Christmas is almost here and that means one thing. You’ve been inundated with Christmas music and Christmas movies for weeks now.
Depending on how you feel about either of those things determines just how sick you are at this point. In both instances, you get to experience each pop culture creation over and over and over. In the case of Christmas movies, it means you really get a chance to look past the superficial stories in these holiday films and dig into the gritty details at the heart of each story.
In other words, you start to find yourself asking questions you were never meant to ask. Such as…
Just how rich is Kevin’s family in Home Alone?
Seriously, though. They live in an enormous mansion in Winnetka, Illinois, one of the richest suburbs in America. They can afford to fly their family and their extended family first-class from Chicago to Paris and back. That trip also includes hotels, transporation, meals, etc. And they can afford to take another trip just like it the following year, no problem.
So, seriously, just what does Peter McCallister do for a living?
Complex’s Alex Siquig deep-dove into the mystery and came away with some varied but likely options. He’s a bigtime doctor. Or he’s a high-powered Chicago lawyer. Maybe he works in the Chicago Bulls front office. He’s high-up on the Chicago Stock Exchange. Or perhaps, just perhaps, he’s a mob boss. Regardless, he’s got to be working at the highest levels of industry to foot these bills. No matter what he’s doing, he’s getting paid seven figures to do it.
(We’re going to discount the popular mob boss theory if only because if it were true, Marv and Harry would have been shanked in prison long before the events of Home Alone 2).
But this is just one of many questions that get raised this time of year thanks to incessant viewings of the same Christmas-themed movies.
- In Die Hard, why is Notre Dame playing USC? It’s Christmas Eve in the 80s. There’s no way these two teams are playing each other in a bowl game right around this time.
- Does the Home Alone franchise give us a look into the beginnings of a serial killer?
- Is the Dad in A Christmas Story about to die soon after the movie is over?
- Why does it hurt when Kevin puts on aftershave in Home Alone even though he didn’t shave?
- Why is Audrey suddenly older than Russ in Christmas Vacation?
- How do Gremlins know when midnight is in each particular time zone?
Probably best not to get lost in any of those rabbit holes. But then again if they’re going to keep playing these movies over and over, we’ve got to fill all those commercial breaks somehow…
[Complex]
