It is the silly season and thus the time to interrogate a bunch of your favourite Christmas classics for deleted scenes, plot holes and wild theories. Luckily, the internet has resurfaced two Home Alone explanations for why no one noticed Kevin McAllister (Macaulay Culkin) wasn’t with the rest of his family when they jetted off to Paris on holibobs.
Every time I watch that flick, I find myself thinking: how the hell do you forget a whole damn child? I understand Kevin’s parents Kate (Catherine O’Hara) and Peter (John Heard) have an absolute plethora of bratty children, but still!
But both these theories — or rather, people watching the film with a keen sense of observation I clearly lack — help explain the situation.
The first explanation comes from TikTok, where it’s been circulating for a number of years. But I’ll be damned, I had never seen this simple explanation for Kevin getting left behind before and was absolutely shaken to my core.
As seen in this TikTok clip, Kevin’s dad Peter fully pops the plane ticket with Kevin’s name on it in the bin.
@cory_4_real #christmas #holidays #homealone #foryou #movies #ohno ♬ Oh No – Kreepa
While some users chimed in to say they’d always spotted the ticket getting thrown in the bin, it was absolute news to me.
The TikTok comments point out that this explains why the parents don’t realise Kevin is missing — they have the correct number of tickets for the correct number of children.
It’s not like they rocked up to the airport with a spare ticket and no accompanying child. I mean, it’s still pretty neglectful parenting but it does make a bit more sense.
But other people reckon the plane-ticket-in-bin situation wasn’t so accidental.
As seen in a clip shared by Canadian broadcaster CP24, some folks reckon Kevin’s dad not only purposely pops the ticket in the bin, he also hires the Wet Bandits (!) to kill Kevin (!!!).
@cp24breakingnews An easy to miss scene in a classic Christmas movie may make you view it in a whole new light. An eagle-eyed “Home Alone” fan spotted a moment in the film where Kevin’s plane ticket is shown in the garbage. For more, go to CP24.com #cp24 #homealone #fantheroy ♬ original sound – cp24
Sorry lads but I think that one’s a little too out there, even for me.
Another classic theory has been doing the rounds on TikTok too. This one seems to have its origins in a three-year-old Reddit post.
The post in question posits Kevin was left behind ‘cos of a miscount when the fam heads over to the airport.
“When they counted the people for the trip, they say there’s 17 people in total,” the Reddit post reads.
“An odd number between two vans means they will be split eight/nine. Since Kevin was missing, both vans had eight people instead.”
So, both groups thought they were in the eight person van and didn’t clock wee Kevin was missing.
@cinemashortsttDid you know that in HOME ALONE…♬ Home Alone – Main Theme – Geek Music
Some folks on the internet were quick to argue that this explanation was pretty obvious. But once agin, I had simply never considered this possibility before.
The combo of both these handy explanations shows why Kev’s parents didn’t realise he was missing on the trip to the airport, and why he wasn’t at the airport itself. Again, not that this justifies leaving your small child both home and alone.
As well as these Home Alone details, TikTok also recently resurfaced this classic, absolutely bonkers Love Actually deleted scene.
Look, it is really Christmas without a bit of festive film mindfuckery?
