50 Fun Facts About Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Who wrote and directed Planes, Trains and Automobiles?

He also produced it, and critics treated it as a departure from his teen comedies.

What is Steve Martin's character's job?

Neal Page is uptight and desperate to get home; his travelling companion is the opposite.

What does John Candy's character sell for a living?

Del Griffith is a travelling salesman who unknowingly stole Neal's taxi.

Which holiday is the pair trying to get home for?

The film has since become permanently attached to that week in American viewing habits.

Which city is Neal trying to reach?

He starts in New York two days before the holiday and gets nowhere fast.

Where is the pair's flight diverted to?

A blizzard in Chicago closes their destination and strands them overnight in one hotel room.

What do the two men accidentally swap at hotel check-in?

That mix-up causes considerably more trouble later in the journey.

What happens to their cash while they sleep in Wichita?

They wake to find themselves broke, several states from home.

Where does their train break down?

The passengers are left standing in a field and have to find another way on.

How do the stranded train passengers continue their journey?

From there Neal tries to rent a car, with famous results.

What happens when Neal insults the taxi dispatcher in St. Louis?

The rental car he had booked was missing from the lot, which is what set him off.

Which studio produced the film?

Hughes Entertainment produced alongside it, and shooting ran mostly in New York state.

How long did the first cut of the film run?

Rewrites and improvisation between the two leads generated far more usable footage than a release print could hold.

Who composed the film's score?

His score leans heavily on the folk song 'Red River Valley'.

Which folk song runs through the score?

A cover of the rock and roll version, 'Red River Rock', appears courtesy of the Silicon Teens.

What did the film take at the box office, against a $15m budget?

It was both a critical and a commercial success on release in November 1987.

On which date was the film released?

That timing put it in cinemas the day before Thanksgiving.

How long did filming take?

It began in February 1987, mostly in Batavia and South Dayton in New York state.

In which state was most of the film shot?

Batavia and South Dayton stood in for a great deal of the American Midwest.

Which real airport plays the Missouri airport in the film?

Other scenes were shot at a motel in Braidwood, Illinois, and a courthouse in Woodstock.

Which future star plays the man who races Neal for a taxi?

Ben Stein turns up as a Wichita airport representative, and Michael McKean as a state trooper.

Which actor plays the state trooper who impounds the burnt-out car?

By that point the car is charred, roofless and barely driveable.

Which actress plays the car rental agent on the receiving end of Neal's tirade?

He arrives at her desk after an expletive-filled walk across the airport.

Which song plays over the final scene and credits?

Hughes wanted Paul Young's hit version but the record company refused, even though Young approved.

Why did the famous version of that closing song not get used?

Paul Young himself wanted it in the film, which made the refusal doubly frustrating.

How much unseen footage did the 2022 4K release include?

Much of it had been thought lost before being found in the director's archive.

Where was that rediscovered footage found?

Paramount announced the restored release in October 2022.

What approval rating did Planes, Trains and Automobiles hold on Rotten Tomatoes in 2025?

The consensus praises the chemistry between the two leads above everything else.

Which two actors were attached to a proposed remake in 2020?

Writing was underway by 2023, but the project reportedly fell apart.

What had become of the 2020 proposed remake, according to its writer in 2025?

The writer said in 2025 that a script existed but the project collapsed for several reasons.

Where does Neal first meet Del?

His flight is delayed, and the chatty stranger beside him turns out to have taken his cab.

What happens to Neal's first-class seat on the flight?

The seating change is what forces the two men together in the first place.

How does Del respond when Neal attacks his personality in the motel room?

His wife likes him too, he adds, and the reply humbles Neal completely.

Which airport were the pair originally flying into?

A Chicago blizzard closes it, which is how they end up in Kansas.

What score did Planes, Trains and Automobiles hold on Metacritic in 2025?

Reviews praised the balance of comedy and sentiment as much as the performances.

Which Illinois town's Sun Motel appears in the film?

The old courthouse in Woodstock, Illinois, was also used.

Who plays Del's wife Marie?

The role matters enormously in the final act, despite very little screen time.

What did critics note about the film in relation to the director's earlier work?

He had built his name on films about high schoolers, and this one is about two middle-aged men.

Which British group performs the cover of 'Red River Rock' on the soundtrack?

The original was by Johnny and the Hurricanes.

What has the film become in the decades since release?

Its cult following built on home video long before streaming existed.

After the trooper impounds their burnt car, how do Neal and Del ride the final leg home?

Del talks a truck driver into it. A deleted subplot revealed the pair had overshot their destination and been pulled over in Wisconsin.

After the rental car fire, what does Neal trade for a motel room?

He refuses to help Del, who tries to sleep outside in the snow until Neal relents and invites him in to share the room.

Who performs 'Mess Around', the Ahmet Ertegun song heard in the film?

The soundtrack mixes rock and roll, country and pop, including Steve Earle's cover of 'Six Days on the Road'.

Del confesses he has been living on the road since his wife died how many years earlier?

Neal pieces it together from Del's odd silences while riding the 'L', then goes back to the station and brings him home to his family.

In December 2022, which pair reportedly wanted to reboot the film as its stars?

It was the second reboot rumour in two years, following a proposed version with two other big-name comedy stars that never got off the ground.

Which famously deadpan actor and former speechwriter appears as an airport representative?

His bit part came a year after his monotone roll-call in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, also directed by John Hughes.

Who sings the soundtrack's cover of 'Back in Baby's Arms', a song popularised by Patsy Cline?

The 1987 soundtrack album has long been out of print, and two of the film's best-known cues were never on it at all.

A deleted subplot revealed the pair had overshot their destination and been pulled over where?

It explains why the trooper wears that state's patch on his uniform, and why the drive from Missouri took two days.

Which band recorded the instrumental 'Power to Believe' used as Del's unofficial theme?

The band cut it at Hughes's request, but the instrumental went unreleased until a 2014 retrospective compilation.

Who plays Owen, the redneck who lets Del and Neal ride in the bed of his pickup truck?

Owen's father Gus, played by Charles Tyner, runs the motel where the pair spend a rough night.