Rewind, Review, and Re-Rate: ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’: A 36-Year Anniversary Celebration

PG-13 | 1h 43m | Teen comedy, High School | June 11, 1986

Bowng! Bowng!  Chick-a-chick-ahhhhhhh …“Ohhhhhhh yeeaaaahh”

You know what I’m talking about. If you don’t, it’s highly likely you’ve been living under a rock for the last 36 years. It’s the 36th anniversary of one of the most beloved American movie comedies of all time: “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.”

Director John Hughes was always interested in what makes young people tick. He'd already built a solid reputation as a canny chronicler of teenage existence, pandering to teen audiences with anti-authoritarian potshots, gross-out gags, and pop culture cross-references.

His films lent a sympathetic (if somewhat fawning) ear to the American adolescent rebellion creed of Woe is me for I am being oppressed by parents and school and life. Which was (not to get too serious here) one of the results of a creeping, surreptitious, subversive, behind-the-scenes and under-the-radar attack on the bastions of America’s traditions and institutions (religion, law, education, medicine, art, and so on) by Soviet communists. Which had the ultimate effect of making adults look stupid and dividing and conquering by playing up the “generation gap.” 

“Bueller” is the breeziest of the Hughes canon—about the lives of suburban high schoolers in the Chicago area in the mid 1980s.

‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’

As the title indicates, the film is about one high school senior’s brief, unauthorized vacation. Young Ferris—played with cheeky self-assurance by Matthew Broderick as that kid who annoyingly always gets away with stuff (but whom you have to grudgingly hand it to for innovation and originality)—has mastered the art of playing hooky.

(L–R) Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick), Mrs. Bueller (Cindy Pickett), Jeanie Bueller (Jennifer Grey), and Mr. Bueller (Lyman Ward). Ferris's parents are concerned that he is quite sick, in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." (Paramount Pictures)

First, he bamboozles his parents (Cindy Pickett and Lyman Ward) with a meticulously feigned illness via all manner of computerized coughing and hacking, a human-sized dummy attached to strings, pulleys, and a counterweight (his soccer trophy)—that rolls over when his door is opened—and clammy palms (you lick your palms right before offering your mom your hand for fever inspection).

Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick) can't play the clarinet, but that insignificant fact is not about to cramp his style, in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." (Paramount Pictures)

All this blatant lying annoys the heck out of his incredulous younger sister (Jennifer Grey in the role that catapulted her to fame right before “Dirty Dancing” shot her into the stratosphere). Ferris sneakily winks at her when their parents aren’t looking, thus immediately turning her into a fuming, vengeful antagonist for (almost) the duration of the movie.

Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick) can't play the guitar but has fun, in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." (Paramount Pictures)

Then, after everyone’s left for work or school, Ferris, a classic sanguine personality, lets his inner sanguine (now labeled ADHD) run wild: He strums the guitar, he tootles the clarinet, he makes a shampoo Mohawk in the shower, he dresses up in suits, he putts a golf ball, he fiddles with congestion and cough noises on his computer, and goes sunbathing by the pool.

Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick) sports a shampoo Mohawk while explaining why he doesn't want to go to history class and hear about European socialism, in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." (Paramount Pictures)

Then, when that gets dull, he calls up his bestie, the nerdy hypochondriac rich-kid Cameron Frye (Alan Ruck) who’s so downtrodden by an overbearing dad that he’s constantly sick in bed.

Ferris rouses Cameron out of bed, and they spring Ferris’s girlfriend Sloane Peterson (Mia Sara) from school with some nicely timed phone calls and a convincing tale of “my grandma died.” Incidentally, when Ruck played the part of Sloane’s dad on the crank call to principal Ed Rooney (Jeffrey Jones), Ruck was doing an impression of an old Broadway director that he and Broderick once worked with, in order to try and get Broderick to crack up.

Then the trio takes off for downtown Chicago for a day of simple but satisfying misadventures.

Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick) about to hijack Cameron's dad's 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California, in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." (Paramount Pictures)

And That’s the Whole Plot

What’s at stake here? Almost nothing. Just fun and pranks. Here and there, Hughes does drop hints that it’s all building toward some riotous climax, as fellow students spread the (Ferris-instigated) rumor that Ferris needs a kidney transplant, but Hughes’s ambitions are modest. He just wants to show how three people might enjoy taking a break from their workaday routine by simply ditching, going to a museum, enjoying a fine-dining experience, taking in a ballgame at Wrigley Field (“Heeey batter-batter-batter, suh-WING bat-taahh! He-can’t-hit-he-can’t-hit-he-can’t-hit—suh-WING bat-taaaahh!!!”) and otherwise avoiding all major responsibilities for a day.

(L–R) Cameron Frye (Alan Ruck), Sloane Peterson (Mia Sara), and Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick) take in an art exhibition, in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." (Paramount Pictures)

Hughes grounds the comedy with one dramatic scene, wherein Cameron will have to explain to his cold, distant father why his prized, bright red 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California—which he likes to “rub with a diaper” (and cares more about than he does his only son)—is completely totaled. Which is, in fact, the type of ordeal that’s so daunting it’ll turn a boy into a man overnight, and we satisfyingly see that transformation in Cameron, who, after coming out of a state of catatonic shock about the car’s devastation, squares his shoulders, faces his future, and says, “When Morris comes home, he and I will just have a little chat.”

Roll-call-taking economics teacher (played by President Nixon's speech writer Ben Stein) speaking the famous words " Bueller? Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?" in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." (Paramount Pictures)

But perhaps the most endearing quality about “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” is that there’s no big finish. Much like “Napoleon Dynamite” years later, it just depicts deliciously recognizable instances of high school life to be savored, such as the monumental, movie-concluding pratfall of Principal Rooney. Well, actually, Ferris’s whole rush to get back to bed before getting caught, along with Principal Rooney’s spectacular fall from grace, is a pretty big finish.

The Performances

(L–R) Mia Sara, Matthew Broderick, and Alan Ruck in a publicity shot for "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." (Paramount Pictures)

Broderick’s nonstop, precocious patter gives “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” just the right air of breezy insouciance. Ferris “breaks the fourth wall” (talks to the audience) constantly, providing hilarious running commentary about the goings-on. What makes it funny is that he’s mostly matter-of-fact and self-deprecatory. We get the impression that we’re being taken into the confidence of an eternally optimistic Master Trickster who’s got a level of audacity, self-assurance, and an ability to read people that most teens can only dream about. Granted, Ferris is a hair’s breadth away from being an insufferable, narcissistic, entitled brat, and without the leavening humor, that’s exactly what he'd be.

Principal Ed Rooney (Jeffrey Jones)—a man whose life’s mission is to stifle Ferris’s free spirit—makes vows like, “Fifteen years from now, when he looks back on the ruin his life has become, he’s going to remember Edward Rooney!”

Principal Ed Rooney (Jeffrey Jones) and the flower delivery guy (Louie Anderson), in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." (Paramount Pictures)

Jones is a great comedic talent and plays this cartoonish villain for every laugh he can get. Who can forget him exiting a car, putting on sunglasses, scowling malevolently like Dirty Harry, only to suddenly spin in the opposite direction and flip up the intensely nerdy flipping shade-attachment so he can better examine a shady area? The comedic timing of that was impeccable. In ’86, no one had ever seen such flip-up hybrid sunglasses yet, and the gag floored audiences nationwide.

After a while, though, the chronically beleaguered Rooney begins to engage our sympathy, much like Wile E. Coyote. But, exactly like Wile E. Coyote scheming to eat Roadrunner, he absolutely deserves every misfortune that befalls him. And so every step he takes—every split-his-pants, flapping-shoe, Rottweiler-bit, limping step—in his ultimate walk of shame, is comedy gold. His car having been towed, he’s picked up by a busload of stunned middle-schoolers, and his massive ego is severely diminished, having to be witnessed, skulking along, mud-bedraggled and face-kicked, by his underlings.

And when the kids struggle to comprehend how Principal Rooney, hysterically hunching up the bus aisle with a cotton-filled bloody nose and a baleful-but-beaten glare, has tumbled so far from the lofty administrative heights—you'll find yourself with stomach cramps from laughing. The grand ingredient in comedy is ego deflation.

Alan Ruck plays an excellent straight man to Broderick’s exuberant clowning, and Mia Sara looks like she’s having so much fun that she’s almost not in the movie but along for the ride as a spectator.

Jeanie Bueller (Jennifer Grey) and her new juvenile delinquent boyfriend (the uncredited Charlie Sheen), in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." (Paramount Pictures)

Jennifer Grey (actor Joel Grey’s daughter) as Ferris’s sister seethes with a most enjoyable outrage, and nails a gem of a scene with the unbilled (and then unknown) Charlie Sheen as the bad boy she gets a giggly crush on.

The Funniest Scenes Come at the End

The best part might be the homecoming sprint. Ferris, racing to beat his parents’ return, hightails it through leafy estates and winding subdivisions; past a family picnic and a backyard grill; past two sunbathing lovelies (with a slow retracing of steps for a politician-type introduction); past girls giggling on a porch; through a stranger’s living room and kitchen (“Smells delicious!”) to a jungle gym with a trampoline for a climactic bound into his own backyard.

This montage of all-American amenities is very similar to the nighttime scene in “National Lampoon’s Vacation,” where the Griswold family, all fast asleep in their station wagon with the parking break off, roll magically without mishap through just such a leafy neighborhood environment. Which is, not coincidentally, a John Hughes-penned script. It would appear to be Hughes’s favorite way of celebrating suburban America.

Principal Ed Rooney (Jeffrey Jones) on the phone with someone he thinks is Sloane Peterson's dad, in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." (Paramount Pictures)

But the film’s best line is possibly: “I bet you never smelled a real school bus before,” said to Mr. Rooney by that archetypal space-cadet little blond girl with the coke-bottle glasses (we all knew one of her from grade school), who benevolently serves him up a warm gummy bear from the recesses of her pocket where it’s undoubtedly resided for weeks. It’s just priceless.

And don’t forget, “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” was the first movie to kick off the now venerable tradition of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s post-credit-roll scene. “You’re still here? It’s over! Go home!”

Go home and watch it again!

Movie poster for "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." (Paramount Pictures)

‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’ Director: John Hughes Starring: Matthew Broderick, Mia Sara, Alan Ruck, Jennifer Grey, Jeffrey Jones, Cindy Pickett, Lyman Ward, Ben Stein MPAA Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 1 hour, 43 minutes Release Date: June 11, 1986 Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5