Planes, Trains and Automobiles Director’s Cut Explains Everything
Summary
- Since its release in 1987,
Planes, Trains and Automobiles
has become a beloved holiday classic. - While the theatrical release is packed with humor and heart, the original script would’ve made the movie several hours longer.
- Those deleted scenes would’ve added more context to several scenes, clarified some of the movie’s more confusing elements, and enriched the dynamic between Del Griffith and Neal Page.
John Hughes’ 1987 comedy Planes, Trains and Automobiles is a perennial holiday favorite. Starring Steve Martin and John Candy, the film follows two unfortunate travelers who try to get home for Thanksgiving, only to encounter one obstacle after another. Martin’s fussy ad executive Neal Page finds himself all but shackled to Candy’s shower curtain ring salesman Del Griffith. While Del is a friendly individual, he has an overbearing soul who has a knack for getting them into all kinds of trouble before bailing them both out. Besides a hilarious exploration of the trials and travails of holiday travel, the film is a quiet study in class differences, as the well-off Page learns to appreciate the working-class Griffith’s bottomless practicality and joie de vivre.
Although the beloved comedy clocks in at a lean 93 minutes, the original script for Planes, Trains and Automobiles was allegedly more than twice that length. At over 145 pages, it included scenes that don’t appear in the final cut, and massive blocks of dialogue that comic actors like Candy could devour. Hughes created a 220-minute film. That’s almost 40 minutes longer than Avengers: Endgame and more than double the length of most comedies. While the version of Planes, Trains and Automobiles that played in theaters contains many iconic scenes, some moments feel confusing or out of place. The drastic editing down of the script certainly helps to explain why.
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Hughes’ original version of Planes, Trains and Automobiles was a monster. In a 2019 interview with Pro Video Coalition, editor Paul Hirsch reveals Hughes was writing new dialogue the night before each shoot, and giving the new lines for Martin and Candy to perform each day. Upon completion of the shoot, Hughes went on vacation for two weeks, then returned to assist in the editing. Even the director realized it needed to be cut for time, and with the film’s Thanksgiving release looming, time was of the essence. So, he worked with Hirsch to cut the film down to two hours, which was still longer than the studio wanted. They ended up trimming another 30 minutes, creating the film audiences saw in theaters, which sticks largely to the script as originally written.
Sadly, no director’s cut of Planes, Trains and Automobiles has been released. Not only that, but even with all the extra footage, there is only one surviving deleted scene, which takes place on the airplane with Candy’s Del Griffith and Martin’s Neal Page. With almost 130 minutes of deleted footage, there is a lot missing. Hats Off Entertainment created a short documentary that lays out a lot of what was cut out of the movie. Hughes himself said he believed the original film footage had deteriorated in a film vault, and other people involved have spoken about longer scenes as well.
However, while the footage isn’t available to audiences, and a director’s cut is unlikely to appear, the alleged shooting script still exists. It presents a wealth of information that helps to clear up some of the more confusing moments in Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Much of it expands upon the dynamic between the two characters, such as an early scene in which Del chatters on endlessly with Neal stuck next to him on a plane, even after Page politely states that he’d like to read in peace. In the finished film, Candy quickly conveys Del’s propensity to bury his listeners in small talk, rendering the full conversation unnecessary to convey the joke. However, the dialogue itself is extremely funny, as Del yammers on about everything from Prince to the movie Psycho. The deleted content also provides context for a previous gag in which Del reads a smut novel called The Canadian Mounted. In the final cut, it helps convey his earthy sensibilities, but as the excised dialogue makes clear, he’s not actually inclined towards erotica: he just travels so much that he’s running out of new things to read.
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Other scenes bring similar context to several important plot developments. In one of Planes, Trains and Automobiles‘ most iconic scenes, Del and Neal are forced to share a sleazy motel room — and a single small bed — after a blizzard grounds all outbound flights. The scene is short and effective, but it contains a moment that seems like it came from a different movie: someone breaks into their room and steals all the money from Neal’s wallet. Neal mentioned that Del went into his wallet the night before for pizza, but the moment was never shown. The original cut explains what happened and why this infuriated Martin’s character.
While Neal was in the shower, Del ordered pizza and beer. It was a huge mess because Neal wanted a salad, but Del claimed they didn’t have any and ordered a pizza with every imaginable vegetable instead. Del also didn’t have the money to pay for it, so he took it out of Neal’s wallet without permission. That angered Neal, but it also upset the pizza delivery driver, who was only tipped a dollar. It was the delivery driver who broke into the room, and it was because Del got into the wallet the night before that Neal grew distrustful of his traveling companion.
In the final cut, it just looks like a random break-in from an anonymous burglar, and as with Del’s smutty book, it works: stressing the notion that they’re staying in a shabby hotel on the wrong side of town. However, the deleted material conveys one of the movie’s central comedic notions when the well-meaning Del inadvertently makes things unbearable for the put-upon Neal through a misunderstanding gone spectacularly wrong. It further informs Neal’s subsequent meltdown at being stuck with Del, and Del’s shocked, hurt response: ending with the two silently reconciling and Neal essentially committing to sticking with Del.
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Another moment that seemed strange was when Del and Neal arrived at Neal’s house at the film’s conclusion, and his wife seemed like she was about to cry. While Neal was running late, her emotions seemed a little excessive, though it thematically fits with the catharsis of the moment as the two men finally reach their destination. However, there were also several moments in the original version of Planes, Trains and Automobiles that explain why she was so worried. There was an entire subplot where Neal’s wife believed he was cheating on her and that Del was a woman. There was even a funny scene in which she warns Neal he better not come home with Del’s “panties” in his briefcase. Neal replied he dried his face with them that morning, which led her to hang up the phone. During the entire trip, Neal’s wife worried he was cheating on her. When he showed up with Del, and she realized he was telling the truth, she was overwhelmed.
Other omissions include Neal and Del overshooting Chicago for Wisconsin, as revealed by actor Michael McKean, who played a state trooper pulling them over for driving in a partially burned vehicle. It adds to the reasons they were so late, as does a moment when Neal punched Del for a second time after getting arrested, which explains the black eye. Finally, the big diner scene where Del breaks down to Neal about his losses, his holiday struggles, and the sadness in his life was nearly cut. Despite all of that, Planes, Trains and Automobiles remains a beloved movie and works well. However, these little moments add even more to the holiday classic’s touching story.
Planes, Trains and Automobiles
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles stars Steve Martin as Neal Page, an advertising executive on his way home to Chicago for the Thanksgiving holiday, but his journey is besieged with one problem after another. Things turn for the worst when a boisterous but lovable shower ring curtain salesman Del Griffith (John Candy) crosses paths with him. Now somehow stuck with Del, Neal will attempt to make it across the country in a series of increasingly zany incidents to make it home for the holidays.
- Release Date
- November 25, 1987
- Director
- John Hughes
- Cast
- Steve Martin , John Candy , Laila Robins , Michael McKean , Dylan Baker , Lulie Newcomb
- Runtime
- 92 minutes
- Main Genre
- Comedy
