Ferris Bueller's Day Off

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Ferris Bueller's Day Off

1999 DVD cover
Directed by John Hughes
Produced by Arnon Milchan
Written by John Hughes
Starring Matthew Broderick
Alan Ruck
Mia Sara
Jeffrey Jones
Jennifer Grey
Edie McClurg
Music by Ira Newborn
Arthur Baker
John Robie
Cinematography Tak Fujimoto
Editing by Paul Hirsch
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release date(s) June 11, 1986
Running time 102 min
Country Flag of United States United States
Language English
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Known as the original teen comedy, Ferris Bueller's Day Off is a 1986 comedy film written and directed by John Hughes. It stars Matthew Broderick, Alan Ruck, Mia Sara, Jeffrey Jones and Jennifer Grey. The film was released by Paramount Pictures on June 11, 1986. The film received a PG-13 rating by the MPAA for sexual humor, suggestive images, and for language.

The film follows high school senior Ferris Bueller (Broderick), who, one spring day, decides to skip school and spend the day in downtown Chicago with his friend Cameron Frye (Ruck) and girlfriend Sloane Peterson (Sara) while creatively avoiding his school's dean of students (Jones), his resentful younger sister Jeanie (Grey), and his parents. Bueller frequently breaks the fourth wall to explain to the audience his techniques and thoughts.

In 1990, it spawned a short-lived NBC sitcom starring Charlie Schlatter and Jennifer Aniston as Ferris and Jeannie respectively.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Ferris Bueller (Broderick) is a wise-cracking high school senior from the fictional northern Chicago suburb of Shermer, Illinois (in reality, Lake Forest, Illinois), who decides to skip school (Lake Forest High School) for a day on the town by pretending to be sick. He convinces his nervous friend, Cameron (Ruck) to take his father's carefully restored 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California out for a spin, although Cameron's father has so little trust in him that he has memorized the car's mileage. Ferris makes the promise to erase any miles they put on the car by running the car in reverse when they return. Masquerading as her father, Ferris springs his junior girlfriend Sloane (Sara) from school on the premise that her grandmother has died.

Meanwhile, school dean of students Ed Rooney (Jones) doesn’t believe Ferris’ illness excuse, and sets out to catch him in the act, suffering injuries and humiliation in his quest.

Ferris leaks a rumor to some freshman that he is near-terminally ill, and he becomes the town's favorite son.

The three friends enjoy a baseball game at Wrigley Field and dine at an elite restaurant (with Ferris posing as "Abe Frohman, the sausage king of Chicago"). Cameron and Sloane watch in awe as Ferris sneaks onto a float during the Von Steuben Day Parade to lip-sync "Danke Schoen" and The Beatles' version of "Twist and Shout". They also enjoy the view from the top of the Sears Tower and visit the Art Institute of Chicago and the Chicago Board of Trade. In one of several running jokes, Ferris narrowly avoids meeting his father a few times. However, while Ferris and his friends enjoy their day, two parking attendants "borrow" the Ferrari and enjoy their own day off in it, raising the odometer reading dramatically in the process.

When the trio retrieve the car and Cameron spies the odometer reading, he has a nervous breakdown and enters a catatonic state for a few minutes. It is during this time that Ferris reveals to the audience how upset he is at how little time he and Cameron have left until college. He also reveals that not only is Cameron a virgin, but also estimates that his best friend is so desperate that he will marry the first girl he sleeps with ("...because she will have given him what he has built up in his mind as the end-all, be-all of human existence"), a woman who will inevitably not respect him.

After the day of fun, the trio return to Cameron’s house, where Ferris jacks up the Ferrari and puts it in reverse, propping a cement block on the gas pedal in an attempt to make the odometer roll backward. This fails. Cameron refuses to consider Ferris' suggestion to crack open the odometer and roll the numbers back by hand. Out of rage, Cameron kicks the Ferrari's front end repeatedly ("Who do you love?!" he rhetorically asks his absent father. "You love a car!"), causing the car to teeter precariously on the jack. Shocked and dismayed at the damage he has done to the Ferrari's body, he bravely decides to take the punishment his father will issue and relaxes his thoughts while leaning on the Ferrari. While Cameron leans on the Ferrari (still rotating its wheels in reverse), the car suddenly falls off the jack without Cameron's control and flies backward through the second-story garage’s plate glass window and into the ravine below. As the gang stares at the broken down Ferrari with horror on their faces, Ferris offers to take the blame since Cameron's father hates him anyway, but Cameron decides to stand up to his father for the first time in his life.

Seeing Sloane home, Ferris realizes he’s late and dashes home, running through neighbors' backyards and hopping over fences. He arrives back home and narrowly escapes getting caught by Mr. Rooney, thanks to his sister, Jean (Jennifer Grey), who "thanks him for driving Ferris home from the hospital". Ferris manages to get into bed in time for his parents to check on him.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Reception

[edit] Critical

The film was well met by most critics, and was extremely popular with teenagers. Broderick was also nominated for a Golden Globe in 1987, for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.

The film is now seen as one of the better comedies of the 1980s. It was featured in the Vh1 television show I Love the 80s which aired in 2001. The film has a high rating of 89% on Rotten Tomatoes, an Internet site which aggregates critical film reviews, and a 7.8/10 rating on the IMDb. This movie ranked number 10 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 50 Best High School Movies.

[edit] Rankings

As an influential and popular film, Ferris Bueller's Day Off has been included in many film rating lists. This film is number 54 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies", and came 26th in the British 50 Greatest Comedy Films poll.

The film was short-listed by the American Film Institute as part of the AFI 100 Years... series celebration in the category of AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs.

In 2000, readers of Total Film magazine voted Ferris Bueller's Day Off the 23rd greatest comedy film of all time, and in 2005 an Empire magazine article declared Ferris Bueller's Day Off the number one teen film of all time.

[edit] Box office

The film opened in 1,330 theatres in the United States and had a total weekend gross of $6,275,647, opening in second position to Rodney Dangerfield's Back to School.

Ferris Bueller's Day Off's total gross in the United States was approximately $70 million. It subsequently became the 10th highest grossing film of 1986. Compared to the lean budget of $6 million, it was viewed as a big success. [1]

[edit] Trivia

This article contains a trivia section.
Content in this section should be integrated into other appropriate areas of the article or removed, and the trivia section removed.
  • Sloane is based on a high-school version of Nancy Hughes, John's wife. Cameron and Garth Volbeck (Charlie Sheen's druggie character) are based on acquaintances of Hughes from high school.
  • The detective at the police station is named Steven Lim, the same name as the First Assistant Director.
  • The fancy restaurant Ferris visits in the "Abe Frohman" scene is the fictional Chez Quis, a pun which when said aloud would be "Shakey."
  • Cameron's fake "Mr. Peterson" voice was based on a drama coach under whom Ruck and Broderick studied. Hughes never met the man and did not understand the in-joke, but it cracked up the two actors so much they used it for the voice. The voice, also, sounds remarkably like actor Jim Backus.
  • Many of the license plates are acronyms for John Hughes' other films. For instance, Mr. Bueller's being "MMOM" for Mr. Mom as well as Jeannie's being "TBC" for The Breakfast Club and even including "FBDO" for the film itself.
  • Ben Stein, who actually holds a degree in economics, ad-libbed the scene where he discusses the Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act.
  • In the scene where Ferris is on his computer while talking on the phone to Cameron, Ferris illustrates a picture of a nude woman on his computer [2], stylistically mimicking Amedeo Modigliani. When the film was aired on television, that part of the scene was cut along with his quote, "If I get caught, I won't graduate."
  • This is the second film starring Matthew Broderick that shows his character altering his school records via computer. The first was WarGames, where he alters his grades. In Ferris Bueller's Day Off, he alters his days absent.
  • According to an interview with Alan Ruck, character Cameron's taunt sometimes misheard as "Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy, swing, batter" is actually "he can't hit, he can't hit, he can't hit" and was an improvised line based on Ruck's childhood.
  • The license plate on Camerons dad's Ferrari 250 GT California is "NRVOUS."
  • Louie Anderson appeared as a flower delivery man who talks to Mr. Rooney while at the Bueller house, but this scene was cut from the film (although Anderson's character can be seen leaving the house and returns later with the "nurse" character in a subsequent scene).[1]
  • Charlie Sheen and Alan Ruck would later star in the sitcom Spin City together.
  • In the 1989 British film The Rachel Papers (based on the novel of the same name by Martin Amis) actor Dexter Fletcher performs a number of monologue scenes in which he gives little "asides" to the audience. Fletcher was accused of copying Matthew Broderick's posturing from Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and some critics have labelled The Rachel Papers as the UK's answer to Ferris Bueller's Day Off

[edit] Cast

  • At the time of filming, only Mia Sara was near the age of a high school student at 18 (although her character was likely only 16 or 17), while Matthew Broderick was 23, Jennifer Grey was 25, and Alan Ruck was 29 (just under 10 years younger than Jeffrey Jones, who played Dean Rooney).
  • Charlie Sheen, who played the drug addict at the police station to which Jeanie is taken, stayed awake for more than 48 hours before the scene was shot to produce the desired drugged-out effect.
  • Cindy Pickett and Lyman Ward, who played Ferris' parents, married in real life after filming this movie, although they subsequently divorced.
  • Matthew Broderick and Jennifer Grey became a couple during the making of the movie.
  • Mia Sara would later admit she was actually tickled by Matthew Broderick in the taxicab scene.
  • Broderick wasn't the first choice for the role of Ferris, the original being Michael J. Fox, which is ironic since Broderick was the first choice to play Fox's role of Alex P. Keaton on Family Ties. (Fox would later co-star with Ruck on Spin City.) Jim Carrey and Johnny Depp were also at one point in consideration for the role (Depp turned down the role). (Coincidentally, Matthew Broderick and Jim Carrey starred together in the 1996 movie The Cable Guy.)

[edit] Filming details

  • The red hockey jersey that Cameron wears in the film is that of Detroit Red Wings ice hockey legend Gordie Howe. Hughes stated on the DVD commentary that this is a nod to his childhood living in Michigan.
  • In an early draft of the script Ferris had two additional younger siblings, but they were eliminated for the film's final release.
  • In a deleted scene, Ferris calls a local Chicago radio station saying that he would like to ride in the space shuttle at some point in his life before he dies, but it was cut from the film and the trailers (which had to be retrieved from the theaters they were already sent to) due to the Challenger's destruction in January 1986. (This entire subplot is explained on the DVD commentary.)
  • Ferris wears a different outfit in each scene before he and Cameron go to pick up Sloane.
  • The filmmakers joined the real Von Steuben Day Parade in Chicago, which just happened to take place during shooting. In actuality, Von Steuben Day is in September, while the movie is set in the spring.
  • In the scene where Ferris is attempting to run the odometer of Cameron's father's Ferrari backwards, the leaves in the background were painted green as it was autumn when the film was shot.
  • All the interior school scenes were filmed inside Maine North High School, the same location where The Breakfast Club was filmed. The exterior school scenes were filmed at Glenbrook North High School, from which John Hughes graduated.
  • While driving into Chicago in Cameron's father's car, Ferris, Cameron, and Sloan are seen exiting Interstate I-90/94, followed by a drive down Lake Shore Drive. These two roads are, in fact, on opposite sides of downtown Chicago from one another, and both run mainly North-South.
  • Ferrari fans were horrified to contemplate the actual destruction of a very rare automobile. However, it was later confirmed that the destroyed vehicle was an MG with a fiberglass body mockup of the Ferrari. Not long after the film was released, the company that produced the replica was sued for unlawful use of the Ferrari logos. Soon after this, the company shut down to avoid further payout.
  • The band playing during the parade is the Lockport Township High School marching band.
  • Despite John Hughes' hatred of the song "Danke Schoen" by Wayne Newton (claiming it's awful and makes him want to claw out his face), he includes it in many parts of the film. Aside from the well-known scene where Ferris sings it in the parade, he also sings a brief line of it in the shower during the opening. Rooney also idly hums it during the "Doorbell" scene and Jean sings a few lines while leaving the police station.
  • The "sick sounds" were replayed on a E-mu Emulator II sampler.
  • John Hughes decided to add brass to the popular song "Twist and Shout" during the carnival sequence. Sir Paul McCartney was outraged, telling Hughes, "If I wanted brass I would have added brass." Subsequently, "Twist and Shout" re-charted in 1986 at #23.
  • During the parade scene, while Ferris is singing "Twist and Shout," the group of African-American dancers can be seen performing portions of the dance from Michael Jackson's "Thriller" music video, which was released just four months earlier.

[edit] Quotations

Ferris: Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

Ferris: Cameron is so uptight, that if you stuck a piece of coal up his ass, in two weeks you would have a diamond.

For more quotations, see Ferris Bueller's Day Off on Wikiqoute.

[edit] References in popular culture

Main article: Ferris Bueller in popular culture

[edit] Soundtrack

Director John Hughes refused to release a soundtrack album because he thought the eclectic collection of songs in the movie would not work together[citation needed].

Songs featured in the film include:

[edit] Filming locations

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Alan Ruck. Ferris Bueller's Day Off: Bueller... Bueller... Edition [DVD]. Paramount.

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
v • d • e
Films directed by John Hughes

Sixteen Candles • The Breakfast Club • Weird Science • Ferris Bueller's Day Off • Planes, Trains & Automobiles • She's Having a Baby • Uncle Buck • Curly Sue

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