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Home Alone has long been considered one of the most iconic and timeless. Christmas movies and is still watched by millions every year 30 years after its release.
The festive favorite sees Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) accidentally stays home when his parents and four siblings travel to Paris for Christmas.
The 1990 hit follows the story of Kevin navigating life after being abandoned, while fending off two thieves known as the Wet Bandits, Harry Lime and Marv Murchins, who attack the McCallister home in a wealthy neighborhood.
They go on strike after discovering that the whole family is heading to Paris for the holidays, not anticipating that 8-year-old Kevin was left home alone by mistake, and has some clever tricks up his sleeve to keep them out of the house.
As Kevin defends his family home and the rest of the McCallisters’ fight to be reunited with their youngest son, chaos ensues when he sets a series of booby traps to keep himself and the house safe.
Despite the near-flawless film’s enormous popularity, rarely does a film go smoothly, and fans of the cult classic have spotted a number of errors in certain scenes since its release.
Like most, some continuity errors, implausible scenarios, and plot holes plague the film, as well as little-known moments that viewers may not have seen before. MailOnline 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 movies and is still watched by millions of people each year 30 years after its release (pictured, Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McCallister).
Macaulay’s double was a grown man.
During the first and subsequent films, Macaulay performs some incredibly daring stunts while trying to escape being detained by the Wet Bandits.
Some of the more daring stunts include sledding down the steps of McCallister’s house into a snowdrift, ziplining from his tree house, and climbing a house.
Understandably, it was considered unsafe for a child to try out these risky stunts, so Macaulay was replaced by a stuntman named Larry Nicholas.
Larry already had a list of major films under his belt, including Jurassic Park and The Truman Show to Matrix Reloaded.
At the time, Larry was 30 years old and about the same height as Macaulay.
During the first and subsequent films, Macaulay performs some incredibly daring stunts while trying to escape being detained by the Wet Bandits.
Catherine O’Hara performed with a tennis ball
Due to child labor laws, Catherine was sometimes forced to perform her scene in front of a tennis ball representing Macaulay.
Laws prevent young actors from filming movies after 10 p.m., so at that time the crew would go to Macaulay for the dance.
Occasionally, the film’s director, Chris Columbus, played Kevin off-screen, but for close-ups a tennis ball was dangled at Macaulay’s height.
This was so the eye lines would match when editing the piece together after filming it.
Potato was used instead of snow.
The weather was uncooperative during the filming of the Christmas movie, so the crew had to come up with something to create the snow-covered scene.
At one point in the film, Catherine, who plays Macaulay’s mother Kate, arrives home as a flurry of snowflakes falls to the ground.
Speaking in a documentary about the film, neighbors Herb and Joanie White, who live across the street from the real Home Alone house, recalled the scene in which it was filmed.
Herb said, “Those are potato chips.” To the side, out of sight, are two large fans and two burly guys shaking bags of potato flakes into the fan.
He admitted that while the flakes “looked good for the movie,” they “started getting pretty smelly after a while.”
However, the crew didn’t need to wear potato flakes the entire time, as the set was hit by a snowstorm that kept the street looking snowy and perfect throughout filming.
The weather was uncooperative during the filming of the Christmas movie, so the crew had to come up with something to create the snow-covered scene.
Angels with Dirty Souls is not a real movie
There is a black and white film that plays during Home Alone that says one of the most iconic lines of the film: “Merry Christmas, you disgusting animal.”
However, fans were surprised to learn that Angels with Filthy Souls never existed before the release of Home Alone.
Kevin uses the film to scare Marv into hiding behind the bins when he tries to break into the house during one of his burglaries.
The star of the film is Tommy Gun-wielding gangster Johnny, a Chicago actor named Ralph Foody who you can also see in Curly Sue and The Blues Brothers.
The film clip was created especially for Home Alone.
There is a black and white film that plays during Home Alone that says one of the most iconic lines of the film: “Merry Christmas, you disgusting animal.”
Buzz’s girlfriend isn’t actually a girl.
There’s a scene where Kevin takes a framed photo of his older brother’s girlfriend and sarcastically says ‘Buzz, your girlfriend: wow!’
However, it has since been revealed that the image used for the scene is not actually a photo of a girl.
Apparently, director Chris thought it would be too cruel to make fun of a girl’s appearance and so he had another idea.
The girlfriend who looks surprised in the photo is actually the son of the film’s art director.
There’s a scene where Kevin takes a framed photo of his older brother’s girlfriend and sarcastically says ‘Buzz, your girlfriend: wow!’
The iconic moment was a happy accident.
One of the movie’s most synonymous moments with Home Alone is when Kevin puts his hands to his face, but it turns out that it was actually an improvisation.
The moment was not going to happen as it did at all and Macaulay was instructed to remove his hands from his cheeks before shouting.
Instead, while patting his face with aftershave, he screamed and the team burst into laughter, meaning the mistake made the final cut.
More than that, the shot became the defining image of Home Alone.
One of the movie’s most synonymous moments with Home Alone is when Kevin puts his hands to his face, but it turns out that it was actually an improvisation.
continuity error
Before one of Harry and Marv’s robberies, Kevin sits down to eat his macaroni and cheese dinner just before 9 p.m.
The moment draws the viewer’s attention to the plate of food they are eating.
However, as the chaos unfolds and just before Harry is covered in a mountain of feathers, the camera focuses back on the plate of food.
But it’s clearly a different plate of food than the previous one, since instead of macaroni and cheese, it clearly has three sections of food.
How is that possible?
Another blunder when it comes to food is that Kevin can order a pizza to take home.
It was made clear that the phones don’t work and you can’t make a call at the beginning of the film.
But at one point he successfully receives a pizza without any indication of if or when the phones were restored.
Another blunder when it comes to food is that Kevin can order a pizza to take home.
flight at the speed of light
When the McCallister takes off from Chicago it is clearly morning.
The flight to Paris takes between seven and eight hours and you also have to take into account the seven-hour time difference.
Taking all this into account, the family should arrive in the French capital around one or two in the morning.
However, when the plane arrives in Paris, it is already daylight, which is not the right time.
Predict the future
One of the movie’s plot holes is Kevin setting up a series of Christmas decorations as an obstacle for the Wet Bandits.
The ornaments are a key part of Kevin’s battle plan, as a barefoot Marv steps on them and screams in pain.
However, Kevin had no way of knowing that Marv would take off his shoes once in the house.
Despite this, everything worked out in the end as Marv entered the basement first, left his shoes on the stairs, and only then entered through the window.
One of the movie’s plot holes is Kevin setting up a series of Christmas decorations as an obstacle for the Wet Bandit.