Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)

Remember this scene....?

Economics Teacher: Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?
Simone: Um, he's sick. My best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with the girl who saw Ferris pass out at 31 Flavors last night. I guess it's pretty serious.
Economics Teacher: Thank you, Simone.
Simone: No problem whatsoever.

It was a high school classroom.  The teacher was played by Ben Stein.  Simone was played by Kristy Swanson in what would be one of her first film appearances of a long and on-going career.  And Bueller?  Bueller?  Bueller?  Then 24 years of age, the lead character of Ferris Bueller was played by the extremely talented Matthew Broderick, a role that would earn him a Golden Globe nomination.

Making its premiere on June 11, 1986, "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" gave us many memorable characters besides just Ferris Bueller.  There was his best friend, Cameron (played by Alan Ruck), his lovely girlfriend, Sloane (played by Mia Sara), and his vengeful sister, Jeanie (played by Jennifer Grey).  And then, of course, there was the principal Ed Rooney (played by Jeffrey Jones) who was convinced Ferris was skipping school, the comical secretary, Grace (played by Edie McClurg), and Ferris' parents, Katie and Tom (played by Cindy Pickett and Lyman Ward who met during filming, clicked, and ended up getting married to each other).

Directed by John Hughes, the story of this film is basic, yet classic.  Ferris doesn't want to go to school, so he fakes being sick.  When that works, he calls up Cameron and Sloane and suggests they all take the day off from school and go out and have some fun.  And do they ever!  Driving off in Cameron's father's Ferrari, they head to the big city to take in the museum, some fine dining, a baseball game, and more.  But principal Rooney is convinced that they're all up to something and is determined to get to the bottom of it.

With a budget of $6 million, "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" became a huge summer Box Office hit grossing over $70 million in just the U.S. alone.  Here are some other fun facts about this film...

1.  The movie was named after John Hughes' life long friend Bert Bueller.

2.  Rob Lowe, John Cusack, Jim Carrey, Johnny Depp, Eric Stoltz, Tom Cruise, Robert Downey Jr. and Michael J. Fox were all considered for the role of Ferris Bueller.

3.  Having already been directed by John Hughes in the film, "The Breakfast Club," Anthony Michael Hall turned down the role of Cameron to avoid being typecast.  Emilio Estevez also turned down the role of Cameron.  John Candy auditioned for the role of Cameron, but producers turned him down fearing he was too old for the part.

4.  Mia Sara beat Molly Ringwald to the role of Sloane Peterson, because according to Hughes she had elegance.  During filming, Mia was the only actual teenager.

5.  Linda Blair, Goldie Hawn, Ellen Barkin, Kim Basinger, Jamie Lee Curtis, Geena Davis, Robin Duke, Carrie Fisher, Melanie Griffith, Mary Gross, Linda Hamilton, Daryl Hannah, Barbara Hershey, Holly Hunter, Anjelica Huston, Jessica Lange, Kelly LeBrock, Kay Lenz, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Catherine O'Hara, Madonna, Kelly McGillis, Michelle Pfeiffer, Cybill Shepherd, Meg Tilly, Sigourney Weaver, Jodie Foster, Sharon Stone and Debra Winger were all considered for the role of Jeanie Bueller.

6.  Alan Ruck was 29 years-old when he played the role of Cameron.  Matthew Broderick was 24 when he played Ferris, Mia Sara was 19 when she played Sloane, and Jennifer Grey was 26 when she played Jeanie, Ferris' sister.

7.  John Hughes wrote the script to this film in just six days.

8.  In an early draft of the script Ferris had two additional younger siblings and Jeanne was to be the middle child.

9.  Ben Stein, who plays the economics teacher in this movie, actually graduated from Columbia University in 1966 with honors in economics.  Nothing Ben Stein says (aside from the roll call) is scripted.

10.  Paul Gleason was considered for the role of Ed Rooney. Gleason had previously played the role of an assistant principal in "The Breakfast Club."

11.  John Hughes personally designed Ferris's bedroom, mirrored mostly on his own bedroom when he was in high school. Hughes said that the room was a disorganized series of pop references and other things because it would represent Ferris's mind.

12.  There is a poster for Simple Minds song "Don't You Forget About Me" on Ferris's wall. This song was featured prominently in "The Breakfast Club."

13.  It's interesting to note that though Ferris laments not having his own car, he does own a synthesizer which, in 1984, cost $8,000.  The short scene with the coughing keyboard was actually improvised by Matthew Broderick.  He also improvised the scene and the line with the clarinet: "Never had ONE lesson!"

14.  When Ferris hacks into the school's computer to change the number of absences he had, it is a subtle reference to a scene in "War Games" when Matthew Broderick hacks into the school's computer to change his grades.

15.  Cameron was based on someone that John Hughes knew in high school.

16.  The hand that presses the speaker button on Cameron's phone belongs to John Hughes. When the crew left, Hughes took the camera and shot it himself since no one else was getting it right.

17.  According to John Hughes in a DVD Commentary (original DVD release), the voice Cameron uses while talking to Rooney pretending to be Sloane's father was modeled after a stage director both Alan Ruck and Matthew Broderick had worked for.

18.  Cameron's father's Ferrari wasn't a real Ferrari. Because it was too expensive to rent one, they made three fake ones, each with a fiberglass body.  The 1961 Ferrari GT250 was a modified MG sports car. The producers received several angry letters from car enthusiasts who believed the car shown was a *real* Ferrari and that it was actually wrecked in the film.

19.  A number of key moments in the movie were created in the editing room: Jeannie kicking Roonie three times in the face (when there was in fact only one kick filmed); Ferris and Sloane's kiss in front of Roonie was originally just a brief kiss, but was later edited into the long kiss seen on film.

20.  When Ferris picks up Sloane from school, they are standing in front of the entrance to the theater of Glenbrook North High School in Northbrook IL, Hughes' Alma Matter.

21.  When Grace says "He's a righteous dude", it was not in the original script.  Edie McClurg ad-libbed it in her best Chicago accent.

22.  In 2010, Edie McClurg told Vanity Fair magazine that her character's hairdo should be from the 1960s, "because Grace felt she looked best in the 60s and kept her look from that era." But the women's hairdresser on the set had mainly been hired to blow out Mia Sara's long, straight hair and didn't know how to set the big, dated '60s hairstyles - so McClurg teased, set, and styled her own character's hair. Once McClurg arrived on the set, John Hughes looked at her hairstyle, and the first thing he said was, "How many pencils do you think you can fit in that hair?" They tested it with one pencil, then two and three, but the fourth one fell out--so that was the origin of Grace's first scene in the movie, in which she pulls several lost pencils out of her hair.

23.  Most of the license plates are all abbreviations for titles of films by John Hughes. Katie's = VCTN ("National Lampoon's Vacation"); Jeannie's = TBC ("The Breakfast Club"); Tom's = MMOM ("Mr. Mom"); Rooney's = 4FBDO ("Ferris Bueller's Day Off"). The exception is Cameron's Ferrari (seen when Ferris first pulls out of the garage), the license plate of which reads NRVOUS.

24.  The hall scenes in which you see Jeanie walking down the hall and kid collecting money to save Ferris are the same halls John Hughes filmed from in his earlier work, "The Breakfast Club."   

25.  The French restaurant Bueller crashes is "Chez Quis" which is a pun, as said aloud it would be "Shakeys", the pizza chain. "Chez Qui" means 'the house of whom' in French.

26.  The line Ferris says in the bathroom at the French restaurant about Cameron's house being very pretty and very cold was originally supposed to be said by Allison in "The Breakfast Club" regarding her home life.  John Hughes wrote the script for both "The Breakfast Club" and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off."

27.  Mia Sara says that Matthew Broderick actually tickled her feet and knees to get her to laugh naturally in the taxicab scene.

28.  The painting that Cameron admires is called "Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte", by Georges Seurat. It is still on display at the Art Institute of Chicago.

29.  The baseball game that was depicted in the film at Wrigley Field was filmed at an actual Cubs game and took place on June 5, 1985 between the Atlanta Braves and the Chicago Cubs. The Cubs ended up loosing the game 4-2 in 11 innings.

30.  After the girl in the arcade spits her soda on Ed Rooney, a video game sound effect is heard in the background. Appropriately enough, it's the sound effect that denotes when a player has lost a life in the game Pac-Man.   

31.  During the scene where Rooney fights with the intercom at Ferris' house, there is a shot of the kitchen. On the refrigerator in that shot is a drawing of John Hughes, done by his son who was six at the time.

32.  To produce the desired drugged-out effect for his role as the drug addict in the police station, Charlie Sheen stayed awake for more than 48 hours before the scene was shot.  Charlie Sheen's involvment in the film was Jennifer Grey's idea as they previously did "Red Dawn" together.

33.  The Parade sequence (Twist and Shout scene) was filmed during the Von Steuben Day Parade. An annual event in the Chicagoland area.  During the parade several of the people seen dancing (including the construction worker and the window washer) originally had nothing to do with the film. They were simply dancing to the music being played and John Hughes found it so humorous that he told the camera operators to record it.  The dance sequence by the group on the stairs during Ferris's lip-synch performance of Twist and Shout is taken directly out of Michael Jackson's Thriller video.

34.  The final scene in the garage was shot in early Fall, so each of the leaves on all the trees outside had to be hand-painted green every morning before shooting. In the shot looking up from the wreck at the three friends, the yellow tree with most of its upper leaves gone can be seen reflected in the window.

35.  When the Ferrari crashed, the fiberglass hood ripped. Therefore, branches were put over the rip to make sure the camera didn't record it.  On another note, the Ferrari was originally supposed to smash through the window of the garage and land in the backyard. It over-shot its mark, however, and hit a fence that was dividing the house from the yard next door.

36.  Polly Noonan who plays the girl that Rooney sits next to on the bus wore glasses that were specially made by the prop department. The lenses distorted her vision so much that they made her nauseous. Also, the glasses were so heavy that she had to hold her head in a certain position to keep them from falling down.

37.  Even though they played siblings, stars Matthew Broderick and Jennifer Grey would later become engaged after this movie.

38.  The idea of a sequel had gone around for years with Ferris in college or on the job somewhere, but the idea was dropped. Matthew Broderick felt that the film didn't need a sequel, that this film was about a specific time and place that we'd all like to revisit and didn't need updating.

39.  John Hughes personally selected the songs for the film. He wanted them to be somewhat obscure to the typical movie going audience, feeling that he wanted everything about the film to feel new.  So why he refused to release a soundtrack album is unclear.  He later felt the mix of songs was too uneven and didn't flow together, and wouldn't work well as an album.

And now you know.

For your amusement, here are some pictures from the film...

 

 

 

"You're still here? It's over. Go home."

 

Risky Business (1983)

"Sometimes you just gotta say, 'What the...'"... well, you know.  WTF.  And, no... I don't mean Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.

"Risky Business" made its premiere on August 5, 1983 and became an instant hit.  The incredible thing about the success of the film was that people didn't think it would do well at all.  It wasn't even released in other countries until January and February of the following year.  What was it that drew throngs of viewers to see it?  Was it Tom Cruise dancing around in nothing but his underwear, socks, and long-sleeve shirt?  (Hey... when I had the movie on VHS tape, I wore that scene out a lot!)  Was it the idea of a teenager making tons of money by turning his house into a brothel whilst his parents were away?  Was it the thrill of seeing a Porsche fall into Lake Michigan?  Or was it because we got to see Tom and Rebecca DeMornay have sex on a train?  Whatever it was, it worked.  It worked so well, in fact, that though it was budgeted an estimated $6.2 million, it grossed $63.5 million in just the U.S. alone.

Starring Tom Cruise (Joel), Rebecca DeMornay (Lana), Joe Pantoliano (Guido), Richard Masur (Rutherford), Bronson Pinchot (Barry), and Curtis Armstrong (Miles), "Risky Business" is the story of a Chicago teenager who is looking to have some fun whilst his parents are away, only to find that things get out of hand.  Quickly.

Written and directed by Paul Brickman in his directorial debute at the age of 34, it's interesting to note that the story of this film takes place in Chicago, the city in which he was born.

Here are some other tidbits you might not have known about "Risky Business"...

1.  Tom Cruise was 21-years-old when "Risky Business" made its U.S. premiere in 1983.

2.  Among the actors who auditioned for the role of Joel were Tom Hanks and Nicolas Cage.  Timothy Hutton was the first choice for the role of Joel, but turned it down.

3.  In an effort for Tom Cruise to look more "teenage" in appearance, the producers of "Risky Business" put him though an unusual bit of physical training. Cruise worked out 7 days a week in order to lose ten pounds. Once that had been accomplished, he immediately ceased working out and ate extremely fatty foods in order to add a layer of baby fat. This is how he achieved that "fresh-faced" teenage look.

4.  In the DVD commentary, Diane Lane says that Tom Cruise got the script for the film while shooting "The Outsiders" and had asked Lane to audition for the role of Lana. Her father later told the producers there was "no way his daughter was playing a twenty-something hooker."

5.  Sharon Stone auditioned for the role of Lana.

6.  The opening dream sequence was shot in eighteen hours.

7.  The dance scene where Joel dances to "Old Time Rock N' Roll" was completely improvised. In the script Tom Cruise was simply instructed to "dance to rock music."

8.  Childhood photographs of Tom Cruise can be seen in the living room.

9.  CAMEO -- Sean Penn:  As the man sitting in the passenger seat as Joel first takes the Porsche for a spin. The cameo was a favor for director Paul Brickman.

 

10.  The exhaust and engine sounds of the Porsche were dubbed from another Porsche 928 that had a hole in its rear muffler, therefore created much louder sound that a stock 928.

11.  The sunglasses Joel wears are the Ray-Ban Wayfarer model. Annual sales of Wayfarers were languishing as of 1983 but skyrocketed 2000% after the movie's release.

12.  At Joel's brothel party the song "Swamp" by the group, Talking Heads, plays in the background - one line of the song contains the phrase "Risky Business."

13.  Music in this film is done by Tangerine Dream who based parts of the film's score on material from their previous albums, particularly the album "Force Majeure": The title track is the basis for Lana's theme, and the intro to "Cloudburst Flight" was reused for "Guido the Killer Pimp". "No Future (Get off the Babysitter)" is based on the title track to the album "Exit".   

14.  One of a few pictures in an early 1980s mini Hollywood cycle of clean cut guy becomes pimp movies. The films include "Night Shift," "Risky Business," and "Doctor Detroit."

15.  "Risky Business" was Tom Cruise's fifth film and Rebecca DeMornay's first (previous to this film, she was an understudy in "One from the Heart").

And now you know.

Tom Cruise was born Thomas Cruise Mapother IV in Syracuse, New York.  At 14 years old, he was a Franciscan seminary student and had ambitions of becoming a priest.  Back then if someone had told him that one day he would be considered one of the top 100 movie stars of all time, he would have probably grinned and thought, "Absolutely not."  Thank goodness he changed his mind.  Otherwise who would we have had the pleasure of seeing dance around in his underwear?  Tom Hanks?  I think not!

The following are some pictures from the movie itself...

 

The Breakfast Club (1985)

The year was 1985.  The date was February 7.  The city was Los Angeles.  The event was the premiere of what would become one of the most iconic 80s movies ever made: "The Breakfast Club" written and directed by none other than John Hughes himself.

This movie had it all: A talented cast, a fantastic soundtrack, a relatable storyline, and memorable performances that would last and be forever engraved in our brains.

Starring Emilio Estevez (played Andrew Clark), Anthony Michael Hall (played Brian Johnson), Judd Nelson (played John Bender), Molly Ringwald (played Claire Standish), Ally Sheedy (played Allison Reynolds), and Paul Gleason (played Richard Vernon), this is a story about five teenagers who attend the same high school and have absolutely nothing in common.  On a Saturday at 7am, they all have to do detention in the school's library.  They all know each other, but only because of what they see in the halls.  They're all clickish, and each one of them represents their own clicks: The criminal, the jock, the princess, the brain, and the basket case.  By 4pm, not only would they find that they're not all that different from each other and that each of them has their own story to tell, but that they would always be known as the Breakfast Club.

"The Breakfast Club" was only John Hughes' second film in which he directed, having already directed Molly Ringwald in another 80s hit, "Sixteen Candles" (1984).  He would turn around and direct Anthony Michael Hall once more in his third film, "Weird Science" (1985).  Hughes directed eight films altogether, each one significantly favorites among millions of 80s fans.  When it came to writing the scripts, Hughes would lay claim to 44 titles including "The Breakfast Club" which only took him two days to write: July 4th and 5th of 1982.   

Having grossed over $38 million within three months of its premiere, here are some other bits of trivia for your amusement...

1.  Other proposed titles were "The Lunch Bunch" and "Library Revolution."

2.  The film's title comes from the nickname invented by students and staff for detention at New Trier High School, the school attended by the son of one of John Hughes' friends. Thus, those who were sent to detention were designated members of "The Breakfast Club".

3.  Both John Hughes and Molly Ringwald shared the same birthday: February 18th.

4.  The ages of everyone in the principle cast at the time of filming are: Judd Nelson (26), Molly Ringwald (17), Emilio Estevez (23), Anthony Michael Hall (17) and Ally Sheedy (23).

5.  Emilio Estevez was originally going to play Bender, but John Hughes couldn't find someone to play Andrew Clark so Emilio agreed to play Clark.

6.  Molly Ringwald was originally asked to play Allison but wanted to play Claire, she eventually convinced John Hughes and the studio and was given the part.

7.  John Hughes almost fired Judd Nelson because of his negative attitude towards Molly Ringwald off camera. Paul Gleason convinced Hughes that Nelson was a great actor and was merely trying to stay in character.

8.  Nicolas Cage was originally considered for the role of John Bender but the production couldn't afford his salary at the time. John Cusack was originally cast as John Bender, but John Hughes decided to replace him with Judd Nelson before shooting began.

9.  Jodie Foster was considered to play Claire and Brooke Shields was considered to play Allison respectively.  Laura Dern actually auditioned for the role of Claire Standish.

10.  Rick Moranis was originally cast as the janitor; he left due to creative differences and was replaced by John Kapelos.

11.  Anthony Michael Hall's mother Mercedes Hall and younger sister Mary Christian play his character Brian's mother and sister in the movie.   

12.  The library in which this movie takes place was actually constructed in the gymnasium of Maine North High School specifically for the film. The school closed down in 1982, two years before filming began. The building had been used for park district purposes and the Chicago Blitz before the Illinois state police bought it, turning it into a police station, which it still is to this day.   

13.  While eating lunch, Andrew (Emilio Estevez) takes his lunch out of a "Happy Foods" paper grocery bag. Happy Foods is an actual grocery store in the north/northwest suburbs of Chicago.

14.  The dandruff that Allison shakes onto her penciled drawing for snow was achieved by sprinkling Parmesan cheese.   

15.  Director John Hughes insisted that the entire cast and crew eat their meals on location in the Maine North High School cafeteria.

 

16.  The joke that Bender tells but never finishes (while crawling through the ceiling) actually has no punchline. According to Judd Nelson, he ad-libbed the line. Originally, he was supposed to tell a joke that would end when he came back into the library and said, "Forgot my pencil", but no one could come up with a joke for that punchline.

 

17.  Judd Nelson made up many of the terms used in the movie, including 'Neo-Maxi Zoomdweebie'.   

 

18.  The switchblade used in the movie actually belonged to Judd Nelson. He explained that he had it for protection purposes.

 

19.  The guidance counselor's desk has a name plaque which says "R. Hashimoto". Richard Hashimoto was the production supervisor.

 

20.  A prom queen election poster contains the name of Michelle Manning, who co-produced the film.

 

21.  Director John Hughes actually attended Glenbrook North High School, one of the schools where the movie was filmed.

 

22.  Claire's entire ensemble was purchased specially for the character from a Ralph Lauren store, the only one in Chicago at the time. John Hughes had rejected the original costume on the grounds that it wasn't sophisticated enough.

 

23.  Director John Hughes said that the cast rehearsed the entire movie as if it was a play a few times before filming began. After the film was a hit, Hughes was asked to write the script as a play so high schoolers could perform it.

24.  One subplot that was filmed but deleted showed Principal Vernon watching some women faculty members using the school swimming pool.

25.  John Kapelos (who played the janitor) jokingly warned the young actors to not overdo their intensity, laughingly noting that Martin Sheen once suffered a serious heart attack while filming "Apocalypse Now." Emilio Estevez was enraged by the remark, and Kapelos was then stunned to learn that Martin Sheen was Estevez's father. While Estevez accepted Kapelos' apology and filming was unaffected, Kapelos said years later he still felt terrible about what he said, even though he hadn't had any idea about the connection between Sheen and Estevez and had offended Estevez completely inadvertently. When Kapelos guest-starred on The West Wing in 1999, he told Martin Sheen this story. Sheen thought it was very funny, which provided Kapelos a small amount of relief from the chagrin he had felt about the incident since it happened.

26.  The scene in which all characters sit in a circle on the floor in the library and tell stories about why they were in detention was not scripted. John Hughes told them all to ad-lib.  That scene would become one of the most memorable and most used scenes in youth groups as conversation starters; scenes to learn from.

27.  John Hughes made his cameo in this film as Brian's father who picks him up at the end of the film. 

28.  Although the majority of the film was shot at what was once Maine North High School, the final shot of Judd Nelson on the football field was actually shot at Maine South High School, also located in Park Ridge, IL.

29.  The theme song, "Don't You (Forget About Me)", was written for the film by Keith Forsey. It was a number one hit for Simple Minds, and both Billy Idol and Bryan Ferry turned down offers to record it first (although in 2001, Billy Idol recorded Don't You (Forget About Me) as a bonus track for his Greatest Hits album). The song was also turned down by Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders who then suggested they offer it to the band fronted by her husband at the time, Simple Minds.

30.  It was originally suggested that there would be several sequels to The Breakfast Club, occurring every ten years, in which "The Breakfast Club" would get back together. This did not come to pass due to the volatile relationship between John Hughes and Judd Nelson. John Hughes stated that he would never work with Nelson again. Also, it was unclear whether or not Hughes still held ill will against his oft-cast starlet, Molly Ringwald. They had a falling out in the late eighties after Ringwald decided to move on from the teen film genre to pursue more adult roles, thus severing her relationship with Hughes.

31.  John Hughes originally wanted "The Breakfast Club" to be a 2-1/2 hour movie. However, many of the scenes were cut out and the negatives destroyed. John Hughes said in Première that he had the only complete copy of The Breakfast Club on film. In one of the scenes, Carl predicts where the five kids will be in 30 years: Bender will have killed himself, Claire will have had "2 boob jobs and a face lift," Brian will have become very successful but die of a heart attack due to the stress of the high paying job. Allison will be a great poet but no one will care, and Andrew will marry a gorgeous airline stewardess who will become fat after having kids.

32.  Judd Nelson went undercover at a local high school outside Chicago near where the film was shooting and convinced the teenagers there that he was a legitimate student. After buying beer for them with his "fake ID" (he was 24 at the time), Nelson told them to drop him off at the hotel where the actors were staying. Years later, reflecting on his antics, Nelson said, "They would ask me why I was staying there, and I told them my dad was in jail. I'm staying at the Westin O'Hare while my dad's incarcerated."

33.  After John Hughes died in 2009, four of the cast members from "The Breakfast Club" paid tribute to him at the Academy Awards ceremony.  They were Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson, and Ally Sheedy.

And now you know.

I'll end this blog by telling you that if you haven't seen "The Breakfast Club," you must, my friend.  You must!  Don't pull a Claire Standish, saying, "I hate it. I hate having to go along with everything my friends say."  Just do it.  You'll be glad you did.  Think you'll be bad if you do?  Hey... like John Bender said, "Being bad feels pretty good, huh?"

Here are some picture stills from the film...