• CorneliusTalmadge@lemmy.world
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    22 days ago

    But the part we always forget is that the robber was the “cop” that had come to the house the night before the trip.

    So this kid was like the cops are so corrupt I have to deal with this on my own.

  • ccunning@lemmy.world
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    22 days ago

    Didn’t the storm knock the phone lines out? That’s why Moira didn’t call the house and called the cops to try and get them to do a wellness check.

  • ArmchairAce1944@discuss.online
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    21 days ago

    No, he could not call the police. A tree fell on his phone line and disconnected his house.

    And his parents did notify the police, but the police were, A: completely incredulous, B: completely incompetent and uninterested. They came and knocked on the door, but Kevin was still scared and confused and was hiding under his parents bed the whole time. The cop just gave up and left.

    Source: I watched the movie again… and I am going to do so this year along with a Die Hard trilogy (I never watched the third movie) marathon.

  • OfficeMonkey@lemmy.today
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    22 days ago

    Kevin is a shop lifter after he panics with the tooth brush. Since he learned never to trust cops, he assumes he’d get thrown in jail like the hardened criminal he is… And then there’s the cop who’s trying to break into his house. Yeah, can’t blame him for not making that call.

    • mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      22 days ago

      Yeah, the first movie pretty clearly lays out why he didn’t want to call the cops. Also, IIRC, the snow storm knocked out the phone lines. His parents mention that they can’t get ahold of him because the lines are down. So he couldn’t have called them even if he tried.

      The second movie though? He was a predator stalking his prey. He wasn’t just a victim of a break-in. He actively lured them to his twisted funhouse, and didn’t call the cops until the very end when he wanted them to get caught red-handed.

  • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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    22 days ago

    Didn’t he not trust the cops because Pesci pretended to be a cop in the opening scene, in order to case the house?

  • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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    22 days ago

    Or he was just too afraid to contact the police. Remember, this took place in the USA, where people have reason to fear them.

  • neidu3@sh.itjust.works
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    22 days ago

    Nah, it’s because he knows one fundamental truth: ACAB. Especially the sleezy one with the gold tooth.

    • 1hitsong@lemmy.ml
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      22 days ago

      And the quality of the police work was documentary level realism for a Hollywood movie.

  • GreenKnight23@lemmy.world
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    22 days ago

    HA1 was in Chicago. CPD is half as corrupt as NYPD

    HA2 was in New York. NYPD is half as corrupt as LAPD.

    LAPD is corruption incarnate.

    Kevin had no other choice. besides he was staying in a hotel with a human trafficker and pedophile, things were already dangerous enough as it was.

  • moakley@lemmy.world
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    22 days ago

    He thinks his family actually disappeared. He remarks that they couldn’t have gone to Paris, because their cars are still in the garage. The garage having been left open is even a plot point, to allow Kevin to make this realization quicker.

    He does eventually call the police. It’s the last step of his plan. He calls them to his neighbor’s house.

    The movie is seriously bulletproof. Like how Kevin spills Pepsi on his ticket and we see it accidentally get thrown in the garbage the night before.

    Fun story:

    When my daughter met Santa Claus for the first time, she’d recently seen Home Alone and was obsessed, and she introduced herself as Kevin.

    When it was time to take a picture I said, “Ok [daughter’s name which in all fairness does have an “ev” sound in it], get in Santa’s sleigh.”

    Then Santa leaned over and whispered, “Ohh. I thought she said her name was Kevin.”

    “Yeah, no, she did say Kevin.”

    Santa thought that was weird.

  • Triumph@fedia.io
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    22 days ago

    While 911 as an emergency number in the US began in 1968, it wasn’t universal until 1999. Home Alone came out in 1990. It was completely normal in my youth (earlier, yes, but still) to just not know what the number to call the police was.

      • Triumph@fedia.io
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        21 days ago

        Could, yes. In 1990, the standard was to call 411 if you needed to find a phone number. And that often cost money, so parents would drum into their kids not to call 411. “We have 411 at home. ::slams phone book on table::

        Which means they’d have had a phone book, and everyone knew where it was. Sometimes local police/fire/hospital emergency numbers were printed on the cover, or on the first page. If not, there’d be a place on the cover where you could write them in yourself. They’d also come with a refrigerator magnet sign that you could write in with marker later on.

        I’m not saying any of this to be disagreeable; there are a zillion plot holes in that movie. Just reminiscing with some late 1980s “day in the life” nostalgia.

        Now get off my lawn.

        • Vandals_handle@lemmy.world
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          20 days ago

          The 411 on 411. From Wikipedia

          The 411 number has been in use since at least 1930[3] in New York City,[4] San Francisco,[5] and other large cities where panel and crossbar switching equipment installed by the Bell System was prevalent. However, in smaller Bell System cities as well as almost all areas served by GTE and other companies where step-by-step equipment was the norm such as Los Angeles,[6] 113 was used until at least the 1960s, and in some cases (the Pacific Northwest, for example) until the mid-1980s.

          Naw man we gonna have a sprinkler fight on your lawn. Then play lawn darts and drink from the hose. Maybe play some bikes. I think I hear your mom calling you, you better go.

  • pyre@lemmy.world
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    21 days ago

    one call [to the police] and he would have been safe

    just because it’s fiction doesn’t mean it’s fantasy

    • chatokun@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      21 days ago

      Well, he is a white kid in an affluent neighborhood (whole huge family affording vacation, large house), so he probably would have been treated better.