History Film / PlanesTrainsAndAutomobiles

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Take a close look at the stickers on Del's luggage. [[spoiler:They're all just from hotels]].

** Same with ''Dutch,'' another movie about a pair of dissimilar people from different class backgrounds struggling to get home to Chicago for {{Thanksgiving|Episode}} … And ''also'' written by John Hughes.

* FollowTheLeader: ''DueDate'', depressingly.

This film featured JohnCandy and SteveMartin in one of the best comedy performances of [[TheEighties the 1980s]]. The film was directed by Creator/JohnHughes, best known for teen angst films until that time, and is widely regarded as his magnum opus.

* CaliforniaDoubling: Averted. The film was shot on location in New York, Wichita, UsefulNotes/StLouis and Chicago.

* BookEnds: Neal's boss mulling over the pictures.

->''You're messing with the wrong guy!!''

* PrecisionFStrike: In the same scene as Neal's ClusterFBomb rant, even, from the [[BewareTheNiceOnes single most unlikely source you'd ever expected it from]].

* [[CarMeetsHouse Car Meets Hotel]]: The two back their burned-out car into the motel room wall, then quickly flee.

** [[PrecisionFStrike Laser-Guided Precision F-Nuke]]: In the same scene, even, from the [[BewareTheNiceOnes single most unlikely source you'd ever expected it from]].
* [[CreativeClosingCredits Creative Opening Credits]]: The title of the film zooms horizontally across the screen in screen-high letters to the earsplitting sound of an airplane taking off. [[TitleOnlyOpening That's the extent of the opening credits.]]

* [[TheThingThatWouldNotLeave The Thing That Would Not Stop Bumping Into Me]]: Del to Neil.

* AvoidTheDreadedGRating: The sole reason for [[ClusterFBomb Neal's rant.]] Hughes deliberately wanted the movie to be rated "R", because he felt that if it was rated lower, people would think he was just cranking out another teen angst film. [[TropesAreNotBad And it's one of the greatest scenes in the movie.]]

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: Neal's ClusterFBomb includes a demand for a Datsun. The company would soon be changing their name to Nisson.

* RoadMovie

* WritersHaveNoSenseOfScale: Averted if paying attention. When driving from St. Louis to Chicago, it would normally take about 6 hours, but they drive from what looks like early evening deep into the night and then drive for a while in the morning before being told that they are still 3 hours away from Chicago. However, if you look at the officer's State Trooper badges and the name of the truck's company, you'll see where they are. They went into Wisconsin.

* TechnologyMarchesOn: If mobile phones were as common back when this movie was made as they are today, this would have been a very short movie.
** And funny enough, there is a cellular phone ad at the L-Train stop at the end of the film. Also worth noting ''Due Date'' borrows quite heavily from this film, and that's from 2010.
** Neal may have been able to contact his wife but he would still have had the inability to get home in time for Thanksgiving, which was his biggest worry throughout the film. A phone wouldn't have made the planes run on time or stopped his car from catching fire.
*** … but it ''would'' have made some of the troubles associated with those situations resolve much more quickly—for example: [[spoiler: on finding that the car he rented didn't exist, Neal could have called the rental company for a pick up]].
*** Finding the next flight or the nearest hotel? There's an app for that.

* AvoidTheDreadedGRating: The sole reason for [[ClusterFBomb Neal's rant.]] Hughes deliberately wanted the movie to be rated "R", because he felt that if it was rated lower, people would think he was just cranking out another teen angst film.
** [[TropesAreNotBad And it's one of the greatest scenes in the movie.]]

* WardrobeFlawOfCharacterization: It's subtle, but the viewer can tell that John Candy's traveling salesman character's suit is off-the-rack and made of a synthetic material, especially by contrast with Steve Martin's successful, wealthy character, who wears one made of fine wool that looks custom-tailored.

* WhamLine: [[spoiler:"I don't have a home. Marie's been dead for eight years."]]