The John Hughes Cinematic Universe is filled with specific dates, locations and possible ways in which certain characters might be connected to each other. In a 1999 interview in Premiere magazine, Hughes said, “Everybody, in all my movies, is from Shermer, Illinois. Del Griffith from ‘Planes, Trains & Automobiles’ lives two doors down from John Bender [from ‘The Breakfast Club’]. Ferris Bueller knew Samantha Baker from ‘Sixteen Candles.’ ”
The journalist Larry Granillo was the first to deduct that Ferris Bueller’s Specific Day Off was June 5, 1985, based on the scene in which Ferris caught a foul ball off the bat of Claudell Washington in the 11th inning of a Cubs-Braves game at Wrigley Field.
When it comes to “The Breakfast Club,” the movie itself tells us the exact date when “a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess and a criminal” served nine hours of detention. As we approach the 40th — yikes, the FORTIETH — anniversary of the release of Hughes’ seminal coming-of-age comedy/drama, I gave the film a rewatch. Some notes and observations:
◆ The opening credits play in yellow block letters against a black background for two full minutes as we hear the Simple Minds rendition of “(Don’t You) Forget About Me.” A quote from “Changes” by David Bowie then appears in white letters: “And these children that you spit on, as they try to change their worlds are immune to your consultations. They’re quite aware of what they’re going through.” Those words then “explode,” shattering the screen, as we see the exterior of Shermer High School and hear Anthony Michael Hall’s voice-over telling us it’s “Saturday, March 24th, 1984, Shermer High School, Shermer, Illinois, 60062.”
◆ Under a plaque saying, “Man of the Year,” there’s a photo of “Carl Reed, 1969.” The same Carl Reed, played by John Kapelos, is now a janitor at Shermer High School.
◆ Anthony Michael Hall’s mother is played by Anthony Michael Hall’s mother. At the end of the movie, when the parents are picking up their children, Anthony Michael Hall’s father is played by John Hughes.
◆ Sidebar: You know how we’ve had a spate of Super Bowl ads with actors reprising iconic roles, e.g., Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan with “When Harry Met Sally…” and Bill Murray returning as Phil Connors for Jeep? I was always hoping we’d get a commercial for an SUV or mini-van with Claire, Brian, Bender, Allison and Andrew dropping off their kids at Shermer High.
◆ Ron Dean, who plays the father of Emilio Estevez’ Andrew and tells him not to blow his scholarship, was the cop who told Joel to get off the babysitter in “Risky Business,” one of the detectives who questioned Dr. Richard Kimball at the beginning of “The Fugitive” and an old-school cop in “Code of Silence.”
◆ In order to soak up the upper-middle-class suburban experience, cast members Ally Sheedy, Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson and Emilio Estevez spent time mingling with students at Glenbrook North High School in Northbrook, where Hughes was an alum. As for Shermer High, the library was a huge soundstage, some 150 feet long and 60 feet wide, built on multiple basketball courts at the abandoned Maine North High School in Des Plaines, which had been shuttered in 1981. (The building now houses the Cook County Sheriff’s Police 911 Center.)
◆ Writer-actor Karen Leigh Hopkins, who co-penned the screenplay for “Stepmom” and wrote “Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael,” was cast in the film as a swim teacher who tells the students that one day they’ll look back on this time in their lives and realize things weren’t so terrible — but the role was excised. The great Rick Moranis was originally cast as the janitor and played him as a Russian immigrant in a big hat, but he and Hughes parted ways after a couple of days of filming.
◆ As is the case with just about every movie made in the 1980s, not everything ages well. In retrospect, the makeover scene with Ally Sheedy rings false, and feels like it undercuts Allison’s true identity in favor of a phony, teen princess persona. She’s much more interesting as the kleptomaniac who steals Bender’s switchblade and Brian’s wallet.
◆ Paul Gleason’s Richard Vernon assigns the students to “write an essay of no less than a thousand words, describing to me who you think you are.” Brian is the only one who writes anything, with a paper that reads in part, “You see us as you want to see us — in the simplest terms and the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain, and an athlete, and a basket case, a princess, and a criminal. Does that answer your question?” (The rest of the gang chimes in on the voiceover at the end of the film, but that doesn’t mean any of them wrote anything on their own.)
The entire essay clocks in at 96 words. We know Bender will be coming back on Saturdays for the next two months. Given that all five Breakfast Clubbers failed to complete the assignment, the uptight and power-drunk Vernon probably angled to have them all return on Saturday, March 31, 1984.