John Hughes, the director of "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles", was partly inspired by one of his own trip from New York City to Chicago. Hughes had a presentation planned at 11am in New York and was supposed to take a flight back Chicago at 5pm. Due to winter winds, all flights were canceled and Hughes had to stay at a hotel for the night. The same thing happened the next day. The plane he eventually got on was rerouted to another city. He finally got home on Monday. After going through this experience he was able to write the first 60 pages of the script.