“Planes, Trains and Automobiles” is the ultimate Thanksgiving movie to warm hearts after filling bellies.
“Planes, Trains and Automobiles” is the ultimate Thanksgiving movie to warm hearts after filling bellies.
It was mission impossible — make a movie where the central plot revolves around Thanksgiving. But if Charlie Brown could do it, so could John Hughes.
“Planes, Trains and Automobiles” was Hughes’ (‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,’‘The Breakfast Club’) first time writing and directing a movie not about adolescents. Released in 1987, the film could’ve easily been lost to time given its lack of dramatic flare or exhilarating plot, but it’s saved by its wonderful casting.
It’s a movie so timeless the Soeder family has vowed to rewatch it every Thanksgiving, which means I’ve seen it approximately 20 times. Every year, tears spring to my parents’ eyes from the same jokes they’ve now come to know by heart and quote at mildly inappropriate times of the year.
Neal Page (Steve Martin) is the Scrooge of Thanksgiving. With an air of indifference toward anyone besides his family or himself, the advertising executive has one goal — to get home in time for Thanksgiving.
Neal’s kryptonite comes in the form of John Candy as Del Griffith, a jolly shower curtain ring salesman who’s so genuinely aloof, he seems more like a New Yorker who wandered onto set rather than a fictional character.
Neal and Del are as well suited for one another as water and fire. Neal’s inability to tolerate anything contrasts with Del’s propensity to talk about everything, making for an iconic pairing.
Fate — or karma — ties the two souls together as they undertake a holiday pilgrimage from LaGuardia to O’Hare. But as the title suggests, Chicago is much more than a plane ride away.
The pair kick off the film with a bad first impression, as Del steals Neal’s cab during New York City rush hour. In a city of millions, they somehow end up on the same flight — a level of ironic misfortune which is usually only felt in real life.
The pair’s journey begins when a snowstorm forces their flight to ground in Kansas. A series of cataclysmic travel failures ensue, forcing Neal and Del to jump through every hoop imaginable to get Neal home in time for Thanksgiving.
A cab ride from hell, a shared hotel bed and a questionable rendition of “Meet the Flintstones” on public transportation leaves viewers wondering if Neal and Del are going to become best friends for life or kill each other.
However, past the halfway mark, the plot starts to run out of steam. One can only stand to watch two people fail miserably at long-distance travel for so long before it feels like Hughes is re-treading on old ground.
The greatness of “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” isn’t in any of these so-real-it’s-painful scenes, but in the ingenuity of two world-class comedic actors.
When Neal turns against Del in the heat of the moment and tells him he would rather sit through an insurance seminar than listen to one of his stories, the hurt slashing across Del’s face would make any heart sink.
It’s a scene I’ve seen differently every time I watch it. As a kid, I laughed alongside my family at Neal’s rampage against Del. Now when I look at this scene, I can’t help but want to hug Del and tell him I would rather listen to a boring story than someone like Neal cut into the little guy.
By the end of the movie, the audience is able to truly feel the deep wound reopened by Neal’s cruelty. Del alone on the “L” platform on Thanksgiving Day is a sobering image. After days spent wishing for nothing but an escape from Del, Neal undergoes a change of heart and invites Del to his home for Thanksgiving.
During a holiday season full of tension, the lessons of this film need rehashing. While relationships may be rocky, everyone deserves to have a place full of love to return to on Thanksgiving.
“Planes, Trains and Automobiles” is available to stream on Paramount+, Hulu and Amazon Prime.
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