Introduction
Released in June 1986, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off marked a pivotal moment in the cycle of American teen comedies that defined the decade. Written and directed by John Hughes, the film followed a high school senior who skips school for a day in Chicago, accompanied by his best friend and girlfriend, while avoiding detection by school administrators and parents. Modest in scope, the film quickly distinguished itself through its narrative structure, use of real locations, and unconventional breaking of the fourth wall.
By the time the film went into production, Hughes was coming off an extraordinary run. In just two years, he had written or directed Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, and Weird Science. Films that captured adolescent frustration, humor, and self-awareness with unusual precision. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off represented a tonal shift. Instead of examining teenage identity through confinement or conflict, Hughes opened the story outward, structuring the film as a roaming, single-day escape. Chicago, with its museums, ballparks, and downtown streets, transformed the movie into a pop-cultural snapshot of mid-’80s urban America.
The film also distinguished itself via Ferris’s direct address to the camera, framing the narrative from the protagonist’s perspective. A relatively uncommon device in mainstream teen comedies. Upon its release, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off performed strongly at the box office and received generally positive reviews. In the decades since, it has remained a constant point of reference in discussions of both John Hughes’s career and the evolution of the teen genre. Cinema Scholars presents a 40th anniversary retrospective on this classic John Hughes film.
Beginnings
John Hughes, as he was writing the film in 1985, kept track of his progress in a journal. He noted that the basic premise was developed on February 25 and successfully pitched to Paramount Pictures the next day. Unlike his previous hit, The Breakfast Club, a year earlier, Hughes wanted his follow-up to be less confining and more kinetic. He envisioned shooting all over Chicago, where Hughes had spent his teenage years and had subsequently filmed most of his work.
Edward McNally, someone that the director had grown up with in Northbrook, Illinois, is rumored to be the inspiration for the character of Ferris. McNally and Hughes had grown up on the same street, and McNally also had a best friend named “Buehler,” later referenced in the film. McNally also constantly skipped school and was pursued by his High School principal. Skipping school would become one of the central themes of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
While most of what Hughes wrote remained in the finished film, there was one major cut. Cindy Pickett, who played Ferris’s mother, revealed that Ferris and his sister, Jeannie (played by Jennifer Grey), were meant to have younger siblings. There’s even a family photo in husband Tom Bueller’s office that also appears to show the other kids. Picket told Josh Gad on the YouTube series Reunited Apart:
“If you look in the kitchen scene, their drawings are still on the refrigerator, like these kindergarten drawings. I think it was a little girl and a little boy; I think she was older. But yeah, they were cut out.”
Casting the Leads
Casting for Ferris Bueller’s Day Off took place in early 1985. While Hughes had written the part for Matthew Broderick, the rising star was not initially tagged to play the role. John Cusack and Charlie Sheen were both offered the part of Ferris. Cusack, who had appeared in Sixteen Candles, declined, while Sheen took the lesser role of Garth. Even Anthony Michael Hall, one of the stars of Hughes’s The Breakfast Club, was offered the part before Broderick. Jim Carrey, Michael J. Fox, George Clooney, Tom Cruise, and Johnny Depp were all considered before finally landing on Broderick.
Casting the role of Cameron Frye, Ferris’s best friend, would prove just as challenging. The part had originally been offered to Charlie Sheen’s brother, Emilio Estevez, who declined. Cameron was written as a contrast to Ferris. Hughes needed an actor who could convincingly portray the emotional fragility required. Alan Ruck, primarily a theater actor, had auditioned for the part of John Bender in The Breakfast Club. While he didn’t get the role, Hughes remembered him and gave him the part of Cameron.
Hughes had originally wanted someone older for the part of Sloane Peterson, Ferris’s girlfriend. She was to be the grounded and calming force throughout the film. That’s why the director was shocked when he found out Mia Sara was only eighteen when she auditioned. Sara told The Hollywood Reporter in 1986:
“It was funny, he didn’t know how old I was and said he wanted an older girl…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.”
Additional Cast
Jennifer Grey, the daughter of legendary actor Joel Grey, was cast as Ferris’s jealous and hard-hitting sister, Jeanie. Hired through a standard audition process, Grey and Broderick began dating around the time of filming, which was kept under wraps until after the film’s release. Hughes hired Jeffrey Jones to play the part of Principal Rooney based on his performance in the Oscar-winning film, Amadeus (1984). In it, Jones played Emperor Joseph II, whom Hughes saw Rooney as being a modern-day version of.
As earlier stated, Charlie Sheen, whose career was about to explode when Platoon (1986) was released six months after Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, had a brief cameo. Playing a juvenile delinquent in a police station, where he immediately develops volatile chemistry with Jennifer Grey, Sheen reportedly stayed up for two days straight in preparation for the role. This would be a sign of things to come for the future star.
Cindy Pickett and Lyman Ward were cast as Ferris’s parents, completing an ensemble that combined established character actors with emerging talent. The pair began a relationship during production and married in 1986, shortly after the film’s release. Edie McClurg, a John Hughes regular, played Principal Rooney’s tell-it-like-it-is Secretary, Grace. Actor/writer/economist Ben Stein got the role of the droll and monotone economics teacher through former President Richard Nixon. Stein told CNN in 2006:
“Richard Nixon introduced me to a man named Bill Safire, who’s a New York Times columnist. He introduced me to a guy who’s an executive at Warner Bros. He introduced me to a guy who’s a casting director. He introduced me to John Hughes. John Hughes and I are among the only Republicans in the picture business, and John Hughes put me in the movie.”
Filming
Principal photography for Ferris Bueller’s Day Off began on September 9, 1985, and continued through November 22, 1985, using a combination of locations in Chicago, Illinois, its northern suburbs, and the Los Angeles area. Many of the film’s most memorable scenes were shot in recognizable Chicago locations rather than on studio sets. Hughes has stated on more than one occasion that the film was his love letter to the City of Chicago.
The film’s iconic parade scene, which partially took place during the actual Von Steuben Day Parade in downtown Chicago, was filmed on September 28. Broderick lip synching “Danke Schoen” on the parade float was partly choreographed. However, the lip-synched version of the Beatles’ “Twist and Shout” was completely improvised. The production team placed their float in the actual parade, and no one, including the governor of Chicago, knew that this was part of a film shoot.
Glenbrook North High School was used for both interior and exterior shots of Ferris’s High School. The modernist house of Cameron Frye is actually the Ben Rose house, located in Highland Park, Illinois. It was designed by A. James Speyer in 1954. Hughes has said that filming at the Art Institute of Chicago was an act of self-indulgence, as he spent many hours in his youth there and wanted to capture it on film. Hughes stated on the DVD commentary for the film:
“This is a very indulgent scene of mine. This was the Chicago Art Institute, which, when I was in high school, was a place of refuge for me. I went there quite a bit. I loved it. I knew all the paintings, I knew the building, and this was a chance for me to go back into this building and show the paintings that were my favorite.”
The Car
At the center of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is Cameron’s father’s car. A rare 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder, which Cameron’s dad apparently only cleans with a diaper. For interior shots, the actual Ferrari was used. However, since there were only 100 of them in the world, replicas were used for driving and exterior shots. Automobile restorationist Mark Goyette designed three replicas for the film with a Modena Spyder body.
During filming, most of the cast and crew disliked the replicas as they never started properly and were always breaking down. One of the replicas currently resides at Planet Hollywood in Cancun. The other two are privately owned. As for the real 1961 Ferrari 250 GT used in the film, it has gone on to become one of the most expensive cars ever sold. It sold at auction in 2008 for almost $11 million and again in 2015 for $17 million. No wonder Cameron’s Dad cleaned it with a diaper.
Release and Reception
Released on June 11, 1986, across the country, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off received generally positive reviews. Roger Ebert, writing for the Chicago Sun-Times, stated:
“Here is one of the most innocent movies in a long time, a sweet, warm-hearted comedy about a teenager who skips school so he can help his best friend win some self-respect.”
Broderick was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for his performance, and the film was one of the sleeper hits of that Summer, grossing over $70 million on just a $5 million budget. In addition, the Beatles’ 1963 hit Twist and Shout became popular again, climbing to number 23 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, twenty-two years after its initial release. Wayne Newton’s “Danke Schoen,” also released in 1963, became a hit again, pleasing its singer to no end.
An official soundtrack for the film was never released, as Hughes felt the tracks would not work properly on an album. In 2016, La La Land Records teamed up with Paramount to release the first official soundtrack and score. This included unreleased tracks and the complete score. However, due to licensing restrictions, “Twist and Shout,” “Taking the Day Off” (by General Public), and “March of the Swivelheads” (by “The Beat”) were not included. Sir Paul McCartney, a vocal fan of the film, was not pleased with the parade horns playing over Twist and Shout.
Legacy
In the ensuing decades since the release of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, the film has grown in stature. Forty years on, John Hughes’s beloved classic is now widely considered one of the defining teen comedies of the 1980s. Ferris’s line, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it,” has been quoted endlessly in High School yearbooks. Ben Stein’s oft-quoted “Bueller?…Bueller? …Bueller?” and “Anyone? Anyone?” have become part of the cultural zeitgeist.
Nobody was able to capture the 1980’s the way John Hughes was. From films like The Breakfast Club, to Pretty In Pink, to Sixteen Candles, to Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, Hughes remains one of the most prolific directors of his time. However, in terms of sheer fun, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off may be at the top of the list. Perhaps Alan Ruck summed it up best when he spoke to Entertainment Weekly shortly after Hughes’ death:
“My realization of John’s impact on the teen-comedy genre crept in sometime later. Teen comedies tend to dwell on the ridiculous, as a rule. It’s always the preoccupation with sex and the self-involvement, and we kind of hold the kids up for ridicule in a way. Hughes added this element of dignity. He was an advocate for teenagers as complete human beings, and he honored their hopes and their dreams. That’s what you see in his movies.”
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