There are plenty of holiday films centered on Halloween and Christmas, making it easy for movie lovers to celebrate their favorite holidays. However, there are very few movies centered on Thanksgiving, especially ones you can watch with your whole family (trust me, not everyone wants to watch Eli Roth’s slasher Thanksgiving while carving up the turkey).
Fortunately, there’s one classic you can watch whenever you want to get into the turkey day spirit: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, the Thanksgiving classic now streaming on Prime Video.
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The premise of Planes, Trains, and Automobiles is that an uptight advertising executive has trouble getting home for Thanksgiving after his flight is delayed. Thanks to one crazy circumstance after another, he must travel with a chatty salesman as they try every method possible (the titular planes, trains, and automobiles) to make his way back to his family in Chicago. Along the way, their clashing personalities make for one unforgettable encounter after another on what quickly becomes the off-kilter trip of a lifetime.
There are some big names in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, including Kevin Bacon (best known for Footloose) as a man who steals a taxi. Steve Martin (best known for Roxanne) stars as a tightly-wound advertising executive whose sternness hides a serious love for his family. John Candy (best known outside this film for Spaceballs) co-stars as unflappably avuncular salesman Del Griffith, eager to break through his newfound friend’s hardened exterior.
A Box Office Feast With Cranberry Sauce
When Planes, Trains, and Automobiles came out, audiences flocked to theaters to check out this quirky road trip classic. Against a budget of $15 million, it earned $49.5 million; despite this healthy profit margin, this holiday classic never got a proper sequel. However, two different remakes have been announced in recent years (one with Will Smith and Kevin Hart and one with Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler), but there have been no updates on either of them since early 2023.
Unlike many modern comedies, Planes, Trains, and Automobiles is almost universally beloved by audiences and critics alike. It has a whopping 93 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics praising the movie for its combination of great humor and genuinely heartfelt moments. They also applauded the perfect chemistry between Steve Martin and John Candy, both of whom transformed this film into a holiday classic that its fans (myself included!) watch on Thanksgiving each year.
Iconic Performances From Steve Martin And John Candy
When I first watched Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, I was very young, and I mostly enjoyed the film for the outsized humor of John Candy (someone I adored from my countless times rewatching Spaceballs and quoting his hilarious character). As I got older and started my own family, though, I better appreciated Steve Martin’s character and his relentless quest to find his way home to his family at any cost.
Martin’s Neal Page seems like a humorless jerk (fitting for the star of The Jerk, I suppose) at first. As the movie continued, it humanized his cold character when I realized that he (just like me) would do anything to return to the ones he loves.
It’s impossible to overstate the amazing chemistry between our lead actors, and their interactions remain the chief reason to watch (or re-watch for the millionth time) this timeless comedy classic. Both Martin and Candy are funny on their own, typically stealing every scene in whatever movie they star in, like when John Candy turned a bit cameo in Home Alone into an unforgettable appearance.
Putting Martin and Candy in scene after scene and letting them bounce off one another gives Planes, Trains, and Automobiles an infectious charm. It will have you wanting to come back for a second helping (and third, and fourth) of this tasty Thanksgiving treat.
Will you agree that Planes, Trains, and Automobiles is both the best buddy comedy and best Thanksgiving movie ever made, or is this one weird road trip you’d rather avoid altogether? The only way to find out is to stream this ‘80s classic today and experience all of its weird charms for yourself.
Afterward, you may spend the rest of your life wondering if you might be a train ride away from discovering a new best friend, one who changes your life for the better.
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