Continuity mistake: When Del comes out of the passenger side of the dairy truck, he is with a black eye, for no reason. The next scene, it is not there. It is there again when he admits to being homeless. (Steve Martin punched Del in a deleted scene.)
Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987)
Directed by: John Hughes
Starring: Kevin Bacon, Steve Martin, John Candy, Michael McKean, Laila Robins
Continuity mistake: When John Candy and Steve Martin are travelling from Jefferson City, Missouri to St. Louis they are 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.
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Suggested correction: I agree with the original post. However, there could be several possibilities for this scenario: 1. Road closures, 2. Road construction, 3. Accidents, 4. Detours, and 5. Heavy "holiday traffic" could have contributed to the bus having to enter St. Louis from the east despite coming from Kansas in the west.
Continuity mistake: 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. (00:57:20 - 00:58:50)
Trivia: In the scene after the plane lands in Wichita, Kansas, when the announcer comes over the loudspeaker look at the destination on the flight info display. It says "nowhere".
Trivia: Just after Dell sells his shower curtain rings as earrings, he and Neal are eating lunch. Look between the two men and slightly out of focus, is a woman wearing Dell's curtain rings as earrings.
Trivia: When Neal's wife is watching TV in bed, she is impossibly viewing the John Hughes film "She's Having a Baby," which didn't even premier in theaters until February of 1988, three months after "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" premiered in November 1987. John Hughes (who directed both films) used his own unreleased "She's Having A Baby" footage/soundtrack and a cameo by Kevin Bacon as teasers for the upcoming 1988 film. There's still some speculation that the plots of the two films actually intersect, and that Kevin Bacon (who is credited as the Taxi-Racer in "Planes, Trains and Automobiles") was playing his character, Jake, from "She's Having a Baby."
State Trooper: What the hell are you driving here?
Del: We had a small fire last night, but we caught it in the nick of time.
State Trooper: Do you have any idea how fast you were going?
Del: Funny enough, I was just talking to my friend about that. Our speedometer has melted and as a result it's very hard to see with any degree of accuracy exactly how fast we were going.
Del: You could kill a man like that, hitting him in the stomach. That's how Houdini died you know.
Bus Lover: Why don't you take a picture? It'll last longer.
Question: This question is about the scene where John Candy is the driver, and Steve Martin is the passenger in the rented car. Steve is unaware at one point, that they are going the wrong way on the highway. He becomes aware, after looking out the window and down onto the shoulder of the road with the wet snow splashing up. As soon as he looks at that, he knows they are going the wrong way. What was it about the road that made him realize it?
Answer: The reason was that the snowbank was on his side (the passenger side) when it should have been on the driver's side if they were driving in the right direction. Also and I'm not sure if you could see this in the film but the deflecters on the road which separate the lanes if you are going in the right direction shine yellow and if you are going the wrong way shine red.
Question: Del was able to get a rental due to having Neil's card. Then, how was Neil able to get a rental card that eventually got him left in the parking lot if he didn't have a card?
Answer: He had multiple cards. He shows the burnt remains when he tries to rent a room.
Question: Why is Del even homeless? I know he's a widower but that alone couldn't explain why he's homeless unless it's supposed to be some sort of cryptic answer like he couldn't live in his house without his wife.
Answer: He's not homeless, he has a house or an apartment somewhere, or lives out of hotels. He just no longer has a 'home', ie, a place where he's happy and someone loves him.
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