The Breakfast Club

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The Breakfast Club
The Breakfast Club theatrical poster
Directed by	John Hughes
Produced by	John Hughes Ned Tanen
Written by	John Hughes
Starring	Emilio Estevez Paul Gleason Anthony Michael Hall Judd Nelson Molly Ringwald Ally Sheedy
Music by	Keith Forsey
Cinematography	Thomas Del Ruth
Editing by	Dede Allen
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	February 15, 1985
Running time	97 min
Country	USA
Language	English
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

The Breakfast Club is a 1985 teen film widely considered as the definitive work in the genre. Written and directed by John Hughes, The Breakfast Club storyline follows five teenagers (each representing a different clique in high school) as they spend a Saturday in detention together and come to realize that they are all deeper than their respective stereotypes. The film has become a cult classic and has had a tremendous influence on many coming of age films since then.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Main Characters 3 Cast 4 Cultural impact 4.1 References in the media 4.2 Media with a similar plot 4.3 Media that parodies the original 5 Trivia 6 Taglines 7 External links

[edit] Plot

The plot follows five students at fictional Shermer High School in the widely used John Hughes setting of Shermer, Illinois (a fictitious suburb of Chicago based on New Trier), as they report for Saturday detention on March 24, 1984. Complete strangers, the five teenagers are all from a different clique or social group:

Name	Description	Reason for Detention
Claire Standish	The Princess: a wealthy spoiled girl	Skipping school to go shopping at a mall.
Andrew Clark	The Athlete: a varsity wrestler	Taping a fellow student's butt cheeks together
Brian Johnson	The Brain: a nerd	Bringing a flare gun to school (in a parasuicidal gesture) that accidentally discharged in his locker, causing minor property damage
John Bender	The Criminal: a troublemaker who continually causes problems at school	He is in detention for pulling the fire alarm (it is implied that it isn't unusual for him to be there)
Allison Reynolds	The Basketcase: A kleptomaniac misfit and self-described "compulsive liar"	She has nothing better to do (according to her)

The five strangers, who seem to have nothing in common at first, come together at the high school library, where they are harangued and ordered not to speak or move from their seats by the antagonistic Principal Mr. Richard Vernon (Paul Gleason) and remain for a period of nine hours (from 7.A.M. to 4.P.M.). He assigns a 1000 word essay (in which each student must write about who they think they are) and then leaves them mostly unsupervised, returning only occasionally to check on them. Bender, who has a particularly negative relationship with Mr. Vernon, disregards the rules and riles up the other students; mocking Brian and Andy and sexually harassing Claire. Allison remains oddly quiet except for the occasional random outburst.

The students pass the hours in a variety of ways: they dance, harass each other, tell stories, fight, smoke marijuana, and speak on a variety of subjects. Gradually they open up to each other and reveal their inner secrets (for example, Allison is a kleptomaniac and a compulsive liar and Brian is ashamed of his virginity). They also discover that they all have strained relationships with their parents and are afraid of making the same mistakes as the adults around them. However, despite these developing friendships, the students are afraid that once the detention is over, they will return to their very different cliques and never speak to each other again.

Nevertheless, genuine connections have been made. Andy and Allison are drawn to each other, and Claire and Bender overcome their differences and kiss. Both couples exchange tokens: Allison takes a patch from Andy's letter jacket, and is seen with his jacket around her shoulders at the very end of the movie when they're saying goodbye. Claire gives Bender one of her diamond earrings.

At the request and consensus of the students, Brian is asked to write the essay Mr. Vernon assigned earlier (the subject of which was to be a synopsis by each student detailing "who you think you are"), which challenges Mr. Vernon and his preconceived judgments about all of them. Brian does so, but instead of writing about the actual topic he writes a very motivating letter that is in essence, the main point of the story. He signs the essay as "The Breakfast Club" and leaves it at the table for Mr. Vernon to read when they leave. There are two versions for this letter, one read at the beginning and one at the end, and they are slightly different; illustrating the change in the student's judgments of one another, and their realization that they truly have things in common.

The beginning letter is as follows:

Brian Johnson (although that is unknown at this point): Saturday, March 24, 1984. Shermer High School, Shermer, Illinois. 60062.

Dear Mr. Vernon, we accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was that we did wrong. What we did WAS wrong. But we think you're crazy to make us write this essay telling you who we think we are. What do you care? You see us as you want to see us...in the simplest terms and the most convenient definitions. You see us as a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess and a criminal. Correct? That's the way we saw each other at seven o'clock this morning. We were brainwashed.

The end letter is as follows:

Brian Johnson: Dear Mr. Vernon, we accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did wrong. What we did was wrong, but we think you're crazy to make us write an essay telling you who we think we are. 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...

Andrew Clark: ...and an athlete...

Allison Reynolds: ...and a basket case...

Claire Standish: ...a princess...

John Bender: ...and a criminal...

Brian Johnson: Does that answer your question?... Sincerely yours, the Breakfast Club.

The letter is the focal point of the film, as it demonstrates and illustrates the changes the students went through during the course of the day; the attitudes and perspectives have changed and are now completely different.

[edit] Main Characters

• John Bender: The "rebel" of the group, John Bender is arguably the catalyst of the group who provokes many of the happenings throughout the film. While he is hostile at first towards the others in the room with him, he seems to have a more tolerant attitude towards Allison, whom he defends against Principal Vernon, and mentions seeing her around before. Bender is a detention regular and antagonizes Principal Vernon. At home, he is a victim of child abuse, particularly by his father, who, he says, gave him a carton of cigarettes for Christmas, and administered a cigar burn to his arm for spilling paint in the garage.
• Claire Standish: Claire is the "richie" in detention. She's used to being sheltered by her group of friends and doting parents. She is almost afraid of being there and is quickly made the target of John Bender's taunting, particularly because she outwardly appears spoiled and unworldly. As she gets to know the others in detention with her, she begins to open her mind bit-by-bit. At home, her bickering parents only pamper her in order to spite each other, a fact which she is painfully aware of. Like Brian, she is sensitive about being a virgin.
• Andrew Clark: Andy is the film's "jock." Andy, like Claire, is ashamed of being in detention and is used to the better end of social life at school. But unlike Claire, Andy is constantly pushed beyond his limits, by his coaches, friends and father. He isn't fond of John Bender, but seems to have a soft edge as far as protecting Claire against John's taunting, and is amused by Allison Reynold's strange outbursts. At home, his father forces him to win, which pressures him pushing him to the limit to commit the crime he committed for ending up in detention (he beat up a boy and then taped his butt cheeks together which resulted in the boy losing some skin when the tape was torn off).
• Allison Reynolds: the "basket case" of the group, Allison is easily the most sympathetic character of the five students in detention. She is the most socially isolated and claims to have no friends. She hides beneath her hair and the hood of her parka when frightened and amuses herself by counting the flakes of dandruff drifting from her hair. For the first half of the film she is quiet, save for occasional chipmunk like "squeaks" of fear and a few random outbursts, but later on she opens up, particularly to Andy. She is the least hesitant to talk openly about her home life and isn't afraid of being different. She is the only character who doesn't partake of John Bender's marijuana stash. At home, Allison is a victim of child neglect, and as a result carries a large bag with her in case she feels like running away. She claims to be in therapy, but because of her compulsive lying it is unknown if her claim is true.
• Brian Johnson: the group's "brainiac". Brian is one of the more vulnerable characters, as well as the one who doesn't want any trouble. He tries to keep the group quiet so no one gets yelled at, but sometimes gets in the way while trying to be noticed. John points out Brian as the stereotypical "good boy," which offends Brian. He later reveals he got caught with a flare gun in his locker after it accidentally discharged. At home, Brian is pressured by his parents, much like Andy. But Brian's case differs from Andy in the fact that he is forced to be a perfect academic. It is revealed that the flare gun was meant for a suicide attempt after failing a shop project (he claims that shop was the only class he had ever failed a project in.). Like Claire, he is sensitive about his virginity.

[edit] Cast

Each of the film's young stars became part of the Brat Pack (whose other members include Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, and Demi Moore), a group of actors who all hit stardom at the same time and tended to star in movies together. The teenagers in the film were played by Emilio Estevez (Andrew Clarke, the high school jock), Anthony Michael Hall (Brian Ralph Johnson, the nerd), Judd Nelson (John Bender, the rebel stoner), Molly Ringwald (Claire Standish, the rich preppie), and Ally Sheedy (Allison Reynolds, the basket case). Paul Gleason played Richard Vernon, the principal and detention supervisor, and John Kapelos played the janitor Carl. Hughes appeared in an uncredited role as Brian's father. Of the entire cast, only Hall and Ringwald were actually high school age upon the movie's release; Nelson was twenty-five while Sheedy and Estevez were both twenty-two years old.

Judd Nelson’s performance was influenced by his method style technique of staying in character off set. He was accused of bullying Molly Ringwald off camera due to his insistence on remaining in character off-camera. This behavior almost made John Hughes fire Nelson, but Nelson was defended by Paul Gleason (ironically playing Nelson's on-screen nemesis). Gleason stated that Nelson was just trying to stay in character and didn't mean anything by it. [1]

Ringwald and Hall dated briefly after filming ended.[2]

In 2005, MTV announced that the film would be rewarded with the "Silver Bucket of Excellence Award" in honor of its twentieth Anniversary at the MTV Movie Awards. To coincide with the event, MTV attempted to reunite the original cast. Sheedy, Ringwald, and Hall appeared together on stage, with Kapelos in the audience, and Gleason personally gave the award to his former castmates. Estevez could not attend the reunion because of other commitments, and Nelson appeared earlier in the show but left before the on-stage reunion for reasons unknown. Hall joked that the two were "in Africa with Dave Chappelle." This show was taped on May 28, 2005 and aired on June 9.

Rumors of a sequel where the characters return for a class reunion have been circulating for years alleging that Judd Nelson is the cast member holding out.

[edit] Cultural impact

The Breakfast Club was ranked number 1 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 50 Best High School Movies and has had a tremendous impact on both the teen film genre and on popular culture since the 1980s. In addition, its theme song titled "Don't You (Forget About Me)", performed by Simple Minds, reached #1 in the U.S. billboards in 1985 and has since then become a symbol of teen films, teen love and teen feelings. It has also been repeatedly used in several teen films as well as television programs.

The movie can be read, and has been read, in both a liberal and a conservative way as opposed to movies like the British "If..." of 1968 and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, which clearly take the side of the rebel. Hughes in fact as part of the cultural apparatus assumes he cannot "bite the hand that feeds him" thus the incipient rebellion of the film gets into the car, a *deus machina* not a *deus ex machina*, but a useful and quiescing plot device at the end and disappears.

[edit] References in the media

• The band Good Riddance: used this quote on their 2003 CD Bound by ties of blood and affection: "God, are we gonna be like our parents?" "It's unavoidable...it just happens..." "What happens?" "When you grow up...Your heart dies..." The song is titled * Bobby Baun
• None More Black, a now-defunct punk rock band, put out a previously unreleased song for Rock Against Bush Vol. 1 entitled "Nothing to do when you're locked in a vacancy", which is a quote from Bender to Andrew.
• Family Guy: In the episode "Let's Go to the Hop", The scene in which Peter sees Tony the Tiger, Toucan Sam, Trix Rabbit, Lucky the Leprechaun and Cap'n Crunch "The Breakfast Club" - is a parody of a scene from the film in which Judd Nelson's character is talking about what he got for Christmas one year. Also the ending of the episode features Peter posing in a similar manner as John Bender while Don't You (Forget About Me) plays.
• American Dad!: In the episode "Failure is not a Factory-installed Option", they show the reading of the letter at the end of the movie in a drive-in movie at the home scene.
• Chasing Amy, Dogma: In his graphic novel and then his film, respectively, Kevin Smith has the stoner duo Jay and Silent Bob attempt to visit the fictional town of Shermer, Illinois, where many of Hughes' films (including The Breakfast Club) were set, in order to deal marijuana. Multiple scenes within the graphic novel, including one set in a high school, contain some references of Hughes and Club, as does the diner scene in Dogma.
• Futurama: In the episode "The Luck of the Fryrish", Fry hides his lucky clover in the sleeve of The Breakfast Club soundtrack, looks at the cover and comments: "Man I can't wait till I'm old enough to feel ways about stuff". Later his older brother, Yancy, discovers the clover while looking for music to play at his wedding, claiming the soundtrack will "clear out the room at the end of the reception". At the end of the episode, the song "Don't You (Forget About Me)" begins to play after he learns the truth of his nephew. Also, the robot Bender was inspired by John Bender, as admitted by Groening himself, who stated this in the DVD audio commentary of the episode.[3]
• Gilmore Girls: Rory once tells her mom that Brendan Lewis "watched the Breakfast Club and decided to tape his own butt cheeks together".
• Go (1999 film): In the film, one of the characters asks Claire if she's a virgin, to which she replies: "What? Oh, The Breakfast Club. Funny."
• "'In Love With The 80's," a song by Relient K: A line in the song goes: "When you're the president of The Breakfast Club and you're not hesitant to fall in love."
• Grange Hill: A Saturday detention episode of the British children's drama bears a striking resemblance to scenes from the movie, even including the quip "Welcome to the Breakfast Club...!"
• Man Research (Clapper) by Gorillaz: The lyrics "This is the Breakfast Club" can be heard in the beginning of the song.
• Scrubs: In one of its episodes, Ted finally wins in an argument with Dr. Kelso and imitates the very last scene of the movie, where Bender raises his fist and walks away as "Don't You (Forget About Me)" plays in the background.
• The Simpsons: The phrase "Eat my shorts" is used to insult the principal in the film and has since been adopted by its cartoon character Bart Simpson. In addition, The Independent News stated that it is possible that creator Matt Groening based the character of Seymour Skinner on Principal Vernon. Another reference is the detention scene, when Homer is in detention with Marge. The principle increases Homer's detention, similarly to Principal Vernon increasing Bender's number of detentions.
• One Tree Hill: During episode 316, the school shooting episode, Jimmy Edwards makes reference to the movie stating "This ain’t… breakfast club! You know, we’re not all gonna… fire up a joint and be pals."
• The Office (US): During the episode "The Fight", Michael Scott said to Dwight Schrute, "Two hits, me hitting you and you hitting the floor."
• Scrubs: The look and attitude of the nameless janitor in the show bear striking resemblances to The Breakfast Club janitor, Carl."
• Not Another Teen Movie: One scene makes fun of Bender, Andrew and Brian. Also Bender's feud with Principal Vernon is redone and various other lines are repeated. The clock says "20 minutes fast" in the scene too.

[edit] Media with a similar plot

• Dawson's Creek: In the first season, an episode entitled "Detention" is a takeoff of the movie. In the episode, the characters talk about the actors who had appeared in the movie and the fact that none of them had really done any work recently. Pacey, portrayed by Joshua Jackson says, talking about Emilio Estevez that "he made those 'Duck' movies. Those were classic!" Jackson and Estevez co-starred in the Mighty Ducks movies.
• Degrassi: The Next Generation: The third season episode "Take On Me" borrows from the film, with Jimmy (The Jock), Ellie (The Goth/Basketcase), Sean (The Criminal), Hazel (The Princess), and Toby (The Brain) serving detention.
• ER: In the episode "Secrets and Lies", originally aired on March 7, 2002, five of the characters were forced into an "all-day Saturday" detention (actually a sexual harassment sensitivity seminar) to which the instructor arrived over two hours late.
• Naturally Sadie: The episode in which Sadie has her first Saturday detention is a parody of the movie.^{[citation needed]}
• Lizzie McGuire: One episode of it is based off of the movie, in which Larry, Kate and Lizzie are all stuck in the cafeteria after a food fight. Their principal says that they have to either tell who started the fight or clean up the cafeteria. They make a connection with each other, clean the cafeteria together and write their principal a note signed as "The Lunch Bunch".
• The Outer Limits episode Abduction involves a similar set of characters alone in a school albeit with a Science Fiction twist. [4]
• Ultimate Spider-Man comic series, issue #65: The issue takes place in Saturday detention as a tribute to The Breakfast Club, where the five in detention are Peter Parker ("The Brain"), Flash Thompson ("The Criminal"), Mary Jane Watson ("The Basket Case"), Liz Allan ("The Princess") and Kenny "Kong" McFarlane ("The Athlete"). Writer Brian Michael Bendis has had homage to other John Hughes movies. At one convention when talking about these references Bendis self-mockingly said "John Hughes is my life". It should be noted that this was about a year before the Breakfast Club issue was published.^{[citation needed]}
• X-Play: an episode of the G4TV show parodied the movie, except that the characters were forced to write reviews of "retro" (mid-late '80s, early '90s) video games. Character roles were performed by G4 personalities Adam Sessler ("The Brain"), Morgan Webb ("The Princess"), Kevin Pereira ("The Rebel"), Michael Leffler ("The Jock"), and Sarah Lane ("The Basket Case"). Vernon also appeared in the episode, but the name of his actor is unknown at this point. Instead of leaving at the end of the day, they take pills and kill themselves.
• One Tree Hill : In episode 413 "Pictures of You" a class assignment tries to get the students break the stereotypes classified by High School: The Jock, Prom Queen, Geek, Loner, and slut or Friendly. The students pair off by drawing names from a hat and during the 50 minute class they perform tasks in an attempt to redefine how the "world" sees them. The actor playing the teacher in this episode played the part of Carl "the janitor" in the Breakfast Club.
• Light It Up : Judd Nelson plays a rogue teacher in an inner city school with a gun crisis that culminates in the library and has distinct parallels to Breakfast Club.
• Good Riddance' ':

[edit] Media that parodies the original

• The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2: The poster and video box art for the 1980s horror film parodied that of The Breakfast Club.
• A*Teens: The music video for "Dancing Queen" features a plot very similar to the film, and features a cameo appearance by Paul Gleason.
• Along Came Polly: In the movie, Philip Seymour Hoffman's character was a child star who was only in one movie in the '80s called "Crocodile Tears." The poster shown parodies that of The Breakfast Club.
• As Told By Ginger: One of its episode in which Ginger has Saturday detention mimics scenes from The Breakfast Club.
• Boston Magazine: Its September 2006 issue makes a parody of the film.^{[citation needed]}
• Friends: In an early episode of the television series, the cast is sitting in Monica and Rachel's apartment folding envelopes while whistling the tune used in the movie, mimicking the scene in the library.
• Family Guy: In the episode where Peter pretends to be a high school student, he mimics the final scene where John Bender is seen leaving the school throwing his hand in the air to the "Don't You (Forget About Me) song. In addition, in the same episode, Peter enters a library and exclaims "Holy crap, it's the Breakfast Club". He sees Tony the Tiger, Cap'n Crunch, the Lucky Charms Lepechaun, the Trix Rabbit, and the Tucan Sam. Tony mimics the scene describing getting cigarattes for Christmas.
• Not Another Teen Movie: The comedy features a number of references to The Breakfast Club and its actors. Most significantly, the film features a scene parodying the exchange where Vernon repeatedly increases Bender's detention. The scene is set in a replica of the library where most of The Breakfast Club takes place and even features Paul Gleason reprising his role as Vernon. Also, the school and its cafeteria are named after the director of the film, John Hughes, and Anthony Michael Hall, respectively. Molly Ringwald also has a cameo, and "Don't You (Forget About Me)" is played over the end credits.
• Star Wars Tales: In the series of graphic novels, The Breakfast Club was parodied as "The Rebel Club".
• That '80s Show: A promotional photo for the short-lived FOX series featured its cast in a parody of the Breakfast Club poster.

[edit] Trivia

• Clocks in the schools bounce forward and backward betweens scenes and in some scenes total darkness is seen in the windows as filming sometimes ran into the night hours.
• The opening quote are lyrics drawn from David Bowie's song "Changes."
• The recording of "Don't You (Forget About Me)" depicted in the beginning of the film is an alternate recording from that of the actual record release.
• In the scenes of the school in the beginning, John Kapelos' character Carl is listed as one of the "Men of the Year". Ironically, he is now the school's janitor.
• Emilio Estevez was originally going to play Bender, but John Hughes couldn't find someone to play Andrew Clark, so Emilio agreed to play Clark.
• Anthony Michael Hall's mother and younger sister played his character Brian's mother and sister in the movie. John Hughes made a cameo appearance as his father, who picks him up at the end of the film.
• The library in which this movie takes place was actually the gymnasium of Maine North High School. The school closed down in 1982, two years before filming began.
• At the end of the movie, John Bender walks through Maine South High School's football field.
• The license plates of Brian's car read "EMC 2", and Andy's car's "OHIO ST"
• The school used in the filming of The Breakfast Club was also used for some of the school-based scenes in John Hughes' Ferris Bueller's Day Off, which was released just a year after The Breakfast Club. Some of the posters on the walls during filming of The Breakfast Club were still there when Ferris Bueller was filmed. The giveaway is that the sign on the front of the school reads "Shermer High School" in both films. On the Ferris Bueller's Day Off DVD commentary (fetured on the 2004 DVD version) John Hughes reveals that he filmed the two movies back to back to save time and money, and some outtakes of both films feature elements of the film crews working on the other film in each case. Hughes has never disclosed, however, whether Ferris Bueller was implied to be a student at the "same" school as The Breakfast Club students a year on.
• Bender's so-called blond joke was completely ad-libbed to make the scene less boring.
• In the episode of the CBS Crime Drama Cold Case named "The Sleepover", there is a clip of The Breakfast Club playing in the background as a tribute to episode director Emilio Estevez.
• Two deleted scenes appear in the televised cut of the film, but are not included on the original DVD release, either in the film or as special features.
  • A continuation of the scene in which Vernon chooses Andrew and Allison to visit the soda machine.
  • The five students observe Mr. Vernon angrily kicking and punching a vending machine.
• The word Fuck is said 28 times.

[edit] Taglines

• They only met once, but it changed their lives forever.
• They were five total strangers, with nothing in common, meeting for the first time: a brain, a beauty, a jock, a rebel, and a recluse. Before the day was over, they broke the rules, bared their souls, and touched each other in a way they never dreamed possible.
• Five strangers with nothing in common, accept each other.

[edit] External links

• The Breakfast Club DVD Official Universal Studios Site
• The Breakfast Club at the Internet Movie Database
• The Breakfast Club Director's Cut petition
• Entertainment Weekly commentary
• The John Hughes Files - References (Cultural Impact)
• The Breakfast Club Script