Corrected entry: When Marv is trying to regain balance at the entrance to the basement, his crowbar (which had been hooked onto the window frame) is now floating midair, perhaps dangling on string to drop at just the right moment.
Corrected entry: When Fuller is drinking a Pepsi, a crew member is reflected on his glasses. (00:09:00)
Corrected entry: How would the robbers know exactly what time the lights were going on at the McCallisters' house? It is the first evening they are away from home; and even though Harry visited the house the evening before, he was not told the exact second when the timers were set and didn't leave the hallway to find out for himself.
Correction: They've been casing the neighborhood and Harry made notes on exactly when the automatic lights came on. The people in the neighborhood would have the timers set all the time, not just when they're away.
Corrected entry: When Harry comes through the back door, the blowtorch sets his hat on fire, but doesn't seem to damage or set alight the curtains hanging on the back of the door, even though the flame is pretty big.
Correction: Many curtains are available that are either made from a flame-retardant material or are treated to be so; it would make sense for the McCallisters to have such curtains on their door so that, in the event of a house fire, the most obvious exit would also not be engulfed in flames.
Corrected entry: In the scene where the robber steps on the ornaments as he comes through the window, as he stands up to walk, there are more ornaments than were in the previous scene.
Correction: No it's the same amount except that he has stepped on them breaking them into smaller pieces; hence it makes it look like there are more there.
Corrected entry: In the scene where Kevin is sentenced to the third floor, you can see that the roof joists of this house are open and un-insulated, making this attic way too cold for use as a spare bedroom - something a resident of "Shermer, Illinois" and not southern California would know.
Correction: We never saw the full room, there could be a heater somewhere in there keeping it warm. In my house there is no working furnace so it also gets very cold here, so we have heaters.
Correction: Look closely and you will see some type of heater in the attic.
Corrected entry: 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.
Corrected entry: After Kevin leaves the church where he's talking with the old man he runs home to make a game plan to protect his house. Kevin runs up the walkway to the front door and walks right in - using no key. Was it unlocked the whole time?
Correction: Maybe it was. It's possible Kevin doesn't have a key to the house or doesn't know where a spare set is. I wasn't given a key to my house by my parents until I was probably twelve. If he doesn't have a key, then he has to leave the door unlocked whenever he goes out, lest he locks himself out of the house. Ultimately, an unlocked door is not a movie mistake.
Corrected entry: When the robbers return to the McAllisters' house and are scared off by Kevin's fake "party," why didn't they notice that even though lots of "people" were inside, no cars were parked outside the house?
Correction: As a matter of fact, there WERE cars outside - in the garage (the same cars that made Kevin think his family hadn't gone to the airport.) The guy must have thought all those people were the large amount of people he'd seen when he was disguised as a police officer (he couldn't have remembered them all.)
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: The flight that the McCallisters take from Chicago to Paris is one of the slowest Trans-Atlantic flights on record, especially considering it's on a Boeing 767. Their flight takes roughly 24 hours; a normal flight from O'Hare to Paris takes roughly 8 hours.
Correction: Firstly, the flight is on a DC-10 (though the movie shows a 757 arriving in Paris). Second, there is no clear reference to the time of day when the McAllisters arrive in Paris. However, assuming a mid-morning departure from Chicago (say 10:00am), an 8 hour flight and the 7 hour time difference, it would be close to 1:00am local when the flight landed.
Corrected entry: There was a blackout before the McCallisters' trip, but the automatic timer for the house lights went on as planned.
Correction: Electronic timers have a capacitor power back up, allowing them to retain their timing settings.
Today yes, but not so much in 1990.
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.
Corrected entry: The McAllister's flight arrives at Paris's Orly airport. Orly is used for domestic/continental flights only. DeGaulle is Paris's international airport.
Correction: Check here for all destinations from Paris-Orly, including USA (under heading 'select destination country (direct flights)'): http://www.skyscanner.net/flights-from/ory/cheapest-flights-from-paris-orly.html?rtn=1.
Corrected entry: In the scene towards the end where Kevin dials 911, we get a shot of the phone with a logo that reads "BellSouth Products" on it. In the Chicago area in 1990, the phone provider would not have been BellSouth, but Ameritech, which is based out of Chicago.
Correction: BellSouth did and does resell residential home telephone sets with their logo. These were definitely available in the Chicago area at that time as I owned one. They were available at most electronics retailers throughout Chicago and the suburbs. Ameritech did sell some phone handsets, but not many.
Corrected entry: After Kevin has been out of the house and said, "I'm not afraid anymore", it was night, but when his mom calls from Paris and they send a policeman to their house, it is broad daylight and Kevin is still under the bed cover.
Correction: When the policeman comes to the house, it's still nighttime.
Corrected entry: To pay for his groceries, Kevin hands the cashier a folded-up bill, and the cashier takes it, still folded. When the scene immediately cuts to the cashier, she is holding an unfolded bill.
Correction: You can only see the top corner of the bill in that shot. You can't tell if it's folded or unfolded. In the next shot afterwards that you can see the bill, it is unfolded, but she would have had time to unfold it by then.
Corrected entry: Electrical irons are bottom heavy so that they stand up more sturdily. How would Marv be left with the imprint of the top part when the bottom of the iron falls first?
Correction: The entire iron would fall at the same time. The speed of gravity is not affected by the weight of the object. Both the heavy bottom and the lighter top would fall at the same rate, each having an equal chance of hitting him.
Corrected entry: When Kate is calling for Kevin she has snow on her hair, but in the next shot that snow is gone.
Correction: It would have just melted.
Corrected entry: Marv is walking up steps covered in tar in the basement. He gets some tar on his feet and we see it in the nail scene. When he falls and grabs his feet, his feet are clean from then on.
Correction: His feet are not clean from then on. Although the shot referred to is not clear the next scene shows him leaving the basement barefoot with tar on the soles and sides of his feet. He even leaves black footprints on his way out.
Correction: Marv's crowbar is not "floating midair," nor is it "dangling on a string to drop at just the right moment." After Marv falls down the icy stairs and says, "Ow," when he uses the crowbar to help himself stand upright, we can see that this exterior door has a lower raised solid panel under the glass panels. When Marv peeks through the glass and falls again, the crowbar gets caught on the top lip of the door's raised solid panel for a moment, turns, then slips off the panel's lip and drops. Rewatch, please.
Super Grover ★