Planes, Trains & Automobiles
Directed by John Hughes
Produced
by John Hughes
Written by John Hughes
Starring Steve Martin
John Candy
Planes, Trains & Automobiles is an American comedy movie produced by Paramount Pictures in 1987. It was written and directed by John Hughes and stars Steve Martin and John Candy. Laila Robins co-stars and the film features cameos by Michael McKean, Kevin Bacon, Lyman Ward and William Windom. The movie also features Ben Stein, Larry Hankin, Edie McClurg, Dylan Baker, Bill Erwin and Matthew Lawrence.
Kevin Bacon plays the man who
races Steve Martin to the taxi at the beginning of the picture. During the shooting
of PT&A, John Hughes was also filming She's Having a Baby, in which Kevin
Bacon starred and interestingly, the latter film can be heard playing on a television
in a later scene, even though it was launched into theaters after Martin and Candy's
movie.
Three actors in this film were also in John Hughes' film Ferris Bueller's
Day Off: Edie McClurg, who played the rental agent in the infamous "fuck"
scene, played principal Ed Rooney's secretary, Grace. Lyman Ward, Neal's co-worker
at the beginning of the film, played Tom Bueller, Ferris's father and Ben Stein,
who has a cameo as ticket counter customer, was also featured in Ferris Bueller's
Day Off, as Ferris's put-upon economics teacher.
The film is both Steve Martin's
and John Candy's favorite performances of their own.[citation needed]
The
shot of the plane that Page and Griffith are riding on near the beginning of the
film is a shot of the plane from the movie Airplane!. However, the image has been
enlarged so the faux "TA" Airline logo is not visible on the aircraft.
Both Airplane! and Planes, Trains and Automobiles were released by Paramount Studios
(and both partly took place in Chicago).
A quick scene after the credits shows
Page's boss still trying to decide which ad layout to use, while his Thanksgiving
dinner (including an entire turkey) sits on his desk next to him.
The song
Dashboard by Modest Mouse features a reference to the movie with the line 'The
dashboard melted, but we still have the radio'.[citation needed]
Del's Chrysler
Town and Country rental car has the same paint scheme as the "Family Truckster"
from the film National Lampoon's Vacation, another John Hughes movie.
Richard
Herd, an actor ultimately best known for his roles as villains in science fiction
and military/techno thrillers, makes a brief cameo appearance at the end of the
film as Neal's kind-hearted father-in-law Walt
The film features an egregious
editing error/omission whereby, during the scene when Mrs. Page is eating dinner
with her three kids, the arm and head of another woman are seen at the bottom
of the screen holding the attention of the youngest child (presumably to keep
him/her still during the filming of the scene).
When stuck in Wichita, Ben
Stein, the agent at the ticket counter, announces a flight cancellation. In the
background on the reader board the destination is listed as "NOWHERE".
When Neal and Del's credit cards get swapped at the motel, Neal's Diners Club
card goes to Del. The card that goes to Neal looks like a Diners Club card but
is actually titled Oversight Club.
Because the film's plot derives heavily
from the incompetence and/or unreliability of various forms of transportation,
there were no airlines or other such firms willing to appear in it. This necessitated
the creation of the fictitious Marathon Car Rental agency (complete with logos,
uniforms and several hundred cars for the parking lot scene), and the rental of
a passenger train and several miles of track to film the railroad scenes. The
airline Neal and Del are initially on when flying out of New York is the contrived
Mid-Central Airlines; the bus company they use to get to St. Louis is Trans-Missouri
(also nonexistent in real life).
Noted Indian Filmaker / Actor / Director
/ Producer Kamal Hassan remade an adaptation in Tamil language as ANBE SIVAM.
Though the movie largely harbours on the problems of union workers, the main theme
of two strangers getting closer to each other through a string of journeys is
inspired from this movie. The two main characters were played by Kamal Hassan
and Madhavan. Kamal Hassan also gets the credit for story and screenplay
Spoiler
Plot Summary
Tagline
"What he really wanted was to
spend Thanksgiving with his family. What he got was three days with the turkey."
Plot
Steve Martin plays the tightly wound Neal Page, a bundle-of-nerves advertising
executive. John Candy portrays the innocent, but always skewered, Del Griffith
(Director of sales, American Light and Fixture, shower curtain ring division),
a shower curtain ring salesman who seems to live in a world governed by a different
set of rules from those governing Neal Page's marketing life.
The movie follows the story of Neal Page as he tries to return to his family for Thanksgiving in Chicago after being on a business trip in New York. The journey is doomed from the outset, with Del Griffith interfering by snatching the taxi cab that Page had hailed for himself. The two inevitably pair up later and begin an absurdly error-prone adventure to help Page to get back to his home. Their flight from JFK Airport to O'Hare is diverted to Wichita due to a blizzard in Chicago, which ends up dissipating only a few hours after touchdown in Kansas. When every mode of transport fails them, what should have been a 1 hour and 45 minute New York-to-Chicago flight turns into a three-day wild goose chase, punctuated by Neal's occasional declarations to no one in particular that, "You're messing with the wrong guy!".
As is expected in circumstances like these, Neal frequently blows up at Del, blaming him for much of their misfortunes, though mere fate is more at fault. Del in turn regards Neal as pretentious and uptight, while Del is less afraid to be himself. After much heated arguments between the two men, a bond between them forms, and Neal finally manages to overcome his self-centeredness and both men pull together to finally make their way home.
Under the assumption that Del has a wife and family of his own (he frequently mentions his wife Marie and puts a framed picture of her on his various motel nightstands), Neal is taken aback when he later sees Del alone in an empty L train station, after they finally make it back to Chicago. Del tells Neal that he is in fact homeless, and that his beloved Marie actually passed away eight years ago. The bond between the two men strengthens further when Neal invites him into his home for the holidays.
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