November is officially here and with it comes the holiday season. This is the time of year where the days are shorter, the nights are longer, the weather is colder, and everyone is starting to look ahead to the winter holidays — and that includes the world of entertainment. With the new month, streamers are starting to add more holiday-oriented television and movie offerings for subscribers, but while there is a plethora of things to choose from, the best holiday comedy of all time has nothing to do with Christmas at all — and it’s finally back on Paramount+.)
Written and directed by John Hughes and starring Steve Martin and John Candy, Planes, Trains, and Automobiles was not only a hit when it was first released in 1987 but has since gone on to become a holiday classic — that holiday being Thanksgiving, not Christmas. While many movies with a holiday theme or setting lean into Christmas, Planes, Trains, and Automobiles instead follows uptight marketing executive Neal Page (Martin) and Del Griffith (Candy), a well-meaning if not highly annoying salesman who end up becoming unlikely travel companions after their flight is diverted just before Thanksgiving. The two men together embark on a wild, 3-day journey packed with crazy misadventures as they try to make it to Chicago in time for Neal’s family Thanksgiving Day dinner. It’s a chaotic journey, but one that for many has become a must-watch every Thanksgiving and it arrived on Paramount+ November 1st.
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles Is a Perfect Holiday Movie
While the idea of a holiday movie that has nothing to do with Christmas — be it story or setting — may seem a little unusual, Planes, Trains, and Automobiles proves that there’s a lot of joy to be had for Thanksgiving as well. The film is a brilliant comedy all on its own, something that is only made better thanks to its Thanksgiving setting. Fundamentally, the film is a road trip comedy, with the two very different men being stuck relying on one another (and put in a position where they can’t really get away from one another) to get to their destination. This odd pairing makes the ordinary stresses of travel heightened and when things go wrong (and boy, do they go wrong) watching the two opposites play off one another is just brilliant. The holiday element of the film also enhances everything, but by using Thanksgiving — a holiday about gratitude and “giving thanks” — rather than Christmas, there’s an emotional element as well. Without spoiling things (because if you haven’t seen the film yet, you should fix that) Neal learns a bit about gratitude and the holiday along the way. Del learns something, too.
That might be the real beauty of Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. The movie has a genuinely beautiful emotional ending that plays out perfectly after all of the comedy and misadventures. It’s a film that masters the delicate balance that is the spectrum of emotions from laughter and sadness and injects a humanity into the holiday season that gives audiences space for both. This is particularly impactful considering that, for many, the holidays are a complicated time of year marked as much by loss as they are by love. You’ll laugh and cry in equal measure — and it’s a must watch this Thanksgiving.
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles is now streaming on Paramount+.
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