The emotional ending of Planes, Trains And Automobiles was pieced together at the last minute. The late John Hughes is an iconic figure in the world of movies comedy comedies, and with good reason. He started out writing the screenplays for movies like National Lampoon’s Vacation and unmade parody sequel Jaws 3, People 0. In addition to being a prolific writer, he later moved into directing with classic teen movies Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and The Breakfast Club.
John Hughes also wrote the scripts for the first three Home Alone movies and Beethoven, before essentially retiring from the business in the early 1990s. His work has been cited as hugely influential from many filmmakers, including Kevin Smith and Jon Watts for Spider-Man: Homecoming.
Planes, Trains And Automobiles saw Hughes moving away from teen comedies to focus on the mismatched buddy adventure between Steve Martin’s (The Pink Panther) executive and shower curtain ring salesman John Candy. Martin’s character Neal is racing to get home to Chicago for Thanksgiving with his family and is both helped - and hindered - by Candy’s Del. Planes, Trains And Automobiles is considered one of Hughes’ best. It’s frequently hilarious, it features career-best work from Martin and Candy and it’s got a genuine warmth to it.
This is seen in the ending of Planes, Trains And Automobiles where Neal finally says goodbye to Del at the Chicago “L” station. On the train back, Neal starts silently reflecting on his journey and starts to piece together comments Del made that reveal he’s about to spend the holiday alone. The train pulls back into the station and Neal finds Del, who reveals his wife actually died years ago and he doesn’t have a home to go back to. The movie ends with Neal bringing Del home so he can spend Thanksgiving with his family.
Planes, Trains And Automobiles’ ending is perfect but this wasn’t the original plan. The original finale had Neal take the train but when he arrives back, he finds Del waiting in the local station. Del reveals a truck driver brought him there, and that ever since his wife passed he attaches himself to people during his travels so he doesn’t feel alone; out of pity, Neal brings him back. Test audiences not only laughed at Del’s speech - which wasn’t supposed to be funny - but it also made them dislike his character.
Planes, Trains And Automobiles’ Paul Hirsch (Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope) revealed on the Light The Fuse podcast that he had to piece together a new ending from the original footage. He used outtakes of Steve Martin on the train and intercut it with various scenes from the film, including his realization that Del’s wife may have died. Hirsch then reversed the footage of the train leaving the station to make it look like Neal came back to find Del; Hirsch also cut Del’s speech to only key pieces of dialogue. Not only did this recut give Neal a sense of compassion, but it also removed the idea Del essentially guilted him into bringing him home. This made Planes, Trains And Automobiles’ ending far more emotional and goes to show that power of a few smart edits.
Next: Where Are They Now: The Breakfast Club Cast
