Home Alone has long been considered one of the most iconic and timeless Christmas films and is still watched by millions each year 30 years after its release.
The festive favourite sees Kevin McCallister [Macaulay Culkin] accidentally left behind at home when his parents and his four siblings head to Paris for Christmas.
The 1990 hit follows the story of Kevin navigating life after being left behind, while fending off two burglars known as the Wet Bandits – Harry Lime and Marv Murchins – who target the McCallister home in a wealthy neighbourhood.
They strike after finding out that the entire family is headed to Paris for the holidays, not anticipating that 8-year-old Kevin was mistakenly left home alone – and he’s got a few nifty tricks up his sleeve to keep them out of the house.
As Kevin defends his family home and the rest of the McCallister’s struggle to get back to reunite with their youngest child, chaos ensues as he sets up a series of booby traps to keep himself and the house safe.
Despite the almost flawless film’s huge popularity – it’s rare a movie goes off completely without a hitch, and fans of the cult classic have spotted a series of errors in certain scenes since it’s release.
Like most, a few continuity errors, farfetched scenarios and plot holes plague the film, as well as little known moments that viewers may not have clocked before. takes a look at the unknown facts that will blow your mind…
Home Alone has long been considered one of the most iconic and timeless Christmas films and is still watched by millions each year 30 years after its release (pictured Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McCallister)
Macaulay’s stunt double was a grown man
During the first and subsequent films, Macaulay’s character takes on some incredibly daring stunts as he tries to shake off being apprehended by the Wet Bandits.
Some of the riskier stunt including sledging down the stairs in the McCallister house into a snow mound, zip-lining from his tree house and scaling a house.
Understandably it was deemed unsafe for a child to try out these scenes, so Macaulay was replaced by a stunt vet named Larry Nicholas.
At the time Larry was 30 years old and around the same height as Macaulay. Larry went on to also feature in Jurassic Park and The Truman Show to The Matrix Reloaded.
During the first and subsequent films, Macaulay takes on some incredibly daring stunts as he tries to shake off being apprehended by the Wet Bandits
Catherine O’Hara acted with a tennis ball
Because of child labour laws, Catherine was sometimes forced to act out her scene to a tennis ball which represented Macaulay.
The laws prevent young actors from shooting films past 10pm, so at this point the crew would swap out Macaulay for the ball.
Occasionally, the film’s director Chris Columbus would play Kevin off-screen, but for close ups a tennis ball would be dangled at Macaulay’s height.
This was so that the eyelines would match up when it came to editing the piece together later down the line.
Potato was used instead of snow
The weather didn’t initially play ball when it came to shooting the Christmas film, so the crew had to come up with something to create the snow-covered scene.
At one point during the film, Catherine – who plays Macaulay’s mother Kate – arrives home as a flurry of snowflakes fall to the ground.
Speaking in a documentary about the film, neighbours Herb and Joanie White, who live opposite the real Home Alone house recalled the scene being shot.
Herb said: ‘Those are potato flakes. Off to the side, where you don’t see them, there are two big fans and two big burly guys with bags of potato flakes shaking them into the fan.’
He admitted that while the flakes ‘looked fine for the movie’ they ‘started getting pretty odorous after a while.’
However, the crew didn’t need to use potato flakes the whole time, as the set was hit by a blizzard that kept the street looking snowy and perfect throughout filming.
The weather didn’t play ball when it came to shooting the Christmas film, so the crew had to come up with something to create the snow-covered scene
Angels with Filthy Souls isn’t a real movie
There is a black and white film that is played during Home Alone that spouts one of the movie’s most iconic lines – ‘Merry Christmas, ya filthy animal’.
However, fans were shocked to learn that Angels with Filthy Souls never actually existed before Home Alone was released.
Kevin uses the film to scare Marv into diving behind the bins when he tries to enter the house during one of their break-ins.
The film’s star is Johnny the Tommy Gun-wielding gangster was a Chicago actor called Ralph Foody who you can also see in Curly Sue and The Blues Brothers.
The film clip was especially created for Home Alone.
There is a black and white film that is played during Home Alone that spouts one of the movie’s most iconic lines – ‘Merry Christmas, ya filthy animal’.
Buzz’s girlfriend is not actually a girl
There is a scene where Kevin picks up a framed photo of his older brother’s girlfriend and sarcastically says, ‘Buzz, your girlfriend: woof!’
However, it has since been revealed that the picture used for the scene is not actually a photo of a young girl.
Director Chris apparently thought it would be too mean to mock the appearance of a young girl and therefore had another idea.
The startled-looking girlfriend in the snap is actually the son of the film’s art director.
There is a scene where Kevin picks up a framed photo of his older brother’s girlfriend and sarcastically says ‘Buzz, your girlfriend: woof!’
Iconic moment was a happy accident
One of the most synonymous moments from the film with the Home Alone brand is Kevin holding his hands to his face – but it turns out this was actually improvisation.
The moment wasn’t planned to happen as it did and Macaulay was actually instructed to pull his hands away from his cheeks before screaming.
Instead, as he patted aftershave onto his face he shrieked and the crew burst into fits of laughter – meaning the gaffe actually made it into the final cut.
More than that, the shot became Home Alone’s defining image.
One of the most synonymous moments from the film with Home Alone is Kevin holding his hands to his face – but it turns out this was actually improvisation
Continuity error
Ahead of one of Harry and Marv’s break-ins, Kevin sits down to eat his macaroni and cheese dinner just before 9pm.
The moment draws the viewer’s eye to the plate of food he is eating.
However, as the chaos later unfolds and just before Harry is covered in a mountain of feathers, the camera once again pans onto the plate of food.
But it is clearly a different plate of food to before, as rather than the mac and cheese it clearly has three different sections of food on it.
How is that possible?
Another blunder when it comes to food in the film is that Kevin is able to order a pizza to the house.
It has been made clear that the phones are down and he is unable to make a call earlier in the film.
But he successfully receives a pizza at one point without any indication of if or when the phones were restored.
Another blunder when it comes to food is that Kevin is able to order a pizza to the house.
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Lightspeed flight
When the McCallister’s take off from Chicago it is clearly morning time.
The flight to Paris takes between seven and eight hours and then the seven hour ahead time difference also needs to be taken into consideration.
With all this being accounted for, the family should arrive in the French capital at around one or two in the morning.
However, when the plane arrives in Paris, it’s already broad daylight – which is completely the wrong time of day.
Predicting the future
One of the plot holes in the film is that Kevin lays out a series of Christmas ornaments as an obstacle for the Wet Bandits.
The ornaments are a key part of Kevin’s battle plan as they are stood on by barefoot Marv who cries out in pain.
However, there was no way for Kevin to know that Marv was going to take his shoes off once in the house.
Despite this, it all worked out in the end as Marv went into the basement first, left his shoes on the stairs, and only then entered through the window.
One of the plot holes in the film is that Kevin lays out a series of Christmas ornaments as an obstacle for the Wet Bandit