Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987) - 25 mistakes

Continuity: Right before Dell looks over the damage to the rental car, there is a car seen approaching in the distance. After he examines the car, when he and Neal go to retrieve their things, the car is no longer there and it never passed them.

Continuity: When John Candy is singing "The Mess Around" in the car, the car swerves, and a hubcap from the passenger side rolls off. The hubcap is back on in the next scene.

Continuity: When John Candy and Steve Martin are travelling from Jefferson City, Missouri to St. Louis they are seen crossing the Mississippi River to enter downtown St. Louis. This would not have been possible unless the bus driver overshot the entire city and ended up across the river in Illinois.

Factual error: At the beginning of the movie, Steve Martin is trying to catch a cab to LaGuardia at about 5:30PM. In the movie, it's still daylight, whereas in reality, NYC is pitch black by that time of day - the sun sets at about 4:30PM in late November.

Continuity: During Neal's family eating dinner, the kid who says "I prefer noogies" is holding a fork in his hand. When it cuts, the fork is suddenly on the table.

Audio problem: When Del gets back on the interstate in the wrong direction and the car beside him is yelling at him and honking their horn. Del blows the horn back and about a minute later blows it again yet it's a different tone.

Revealing: Near the end of the film, when Neal is on the final L train home, we see the train pull away from the station. When Neal returns to the station to find Del, the footage of the train leaving is played backwards - you can briefly see a man walking backwards at the top left of the screen.

Continuity: It's from a few of the scenes in Lambert Airport. Steve Martin (Neal Page) walks into the terminal, his tie and shirt are soaked from the snow. His hair is a mess. He takes the tie off. After exchanging "F-Bombs" with Edie McClurg (the Car Rental clerk) he walks outside to catch a cab. Check out his clothes. He has on a fresh-new tie, new clean shirt and his hair looks brand-new.

Visible crew/equipment: When Neil is looking for the car he hired in the car park, there is a tracking from Neil's POV moving along the backs of the cars. On the car in space V-2 you see the reflection of the camera on the dolly and some crew members moving.

Continuity: When Neil is telling Del that he thinks it would be better if they traveled separately, the length of Del's cigarette changes (it loses about an inch after a two-second cutaway to Neil then back to Del).

Continuity: When Del pulls out his wallet and shows his shower curtain rings to Neal, we can see Del's sleeve is pulled up exposing his watch and most of his wrist. When it cuts, the sleeve covers his watch and wrist.

Visible crew/equipment: When Steve Martin and Kevin Bacon start racing towards the cab, as Bacon start running, watch carefully as he passes the second window. You can see the camera man sitting on some moving trolley reflected in the window.

Continuity: When Neal and Del are sitting at the counter eating breakfast at the Braidwood Hotel, talking about how they were robbed the night before, watch the plate of food in front of Neal. The food on the plate changes completely.

Continuity: When Owen arrives at the hotel to meet Neal and Del to drive them to the train station, Owen is wearing gloves on both hands. As he introduces himself and shakes their hands, Owen's right hand is now bare even though there wasn't enough time to remove the glove.

Revealing: When the couple is yelling to Del "you're going to kill someone" because he's driving on the wrong side of the interstate, you can see that their car's transmission is in PARK.

Continuity: At the end of Neal and Dell's ride in the back of the pickup, the dog is walking around in the back of the truck. Two shots later it is shown frozen, just like Neal and Dell.

Continuity: When the boss puts his hands on the table at the beginning, between shots they go from being spread apart to very close together.

Continuity: In the beginning when Neal's boss is done looking at Neal's work and is about to state his opinion, we see him holding his glasses in his hand while stretching it out. When it cuts from behind him the glasses are no longer in his hand but he has them hanging from his mouth.

Factual error: If they are really in the Wichita, Kansas airport, listen carefully to the airport announcements (real faintly in the background). When they say for "Mary Ellen" to meet her party upstairs, there's a slight problem with that. There is no upstairs in the Wichita airport.

Continuity: In the beginning when Neal's boss is looking at his work there is a wide shot showing the man sitting in front of Neal writing on his paper. When it cuts to facing the man he isn't writing anymore.

Revealing: During the scene where Neal is trying to board his flight from New York to Chicago, the camera pans out to show a shot of the whole airport. But, you can see that the shot was taken in O'Hare airport, in Chicago, but he's supposed to be in New York at that point in the film.

Continuity: When Steve Martin gets off of the train in Chicago near the very end of the movie to search for John Candy in the depot, the part of his hair is on the opposite side (left) from where it normally is. There is no apparent wind blowing his hair - it looks neatly parted on the "wrong" side. When he enters the depot, the part in his hair is back to the "correct" side.

Continuity: When Dell and Neal get dropped off to catch the train, there is a shot of the town they depart from. Later in the film, when their burned-out car is impounded, they catch a ride on a semi carrying dairy products, departing from the same town.

Visible crew/equipment: When Steve Martin first calls home to tell his wife that the flight is delayed we see a lovely, cozy picture of the Page family enjoying a delicious, home cooked meal. However, in the shot where the kids are all sitting at the table the youngest child (back to camera) is being carefully 'watched' by a woman who is sitting on the floor next to his chair. I presume it is the actor's mother making sure that her little baby doesn't fall off the chair...

Other: Neal's wife is shown in bed watching a movie on television. You cannot see the screen but you can hear the movie. It's "She's Having a Baby", also directed by John Hughes. The catch is that "Planes..." was released in theatres 4 months BEFORE "She's Having a Baby", so how could she be watching it on television.