Goofs for
Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987) More at IMDbPro »

• Errors in geography: A bus from Jefferson City to St. Louis would not cross the Mississippi; it would enter St. Louis from the other direction.
  
  
• Continuity: The length of Del's cigarette while he's singing in the car.
  
  
• Continuity: Hubcaps can be seen falling off the car, only to return in later shots. Further, the same hubcap can be seen falling off twice.
  
  

• Continuity: When Neal returns to the station to collect Del, his parting changes sides.
  
  
• Continuity: When Neal is walking from the parking lot (where his rented car should be) to the main terminal, a brief clipping indicates that the sun is going down. However, when Neal is at the terminal, it appears to be mid-afternoon.
  
  
• Continuity: The length of Dell's cigarette when in the restaurant. (When Neil is about to tell him that he wants to travel alone.)
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: When Neal calls home to tell his wife he is delayed, while they are sitting at the table, a woman's head and shoulders are visible holding the toddler on the chair (Pan and Scan version only)
  
  
• Continuity: When Neal chases after his cab, his brief case and garment bag switch hands a few times.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: When Neal Page is dropped off at the car rental parking lot, he looks for his parking space, V5. When he is looking, the camera is reflected in the back of one of the cars.
  
  
• Errors in geography: When travelling by rented car from St. Louis to Chicago, they get pulled over by a Wisconsin State Trooper. Wisconsin is to the north and would not be in any way on the route to Chicago.
  
  
• Continuity: While sitting and waiting for a ride to the train station, Neal is wearing black snow boots, when throughout the film he is always wearing dress shoes.
  
  
• Continuity: Del and Neal's departing flight is clearly an American Airlines twin-engine jet taxiing on the runway. An exterior shot of their plane in flight shows a four-engine, earlier generation 707 jet with a red and white paint job more TWA-esque in color scheme.
  
  
• Continuity: When Neal Page and Del Griffith check into their hotel room at the Braidwood Inn, Neal notices that they have to sleep together in a queen sized bed. Yet they wake up in each other's arms sleeping on a twin or full sized bed.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When the L train is coming back to the station at the end of the movie there is an aerial view of the actual train which uses reversed footage. On the ground below you see (very quickly) a person walking backwards.
  
  
• Errors in geography: Arial shot shows Dell and Neil arriving on the bus into St. Louis by traveling over a Mississippi River bridge. However, they would have been coming from the west, not over the river from Illinois.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Neal's plane ticket claims that he'll leave from JFK Airport, but with the information board in New York and the arrival board in Chicago, Neal is actually departing from LaGuardia Airport.
  
  
• Errors in geography: When the Semi truck they are riding in approaches Chicago and it shows the skyline, it is showing the architecture of Sears Tower as if looking at it from the Southeast. There is no highway that comes from the southeast, that would be in the lake. Other visible buildings are in fact facing another direction than what they are in the movie.
  
  
• Continuity: When Neil and Del are on the bus to St. Louis and Neil starts singing, they are clearly driving through an area without trees. But when everyone turns back to look at him they are surrounded by trees and when they go back to Neil and Del, there are no trees to be seen.
  
  
• Continuity: When Neal first arrives at the Mid-Central Airlines waiting area at JFK Airport, the flight information display (on the wall behind the ticket counter) indicates that Flight 909 is bound for Chicago. A few minutes later, at the Mid-Central ticket counter in Mid Continent Airport in Wichita, KS, the flight information display indicates a destination of "Nowhere" for this flight, instead of "Chicago", despite the flight still showing as "delayed".
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When Neal Page and Del Griffith are waiting for their flight in JFK airport, Neal claims that he hailed a cab on Park Ave. in Manhattan, and that Del stole it. It was the attorney who actually hailed the cab, not Neal. Similarly, Del acknowledges that it was Del's cab.
  
  
• Errors in geography: When driving down the highway, the road has raised reflector dots. Reflector dots are not used in the Midwest because the snow plows would rip them right out of the road.
  
  
• Continuity: When John Candy arrives to pick Steve Martin up in the semi truck in the end of the movie he has a black eye. There is no scene depicting it or explanation as to why or how he got it. It's never mentioned, but he has it the last 20 minutes of the movie.
  
  
• Continuity: Outside the Braidwood Inn, Neal tells Del that he has a Visa Card, a gasoline card and a Neiman Marcus Card. However, earlier when they check into the motel, Neal pays with a Diner's Club International card.
  
  
• Continuity: After Neil yells at Del Griffith in the Witchita motel, it shows Del Griffith sit back down on the bed with the lamp behind him turned on, then it goes to a shot of Neil, but when it goes back to Del Griffith the lamp is turned off
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Neal and Del are driving on the wrong side of the highway a couple in a gray car try to yell to them that they are going the wrong way. They are supposed to be traveling at highway speeds, but close up on the couple clearly shows the car is in park.
  
  
• Continuity: When the train breaks down Dell is see dragging his trunk away from the train lid side up. Next shot of trunk it is upside-down then wright side up and finally when Neal grabs it upside-down again. Dell also has many more people right next to him when Dell grabs the trunk than the immediately preceding shot.
  
  

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