Stupidity: When a cop goes to Kevin's house after being requested by police, he simply knocks on the door and after a few seconds walks away assuming no ones home. Had he actually bothered to announce himself as a cop, Kevin would have opened the door and he would have been found safe.
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.
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.
Continuity mistake: When Frank squishes Fuller with the chair, we see Frank walk off. However about 5 seconds later we see Frank's wife rescue Fuller, and Frank walks off again. (00:09:35)
Suggested correction: Not a mistake. Frank never walks off the first time.
Perhaps the wrong phrase was used. He actually moves away from the front part of the seat to the left and out of shot of the camera. When the shot is shown of Frank's wife rescuing fuller, Frank repeats his actions of walking away from the front part of the seat and moving to his left. There is no reasonable reason he would move back in front of the chair for the purpose of repeating this action. Especially since his wife is trying to rescue Fuller and would not permit Frank to return to his original position. So the mistake is valid, just an error in wording.
Corrected entry: When Kevin orders his own cheese pizza and has it delivered, he has some fun with the delivery guy. He plays the video in which someone gets shot and killed. The pizza guy is obviously scared and runs away, believing that he is being shot at. Surely someone who thinks they have just been threatened by a gun would either call the police or investigate further. And if the police got a call of that nature, they would definitely check it out.
Correction: The pizza boy probably realised he'd been pranked a minute later when he calmed down and realised how silly the situation was. Also, the man with the gun did pay for his pizza, even if the tip was lousy.
Correction: I was a pizza boy for a while, I assure you, this isn't all that worse from the way they treat us for real. The man is probably used to this.
Correction: He was probably so terrified that he just bolted and the police never even crossed his mind.
Not necessarily true. When he returns to the shop and people see he is terrified they would ring police after he explained.
OK, so he calls the police when he gets back to the shop, or stops someplace to find a phone. The cops go out and find no bullet holes in the door or walls and no signs that the place had been shot up. Where's the crime?
Corrected entry: On the morning that Kevin wakes up looking for his family, his hair changes in each scene and stands up straighter on top.
Correction: His hair changes with every scene as he is walking round the house. We don't see him all the time so he could easily have ruffled his hair.
Visible crew/equipment: When Kevin first realises he's home alone and goes into Buzz's room, there is the leg of a crew member to the bottom right of the picture (wearing jeans). (00:19:20)
Suggested correction: Not visible at all.
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.
Other mistake: When Gus Polinski talks about his music, he mispronounces "Daj mi buzi" (Die-Me-Boo-Gee) as "Domavougi." "Daj mi buzi" is Polish for "Give Me a Kiss."
Suggested correction: I think this is meant to be a "deliberate mistake ", which didn't show up as an option to suggest making the change elsewhere (under "edit"). It appears to be part of the comedy - he should know how to pronounce it. Another opinion would be helpful.
Corrected entry: When Marv is trying to break into the basement with the crowbar but slips on the ice, he hooks the crowbar on the sill of the door and then slips again. The crowbar then falls on his head. The mistake is that when he slips and the crowbar is hanging it is not hooked on the sill of the door, but is obviously hanging by a wire as it swings freely in front of the door.
Correction: The crowbar doesn't hang by a wire, there's a raised panel about an inch inside the more visible edge, which the crowbar snags on for a second, pivots on and then falls off.
Revealing mistake: In the scene where John Candy and Catherine O'Hara are in the van and John Candy plays the clarinet, he never changes the positions of his fingers, but he plays a different note.
Suggested correction: He does move his fingers while playing his clarinet.
Suggested correction: Some people just aren't good at their job or are too lazy. The cop didn't like the idea of being sent on a possible fake call and didn't put in the extra effort. Or he was simply waiting for someone to ask who it was before identifying himself. Plus the cop would have had no idea Kevin was hiding and not answering the door because he was scared nor that saying he was the police would get him to answer the door, he could have simply thought a kid left alone would answer the door to anyone.
Bishop73
Even if he thought it was a fake call, he still should have identified himself. By doing this, he could have confirmed that Kevin was indeed left alone.
And the script could have been written a 100 different ways to prevent Kevin from being left home alone, but that doesn't mean there's a plot hole or movie mistake.
Bishop73
Creating series of silly explanations for obvious mistakes/plotholes never resolves them. He should have identified himself regardless of the circumstances.
Exactly.
Perhaps the officer's failure to identify himself (as well as other deficiencies in the way he responded to the call) would more accurately be classified as a "character mistake"? This may result in fewer criticisms (corrections) while not negating the "stupidity."
KeyZOid
Maybe it should be. Because he acted much too unprofessionally for a police officer.