Major ‘Home Alone’ Plot Hole Actually Has A Logical Explanation
Kevin!!! Why didn't we think of this before?!?!
“Home Alone” is coming back to theaters in honor of its 25th anniversary. That means it's time to relive your favorite moments, quote your favorite lines and point out your favorite plot holes -- because the movie has a lot of them ... or does it?
One of the biggest plot holes in the film centers around whether the McAllisters' phone lines are truly broken or not. A tree damages the phone lines near the beginning of the movie, so we presume the McAllisters can't call Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) because the phones are down. Later, however, Kevin has a pizza delivered. If the phones don't work at the house, how can Kevin order a pizza?
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For 25 years, fans of the movie have called this a plot hole. After all, it does happen right after a scene where Kevin's dad is still trying to call people from Paris. Why couldn't he just call Kevin? Well, now it turns out there may be a logical explanation.
The theory: The phone lines for long distance calls were damaged, but that doesn't affect local calls.
The supposed faux pas was brought up in a discussion on Reddit as one of the most blatant plot holes movies had to offer, but Redditor phire chimed in saying it may not be an issue at all:
I always assumed the tree actually severed the main trunk line to the whole town, but local calls within the same exchange still worked.
Gasp. What?
According to the Redditor's logic, long distance calls probably couldn't be made to the McCallister residence, but local calls would be okay. This would explain why Kevin's dad couldn't reach him from overseas, but Kevin can still call a local pizza spot.
People on the Reddit thread loved the idea. Comments included, "I laughed my ass off at this accurate and technical description of what could have been wrong," and, "You are too smart for your own damn good."
If true, this could totally be a reasonable explanation for the "plot hole." But, wait, is this even a thing?
The Huffington Post spoke with AT&T Vice President-Federal Regulatory Hank Hultquist. He confirmed, yeah, it's a thing.
Hultquist said the explanation for the plot hole is "a plausible scenario."
The VP explained phone networks have changed a lot over the years, but back in the day, you were dealing with line side connections, which would handle calls within a specific exchange, and what were called trunk side connections, which are high-capacity circuits that connect you to other exchanges, e.g. connecting to places that were long distance.
So if the trunk connection was damaged, could you still make local calls?
"Everything is changing now because all of this phone capability is moving into the cloud, but in 1990, that was absolutely a plausible scenario," said Hultquist.
He adds that the damage to the phone lines near the McCallisters' home isn't the only problem they're facing.
"When you’re trying to call from Paris, now you’re relying on a whole series of connections including undersea cables, any one of which could have a problem, which would prevent you from reaching some particular telephone number."
There you have it, people. That "Home Alone" plot hole might not be such a big deal after all.
Got anything to add, Kevin?
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