The biggest plot hole in Home Alone has finally been solved.

It was one of the best-loved movies of the ’90s – but apparently, Home Alone contained a major plot hole that most of us probably never noticed.

Remember when the McCallisters frantically tried to call Kevin from Paris, but couldn’t get through because the phone lines had been damaged by a tree which fell over in a storm?

But then, remember how Kevin had no troubles at all when he used the phone to order a cheese pizza?

What is this magical phone wizardry?

Well before you start questioning the meaning of life, relax – 25 years after the film was made a Reddit user has solved the mystery.

Phew.

Responding to the Home Alone mystery on a Reddit thread on the topic of “What’s a movie plot hole so big, you could drive a truck through it?“, Phire wrote, “I always assumed the tree actually severed the main trunk line to the whole town, but local calls within the same exchange still worked.”

In other words, according to Phire’s explanation, long distance calls were affected by the falling tree, but local calls weren’t, which meant Kevin was able to enjoy his pizza.

But Huffington Post wasn’t content to take Phire’s word for it – so they took that theory to AT&T’s Vice President for Federal Regulatory Affairs, Hank Hultquist. He confirmed that Phire was, in fact, right on the money.

“Everything is changing now because all of this phone capability is moving into the cloud, but in 1990, that was absolutely a plausible scenario,” he said.

“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 go – the mystery that most of us probably (definitely) never knew existed has been solved.

Did you ever notice this plot hole before?

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