Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987) — Screenplay
A grumpy marketing exec races home for Thanksgiving, stuck with an annoyingly cheerful curtain-ring salesman who turns his nightmare trip into an unexpected lesson in humanity.
- Written by
- John Hughes
- Genre
- Comedy, Drama, Holiday
- Studio
- Paramount Pictures
- Length
- 129 pages
John Hughes balances razor-sharp comic set pieces with genuine emotional beats, making the mismatched pairing of uptight Neal and shambolic Del a masterclass in escalating conflict and gradual warmth. The film's episodic structure on planes, trains, and rental cars showcases efficient pacing and dialogue that reveals character through friction, not exposition.
Read the full Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987) screenplay in PDF, page by page, right here on Laper — or download the original script to study John Hughes’s scene work, dialogue and structure at your own pace. A free resource for screenwriters and film students learning Hollywood script format.