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Planes, Trains and Automobiles: How Tricking Steve Martin Changed the Ending

A last-minute change and some covert filming of Steve Martin when he was rehearsing made Planes, Trains and Automobiles a Thanksgiving classic.

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Few filmmakers have had their finger on the pulse of the American zeitgeist better than John Hughes in the 1980s. A former advertising copywriter and the son of a Chicagoan salesman, also named John Hughes, the now legendary screenwriter and film director rose to prominence in the mid-to-late 20th century by recognizing what audiences wanted to see and hear. And sometimes what they needed to feel.

It was that gift which allowed him to transition from moonlighting as a joke writer for standups like Rodney Dangerfield to writing proper comedy films outright—and sometimes lacing them with an emotional sentimentality that, if not universally true, almost always felt authentic. The ‘80s comedies he wrote and directed, including Sixteen Candles (1984), The Breakfast Club (1985), and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986), are still watched and celebrated to this day as much for their moments of earnestness (such as when Alan Ruck demolishes his neglectful father’s Ferrari) as for their jokes.

This holds true for what is arguably Hughes’ most timeless directorial effort too: the single agreed-upon “Thanksgiving movie,” Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987). A classic two-hander buddy picture about an odd couple enduring an impromptu road trip (and each other), just in time for that all-American holiday of turkeys and mashed potatoes, Planes, Trains and Automobiles is hilarious. How can it not be when it cast Steve Martin and John Candy at the peak of their comedic talents and popularity? The film then forces them to play off each other like oil and vinegar as their characters share the same modes of transportation, and hotel rooms, and bathroom towel sets, and then finally even a bed. The indignant exasperation radiating from Martin’s evermore withering gaze and Candy’s personification of a bear hug is comedic peanut butter and jelly.

Yet the reason the movie continues to linger on with families, Thanksgiving after Thanksgiving and generation after generation, is more than just the yucks. The film has an emotional resonance and soul; it may even be Hughes’ most adult screenplay, as the problems actually weighing these men down are more complex than prom dates or who you sit with at lunch.

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As it turns out, Candy’s Del Griffith is a widower, and sadder than that, one who feels the loss of his wife so profoundly that he’s elected to live permanently on the road. He has no home and, thus, nowhere to spend Thanksgiving. Still, he busts his good-natured (if oblivious and impolite) keester in order to get Martin’s family man Neal Page home for Thanksgiving. And most miraculously of all, the poignant way this is all revealed in Planes, Trains and Automobiles was a last minute fix in post-production where Hughes utilized some footage Martin never even knew was filmed in order to create the greatest emotional catharsis of the picture.

John Hughes, Steve Martin, and a Beautiful Expression

Planes, Trains and Automobiles was likely one of the more personal films in Hughes’ career. In addition to the film starring an advertising executive (Martin’s Neal) making the brutal commuter flight between New York City and Chicago, the film also was loosely based on the worst Thanksgiving of the filmmaker’s life. Back in his copywriting days, Hughes really did intend to spend only an afternoon in NYC before returning home to Chicago for the holidays. Instead he endured five days on the road because of weather delays, which landed him all the way in Phoenix, Arizona. During those trials and tribulations, he spent most of the holiday with a salesman who’d seen it all before.

It is not hard to imagine Del and Neal represent two sides of Hughes’ persona: the world-weary salesman, who like Hughes’ own father had that human touch that could connect with anyone, and, well, the guy who lives in the elite suburbs of Chicago and who would rather just be home for the holidays. For the film, Hughes cast two actors he incredibly admired, one of whom he worked with before in Candy, and one whose career he had watched from afar.

“I thought Steve Martin was the funniest man alive,” Hughes told the Boston Herald in 1987 (via Vanity Fair ’s oral history of the movie). “He was the first real rock-and-roll comedian who appeared in arenas, not little clubs. So I was a little in awe when he came to my home for a meeting for Planes, Trains .”

That might be true, but Martin is known in the industry for both his precise perfectionism and, according to some folks, a professional aloofness that, in retrospect, may not have been a natural fit for an unapologetic sentimentalist like Hughes. According to film journalist Tim Appelo (via IndieWire ), Martin’s old colleague Tom Smothers once remarked, “Spending time with [Martin] is like being alone.” What this meant is that while Martin was a comedic and improvisational genius, he always was in control of how he played the characters. Martin, the actor, determined how much of himself he liked to reveal on set—which was apparently little.

Looking back on working with Martin, Hughes reportedly said, “You say, ‘Gee, Steve, why don’t you do this, why don’t you’—he does what he wants to do, you know?” When it came to getting comedic energy while playing off Candy, it could be dynamite, but there was never a moment where Martin was caught off-guard or as emotionally vulnerable as Hughes wanted.

That changed on a day where, between scenes, Hughes told his cinematographer to film Martin without the actor’s knowledge. Martin was quietly preparing for the scene they were about to shoot, and Hughes saw in the actor’s quiet pensiveness the type of vulnerability he craved for his movies.

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“Steve had a really beautiful expression on his face, ‘cause what he was doing was trying to learn his lines. He was thinking about his lines,” Hughes told Appelo. “This deep [look] that in context looks like he was troubled.” Hughes filmed it without Martin’s permission or awareness, and without knowing if he would ever use it. This decision would prove pivotal when it came to fixing the ending of Planes, Trains and Automobiles .

Changed Endings and Canny Editing

While the beloved holiday film is watched every year now as a breezy 93-minute odyssey, there is a famously “lost” director’s cut of the film that runs well over two hours. The original assembly cut ran even closer to four hours . And when it came to finding the movie buried within, Hughes realized that, as scripted, the ending did not work.

In its original version, Martin’s Page does not have the perceptive empathy to figure out that Del lied about his wife waiting for him in Chicago. Instead when Neal says goodbye to Del for the umpteenth time and gets on a Chicago elevated train headed home, he finds Del waiting for him at the next train station. Del’s humanity isn’t recognized by a newfound friend; it is pleadingly confessed when an enraged Neal demands to know why this guy is following him home. So Del reluctantly admits his wife is dead. In the end, and out of pity, Neal invites Del to Thanksgiving, and we spend a much longer time in the screenplay meeting all of Neal’s many relatives and enjoying their subsequent dinner.

Martin regrets some of what was deleted in the final cut, including a long and heartfelt speech by Del about how his wife was sick when they married, and they hoped to have children but her condition continued to worsen until she passed. In a 2021 interview with The Guardian , Martin said, “That scene was a page and a half long in the script, and in the movie I think it’s cut to three lines. But there was such beauty in it, and I never understood why John trimmed the scene.”

According to editor Paul Hirsch, who spoke to Vanity Fair for their 35th anniversary oral history, it had to do with how audiences perceived the Del character.

“That speech was getting bad laughs,” Hirsch said of test screenings for a two-hour version of the film. “As he was delivering it, people started to giggle, and then it got worse and worse. So we concocted a version in which Steve figures it out for himself, that Candy is homeless, and goes and fetches him. In the original version, Candy sort of ambushes Steve.”

For Hughes, it was a reportedly finer point, with IndieWire noting the director said, “I realized I don’t like [Del] at the end… He just went from being a pain in the ass to a tragic pain in the ass.”

Having Neal realize Del’s plight without having to be told gave both men more dignity and also provided Neal with the good grace to willingly invite Del to his home for Thanksgiving dinner. Similarly, by cutting the extended family exhaustion and hysteria Hughes had scripted for the final scene—ideas that would find their way into the screenplays for Christmas Vacation (1989) and Home Alone (1990)—the movie was allowed to end on the warmth of Neal and Del’s unlikely friendship and holiday good wishes, as opposed to this knucklehead guilting his way into a turkey dinner.

Still, there was the problem of changing the ending when Planes, Trains and Automobiles was already over budget and out of time. Those test screenings occurred in July 1987—long after the snow in Chicago melted—and the film was due out in November. This is where Hughes’ discreet filming of Martin proved invaluable.

Cropping the frame as close as possible, so as to hide that it was not filmed on a Chicago MTA train, Hughes and Hirsch used Martin’s vulnerability while mentally preparing himself for a scene to create the suggestion of Neal recognizing his own heartlessness and blindness while thinking about Del. (They also used alternative takes of Candy from other scenes in a montage here that created the suggestion of a nobler reading of the character than previously glimpsed.) The filmmakers also reversed some winter footage of Chicago trains coming and going out of a platform, and restructured the scene of Martin berating Candy for following him. Instead, as edited, the scene now plays like Neal is returning for Del out of genuine concern. He wants to make sure his new buddy has anywhere to go tonight.

The result is the emotional catharsis Hughes was looking for, and perhaps the most adult emotionality in an oeuvre celebrated for its heartfelt good cheer.

David Crow | @DCrowsNest

David Crow is the movies editor at Den of Geek. He has long been proud of his geek credentials. Raised on cinema classics that ranged from…

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Planes, Trains and Automobiles at 35: An Oral History of One of the Most Beloved Road Movies Ever Made

By Jason Bailey

When  Planes, Trains and Automobiles roared into theaters on November 25, 1987, it was somehow both a sure thing and a big risk. Its writer/producer/director, John Hughes, was coming off a string of hits ( Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club,  and  Ferris Bueller’s Day Off among them), modestly budgeted character-driven dramedies whose big grosses meant big profits; leading actors  Steve Martin and John Candy were among the biggest comedy stars in the country. But Hughes, who had established himself as the poet laureate of ’80s teendom, was telling a story about grown-ups for a change. Martin, whose biggest film successes thus far had come in broad comedies, was attempting to remake himself as a more intellectual screen presence. And although Candy was one of the brightest lights of the  SCTV ensemble, he had found precious few film roles that put his tremendous talent to full use. 

But these three comic legends collaborated to make movie magic, and in the 35 years since its release,  Planes, Trains and Automobiles has become not only a holiday perennial, but one of the most beloved comedies of the ’80s. To mark that anniversary—as well as its recent 4K Blu-ray and video-on-demand release, featuring over an hour of previously unseen footage for those who purchase it— Vanity Fair spoke to nearly 20 members of the movie’s cast and crew, as well as the children of the late John Hughes and John Candy.  

Even before a single frame of film had been shot, anticipation for the movie was high. “Steve Martin and John Candy have their work cut out for next February. Paramount has snagged them to star in  Planes, Trains and Automobiles,  written and directed by John Hughes,” Marilyn Beck wrote in a September 1986 syndicated column. ”Paramount is so high on the script—and on Martin and Candy—that it already has targeted  P, T & A as its major release for the holiday season next year.”  

Bill Brown (Associate Producer/Second Unit Director):  I remember going out to dinner at Ivy at the Shore in Los Angeles with [Hughes] on, like, a Wednesday night. And he goes, “I’ve got this idea.”

John Hughes (Writer/Producer/Director):  This movie is based on an incident that actually happened to me. When I was an advertising copywriter I set out from New York to Chicago on Thanksgiving weekend and after a five-day delay, ended up in Phoenix, Arizona, via Wichita, Kansas. ( Edmonton Sunday Sun, 1987)

Brown: And he was just sort of pitching the idea for the movie.

John Hughes:  There was an old guy there, a salesman who had been on the road for years. He knew everything about this kind of situation. I kind of hung out with him. I was so impressed by this guy’s understanding of the situation. ( Rocky Mountain News, 1987)

Brown:  This is a Wednesday night at dinner, just casual, sitting around talking about it. The following Tuesday, it was a greenlit picture at Paramount.

Janet Hirshenson (Casting Director):  As I remember, he came in, we had a session on a Monday and he came in and said, “Oh, I wrote a script over the weekend. I think we may be doing it later.”

Ira Newborn (Composer):  He could write a script in a day or two days. I mean, he had all this stuff in his head! 

Brown: We’d have dinners mostly at his house, but sometimes at restaurants. And they were an opportunity for him to kind of talk through stuff. And then he would start work. So he would generally start work after dinner and work until like four in the morning, that was his prime writing time. And it would take about three nights to lay down a draft.

James Hughes (John Hughes’s Son):  He wrote his first drafts as quickly as possible, almost in a fugue state.

Tarquin Gotch (Music Supervisor):  He would get in the zone, and not stop. And you  could not get hold of him. Phone’s dead. And it could be two days.

Howard Deutch (Director,   Pretty in Pink, Some Kind of Wonderful, The Great Outdoors * ): * He’d write and I’d usually fall asleep…. On  Some Kind of Wonderful, we were doing rewrites. I woke up and I said, “How’d it go?” And he said, “Oh, yeah, I did this instead, sorry.” And he hands me 50 pages. I go, “What is this? We were supposed to do three, four pages on  Some Kind of Wonderful. ” He said, “Oh, I get sidetracked. Tell me what you think of this. I don’t really know what it’s about. But I wrote it.” And it was the first half of  Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. So that’s the guy we’re dealing with.

John Hughes III (John Hughes’s Son):  He was always writing, there were always people in and out of the house, there was always music blaring from the other room, late-night music temp sessions and that sort of thing. 

Deutch:  There were always half-written scripts or quarter-written or almost-done scripts lying around the office. And  Planes, Trains was one of those. I started to read it, and it was fantastic, I loved it right away. And I said, “I want to do this.” He says, “Okay!”

So I started prep. And it wasn’t very long into the prep that I got a call from Ned Tanen, the head of Paramount. He said, “Listen, I just got a call that Steve Martin’s interested in doing this. And I know John has a  major actor crush on Steve Martin. I think John’s gonna want to do it. But John has other things in mind for you if he does.”

John Candy (“Del Griffith”):  There’s a picture, this January, February, that would be ’87. John Hughes wrote a script for Paramount, and Howard Deutch, I believe, is set to direct it. As yet it is untitled, and it’s a very funny story, hysterically funny story. I laughed a lot when I read this. ( City Lights,   1986 )

Planes, Trains was not Hughes and Candy’s first collaboration—Candy had appeared in  National Lampoon’s Vacation, which Hughes wrote and Harold Ramis directed, in 1983. Candy had not initially been cast; he was brought in when the film’s original ending, in which Clark Griswold goes to Roy Walley’s house wielding a gun and demanding entertainment, was scrapped.

John Hughes:  I preferred the original and still do, but the rewrite gave me an introduction to John Candy. ( Zoetrope: All-Story, 2008)

Chris Candy (John Candy’s Son):  He really knew how to capture my dad’s essence.

John Hughes:  I thought Steve Martin was the funniest man alive. He was the first real rock-and-roll comedian who appeared in arenas, not little clubs. So I was a little in awe when he came to my home for a meeting for  Planes, Trains. I found him disarming and cooperative. Then I met John Candy, he was the same sort of man. We became fast friends. ( Boston Herald, 1987) 

Steve Martin (“Neal Page”):  Part of the difference of this character, more than anything I’ve ever done, is that the serious base of it sets up the comedy—like the more serious and tense the character is, the funnier it gets when he goes crazy or finds himself in an awkward situation or sleeping, you know, with John Candy. ( Getting There Is Half the Fun: The Story of Planes, Trains and Automobiles,  1987)

John Hughes:  John and Steve are very different kinds of guys and they’re an incredibly unlikely combination. That’s what appealed to me. Steve has gotten fairly sophisticated and he’s handsome. John is the absolute opposite. ( Rocky Mountain News, 1987)

Jennifer Candy (John Candy’s Daughter):  This was the first role that I really noticed him prepping the character. He really planned the facial hair. He really planned the hair, like, Del Griffin had to have a perm. And we went and got a perm. I remember him coming home with dark hair and a perm. So it was like, okay, this is what he’s doing now.

Paramount had greenlighted the picture, but with a catch: They wanted it in theaters by Thanksgiving, which only gave Hughes nine months to shoot, cut, and complete the picture, a process that typically took a year or more. And that wasn’t the only ticking clock.

Gotch:  There was a DGA strike at the end of June, so we had to shoot the movie by the end of June. 

John Hughes: I finished  She’s Having a Baby at the end of December, the 19th of December. And we started this picture on the third of March. It’s very difficult to edit, preview, and score a film in two months, while prepping another film. And I was very happy that Paramount allowed the film to be taken out of the summer schedule, because I would have had to have a film released that I had no input on the back end. ( Getting There Is Half the Fun: The Story of Planes, Trains and Automobiles,  1987)

But Hughes still had to hit the tight holiday deadline for  Planes, Trains, even when Mother Nature decided not to cooperate with the late-winter shoot. The snow so direly needed for the November-set tale would prove a feast-or-famine situation—usually the latter.

Shooting began in Buffalo, New York, on March 2, 1987.

Michael McKean (“State Trooper”):  We shot the full day, and then overnight it snowed. So we couldn’t shoot the rest of it—we had to go back and start again, because now things looked a lot different.

Associated Press, March 4, 1987:  “The snow even came just in time for the first scene involving newly arrived stars Martin and Candy. But the squalls were so intense they caused a whiteout, near-zero visibility in blowing snow. Shooting of a sequence in which Martin and Candy, riding in a burnt-out car, are pulled over by a state trooper were delayed while the crew waited for the weather to quiet down and the camera lenses to clear.”

McKean:  So we essentially shot the thing twice in two different days.

Brown:  There were logistical elements with the making of the film that were difficult. But that particular year, I just remember we were chasing snow. We were chasing snow everywhere we went. It was really, really bad.

Martin:  We actually lived the plot of the movie. As we would shoot, we were hopping trains, planes, and automobiles, trying to find snow. ( John Hughes: A Life in Film )

Brown:  I’ve worked on a number of films where there’s almost like…I refer to it as method filmmaking? Because it’s like, you just become the characters, in their experience.

The best illustration of the touch-and-go nature of the shoot is probably the story of character actor Troy Evans, just starting out in 1987, who was hired for what was intended to be the one-day, one-line role of the cheese truck driver at the end of the journey.  

Troy Evans (“Antisocial Trucker”):  They hired me and I was going to shoot in LA. And they offered me a thousand dollars, for this one day, to go in and say that one line. Then my agent called a couple of days later, and said, “They’ve decided they’re going to shoot that scene in New York.” And I said, “So am I off the movie?” “No, no, no, you’ll go to New York.” Well, about this time, they decided that they would use this scene as their cover set, because there was threatening snow, so they’re holding me. If it snows, then they’ll shoot this with me in the truck, with the snow blowing. 

But it didn’t snow, and they kept holding Evans for his one scene—at $1,000 a day—as the company moved from Buffalo to Ohio to St. Louis to Illinois, taking him along for the ride to each new location.

Evans:  I don’t remember, it was 11 cities total. Ended up, I’m pretty sure, we finally shot the scene in Kankakee, Illinois, on my 51st day. So I left home not having $300 in rent. And when I went back home, having done my one line in the movie, we bought our first house. 

As the weather interfered with shooting days and travel days were added, the schedule and budget of the film ballooned. The production started in Buffalo; moved to Kankakee, Woodstock, Gurnee, Kenilworth, and Chicago, Illinois; and zipped over to St. Louis and New York City before landing in Los Angeles for soundstage shooting.  

Laila Robins (“Susan Page”):  I remember, they flew me out to LA and we went into what was going to be the interior of our house. And John Hughes said, “I don’t like this interior. Let’s redo it.” So they sent me home for a week. And then I came back! Talk about disposable money.

McKean:  If I’ve wrapped on something, I don’t really think about it again…But a couple of months later, I ran into Don Peterman, the DP [director of photography]. And I said, “How was the rest of that shoot?” And he said, “Oh, it’s still going!” “Oh, wow. Really? Amazing.” 

Paul Hirsch (Editor):  They shot 85 days! You know, normally on a two-character comedy, you’d shoot…36 days, 40 days. Eighty-five days is unheard of, 85 days is what you scheduled for  Mission: Impossible or something. 

But John Hughes, according to everyone who worked with him, kept his cool.

Dylan Baker (“Owen”):  I thought he was a great director. You could tell he was having a good time.

Jeff Laszlo (Camera Operator):  He kept the same crew, film to film, and they were all extremely loyal to him, and vice versa. So that sets a good tone on a film set.

Kevin Bacon (“Taxi Racer”):  We finished  She’s Having a Baby, and in the course of making that film, John and I had become very close. You know, I was essentially playing him. And so we ended up spending a lot of time together. I think, for various reasons, I was at a point in my life where I didn’t want that to end, in a funny kind of way, you know? And he said, “I’m going to go and do this movie,  Planes, Trains and Automobiles with Steve and John.” And I said, “Hey, put me in the movie, I’ll do anything! You can make me an extra.” And so basically, he did! I was an extra with a trailer.

James Hughes:  I think with it being a road picture…things just caught his eye along the way, certain locations or certain background actors and next thing you know, he would be rewriting on the fly or shooting an entirely new sequence that just sort of occurred to him in the moment.

Baker:  The joke I heard was that they always had somebody, some assistant to a producer, who was following John Hughes around. Because when he went into the restroom, he’d come out with 10 additional pages.

Brown:  He would just shoot from top to bottom and a lot of times, he would reset within a take. 

Bacon:  He would stop and go back. And he’d go, say this maybe or say that or look for something in the kitchen to play with. And I was like, this is the greatest thing because now I’m living in this character’s shoes…it was like it was a seamless kind of world. 

Brown: The other thing he would do would be indulge the actors in drifting away from what was scripted, and creating stuff out of, you know, almost whole cloth on the day. 

John Candy:  John loves to do that. John loves to improvise. Which I don’t know why, because his scripts are so good. ( The Dick Cavett Show,   1993 )

Bacon: He wasn’t precious about his own dialogue. He was precious about his characters. 

Brown: He knew a lot of it was going to be wasteful. But he also knew that he would probably find some gold in there somewhere. And when you’ve got a guy like Steve Martin and John Candy, you’re almost like, it’s almost a waste to not indulge their sensibilities and the ideas that will come up.

John Candy:  Steve and I would finish the scene. We’d be looking at each other, we’d still be in character, and we wouldn’t hear cut. Our eyes kind of flashed just a little. You realize he’s not going to cut. Uh…so then you stay in character and you go, “Well, what about  this ?” ( Later With Bob Costas,   1989 )

John Hughes:  Every take was a little bit different, you know, there’s no point in doing the same take over and over and over. ( Getting There Is Half the Fun: The Story of Planes, Trains and Automobiles,  1987)

Larry Hankin (“Doobie”):  He was saying, “Okay, Steve and John, you stick to the script. Larry, you can improvise, you just say anything you want. Okay, go.” And then they would film it. And then he goes, “all right, cut. Okay. All right, Steve, John Candy, and Larry, you go according to the script, Steve, you just say anything you want, you improvise. Okay, go.” So now we’re doing this for four hours, we broke for lunch. And we come back and we continue. So we shot the entire day. We shot as written three times. And the rest of the day we improvised.

John Candy:  Rehearse and make it play, see what worked, what didn’t. ( Getting There Is Half the Fun: The Story of Planes, Trains and Automobiles,  1987)

Hankin:  And then he said, “Okay, that’s it. Dismissed.” So that was my part. I go home. I am invited to the cast screening. So I’m curious to see how that scene came out with all the improvising and everything. I watched the movie, and the scene is exactly as written. No improvising at all, word for word. You know, hey, it’s John Hughes. It’s his movie. Whatever!

One scene that benefited greatly from improvisation became one of the movie’s comic highlights: Neal and Del waking up cuddling in their shared motel bed.  

John Candy:  I couldn’t stop laughing. That was one of the hardest parts. They had the camera rigged up over our heads, and they would laugh. You’d see the cameras start, you know, they’d look at us and we’d see that, we’d start laughing and then everybody started. ( Planes, Trains and Automobiles press conference, 1987)

John Hughes: And we’re all very serious. We’re trying to talk very serious. ( Planes, Trains and Automobiles press conference, 1987)

John Candy:  “Now kiss his ear, nibble it, just nibble it, just—lower, lower.” ( Planes, Trains and Automobiles press conference, 1987)

Martin:  It was so funny, because John actually plays the music that’s going to be in the scene, to sort of help you get in the mood. It’s very effective. And you know, just the idea of laying there, holding John, and hearing, “I’m back in baby’s arms…” ( Planes, Trains and Automobiles press conference, 1987)

John Candy:  Every time we got in that position, we’d started laughing, and we’d hear the music, and we’d start laughing. Then we’d settle down and we’d see the cameras start shaking, everybody lost it. ( Later With Bob Costas,   1989 )

Andy Lipschultz (Unit Publicist):  To me the funniest line, the famous line, was, “Where’s your other hand?” “Between two pillows,” “Those aren’t pillows!” Okay, that was not in the script. That is a John Candy line…That was something John Candy came up with on set.

Martin and Candy’s affability extended to the rest of the cast and crew.

Robins:  Steve was very, very nice. When he was off camera, he didn’t feel particularly compelled to be the funniest guy in the room. He was very professional. It wasn’t like, you know, some comedians are more compelled to be “on” all the time.

Laszlo:  Steve Martin was very nice, but he was also very quiet and sort of reserved. Candy, on the other hand, was also very nice, but was more sort of one of the guys. 

Robert Crane (John Candy’s Publicist):  John Candy acted, to me, like the old Alfred Hitchcock stories that I’ve heard. I heard on Hitchcock’s sets, he knew every crew member’s name,  first  name, and would thank them at the end of the first day, and go up and the whole crew and cast was there on the stage. And Hitchcock went up, shook everybody’s hand, thanked them by name. And that was John Candy.

Lipschultz:  Just a wonderful, warmhearted, lovely man. Just a beautiful soul. He just really cared about everyone; you just got the sense he was born that way. There was nothing fake about him, he was just really interested in everyone, interested in different people. 

Jennifer Candy:  It goes to the family thing. It’s like, you’re part of a crew, they’re part of your family too…You’re with these people, you better like them and you better treat them the way you want to be treated. And he genuinely showed interest in what everyone did. 

Evans:  It was the night of the Oscars. And the phone rings, I’m sitting in my underwear in my room, eating room service and watching the TV. And the phone rings. “Is this Troy?” I said, “Yeah.” “Troy, this is John Candy. I’m having a few folks up to watch the Oscars, and wondered if you’d like to join us.” I was so excited. You know, John Hughes will be there. The producers will be there. And maybe I’ll meet Steve Martin. I didn’t have any dress clothes, but I cleaned up as best as I could, and went up to John Candy’s room. He was in the same hotel, you know. And John Hughes wasn’t there. The producers weren’t there. And Steve Martin wasn’t there. Who was there was everybody who was like me on the movie. He went through all the down-the-ladder actors and invited them all up to his suite. Isn’t that wonderful? And then he got like, a thousand dollars’ worth of room service. He got like 20 pizzas, and just the food just kept coming all evening. And so as I was leaving, I tried to slip him $200 to help with the food. And I’ll remember this on my deathbed. John Candy said, “Troy, that’s been taken care of.”

Principal photography was completed on July 1, in time to avoid the DGA strike—which ultimately was averted at the last minute.  

Laszlo:  The last day of the shoot, we worked into the wee hours of the morning, to try to squeeze it in. 

Newborn:  They shot it with way too much footage. If you shoot a movie and use a million feet of film, it’s a hell of a job for the editor to cut it down into something that’s concise and has continuity. 

Brown:  What I always said about John was that he would write a really tight script, and then we would shoot our way into a big sloppy draft of a movie. And then he would cut his way back to a wonderfully tight movie.

Hirsch:  When I did  Planes, Trains and Automobiles, the first cut was three hours and 45 minutes. So this is an order of magnitude much greater than what I’ve been accustomed to working with. 

John Hughes III:  It was just another chance to be creative in the process, instead of being locked in. I think he liked that option at the end.

Brown:  I always joked that I think John cut out more funny stuff out of his movies than most people put in. That’s how profoundly exploratory some of the filmmaking was with those big comedies. It was really great. It would always put them behind, it always made it so that UPMs [unit production managers] were knocking on his trailer door, and studio executives are calling, so it created a headache for him. But in the end I think he ended up making the movie he wanted because of that process. I believe that.

Hirsch:  When we first ran the cut, it was on 24 reels, reels of about 10 minutes, little less than 10 minutes. Twenty-four reels. Twelve reels is about the average length of a movie. So we run 12 reels, we break for lunch, we come back, we run the next 12 reels. He turns to me, he says, “It’s too long.” I said, “Yes, I know.”

James Hughes:  I know that he was particularly pleased with the entire motel sequence, the first night that they spend together. It almost existed as this kind of one-act play within the movie. And I think there were some pretty sharp jokes in there that were tough for him to lose.

Hirsch:  The reason we cut it down was  not  because it wasn’t good. He shot some really funny material that I was sorry to see go. But here’s the thing: You have this motel scene in the first third of the movie, and it’s running 45 minutes. You can’t do that! You can’t have a road film that stops for 45 minutes in the first third!

Gotch:  His favorite part of the process was lying on the sofa in the editing room with a cigarette and a coffee, watching picture. And thinking about, What if we move that there? Have we got another take, have we got a take there where he looks sad? What if? You know, it’s playing with pieces. And he did that in the writing. He did it in the shooting. And he did it in the editing. 

Hirsch:  So we sit down, we start going through the reels on the KEM [a film-editing machine]. And he says, “Take that out, just take it out.” So I’m taking it out. So we’re taking out big chunks of the movie, “Lose that.” There was a whole subplot about how Steve's wife didn't believe that Del was a real person, she thought that Steve was having an affair, and making up this guy.

Robins:  There were all these other scenes, you know, but when you’re already hours over time and over your budget and you’ve got Steve Martin and John Candy…who’re you gonna cut? It’s gonna be me. 

Hirsch:  So we went through and made one pass. We took out an hour and 15 minutes on the first pass. So we went from 3:45 to 2:30. That’s a third of the cut we just dropped. We shot for 85 days. So I turned to John, I said, “You know, you just cut out 28 days of shooting.” And he just shrugged. He’s like, “ you know, oh, well.” You couldn’t tell him it’s much easier to do this on the page than going to the trouble of shooting it all and then eliminating it after seeing it once. So he wasn’t efficient in that way. But he was brilliant, you know.

Newborn:  As I was writing the stuff, I’m in the middle of a cue, and the music editor calls me up, “I’ve got a couple of edits.” Then he would tell me like nine edits! What do you want me to take out, a half of a note? 

Brown:  I think with  Planes, Trains and Automobiles , we previewed that movie 10 times. Maybe more.

Hirsch:  We got it down to about two hours. By the end of August, we had a screening and I thought this is the funniest movie ever made. And people started walking out. And it took us four screenings to figure out what the problem was, why people were walking out. And the answer was the audience started to perceive John Candy as using Steve Martin, taking advantage of him, and Steve was paying for everything. In our hurry to shorten the picture, we had taken out part of a scene at a train station where they’re parting—not for long, but we don’t know that yet—and Candy says to Steve, “Give me your address, I’ll send you some money.” And Steve wants no part of this guy, never wants to hear from him again. He says, ”No, no, that’s okay.” So we restored that. And that was it. That one exchange changed everyone’s attitude about the character, that he’d offered to pay.

Baker:  I remember my biggest shock when I saw the film for the first time in the theater, was there was a page-long monologue for John Candy.

Hirsch:  The other big problem was at the end, we had the penultimate scene at a train station in the suburbs, where Candy reveals that he’s been homeless.

Martin:  That scene was a page and a half long in the script, and in the movie I think it’s cut to three lines. But there was such beauty in it and I never understood why John [Hughes] trimmed that scene. ( The Guardian,   2021 )

Hirsch:  That speech was getting bad laughs. As he was delivering it, people started to giggle, and then it got worse and worse. So we concocted a version in which Steve figures it out for himself, that Candy is homeless, and goes and fetches him. In the original version, Candy sort of ambushes Steve. And the version we came up with was better for both characters, because it gave Candy more dignity, that he wasn’t throwing himself in front of Steve, and it was better for Steve’s character that he had enough empathy to figure out what was going on. So it was better for both characters. 

Paramount Pictures Press Release:  “ Planes, Trains and Automobiles , starring Steve Martin and John Candy in a John Hughes film for Gulf+Western’s Paramount Pictures Corporation, will open in 1,035 theatres nationwide on Wednesday, November 25.”

Variety:  “Disaster-prone duo of Steve Martin and John Candy repeatedly recall a contemporary Laurel & Hardy as they agonizingly try to make their way from New York to Chicago by various modes of transport, and their clowning sparks enough yocks to position this as a strong performer for Paramount through the holiday season.”

Richard Schickel, Time:  “For all its broadly farcical air,  Planes, Trains and Automobiles  finally seals its bond with the audience in the same way that Martin and Candy seal theirs, with a sly, shy resort to sentiment. Maybe that’s just the spirit of the season, but one does not mind indulging it.”

Other reviewers were less enthusiastic, but the film’s notices generally leaned positive. It   opened in third place for the Thanksgiving weekend, behind  Three Men and a Baby and Disney’s rerelease of  Cinderella,  and grossed a respectable   $49 million against an estimated   $15 million budget.

But as the years passed, the film’s audience grew.

John Hughes III:  It’s a holiday film, and it got sort of rediscovered that way through television play. Because I don’t think there were many films that kind of fit the Thanksgiving billing. 

Those seasonal TV airings were supplemented by robust home video sales, especially on DVD and Blu-ray, where the film was released in multiple editions. But only one of the many scenes deleted from those first long cuts made its way onto the special features.

James Hughes :  If I had a friend or a colleague at the house, and they expressed interest in my dad and his work, and especially if they singled out  PTA, he would either disappear into his office or would invite whomever into his office to show a tape that he kept of the original cut. There were sequences that he liked sharing with loved ones and close friends, or just people who are interested in filmmaking. 

Bob Buchi (President, Worldwide Home Media, Paramount Pictures):  Unfortunately, in that era when the film was made, it was really commonplace within the industry to discard all the trims and outs—which is so unfortunate, but it was just the common practice, which is not true today. And so we had scoured our archives, and were only ever able to find that one scene. So we went to the editor, Paul Hirsch, and asked him, do you have any leads…. He thought about it, and looked, and he didn’t have anything, but he referred us to the Hughes estate. 

James Hughes:  There was always an awareness that he had some type of an analog, VHS record or accounting of his work. He always kept the duplicate copies of the movies as they were being edited. 

John Hughes III:  It wasn’t like, the greatest quality. 

James Hughes:  It was very balkanized across these different cassette tapes, and some of this material and some cuts would have been some sequences, and some would only have certain reels. So a lot of it had to be pieced together. I think it was less a sense of discovering this footage and more hoping and praying that for the durability of the analog record—which is again, VHS tapes and things like that. And remarkably they’re very…they held up.

John Hughes III:  Also with that film, like the final cut…it’s such a good final cut, you know? There’s some things, especially in the first assemblies, that make you really appreciate how good that final cut was.

McKean:  I wish he was still making movies. Because he would have gone through all the stages of adulthood, he would have gone through the…Listen, his film about dying would have been a wonderful thing. 

John Hughes:  I like taking dissimilar people, putting them together, and finding what’s common to us all. Part of the point is there are a privileged few who operate between New York and Los Angeles or London and Paris. But if something screws up and they get off the exclusive track, it’s someone like Del Griffith who knows how to get them home. What kept the movie going was the opposites—two dissimilar guys. If it weren’t for a storm, someone like Neal Page would never meet a guy like Del. ( Rocky Mountain News, 1987)

Brown:  At the core of John’s movies was this heart, and this exploration of the human condition, and this wonderful exploration of people’s feelings, and really, at a base level, what it means to love another person. I don’t mean necessarily just romantic love, but love with a capital L. 

Robins:  I just think it’s a beautiful story of people opening their hearts and having compassion for each other and not judging each other. And then the generosity of him bringing him into the family just gets your heart every time.

Evans:  You know, there’s that old cliché, it’s nice to be important but it’s more important to be nice? Well, Del Griffith is like a billboard of that message. And I think that was the gift of that movie to our culture. Just be nice to people.

Deutch:  The humanity that John was able to write in these characters that you watch, and very quickly get invested in and pulled into the undertow of their journey—because you feel like, I know that person. That’s my Uncle Bill, or that’s my Aunt Mary, or my sister Lisa, they are real people. They were all so relatable. And so that’s part of it. And I think the icing on the cake for that movie is also that it’s this…It’s so funny. 

Jennifer Candy:  If everyone’s home for the holidays and there’s one person there that’s the curmudgeon, you put on  Planes, Trains and they’re gonna laugh at something and then that means everyone’s laughing at something.

Chris Candy:  I think that every person inside of them has a bit of Del, and a bit of Neal—where they are really warm and open, but then also they don’t want someone taking their socks off next to them on a plane. I think I think we all have that inside of us. I know my dad had that, and I’m sure Steve Martin has that. We all have that, but this film really visits these two extremes of a way to approach a really difficult situation.

Baker :  I happen to be a huge fan of  It’s a Wonderful Life.  And there’s not a Christmas that goes by without my family watching it. I know it was not at  all a big success when it came out, and I think the same thing has happened to  Planes, Trains. Around Thanksgiving, that’s what you want to think about. You want to think about how we’re all going to help each other out when it comes down to it.

John Hughes:   PTA  is about having a real good time and making people laugh. Hopefully, though, people will walk out with a little more compassion for the guy in the middle seat with the funny-looking coat. ( Rocky Mountain News, 1987)

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The 10 Best Steve Martin Movies, Ranked by IMDb

Steve Martin is an enduring, iconic entertainer. Which movies are his best according to IMDb?

You know you’re in for a good time when Steve Martin ’s name comes up. Whether it’s his early comedic roles that launched him into stardom or his more recent turns as a writer and musician, Steve Martin is an entertainer through and through. All of his comedy movies make use of his distinct talents.

Any one of his movies is perfect for a comedy-themed movie night: he has classic after classic under his belt. These Steve Martin-led movies are his best according to IMDb, featuring nonstop laughs, hijinks, and a few feels, too.

10 'Housesitter' (1992)

IMDb Rating: 6.2/10

Out of all Steve Martin’s quirky comedic roles, his turn as Dr. Leo Richmond in Housesitter is one of his most endearing. As an architect pining after his ex-girlfriend, he gets entangled in a web of lies with a con woman posing as his wife.

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When Dr. Richmond’s dream house is finished, he proposes marriage to his ex-girlfriend hoping she’ll move in. When she rejects him, he returns home to find a stranger, Gwen, who has moved into his new home, claiming to be his new wife. Rather than kick her out, Leo plays along with the charade to make his ex jealous.

9 'My Blue Heaven' (1990)

One of Steve Martin’s most underrated comedies, My Blue Heaven is a gem waiting to be discovered. In this fish-out-of-water story , Martin stars as Vincent "Vinnie" Antonelli, an ex-mobster who enters the witness protection program. Vinnie is relocated to a suburban California town, where he struggles to adapt to a normal life.

A delightful comedy that pokes fun at suburban life, My Blue Heaven is a hidden gem in Steve Martin’s filmography. His lively and charismatic performance reminds us why he's so highly regarded.

8 'Bowfinger' (1999)

IMDb Rating: 6.5/10

This comedy classic from Steve Martin is a must-watch. Martin stars as Bobby Bowfinger, an aspiring film producer who is determined to make a movie starring action hero Kit Ramsey ( Eddie Murphy in a dual role). The only problem? Ramsey wants nothing to do with the project. Not to be deterred, Bowfinger hatches a plan to secretly film Ramsey without his knowledge or consent.

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What follows is a hilarious satire of Hollywood and all the eccentric characters that inhabit it. Martin and Murphy have fantastic comedic chemistry and the laughs come fast and furious. Some of the most memorable scenes involve Ramsey's paranoid reactions as he becomes convinced he's being followed by aliens. Murphy's over-the-top performance is comedic gold. For extra laughs, look for cameos from Heather Graham , Christine Baranski , and Jamie Kennedy .

7 'All of Me' (1984)

IMDb Rating: 6.6/10

All of Me is one of Steve Martin’s most endearing and funny romantic comedies. In this 1984 film, Martin stars as Roger Cobb, a cynical lawyer who doesn’t believe in love. That is, until he meets the quirky Edwina Cutwater, played by Lily Tomlin . Edwina is dying, but believes her soul will transfer into the first person who touches her body after she passes.

That unlucky person ends up being Roger. Edwina’s spirit takes up residence in Roger’s body, and hilarious hijinks ensue as they struggle to live in the same flesh and blood. Though their situation seems utterly absurd, Roger and Edwina end up learning from each other.

6 'Roxanne' (1987)

Roxanne is a 1987 romantic comedy with Steve Martin as the quick-witted fire chief C.D. Bales. When a mysterious arsonist begins terrorizing the small town of Cypress Corners, C.D. faces his greatest challenge. The townspeople demand he do something to stop the fires, but his biggest hurdle proves to be the beautiful astrologer Roxanne, whom C.D. has been secretly in love with for years.

C.D. struggles with his self-confidence due to his unusually large nose, believing the gorgeous Roxanne would never be interested in him romantically. However, when the arsonist targets Roxanne’s home, C.D. comes to the rescue. His wit and humor finally win her over, and she is able to see beyond his insecurities to the kind, intelligent man he truly is.

5 'L.A. Story' (1991)

IMDb Rating: 6.7/10

In L.A. Story , a 1991 romantic comedy starring Steve Martin and Victoria Tennant is set in LA, playing on the stereotypes of the city and its eccentric inhabitants. Martin stars as Harris K. Telemacher, a wacky weather forecaster who finds his life in disarray. That is until he meets Sara McDowell, an English journalist played by Tennant.

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Harris shows Sara the real LA, away from the glitz and glamor of Hollywood. They visit quirky landmarks like the La Brea Tar Pits and dine at tacky-themed restaurants. Their sweet romance plays out against the backdrop of the city, with all its traffic jams, smog, and bizarre characters. LA Story is a surreal satire that spoofs the silliness of living in Los Angeles.

4 'Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid' (1982)

IMDb Rating: 6.8/10

Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid is a clever 1982 comedy-mystery starring Steve Martin. This hilarious film brilliantly combines new footage of Steve Martin with classic film noir footage from the 1940s and '50s. Martin plays Rigby Reardon, a private investigator who takes on the case of a missing scientist.

This creative editing allows Martin to interact and have conversations with famous actors that have long passed, like Humphrey Bogart , Cary Grant , and Veronica Lake . The plot revolves around Rigby trying to find the missing scientist, Dr. Forrest, while also becoming entangled in a web of intrigue involving Nazis, femme fatales, and more.

3 'The Jerk' (1979)

IMDb Rating: 7.1/10

The Jerk is a hilarious comedy classic starring Steve Martin in his first leading role. He plays Navin Johnson, an eccentric and naive man who was adopted and raised by a poor Black family. He heads out into the world for the first time, eventually becoming a millionaire after inventing the Opi-Grab. Just as Navin finds love and success, it's ripped away from him.

The Jerk is a comedy classic that stands the test of time. Martin's performance is legendary, demonstrating how he became one of the greatest comedians of his generation.

2 'Dirty Rotten Scoundrels' (1988)

IMDb Rating: 7.4/10

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is one of Steve Martin’s most beloved comedies. In this 1988 film, Martin stars opposite Michael Caine as two con men competing to swindle a wealthy heiress out of $50,000. Martin plays Freddy Benson, a small-time American hustler who preys on gullible women. Caine is Lawrence Jamieson, a cultured and sophisticated British con artist who targets wealthy victims.

RELATED: The 25 Best Michael Caine Movies of All Time, Ranked

What follows is a hilarious back-and-forth con game filled with disguises, accents, and dirty tricks as Freddy and Lawrence go to outrageous lengths to out-scam each other. Martin is perfectly cast as the bumbling Freddy, bringing his comedic genius to physical gags, silly accents, and wild improvisation. The chemistry between Caine and Martin is comedy gold.

1 'Planes, Trains & Automobiles' (1987)

IMDb Rating: 7.6/10

Planes, Trains & Automobiles is a comedy classic from 1987 starring Steve Martin and John Candy . This hilarious road trip film follows Neal Page, an uptight businessman on a long journey home for Thanksgiving who is forced to travel with Del Griffith, a kindhearted but annoying shower curtain ring salesman.

Neal's frustration with talkative Del and all the obstacles they face trying to get from New York City to Chicago is hilarious. Their mismatched partnership and the mishaps along the way lead to lots of laughs and make this one of the best comedic duos in film. Although the story focuses on Neal's impatience and annoyance with Del, their odd couple dynamics and the way their relationship evolves by the end of the journey give the movie a lot of heart.

KEEP READING: 7 Lesser-Known Steve Martin Performances From 'All of Me' to 'LA Story'

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The 10 Best Road Trip Movies, from ‘It Happened One Night’ to ‘Easy Rider’

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A good road trip is one of the most cinematic experiences that a person can have in real life. Different cities and landscapes blur together as scenery flies by your windows and day gradually turns into night. The car can begin to feel like an isolated bubble where nothing matters except the people inside. Whether you’re laughing and singing with friends, fighting with your family, or simply letting your thoughts settle while you drive solo, road trips seem to stop time and create distinct memories that can be revisited over and over again .  

So it’s not surprising that filmmakers have been inspired by road trips for as long as there have been movies. From the titans of the Old Hollywood studio system to international arthouse auteurs and contemporary independent directors, virtually every great filmmaker has tried their hand at a road trip movie at one point or another. Locations and genres can change, but the motif of people going from one place to another in a car is one of the building blocks of the international language of cinema.  

Road trip movies are versatile enough to encompass a wide variety of subject matter, but they often fall into two genres: comedies and contemplative dramas. The road trip comedy is a Hollywood standard because its built-in structure (characters need to get somewhere in a finite amount of time and are stuck together in a small space) lends itself to endless funny scenarios. From disgruntled fathers driving their badly-behaved children to strangers who fall in love after being forced to travel together, cars serve as confined spaces that allow a variety of relationships to flourish. On the other end of the spectrum, you have dramas from auteurs like Wim Wenders and Ingmar Bergman that see the road as a place for humans to think. Those films prioritize the destination much less than the self-discovery that can take place when you’re not in any particular rush to get somewhere.  

The road trip movie has endured for over a century, and its timeless appeal means that it’s unlikely to disappear any time soon. Keep reading for ten of our favorites, listed in chronological order.  

“It Happened One Night” (1934)

What It Is:  The archetypal Hollywood romantic comedy, Frank Capra’s “It Happened One Night” stars Claudette Colbert as pampered socialite Ellie, who boards a Greyhound bus from Florida to New York City to reunite with her new husband, pilot King Westley (Jameson Thomas), after her father attempts to annul the marriage. Unused to fending for herself, she ends up relying on the help of sarcastic newspaper reporter Peter (Clark Gable) to make the journey, despite despising his personality. At least at first — hitchhiking adventures and stays in motels quickly cause sparks to fly between the mismatched pair.

Perfect For:  Couples looking for date night films, “Looney Tunes” fans who want to watch the Gable performance that inspired Bugs Bunny, and lovers of pretty much every romantic comedy made in the last nine decades. —WC

“Wild Strawberries” (1957)

What It Is:  Not exactly the fun road trip romp the genre usually promises, “Wild Strawberries” uses a long car ride as the backdrop for a surreal exploration of aging, loneliness, and death. Ingmar Bergman’s film stars Victor Sjöström as cold-hearted professor Isak Borg, who is set to receive a lifetime achievement award for his career in bacteriology. On the drive to the university where the ceremony will take place, he’s accompanied by his pregnant daughter-in-law Marianne (Ingrid Thulin) and a group of young hitchhikers — one of whom is a double in looks and name for his childhood sweetheart Sara (played by Bibi Andersson). Over the course of the trip, Isak slowly warms to his younger companions, and experiences a series of flashbacks and dreams that forces him to confront the impending end of his life and his many regrets from his empty existence.

Perfect For:  Existential types, dying old men, and those whose only exposure to Bergman’s films are the HBO “Scenes From a Marriage” remake and the chess scene from “Seventh Seal.” —WC

“Easy Rider” (1969)

What It Is : A counterculture classic, Dennis Hopper’s “Easy Rider” stars the director and Peter Fonda as two drug-smuggling motorcyclists on a journey from Los Angeles to New Orleans, where they’re hoping to celebrate Mardi Gras. Along the road, they encounter a colorful cast of hippies, free love commune residents, addicts, prostitutes, and other outsiders. Their free-wheeling adventures are contrasted by the judgment they face from small town types and law enforcement looking to lock them up.

Perfect For:  Rebels, stoners, general miscreants everywhere, and fans of the iconic rock bands like The Byrds, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, and Steppenwolf that soundtrack the film. —WC

“Two-Lane Blacktop” (1971)

What It Is: “Two Lane Blacktop” is so clearly a product of its time that we could never hope to reverse engineer it. But when watched in 2023, it’s a fascinating countercultural artifact and a remnant of a film industry that now looks completely unrecognizable. Monte Hellman’s portrait of youthful angst and the freedom of the open road stars James Taylor and Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson as speed-obsessed drifters whose encounter with a mysterious driver named GTO prompts them to embark on a cross-country race.

Who It’s For:  Anyone with a need for speed and pop culture geeks who enjoy seeing famous non-actors trying to act. —CZ

“Paris, Texas” (1984)

What It Is: After making a name for himself in the German arthouse scene with his Road Movie Trilogy consisting of “Alice in the Cities,” “The Wrong Move,” and “Kings of the Road,” Wim Wenders brought his brand of contemplative cinema to America and made his magnum opus. “Paris, Texas” tells the story of a broken man (Harry Dean Stanton) wandering through the desert before his brother finds him and convinces him to reconnect with the family he walked out on. Wenders continued to find poetry in the loneliness of the road, and the desolate American scenery and Stanton’s heartbreakingly expressive face ended up being the best muses of his career. 

Perfect For:  Fans of slow cinema and anyone looking to brush up on the 20th century’s most impressive works of filmmaking. —CZ

“Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure” (1985)

What It Is: After developing a cult following from his stage show at the Roxy, Paul Reubens brought his comedic persona known as Pee-Wee Herman to the big screen in a whimsical road trip comedy directed by a young animator named Tim Burton. The film sees the idiosyncratic man-child traveling across the country to recover his stolen bike — and using his charm and joie de vivre to defuse conflicts with all of the shady characters he meets along the way. 

Perfect for: Loners, rebels, and anyone who wants to revisit the work of a comedic genius at the height of his powers. —CZ

“Planes, Trains, and Automobiles” (1987)

What It Is:  John Hughes’ holiday classic stars Steve Martin and John Candy as a mismatched pair of travelers who team up to make it home to Chicago for Thanksgiving. Martin’s suave ad executive constantly clashes with Candy’s bumbling shower curtain ring salesman as their cursed trip leads them onto — you guessed it — planes, trains, and automobiles in an attempt to get home before the holiday ends. Utterly ridiculous until it gets touching, the film is one of the strongest entries in the seemingly endless string of hits that Hughes churned out in the 1980s. 

Perfect For:  Families at Thanksgiving and anyone on a delayed flight who wants to remember that things could be so much worse. —CZ

“Thelma & Louise” (1991)

What It Is:  Ridley Scott and screenwriter Callie Khouri flipped the script on the conventional gender roles of the buddy comedy genre, opting to tell a story about two women having a blast while running from the law. Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis give career-best performances as the eponymous duo — and both picked up well-derved Oscar nominations for Best Actress. The film is best remembered for its shockingly bold ending, but stands out as one of the 20th century’s most vibrant portrayals of friendship and the highways of America.

Who It’s For:  Ridley Scott completionist s, feminist film scholars, and anyone in the mood for a great time. —CZ

“The Straight Story” (David Lynch, 1999)

What It Is: Perhaps the biggest anomaly in David Lynch’s filmography, “The Straight Story” saw the beloved auteur shifting away from surrealism to tell a G-rated story of a man who travels the country on a riding lawnmower. While the Disney movie doesn’t feature any of the twisted nightmares that define many of Lynch’s best works, it’s filled with the wholesome Americana imagery that appears throughout his filmography. The film is a reminder that for all of his signature stylistic flourishes, Lynch is a filmmaker whose grasp of the fundamentals allow him to tell compelling stories without hiding behind bells and whistles.

Perfect for:  Anyone whose favorite parts of “Twin Peaks” were the wholesome small town antics. —CZ

“Little Miss Sunshine” (2006)

What It Is:  One of the most darkly amusing road trip comedies in recent memory follows the plight of a dysfunctional family who takes an 800-mile road trip to support their daughter’s entry in the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant. Piling into a van that’s breaking down almost as rapidly as the familial ties that bind them, they find themselves confronting their delusional dreams and long-simmering resentments (and a horn that never stops honking). While “Little Miss Sunshine” is a classic example of the “Sundance road trip movie” trope that’s often maligned in indie film circles, there’s no denying that it’s one of the best entries in the subgenre. 

Perfect For:  Anyone who is beginning to question their belief that child beauty pageants are an unambiguous societal good. —CZ

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10 Best Steve Martin Movies

By Nate Williams

Steve Martin is one of the strongest comedians-turned-actors of all time. The charismatic and white-haired comedian, perhaps most known for his slapstick performances in films like The Pink Panther and Cheaper by the Dozen , has proven himself to be a man of many talents. He’s a banjo player, a playwright, a novelist, and a skilled actor all rolled into one — and he’s still putting out great work after all these years. Martin has managed to make a name for himself across many mediums, first on late night talk shows and Saturday Night Live , then across feature films and packed theaters throughout the nation. Even in his 70s, Steve Martin remains one of the most iconic and easily recognizable funnymen for people of all ages. He’s an icon and a star in a league of his own, and he’s got a great filmography to prove it.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Costarring alongside John Candy, Martin plays an overworked and stressed out family man just trying to make it home for the holidays (despite plenty of hurdles in his way). As the title suggests, Martin and Candy must utilize all kinds of modes of transportations in order to make it home in time for dinner with the family. It’s the epitome of the buddy road trip genre, and perhaps one of the greatest and funniest holiday movies of all time. Plus, Martin gets to show off both his comedic and dramatic chops.

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Little Shop of Horrors

This one’s pretty unique: Little Shop of Horrors is one of the most iconic and original comedy-horror-musical mashups ever. Starring Martin, Rick Moranis, Ellen Greene, and plenty of other 80s icons, the film is just silly enough for Martin to utilize his slapstick chops. It’s a well-deserved cult classic, and that’s thanks in part to Martin’s performance as Orin Scrivello, D.D.S.

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Many consider this to be Martin’s most notable role: The Jerk , written and starring Steve Martin, follows an idiotic man as he tries to survive everything life throws his way. The film is one of the first instances where audiences got to see exactly how talented Martin is: As both star and writer, the film and its success undeniably belongs on his shoulders.

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Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

Directed by Muppets star Frank Oz (but completely free of puppets of any kind), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels sees Steve Martin and Michael Caine as two con men who try to settle a deep-seated rivalry by making a wager: Who can con a young heiress out of $50,000 first? It might be a remake, but the film feels completely original. Martin has great chemistry with everyone on screen, and it remains a testament to late-80s charm.

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It’s Complicated

Nancy Meyers is one of cinema’s greatest treasures. No other director is out there trying to make feel-good movies for adults the way Meyers is, and no other director could do it as well as she can even if they tried. Martin gets to play one-third of a love triangle between Alec Baldwin and Meryl Streep in Meyers’s 2009 film, and he gets to play a sympathetic and sweet boy-next-door type. It’s such a warm movie and one that shows audiences that — even though he’s aging — Martin is one of our greatest treasures.

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The Spanish Prisoner

Being a part of a David Mamet project is any actor’s dream. He’s considered one of the best writers in the game, no matter if it’s a play for the stage or the screen. Martin is lucky enough to star in Mamet’s 1977 film The Spanish Prisoner , and Mamet was lucky enough to write a script that Martin could settle into perfectly. It’s a clever deadpan-style comedy, and Martin does an excellent job throughout.

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And The Band Played On

Arriving in the early 90s when the fight against AIDS was still fresh on everyone’s minds, And The Band Played On features an all-star cast as they tell the story of the tragic epidemic that was the AIDS crisis. Martin plays a key role, along with other A-listers like Matthew Modine and Alan Alda, in this important HBO film. The film was nominated for multiple Golden Globes, which is something that Martin should be proud of.

Another film written by Martin, L.A. Story sees Steve acting alongside Sarah Jessica Parker as a goofy TV weatherman trying to win the heart of a British reporter. Martin the writer is nearly as strong as Martin the actor, so it’s no surprise the movie is charming as well as funny. Not to mention, the whole thing is pretty intelligent, too — Martin makes plenty of poignant observations about stardom and fame in Los Angeles.

The movie that inspired the NBC series of the same name, 1989’s Parenthood almost serves as a precursor for Martin’s eventual role in the Cheaper by the Dozen films. Steve plays Gil, the patriarch of the Buckman family, all of which are facing their own unique struggles in their lives. It’s a lovely movie with a great cast, with Ron Howard handling Steve Martin with great skill.

Father of the Bride

The second Nancy Meyers movie on the list, Father of the Bride is an essential part of Steve Martin’s filmography. Here, he’s playing a dad hesitant to let go of his daughter before her wedding. It’s a remake of the Spencer Tracy/Elizabeth Taylor film of the same name, but Martin brings his own charm to the role.

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Steve Martin revisits ‘Planes, Trains and Automobiles’ and all those f-bombs for 35th anniversary of classic film

“around thanksgiving, it’s kind of omnipresent,” says martin of the 1987 classic road comedy — now available in a 4k ultra home release..

Steve Martin (left) and John Candy in “Planes, Trains & Automobiles.”

Paramount Pictures

For devoted fans, no Thanksgiving is complete without a helping of “Planes, Trains and Automobiles,” which turns 35 on Friday.

The plight of Steve Martin’s uptight advertising executive Neal Page — who finds himself stranded by travel delays with shower curtain ring salesman Del Griffith (comedy legend John Candy) and is just trying to get home to his family turkey dinner — is essential holiday viewing.

“Around Thanksgiving, it’s kind of omnipresent,” says Martin of the 1987 classic road comedy — now available in a 4K Ultra home release — that has been imbued with even more emotion after the deaths of Candy in 1994 and writer/director John Hughes in 2009.

• ‘Planes, Trains and Automobiles’: For 35 years, the great road trip movie has taken us to all the right places

“It’s tragic,” says Martin. “I’d like them to see how this movie has this momentum. When it came out, it did fine. But it was almost a bigger hit 10 years after.”

Martin, 77, spoke to USA Today about insisting on shooting a car rental scene without f-bombs and the deleted scene he still misses.

Q. “Planes” was shot over 87 frigid days in climates from Buffalo, New York, to Braidwood, Illinois. How much real travel bled into the movie?

A. Everything in the movie happened while shooting the movie, Missed connections, missed planes. So much moving around. We were supposed to shoot in one town, but there was no snow, so we moved everything to Buffalo. Part of the movie’s joke is that John Candy’s Del is wearing a parka while I’m wearing a suit. And it was truly 14 degrees when I’m hiking across that field after the train breaks down.

Q. There’s a deleted plane scene of John Candy riffing about the effects of “Psycho” on the shower ring business. How much of the movie was ad-libbing?

A. There was a lot of ad-libbing, because John Hughes loved it. He wouldn’t cut. These are the days of film, so you’d do a scene and hear the film run out (makes spinning noise). John and I would look into each other’s eyes like, “Do we keep going?” Then we’d have to shoot ad-lib reaction shots and the day would be extended to 16 hours. This started as a 145-page script. Eventually we realized that the movie was moving so slowly and weeks behind. John and I made an agreement: No more ad-libbing.

Q. Did either of you break into laughter, especially during the ad-libs?

A. We laughed a lot. But we did the laughing part before rolling to get that out of our system as we’d work out what we were going to do. The scene in the motel bed with “those aren’t pillows” we came up with on the set, and then we shot it.

Q. It’s funny how comfortable you two look snuggled up in that motel bed. How was that to shoot?

A. We were comfortable with each other, we liked each other. He would make me laugh. It’s hard to explain why this was funny, but we were together so much that we would come onto the set and fake beat each other up. Sort of take the frustration out of lengthy days, but laughing.

Q. Were there ad-lib takes in Neal’s famous rental car tirade?

A. I did not ad-lib. There’s a certain rhythm to John’s writing. And if you start just saying the f-word anytime you want, it’s just going to fall out of whack and not be poetic.

Q. You write in your new book, “Number One Is Walking: My Life in the Movies and Other Diversions,” that you shot that scene without the f-bombs?

A. I just thought it was practical. In those days, airplanes had cleaned-up versions. I said to (Hughes), “They’re going to need it for airplanes.” So we shot it. No swears. It was like, “I want a car right now!” As far as I know, it never saw the light of day or an airplane.

Q. Fast-forward to a now-classic scene. So clearly no regrets about the f-bombs pushing the movie to rated R?

A. No, it’s a famed scene. Mike Nichols, the great director, told me once, “In every movie you do, there should be a scene where you say to yourself, can we do that?” That certainly applies here.

Q. Is there a cut scene you really miss even now?

A. There’s a scene at the very end where I go back to find John’s character sitting alone in the train station. That’s when the truth comes out. He doesn’t have a home, he just travels. Then he said, “I usually I’m fine. But around the holidays, I usually attach myself to someone. But this time, I couldn’t let go.” It’s a very touching scene. I remember sitting across from John thinking, “Wow, this guy is killing this.”

I was surprised the scene was trimmed way down. I never understood why and I didn’t ask John because that’s his business.

Read more at usatoday.com

Why ‘Planes, Trains and Automobiles’ Is the Ultimate Thanksgiving Movie

By Jason Diamond

Jason Diamond

Thanksgiving is all about the buildup.

You wait for it, that long weekend that you know will include family, maybe some football, plenty of food, and then leftovers and sales the day after that. Everything looks great in those weeks leading up to the fourth Thursday in November, until it all goes to hell, with that long drive probably filled with holiday traffic and the drunk relatives whose opinions you really don’t care to hear about. The anticipation of the holiday is fun. The drama that ensues during it is not.

That’s one of the many brilliant things about 1987’s Planes, Trains and Automobiles, the last truly great movie that John Hughes took on the triple job of writer, producer and director before slowly fading into the background, eventually all but vanishing from public view until his death in 2009. The buildup to the holiday weekend that Steve Martin ‘s Neal Page experiences as he tries to make it home from New York City to Chicago looks about as enjoyable as Dante’s exploration of the Inferno. And if we’re using that classic poem as an analogy, Del Griffith, played masterfully by John Candy, makes a horrible Virgil on the duo’s hellish journey back to the windy city.

Of course, this all equals comedic gold for viewers. Martin and Candy together is really the kind of pairing people dream of. The former, a few years completely removed from his standup days, was starting to inch away from zanier works like The Jerk and The Three Amigos and move closer towards his more family-friendly fare of the 1990s. For the latter, it was the start of a fruitful working relationship with Hughes, one that would see the SCTV alum go on to star in The Great Outdoors (1988), Uncle Buck (1989) and a small role in Home Alone (1990).

And for Hughes, it was the beginning of a new phase in his own career as well. Planes, Trains and Automobiles was his first attempt to make films aimed more at adults and kids, moving away from the teen movies that helped him make his mark in Hollywood. The Great Outdoors and Uncle Buck were both successful at the box office (though 1988’s She’s Having a Baby was a critical and commercial letdown), and the director would close out the decade by successfully revisiting the Griswolds, a family based off the short stories he wrote for National Lampoon in the late 1970s. Christmas Vaction was the first time Hughes would use the holiday as inspiration for his work; he’d return to December 25th as the basis for the first two Home Alone films, as well as the somewhat underrated (and way darker than you might remember) remake of Miracle on 34th Street. But while Planes didn’t bring in the same overflowing bags of box-office loot as the saga of Macaulay Culkin torturing two idiot burglars, it did end up as something else: a Thanksgiving classic.

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For one reason or another, there aren’t just that many films centered around the turkeycentric November holiday. The two-year span that Woody Allen’s Hannah and Her Sisters covers is bookended by two Thanksgiving parties; the adaptation of Rick Moody’s novel The Ice Storm serves more as a cautionary tale that maybe you shouldn’t go home for the holidays if you want to avoid all kinds of insane family drama. If there’s a Thanksgiving feast involved in a film’s plot, chances are good that it’s there to heighten the story’s conflict, expose secrets and/or allow somebody to drop some kind of bombshell. Cue someone slamming their silverware onto the table and storming out of the dining room.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles is the opposite of all of that. The whole movie is about Neal getting home so he can enjoy the day with his family. That’s it. That is the goal. It starts out with someone trying desperately to leave New York City – a situation which Hughes, a former advertising executive who routinely took trips back and forth from Chicago to Manhattan, probably experienced more than a few times in his life. When he finally gets out of his pointless meeting, he has to compete with a nameless young man – hi there, Kevin Bacon – for a taxi during rush hour so he can make it to the airport on time. (It’s a somewhat fortuitous cameo, as She’s Having a Baby would arrive in theaters less than six months later.) When Neal does nearly nab a cab, it’s taken by somebody else – a guy who he ends up seeing at the airport, and whose fates are tied together for the entire rest of the film. Meet Del.

It’s fair to say that Planes doesn’t fit comfortably into the John Hughes filmography: It’s a road trip movie, a buddy comedy and his first attempt at a holiday movie. It’s a classic double-act farce that might not fit that well in the decade it came out in. There are no guns or bad guys like 48 Hours or any of the Lethal Weapon films; no winks at Cold War anxiety a la Spies Like Us ; and no time machine like Bill and Ted used in their excellent adventure. What it does share with a number of his best works is that mix of Norman Rockwell and Frank Capra in Reagan’s America vibe. Neal wants to get home to his family for the very American holiday; Del, as we find out by the end, doesn’t have any home to go home to, his wife having died eight years earlier. Despite whatever hell they’ve put each other through, they’re friends after all is said and done – and you invite friends over for Thanksgiving when they’ve got nowhere to go.

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But then again, it might fit better than we think. As David Kamp points out in his 2010 Vanity Fair piece on Hughes a year after the filmmaker’s death, Candy’s character is from the same universe as other characters from the director’s more iconic films: “Molly Ringwald’s upper-middle-class character in Sixteen Candles, Samantha, was a passing acquaintance of Matthew Broderick’s Ferris Bueller, while Judd Nelson’s troubled Breakfast Club punk, Bender, came from the same forlorn section of town as Del Griffith, the hard-knock but relentlessly upbeat shower-curtain-ring salesman played by John Candy in Planes, Trains and Automobiles. ” If the film feels like it is part of something bigger, it’s because it actually is. Hughes had an entire fictional town of Shermer, Illinois mapped out in his head and, at least for some of his earlier films, most of his characters lived there.

Hughes would try his hand at a Thanksgiving film a few years later, writing and producing 1991’s Dutch, starring Ethan Embry as a spoiled brat and Ed O’Neill as his mother’s blue collar boyfriend, who’s tasked with getting the kid from his Southern prep school back to Chicago in time for turkey. A somewhat similar series of unfortunate events befalls the duo on their journey back, but compared to Candy and Martin’s road trip, the results don’t really hit the same way. Yet there’s something interesting about the fact that Hughes would revisit the formula. Either he really liked the holiday, or he was hoping the lack of films centered on the holiday maybe gave him a specific market to corner. It’s not so much that Dutch is a bad movie; more that Hughes had already made a better version a few years later.

Neal and Del go on a journey. You could be cheeky and connect other literary comparisons to their trek besides Dante’s Inferno ( Heart of Darkness and The Road both come to mind). They are tested, they almost die more than a few times, and in the pre-Internet and cellphone days, they’re left to their wits in the middle of the cold country without any money after Neal is robbed in his sleep. Yet they still persevere. There’s no giving up. Neal can taste that turkey and cranberry sauce and feel the warmth of his family gathered around the table. He has one singular goal in mind, and just as he reaches it, he thinks of somebody who is less fortunate than he is. He thinks of his new friend. He brings him home for dinner.

It all leads to that moment, and that’s why Planes, Trains and Automobiles remains the ultimate Thanksgiving film: John Hughes understood that it’s all about the buildup. No matter if your journey is filled with near-death experiences, cars going up in flames, punches to the face and other disasters – getting to enjoy Thanksgiving with family and friends make the odyssey worth it. Everything else is just turkey.

Jason Diamond is the author of   Searching for John Hughes: Or Everything I Thought I Needed to Know About Life I Learned From Watching ’80s Movies.

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Every Steve Martin Movie Performance, Ranked

Plenty of aspiring artists spend their whole lives trying to perfect one discipline. Steve Martin has, arguably, conquered at least six. Growing up in Southern California in the 1950s, he got a job at Disneyland, where he fell in love with magic. From there, he developed a taste for stand-up comedy — by the end of the 1970s, he was among the biggest live acts in the world. In between, he wrote for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour , crafted a hit single about Tutankhamun , and became synonymous with the raucous new sketch show Saturday Night Live , where he was a frequent host. Tired of the stand-up grind, he walked away and moved to movies, co-writing and starring in 1979’s The Jerk, which, adjusted for inflation, remains his highest-grossing film .

The rest is history. Over his 40-year film career, Martin has evolved from the zany absurdist of his early work to a more mature (but still funny) leading man. Eventually, he started playing dads, even though he didn’t have a child himself until late in life, becoming the pillar of family-friendly comedies. But he never stopped pushing himself or trying new things. He has been a manipulative revivalist, a soulless movie producer, a lovelorn L.A. weatherman, a dentist (twice), and a birder. He has primarily worked in comedy, but he’s no stranger to dramas and thrillers. He’s done a lot, and a lot of it very well.

In honor of STEVE! (martin) , Apple TV+’s new documentary about the comedian, we’ve ranked all of his film performances. (However, we’re skipping over his voice work in Home and The Prince of Egypt — and we didn’t include his stints as the host of the Academy Awards, which are crucial to understanding what a smart, sophisticated humorist he is.) Honestly, focusing on just Martin’s big-screen roles is to merely scratch the surface of what he’s achieved as an entertainer. There are also the hit plays, the beloved comedic essays, the wistful novellas, even his terrific acceptance speech in 2013 when he received an Honorary Oscar . He’s won five Grammys — most recently for his bluegrass music (that’s right, he’s also pretty good with a banjo) — and in 2016 he was nominated for Tonys for his musical Bright Star .

Yet even without all that, looking at Martin’s filmography reveals a Renaissance man. His movie career is a reflection of the ambition and adventurousness that he’s exhibited across his career. From manic absurdist and menacing enigma to delightful dad and endearing love interest, he has never stopped changing and never been afraid to try a new role.

37. Mixed Nuts (1994)

A disaster of a Nora Ephron comedy in which Martin leads a group of volunteers called the Lifesavers, who answer phone calls from the depressed and suicidal over the holidays. That doesn’t sound funny in theory and is even less so in practice, particularly with everyone in the cast (including Adam Sandler, Garry Shandling, Jon Stewart, and Rob Reiner) mugging so manically, as if they know the material is weak so they have to wring every possible laugh out of it. They are not successful, and you can see Martin checking out by the end of it, knowing he’s wandered into a dud.

36. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978)

Few remember Martin was part of this nightmarishly ill-conceived staging of a Beatles rock opera by Peter Frampton and the Bee Gees, but that did happen, honest. (George Burns is the narrator!) Martin plays Dr. Maxwell Hammer, which tells you just about everything you need to know about the level of wit and thought in this production. This is Martin in the campiest version of his “wild and crazy guy” character, and we’re pretty sure you can see every bead of sweat here.

35. Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003)

The movie itself has its moments — it’s basically Joe Dante trying to do Space Jam — but Martin, who plays the evil Mr. Chairman, the head of the ACME corporation, is a way-too-silly villain in a movie that probably needed the bad guy to dial it back a bit rather than try to out-cartoon the cartoons. Bill Murray is funny in Space Jam because he’s oddly zen about the whole playing-basketball-with-Michael-Jordan-and-Bugs-Bunny thing. But Martin thinks he’s Daffy Duck here. You can’t out–Daffy Duck Daffy Duck.

34. Sgt. Bilko (1996)

Martin always bounced back and forth between more personal projects and big-studio jobs, and this is one of his more cynical brand-name gigs, taking Phil Silvers’s classic TV role as the sergeant who tries to wisecrack his way through a career in the Army. Martin phones it in and, frankly, in today’s military-industrial age, it seems downright insane to watch a movie about an army sergeant who chills out in silk robes and plays golf all day. The year 1996 has never felt further away.

33. The Out-of-Towners (1999)

The original Out-of-Towners had a pleading, obnoxious, gloriously weaselly Jack Lemmon as an Ohio man falling apart on a trip to New York City for a job interview, with Sandy Dennis as his wife. This entirely extraneous remake has Martin and Goldie Hawn in the same roles, but Martin doesn’t have the anger or the exhaustion of Lemmon. He and Hawn just plod through a series of calamities without much wit or invention. Martin can play midwestern, but he can’t play a midwestern rube: His Henry Clark acts like he’s just a regular guy in the big city, but c’mon: We know you’re a big-city guy, Henry. You’re Steve Martin!

32. Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther movies (2006, 2009)

It’s an uphill climb to try to take on the most famous role of a brilliant comic like Peter Sellers, and it’s probably smart of Martin not to even try that hard. He basically just does a French accent and trips over some things. Martin keeps his dignity intact, but he’s still not particularly funny , and this whole thing feels like a crass cash-in rather than Martin playing homage to a comedy legend. The one upside: The brief moment in human history that Steve Martin and Beyoncé did a scene together, in which Martin shows the exact wrong way to dance to Beyoncé.

31. Tom Baker in the Cheaper by the Dozen movies (2003, 2005)

Martin started to settle into a bland, comfortable spot as America’s older dad in the early aughts, as best exemplified by the Cheaper by the Dozen movies, which are really posters (Martin looking haggard while surrounded by children) made into movies. So inoffensive as to barely register at all, these films are over before you even quite realize they started. These are the type of movies that add Eugene Levy for the sequel to “shake things up.” (This is exactly what they did, in fact.) It was difficult for us to stay awake writing this capsule, so we can’t imagine how difficult it was for Martin to drag himself through these. The movies were, of course, both huge hits.

30. Bringing Down the House (2003)

Another of Martin’s family comedies, this one at least has the benefit of Queen Latifah, who brings tons of energy to an ugly stereotype role as the escaped convict who convinces Martin’s divorced Wasp to help her by posing as a perfect online match. There are a lot of groaning, problematic “racial” jokes in the film that wouldn’t fly today and shouldn’t have flown then, but at least Martin seems to be having fun with Latifah, who lets him play the straight man to her exuberance. It hasn’t aged well, but that’s not Martin’s fault.

29. The Big Year (2011)

Just what America wanted: a comedy about three guys who are part of a massive yearly competition to see who can identify the most species of birds. This box-office bomb, which costars Jack Black and Owen Wilson, has its share of sweet moments, and Martin is quite comfortable playing a rich Manhattan CEO who faces retirement by taking part in what’s known as a Big Year, finally pursuing a passion he was always too busy to fully enjoy. The Big Year captures Martin in kinder-gentler mode, but the film’s overall modesty keeps him from really registering.

28. My Blue Heaven (1990)

Martin has a hard time playing characters who aren’t demographically and ethnically exactly like Steve Martin. He is so steeped in irony and mockery that he always just looks like Steve Martin doing a sketch. That was never clearer than in My Blue Heaven , in which Martin portrays Vinnie Antonelli, a former mobster in the witness protection program who moves to the suburbs and makes milquetoast neighbor Rick Moranis miserable. Originally, Martin was supposed to play the neighbor and Arnold Schwarzenegger was supposed to play the mobster, and that might have been fun. As is, Martin doesn’t bring any menace to the role. He just does a funny accent and wears a fancy suit and just looks like Steve Martin playing dress-up.

27. Housesitter (1992)

Another joint with Goldie Hawn, one that works better because Martin stays out of the way and lets Hawn do all the work as a con artist who poses as Martin’s wife before, of course, they end up falling in love. Martin spends the entirety of Housesitter reacting to Hawn’s crazy antics, and they have a palpable, vanilla chemistry. But this is another of those run-of–the-mill Steve Martin comedies in which he plays a buttoned-down character, the understated straight man. It’s not our favorite of this comic genius’s cinematic guises.

26. The Lonely Guy (1984)

An early attempt to turn Crazy Stand-Up Martin into Romantic Comedy Lead Martin doesn’t entirely work — Roger Ebert, who later came to love Martin, wrote that the sight of him in this movie “inspires in me the same feelings that fingernails on blackboards inspire in other people” — but this was one of the first signs that Martin was a little bit more of a populist and straightforward leading man than his previous work might have suggested. He hadn’t quite wiped the smirk off his face yet, and the movie is mostly pretty soggy, but it’s a definitive signpost in his career. Martin didn’t just want to be the edgy comic anymore; he wanted to be a star.

25. A Simple Twist of Fate (1994)

Martin has never hidden his literary ambitions, adapting classic works for his screenplays. That’s proved very successful for him ( Roxanne ), but not always. A Simple Twist of Fate , based on Silas Marner , stars Martin as a divorced man who has closed off his heart — just in time to have a seemingly abandoned young girl show up at his door, needing him to care for her. Predictably, this will give the man a chance to Learn How to Love Again, and while it’s intriguing to see Martin do melodrama, the results always veer closer to “interesting” than “deeply rewarding” or “actually good.” For Steve Martin completists, A Simple Twist of Fate will offer some small insights into what happens when the writer-actor doesn’t quite pull off what he’s trying to achieve.

24. Novocaine (2001)

Martin tried to go a little darker in this pseudo-thriller about a mild-mannered dentist (Martin) who gets involved with a psychotic patient (Helena Bonham Carter) and ends up thrust into a web of murder and betrayal. Martin handles himself fine, but Novocaine is a total mess, more a stylized Tarantino knockoff than a movie that has anything particularly original to say. Still, we’ll watch Martin in this rather than another “wacky” studio comedy any day.

23. Joe Gould’s Secret (2000)

Around this point, Martin was starting to get a little literary cred — his acclaimed novel Shopgirl came out the same year — and was clearly going after the New Yorker demo with this small role. Martin plays a book publisher fascinated by the story of Joe Gould, a 1940s Greenwich Village eccentric (played by Ian Holm) chronicled by great New Yorker writer Joseph Mitchell (played by Stanley Tucci, who also directed). He fits in well as a literary bigwig, but he’s gone before you quite realize he’s there.

22. Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk (2016)

Ang Lee’s ambitious but deeply flawed war film, which aimed to show off the potential of shooting at 120-frames-per-second , doesn’t do Martin any favors; he plays a Jerry Jones–like NFL owner welcoming home some local Iraq War veterans as a cheap marketing ploy. Lee incorporates a lot of uncomfortably intimate close-ups to emphasize the vibrancy of the high frame rate, but all it does, as Entertainment Weekly memorably put it , “is [present] poor Steve Martin’s face like a topographical moon map.” It’s a jarring, unflattering look, which completely distracts from the fact that this is a rare dramatic role for Martin, who captures the character’s smug, disingenuous patriotism.

21. The Man With Two Brains (1983)

The follow-up to a better, more clever, more successful movie that Martin and Carl Reiner did a year earlier (which we’ll talk about a little later), The Man With Two Brains stars Martin as the world’s greatest brain surgeon with the world’s silliest name, Michael Hfuhruhurr. His melancholy widower ends up being tormented by a conniving gold digger (Kathleen Turner) while also falling in love with a disembodied brain (voiced by Sissy Spacek) being stored in the lab of a mad scientist (David Warner). This very goofy premise, which is partly a spoof of old science-fiction films, is a tad icky in its attitude toward women’s bodies and brains. Nonetheless, Martin cranks up the wacky meter in this one, and it never stops being funny to see him say “Hfuhruhurr.”

20. The Muppet Movie (1979)

Orson Welles, Carol Kane, Bob Hope, Richard Pryor, Telly Savalas, Cloris Leachman, Mel Brooks: The Muppet Movie had its share of memorable cameos. Martin gets about two minutes of screen time as a snotty waiter who serves Kermit and Miss Piggy while on a date. This was when Martin was still best known as the super-arch stand-up sensation, so he doesn’t actually give a performance — it’s more like an ironic impression of acting like a waiter. But it’s pretty funny to see him snark up the place, especially playing off that unflappable frog.

19. Baby Mama (2008)

It’s not surprising that Martin would become pals with Tina Fey. Both smart, cutting comedic writers and performers, they worked together on Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock . But in Baby Mama , Martin is especially funny as Fey’s exasperating boss, Barry, the hippie-dippie CEO of a health-food grocery store. Fey didn’t write this uneven comedy, but it’s got some of the same sophisticated satire of big-city elites that 30 Rock exudes, and Martin has a ball playing a pompous numbskull who doesn’t know that ponytails have been over for more than a decade. In his early career, Martin would have probably portrayed Barry as broadly as possible — here, he amplifies the character’s ridiculousness by underplaying every ounce of his serene stupidity.

18. Pennies From Heaven (1981)

Martin was devastated that this Herbert Ross musical — in which Martin plays sheet-music salesman Arthur Parker, who escapes into his fantasies of tap dancing in 1930s musical numbers — was a commercial flop. He blamed the audience for not being ready for him to play a dramatic role. Martin actually learned to tap-dance for the part, but it’s worth noting that while he’s fine in the film, he still hadn’t quite figured out how to turn off the comedy face; as good as he is, he is sort of distracting in the role. It’s still worth a revisit.

17. George Banks in the Father of the Bride movies (1991, 1995)

Becoming a bankable nice guy, Martin had success with the 1991 remake of the endearing Spencer Tracy original about a reluctant dad who’s anxious about losing his little girl to marriage. Father of the Bride and Father of the Bride Part II require little heavy lifting, and Martin is strikingly decent and sweet. Plus, he and Diane Keaton have such warm onscreen chemistry that they feel like an old, happy married couple. Are these movies pretty disposable? No doubt. But, hey, at least they helped Brad Paisley meet his future wife .

16. Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid (1982)

An inventive spoof dreamed up by Martin and Carl Reiner, this sendup of ’40s-noir films actually splices Martin (in character as private investigator Rigby Reardon) into famous films of the time, including Double Indemnity and The Big Sleep. It’s a one-gag movie, and eventually the gag grows a little tired, but it’s a funny idea, and Martin has a grand time with it. This was one of the first hints that the crazy stand-up comic sensation might have something a little bit more on his mind than absurdist gags.

15. Three Amigos (1986)

Right before Martin transitioned away from zany roles to slightly more mature, realistic parts, he teamed up with Chevy Chase and Martin Short for this wonderfully stupid comedy that he co-wrote with Lorne Michaels and (no kidding) Randy Newman about clueless movie stars who travel south of the border, being mistaken for their brave “Three Amigos” silver-screen personas. A satire of Hollywood ego and American myopia, Three Amigos goes a long way on the strength of Martin’s deadpan brilliance. His Lucky Day is a perfect idiot, so impressed with his own celebrity and inflated self-worth that he has no idea he and his pals are about to square off with a dangerous (and definitely not pretend) bandit. And it’s the movie where he first met Short , who has remained one of his closest friends for nearly 40 years.

14. Roxanne (1987)

The film that announced Martin as a major screenwriter and actor — at least for mainstream audiences used to him in sillier fare like The Jerk and Three Amigos — Roxanne established his bona fides as a solid, sensitive romantic lead. Taking its cues from Cyrano de Bergerac , the film stars Martin as Charlie, a regular guy with a big nose who’s in love with Roxanne (Daryl Hannah), an astronomy student who has a thing for a hunky dolt (Rick Rossovich) on Charlie’s firefighting crew. Because it showed off a warmer, softer side of Martin at the time, critics and audiences perhaps overreacted a bit in their praise. (The National Society of Film Critics gave Martin its Best Actor prize. The Writers Guild awarded him Best Adapted Screenplay.) That’s our gentle way of suggesting that Roxanne … doesn’t entirely hold up. Martin is still pretty winning, but the film (and his performance) is a little too pleased with itself. Rather than a revelation, Martin in Roxanne is, in hindsight, just in the beginning of a strong second act in his film stardom.

13. Leap of Faith (1992)

Of all the different roles Martin has tackled, Jonas Nightengale might be the most compelling outlier. A traveling evangelist happily suckering the faithful out of their money, Leap of Faith ’s protagonist could be seen as a dark commentary on Martin’s career as an entertainer: Jonas is nothing but a slick con man with utter contempt for an audience that’s easily wowed by razzle-dazzle and smooth talk. There are elements of a stand-up and a magician to the character, and Martin burrows into the guy’s self-loathing in ways that feel like the actor is exorcizing something out of himself. Sadly, Leap of Faith isn’t nearly as compelling as Martin is — the movie becomes a paean to genuine faith and requires Jonas to grow a conscience — but the film stands as an intriguing and candid look into the performer’s dark side.

12. It’s Complicated (2009)

In It’s Complicated , Meryl Streep has to choose between Alec Baldwin (her horny ex-husband) and Steve Martin (a nice-guy architect). The movie is, for better or worse, typical Nancy Meyers porn — Martin’s character is redesigning Streep’s already-gorgeous home — but the actor is so calmly confident as a divorcé on the rebound that it’s a shame he hasn’t tried more conventional rom-com roles. But then you remember, oh right, Hollywood tends not to make those about characters over age 35.

11. Shopgirl (2005)

Based on his well-reviewed 2000 novel, about a millionaire who starts dating a Neiman Marcus employee, Martin gives one of his most layered dramatic turns in this affecting big-screen adaptation, which he also wrote. He has hinted that the material is somewhat autobiographical , which might explain the depth of feeling that comes from his portrayal of Ray Porter, who vies for the affections of Mirabelle (Claire Danes), who’s also smitten with the artsy screw-up Jeremy (Jason Schwartzman). Ray has Martin’s erudite, cosmopolitan sophistication, but on the whole, he’s an unhappy, distant figure, and it’s tempting to read Shopgirl as some sort of confession about the secret loneliness of a beloved, successful figure who remains unfulfilled.

10. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988)

A con comedy inspired by 1964’s Bedtime Story , Dirty Rotten Scoundrels answers the trivia question: What’s the only role played by both Marlon Brando and Steve Martin? DRS follows two-bit hustler Freddy (Martin) as he squares off with Michael Caine’s Lawrence (David Niven in the original) for the affections (and bank account) of a seemingly easy mark (Glenne Headly). There’s a broad, easy chemistry between the two male leads — Caine is all smug refinement; Martin is all plucky cockiness — that makes up for the movie’s predictable twists and conventionality. DRS was at the end of the period when Martin would do this kind of go-for-broke physical comedy, and he’s a scream when Freddy assumes his alter ego of the imbecile Ruprecht. But maybe even better is that classic moment when Freddy is in jail early on in the film and is trying to remember Lawrence’s name. Every time we can’t pull a movie title from our fading memory bank, we think of this scene.

9. Little Shop of Horrors (1986)

Martin’s demented dentist has some legit menace to him: In many ways he’s as scary as that oversize human-eating plant. His big musical number is Little Shop of Horror ’s showstopper, and years later it’s Martin who you remember the most from it. This is also, oddly, the only time Martin and Bill Murray, contemporaries in every possible way (including as David Letterman guests), ever worked together on the big screen. They made it count.

8. The Jerk (1979)

In his terrific memoir, Born Standing Up , Martin recalls working on his first major film, a very silly and stupid comedy that he starred in and co-wrote. “Our goal in writing was a laugh on every page,” he explained, later adding that the collaborative process of a movie made him realize he could walk away from his lucrative but exhausting and restricting stand-up career. “Movies were social; stand-up was antisocial … It was fun to have lunches with cast and crew and to dream up material in the morning that could be shot seven different ways in the afternoon and evaluated — and possibly perfected — in the editing room months later.” That may sound rather highfalutin for a film as proudly juvenile as The Jerk , but there’s a clear intellect at work — a couple of ’em, actually, since it’s directed by co-conspirator Carl Reiner — that informs Martin’s spot-on performance as an overgrown man-child idiot who goes on an oddball journey to find himself. Navin R. Johnson is a fool, but he’s not mean-spirited, and that combination of lovability and naïveté has informed plenty of big-screen stars since, including Jim Carrey and Will Ferrell.

7. All of Me (1984)

This screwball comedy, in which a rich widow (Lily Tomlin) accidentally has her soul put in the body of her still-living lawyer (Martin), isn’t talked about much anymore. But it’s a rollicking good time, with Martin able to mix his gift for physical comedy (he somehow seems to understand how Lily Tomlin walks ) with a nice little love story. Martin has called All of Me his first “mature” film, and you can see what he means: The movie is serious-minded and sincere in a way most of his hadn’t been up to that point. It’s sort of a shame he and Tomlin never hooked up again: They’re perfect together.

6. Bowfinger (1999)

Perhaps Martin’s most underappreciated movie (and the last purely comedic screenplay he ever wrote), Bowfinger stars Martin as a low-budget, sleazy, anything-to-make-the-movie producer who decides he’ll create a whole film featuring a superstar (Eddie Murphy) without ever telling said superstar he’s in the movie. Bowfinger is a tremendous showcase for Murphy — who plays two characters as well as he’s ever played one — but don’t forget Martin, who has both the chutzpah and desperation of a guy who knows he’s too old to keep scrapping like this but loves the business too much to leave. This is basically Martin’s Broadway Danny Rose , with more laughs than pathos.

5. The Spanish Prisoner (1997)

A David Mamet movie is expected to feature ping-ponging conversations between characters who talk in stridently direct, slightly stilted ways to each other, as if all the niceties of human interaction have been stripped away so that people can just be brutally real with one another. It takes a certain actor to make Mamet’s dialogue ricochet, and Martin proved to be one of the best at it in this underrated thriller. He plays Jimmy, a rich, mysterious stranger who befriends our hero, Joe (Campbell Scott), who’s come up with a potentially lucrative “process” for his bosses. Martin’s comedy has often focused on his affected superiority to those around him, but in The Spanish Prisoner , he makes that smugness feel lethal. Because this is a Mamet movie, we know there’s a con going on, but we can’t figure out just what, and Martin keeps us ill at ease, even as Jimmy and Joe become closer friends. Martin hasn’t played a ton of villains in his career — maybe he was waiting for one this razor-sharp.

4. Parenthood (1989)

Steve Martin didn’t become a father until his late 60s, a decision he insists he doesn’t regret. (“I think if I’d had a child earlier,” he said , “I would have been a lousy father, because I would have misplaced my attention on my career.”) The irony, of course, is that he’s had a great Hollywood career playing dads in the Father of the Bride and Cheaper by the Dozen movies. But his finest father role is as Gil, the anxious, perfectionist patriarch at the center of Parenthood . This isn’t necessarily his funniest, sharpest, most nuanced, or most dramatic performance, but it may be the most relaxed and relatable that he’s ever been onscreen, happily plugging into an ensemble in which each of the characters in the Buckman clan is dealing with his or her own little crisis. At a time when TV dramedies like thirtysomething were becoming fashionable, Martin delivered a rich mixture of comedy and pathos as a good guy who just wants to do right by his kids and his emotionally withholding father (Jason Robards). And because Gil is constantly convinced he’s failing those around him, there’s little question what a great son, brother, dad, and husband he actually is.

3. Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987)

Slow-burn exasperation at its best, Martin is a terrific aggrieved Everyman in Planes, Trains & Automobiles , a great comedy about how horrible people are and how terrible holiday travel can be. As Neal, an uptight advertising exec trying to get home for Thanksgiving, Martin had the great fortune to team up with John Candy, who plays the most insufferable of backslapping strangers who just wants to help you out and get to know you better. Their contentious rapport powers John Hughes’s rollicking-then-touching road movie, both sides of this comedic duo perfectly suited to their individual assignment. Candy probably gets the bigger laughs, but PT&A reveals how good Martin is at being the straight guy, a role he’d embrace the longer his career went along. Not that Martin isn’t incredibly funny as well — seriously, the guy just wants a fucking automobile.

2. Grand Canyon (1991)

Widely believed to be modeled after action-movie producer Joel Silver (the Lethal Weapon and Matrix franchises), Martin’s character in this ensemble drama is Davis, a soulless Hollywood big shot who makes a mint off gory shoot-’em-ups. (“I thought it was ludicrous,” Silver later said of Martin’s performance. “I don’t want to be caricatured.”) It’s in keeping with Grand Canyon ’s touchy-feely, reactionary tone that, of course, one movie producer is meant to represent all that’s callous and obscene in our culture, but Martin’s trick was to make Davis a smart, funny guy who knows exactly what he’s doing and just doesn’t care. That Davis is shot during a mugging is meant to be grimly ironic — the purveyor of mindless violence gets a taste of his own medicine — but Martin and director/co-writer Lawrence Kasdan are pretty wise about the character’s phony insistence that he’s going to change his life and stop making mindless blockbusters. Of course, the pledge proves false — Davis really is as shallow as he always seemed — and Martin does some of his most understated work in this depiction of an everyday shit who’s too rich, powerful, and self-involved to concern himself with the garbage he pumps into the world.

1. L.A. Story (1991)

One of the strengths of Martin’s career has been its consistency, but if you had to pick one year that was his absolute peak, look no further than 1991. On December 20, he was in Father of the Bride , one of his biggest hits. A week later, he was in Grand Canyon , delivering one of his best dramatic performances. And that was all after L.A. Story , which had come out around Valentine’s Day of that year. Martin’s stab at a West Coast version of Manhattan — a love story that captures the particular contours of the city where the main characters reside — L.A. Story is very much like the metropolis it chronicles. It’s pretentious, filled with contradictory impulses, overly proud of itself, but also deeply insecure. And, oh yeah, it’s really funny. Written by Martin and directed by Mick Jackson, the film features the finest encapsulation of Martin’s overlapping ambitions. His Harris K. Telemacher is a sarcastic goofball with a big heart, a guy who believes in love but is also painfully aware of how often it goes wrong. The character articulates the mixture of cynicism and sweetness, highbrow and crude, biting and sincere that’s essential to understanding Martin’s genius. As Harris tries to navigate a shallow relationship with Sarah Jessica Parker’s ditzy SanDeE*, and a more mature and rewarding one with Victoria Tennant’s Sara, Martin essentially says good-bye to the silliness of his earlier career for a more mature and sustaining artistry. L.A. Story may not be his most beloved film, but it’s the one that feels closest to his heart. (He and Tennant were married at the time.) One of the great things about Steve Martin is that there are many different ones to choose from as your favorite. This one is ours.

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16 Best Steve Martin Movies Ranked

Actor, comedian, playwright, musician, screenwriter, art collector. How do all of these identities fit within just one human being? Well, somehow, Steve Martin makes it look effortless, navigating mediums and genres and artistic sensibilities with such ease and confidence that it'll drive you utterly mad. In an absolutely illustrious career, Steve Martin has more than proved himself to be an anchor of the entertainment industry.

But the world mainly grew to love Martin through his feature film roles, and just like his many talents, his on-screen roles have spanned a variety of genres. There's been comedy, drama, musicals, and science fiction. He's even starred alongside some Muppets every now and then. But which Martin films are the best of the best? Here, for your reading pleasure, are Steven Martin's greatest films, ranked in all their glory and providing just a dose of the absolute comedic wit he's brought to the silver screen for decades now.

16. The Jerk

What better way to start off this list than with Steve Martin's very first starring role in a feature film? In 1979's "The Jerk," directed by the legendary Carl Reiner, Martin stars as Navin R. Johnson, the adopted son of Black sharecroppers, just trying to find a sense of purpose in this crazy world of ours. With no sense of rhythm — and pretty much no sense of anything, really — Johnson goes off on a journey to find himself, whoever that may be.

A madcap journey through Hollywood, stardom, fame, fortune, and a hatred of cans — with just as unhinged supporting performances from Bernadette Peters, M. Emmett Walsh, and even director Carl Reiner as himself — "The Jerk" is undoubtedly one of the more absurdist pieces in Martin's cinematic oeuvre. But this insane comedy unquestionably kicked off Martin's long-and-storied career, and it's still heralded today as one of his finest performances.

15. The Man with Two Brains

After breaking into Hollywood with "The Jerk," Martin continued collaborating with comedy legend Carl Reiner, and together, the two produced some hysterical genre parodies. For example, the duo took aim at the world of science fiction in 1983's "The Man with Two Brains," a hilarious spoof that further proved Martin as the master of comedic idiocy.

Here, Martin plays the eloquently named Dr. Michael Hfuhruhurr, a neurosurgeon who discovers his knowledge of the mind extends to being able to communicate with a woman's brain trapped in a jar (voiced by the oddly uncredited Sissy Spacek). What follows — in the grand tradition of Reiner/Martin collaborations — are enough hijinks to keep you absolutely hooked through such an undeniably bonkers piece of filmmaking. The genius of "The Man with Two Brains" is seeing just how far through the world of genre-pastiche Martin's comedy is able to stretch.

14. Shopgirl

Steve Martin is truly a renaissance man in the best way possible. Outside of the performances featured on this list, Martin's work includes various screenplays, stage plays, novels, bluegrass albums, musical theater compositions, and so much more. One of these extraneous efforts, his 2000 novella "Shopgirl," eventually made its way into the cinematic fold, and Martin found himself not only adapting his original text but starring in the film himself.

Like much of his later work, "Shopgirl" ditches much of the inane absurd comic antics of Martin's earlier career, settling for a subtler, more sophisticated sense of storytelling. And even this pivot in style is still able to land with grace under Martin's illustrious umbrella. Telling the story of a young artist (Claire Danes) trapped between two aspiring men (Martin and the equally dashing Jason Schwartzman), "Shopgirl" captures the late career wit of Steve Martin in all its splendor.

13. Father of the Bride

One of Martin's most enduring, and commercially successful, comedic triumphs, 1991's "Father of the Bride" — a remake of the 1950 Vincente Minnelli classic — updates this story of a father unable to let go of his daughter before a big day for a new generation. Directed by Charles Shyer and co-written by Nancy Meyers , Martin brings his straight-man A-game to the table as he navigates the hurdles that go into wedding planning, with all the nerve and chaos you can imagine.

With eccentric and memorable supporting performances from Diane Keaton, George Newbern, and Martin Short as the most bananas wedding coordinator you'll ever meet, it's no wonder this matrimonial comedy became such a smash sensation. Proving so successful to create a sequel four years later, "Father of the Bride" provided a perfect point in Martin's career to pivot into starring in more paternal roles that gave him a new lease on comedic life.

12. Grand Canyon

Lawrence Kasdan — the prolific screenwriter behind films like "The Empire Strikes Back," "Return of the Jedi," and "Raiders of the Lost Ark" – has only hopped into the directing chair on a handful of occasions. But unlike many of his franchise writing credits, his directorial efforts are usually focused on more intimate, personal stories of human connection, friendship, and romance. This manifested itself in films like "The Big Chill," "Mumford," and especially in 1991's "Grand Canyon." 

Amongst a wonderful ensemble cast including Kevin Kline, Danny Glover, Mary-Louise Parker, and Mary McDonnell, Steve Martin finds himself as an action movie director who, after finding himself the victim of a violent shooting, vows to rid violence from cinema. Culminating in a glorious final trip to the titular nature site, "Grand Canyon" uses the shared stories of disparate souls to touch at our interconnected beauty and tragedy in wonderfully moving ways.

11. Pennies from Heaven

In what can be considered his first foray into solely dramatic material, 1981's "Pennies from Heaven" was an absolute sharp departure for Steve Martin. After all, the movie took a figure who was, up until this point, a lightning rod for absurd, comedic slapstick and planted him smack-dab in the middle of a fantastically earnest piece of dramatic musical filmmaking that audiences just didn't know what to do with. An outright box-office bomb if there ever was one, people were flummoxed by this outlier of a film, one where Martin and company were obviously and intentionally lip-synching to classic tunes from the 1930s.

But history has been much kinder to "Pennies from Heaven," now with the vantage point of hindsight and being able to see the film — a Depression-era love story filled with twists, turns, and fantastically hummable tunes — for the charming and sweet piece of filmmaking that Martin and his team were hoping for back in the '80s. Plus, it's got a dancing Christopher Walken . 

10. L.A. Story

In his ultimate tribute and/or takedown of Los Angeles, the efficiently titled "L.A. Story" — both starring and written by Steve Martin – finds the lovable goofball back in the romantic comedy genre, navigating the City of Angels while looking for love, joy, and any sense of purpose in his miserable life as a TV weatherman.

Through his trademark mix of absurdism, satire, and outright slapstick, Martin takes on Los Angeles in all it's artificial, pretentious glory, using the city as the perfect backdrop to mirror his story of trying to find perfection in a place that maybe isn't as perfect as you think it is. Some may say it's a fool's errand to write and star in as many films as Steve Martin has (the total is over 10), but "L.A. Story" is further proof that this recipe for comedic success has no sense of going stale any time soon.

9. Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid

Reuniting with "The Jerk" director Carl Reiner, Steve Martin set to create a comedy built upon a premise so ambitious, so daring, so unabashed in its tribute to classic Hollywood, it's a surprise it isn't talked about more in the pantheon of great comedic blank checks. With 1982's "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid," Reiner and Martin set out to tell a film noir story cobbled together with new footage mixed with old clips from classic detective flicks to create a collage of comedic gold.

Alongside the wonderfully fun new footage paying homage to the classic noir era, the real joy of "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid" is following with the game of how clips from such films as "The Killers," "The Big Sleep," and "The Postman Always Rings Twice" will be remixed and thrown together for the sake of Martin's comedic exploits. If nothing else, "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid" is a testament to the absolute comic ambition that Steve Martin would go to just to get a laugh.

8. All of Me

The body-swap comedy is almost too well-worn these days, but there's something about 1984's "All of Me" that takes the idea to whole new levels of comic mayhem. Once again directed by frequent collaborator Carl Reiner, Lily Tomlin stars as Edwina Cutwater, a millionaire who goes through extreme and paranormal measures to ensure she stays on this planet after death. Unfortunately, her plans go awry, and she finds herself sharing a body with, who else, our good buddy Steve Martin.

If the premise of "Steve Martin and Lily Tomlin share the same body for 90 minutes" isn't enough to convince you of the comic potential of this wonderful comedy, then who knows what can persuade you. Honestly, it's a spectacular act to see, all racing towards a thrilling conclusion of world-shattering proportions. In another of his early comedic works, "All of Me" cemented the exact kind of comic antics Martin was more than capable of commanding.

7. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

Steve Martin has a natural huckster personality, so it's no surprise that he's able to absolutely dominate the screen in 1988's "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels," a delirious and mischievous work of con-artist comedy, directed with absolute flair by the great Frank Oz (yep, the same Frank Oz of "Star Wars" and "Muppets" fame). Co-starring alongside Michael Caine as Lawrence Jamieson — a more sophisticated species of trickster — Martin's Freddy Benson hatches a bet with Jamieson to see who will be the first con artist to swindle U.S. soap magnate Janet Colgate (Glenne Headly).

Through a series of escalating cons, disguises, false identities, and manic comic set pieces, Martin and Caine deliver tour de force performances that continue to one-up each other in the most delicious and chaotic of ways. An enduring piece of late '80's greed-based comedy, "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" is easily one of Martin's most enduring films, and that's surely no trick.

6. The Spanish Prisoner

Steve Martin's forays into dramatic territory are few and far between. But when he does go down the dramatic route, it can sometimes lead to some of the most interesting choices in his career. Case in point — the oft-forgotten film from the mind of David Mamet, 1997's "The Spanish Prisoner," with Martin playing the part of Jimmy Dell, a man with a lot of money ... and a lot of mystery waiting to be unraveled.

Starring alongside Campbell Scott, Rebecca Pidgeon, Ricky Jay, and Felicity Huffman, Martin plays a key part in  a thriller that feels a lot like an Alfred Hitchcock film . And his skills as a straight man translate beautifully when thrown into the dramatic territory of "The Spanish Prisoner." Like much of Mamet's work, both on the big screen and on the stage, there's quick wordplay, dense plotting, and characters you love to hate, and it's a wonder to see Martin adapt to this world so naturally.

5. Bowfinger

Maybe the funniest movie about making movies out there , 1999's "Bowfinger" brings Steve Martin together with Eddie Murphy for one of the most cynical yet earnest portrayals of Hollywood and the lengths artists will go to succeed in this rat race of a business. Reuniting once again with director Frank Oz — and once again working from his own screenplay — Martin plays Bobby Bowfinger, a wannabe producer/director whose ticket to fame rests on directing a hit sci-fi film starring action superstar sensation Kit Ramsey (Eddie Murphy).

The only problem? Kit has no interest in starring in this movie, so Bowfinger devises an ingenious plan to film the movie "around" Kit without him even knowing. A comic set piece of a film that only gets more elaborate and ludicrous as time goes on (including Murphy in a dual role as Kit's twin brother, Jiff Ramsey), "Bowfinger" is a masterclass in spoofing Hollywood that acts as a high watermark in both Martin and Murphy's stellar careers.

4. Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Is there a road trip more stressful (or hilarious) than the one captured in John Hughes' comedy classic "Planes, Trains and Automobiles?" In one of Hughes' only non-teenager-centric classics, Martin joins forces with fellow '80s comic titan, John Candy, to star as a couple of misfits thrown together in a journey from New York to Chicago that takes more detours — both physical and comedic — than either character is ready for.

Martin is able to operate on various comic modes, and while he's often able to find comedic success as an absurdist character, it's here where his deadpan straight-man persona might succeed the most in his career, acting as the perfect comic foil for John Candy's overbearing sensibilities. In the ultimate comedy about reconciling differences and discovering unexpected friendships, "Plains, Trains and Automobiles" is, without a doubt, a trip you'll want to go on countless times.

Who knew that Steve Martin loved "Cyrano de Bergerac" so much? That love permeates onto the screen in 1987's "Roxanne," where Martin once again performs double duty by penning the screenplay and starring in this contemporary Cyrano update, with Martin playing C.D. Bales, the long-nosed hero of this peculiar love story.

Perhaps it was only natural for Martin to be attracted to a story about a character using wit, charm, and some darn good poetry to win over someone's affections since that's how he's spent most of his career. This translates to a wonderfully winsome starring role, where Martin's C.D. is nothing but full of charm in his attempts to sneakily play the behind-the-scenes poet for the affection of the titular Roxanne (Daryl Hannah in a delightful performance). It's readily apparent that Martin is a romantic at heart, and "Roxanne" is a darling film unafraid to wear that heart on its sleeve for all to see.

2. Little Shop of Horrors

Is there anything more devious than seeing Steve Martin — complete with slick, black hair — crooning his heart out while singing about the joys of being a dentist? Well, that's exactly what you'll get to see in Frank Oz's 1986 adaptation of "Little Shop of Horrors." Even though he's credited with "a special appearance by..." in the credits, Martin makes an undeniably strong impression in the off-Broadway hit brought to the big screen. 

As for the plot, the film chronicles the story of a lowly shopkeep (Rick Moranis) who does all he can to feed his bloodthirsty new plant with a hankering for human flesh. And Martin's Orin Scrivello is the shopkeep's rival for the affections of the lovely Audrey (Ellen Greene) ... as well as being something of a sadist who enjoys his job a little too much. Here, Martin gets to show off his stellar vocal chops, and the role packs his comic sensibilities into a fantastically tight package. With plenty of stellar wordplay, physical comedy, and an extremely memorable scene with Bill Murray as a pain-seeking patient, Martin's delicious performance in "Little Shop of Horrors" makes us scream with excitement every time. Now spit!

1. Parenthood

Throughout his vast and still ongoing career, Steve Martin has shown he can excel in both comedic and dramatic arenas, and that duality is no clearer than his starring role in Ron Howard's dramedy "Parenthood." In this 1989 film, Martin stars as Gil Buckman, a father just trying to figure out day by day what it means to be a parent. Through a series of episodic adventures with his family and friends, Buckman learns the true pains and rewards of being a father in the modern world.

Joined by an utterly stellar supporting cast that includes Mary Steenburgen, Dianne Wiest, Rick Moranis, Jason Robards, Tom Hulce, Keanu Reeves, and an incredibly young Joaquin Phoenix , "Parenthood" became a landmark of Martin's oscillating career between comedy and drama. With "Parenthood," you get the whole Steve Martin package — a well of absolute comedic delight, an element of humanity that's undeniable, and an example of the absolutely iconic legacy of Martin's stellar career.

Best Road Trip Movies, Ranked

Hollywood is no stranger to producing hilarious and entertaining road trip films, including these ultimate cross-country movies.

Yearning for the open road? Look no further! Hollywood is no stranger to producing entertaining road trip movies that feature iconic cross-country adventures. While some audiences just can’t seem to get enough of this comedy staple, others flock to theaters for films that take a more heartfelt approach to the genre, utilizing the road trip as a way to express maturation, character development, and coming-of-age themes. Sometimes it's nice to live vicariously through the lives of these big-screen characters. With such an impressive list of beloved classics to choose from, determining the greatest among these films is difficult.

Updated May 18th, 2023: If you're a fan of the open road, you'll be glad to know this article was recently updated with new content by fellow travel enthusiast Amanda Minchin .

So whether you're yearning for some comedic relief from life's difficulties or are just wanting to see the world from a new perspective, these films, with their array of hijinks and chaos, will prove entertaining for audiences of all ages. Instead of needing to hop in the car, sit down, grab the remote, and explore the open road from the comfort of your home. Here is our deep dive into the best road trip movies throughout cinema history.

13 Dumb and Dumber

The iconic buddy-comedy Dumb and Dumber stars Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels as two dimwitted yet well-meaning friends who set off on a cross-country road trip from Providence, Rhode Island, to Aspen, Colorado, in order to return a briefcase full of money.

Related: Why Dumb and Dumber Is a Perfect Road Trip Movie

The charm of this film lies in the delightful ignorance of Lloyd and Harry, whose personas simply don’t allow for a light bulb moment. They have absolutely no desire to either learn or grow during their hilariously harrowing journey and, as a result, they ultimately go off on many a zany adventure without learning all that much. Dumb and Dumber found great success at the box office upon its release, becoming one of the most iconic of 1994 .

12 Y Tu Mamá También

Y Tu Mamá También is the coming-of-age tale of two teenage boys who set out on a road trip with an older woman in her late twenties. This Alfonso Cuaron road movie features a talented cast, including Diego Luna, Gael García Bernal, and Maribel Verdú, who shine against the backdrop of Mexico’s economic and political realities in 1999.

This intimate and tender story is also an exploration of sexuality and maturity. The young men's journey leads to self-discovery and a loss of innocence amidst the stunning road trip setting. The film uses travel and journey as a metaphor. As a result, audiences are able to witness the transformation of the leads from adolescence to adulthood in a fresh and authentic way.

11 Easy Rider

Easy Rider is arguably one of the most important road trip movies in cinema history. This film, which received critical praise upon its release, is credited with helping to spark the New Hollywood era of the 1970s. This 1969 independent road drama tells the story of two bikers who embark on a journey through the American South and Southwest, transporting the proceeds of a cocaine deal.

The film stars Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper as the lead bikers, alongside the memorable performance of Jack Nicholson as the boozy lawyer they pick up along the way. This classic flick focuses heavily on the journey, not the destination, as the free-spirited bikers get a harsh dose of reality during their travels across the country.

10 It Happened One Night

It Happened One Night is an infamous screwball comedy , and with good reason. Widely considered the first, it soon became the roadmap for others to follow after its release in the early 30s. The movie also arguably launched the careers of stars Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable. In the film, Colbert played an heiress on the run back to her true love. Gable, meanwhile, played the intrepid reporter following shortly behind. They travel from Florida to New York in increasingly jerry-rigged modes of transportation and, of course, wind up falling in love in the process.

At the time, a movie about an unmarried couple traveling together was sure to ruffle a few feathers. Considered a Pre-Code film (though the Hays Code was in effect, it was not officially enforced for all pictures until shortly thereafter), this movie managed to skirt the censors by covering any sense of impropriety with snappy dialogue, cheeky humor, and endless innuendo... thus creating the screwball comedy in the process. For example, Frank Capra and crew got around the pair sharing a room together during their travels by dividing said room with a bedsheet that the characters literally nickname “The Walls of Jericho.” Any source of seduction was at most a suggestion, as demonstrated by Colbert’s last-ditch use of her *gasp* bare leg to hail a passing car, though that too was considered rather scandalous in passing.

The touching and deeply endearing 1988 classic Rain Man tells the story of conceited jerk Charlie Babbitt who, upon his wealthy father’s death, discovers the inheritance has been left to his unknown autistic-savant brother Raymond. Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman deliver powerful performances as Charlie and Raymond, for which the latter earned an Academy Award.

As the brothers travel from Cincinnati to Los Angeles, Charlie witnesses the restrictions of Raymond’s condition and, in turn, gains a new perspective on life. The film’s unique premise and the chemistry between Cruise and Hoffman as they travel the country, make this a road trip staple.

8 Little Miss Sunshine

Oscar-winning dramedy Little Miss Sunshine features an all-star cast (including Steve Carell, Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, and Abigail Breslin). It tells the story of a barely-functional family who are determined to get their daughter to the finals of a beauty pageant. Setting off in their VW bus (which requires a rolling start), the Hoover clan soon embark on an 800-mile road trip to California. Their goal of reaching the beauty pageant is what ultimately brings the family together.

The script for this film is both funny and heartfelt, and Michael Arndt received the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for his effort. The colorful characters add depth and humor to the plot, which is tied up nicely by the end. Little Miss Sunshine was one of those indie films from the 2000s that broke out with mainstream audiences, and part of that is it perfectly captures what it is like to be stuck with one's family for a long road trip.

7 Into the Wild

This film is for those whose wanderlust leads them to less tread pastures. Based on the book by Jon Krakauer, Into The Wild tells the true story of an Emory college graduate and athlete who renounces his family fortune and sets off on a hitchhiking adventure that leads him deep into the Alaskan wilderness. Written, directed, and produced by Sean Penn, the film version stars Emile Hirsch as Chris McCandless, a.k.a. Alexander Supertramp.

Upon its release, the film was nominated for many awards, including Golden Globes and Academy Awards. It was soon added to many of the top lists that year. The abandoned bus that housed the final days of the real-life McCandless even became a pilgrimage site for fans until it had to be airlifted to a safer location. Those wanting to dive into a smaller, safer venture should carve out the 2 ½ hours for this film.

6 Almost Famous

The critically acclaimed Cameron Crowe dramedy Almost Famous is the ultimate coming-of-age film with an ensemble cast of Hollywood heavy hitters like Billy Crudup, Kate Hudson, Frances McDormand, and Jason Lee. The movie is loosely based on Crowe's own experience as a writer for Rolling Stone magazine.

Almost Famous tells the story of a young 1970s Rolling Stone journalist William Miller and his epic journey of self-discovery as he travels with the fictitious rock band Stillwater. As he follows them across the country, William experiences the highs and lows of adolescence: falling in love, being rejected, making friends, and ultimately accepting himself. The movie received critical acclaim and numerous accolades and is included in many lists of the greatest films ever made.

5 Thelma and Louise

Arguably the ultimate female buddy movie , 1991’s Thelma and Louise tells the unforgettable tale of two best friends who take off for the open road after a tragic event forces them to flee for greener pastures. Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon star as the ride-or-die duo who zip across the country in Thelma’s 1966 Ford Thunderbird.

Related: How Thelma and Louise Is a Queer Allegory

The iconic friendship of the film's titular leads, impressively performed by Davis and Sarandon, firmly cements it as a landmark feminist film. The movie also features a young Brad Pitt in one of his first major roles as a drifter who catches Thelma's eye. The iconic ending of Thelma and Louise remains one of the greatest in Hollywood history to this day.

4 The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert quickly cemented Australia’s cultural status as a producer of quirky, independent cinema when it was first released in 1994. What could have ended as a dumpster fire of epic proportions was instead a surprisingly tender and thoughtful road movie. Featuring a soundtrack of campy classics bolstered by supreme performances from Terence Stamp, Hugo Weaving, and Guy Pearce, the plot follows two drag queens and one transgender woman as they go on tour in Australia.

While the movie arguably may have been even better having an actual trans woman or drag culture enthusiast cast, the trio sure put on one hell of a show as they traverse the literal Outback in sequins, beads, and platform heels. The film, which was written and directed by Stephan Elliott, would later be adapted into a musical. The play premiered in Sydney in 2006 before touring throughout the country. It would eventually be welcomed onto the Broadway stage a few years later in 2011.

3 The Blues Brothers

Beloved Saturday Night Live alums John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd reprised their sketch characters for the silver screen as “Joliet” Jake Blues and blood brother Elwood in 1980s The Blues Brothers . The pair are hilarious as sleazy musicians who make it their mission to save the orphanage they were raised in from foreclosure.

The classic comedy focuses on Jake and Elwood as they reunite their R&B band and travel around Chicago in their “bluesmobile,” playing music for money. With exciting car chases, comical shootouts, and unforgettable musical numbers, The Blues Brothers remains an iconic classic of road-trip cinema.

2 National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983)

This film kick-started a beloved comedy franchise that continues to this day. 1983’s National Lampoon’s Vacation focuses on the Griswold family as their patriarch leads them on a cross-country trip to an amusement park... Naturally, chaos and hilarity arise. The ultimate success of this movie led to a barrage of sequels.

Starring Saturday Night Live alum Chevy Chase as Clark Griswold, Vacation also features the talents of Beverly D’Angelo, Anthony Michael Hall, and Dana Barron as his wife and less-than-adoring children. Chase is brilliant as the comical and determined Clark. This outrageous farce depicts the reality of a family on vacation. None of them are perfect, and all of them are full of endearing dysfunction as they try and fail to have a good time.

1 Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Comedy legends Steve Martin and John Candy partnered up with famed director John Hughes for 1987’s Planes, Trains and Automobiles . Martin starred as uptight Neal Page, while Candy portrayed the overbearing but kind-hearted Del Griffith. Stuck together, the pair join forces in an effort to get Neal home to Chicago in time for his family's Thanksgiving dinner. Because of this, it has since become a Thanksgiving classic.

The chemistry between the two leads in this film is as effortless as it is hilarious. This movie features plenty of sidesplitting situations while also being surprisingly emotional at times. Planes, Trains and Automobiles is a heartfelt flick that utilizes its comedic talent to the fullest. Planes, Trains and Automobiles is a comedic masterpiece that has endured for decades.

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Best Road Trip Movies to Watch With Your Family During the Holidays

The holidays are all about family, road trips and food. After you’ve all eaten, sit down with the relatives and celebrate the great American tradition with one of these classic open-road movies.

Related To:

Road trips and Thanksgiving are about as American as you can get, and late in November the two collide. According to the Automobile Club of America's (AAA) latest stats, about 48 million Americans will journey 50 miles or more from home on Thanksgiving weekend (Wednesday to Sunday).

To celebrate the upcoming holidays, we compiled a list of our favorite movies that take place on the open road. Some of these road trips are not just physical but also personal life-changing journeys that will make you think and may help spark some deep conversations with your fellow viewers. So, drive safely and once you get to your destination, sit back with the fam and enjoy one of these classic road trip movies.

Planes_Trains-075

Steve Martin and John Candy sit in a destroyed car in a scene from the film 'Planes, Trains & Automobiles', 1987. (Photo by Paramount/Getty Images)

Photo by: Paramount Pictures, FotoWare fotostation

Paramount Pictures, FotoWare fotostation

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

John Candy was the master of the obnoxious-but-loveable oaf. In this movie, he plays a shower-curtain-ring salesman who annoys the living daylights out of Steve Martin’s straight-laced character. The two meet when they’re both trying to get home for Thanksgiving and a freak snowstorm turns the few-hour journey into a multi-day comic escapade. It’s rated R for some profanity and probably the “those aren’t pillows” scene.

1626049 003

Photo by: Fotos International

Fotos International

Thelma and Louise 

What starts out as a girls' weekend turns into two outlaws on the lam. Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon are so cool and they totally rock those 1990s high-waisted jeans. This is probably one of the most famous road trip movies ever. And because of it, there’s a lot of interesting trivia about it, like this interesting tidbit: It’s well known that this movie catapulted Brad Pitt to fame, but he was such a no-name at the time he was paid just $6,000 for his role. Even more interesting, George Clooney was one of the actors Pitt beat out to play the sexy cowboy/crook role.

(Original Caption) 11/3/1962- Members of the cast of the United Artists movie "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World." L to r: Edie Adams, Sid Caesar, Phil Silvers, Dorothy Provine, Ethel Merman, Milton Berle, Dick Shawn, Terry-Thomas, Mickey Rooney (front); Buddy Hackett, Jonathan Winters, Spencer Tracy, Peter Falk and Eddie "Rochester" Anderson. They were rehearsing a scene for the zany film.

Photo by: Bettmann

It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

If you want to watch a movie with your grandparents, try this zany farce that was made back in 1962. Anybody who was anybody in Hollywood at that time is in this movie – everyone from Spencer Tracy to the Three Stooges – so it’ll be a nice bit of nostalgia for older family members. It’s also a fun movie for kids, it’s silly and there are no f-bombs or “adult” scenes.

London, England - May 23, 2014: Side view of the door handles of an old VW bus in London, England.

Photo by: Spiderstock

Spiderstock

Little Miss Sunshine

You can’t help but fall in love with this quirky family, especially the adorable beauty-pageant contestant Olive and her foul-mouth grandpa. There are a bunch of good quotes in this movie too: Like when the dad gets pulled over by the cops and says “everyone, just... pretend to be normal,” (like we all haven’t wanted to say that to our family). Or the touching moment when grandpa tells Olive, “A real loser is someone who's so afraid of not winning he doesn't even try.” This movie is rated R and once you hear all the profanity you’ll know why.

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Peter Fonda as Wyatt and Dennis Hopper as Billy in Easy Rider

Photo by: Silver Screen Collection

Silver Screen Collection

Probably the most iconic road trip movie ever. Made in 1969, it symbolizes the counterculture of that war-time era. Parts of the movie may feel dated, but the message still resonates today. If you have a relative who lived through the 60s, watch this movie with them to get more insight into that time period.

Hudson Hornet during Premiere of Disney Pixar's "CARS" at Lowe's Motor Speedway at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte, NC, United States. (Photo by E. Charbonneau/WireImage for Disney Pictures)

Photo by: E. Charbonneau

E. Charbonneau

For the younger set, the best road trip movie is Cars, the first one. The sequels aren’t bad, but the original is the best. This is one flick the whole family can watch. It’s got a great message and cute characters for the kids, there are plenty of jokes for the adults, and Paul Newman as Hudson Hornet is so worth your time.

Promotional poster showing the cast of the film, 'Diner,' directed by Barry Levinson, 1982. (L-R) Daniel Stern, Mickey Rourke, Steve Guttenberg, Kevin Bacon and Tim Daly. (Photo by MGM Studios/Coutesy of Getty Images)

Photo by: MGM Studios

MGM Studios

Directed by Barry Levinson this movie has an amazing ensemble including very early appearances by Kevin Bacon, Mickey Rourke, Steve Guttenberg, Daniel Stern, Tim Daly and Ellen Barkin. Not really a road-trip movie so much as a returning-home movie. The story is set between Christmas and New Year in 1959 (so holiday subtext is built in) and, like several other of Levinson’s movies (see also "Tin Men" and "Avalon"), takes place in his hometown of Baltimore and relies far more on dialog than on action. But great dialog. Basically, it’s just a circle of guy friends, at a crossroads phase in their lives, sitting around talking about random funny stuff and getting themselves into some oddball situations. It’s kinda like "Summer of ’42" but with older principals and without the romantic underpinning. Quirky, smart, nostalgic and probably one of the more quotable movies ever. It's rated R for language and some sexually frank dialog and situations.

National_Lampoon_Vacation-001

Actress Dana Barron, actor Anthony Michael Hall, actress Beverly D'Angelo and actor Chevy Chase pose for the Warner Bros. movie "National Lampoon's Vacation" in 1983. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

Photo by: Michael Ochs Archives, FotoWare fotostation

Michael Ochs Archives, FotoWare fotostation

National Lampoon’s Vacation

Most folks watch the Griswold’s Christmas movie during the holidays, but again, when it comes to sequels, they never quite stand up to the original. Like “Thelma and Louise” this iconic movie is filled with interesting production trivia. Did you know they used five different Family Trucksters (green-paneled station wagons) during the filming? Also, John Candy was not originally part of the movie. After the filming was over, the producer, Harold Ramis wanted a better ending, so they went back to the drawing board and reshot the Wally World scenes with Candy. Although this movie seems tame, it’s actually rated R probably because of Cousin Eddie.

Dan Aykroyd holds a microphone standing next to John Belushi in a scene from the film 'The Blues Brothers', 1980. (Photo by Universal Pictures/Getty Images)

Photo by: Archive Photos

Archive Photos

Blues Brothers 

You can say this is not actually a road trip movie since they never leave the Chicago area, but it feels road tripy with all the stops they make and roadblocks they encounter like evading the cops, the Nazis, a country-western band in a Winnebago and of course, Carrie Fisher. This movie is one to watch over and over again because of the fantastic soundtrack (especially Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles!), quotable lines ("Our Lady of Blessed Acceleration, don't fail me now"), and the scene where John Candy orders a round of orange whips.

917_05_WHA_043_0594

"Rain Man" starring Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise a 1988 American comedy-drama film. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty images)

Photo by: Universal History Archive

Universal History Archive

Like many road trip movies, the main characters often change as a result of their journey. In this Oscar-winning movie, Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise) is a shifty yuppie, wheeler-and-dealer type (the typical 1980s villain). When his estranged father dies, Babbitt discovers he has a long-lost brother (played by Dustin Hoffman) who is a severely autistic savant. After the two drive cross-country together, Cruise’s character turns a bit soft and becomes more human and less of a total creep. This one is rated R for language and a few adult scenes.

Straight Desert Road

Photo by: 4kodiak

Lost In America

Ad exec David Howard (Albert Brooks) and his timid wife (Julie Haggerty) decide to chuck it all and go on the road –based on David’s momentary epiphany that they can spend their “retirement” in search of the real America – just like those two guys in (what else?) "Easy Rider". Only in this case, they’re traveling in a Winnebago (complete with microwave with browning feature) rather than astride two chrome choppers. Once the two hit the road, things quickly go profoundly awry in a hilarious way that only Albert Brooks, with his deadpan but razor-sharp wit, can deliver. It’s the ultimate road-trip-gone-wrong movie and deadly funny throughout, but worth the ride for two amazing scenes with Brooks at their center. The first is at the outset and is perhaps the funniest “I quit!” scene ever filmed. Not to give too much away about the second, but watch for the one with the Vegas hotel manager played by film director Garry Marshall. It's rated R for language, but fairly tame – probably okay for teens.

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The 27 best road trip movies to watch so you forget you're stuck at home

• Can't go anywhere right now? A good road trip movie could put you in a better mood.
• Here are the 27 all-time best.
• Classics like "Easy Rider" and "Thelma & Louise" are on our roundup.
• There are also more recent movies like "Logan" and "Magic Mike XXL." 
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories .

Hollywood has always had a soft spot for road trip movies, and some have become memorable not just for what was shown on screen, but what the spirit of the movie meant for the people who saw them.

Take "Easy Rider" for example, whose no-rules approach launched a new way that movies were made for decades. Or "Thelma & Louise," which was as much about female empowerment as it was about a movie about two people on the run from the law.

Here are 27 road trip movies (listed alphabetically) you should check out before heading on your own adventure:

"Almost Famous" (2000)

Cameron Crowe's love letter to the 1970s rock and roll scene, which he covered as a writer for Rolling Stone, is a fun look at adolescence, fame, and highlights the non-stop grind of a band being "on the road."

"The Blues Brothers" (1980)

John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd play two brothers on a mission from God. Trying to get on the straight-and-narrow after getting out of prison, Jake Blues (Belushi) and his brother Elwood (Aykroyd) decide to help raise the money the Catholic home they were raised in needs to stay open. That leads to a road trip around Illinois to get the band back together.

"Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" (2006)

With the help of director Larry Charles, Sacha Baron Cohen creates one of the funniest road trip movies ever made as he takes his character, Borat, to America to marry Pamela Anderson. But in the process, the movie highlights the US itself, as Borat travels the country doing everything from singing the Kazakhstan national anthem at a rodeo to hanging out with some fraternity kids.

"Dumb and Dumber" (1994)

In this Farrelly brothers classic, friends Lloyd (Jim Carrey) and Harry (Jeff Daniels) are convinced the gas man is out to get them after the death of their bird, so they decide to drive to Aspen to hand-deliver a briefcase the beautiful Mary (Lauren Holly) "forgot" at the airport. Oh, and they are hitting the road in a truck that's made up to look like a dog.

"Easy Rider" (1969)

It's the movie that launched the "New Hollywood" era of the 1970s and was made with little money and lots of drugs.

Directed by Dennis Hopper, the Hollywood bad boy also stars alongside Peter Fonda as two hippie bikers (Jack Nicholson also shows up) who travel from LA to New Orleans after cashing in on smuggling cocaine from Mexico. On their freewheeling trip, they find an America that's split between the stuffy establishment and the younger generation that is starving for change.

"The End of the Tour" (2015)

The days of conversations between Rolling Stone reporter David Lipsky (Jesse Eisenberg) and author David Foster Wallace (Jason Segel) are beautifully profiled in director James Ponsoldt's intimate story that has the two men interacting while on the road for Wallace's book tour.

"Into the Wild" (2007)

Based on a true story, Christopher McCandless' quest to go off the grid and hitchhike to Alaska to live in the wilderness is a powerful exploration of human desire and the kindness of strangers.

"It Happened One Night" (1934)

Frank Capra's famous movie is romantic comedy at its best. Claudette Colbert plays a spoiled heiress running from home, and Clark Gable is a reporter who finally thinks he's found a story that will get him some attention as he follows her to New York. But it will be forever known for its hitchhiking scene in which Colbert's character gets them a ride by pulling up her skirt to show off her legs.

"Little Miss Sunshine" (2006)

Filled with an all-star cast including Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Greg Kinnear, Paul Dano, Alan Arkin, and Abigail Breslin, we follow a dysfunctional family as they jump in a VW bus to drive the young Olive (Breslin) on a cross-country trip to the finals of a beauty pageant she's competing in.

"Logan" (2017)

Marking the coda of the Hugh Jackman era as Wolverine, director James Mangold delivers a somber drama of the superhero's final days. Here he and Charles Xavier set out to drive a young mutant to a refuge in North Dakota. That sounds simple, but it definitely isn't.

"Magic Mike XXL" (2015)

In this fantastic sequel to the 2012 original, Mike (Channing Tatum) sets out on the road with the remaining members of the Kings of Tampa in a food truck to Myrtle Beach for one final performance.

"Midnight Run" (1988)

Robert De Niro is fantastic in this foul-mouthed comedy as bounty hunter Jack Walsh who plans to cash in when he tracks down a sneaky accountant (played by Charles Grodin) who has jumped bail.

But with the FBI, other bounty hunters, and the mob also trying to get their hands on his bounty, things aren't easy for Jack.

"The Motorcycle Diaries" (2004)

Based on the Che Guevara memoir he wrote before becoming the Marxist revolutionary, Gael García Bernal plays young Guevara who, in 1952, went on a trip across South America with his friend Alberto Granado (Rodrigo de la Serna). The experience shaped Guevara's life as it showed him the injustices of the world.

"The Muppet Movie" (1979)

Marking the first time the Muppets appear on the big screen, Kermit, Fozzie Bear and the rest of the gang go on a cross-country drive to Hollywood in hopes of making it big. A load of cameos, songs, and hilarity occur along the way.

"National Lampoon's Vacation" (1983)

This classic from director Harold Ramis stars Chevy Chase as one of his most memorable characters, Clark W. Griswold, the ambitious father whose vacation plans always never work out.

Clark takes the family cross-country to Walley World and in the process leaves chaos in his wake.

"On the Road" (2012)

Based on the iconic Jack Kerouac novel, Sam Riley plays the book's narrator, Sal Paradise, who after meeting Dean (Garrett Hedlund) and Marylou (Kristen Stewart), head on a free-spirited road trip across the country.

"Over the Top" (1987)

Sylvester Stallone plays trucker and arm wrestling pro Lincoln Hawk who needs to get to Las Vegas to compete in the world arm wrestling tournament. But he also has to get his estranged son to his dying mother. This all leads to a big-rig father-and-son road trip.

"Pee-wee's Big Adventure" (1985)

A loose parody of Vittorio De Sica's classic "Bicycle Thieves," Tim Burton makes his own classic around the zany antics of Paul Reubens' hit character Pee-wee Herman.

The movie follows the "boy" as he goes to search of his stolen bike, which he's been told by a psychic is in the basement of the Alamo (spoiler alert: there's no basement in the Alamo).

"Planes, Trains & Automobiles" (1987)

Steve Martin and John Candy play two men who suddenly have to become travel companions as they try to get home for the holidays. Written and directed by John Hughes, Martin and Candy together are a delight.

"Rain Man" (1988)

Tom Cruise plays sleazy Charlie Babbitt and Dustin Hoffman is his brother Raymond, who suffers from savant syndrome. Hoping to cash in on the fortune Raymond got from their father, Charlie sets the two out on a cross-country trip leading to a lot of self-discovery.

If you've never seen Barry Levinson's Oscar-winning movie, now's the time.

"Road Trip" (2000)

Of course "Road Trip" was going to be on this list. Todd Phillips' insane raunchy comedy about four college friends on a race against time to retrieve a sex tape sent in the mail to one of their girlfriends is always a fun watch.

"Smokey and the Bandit" (1977)

Burt Reynolds teams with his pal and longtime stunt double Hal Needham for his first directing effort, and it would go on to become a classic road trip movie.

Reynolds plays a fast-driving bootlegger who has to transport 400 cases of Coors beer safely from Texarkana to Atlanta. But things get complicated when Reynolds picks up a runaway bride (played by Sally Field) along the way.

"The Straight Story" (1999)

In one of David Lynch's most traditional storytelling offerings, Richard Farnsworth plays a man who sets out on a trip via riding a lawnmower to make things right with his ill brother.

The story is based on a real-life event, in which Alvin Straight traveled 240 miles from Iowa to Wisconsin on a lawnmower.

"Stranger Than Paradise" (1984)

Jim Jarmusch's second feature film follows Willie and his friend Eddie as they set out on a road trip to Cleveland to visit Willie's cousin from Hungary, Eva.

The movie went on to be regarded as a landmark work in the independent film world for its unconventional long takes and do-it-yourself aesthetic.

"Thelma & Louise" (1991)

Ridley Scott's look at the road-trip-turned-manhunt adventure of friends Thelma (Geena Davis) and Louise (Susan Sarandon) is arguably more powerful today because of the #MeToo than when it opened in the early 1990s.

"Tommy Boy" (1995)

Perhaps the best Chris Farley/David Spade collaboration, in this one Farley plays an underachieving college graduate who suddenly has to travel the nation (with Spade as the geeky sidekick) to keep the accounts for his auto-parts family business after his father dies. This one truly shows off Farley's high-energy comedy greatness.

"Y Tu Mamá También" (2001)

Director Alfonso Cuarón received a best screenplay Oscar nomination with his brother Carlos for this powerful road trip movie that made Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal international stars.

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Apple Original Films unveils trailer for the highly anticipated “STEVE! (martin) a documentary in 2 pieces”

Today Apple Original Films unveiled the trailer for the highly anticipated film “STEVE! (martin) a documentary in 2 pieces,” starring Steve Martin, Finn Wittrock, Martin Short, Tina Fey, Jerry Seinfeld, Eric Idle, Diane Keaton and Selena Gomez, and directed by Academy Award winner Morgan Neville.

Steve Martin is one of the most beloved and enigmatic figures in entertainment. “STEVE! (martin) a documentary in 2 pieces” dives into his extraordinary story from two distinct points of view, with companion documentaries that feature never-before-seen footage and raw insights into Martin’s personal and professional trials and triumphs. “Then” chronicles Martin’s early struggles and meteoric rise to revolutionize stand-up before walking away at 35. “Now” focuses on the present day, with Martin in the golden years of his career, retracing the transformation that led to happiness in his art and personal life.

Hailing from A24 and Tremolo Productions, the two-part documentary is directed and produced by Neville (“20 Feet from Stardom,” “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”).

Apple TV+ offers premium, compelling drama and comedy series, feature films, groundbreaking documentaries, and kids and family entertainment, and is available to watch across all your favorite screens. After its launch on November 1, 2019, Apple TV+ became the first all-original streaming service to launch around the world, and has premiered more original hits and received more award recognitions faster than any other streaming service in its debut. To date, Apple Original films, documentaries and series have earned 471 wins and 2,090 award nominations and counting, including multi-Emmy Award-winning comedy “Ted Lasso” and historic Oscar Best Picture winner “CODA.”

About Apple TV+

Apple TV+ is available on the Apple TV app in over 100 countries and regions, on over 1 billion screens, including iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Vision Pro, Mac, popular smart TVs from Samsung, LG, Sony, VIZIO, TCL and others, Roku and Amazon Fire TV devices, Chromecast with Google TV, PlayStation and Xbox gaming consoles, and at tv.apple.com , for $9.99 per month with a seven-day trial. For a limited time, customers who purchase and activate a new iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Mac or iPod touch can enjoy three months of Apple TV+ for free.*

For more information, visit  apple.com/tvpr  and see the full list of   supported devices .

Article Assets

“STEVE! (martin) a documentary in 2 pieces” will premiere globally on Apple TV+ on March 29, 2024

*Special offer is good for three months after the first activation of the eligible device. One offer per Family Sharing group. Plans automatically renew until cancelled. Other restrictions and terms apply; visit apple.com/promo for more information.

Press Contacts

• Sean Dudas [email protected]
• Carol Cundiff [email protected]
• Susana Voets Outside of the U.S. [email protected]

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College Road Trip

These days it’s pretty common for Disney to revisit and rehash ideas that have worked for them in the past. While some of these approaches bring their own uniqueness ( Enchanted ), others are just less successful remakes of classics that never should have been touched ( The Shaggy Dog ). For College Road Trip , Disney returns to an old concept mined pretty thoroughly by Steve Martin in Father of the Bride : exploring the father and daughter relationship when the time comes for dad to let his daughter go. Martin Lawrence’s character, James Porter, argues that that time doesn’t come at a wedding, however, but when daddy’s little girl heads off for college. That concept gives Disney a shot at a new series that isn’t quite as bad as it could have been.

Desperate to hang onto her for as long as he can, Porter wants his daughter, Melanie (Raven-Symoné) to attend Northwestern University, less than half an hour from home. Her interest lies in the legal program at Georgetown University though, quite a distance from their Indiana home. When Melanie gets an interview at Georgetown, James decides to accompany his daughter on a road trip in an effort to get to know his daughter again and hopefully convince her not to move so far away from home.

The basic premise of College Road Trip has been done before numerous times. My personal favorite is an episode of The Sopranos which really showed what happened when the dual lives of Tony Soprano collided. How can Martin Lawrence compete with that? It turns out, pretty well, actually. While this won’t be winning any awards this year, as a family movie it’s not bad and Lawrence actually delivers a few heartfelt moments. It’s almost enough to make me recant what I said about Lawrence not having any acting ability in my review of Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins … almost.

Instead the overacting here belongs to Raven-Symoné, who is definitely a product of a generation weaned on Jim Carrey ’s rubbery façade (see also: the similarly aged Amanda Bynes ). While Raven-Symoné is able to perform reasonably well for the movie’s few dramatic father/daughter moments, most of her comedic performance is way over the top, with facial expressions so overdone even a blind critic would complain. Overdone is also a good description of Donny Osmond and Molly Ephraim’s preppy father/daughter team, but in their case it’s a welcome acting choice, perfect for the annoying characters they play. Osmond and Ephraim aren’t in College Road Trip anywhere near as much as trailers would lead you to believe, which is a shame. There could have been a complete movie about those characters and I would have enjoyed it. This is not an invitation to Disney to make such a movie, however.

The biggest disappointment about College Road Trip is that the writers didn’t seem to have enough story to make a decent sized movie, so the travels of father and daughter is interrupted by a second, altogether different movie. Enter Porter’s son, Trey (Eugene Jones III), some sort of prodigy who has trained a pig to be super smart. The pig’s story is also a rehash of stories we’ve seen Disney do before, like That Darn Cat or The Ugly Dashhound , only with a pig. It has nothing to do with the primary storyline, however, and feels like an interruption when the pig becomes the focus of the movie. Another interruption allows Raven-Symoné to showcase her singing skills in a rendition of “Double Dutch Bus”. I recognize that any good Disney endeavor these days has to include a musical opportunity for the ingénue. I just wish it wasn’t so blatant that that’s the motivation behind the interruption to the story.

College Road Trip is not the disaster I expected it to be based on Lawrence’s other recent release, but it’s not a memorable film either. It decently entertained the audience I viewed it with (especially the kids, and with a complete absence of potty humor!) but I warrant most of them won’t remember seeing the movie in a couple of weeks. It’s fun while it lasts, but when the Road Trip ends it’s just another version of stories we’ve seen do the same thing better in the past.

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Bob Munro and his dysfunctional family rent an RV for a road trip to the Colorado Rockies, where they must ultimately contend with a bizarre community of campers. Bob Munro and his dysfunctional family rent an RV for a road trip to the Colorado Rockies, where they must ultimately contend with a bizarre community of campers. Bob Munro and his dysfunctional family rent an RV for a road trip to the Colorado Rockies, where they must ultimately contend with a bizarre community of campers.

• Barry Sonnenfeld
• Geoff Rodkey
• Robin Williams
• Cheryl Hines
• Kristin Chenoweth
• 300 User reviews
• 97 Critic reviews
• 33 Metascore
• 1 win & 2 nominations

• Jamie Munro

• Mary Jo Gornicke

• Cassie Munro
• (as Joanna 'JoJo' Levesque)

• Travis Gornicke

• Earl Gornicke

• Moon Gornicke

• Billy Gornicke

• Todd Mallory

• (as Richard Cox)

• Cassie (age 5)
• (as Erika-Shayne Gair)

• Larry Moiphine

• Garry Moiphine

• (as Kirsten Williamson)
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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• Trivia A life-long fan of camping, Jeff Daniels has owned an RV for years. According to a Detroit radio interview, his RV driving lessons for the movie were quickly canceled when he arrived on location in his personal recreational vehicle.
• Goofs When Bob and the RV are stuck at the top of a mountain road with all wheels off the ground and he guns the gas pedal the RPM goes up to 6000 RPM, yet the speedometer is still at zero. When you have transmission in gear and wheels turn, regardless of ground contact or not, the speedometer will still register your speed through rotation of rear wheels thru the transmission which is in gear.

Bob Munro : Yo, my mobile-homeboys, what's trippin' in the wood?

Hip Hop Wannabe : This termite belong to you?

Bob Munro : Yo, my man said...

Carl Munro : [gets mad] Don't call him...

Bob Munro : [restraints Carl] Easy! This my man C, he small but ferocious, but you dogs, you hardcore, where you from?

Hip Hop Wannabe : Scottsdale!

Bob Munro : Scottsdale, in the 'Zona! That's a hardcore 'hood. But you want to take on my man C, here, go ahead, because, you know, he's fierce, he gonna come up in your face, he gonna major damage you. You gonna walk away, maybe limp. But I say talk to the hand, call waiting, because he's out. Boy is out. I can't restrains him. Because I'm conversating you right now to give him a chance to cool down, to get back to a realistic level, as it were. Because we could be chillin' in our crib. Not just on this mobile home thing, representing Mali-bu and Westwood, you know. Malling it, like we all can. Boys to mensch. Pimp my Mercedes, call me back, put you on hold. You know what I'm saying?

Hip Hop Wannabe : Er... we gotta go.

Bob Munro : Mm-hmm, you better, man, don't make me call my lawyer, 'cause I'll audit!

• Crazy credits The Gornickes and the Munroes sing (and rap) "Route 66".
• Alternate versions The Full-Screen version, presented in 4:3 and 1.33:1 aspect ratios, is not only cropped to fit the format but is color-graded to show more contrast than the theatrical version and other home media releases.
• Connections Featured in Getaway: Episode #15.15 (2006)
• Soundtracks A World In Crisis Written by Josh Kessler , J. Swift and Richard J. Reid Performed by Filthy Rich Courtesy of MasterSource

User reviews 300

• aprilindeecee
• Sep 17, 2006
• How long is RV? Powered by Alexa
• April 28, 2006 (United States)
• United Kingdom
• United States
• Sony Pictures (United States)
• Recreational Vehicle
• Los Angeles, California, USA
• Columbia Pictures
• Relativity Media
• Intermedia Films
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $50,000,000 (estimated)
• $71,726,025
• $16,414,767
• Apr 30, 2006
• $87,528,173

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 39 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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6 road-trip movies to watch for travel inspiration

T he joy of traveling is not limited to the end destination but is also very much about the journey, and that is the essence that makes road-trip movies so special. Different filmmakers tend to approach the concept in their own way, so there are a variety of road-trip movies that focus on different aspects of the journey.

Some movies focus on bonding and exploration, while others showcase it as a more cathartic experience linked to self-realization and healing. Most of these films also incorporate an element of comedy that makes for a fun watch.

No matter what the approach is, road-trip movies in general tend to encourage viewers to embark on their own adventure. Viewers who are looking for a sign from the universe to push them to plan a trip of their own will find at least one reason, if not multiple, after watching a good road-trip movie.

Of course, many road-trip movies have been released to date, but the best ones combine derisable dream destinations with interesting narratives and heartfelt performances to leave a lasting impression.

The best road-trip movies that celebrate the joy of travelling and exploration

1) heartlands (2002).

Directed by Damien O'Donnell, this road-trip movie focuses on an amicable newsagent named Colin, played by Michael Sheen . He finds out that his wife is cheating on him with the captain of the darts team he plays for. After he is cut from the team, he resolves to travel to Blackpool with the hope that he will be able to win back his wife.

Sheen does a wonderful job portraying Colin. It is interesting to see how the character changes after his interactions and experiences on the road. The movie is not exactly fast-paced, but it is still witty and enjoyable all the same.

2) Into the Wild (2007)

This popular movie is based on the life of Christopher McCandless. Emile Hirsch plays the role of Christopher in this movie directed by Sean Penn . It gives viewers an insight into the experiences and challenges that Christopher faced as he hitchhiked his way all the way to Alaska.

Hirsch skillfully captures the emotions and mannerisms of Christopher who was fascinated with the nomadic lifestyle. More than anything else, this is one of those movies that makes viewers want to be more spontaneous and adventurous.

3) The Bucket List (2007)

Two experienced actors, Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman , come together in this movie directed by Rob Reiner. The story focuses on Edward Perriman Cole (Nicholson) and Carter Chambers (Freeman), both of whom are terminally ill patients. They take a road trip wherein they try and do things from a wishlist before the Grim Reaper comes calling.

The best thing about this movie is the chemistry between the leads. Their characters are endearing, funny, and most of all, relatable. It is heart-warming to watch them bond and support each other during their trip.

4) Land Ho! (2014)

This road-trip movie is about two ex-brothers-in-laws, played by Paul Eenhoorn and Earl Lynn Nelson, who take a trip to Iceland together and try all the hip things that all the young people rave about.

Directed by Martha Stephens and Aaron Katz, this movie focuses on healing and friendship. It is funny and realistic, and the effortless candor between Eenhoorn and Nelson adds to the narrative.

5) The Peanut Butter Falcon (2019)

This movie marks the directorial debut of both Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz. The story is centered around Zak (Zack Gottsagen) who has Down syndrome. He runs away from a state-run care facility to pursue his dream of becoming a professional wrestler. On his journey, he meets up with an outlaw named Tyler ( Shia LaBeouf ) who ends up becoming his friend.

This movie shines thanks to its strong narrative and spectacular performance by Gottsagen and LaBeouf's. The movie as a whole is bound to leave an impact on the viewer.

6) Nomadland (2020)

In this road-trip movie directed by Chloé Zhao, Frances McDormand plays the role of the protagonist. She is Fern who embraces a life on the road after she loses her job. As she travels, she grows as a person and gains a new perspective on life from her interactions with other nomads she meets on the road.

Even when she isn't saying anything, McDormand has a commanding aura, making it difficult for the viewer to look away. Her emotions and body language are always on-point, and she effortlessly carries the narrative. Quiet but thought-provoking, this one is a must-watch road-trip movie.

These road-trip movies will not only entertain movie lovers but will encourage them to pack their bags and set out on the next adventure. They are heartfelt and beautiful stories that inspire one to live life to the fullest.