11 Heroic Acts In Movies That Changed Absolutely Nothing

4. Kevin's Mom Puts Herself Through Hell To Get To Her Son... Arrives One Minute Before Everyone Else - Home Alone

In the grand scheme of things, the heroic sacrifice that Kate McCallister makes for her son in Home Alone is not the most extreme, as she doesn't lose her life, or any limbs, but within the logic of the film, and more crucially within the emotional logic of the film, it is a major sacrifice.

Appalled that her not atypically terrible parenting skills have lead to her youngest and most vulnerable child being left at home, Kate desperately attempts to make it cross country to provide aid and love to her prone progeny, including negotiating with the world's worst old couple, who flat out refuse to swap tickets with her, because they're old and horrible (one tries to extort, the other just couldn't give a solitary damn). Eventually, she realises she must do the unthinkable and travel with a polka band in heinous conditions, suffering heinous music, with heinous jokes as her entertainment.

Her trek is only marginally worse than that of Tom Hanks' crew in Saving Private Ryan, which was probably inspired in some way by Home Alone, and she arrives battered and emotionally bruised, happy in the knowledge that if she'd waited with her family, she would have arrived home to Kevin a whole two minutes later, and a lot happier.