Things That Bring Back Memories – “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” #MondayMemories 19

For this week’s “Things That Bring Back Memories” post, I am going to pick something in the topic of “MOVIES” and go with “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off!“.  This is one of those movies that is timeless, and has been around for many generations.  For those of you, who are either too young, or just don’t remember it, here’s a snippet of a popular scene from the “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” movie:

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off! is one of those movies that you can remember for so long.  There are so many movies in today’s world, and only a few that are ingrained in our memories.  Even today, when I hear the song below, I can remember the movie.  Who else remembers this sound? (might take a second to load):

It’s funny to look back at the actors and actresses, and what they became in their lives.  I know one hard part is probably that I’m not the only one who sees Matthew Broderick, and automatically thinks “Ferris!“.  There are those roles that the actor, I’m sure, is never able to get away from, no matter how long ago they played the role.  That, in my opinion, means that they did a great job, doing what they did!!  Do you agree?

This is definitely one of those that you watch with your kids, and then them with theirs, etc.  Never goes out of being a great family movie – one that gives laughs, one that makes you think, and one that makes you wish you were driving that Ferrari when they jumped it over the hill!! Am I right?? 🙂

Did you ever watch this movie, when you were younger? or have you seen it on TV later in life?  Let me know what you thought of it, and if you have any memories of it in your life!

More Info on the Movie:

High school senior Ferris Bueller decides to skip school by telling his parents he is sick. He provokes his depressive best friend Cameron Frye to join him, and despite Cameron’s objections, they take his father’s prized 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder convertible. Sympathy spreads for Ferris’ faked illness, starting the “Save Ferris” campaign, but he cannot fool his suspicious sister Jeanie, nor the school’s Dean of Students, Edward Rooney, who believes Ferris is truant. Throughout the film, Ferris breaks the fourth wall by explaining to the audience his thoughts and techniques.

By phoning the school with a false report of her grandmother’s death, Cameron and Ferris get Ferris’ girlfriend Sloane Peterson to join them for the day. Ferris, Sloane, and Cameron drive into downtown Chicago, leaving the Ferrari with two garage attendants, who promptly take it on a joyride. The three friends experience a charmed, carefree day in the city, including lunch at a fancy restaurant (where they almost encounter Ferris’ dad), a Chicago Cubs game at Wrigley Field (where they are almost spotted on TV by Rooney), and visits to the Sears Tower, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Ferris crashes the annual Von Steuben Day Parade, lip-synching to Wayne Newton’s cover of “Danke Schoen” and the Beatles’ “Twist and Shout” on the float as the very enthusiastic crowd joins him singing and dancing.

Meanwhile, Rooney tries to break into the Bueller home, but he is attacked by the family’s dog. Also looking for Ferris, Jeanie returns home, and she mistakes Rooney for an intruder. She attacks him and calls the police. Rooney leaves to chase down his car, which is being towed for parking in front of a fire hydrant. The police arrest Jeanie for filing a false report, and she talks to a juvenile delinquent (Charlie Sheen), who tells her not to worry about Ferris. Jeanie’s mother finds her kissing the delinquent when she arrives to pick her up.

At the end of the day, the three friends retrieve the Ferrari but discover that over 100 miles have been added to the odometer. Cameron is shocked into self-analysis: he says he has allowed his fear of his father to dominate his life. Back at Cameron’s house, the friends jack up the rear wheels of the car and run it in reverse, but it does not remove the miles on the odometer as they expected. Cameron unleashes his pent-up anger against his father, kicking and damaging the front of the Ferrari. He says that now is the time to stand up to his father and face the consequences of what he has done. Leaning on the car, he accidentally knocks it off the jack; it crashes through the glass wall of the garage, landing in a ravine behind the house. Ferris offers to take the blame, but Cameron insists that he will take it himself.

While walking Sloane home, Ferris realizes he has five minutes to get home before his parents discover he is missing. Ferris is nearly spotted by each of his parents and his sister. He is caught at the back door by Rooney, who tells Ferris to expect another year of high school under his close personal supervision. However, Jeanie has found Rooney’s wallet on the kitchen floor, and she blackmails him with this proof that he was the intruder, leaving Rooney to be attacked by the dog once again. Ferris jumps in bed just before his parents check on him, leaving them convinced of his honesty.

During the credits, Rooney hobbles down the street and then hitches a ride on a school bus to the bemusement of the students on the bus.

In the post credits scene, Ferris breaks the fourth wall when he tells the audience that the movie is over and they should go home now.

Characters:

Matthew Broderick (Ferris Bueller) was a slight comic actor chiefly known for his boyish charm, Matthew Broderick was born on March 21, 1962, in New York City to Patricia Broderick (née Biow), a playwright and painter, and James Broderick, an actor. His father had Irish and some English ancestry, and his mother was from a German Jewish/Polish Jewish family.  Matthew initially took up acting at New York’s upper-crust Walden School after being sidelined from his athletic pursuits (football and soccer) by a knee injury. His father got him his stage debut at age 17 in a workshop production of the play “On Valentine’s Day”.  Other films he has appeared in which may be known but not so much respected include Out on a Limb (1992) with his Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986) co-star Jeffrey Jones; The Night We Never Met (1993); The Road to Wellville (1994); and The Cable Guy (1996) with Jim Carrey, which got him an MTV “Best Fight” award nomination; and the MTV film Election (1999) with Reese Witherspoon. In 1985 he was involved in a controversial car crash while driving in Ireland with his then fiancé Jennifer Grey. The crash killed a woman and her daughter. Although Broderick was cleared of all charges, he paid a small fine to the family of the victims. He broke his leg in the accident, which happened just as Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986), his biggest hit, was coming out in the US. The box office success (but critical flop) and special effects blockbuster Godzilla (1998) gave Broderick his first action role (should any “Godzilla” sequels be planned, he is under contract for two more). He has occasionally returned to the stage in New York, either in revivals of old musical warhorses such as “How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying” or in revivals of old “show people”plays, such as “Night Must Fall”. In 1996 Broderick attempted to wear three hats as co-producer/director/actor in Infinity (1996), working very closely with his mother, who also wrote the screenplay. It was not a critical or commercial success, and he has not directed or produced since. Since May 1997 he has been married to actress Sarah Jessica Parker. He was previously engaged to both Helen Hunt and dated Lili Taylor. In 1999 he donned a trenchcoat for the children’s film Inspector Gadget (1999), alongside Rupert Everett as the evil villain Claw. In March 2001 Broderick returned to Broadway in the musical smash “The Producers” (based on the 1968 Mel Brooks film of the same name). He was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical, which he lost to his co-star, Nathan Lane.

Alan Ruck (Cameron Frye) was born on July 1, 1956 in Cleveland, Ohio, and has made over 100 appearances in films and television, andon stage. He is best known for his role as the friend of Matthew Broderick and hopeless hypochondriac Cameron Frye, in John Hughes’s Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986).  During the 1980’s, he appeared in films such as Class (1983) with Rob Lowe and Andrew McCarthy and Three for the Road (1987) with Charlie Sheen. The 1990s included Young Guns II (1990) with Emilio Estevez and Lou Diamond Phillips, Star Trek: Generations (1994), Speed (1994) with Keanu Reeves and Twister (1996).  Ruck’s television appearances include Tales from the Crypt (1989) opposite Lou Diamond Philips, Mad About You (1992) with Helen Hunt (his co-star in Twister), and Spin City (1996) with Michael J. Fox.  Ruck made an appearance in the HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon (1998) which reunited him with his Twister co-star Cary Elwes.

Mia Sara (Sloane Peterson) was born on June 19, 1967 in Brooklyn Heights, New York, USA as Mia Sarapocciello. She is an actress, known for Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986), Legend (1985) and Timecop (1994). She has been married to Brian Henson since April 6, 2010. They have one child. She was previously married to Jason Connery.  Sara enjoys flying and holds a private pilot license. In March 1996, Sara was married to Jason Connery, the son of Sean Connery, with whom she performed in Bullet to Beijing. In June 1997, they had a son, Dashiell Quinn Connery. The couple divorced in 2002. She is now married to Brian Henson, oldest son of Muppet’s creator Jim Henson; they have one daughter, Amelia Jane Henson.

Jennifer Grey (Jeanie Bueller) is an American actress who starred in the film Dirty Dancing (1987) opposite Patrick Swayze, a sleeper hit that would become one of the biggest films of the 1980’s. She had previously appeared with Patrick Swayze in John Milius’s cold war drama Red Dawn (1984) as ‘Toni’, one of the ‘Wolverines’, a group of renegade teenagers fighting for their country during World War III.  She then starred in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Cotton Club (1984) and the John Badham project American Flyers (1985). By this time she had been linked in with the ‘so-called’ Brat Pack and unsurprisingly won a starring role in John Hughes’s hit comedy Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986) playing the older sister of Matthew Broderick and love interest of Charlie Sheen.  As the 1980s drew to a close, Jennifer headlined Howard Brookner’s romantic drama Bloodhounds of Broadway (1989), which again teamed her with Alan Ruck, and also Matt Dillon and Madonna. Since then she has worked steadily, starring in over 34 Film and TV appearances including If the Shoe Fits (1990), Wind (1992), and Bounce (2000).  Jennifer will nevertheless be best remembered as ‘Baby’ in Dirty Dancing (1987), a role that earned her a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress.

Did You Know?

June, 5, 1985 was probably Ferris’ real day off. Yes, calling in sick on this day is highly suspect thanks to our beloved movie. Experts have pinpointed the actual day Ferris, Cameron, and Sloane painted Chicago red, because of the Braves-Cubs baseball game they attended. We think this should be declared a national holiday, because, well, as Ferris put it, “How could I be expected to handle school on a day like this?”

Mr. and Mrs. Bueller were a real-life couple — after the movie, that is. The two fell for each other during the filming of the movie and married later in 1986 when the movie came out.

Though Ferris and company were portraying high-schooler’s, only Mia Sara — who played Ferris’ girlfriend Sloane Peterson — was a teenager at the time of filming. Matthew Broderick was 23 and Alan Ruck, who played Cameron Frye, was 29!

Cameron’s father’s smokin’ red Ferrari California Spyder was actually a fake. Yes, the dream car that suffered a tragic end, crashing into a ravine behind Cameron’s house, was a replica of the ’63 car. Director John Hughes had automaker design three special replicas for the film to keep costs down. The replica cost a mere $25,000 while the real deal would have cost a cool $300,000. One replica (not the crashed one) was auctioned off for $230,000 last year.

Look closely and you’ll discover every license plate in the movie has a meaning. Cameron’s father’s Ferrari had the plate (fittingly) “NRVOUS,” but all the other plates paid homage to one of Hughes films, like Jeannie’s which read “TBC” for “The Breakfast Club” and Principal Rooney’s which read “4FBDO.” We’ll let you figure that last one out.