One thing that critics of the movie got wrong (probably because they didn’t watch the movie again in a while) is why didn’t they call the police or call Kevin to go to a neighbor’s place.
The reason is all there in the movie. A tree fell over and knocked over the phone cables, killing the phone connection. Also they DID call the police, but the police in this movie are highly inept jackasses who don’t even realize that a string of burglaries is happening in the neighborhood by the Wet Bandits. They do send a cop over, who just knocks on the door for a bit and then leaves. Kevin does hear the knocking, but he is scared and hides beneath his bed. When the cops doesn’t get a response, he doesn’t bother further.
But yes, cell phones would change everything.
Why would Kevin be the one contacting his mother? He thought he magically wished them away because he thought they hated him and treated him like scum. He never tries to contact them because he thinks they’d all just disappeared.
That’s why his Christmas wish is to see his family again… even Buzz.
To be fair, he did go around the house calling “Mom, Dad?” If he had a phone before assuming he had wished them away he would probably try texting.
Good point
Kevin was in trouble at the start of the film. They could have very easily had his mom take his phone away before sending him to his room.
After arriving in Paris, Kevin’s mom frantically calls his phone… only for a suitcase to start ringing. Oops!
Yes but they wouldn’t have slept in since their phones’ alarms would still work, and they wouldn’t have forgotten Kevin.
Mom forgot she turned her notifications to silent to watch a movie the night before. Mom got no sleep and hit snooze. Mom forgot to charge her phone and it died. Dad tripped over the charging cable and knocked it out. Power went out and the phone didn’t charge so it died. Heck, you could even have a carrier fuck up maintenance and knock out cell service across the country for their customers.
Unless everyone in the family has the same thing happen to all of their phones they’ll still wake up everyone else.
That family in particular would have banked everything on mom. I know families (plural) where mom will wake everyone up when it is their turn for the bathroom. And families share cell providers, so a major vendor shitting the bed would most likely take out all of them. That happens more than it should. Same with power and no charge. It seems like everyone’s phone is on empty by the end of the evening. This is at least as probable as nobody’s alarm clock having a battery backup. They all had them in the 90s, unless you were using a mechanical alarm clock, whick would have worked. At any rate, the alarm clock fail was just one of many problems here. This is a family who managed to not notice one of their kids miss an international flight.
Most movies from prior to 2010 would be drastically different if you included cell phones. It’s like saying Robin Hood would be different if you gave him a gun. Technology changes the ways we resolve conflicts.
you could still have the whole robin hood with modern day guns.
most stories can be adapted to different settings.
west side story is based on Romero and Juliet
the Matrix was heavily inspired by the jesus story
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People miss notifications all the time, though, so some lack of communication can still be had.
Wasn’t Robin Hood more an archer than a swordsman?
Give him an automatic gun, then maybe.
Or Kevin is eight years old and his parents reasonably assume he is too young to have a cell phone.
Sadly I’ve seen toddlers glued to phones these days
Usually parents handing over thier phone to shut the kid up while adults are talking/shopping.
So he calls the parents’ cell phones from the house phone.
The house phone that didn’t work because the phone lines were down?
Oh yeah!
I don’t buy it. Kevin wakes up after his parents are already on the plane, after they’ve been told to put their device in airplane mode, so they still wouldn’t know until they touch down in Paris and turn their phones back on, to which everything else can be the same since they were stuck due to the weather.
He could however call the police. Only reason that wasn’t possible in the movie was because the phone lines were down (despite showing Kevin ordering a pizza over the phone, ignoring the fact they specifically pointed out the phone line problem at the beginning of the film).
I don’t think I’ve ever actually turned on airplane mode, even before widespread in-plane WiFi
Are you from Newark?
Lol nah
I think I saw something about this where he could have called a local number but not through to the police station if it was further away.
I know they are rich and all, but I wouldn’t give an 8 year old a cell phone. With homes as they are today there probably wouldn’t be a land line. The movie is mostly the same, some of the boobie traps are slightly different is all.
I suppose once they get off the plane and turn off airplane mode they will get a doorbell notification about someone at the door and see it is Kevin looking around. Still the same though, can even have this be the moment they realize they left him behind.
the plot hole could be patched by him waking up after the plane takes off
You don’t get it, Home Alone is a prequel to Damian and The Omen movies. Kevin was trying to kill people, and the movie is about how his joy made him susceptible to human feelings. He’s like a failed demonic creature who couldn’t handle earths pleasures. It’s a commentary on Virgil.
