The Good Son

Mr. Highway

Macaulay Culkin breaking from his sweetheart image, both child performances, practical stunt work, the untouched dead-child bedroom, unsupervised childhood danger, and high-end direction

“Hey, Mark, don’t fuck with me”

Game Boy, missed landline calls, an old Apple computer, and the absence of highway cameras are the principal 1993 answers.

Quinn Culkin’s performance as Connie

The Rock Harbor house

The Rock Harbor house

“Sight’s not right yet”

Henry looking down the treehouse rope and Henry approaching Connie’s hospital bed are the leading shots.

No good character-name answer is found.

Susan’s refrigerator breakdown

Henry smoking at the well

Flex pick · Chris Ryan

The motorists in the Mr. Highway crash (the film says nobody died)

The adults, especially the disengaged fathers

Bad Brother

A hockey scene for Henry

The score, the father’s unexplained Tokyo trip, Mark’s restrained response to a cruel taunt, David Morse’s absent parenting, and the abrupt lack of aftermath

Henry scores roughly eight or nine out of ten on the Hans Gruber villain scale.

Quinn Culkin for underacting

The film’s line about “bombing the universe” is identified as a deliberate homage to The Shining.

Flex pick · Sean Fennessey

Takes argue this is Macaulay Culkin’s greatest performance, both child stars should already have had supporting Oscars, and Susan should save her own son; another take says Henry could have become an NHL pest.

An abandoned 1988 version would have cast Michael Kleeseck as Henry, Jesse Bradford as Mark, Mary Steenburgen as Susan, and Michael Lehmann as director.

Wendy Crewson (disputed); the therapist; Daniel Hugh Kelly (debated)

David Morse and cinematographer John Lindley are proposed; Lindley is chosen for repeatedly elevating the images.

Michelle Pfeiffer is favored as Susan, with Sam Shepard as Wallace and Tom Hanks as Mark’s father.

Henry holding his hand just out of Connie’s reach beneath the ice is the moment the movie rises another level.

Flex pick · Chris Ryan

Fake cigarettes, the Minnesota cliff shoot, Culkin’s 30-foot fall and BB-gun request, the novelization, the child actors’ friendship, and the edited UK release

Culkin’s bankability: yes

Tom Hanks as Mark’s father

Dennis Peck could easily exploit Susan and Wallace’s grief.

The panel proposes a new category here.

The absent father, adults stopping their pursuit, the cliff-death explanation, weak investigations, cousins who never met, geography, dinner without a sitter, unsafe ice, ignored weapons, absent hospital parents, and unseen witnesses

A prestige series is plausible but would lose the story’s compressed momentum

Wayne Jenkins, Fergie, Zaylo, the observed Robert Everence, and Dr. Charles Nichols are proposed; Zaylo is imagined interviewing Henry.

Macaulay Culkin

Mark returns to Arizona while Susan, Wallace, and injured Connie remain in a devastated household.

Whether Susan faces criminal exposure, whether the Tokyo deal closed, how the brothers’ relationship changes, whether Henry is evil or sociopathic, and whether Mark saved the family

Mr. Highway

“Once you realize you can do anything, you’re free” is offered, along with practical lessons to hire a sitter and supervise a dangerous child.

Macaulay Culkin for performance; Kit Culkin as the shadow producer

The film’s extreme premise, compressed plot logic, and numerous obvious nitpicks make its unintentional comedy unusually strong on a rewatch.