Home Alone

Home Alone (1990)

98 mistakes - chronological order

(44 votes)

Home Alone mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Kevin is leaving the church after talking to the old man that lives next door to him, he runs home. Between leaving the church and getting home he is wearing one pair of trousers, when he gets home he is wearing a pair of jeans, then when he is setting up the traps for the bad guys he is back to the first pair.

Revealing mistake: Whenever Marv is outside walking in the snow in his bare feet you can tell that the feet aren't real.

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.

AAL117

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

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.

ctown28

The idea is that DC-10s can land there for whatever reason.

The news article is from 2013. 23 years after the film. A lot of things can change in 23 years.

Ssiscool

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.

AAL117

Home Alone mistake picture

Continuity mistake: In the scene where Kevin is shooting the BB gun at action figures he has lined up along the laundry chute the baseball player figure he sets up is leaning against the left hand side of the laundry chute frame, yet when he begins to shoot at the figures the baseball player is standing up straight on its own and not leaning against the chute frame any longer.

Home Alone mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Joe Pesci places his hand on the red hot doorknob on the front door of Kevin's house, he places his hand on the doorknob sideways, but after he sticks his hand in the snow, he looks at his hand and the letter M that was burned into his hand is straight up and down, not sideways like it should be based on how he grabbed the doorknob.

Home Alone mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Kevin is putting washing in and taking clothes out of the dryer, he places the orange bottle of liquid on top of the washer with the handle facing away. On taking the clothes out of the drier and closing the door, he turns to see the metal heater scaring him by saying "Kevin." Look over his left shoulder when the shot comes back to Kevin, the orange bottle now has it's handle facing outwards, and the top isn't on properly.

Continuity mistake: Kevin goes out to cut the top off a tree to use as a Christmas tree. The tree top he drags in is much smaller than the one he decorates.

Home Alone mistake picture

Continuity mistake: Kevin sits down with a meal before the Wet Bandits arrive at the house consisting of macaroni and cheese on a plate. When Harry eventually makes it to the dining room, he is pelted with feathers. Look at the table to the left. A three part microwave meal still in its white plastic container now sits on the plate.

Revealing mistake: When Kevin rides the rig on the rope to get to the treehouse, you can see that it was a stuntman who is much taller than Kevin and looks nothing like him.

Home Alone mistake picture

Character mistake: When Kevin is shooting the toys off the laundry chute with Buzz's BB gun, he's looking through the scope with his closed eye.

Home Alone mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Marv comes to the back door while Kevin is washing dishes, Kevin turns on the Johnny & Snakes movie. Then he goes to get the pot and puts the pot by the back door. The whole time he has his sleeves rolled up, but when he opens a drawer to get firecrackers, his sleeves are rolled down. In the very next shot they're rolled up again. The shot changes too quickly for him to roll them back up.

Factual error: When Kevin's mom stays behind at the Paris Airport to wait for a flight home, she is shown in a gate area in front of a huge picture window. Outside can be seen an aircraft, a 727 in Eastern Airlines livery, in what is actually Chicago's O'Hare Airport. Eastern never flew to Paris and the aircraft would not have the range for such a flight. Also, you can see a sign that lists Terminal E and F, which are at ORD. They do not have these at Paris ORY.

Jorge Suarez

Continuity mistake: In the scene where Kevin is hanging up ornaments on the Christmas tree and he sees Harry peeping through the window by the reflection of the ornament, the reflection is not entirely accurate. It shows Kevin facing the camera with both the tree and window behind him. The reflection should have shown Kevin with just the window behind him and slightly to his right, based on his original position.

Continuity mistake: When Kevin says, "I made my family disappear" and runs around the house, he runs to the foyer and spins in a circle. The window near the stairs is dark meaning it's dark outside. He run upstairs and the window in Kevin's parent's room is also dark. The lights are on too. He then goes to Buzz's room and the kitchen and it's light outside. No lights are on.

Continuity mistake: Right after Marv loses his shoes on the tar covered stairs he goes back outside to go in the window. When he's running in the snow you can see that he is wearing little pink booties so his feet don't get cold. When he is getting into the police car at the end, you see a short shot of his feet when he's almost in and you can clearly see he has black boots back on.

Revealing mistake: When Kevin screams from putting on aftershave, the shot cuts to the spider running behind the toilet. You can see white tiny pellets being thrown at the spider from behind. This must have been to make sure it kept moving during the shot.

Continuity mistake: The plane for Paris leaves in the morning - around 10 am. Shortly after take-off (it is still morning in Chicago) it is dark outside the windows. Even though the flight path from Chicago to Paris goes a bit north, it would not get dark that fast.

Jacob La Cour

Continuity mistake: When Kevin plays the video when the guy comes to deliver the pizza, the guy on the video says "Hey. I'm gonna give you to the count of ten." When Kevin first saw the movie, the word "Hey" was never spoken. The line immediately before "I'm gonna give you to the count of ten" was "I'll tell you what I'm gonna give you, Snakes".

Other mistake: When Harry and Marv are making their way across the rope to the tree-house, you can see them dangling in a long shot. It has to be stuntmen because, despite the 12 inch height difference between the characters, they seem to be the same size while hanging there.

Other mistake: Toward the end of the film, there is a scene where Macaulay Culkin rides a rig on a rope from his house to the treehouse. Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern try to follow, but Culkin cuts the rope with a hedge cutter. Problem is: The rope is slack when Mac cuts it. With the weight of two grown men, it would have been stressed like a guitar string.

Megan McCallister: You're not at all worried that something might happen to Kevin?
Buzz McCallister: No, for three reasons: A, I'm not that lucky. Two, we use smoke detectors and D, we live on the most boring street in the whole United States of America, where nothing even remotely dangerous will ever happen. Period.

More quotes from Home Alone
Home Alone trivia picture

Trivia: When Kevin is in Buzz's bedroom, he finds in the box a picture of Buzz's girlfriend. This is actually a picture of the art director's son dressed up to look like a girl, because the director, Chris Columbus, thought it would be too harsh to make fun of a girl like that.

More trivia for Home Alone

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.

KeyZOid

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.

Bishop73

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.

Rob245

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.

Rob245

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.

raywest

Exactly. It's done for entertainment.

Ssiscool

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.

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