Nah - kids climb taller trees than that all the time. But they shouldn't have been entering by stepping on the branch - they should have been going up the ladder that went up to the hole in the middle of it.

This shows the line between somewhat normal kid behavior and stuff that is truly twisted. You can see it building up in the movie in the scene where Henry almost kills the cat. In that scene with the cat it is the first we see Henry is going beyond just getting into innocent trouble . Well maybe the first scene was actually when he looked down holding Mark and asked him that question which was so inappropriate at the time. But anyway things like climbing the high tree house,throwing rocks through the abandoned wheerehouse windows,and even smoking are kind of innocent kid antics. In the novel there was another scene. Henry stood on train tracks up until the oncoming train got super close and then jumped away. He also stood really close to edge of cliff with his toes sticking over the edge and asked Mark.to do the same but kind of helped Mark when Mark felt himself falling forward. Again a little dangerous and irresponsible behavior but nothing psychopathic.We see that Henry goes beyond this into darker territory later.Mark realizes this when he sees Henry purposely shoot the dog.
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Before cell phones and being able to monitor anyone anywhereit's possible the tree house wasn't even known to the parents and may not have even been on their property.
Growing up in the late 70's early 80's-there was a wooded track of land off a old railroad yard,that me and my friends treated as our own little world.Adventure and imagination ruled-had our parents known what we were up to down there,we'd be locked up in our homes.So,I think the boys would've gotten away with such a dangerous hang out.

I assumed they probably didn't know about the treehouse. They most likely didn't know about any of the dangerous stuff he was doing.
But whoever did build it, I don't know why you would make it that high.

I think it was all for affect, making the scene a little more scary because you didn't know what this the nut case kid was capable of up there. It made me uneasy, which I think is the point.

I actually thought the treehouse was believable in the context of the movie and the time period. I don't think any good parent today would just let their kids play in something that dangerous, but parents have gotten a lot more safety-conscious in the last 15 years or so. I was around that age in the 90's, and I know I played on dangerous stuff all the time. Often, parents would just let their kids take off in the morning until lunchtime like the parents in the film. Also, as you might recall, the parents had no idea exactly what Henry was up to when he went off with Mark or by himself. They definitely didn't know what was in that shed.

Yes, it was completely ridiculous that the parents would allow a treehouse a mile off the ground.
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I was also surprised that the treehouse was that tall; later, I assumed that we were looking at things from a child's point of view and that the filmmakers exaggerated the height to give that perception of things being higher/bigger than they really were since children are smaller than adults.

What about the rope Mark used to climb down?

I read the novel adaptation of this and here is a bit of info regarding the tree house. I don't remember exactly but it was something about when Mark climbs down he sees nails on the ground like they had been ripped out of a chunk of wood. Meaning that Henry had purposely made the board loose for Mark when he stepped on it. Henry I am assuming was able to pull himself up and skip stepping on that board. He either planned to kill Mark(if he wasn't able to grab his hand on time) or maybe just give him a scare if he was able to grab his hand on time(which he did).
The scary clown doll is hiding under my bed.

When the ladder broke under Mark and Henry pulled him up, there was no obvious way for them to get down safely again.
So maybe the rest of the movie is something which Mark dreams while starving to death up in the tree house!

I don't think Henry's mother knew about the treehouse just like a lot of stuff about Henry.
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Lol, the first time I saw that tree house I was like "that is dangerous as hell"

Yet oddly, we thought kids were being coddled like crazy at the time.

"We don't know if the parents knew about the treehouse since it seemed to be something that Henry built himself."
Yeah, because that's believable that a child could've built a treehouse a mile off the ground himself.
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Kids do things like that all the time. We don't know if the parents knew about the treehouse since it seemed to be something that Henry built himself. Also, this film was produced in the early 90s when kids weren't so coddled all the time compared with today's nanny age.
The novel was based on the film, not the other way around!
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I didn't realise it was based off a book. I don't think I'll bother reading it though I don't think it'll add too much that the film didn't.
Did you read the book then watch the film or the other way round fallen? How do you feel they compare?

Who else has read the book? There were a few other little things mentioned that were not in the novel. I don't think I'm spoiling much for those who have not read it. Anyway at one point Henry and Mark are at at the cliffside and Henry and Mark step as close to the edge as possible while closing their eyes. Again as far as I can remember Henry manages to save Mark like in the treehouse scene. And at another point Henry stands on some rail road tracks and lets the train get really close to him before he jumps off.
The scary clown doll is hiding under my bed.

Just watched this again and thought the same myself. It's well unsafe!

But didn't kids used to have tree houses a long time ago a lot. Although you could tell that this one was WAAAY too high. I'm sure most kids that have had them used a tree that was not dangerously high.
The scary clown doll is hiding under my bed.

Yeah, that wasn't safe at all.