Out of more than forty films, Steve Martin has been reported to call this buddy comedy his favorite. The material supports the claim as the crew trekked back and forth from the west coast to the northeast for a very difficult shoot. With no travel company wanting to give itself a bad name, the crew was forced to construct virtually every set, including restoring old rail cars and running them on abandoned tracks. Much of the difficulty came from the lack of snow. Cover sets were used on one Illinois location while waiting for more inclement conditions while fake snow was scattered on a stretch of California highway to create the illusion of a Midwestern winter. Director John Hughes (The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles) shot over 600,000 feet of film -- twice the industry standard creating friction with the studio.

Uptight Neal Page (Martin) is trying everything in his power to get home for Thanksgiving. He’s stuck in New York and sweet home Chicago is miles and miles away. Things start off on the wrong foot when Del Griffith (John Candy) steals his cab and get worse when the two find themselves together again later on. With inclement weather keeping them out of the air, and nary a rental car in sight, Neal discovers to his utter dismay that his best chance for getting home in time lies in the kindness of the unbearably cheerful (and talkative) Del. Stuck together for through virtually every form of transportation possible, the two try to endure each other to the very end, discovering a reluctant friendship, and for Neal, an even bigger secret.

Despite Hughes reputation as a director of “teen angst” films, critics raved about Planes, Trains, & Automobiles, helping to catapult it to box office success. The surprise hit of 1987 brought home nearly fifty million dollars in domestic ticket sales and gave legitimacy to the acting chops of reputedly “low brow” comedians, Martin and Candy. A supposed three hour cut exists in a Paramount vault, but Hughes has stated that it would take ungainly hours to assemble, assuming the film stock itself had not deteriorated over time.