Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)

I lived in the house where Ferris Bueller's Day Off was filmed. As to the comment that Ferris' room was modelled after John Hughes', I can tell you that my own room was very similar to Ferris' room in the movie. I had flags on the walls and ceiling, posters of new wave rock bands, etc. I think the reason that they didn't use my room was because it was too small.

The dog door seen on the door leading out of the kitchen was added just for the movie, and replaced immediately after the filming was done. The peep hole in the green gate where the Mr. Rooney looks through to see the dog was drilled especially for the movie. There were actually two dogs, one trained to be calm (the one seen sleeping through the peep hole, and the another one who chased Rooney - a more hyper dog.

I've got a "Bueller Family" photo with the two siblings who were cut out of the movie. It hung on the wall of the hallway Ferris walked down going to the shower.

There was a tall Eucalyptus tree in our back yard that was covered with some sort of plastic covering to make it look like a tree found in Illinois. -Thanks to Thad

In Ferris's family, everyone was romantically involved! Matthew Broderick was in real life seeing Jennifer Grey at the time of filming, as were his 'parents' in real life --they were married shortly after the movie was completed.

The film makers used 4 replica Ferrari 250 GT's during the movie. They were manufactured by Modena Design and Development of El Cajon, California. It's a hand-built production sports car and each one takes about six months to build. The car is not a Ferrari, but Modena's Classic GT250 borrows heavily from the looks of the 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder. Modena's car also does not carry a Ferrari logo, but the prospective customer may add one if he/she wishes. The car body is composed of fiberglass hand-laid into a single mold and the 5-liter Ford V8 engine propels the car from 0-60 in less than six seconds.

In the film, Kenny Ortega was the choreographer for Ferris' little "Twist & Shout" scene. Kenny Ortega also choreographed for Jennifer Grey in "Dirty Dancing" -Thanks to Rachael Rochkind

When Ferris opens his curtains after his parents leave the house, you see him through the outside window. In front of the window is a telephone wire with a squirrel sitting on it. It is a real squirrel, in fact they had trained 2 squirrels to run on the telephone wire. One escaped and is probably still in the sound studio and the other (which is seen on the wire) got a little stage fright!!

When Ferris plays the clarinet he says "Never had one lesson!" That scene was ad-libbed when Matthew Broderick said he could play it on the set. That line is the directors favorite!

In order to keep the savage rottweiler focused on the Ed Rooney character, director John Hughes had Jeffrey Jones carry a raw steak around in his jacket pocket. -Thanks to Phatpants

Charlie Sheen (who played the guy in the police station that Jennifer Grey gets off with) stayed awake for 48 hours before the scene was shot to get the right look. -Thanks to Belch

Charlie's cameo in Ferris Bueller's Day Off was filmed on one of his days off from "Lucas, the role came up mid-shoot. -Thanks to Julia

The actors that played Ferris' parents, Cindy Pickett and Lyman Ward, fell in love during the shoot and were married shortly after it wrapped. -Thanks to Jennifer

The Synthesizer/sampler used to create vomit and cough EFX by Ferris was actually an EMU Emulator manufactured in early eighties by EMU. -Thanks to Jeno Boros

Anthony Michael Hall turned down roles in Pretty in Pink (Duckie) and Ferris Bueller's Day Off (Cameron) so he would not be typecast. -Thanks to Jeanie

Alan Ruck and Matthew Broderick had previously worked several times together on and off broadway. Cameron's fake "Mr. Peterson" voice was based on old drama coach Ruck and Broderick used to study under. Hughes never met the man and didn't understand the little in-joke at all, but it cracked up the two actors so much they used it for the voice. -Thanks to Jeanie

The art museum tour in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" is inspired by John's real-life youth fondness for art and painting, which he pursued at the University of Arizona. (He eventually dropped out and never graduated.) He says the art museum scene in FBDO was added out of his own self-indulgence. :)

When the car goes through the glass at the end, all the glass in the entire garage had already been changed due to the fact the trees had given it a green tint over the years. If they had smashed the glass without taking it all out first, there would have remained an odd clear untinted window. Also, the first time you see the car in the garage it is a real Ferrari, but only then, as that car belonged to the guy that owns the garage, a rich man who collects cars.

The squeak made by ferris's finger as he runs it down the car was actually made by a female crew member. -Thanks to Paul Williams

At the end of "twist and shout", Matthew Broderick leans back and falls into the hands of the German girls. If you notice they weren't exactly looking... he fell a little too early and they almost dropped him!

At the beginning of the movie, when Ferris and Cameron are taking his dad's Ferrari out to pick up Sloan there is a very old green classic car in the background of the garage. Later in the movie when they return it is missing. It isn't very likely that sometime during the day Mr. Fry returned home from work to take it out for a drive without noticing the Ferrari which he never drives is missing.

In the scene where Cameron is sinking in the pool you can clearly see some kind of weight belt or something around his waist, which isn't there when he is out of the pool.

When Ferris has just picked up Sloan from her school, he looks over at the camera and says " The question isn't what are we going to do. The question is what aren't we going to do". While he is saying this you can clearly see a boom mike moving back and forth in the car reflection.

In one shot of the car parked - the seatbelt is slammed in the door of the car and hanging out but when they cut back to the car seconds later, the seatbelt is gone.

In the scene where the nurse tells Sloan in the hallway about her grandmothers passing, if you look past them, you can see Jeanie standing at the very end of the hall. Evidently, she is waiting for the scene that shows the camera moving in on her later in the movie.

At the end of the movie when Ferris' parents come home you see their foyer by the front door loaded with get well flowers and balloons, etc. Who accepted the deliveries if no one was home all day? Rooney wasn't around long enough to have brought ALL those flowers and gifts inside. Also, as much as he despises Ferris, I'm sure he would rather see them on the front porch to wilt. The only reason he signed for the first one was because he just happened to be standing on the front porch when the deliveryman arrived.

When Ferris, Sloan, and Cameron pick up the Ferrari at the parking garage you can see the camera and its reflection in the window directly behind Ferris and Cameron

The rear view mirror disappears when Jeanie is speeding home.

When Ferris is kicking his shoes off at the end of the movie before jumping back into bed, he kicks his right shoe off and then when they change camera he kicks the same shoe off again.

When Ferris is about to jump in the pool to save Cameron there is a cookie floating in the water. As he jumps in, it disappears.

When Mr. Rooney goes to Ferris's house he is wearing a long sleeved shirt and coat jacket. A shot of his arm ringing the doorbell shows a bare arm with dark hair. When they return back to a shot of Mr. Rooney, his sleeve is touching his wrist and he does not have dark hair on the back of his hand. -Thanks to A Very Observant Jennifer

The scenes shot at Cameron's house began in May and finished in October. The scene where the Ferrari was crashed was shot in October. The trees in Chicagoland were in full color at this time. In order to have continuity and depict this scene as May, all of the leaves on the nearby trees were painted green! There is one scene after the Ferrari goes through the glass and the camera is down in the ravine looking up at the three actors standing in the garage looking down through the missing window. In the pane of glass next to them you can see reflections of distant trees which are every color but green as the fall colors were in full force. -Thanks to Bob Angarola

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