John Candy Playing Gus Polinski
Let’s take a moment to appreciate the movie’s unsung hero in a highlighter-yellow jacket—Gus Polinski, brought to life by the late, great John Candy. When Kate McCallister finds herself stranded in the airport terminal, twiddling her thumbs and wondering how her maternal GPS failed her, who comes to the rescue? None other than Gus.
He is the empathetic leader of the “Kenosha Kickers,” a polka band you’ve never heard of but would dig. More than a musical maestro, he’s a soul whisperer, navigating Kate through a maze of mom guilt as they embark on a road trip to reunite her with her booby-trap artist son, Kevin.
