Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Ferris Bueller's Day Off is a 1986 American teen coming-of-age comedy film written and directed by John Hughes.

The film follows high school senior Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick), who decides to skip school and spend the day in downtown Chicago. Accompanied by his girlfriend Sloane Peterson (Mia Sara) and his best friend Cameron Frye (Alan Ruck), he creatively avoids his school's Dean of Students Edward Rooney (Jeffrey Jones), his resentful sister Jeanie (Jennifer Grey), and his parents. During the film, Bueller frequently breaks the fourth wall by speaking directly to the camera to explain to the audience his techniques and thoughts.

Hughes wrote the screenplay in less than a week and shot the film – on a budget of $6 million – over several months in late 1985. Featuring many famous Chicago landmarks including the then Sears Tower and the Art Institute of Chicago, the film was Hughes' love letter to the city: "I really wanted to capture as much of Chicago as I could. Not just in the architecture and landscape, but the spirit.

Released by Paramount Pictures on June 11, 1986, Ferris Bueller's Day Off became one of the top grossing films of the year and was enthusiastically received by critics and audiences alike.

Casting

John Hughes said that he had Broderick in mind when he wrote the screenplay for the film, saying Broderick was the only actor he could think of who could pull the role off, calling him clever, smart and charming. Certain guys would have played Ferris and you would have thought, 'Where's my wallet?'" Hughes said. "I had to have that look; that charm had to come through. Jimmy Stewart could have played Ferris at 15...I needed Matthew.

Mia Sara surprised John Hughes when she auditioned for the role of Sloane Peterson. "It was funny. He didn't know how old I was and said he wanted an older girl to play the 17-year-old. He said it would take someone older to give her the kind of dignity she needed. He almost fell out of his chair when I told him I was only 18.  Molly Ringwald had also wanted to play Sloane, but according to Ringwald, "John wouldn't let me do it: he said that the part wasn't big enough for me.

Alan Ruck had previously auditioned for the Bender role in The Breakfast Club which went to Judd Nelson but Hughes remembered Ruck and cast him as the 17-year-old Cameron Frye. According to Hughes, the character of Cameron was based, in large part, on a friend of his in high school. "He was sort of a lost person. His family neglected him, so he took that as license to really pamper himself. When he was legitimately sick, he actually felt good, because it was difficult and tiring to have to invent diseases but when he actually had something, he was relaxed. Ruck said the role of Cameron had originally been offered to Emilio Estevez who turned it down. "Every time I see Emilio, I want to kiss him," said Ruck. "Thank you!  Ruck, then 29, worried about the age difference. "I was worried that I'd be 10 years out of step, and I wouldn't know anything about what was cool, what was hip, all that junk. But when I was going to high school, I didn't know any of that stuff then, either. So I just thought, well, hell—I'll just be me. The character, he's such a loner that he really wouldn't give a damn about that stuff anyway. He'd feel guilty that he didn't know it, but that's it. Ruck wasn't surprised to find himself cast young. "No, because, really, when I was 18, I sort of looked 12", he said. "Maybe it's a genetic imbalance.

Plot

As the movie opens, high school senior Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick), decides to skip school on a nice spring day by faking an illness to his parents (Lyman Ward and Cindy Pickett), then encourages his girlfriend, Sloane (Mia Sara), and his pessimistic best friend, Cameron (Alan Ruck), to spend the day in Chicago as one of their last flings before they head off to different colleges. Ferris persuades Cameron to let them use his father's prized convertible 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California to drive into the city. The rest of the school and many residents learn of Ferris' exaggerated illness and offer donations to help "Save Ferris". Only two people are not convinced by Ferris's deception: his often sarcastic sister Jeanie (Jennifer Grey), outraged at Ferris's ability to defy authority easily, and the school's Dean of Students, Edward Rooney (Jeffrey Jones), who correctly believes Ferris to be a truant.

Ferris and his friends arrive downtown and leave the Ferrari with two garage attendants, who drive off in it a short time later to take a joyride. Ferris, Sloane and Cameron enjoy many sights of the city, including taking in a game at Wrigley Field, visiting the Sears Tower, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and taking part in the Von Steuben Day Parade, with Ferris lip-syncing on a float to "Danke Schoen" and The Beatles' version of "Twist and Shout". Ferris even uses his ploys to pretend he is Abe Froman, the Sausage King of Chicago, to dine at an upscale restaurant, Chez Quis, while narrowly avoiding his father, who is on his way to lunch with business associates.

Meanwhile, Mr. Rooney has gone off-campus to try to find Ferris, first at a local hangout, then traveling to Ferris's home. He tries to gain entry, but ends up getting stuck in the mud and losing his shoe in the process, while being chased by the family's dog. Mr. Rooney eventually gains access, but Jeanie comes home, trying to find Ferris, and discovers Mr. Rooney in the kitchen, mistaking him for a burglar. She dropkicks him in the face, and runs upstairs to call the police. This forces Rooney to flee the scene, dropping his wallet. When the police show up, they take Jeanie in for prank calling, and while at the police station, she talks to a drug addict (Charlie Sheen), who tells her that she needs to stop worrying so much about Ferris and more about herself. Jeanie becomes increasingly annoyed with the addict, but is found kissing him when her mother arrives to pick her up, upset at having to do so.

At the end of the day, Ferris and his friends retrieve the Ferrari, but discover on the way back that hundreds of miles have been added to the odometer, sending Cameron into a panic attack with Ferris saying to the audience, "This is where Cameron goes berserk." before Cameron emits a scream of terror, fearing his father's reaction. Finally, Cameron goes temporarily catatonic, even trying to drown himself in the neighbor's pool, before Ferris saves him. After calming Cameron down, Ferris comes up with a plan to run the car in reverse while running in place at Cameron's father's hillside garage, hoping to reverse the odometer. When they realize this is not working, Cameron unleashes his pent-up anger against his father, damaging the front of the Ferrari, but comes to realize he is long due to stand up to his father and vows to accept the consequences. Cameron calms down and rests himself against the car, but his previous actions have unbalanced it from the jack it was on, the car hits the floor, races in reverse and crashes through the glass wall, landing in a ravine behind the house. Despite Ferris' offer to take the blame, Cameron still plans to "take it" and admit his actions to his father.

Ferris walks Sloane home, before realizing he must get home within five minutes. He then races through the backyards of his neighborhood to get back home before his parents. Along the way, he has several close encounters with his family members driving home, but his parents do not notice him. When he arrives home, he is unable to find the house key under the doormat and instead finds Mr. Rooney with the key, saying "Looking for this?" Mr. Rooney then explains to Ferris how he has waited for this day and tells him to expect another year of high school. However, Jeanie finds the two, thanks Mr. Rooney for driving Ferris back from the hospital and shows him the wallet that he left behind when he broke in earlier, throwing it into the mud (where Rooney previously lost his shoe). Mr. Rooney gets attacked by the family's dog, leaving Ferris with enough time to get back into bed just before his parents check on him.

As the credits are rolling, Mr. Rooney, in his disheveled state, is invited by a bus driver to hitch a ride back to school on a school bus as it drives students home. Later, at the end of the credits, Ferris emerges from the bathroom, speaking directly to the audience, "You're still here? It's over. Go home. Go!" before he turns around and goes into the bathroom again.

Cast

Matthew Broderick as Ferris Bueller

Alan Ruck as Cameron Frye

Mia Sara as Sloane Peterson

Jeffrey Jones as Edward R. Rooney, Dean of Students

Jennifer Grey as Jeanie Bueller

Lyman Ward as Tom Bueller

Cindy Pickett as Katie Bueller

Edie McClurg as Grace the secretary

Ben Stein as the Economics teacher

Del Close as the English teacher

Charlie Sheen as the drug addict at the police station

Richard Edson as the Parking Garage Attendant

Kristy Swanson as Simone Adamlee the Economics Student

Jonathan Schmock as the snooty waiter

Virginia Capers as Nurse Florence Sparrow

Car

In the film, Ferris convinces Cameron to borrow his father's rare 1961 Ferrari GT California. "The insert shots of the Ferrari were of the real 250 GT California," Hughes explains in the DVD commentary, "The cars we used in the wide shots were obviously reproductions. There were only 100 of these cars, so it was way too expensive to destroy. We had a number of replicas made. They were pretty good, but for the tight shots I needed a real one, so we brought one in to the stage and shot the inserts with it."

Automobile restorationist Mark Goyette designed the kits for three reproductions used in the film and chronicled the whereabouts of the cars today:

"Built by Goyette and leased to Paramount for the filming. It's the one that jumps over the camera, and is used in almost every shot. At the end of filming, Paramount returned it to Goyette, with the exhaust crushed and cracks in the body. "There was quite a bit of superficial damage, but it held up amazingly well," he said. He rebuilt it, and sold it to a young couple in California. The husband later ran it off the road, and Goyette rebuilt the front end for him. That owner sold it in the mid-90s, and it turned up again around 2000, but hasn't emerged since.

"Sold to Paramount as a kit for them to assemble as their stunt car, they did such a poor job that it was basically unusable, aside from going backwards out the window of Cameron's house. Rebuilt, it ended up at Planet Hollywood in Minneapolis, but dropped off the map along with Planet Hollywood Minneapolis.

Another kit, supposed to be built as a shell for the out the window scene, it was never completed at all, and disappeared after the film was completed. Goyette thinks he once heard it was eventually completed and sold off, but it could also still be in a back lot at Paramount.

The "replicar" was "universally hated by the crew," said Ruck. "It didn't work right." The scene in which Ferris turns off the car to leave it with the garage attendant had to be shot a dozen times because it wouldn't start. At the time of filming, the original 250 GT California model was worth $350,000. Since the release of the film, it has become one of the most expensive cars ever sold, going at auction in 2008 for $10,976,000. The vanity plate of Cameron's dad's Ferrari spells NRVOUS and the other plates seen in the film are homages to Hughes's earlier works, VCTN (National Lampoon's Vacation), TBC (The Breakfast Club), MMOM (Mr. Mom), as well as 4FBDO (Ferris Bueller's Day Off). One of the "replicars" was sold by Bonhams on April 19, 2010 at the Royal Air Force Museum at Hendon, United Kingdom for £79,600.

Economic lecture

Ben Stein's famous monotonic lecture about the Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act was not originally in Hughes's script. Stein, by happenstance, was lecturing off-camera to the amusement of the student cast. "I was just going to do it off camera, but the student extras laughed so hard when they heard my voice that (Hughes) said do it on camera, improvise, something you know a lot about. When I gave the lecture about supply side economics, I thought they were applauding. Everybody on the set applauded. I thought they were applauding because they had learned something about supply side economics. But they were applauding because they thought I was boring...It was the best day of my life," Stein said.

Limited edition fanclub soundtrack

No official soundtrack was ever released for the film, as director John Hughes felt the songs would not work well together as a continuous album. However, according to an interview with Lollipop Magazine, Hughes noted that he had sent 100,000 7" vinyl singles containing two songs featured in the film to members of his fan mailing list.

Hughes gave further details about his refusal to release a soundtrack in the Lollipop interview:

The only official soundtrack that Ferris Bueller's Day Off ever had was for the mailing list. A&M was very angry with me over that; they begged me to put one out, but I thought "who'd want all of these songs?" I mean, would kids want "Danke Schoen" and "Oh Yeah" on the same record? They probably already had "Twist and Shout," or their parents did, and to put all of those together with the more contemporary stuff, like the (English) Beat – I just didn't think anybody would like it. But I did put together a seven-inch of the two songs I owned the rights to – "Beat City" on one side, and... I forget, one of the other English bands on the soundtrack... and sent that to the mailing list. By '86, '87, it was costing us $30 a piece to mail out 100,000 packages. But it was a labor of love.

Songs in the film

Songs featured in the film include:

"Love Missile F1-11" (Extended Version) by Sigue Sigue Sputnik

"Jeannie" (Theme from I Dream of Jeannie)

"Beat City" by The Flowerpot Men

"Main Title / Rebel Blockade Runner" by John Williams (From Star Wars)

"Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want" (instrumental) by The Dream Academy (a cover of a song by The Smiths)

"Menuet Célèbre" by (Zagreb Philharmonic Chamber Studio)

"Danke Schoen" by Wayne Newton

"Twist and Shout" by The Beatles

"Radio People" by Zapp

"I'm Afraid" by Blue Room

"Taking the Day Off" by General Public

"The Edge of Forever" by The Dream Academy

"March of the Swivelheads" (a remix of "Rotating Head") by The (English) Beat

"Oh Yeah" by Yello

"BAD" by Big Audio Dynamite

"Danke Schoen" is one of the recurring leitmotifs in the film and is sung by Ferris, Ed Rooney, and Jeanie. Hughes called it the "most awful song of my youth. Every time it came on, I just wanted to scream, claw my face. I was taking German in high school – which meant that we listened to it in school. I couldn't get away from it. According to Broderick, Ferris's singing "Danke Schoen" in the shower was his idea. "Although it's only because of the brilliance of John's deciding that I should sing "Danke Schoen" on the float in the parade. I had never heard the song before. I was learning it for the parade scene. So we're doing the shower scene and I thought, 'Well, I can do a little rehearsal.' And I did something with my hair to make that Mohawk. And you know what good directors do: they say, 'Stop! Wait till we roll.' And John put that stuff in.

"Twist and Shout" charted again, 16 years after the Beatles broke up, as a result of its prominent appearance in both this film and Back To School (where Rodney Dangerfield performs a cover version) which was released the same weekend as Ferris Bueller's Day Off. The re-released single reached #23 in the U.S; a US-only compilation album containing the track The Early Beatles, re-entered the album charts at #197. The version heard in the film includes brass overdubbed onto the Beatles' original recording, which did not go down well with Paul McCartney. "I liked (the) film but they overdubbed some lousy brass on the stuff! If it had needed brass, we'd had stuck it on ourselves! Upon hearing McCartney's reaction, Hughes felt really bad for "offend(ing) a Beatle. But it wasn't really part of the song. We saw a band and we needed to hear the instruments.