the cast is stacked with early performances from actors who'd go on to way bigger things:
- Bill Pullman
- Kevin Spacey
- Patricia Clarkson
- David Hyde Pierce
- Suzy Amis
And of course, Macaulay Culkin, who'd be setting booby traps and outsmarting burglars two years later.
Why You've Probably Never Heard of It
Columbia Pictures buried this movie. Theatrical release? Barely there. Marketing? Nonexistent. And when it finally limped into home video, it didn't exactly build a cult following.
To this day, Rocket Gibraltar survives as a bit of movie trivia:
"Hey, did you know Macaulay Culkin's first movie was a Viking funeral dramedy with Burt Lancaster?"
That's about the extent of its legacy.
But if you're curious, yes — it exists. Yes — it's a real movie. And yes — that's actually Culkin in the background, before Hollywood turned him into the king of Christmas break.