Home Alone

Revealing mistake: As Kevin is flying off the front porch on the toboggan, you can see the small wheels mounted on the bottom of the sled to aid in its "jump". (00:25:30)

Revealing mistake: When Harry trips on the fan string throwing feathers all over him, the fan sound is heard running but there's no air blowing at him as the feathers are falling around him undisturbed. A few shots later, we see the fan on and blowing feathers around the room which is what it should have been doing.

jerimiah

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

Revealing mistake: The morning the McCallisters are rushing to get to the airport, the kid from across the street is bothering one of the van drivers. In the scene where the van driver says, "Gee, kid I dunno, hit the road," you can clearly see the kid mouthing the words as the man speaks. (00:14:00)

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.

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.

Revealing mistake: When Marv is about to hit Harry, who has the spider on his stomach, you can tell that, for two shots, it's a fake spider. The real spider is brown. In the shots where Marv is standing about to hit it, the spider is black and motionless. (01:26:00)

Knever

Revealing mistake: When Kevin lands in the treehouse, he's at the back with his feet through the wall. Given where the rope is tied to the tree, he would have hit into the tree or the door frame of the treehouse, not at the back wall.

jerimiah

Revealing mistake: When Harry tells Marv that he's sick of him leaving the water running in the house that they robbed, you can see Harry supposedly shift his van into drive. However, Harry does not even move the gear selector from park to drive.

Revealing mistake: Kevin goes food shopping, He gets milk and detergent, obviously heavy items. Afterwards we see him walking home and the bags he is carrying break open. He is carrying them like they are light as a feather. Even when the milk falls, you can tell it's an empty bottle.

Revealing mistake: When Kevin's cousin Fuller is trapped behind the kitchen chair during the spilled soda incident, the "wooden" chair back which hits him in the nose actually bends when it hits his face. (00:09:25)

Revealing mistake: When Harry and Marv are crossing the "rope" to the treehouse in the far away shots it is something thinner and resembling more like a steel cable, not a rope as Kevin had put up.

jerimiah

Revealing mistake: When talking to John Candy in the box van, the view outside the window screen is a projection, and the picture is not moving - at this point they're supposed to be driving.

Revealing mistake: When Harry walks around the side of the house towards the front door, in the shot which shows Harry walking from side-on, this is obviously a stand-in, given this person is much taller than Joe Pesci (who plays Harry). It is also the same stand-in when we see Harry in the behind shots as he holds onto the railings while he tries to climb the steps. (01:14:10)

mightymick

Revealing mistake: In the scene where Kevin goes to climb the shelves, we can see that the tarantula is fake as it doesn't move, nor would its legs be spread out if it was holding onto the side of the glass tank as shown.

jerimiah

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

Suggested correction: He does move his fingers while playing his clarinet.

AAL117

Revealing mistake: When Marv is at the basement door trying to regain his stance, as he steps onto the icy ground, the "ice" bends and distorts the light just like a piece of plexiglass.

jerimiah

Revealing mistake: When Marv is trying to break into the basement, after he slides down the stairs and is trying to use the crowbar to hoist himself back up, the "ice" on the floor looks "too perfect" and is either a greased up glass sheet or plastic (to allow him to slide his feet around comically). You'd sort of expect the ice to be a bit uneven naturally. It's more evident in HD or digital versions.

Revealing mistake: When Harry tells Marv to go back while they are climbing across the rope, in the shot facing them front-on, you can see Kevin in the background about to cut the rope. If you look closely this is not Kevin, it is his stand-in.

mightymick

Revealing mistake: Towards the end when Harry walks up the frozen stairs, you can see it switches to a stuntman when he slips and lands on his back. (01:17:55)

dabears51907

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.

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

Suggested correction: Maybe he returned it.

No chance, we see him buy it and then use it in a later scene.

Ssiscool

More mistakes in Home Alone

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.

More questions & answers from Home Alone

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