If a family forgets their youngest son the last time they went on vacation—because a power outage knocked out the alarm clock and the failure to perform a proper head-count before the subsequent rush to the airport, the next time said family plans a big holiday vacation, there are only two things to take care of: set a vast array of different alarms, battery-operated or plugged-in, and do not forget the youngest son. And yet, somehow it happens again in Home Alone 2: Lost In New York. John Heard’s Peter McCallister resets his alarm clock during the night—the only alarm the family sets despite the previous snafus—which causes the ensuing mad scramble through Chicago’s O’Hare airport, where Peter loses Kevin, which the McCallisters don’t realize until they get to baggage claim in Miami. If anything dates the Home Alone sequel to the early ’90s, it’s the possibility that massive confusion running to a flight could lead to someone getting on the wrong plane, and taking someone else’s seat on a Chicago-to-New York flight around Christmas. Homeland security has made such a scenario basically inconceivable.
