‘Home Alone 2’ nailed holiday travel chaos, but flight rules make movie's plot less plausible today

Panic erupts in the McCallister household as soon as the day begins. The parents' alarm clock never rings, bags and coats spill across the floor, and the family barrels out the door to catch a flight to Florida.

The pandemonium intensifies at the airport. There, the McCallisters must dodge fellow holiday travelers and luggage as they sprint to their gate while final boarding calls echo overhead. Amid the mayhem, 10-year-old Kevin accidentally boards the wrong plane and finds himself alone in New York City just days before Christmas.

More than 30 years after “Home Alone” turned travel chaos into comedy, the frantic opening scenes of the movie's 1992 sequel still hit close to home, especially as the busy year-end travel period gets underway. But would Kevin McCallister still end up “Lost in New York” in 2025?

In an age of federal airport security checkpoints and digitized air travel, the fictional character played by Macaulay Culkin almost certainly wouldn't have gotten onto a commercial airliner by himself, said Sheldon Jacobson, who studies air travel operations and security and whose research contributed to the design of TSA PreCheck.

“In the 1990s, it was plausible," Sheldon said. “It was close enough to plausible that people weren’t rolling their eyes at it, but this would not happen today.”

The Sept. 11, 2001, attacks fundamentally changed how Americans move through airports, ushering the creation of the Transportation Security Administration, government-run security screenings, mandatory ID checks and restricted gate access. Before 9/11, travelers could head straight to their plane with little more than a paper ticket. Now, every passenger and bag is screened, names are checked against flight manifests and access beyond security checkpoints is tightly controlled.

Even the paper tickets that made Kevin's mix-up possible are largely a thing of the past. In the film, Kevin frantically trails a man wearing a coat like his father's to the wrong gate at Chicago O'Hare International Airport, then crashes into an airline agent, sending both his ticket and a stack of boarding passes fluttering to the floor. Kevin explains that his family is already on the plane and he doesn't want to get left behind.

“Do you have a boarding pass?” the agent asks. Kevin gestures to the pile of paper tickets and is ultimately allowed onto the plane.

Today, boarding passes are tied to specific passengers, often stored on smartphones and scanned at the gate to confirm travelers are on the correct flight. The stricter unaccompanied minor policies and fees of airlines would add yet another layer of protection today, Jacobson said.

In the movie, the gate agent walks Kevin down the jet bridge and asks if he spots his family onboard. Kevin points to the stranger he’s mistaken for his father. The agent waves him on, tells him to grab an empty seat and that's that.

Unaccompanied minors are closely tracked today. Most carriers require children under a certain age, often 14 or younger, to be formally registered as unaccompanied minors if they aren't traveling with an adult, Jacobson said. That comes with special paperwork and airline staff members who are assigned to escort a child through the airport, to their seat on the plane and off the plane at their destination.

The Biden administration proposed a rule last year to ban airlines from charging families additional fees to sit together on flights and requiring them to seat children ages 13 and under next to an accompanying adult when adjacent seating is available at booking. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said earlier this month he had no update on the proposal.

Even if every current safeguard somehow failed, a passenger on the wrong plane would get noticed quickly, Jacobson said. Flight attendants review passenger counts and special-service lists before departure. A 10-year-old boy missing from one flight and an extra child on another would trigger immediate alarms.

In other words, the movie magic holds up 33 years after “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York” came out. The logistics do not, Jacobson said.

“We take for granted that we had those freedoms back then that we don’t have today, for good reason," he said. "We had to give up those freedoms in exchange for other freedoms, like safer air travel.”

The December holidays still can be a hectic time to travel. This year, 122.4 million Americans were expected to travel at least 50 miles (80 kilometers) from home between Saturday and New Year’s Day, topping last year’s record of 119.7 million, according to AAA's holiday forecast.

“Holiday celebrations look different for everyone, but the common thread is the desire to travel, whether it’s returning to your hometown or exploring new destinations," Stacey Barber, vice president of AAA Travel, said.

About 89% of holiday travelers, or 109.5 million people, are expected to go by car, while more than 8 million are expected to take domestic flights, AAA said. The passenger numbers would be a record for the holiday period despite domestic roundtrip flights costing an average of 7% more compared to last year, according to AAA data.

Back in a fictional 1992, Kevin pulls off a luxurious stay at Manhattan's Plaza Hotel, where he briefly crosses paths with Donald Trump, who owned the hotel from 1988 to 1995. Trump's past connection to the hotel and his brief movie cameo have sometimes come up during his political career and presidencies.

The same burglars who terrorized the McCallister family's Chicago home in the first “Home Alone" are in New York for the sequel, plotting to steal a toy store’s cash donations for a children’s hospital. With a mischievous grin, Kevin sets a series of over-the-top traps, sending the crooks tumbling, slipping and screaming through the store and thwarting their Christmas Eve scheme.

When the thrill of his solo adventure fades, Kevin misses his family and makes a wish to see his mother — “even if it's just once and only for a couple minutes," he says. "I just need to tell her I'm sorry.” At that very moment, his mom appears, and they reunite beneath the twinkling Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center.

“It’s a wonderful story element,” Adam Paul, a film professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said of the holiday chaos central to the “Home Alone” movies. “But it is ultimately a great representation of how and why we make these journeys.”

Linda Zimmerman of Bailey, Colo., wears holiday garb as she waits in the main terminal for the arrival of her daughter and granddaughters on a delayed flight from Minnesota with her 4-year-old Cavalier King Charles spaniel named Petunia in Denver International Airport Friday, Dec. 19, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

FILE - People wait in security lines at O'Hare International Airport, Nov. 10, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley, File)

FILE - Donald Trump, second from left and former owner of the Plaza Hotel, reaches to shake the hand of Robert Small, right, CEO of Fairmont Hotel Management at a flag raising ceremony at the Plaza Hotel, July 28, 1995. (AP Photo/Adam Nadel, File)

FILE - Macaulay Culkin, star of the movie "Home Alone," stands for a portrait in New York, Jan. 5, 1991. (AP Photo/Malcolm Clarke, File)

FILE - Pedestrians walk in front of the Plaza Hotel in New York, April 11, 1995. (AP Photo/Marty Lederhandler, File)

BALTIMORE (AP) — Hopefully the rest of the NFL enjoyed the respite.

The New England Patriots are back in the playoffs — with an unflappable quarterback and a coach who is thirsty for more.

Sound familiar?

Drake Maye guided New England to a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns, rallying his team from an 11-point deficit to a 28-24 victory over Baltimore on Sunday night that clinched a postseason spot for the Patriots and dealt a devastating blow to the Ravens' playoff hopes.

“We're going to try to win the division. We're going to focus on that,” New England coach Mike Vrabel said. “I'm excited. All the credit to the players. When we win, it's because of them.”

Seven years after Tom Brady and Bill Belichick won their final Super Bowl together in New England — and four years after Belichick reached the playoffs with Mac Jones at quarterback — the Patriots return to the postseason in Maye's second year behind center. Maye certainly didn't hurt his MVP case Sunday, throwing for a career-best 380 yards and two touchdowns.

Down 24-13, Maye connected on a 37-yard scoring strike to Kyle Williams, and a 2-point conversion pass to Rhamondre Stevenson made it a three-point game with 9:01 to play.

After New England forced a punt, the Patriots drove 89 yards for the winning touchdown. Baltimore's pass rush, which was nonexistent earlier in the game, was much better toward the end, but Maye showed why he and his team are in first place in the AFC East.

New England remains a game ahead of second-place Buffalo despite losing to the Bills last week.

“It was kind of a wake-up call last week — we got a chance to win the game with a game-winning drive, and this week it was like, man, let's not have that feeling two weeks in a row," Maye said. “It was kind of the elephant in the room.”

Maye went 12 of 14 for 139 yards in the final quarter, although the winning touchdown came on one of New England's few productive running plays, a 21-yard dash by Stevenson with 2:07 left.

The Ravens, who lost Lamar Jackson to a back injury in the second quarter, turned the ball over on their final drive on a fumble by Zay Flowers. Baltimore (7-8) is now two games behind AFC North-leading Pittsburgh with two to play. To win the division, the Ravens would need to win at Green Bay and Pittsburgh and have the Steelers lose to lowly Cleveland in Week 17.

“Tough loss," Ravens coach John Harbaugh said. “We didn’t do the winning things we need to do. We made some mistakes that cost us.”

The Steelers beat Detroit earlier in the day. The dramatic ending of that game came after many fans had already entered the stadium in Baltimore, and Steelers-Lions was shown on the big screen.

Pittsburgh's win put immense pressure on the Ravens, and things went from bad to worse when New England took a 10-7 lead and then Jackson left late in the second quarter with yet another injury.

Tyler Huntley — who led Baltimore to a huge win in Week 8 over Chicago when Jackson was out with a hamstring problem — helped the Ravens rally. Flowers scored on an 18-yard end around to give the Ravens a 17-13 lead in the third quarter. Baltimore then snuffed out a fake punt near midfield and went ahead by 11 on Henry's 2-yard run with 12:50 left in the fourth.

But that was the last time Henry touched the ball — another baffling set of decisions in another fourth-quarter collapse by a Baltimore team that's had plenty of those in recent years.

The Ravens took a 7-0 lead on a 21-yard run by Henry — just their third first-quarter touchdown in nine home games this season. After Maye was intercepted, Baltimore's offense was rolling before Henry fumbled. New England tied it on a 1-yard pass from Maye to Hunter Henry.

It was 10-all at halftime.

The Patriots lost Rookie of the Year candidate Tre'Veyon Henderson when the running back left with a head injury in the second quarter.

The Ravens entered the season 22-3 under Harbaugh in prime time games at home, but they've gone 0-3 this season, losing to Detroit, Cincinnati and now New England. In fact, Baltimore went 3-6 on its home schedule, the worst mark in franchise history.

The Patriots, meanwhile, improved to 7-0 on the road in Vrabel's first season at the helm.

Patriots: DT Joshua Farmer injured his hamstring, CB Charles Woods hurt an ankle, WR DeMario Douglas injured a hamstring and DL Khyiris Tonga hurt a foot.

Ravens: G Andrew Vorhees injured a foot.

Patriots: At the New York Jets next Sunday.

Ravens: At Green Bay on Saturday night.

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye (10) passes against the Baltimore Ravens during the second half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Zay Flowers (4) walks off the field after an NFL football game against the New England Patriots, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

New England Patriots wide receiver Stefon Diggs (8) runs against the Baltimore Ravens during the second half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

New England Patriots running back Rhamondre Stevenson, middle, runs toward the end zone to score against the Baltimore Ravens during the second half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson (8) leaves the field during the first half of an NFL football game against the New England Patriots, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

New England Patriots wide receiver Kyle Williams, left, catches a touchdown against Baltimore Ravens cornerback Marlon Humphrey (44) during the second half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Baltimore Ravens cornerback Marlon Humphrey celebrates after intercepting a pass by New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye (10) passes against the Baltimore Ravens during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)