Planes Trains and Automobiles

Steve Martin plays the tightly wound Neal Page, a bundle-of-nerves straight man in the style of Bud Abbott. John Candy portrays the innocent but always skewered Del Griffith, a shower curtain ring salesman who seems to live in a world governed by a different set of rules, a la Lou Costello.

The movie follows the story of Neal Page as he tries to return to his family for Thanksgiving after being on a business trip. The journey is doomed from the outset, with Del Griffith interfering by snatching the taxi cab that Page had hailed for himself. The two inevitably pair up later and begin an absurdly error-prone adventure to help Page back to his home. When every mode of transit fails them, what should have been a brief New York to Chicago flight turns into a mishmash of cancelled, broken, and worthless trips in the wrong direction.