MovieChat Forums > Home Alone (1990) Discussion > Incongruencies make no sense

Incongruencies make no sense


This movie is one of those things you have to watch with your brains firmly in the 'turned off'-mode. Almost nothing makes any sense, the more you think about it, the less sense almost anything in it makes. Many people have done good job pointing out the numerous 'huh?'-moments, plot holes, lack of common sense and plain things that just don't make any sense.

For example, after 'Everything Wrong with' and 'Pitch Meeting' videos, there's not that much to point out anymore.

However, I would still like to focus on a couple of things that bother me a lot about this movie. I know it's basically a 'live-action cartoon', because in real life, those 'wet bandits' would have been hospitalized about 8 times separately, but whatever.

01) Barefoot injuries

How is Marvin still able to walk, especially so proficiently, after his feet have not only been coated with tar (I think), but also been injured by numerous sharp objects, one of them being a probably rusty, long nail?

How is it he's not getting worried about infections and such, which would definitely happen if those wounds are not treated as soon as possible. How about how COLD it is, because it's cold enough for water to freeze into ice - my feet get cold even when I am wearing layers of socks and shoes (though not if I am wearing proper winter boots).

It just doesn't make sense to me how he is able to walk around just fine, not bleed from his feet at all (we see the soles after he steps on the tree decorations on the floor when he comes in from the window, especially the foot that stomped on the nail that penetrated his foot pretty darn deeply, and yet there's no mark, no blood, no tar - it's completely healthy-, and clean-looking! How is this possible?

Does Marv heal faster than Wolverine?

02) Head injuries

These guys take a heavy iron on the forehead so painfully, it leaves a mark on the face, paint cans on the nogging, multiple falls on their backs on hard surfaces, they just get a bit irritated.

Then they take a shovel to the head, and they pass out.

What? How come a paint can to the forehead isn't enough to knock them out, but a shovel, with a bigger dispersion/spread of the impact area, will? WHAT kind of sense does that make? It's perfectly logical that a hit from a shovel would knock you unconscious, but it's just not congruent with what they ALREADY have been hit with, especially since those hits should have been harder than some old man swinging a shovel (that is probably some weak metal at best, and looks 'plasticky')!

It makes no sense that a heavy iron falling on your forehead does nothing but leave a mark on the skin, but what amounts to a 'slight tap' from a shovel makes you pass out.

Not to mention those injuries should've basically killed these guys or caused major brain damage, but never mind.

The blowtorch-thing is the most cartoony, unrealistic cringe I have seen in a movie for awhile. Why would he stay frozen in a position for an extended period of time WHILE BLINKING and screaming? (The BLINKING makes it look SO staged for some reason)

In real life, you don't immediately notice something burning you through a cloth until it's suddenly unbearably hot. Then your SURVICAL INSTINCT will take over and instead of staying, blinking and screaming, you would immediately move away from the source and throw away your hat/beanie or whatnot. You would not just stand, stay, scream and blink, for crying out loud!

That stare is also very weird - why would he just stare in one place while screaming, instead of moving around and saying 'What the F', like people would realistically do, and try to find the source of what's going on?

Even kneeling and then looking up would be more realistic.

Blowtorch to your head for that long a time would also be extremely dangerous, not only due to your beanie burning and your scalp getting damaged (and catching on fire as well, but when we see the scalp, it looks healthy even with the 'patches of hair' stuff, it's not even darkened by the fire for some reason, we see no ashes of the beanie, etc..)

..but also, because your brain temperature would rise so high, any liquid in your brain would probably start, if not boiling, expanding and causing all kinds of damage and loss of consciousness or at least access to all brain faculties. It could be you could never think properly again, or you might lose mobility or something. There's no WAY to take that kind of head heating and not suffer some kind of brain damage.

04) The 'M' on the hand

I might be wrong, but it looked to me as if Joe's character puts his hand SIDEWAYS on the doorknob, which has an upright letter 'M' carved on it. He later shows his palm to the camera, and the M is also upright, even though his fingers are pointing up.

Do you see what I am saying? For THAT to be possible, he would have had to have grabbed the knob basically from below, as if he was reaching for it from down there. The M should be at least sideways, not upright.

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Oh, there was a trend that was actually going on in movies during the late 80s and all throughout the 90s where action films (or films with violence like this one) had stuff happening in them that were almost cartoony in nature, such as people getting hit or beaten on, and yet they didn't suffer nearly as many injuries as a real-life person would. If you look at other 90s action flicks, you can see the trend there too. "True Lies" is a good example. "The Rock" is another. It got even more noticeable if it was an action/comedy, like the first "Men in Black" film.

Some early 2000s films did this too, but eventually the nitty-gritty, gruesome action flicks took over with more realism involved with the violence vs. injury ratio.

It was something of an unwritten trend, kinda like how in the early 2010s, it was popular to have one-word movie titles, or shoot a lot of action flicks with turquoise skies and orange in the foreground.

After watching both "Home Alone" movies, fans often joke of how many times Harry and Marv got "killed" in the movie, considering many of those pranks and traps would have murdered a real person 10x over.

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BEWARE! Avortac4 is a troll trying to waste everyone's time with such idiotic comments. Look at his posts. He doesn't think anything in any film makes sense. His post may seem like it makes sense in the first sentence or two. But he always quickly wanders off into a completely idiotic idea, and then writes a wall of text that makes no sense. And his sole purpose is to waste your time, thinking he's cute for doing so. Don't feed the troll. If you write a comment, you're giving this troll EXACTLY what he wants. Don't comment after my comment.

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