Continuity mistake: When Kevin goes to the grocery, he buys Tide detergent. While walking home, the two bags break, but no Tide detergent falls out.
Factual error: When Kevin's mom leaves Paris to return home, the plane shown departing the airport is a DC-9. No airline uses this plane for trans-Atlantic service - it doesn't have the required range.
Suggested correction: Although not explicitly mentioned, it could be a connecting flight which departs Europe from another airport. In this case, flying a short or medium range aircraft to reach a hub airport like Heathrow would be plausible.
They stopped at an intermediate airport to catch a connecting flight and still nobody noticed Kevin was missing? Absolute rubbish. The posting is absolutely correct.
This is a mistake on the trip home, by which point they already noticed Kevin was missing. They had a non-stop flight going there.
Nonsense. With a maximum fuel load, the DC9 had a range of 1450 nautical miles (2685 km). If they stopped to refuel at Shannon airport in Ireland - which is closer to New York than Heathrow - they would still have to fly 2878 nautical miles (5330 km) to reach New York. They are going for a very long swim.
Continuity mistake: When Kevin is hiding in the nativity set, you can see him on the right, just covered in the green robe. When it changes to the close up shot, he's now holding a shepherd's staff, which would have been visible in the previous shot.
Suggested correction: There is a staff but it's hard to see. If you squint a little, you will see it.
Then you're seeing something else because it would be easy to spot and there's nothing there.
Kevin is definitely holding the staff in all shots, you can see the curved head of the staff against the background.
Question: Near the end of the movie, Kevin makes the 911 call because of the bandits. Why couldn't he had just done this instead of bothering to set up all the traps in the first place? Was he possibly trying to see if he couldn't kill them first instead, then call? Either way, the police were coming over with the call.
Answer: If Kevin called 911 sooner and was found to be "home alone" he knows the police would probably put him into Child Protective Services, leaving the house unguarded. His parents could face some legal issues for having left him behind. Since the burglars hadn't actually done anything yet, the police could not have taken any action against them. Also, Kevin's a kid. He was not trying to kill the burglars, but by his reasoning, he thinks it's his duty to protect the family's home.
Answer: Yeah, that would have made a great film, wouldn't it? "Kevin rings the Police, Harry and Marv are prevented from breaking into his house, and everybody lives happily ever after." A surefire winner.
Answer: Kevin was afraid to call the police because he had stolen a toothbrush so now considered himself to be a wanted criminal. This is why Kevin didn't want to show his face to the pizza delivery man (since the same man worked at the drug store) and also why Kevin changed his voice when he finally did call 911.
Yet Kevin is happy to call to the police with his real voice near the end of the second movie and is present when the police arrest the Bandits despite being a wanted criminal for stealing a credit card.
Corrected entry: When Kevin's family arrives late to the airport on their way to Paris, the person at the gate doesn't check their tickets and their seats are waiting for them during the one of the heaviest travel days of the year. Normally, stand-by's would have filled up those seats.
Correction: This was pre-9/11, and as long as they arrived in enough time to board, any standbys would have to give the seats back. We don't see them finding their seats or any standbys leaving, because it simply happens off camera.
Even before 9/11; the Chicago O'Hara airport always checked to make sure passengers had passes for International Flights to make sure no fugitive was attempting to sneak on and escape the country. The attendant not checking their tickets and explicitly saying there were single seats waiting for them in coach is a big error as realistically, even before 9/11, this would not have happened without her making a potentially very serious security error and standbys should be sitting in their seats.
Question: How come Kevin never told his parents or his family about the Wet Bandits? He also never told them in the sequel either.
Answer: If your kid came to you and said he single handedly captured to two robbers, you'd believe him.
Answer: He never tells them onscreen, nor does the movie give any indication that they know, but realistically, Kevin was a witness to their crimes, and he would be called in to give statements and testimonies in order to put them away. So his parents would have to know about his encounters with them, otherwise it would be a major plot hole. Perhaps the film-makers thought it would be funnier and more in line with his character for Kevin to be secretive about it.
Not necessarily. The police caught them red-handed and one of the cops said their habit of flooding houses was proof as to which houses they hit. It's possible no-one knew Kevin's connection.
Answer: Adding to a previous answer, the cops arrested them at the site of a previous break-in. Even though Marley rescued Kevin, it's possible he didn't tell anyone about them either, so them breaking into the McCallister's house didn't matter. Not to mention, Marv blabbing about them having the calling card to the police didn't help their case either.
Answer: Why would he need to? The idea is that he outsmarted them alone, and his parents were none the wiser.
Question: Why did it take so long for the police to arrive at the Murphy's House since Kevin called 911? Since he called them we went through the Spider Scene, Kevin cutting the rope, Marley rescuing Kevin and then after he returned Kevin home the cops finally arrived. Why did it take them so long to arrive?
Answer: A lot of things come into play during a police call and it's not all cut and dry. Proximity of units to the call, other calls happening at the same time, severity of other calls, location of backup units, etc. Realistically, anything under 10 minutes is considered a fast response time. I've personally waited in upwards of 40 minutes for police response at my job.
Answer: A lot of things happened after Kevin called the police but all of these things took place pretty quickly. And the movie is set in a suburban area so it took the police more time to get there that it would've taken, say, downtown.
Lol, suburban police respond in minutes. Big city police, even downtown precincts, can take 30 minutes or more.
This depends on where you live, and what the police department is like - i.e, being understaffed. I've heard of my local police taking three hours to respond. I live in a suburban area.
Answer: This is just one of many inconsistent and/or unrealistic details in this movie. Police would normally respond to an emergency call much sooner. If the movie were more realistic however, the plot could not play out in the funny way that it does.
What's unrealistic about it? There's a caller claiming to be in the house which is a possible hostage situation. In that case, you would want as many officers as you could get on scene, emergency call or not.
Answer: There had been a hoax call that evening already so perhaps this is actually much more accurate than initially thought.
Answer: Suburban cops usually do not respond quickly.
Question: After Harry and Marv are taken away, how would Kevin have been able to get the tar off the steps in the basement? The other traps are quite easy but to remove tar would be nearly impossible.
Answer: Remember his neighbour takes him home so maybe he helped with the cleaning. He may have also helped with the tar on the steps as well, but they just didn't show it.
Answer: There's no reason that Kevin would be the one removing this, not could he. At some point, his family would know about him protecting the house. His parents would have the steps professionally cleaned or replaced.
There is no evidence to suggest that Kevin ever told his family about the wet bandits.
Considering the police were involved at the end, as well as the next-door-neighbor, and the two burglars were arrested in the house across the street, it's highly unlikely the parents would not, at some point, know what happened and Kevin's involvement. Kevin is a witness to the criminal activity. Also, the parents would also question why the steps were covered in tar.
Corrected entry: When Kevin is home alone, the phone lines are broken, so how could he order the pizza from Little Nero's?
Correction: A worker says in the beginning that the phone lines will be repaired - obviously, they must have gotten fixed by the time Kevin ordered the pizza. Why the McCallisters didn't call home and have Kevin answer is beyond me though.
They didn't call home because they were told at the airport that the phone line at their home was still down. They probably assumed they were down till they went home Friday morning. Kevin was also out of the house taking care of things and probably missed their call if they called later and even if they had a machine he probably didn't think to check it.
Continuity mistake: When Kevin goes outside the first time and sees the cars in the garage, the light isn't on. When it shows the garage again in the next shot, the light is on. (00:20:25)
Suggested correction: The light could be motion activated. Either Kevin's movement or passing vehicles could have turned it on, regardless of the time of day. I have motion detector lights in my carport and they constantly go on and off in the daytime if it's low-light and cars pass by fast enough. People walking their dogs can also activate it if they are close enough. They sometimes stay on until I have to manually turn the power off, then on again.
That would explain it only if the light came on when Kevin "activated" it. It stays off during the first scene, and he doesn't make any motion towards the garage when the camera is on him. Nor do we see any vehicles or people pass behind him.
How likely is it that this movie - taken in 1990 - had access to the developed technology that we have today, to make automatic lights turn on?
Infrared motion sensors were around in the 80s.
Corrected entry: If the water Kevin poured on the steps froze almost instantly, it would be too cold outside for the tar he put on some steps to still be soft and sticky enough to adhere to Marvin's feet.
Correction: The tarred steps are inside the house, in the basement. The temperature outside is irrelevant as far as they are concerned.
I was thinking it was done outside in the dark. Now I'd question if tar would stay that sticky - even inside a basement. When the temperature outside is below freezing, my basement is relatively cold.
Corrected entry: When Kevin is talking to Santa as he is getting in his car, Kevin gives his address as 671 Lincoln Boulevard. Later when Kevin is calling 911, he gives his address as 656 Lincoln Boulevard.
Correction: That is because he is giving the address to the house he runs across to, where Marv and Harry are arrested.
That is true.
Question: When a police officer comes to Kevin's house, the officer rings the doorbell, but since he gets no answer, assumes no one is home. But in real life, wouldn't a policeman break into the house, and then search the house, and then bring the child out of the house, and take to him to his family, just in case a the child did exactly what Kevin did, hiding under the bed or couch? Also wouldn't Kevin's parents get arrested for leaving Kevin behind if the police did find out they left him behind?
Answer: To answer your first question, no. As a right protected under the Fourth Amendment, the police are prohibited from entering a private residence without either a warrant and probable cause or the consent of the homeowner. Since, as you point out, the policeman assumes no one is home, there's no cause to enter; had he heard, say, a cry for help from inside the house, that would constitute an exigent circumstance, an exception that would allow him to enter in order to help someone in imminent danger. To answer your second question, I doubt it. What happened wasn't done deliberately or out of neglect; it was an accident caused by circumstances beyond their control; accidents can, and do, happen.
Answer: No she asked for a police officer to be sent to the house to check on Kevin and make sure that he was OK.
Question: Why was Kevin's family so mean to him?
Answer: I think it was a way to make leaving him "home alone" more realistic and understandable as opposed to absurd. Being perceived as a brat/pest and annoying to be around, it is (somewhat) conceivable that none of the family members would be eager to have Kevin by their side. This "frees" all of them from noticing that Kevin isn't with them. Everyone would just assume that Kevin is somewhere among them and each be glad they didn't have to sit next to him on the way to the airport or during the long flight.
In addition to this, the movie is partially about Kevin learning to have more respect for others. He appreciates his family more as he spends more time without them.
Answer: The ones who were mean just saw Kevin as a brat. However, it's not uncommon in situations of being in an overcrowded house to easily lose one's patience and temper and become frustrated with small, but irritating things; which seems to happen to his mother. Buzz just has that general big brother contempt for his kid brother, but obviously still loves him, along with everyone else in the family, at the end when he finds out Kevin is safe.
Nuts to that. They all could've tried a little harder, that's one lame excuse for treating someone like garbage and I come from a good sized bunch who've done the same to me. You also forget his uncle didn't care about him regardless of the situation.
Like it or not the answer is perfectly valid. Families have different dynamics. Kevin is something of a brat (he calls his mother "dummy" and openly wishes he didn't have a family), as are his brothers and sisters, especially Buzz. I for one have TWO uncles in my family who behave just like the uncle in the movie. We don't invite them over, but we've had similar situations to what's depicted in the film.
Hey I've had three uncles, father's older brothers, he hated all three of them, cared only when they started dying. Yeah the dynamics and all, my mother has stated "You ruined this family" though this bunch didn't need my help in being messed up. My sympathies to you Mr Hoffman, your uncles Dustin and Philip Seymour must be/been terrible, just kidding only on the famous names there, no offense meant.
It's just a movie! The characters are fictional and were given contrived, exaggerated, over-the-top personalities to fit the comedic plot. It's pointless to compare them to real-life family dynamics.
Also, it's a movie from a child's point of view. Kevin is supposed to be the "victim." As a 35-year-old, I have more sympathy for the adults and older kids. The movie is about Kevin learning to miss his family and be more considerate of others.
Corrected entry: When Kevin opens the window, he overhears Marv and Harry planning to return that night at nine o'clock. At this point, Kevin could have simply called the police and told them what was going to happen. The Wet Bandits would have been caught immediately.
Correction: 2 things, 1 he was worried the police wouldn't believe him and 2 he enjoyed being home alone at that point and didn't want cops to take him somewhere else.
He may have also been worried since he accidentally shoplifted.
Factual error: Kate flies American Airlines to Scranton, but that airline did not serve Scranton in 1990. Also, a DC-10 is too big to be serviced at Scranton.
Suggested correction: Air Force One, which is quite a bit larger than a DC-10, has landed at Scranton in the past (https://wnep.com/2013/08/22/air-force-one-lands-in-scranton/). Just because DC-10s don't generally land there doesn't mean they can't.
They are much more likely to make an exception for Air Force One than the are for a single family unless it was for something wrong with the flight or an emergency on the flight, not for a connecting flight to Chicago or a chance at a connecting flight.
The idea is that DC-10s can land there for whatever reason.
Kate landed at Dallas first, then flew to Scranton. This is revealed in Kate's rant at the ticket agent.
Air Force One would park at GA parking, not at the terminal. The DC-10 that lands would have very likely parked at a gate for only 737s and smaller.
Question: Maybe I missed it, but did the McAllisters even bother to call home? I don't remember them calling the house at all. Why wouldn't that be the first thing they do? Kevin seems to be pretty independent for his age. He might have not answered the door, but I'm sure he would have answered the phone.
Chosen answer: They did but the power and phone lines were down due to a tree branch that had fallen on them the night before the family left. A flight attendant on their plane mentions that attempts had been made to call the McAllisters' home but "the phones are still out of order".
But how did he call the police at the end if the phone lines were down.
That was several days later. Clearly the phone lines were repaired over the course of the film.
It's ridiculous though that the phones are apparently working by the time they land (Kate's SIL calls everyone on their street). Yet none of them try the house again.
Answer: That is also how Kevin was able to order his cheese pizza from Little Nero's.
Answer: The phone lines were fixed by the end of the movie. Remember, this takes place over the course of several days.
Answer: It's also possible they don't think he's at the house still since the cops did attempt to stop by and see if he was home, but received no answer after ringing the bell. Or they did try to call and left a message, but Kevin may not have thought to check the phone messages if he was out of the house and didn't expect anyone to call. He also didn't want anyone to return until the day prior to Christmas, by which point the mom was already en route and the dad and remaining kids had a plan to come home on Christmas morning.
Answer: The next day, after the cop shows up to check the house, while the Wet Bandits are in the house next door, the phone rings and the answering machine picks up, allowing Peter to leave a message. If the next-door neighbor's phone is working, wouldn't it only make sense for Peter to immediately call his own house? Even if Kevin hasn't returned home from shoplifting a toothbrush and doesn't answer the phone, Peter should still be able to leave a message on an answering machine and most likely keep calling over and over until Kevin answers the phone.
Corrected entry: The entire plot relies on Kevin's parents being unable to call home to speak to their son, after the phone service to their house is severed by a falling tree (when the McAllisters are getting into the van a utility worker tells Mrs. McAllister that the power has been restored, but that the phones "are a mess" and that it will take several days to repair them, especially around the holidays). Kevin, however, is somehow able to call Little Nero's to deliver his very own cheese pizza; this is never explained. It serves no purpose but to set up the use of the "Angels with Dirty Souls" tape later in the film. If Kevin is able to do this because the phone lines have been fixed at this point (an argument supported by the fact that Mr McAllister is able to call and leave a message with a neighbour who lives on the same block), then this makes even less sense. Considering the mother is so desperate that she bribes passengers at the airport to secure a seat back from Paris, it is unlikely that the family do not continue to call the house on a regular basis. (00:45:50 - 00:47:25)
Correction: The power repairman tells Mrs. McCallister the phone lines are a mess and it will take "a couple days" to get them fixed. This is simply his guess at how long it will take. As for Kevin ordering the pizza, we don't see him make the call, so we don't know how or where he ordered the pizza. We see him walk into town to buy his toothbrush and groceries, so it's reasonable he could have used a phone in town.
That seems pretty unreasonable considering he bought his groceries and returned home in the daytime but his pizza wasn't delivered until nighttime. That also doesn't explain how Mr. McCallister was able to call the neighbors across the street from them and leave a message but didn't attempt to call his own house.
The pizza could possibly be an error, unless perhaps by this time Peter had given up trying to call the house. Calling the neighbour, though, I would consider reasonable, as just because the neighbour's phone line works, doesn't mean your own does. My home phone line has been down in the past when the neighbours wasn't.
Corrected entry: After Marv gets a nail shoved in his foot in the basement and instead of going back up stairs, he just decides to go back up the slippery ice stairs outside, why did he ditch the basement stairs, he could have gotten in the house a lot quicker without cutting his feet, all he had to do was look out for the nail.
Correction: It wasn't just the nail that was the problem, Kevin had also covered the basement stairs in tar which made everything stick to it. Had Marv attempted to walk up the basement stairs a second time would have taken far too long because his foot would have gotten stuck on each step. Walking back up the slippery ice stairs would probably have been much quicker.
If Marv tried the basement stairs a second time he could have gotten his shoes and red socks out of the tar.
Correction: Marv is also not the brightest bulb in the box to it's pretty reasonable to believe he wouldn't have thought any of it through.
Corrected entry: At the beginning of the movie, Jeff McCallister throws his bag down the stairs vertically, yet, the bag lands horizontally at Joe Pesci's feet.
Correction: As that's a "depending" reply, you have to go with what we see and that's that the bag ending up horizontal at his feet. It should have been vertical.
Your logic is backward. What we see on screen is the bag rotating. Unless the movie shows something that indicates it could not happen, it is not a mistake.
It's a movie mistake without question.
Correction: Depending on the weight packed inside and the angle at which it was thrown, the bag may have rotated in midair.
Suggested correction: Maybe he returned it.
No chance, we see him buy it and then use it in a later scene.
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