Planes, Trains & Automobiles

Revealing mistake: 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.

Revealing mistake: 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. (00:59:35 - 01:01:05)

Revealing mistake: 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...

Revealing mistake: When they are sitting in the bus station in Jefferson City - and then the next scene is the somewhat "speeded up" shot of the kid running up and down the aisles of the bus (before the "take a picture, it'll last longer" scene) - as the kid is running up and down the aisle, watch the woman in the front left seat. The handheld windmill that the kid is running with hits her in the head and her eyes "pop open" as to be surprised by the hit.

ckbyers

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)

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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.

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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."

Charles Austin Miller

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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.

Brian Katcher

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