Home Alone (1990) - 55 mistakes

Continuity: 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.

Revealing: The morning the McCallister's 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.

Continuity: 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.

Continuity: 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 other pair of trousers.

Continuity: 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.

Visible crew/equipment: In the scene where Kevin rides the rig on the rope to get to the treehouse, you can see that it was a stuntguy, because Kevin is much smaller.

Continuity: In the scene where Kevin prepares to ride his toboggan down the stairs, the front door changes position between half open and completely open.

Continuity: 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: When the McAllisters leave Chicago, they are flying on a DC-10. The plane that arrives in Paris at the end of the flight is a 757.

Continuity: 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 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.

Continuity: In the scene where Kevin is putting washing in and taking clothes out of the drier, 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: When Kevin is searching in Buzz' chest, some objects appear or change place after he throws the Playboy magazine away.

Revealing: 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: In the shot where Buzz is eating the slice of pizza, he is shoving it into his mouth all bent up. In the next shot from another angle, he is eating it flat and it seems to be a whole new slice.

Continuity: Assuming the McCallisters left Chicago mid-morning as the story suggests (say, between 9 and 10am), and allowing for an 8 hour flight and 7 hour time difference, the flight should be arriving in Paris somewhere between midnight and 1am. However, the footage of the plane landing suggests it is around twilight.

Continuity: When the first shot of the rigged rope is shown outside of the upstairs window, the rope appears to be horizontal. Yet, when Kevin rides down it, the rope appears to now be sloping downward towards the treehouse.

Continuity: When Marley comes into the drug store to see Kevin, the wrapping paper is leaning on the shelves, but in the next shot the wrapping paper is gone.

Continuity: When Kevin is dancing to 'Rocking Around the Christmas Tree' in the living room, the position of the record player is straight, but in the next shot it is halfway crooked.

Visible crew/equipment: When Kevin is going to swing over by the tree house on a rope, before he goes you can see a crew member reflected on the wall by the window.

Continuity: When Kevin is shopping for groceries the paper towels are in the cart, but in the next shot the paper towels are on the conveyor belt.

Visible crew/equipment: When Kevin is in the house and he locks the front door, a crew member is reflected on the mail holder.

Visible crew/equipment: When Kevin is getting ready to light the firecrackers you can see a crew member's face reflected on the dishwasher.

Visible crew/equipment: When Marv is in the basement he closes the door behind him while he is getting ready to be hit by the iron you can see a crew member reflected on the basement door.

Other: When Kevin puts the spider on Marv's nose you can see a box of junk is almost halfway off the steps of the attic but in the next shot at the start of the film the box is no longer halfway off the steps.

Continuity: When Kevin and Buzz are fighting over by the pizza you can see a cup filled with Pepsi but in the next shot the cup is facing down of the table.

Other: The Murphy's basement is shown to be dripping water from when Marv flooded the kitchen earlier but when the crooks are hit by the old man at the end of the film, the floor is dry even though the faucets are still running.

Revealing: When Kevin is washing dishes, there's Bubbles on his hands, but in the next shot there's no bubbles on his hands.

Continuity: When Kate is calling for Kevin she has snow on her hair, but in the next shot that snow is gone.

Revealing: 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.

Continuity: 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.

Continuity: As Kevin runs away from the nativity scene after hiding from the Harry and Marv, his scarf is done up to the right (over his right shoulder). When he reveals himself from the nativity scene from under the green robe, his scarf is done up to the left (over his left shoulder).

Deliberate "mistake": Kevin rides down the stairs on his sled and out the door. He originally lined up the sled at the top of the stairs, but it is clear that the stairs lie to the right of the door. His sled went straight down the stairs, therefore making it impossible go straight out the door in one movement as shown.

Continuity: When the family is rushing all over the house because they're late, they show Brooke coming down the stairs and Heather going up the stairs. Then the scene goes to Mitch Murphy and then comes back to the family rushing. The scene shows the same shot of Brooke and Heather going down and up the stairs.

Continuity: In the scene where Kevin goes flying into his treehouse and breaks out the wood, the amount of wood missing changes from one scene to the next.

Continuity: When the robber with the beard gets hit in the face with an iron, the iron hits him on the face, and leaves a mark slanted to the right. It also leaves a mark on his nose. When the two robbers are talking after they have been tricked and before Kevin puts the spider on one of the robbers, the iron mark is vertical and there is no mark on the nose anymore.

Factual error: 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.

Visible crew/equipment: When Kevin is decorating the Christmas tree you can see a crew-member reflected in the Christmas bauble.

Visible crew/equipment: 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.

Continuity: In the scene where the robber is breaking into the basement, the steps and concrete by the door are icy. However, when the camera angle changes and it shows the same scene looking out of the basement, there is no ice at all.

Continuity: The morning that Kevin wakes up looking for his family, his hair changes in each scene and stands up straighter on top.

Other: Toward the end of the film, there is a scene where Macauley 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.

Continuity: When Kevin climbs on the shelves in his brother's bedroom you can see the spider switch to left and right.

Visible crew/equipment: When Fuller is drinking Pepsi, a crew member is reflected on his glasses.

Audio problem: When Kevin is going through Buzz's private things he finds a picture of his girlfriend. Sickened by her appearance, he smashes the picture. But the smashing sound starts before he hits it.

Continuity: When Kevin's father leaves the table to stop Kevin from annoying Buzz, the Pepsi bottle is going to fall, In the following shot, the bottle is not falling and the dishes have moved.

Plot hole: 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.

Deliberate "mistake": In the scene where Kevin swipes the toothbrush from the drugstore, he slides across a skating rink on his knees while being chased by the cop. Ice is slippery, but not THAT slippery (especially when it's been skated on). Kevin would have only slid a few feet before coming to a stop.

Continuity: When Kevin is preening himself in the mirror while giving a running commentary of his washing habits, you can see the shower gel (facing forward), aftershave and deodorant to his left by the sink. When it cuts to a close shot, a bottle of fragrance has mysteriously appeared by these items and the shower gel is facing away from Kevin.

Continuity: 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.

Continuity: In the supermarket when Kevin puts the groceries on the conveyor belt, he sets the tissue paper standing up. The next shot of Kevin shows the tissue on its side and farther back, the next shot it's back to its original position.

Continuity: When Harry is telling Marv when the Christmas lights on the house are going off, right before they are going to rob the house, they show the dashboard of the van. There is nothing on it. When they pull into the driveway, there's paper and other things on the dashboard.

Continuity: When the 2 burglars are breaking into the McAllister home, the tall burglar gets hit square in the face by an iron...he has iron marks on his forehead and cheeks but not his nose...how could the iron not hit his nose?

Continuity: Harry and Marv both get hit with the paint containers on the stairs. Look at the front doorway when Marv gets hit. The cord (from the hot implement attached on the doorknob) is in an 'S' shape and lots of micro machines litter the doorway. Harry then gets hit. When he gets up to go up the stairs after Kevin, the cord has moved and the micro machines are well clear of the doorway.

Continuity: When Harry slips and somersaults down the Mccallister's iced front door steps for the second time, his hat falls off at the base of the stairs while he's tumbling, yet in the subsequent shot showing Harry, he is wearing his hat again.