History YMMV / HomeAlone1

* NarmCharm: ''[[ShowWithinAShow Angels With Filthy Souls]]'' is incredibly over-the-top and violent. But the black and white coloring, setting, and sound made it seem like an authentic gangster film to moviegoers.

** The MallSanta Kevin encounters is remembered for being [[IronButtMonkey a decent guy despite a not-decent situation.]]

* AndYouThoughtItWouldFail: According to Creator/ChrisColumbus, during an interview with Creator/AlecBaldwin on Baldwin's podcast "Here's the Thing", Creator/JohnHeard was unhappy about working on the film, feeling that the film was going to be terrible. However, upon seeing the finished film and its subsequent success, Heard apologized to Columbus when they were shooting his scenes on the film's sequel, having broken character before his first take to tell Columbus. Columbus says he still has footage of Heard's apology on video tape.

* AccidentalAesop: Pay your pizza delivery boys fairly.

* AccidentalAesop:
** Pay your pizza delivery boys fairly. They'll always give good service. Also, please don't terrorize them with an old movie.
** If you cut your toxic family members from your life, you'll eventually miss them.
** Even if you have a legitimate grievance against someone, violently attacking them doesn't help your reputation.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: The first film relies almost completely on the realities of life in pre-[[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror 9/11]] America. Viewing it in the new millennium can be a bit of a time capsule of life in the late 80s-early 90s, and a reminder of how things used to be in ways the filmmakers could never have intended. This is the opposite of what was intended; Creator/ChrisColumbus has said that he and Creator/JohnHughes wanted ''Home Alone'' to have a "timeless" look and feel to it so that years down the line, it could still be enjoyed by people without seeming "dated". Unfortunately, this wasn't the case, though it isn't their fault -- the kind of travel protocols, technological advancements, and lifestyle changes that became common after 9/11 couldn't possibly have been predicted by the filmmakers.
** If the film were made and set in TheNewTens and beyond, Kevin's parents would, at worst, have to sort out some new SIM cards for their cell phones in order to give Kevin's own cell a call. They weren't able to call the house due to the ''land-based'' phone lines being down and the house having no wireless phones, which was, in 1990 (and as a holdover from UsefulNotes/TheEighties) a fairly typical arrangement, even for a well-off household like theirs[[note]]The cell phones that did exist at the time were not as reliable[[/note]]. In the new millennium, even just before 9/11, Kevin would've been able to find a way to get his hands on a cell phone, and that would've opened up a number of additional solutions for his family to either get back home or get him to France with everyone.
** You can see a line of pay phones in the airport terminal (Kevin also uses one of them in ''Home Alone 2''). While such phones still exist in airport terminals, it's an increasing rarity.
** Harry ridicules Marv's comment that Kevin might be calling the police from his treehouse. Less than a decade after this movie came out, cell phones were already starting to proliferate around the world and had become small enough for a child to carry easily.
** Alternatively, if the movie were set in the modern day, the [=McCallisters=] could've used the Internet, social media, or E-mail to help Kevin. Not just by sending him an E-mail or a Facebook post, but by electronically booking him a flight and sending a courier to take him to the airport. This wouldn't have been remotely possible in 1990, since the Internet at the time was mainly limited to research labs and the World Wide Web wasn't made public until 1991. While a well-to-do family like theirs would probably have purchased a computer with a dial-up connection in the mid-90s, it wouldn't be until the mid-2000s that the Internet and social media would be mainstream.
** Nowadays, there are alarm clocks that hold regular batteries that activate when a power outage cuts off the main electrical supply, and a lot of people use the alarms on their smartphones to wake themselves up -- so unless the backup battery of the alarm clock failed and wasn't replaced, or the person in question accidentally put the phone in sleep mode/forgot to charge it, a power outage wouldn't prevent Kevin and his family from waking up on time and going to the airport without incident. Ironically, the alarm clock in the movie actually ''does'' have a battery backup, as is advertised on the top edge of said radio -- meaning his parents either forgot to replace them, or never put them in at all.
** Harry and Marv, in the [=21st=] century, would've ''never'' discovered that Kevin was alone at the house; he'd already fooled them repeatedly into thinking that the house was still heavily occupied. The only reason they found out the truth was the fact that Kevin's father left a message about Kevin being home alone on a neighbor's answering machine -- and the criminals, who just so happened to be in the middle of robbing that same neighbor’s house, overheard it being recorded. Answering machines are all but gone today, in favor of private, electronic voicemail, and many homes no longer have landline phones anyway [[note]] While it's not ''impossible'' to have a landline phone anymore, one such as what Harry and Marv find would be unlikely [[/note]].
** The lax airport security of the Nineties is on full display. Kate is able to barter a plane ticket off of a fellow traveler in the terminal. That was a little questionable even then, but at least conceivable -- it was a holdover from still-earlier eras of air travel where the tickets were more like train or ship tickets. However, anybody who attempts something like that in an American airport in the [=21st=] century would probably be detained on suspicion of being a terrorist. Besides that, most people use their phones to store their boarding passes, and nontransferable from one person to another. Also, Kate's harsh attitude toward an airline clerk, while [[MamaBear understandable]], would probably get her thrown out of the airport by security.
** As they leave the house, Frank tells Peter "There's no way on Earth we're gonna make this plane. It leaves in 45 minutes!" before they get in the vans, located in Winnetka, a suburb of Chicago. Without traffic, it's a half-hour drive from 671 Lincoln Avenue (their home address) to O'Hare International Airport. Not only are Chicago's expressways known to be congested in both directions at rush hour, but the airport would be even ''more'' crowded because they were catching a flight close to Christmas -- one of the busiest times of the year for airports. In the [=21st=] century, even if the [=McCallisters=] got miraculously lucky with traffic and already had their boarding passes on their phones or in their hands, they would still have to go through a ''lot'' of time-consuming steps once they arrived: checking in, waiting in the security line, clearing the security checkpoint, and then making their way through the terminal to their gate. Factoring in all of that, they would have missed their flight by almost two hours by the time they reached the gate [[note]] Nowadays, airports recommend you ''get there'' two hours early so you can be assured you’ll get through everything in time to catch your flight - and that’s just for ''continental'' flights; for an international one like they’re taking they recommend ''three'' at minimum[[/note]]. The film handwaves it away by saying the [=McCallisters=] just barely made it with moments to spare after running to the gate at a full sprint, but it's still a colossal stretch.
** In UsefulNotes/TheNewTens and UsefulNotes/TheNewTwenties, the sheer ''opulence'' of the [=McCallister=] household can stick out a bit. The family is presented as being upper-middle-class, with Kevin's dad being a while collar worker of some sort, but not a tycoon or anything (he has to use vans and consumer air travel, for a start). The [=McCallister=] home is absolutely enormous and filled with ''stuff'' (so as to work as a great movie set), though; in the [=70s=] and [=80s=], it still wasn't terribly uncommon for people with middle management-style jobs or other mid-tier white collar jobs to be able to afford something like that, especially with perhaps a little clever investing. In the new millennium, a home such as this would only possibly be believable as the home of the moneyed investor class (which would give the whole film a somewhat different read).
*** Another shock comes when you realize that not are Kate and Peter sustaining this level of furnishing while also supporting 5 children, but the entire first act of the film is about this huge family taking a Christmas vacation to ''Paris, France'' on a whim. Put all that together and you're left with something most people in UsefulNotes/TheNewTens would find incomprehensible. Your first assumption in watching this movie would be that the [=McCallister=] are filthy rich instead of just upper middle class.
* ValuesDissonance: Buzz owns an air rifle which is later used by Kevin. While it did raise some eyebrows in TheNineties, the idea of even carrying around an air rifle after two decades of school shootings would be seen as TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior.
* TheWoobie: Marley in the first film, who not only has to deal with scary rumors being made about him, but also had a falling out with his own son, leaving him only able to see his granddaughter while she's singing at the local church. Fortunately for him, Kevin's advice convinces him to try and reconnect with his son, and the ending shows that the two have made up.

** Harry and Marv, in the [=21st=] century, would've ''never'' discovered that Kevin was alone at the house; he'd already fooled them repeatedly into thinking that the house was still heavily occupied. The only reason they found out the truth was the fact that Kevin's father left a message about Kevin being home alone on a neighbor's answering machine -- and the criminals, who just so happened to be in the middle of robbing that same neighbor’s house, overheard it being recorded. Answering machines are all but gone today, in favor of private, electronic voicemail, and many homes no longer have landline phones anyway. While it's not ''impossible'' to have a landline phone anymore, one such as what Harry and Marv find would be unlikely.
** The lax airport security of the Nineties is on full display. Kate is able to barter a plane ticket off of a fellow traveler in the terminal. That was a little questionable even then, but it's at least conceivable -- it was a holdover from still-earlier eras of air travel where the tickets were more like train or ship tickets. However, anybody who attempts something like that in an American airport in the [=21st=] century would probably be detained on suspicion of being a terrorist. Besides that, airline tickets are now entirely electronic, and they're nontransferable from one person to another in the first place. Also, Kate's harsh attitude toward an airline clerk, while [[MamaBear understandable]], would probably get her thrown out of the airport by security.
** As they leave the house, Frank tells Peter "There's no way on Earth we're gonna make this plane. It leaves in 45 minutes!" before they get in the vans, located in Winnetka, a suburb of Chicago. Without traffic, it's a half-hour drive from 671 Lincoln Avenue (their home address) to O'Hare International Airport. Not only are Chicago's expressways known to be congested in both directions at rush hour, but the airport would be even ''more'' crowded because they were catching a flight close to Christmas -- one of the busiest times of the year for airports. In the [=21st=] century, even if the [=McCallisters=] got miraculously lucky, didn't hit any traffic, and everyone already had their boarding passes on their phones or in their hands, they would still have to go through a ''lot'' of time-consuming steps once they arrived: checking in, waiting in the security line, clearing the security checkpoint, and then making their way through the terminal to their gate. Factoring in all of that, they would have missed their flight by almost two hours by the time they reached the gate [[note]] Nowadays, it’s recommended to get to the airport an hour and a half before your flight- and that’s just for ''continental'' flights; for an international one like theirs they recommend ''three''[[/note]]. The film handwaves it away by saying the [=McCallisters=] just barely made it with moments to spare after running to the gate at a full sprint, but it's still a colossal stretch.

** Alternatively, if the movie were set in the modern day, the [=McCalisters=] could've used the Internet, social media, or E-mail to help Kevin. Not just by sending him an E-mail or a Facebook post, but by electronically booking him a flight and sending a courier to take him to the airport. This wouldn't have been remotely possible in 1990, since the Internet at the time was mainly limited to research labs and the World Wide Web wasn't made public until 1991. While a well-to-do family like theirs would probably have purchased a computer with a dial-up connection in the mid-90s, it wouldn't be until the mid-2000s that the Internet and social media would be mainstream.

* AssPull: It's heavily implied that Kevin was somehow able to set up his trap house in under an hour between 8pm and 9pm. Maybe the traps alone would be doable within that timeframe, but the fact that Kevin ''also'' had to race home from the church, think and draw up a battle-plan before placing said traps, and even had some spare time at the end to cook some microwave mac-and-cheese, [[WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief shoves a lot into just one hour]].

** The police officer who goes to the [=McCallisters'=] home to check on Kevin simply makes a cursory evaluation of the house, declares it to be secure, and says that the family should count their kids again. But if one is tempted to call this officer an idiot for thinking that these parents had somehow miscounted their children, one should remember that the [=McCallisters=] actually ''did'' miscount- because they were in such a rush to leave and get to the airport in time, they left the job of counting the kids to their niece Heather. But while she ''was'' smart enough to have all the kids line up in front of the vans taking them to the airport, she was so hasty (just tapping on heads instead of calling everyone by name!) that she easily mistook Mitch Murphy - a nosy neighborhood kid who’d been drawn to house by the vans and commotion - for Kevin from behind as he was rummaging through the family’s suitcases out of curiosity. And because everyone started getting into the vans immediately after the count, no one realized the mistake, even when he stepped away from the vans and loudly told them to “have a good trip”!

** Kevin’s family as a whole is seen by some viewers as abusive monsters who are actively malevolent toward him.

** The [[=McCallister]] family as a whole is seen by some viewers as abusive monsters who are actively malevolent toward Kevin.

* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: {{B|igBrotherBully}}uzz at the end of the second film, considering that he was the one to acknowledge the fact that it was because of Kevin that the [=McCallister=] family is able to have a hotel room full of wonderful Christmas presents and insists that Kevin opens the first one.

*** The [[=McCallister]] family as a whole is seen by some viewers as abusive monsters who are actively malevolent toward Kevin.

** The [[=McCallister]] family as a whole is seen by some viewers as abusive monsters who are actively malevolent toward Kevin.

* SignatureScene:

** Among all the booby traps, the Paint Cans.

* SignatureScene:

* SignatureScene:

* SpecialEffectFailure:

* RonTheDeathEater:

** The [[=McCallister]] family as a whole is seen by some viewers as abusive monsters who are actively malevolent toward Kevin.
* SignatureScene:

** Harry and Marv, in the [=21st=] century, would've ''never'' discovered that Kevin was alone at the house; he'd already fooled them repeatedly into thinking that the house was still heavily occupied. The jig was only up when Kevin's father left a message about Kevin being home alone on a neighbor's answering machine -- and Marv, who was in the middle of robbing that same neighbor's house, overheard it while it was being recorded and told Harry, who realized the truth. Answering machines are all but gone today, in favor of private, electronic voicemail, and many homes no longer have landline phones anyway. While it's not ''impossible'' to have a landline phone anymore, one such as what Harry and Marv find would be unlikely.

** As they leave the house, Frank tells Peter "There's no way on Earth we're gonna make this plane. It leaves in 45 minutes!" before they get in the vans, located in Winnetka, a suburb of Chicago. Without traffic, it's a half-hour drive from 671 Lincoln Avenue (their home address) to O'Hare International Airport. Not only are Chicago's expressways known to be congested in both directions at rush hour, but the airport would be even ''more'' crowded because they were catching a flight close to Christmas -- one of the busiest times of the year for airports. In the [=21st=] century, even if the [=McCallisters=] got miraculously lucky, didn't hit any traffic, and already had boarding passes on their phones or in hand, they would still have to go through a ''lot'' of time-consuming steps once they arrived: checking in, waiting in the security line, clearing the security checkpoint, and then making their way through the terminal to their gate. Factoring in all of that, they would have missed their flight by almost two hours by the time they reached the gate [[note]] Nowadays, it’s recommended to get to the airport an hour and a half before your flight- and that’s just for ''continental'' flights[[/note]]. The film handwaves it away by saying the [=McCallisters=] just barely made it with moments to spare after running to the gate at a full sprint, but it's still a colossal stretch.

* SignatureScene:

* SignatureScene:

** The police officer who goes to the [=McCallisters'=] home to check on Kevin simply makes a cursory evaluation of the house, declares it to be secure, and says that the family should count their kids again. But if one is tempted to call this officer an idiot for thinking that these parents had somehow miscounted their children, one should remember that the [=McCallisters=] actually ''did'' miscount- because they were in such a rush to leave and get to the airport in time, they left the job of counting the kids to their niece Heather. But while she ''was'' smart enough to have all the kids line up in front of the vans taking them to the airport, she was so hasty (just tapping on heads!) that she easily mistook Mitch Murphy - a nosy neighborhood kid who’d been drawn to house by the vans and commotion - for Kevin from behind as he was rummaging through the family’s suitcases out of curiosity. And because everyone started getting into the vans immediately after the count, no one realized the mistake, even when he stepped away from the vans and loudly told them to “have a good trip”!