| | | | The Breakfast Club
(1985) |
he Breakfast Club is a 1985 movie written, produced and directed by the 80's movie master John Hughes.
The Breakfast Club is for many the movie that defines the 80's and is generally regarded by fans as the original and best "brat pack" movie. It is about five high school students who have to spend an entire Saturday in detention.
Each one of them couldn't be more different - a Brain (Brian Johnson), an Athlete (Andrew Clark), a Basket Case (Allison Reynolds), a Princess (Claire Standish), and a Criminal (John Bender).
At the beginning of the day they don't know anything about each other and think they have nothing in common, and being from different social sets they each have various attitudes and resentment towards each other. But during the course of the day they learn to respect one another and find out they aren't all that different, and even when they are fighting against each other they rally together against the common enemy Richard Vernon (Paul Gleason), the tough school principle who is there to watch over them for the day.
It can be a very moving film, with moments of great humour and lightheartedness. It is a John Hughes' masterpiece of storytelling that defines not only the 1980s, but the entire subset of human behaviour.
The characters and situations will be intimately familiar to everyone no matter what generation you are from. The classic 80's title song "Don't You Forget About Me" by Simple Minds stirs up instant emotion and memories of this movie and the 1980s in everyone that has ever seen it.
No fan of the 80's movie genre can claim to be such if they have not seen this movie. The Breakfast Club is regarded by many fans as the best 80's movie bar none. If you only see one 80s movie then it has to this one!
Tons more info on every aspect of this classic movie is available at David Jones' Gold Rated Site in the links section.
 Don't forget that The Breakfast Club is now available to order on Widescreen DVD using our special 80s Retro Assistant...
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One of the supreme 'Brat Pack' movies that for many defines the 80's...
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OFFICIAL #1 QUESTION ABOUT THIS MOVIE!!!! The joke that Bender tells but never finishes, (while crawling through the ceiling), actually has no punch-line. According to Judd Nelson, he ad-libbed the line. Originally, he was supposed to tell a joke that would end when he came back into the library and said, "Forgot my pencil", but no one could come up with a joke for that punchline.  -Thanks to Ashley
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The actor who played the 'Janitor' and posed for the 'Boy of the Year' picture, is John Kapelos, he was also 'Rudy' in Sixteen Candles and Molly Ringwald's future brother in law. -Thanks to Jen
After the film was over, John Huges gave each of the actors a piece of the banister from the library. -Thanks to Cecelia Mendez
After getting fired as a writer on "Mr. Mom" and "National Lampoon's Vacation", Hughes thought he might have better luck as a director, so he pitched his script about kids in detention, thinking that as it was set mainly in one room it would be a cheap "no brainer" for the studio. The studio preferred his "Sixteen Candles" script, so he ended up directing that one first instead.
John Hughes made the cast and crew eat their lunch in the school cafeteria.
The knife John Bender sticks in the chair when he and Andy Clark are getting in a fight was Judd Nelson's own knife. He said he carried it for "protection"
In Futurama, in the epsiode called Luck of the Fryish, "The Breakfast Club" was mentioned several times as Fry had their soundtrack LP. When Fry learns the truth about his brother, you hear the song by Simple Minds - "Don't You Forget About Me" being played. -Thanks to Abhimanyu Bibra
Anthony Michael Hall's mother (Mercedes Hall) and sister (Mary Christian) in the movie are his real life mother and sister. -Thanks to David Bruce
Brian Johnson's social security number, as told by Ally Sheedy, is a Connecticut number. It begins with the digit 049, which is from Connecticut. -Thanks to Matto
A prom queen election poster contains the name of Michelle Manning, who co-produced the film.
Judd Nelson made up many of the terms used in the movie including "Neo-Maxi-Zoomdweebie" and the infamous Joke...
The guidance counsellor's desk has a name plaque which says "R. Hashimoto". Richard Hashimoto was the production supervisor. -Thanks to Ashley
If you watch at the beginning of the show, it goes past all of the photos and the boy of the year photos. Notice that the janitor was at one time the Boy of the Year. He was at one time a popular jock and now he's a janitor! -Thanks to Jamie
A prom queen election poster contains the name of 'Manning, Michelle', Michelle Manning co-produced the film.
It was originally suggested that there would be several sequels to the Breakfast Club, occurring every ten years, in which the Breakfast Club would get back together. -Thanks to Ashley
The guitar riff that John Bender hums is Cream's "Sunshine of your love".
Judd Nelson's childhood dog's name was 'Seabiscuit'. He was named after the fact that everytime they threw a doggie treat into the pool, the dog would jump in after it.
John Hughes played Brian's (Anthony Michael Hall) dad at the end. You can see him waiting in the car. Also, Brian's mother and sister at the beginning were both played by his real mother and sister. -Thanks to Becky
In an Official U.S. Playstation Magazine (Sept 03, pg.92), while reviewing the game to Fox's animated sitcom Futurama, it is revealed that Matt Groening named the robot Bender after John Bender from the Breakfast Club movie. -Thanks to Joe
At the beginning of the movie, some of the parents cars' license plates are visible. Anthony Michael Hall's tag is E MC2 which is the mathematical formula representing Einstein's theory of relativity. Energy equals Mass times the speed of light squared. -Thanks to Byron
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John Hughes almost got rid of Judd Nelson because of his attitude toward Molly Ringwald off camera. Paul Gleason (Mr. Vernon, Judd's arch nemesis in the film) convinced Hughes that Nelson was an excellent actor, and was just trying to keep in character, which would account for his teasing of Molly Ringwald while off camera. -Thanks to James McCloskey
The title was taken from a kid named Bobby Richter (the son of a friend), who told Hughes that morning detention was referred to by his schoolmates as "the breakfast club". The director hoped no one would notice when he changed it to refer to Saturday detention in his film. -Thanks to Lauren
Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael-Hall were dating in real life at the time. -Thanks to Caitlin Foito
The choice was between Judd Nelson, Nicholas Cage, and John Cusack for the role of John Bender. I dont know why they didn't choose John Cusack, but it was said that they couldn't afford Nicholas Cage's salary at the time. -Thanks to Caitlin Foito
Emilio Estevez was the 1st choice to play Bender, but when there was no one else available to play athletic Andrew Clark, Emilio had to take that part instead. -Thanks to Eddie
Molly Ringwald tried out for the role of Allison, but Hughes gave her the role of Claire. Ally Sheedy is quoted as saying "I'm glad you didn't [get it] because I could never have played your part." -Thanks to Dana Christensen
The costume designer on The Breakfast Club, Marilyn A Vance, was the costume designer on many classic 80s films, including Ferris Bueller, Weird Science, Pretty In Pink and Uncle Buck to name but a few. -Thanks to Micheala Loves 80s
It was rumored that Ally Sheedy used Parmesan cheese as her 'dandruff' when she was penciling her drawing and she adds some 'snow' to it. -Thanks to Owen Wilkerson
John Hughes had Molly Ringwald's character's entire wardrobe purchased from the Ralph Lauren store in Chicago because he felt normal clothes weren't sophisticated enough for the character. -Thanks to Troy
In the beginning of the film, you can see some apartment buildings in the backround, I used to live there, they were called "Shorewood Village". The highway behind the apartments is I-294. -Thanks to Bob Page
The original running time of "The Breakfast Club" was about two and a half hours. Thinking the film would not be a hit, Universal Pictures cut the running time down to the modern 97 minute version. The studio then destroyed the negatives of the deleted scenes. John Hughes said in a "Premiere" magazine article that he has the only complete copy. -Thanks to Jaime
Hughes was pressured by studios to write in a scene featuring sex in some way. One subplot that was filmed but deleted showed Principal Vernon watching some women faculty members using the school swimming pool, he filmed one scene of Vernon spying on a teacher swimming nude. Obviously, this scene was later cut. -Thanks to Jaime
The dance scene at the end of the movie was written just for Molly Ringwald, but the whole cast ended up dancing. The shot where you can see up Claire's skirt was not Molly, she said she absolutely did not want to do that shot.
Claire's earring (that she gives to Bender at the end of the movie) appears and disappears in Bender's ear throughout the movie.
As everyone knows the film is set as Saturday morning detention, but when Bender is running through the halls to get Mr. Vernon to chase him so the others can get back to the library and not get caught, Bender runs past a door and you can see that it is night time. -Thanks to James McCloskey
In the movie version of The Breakfast Club, after the scene where Claire shows off her 'special talent' with her lipstick, she puts the lipstick back in her bag twice. -Thanks to Sarah
The clock in the library changes during the same scenes throughout the movie. -Thanks to Dee
During the movie, Bender's gloves change from black string to black leather and back again several times. -Thanks to Dee
If you look closely in the begining of the movie, when John is on top of the counter talking to Claire, you can see that the sign that is supposed to say Library, instead says ibrary. The L is missing! Though if you look later in the movie you notice that the L is back. -Thanks to Caroline
Watch the cards on the filing cabinet during the talk that Vernon and Carl the janitor have in the file room. When the camera angle changes from one side to the other, the card moves. First it's in place correctly, then it's angled, then it's angled differently, then it's back in place. -Thanks to Stan Cocheo
During the part of the movie when the cast is smoking in the library, Molly Ringwald's hairstyle keeps changing. -Thanks to Crystal Svitak
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|  |  |  | | The Breakfast Club
Locations |
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 Featured Movie Location: The High School
Wanna see the real life filming location used for The High School in the movie? These scenes were actually shot at Illinois State Police Station (Formerly, Maine North High School), located in Des Plaines, Illinois. [New! Show Google Map]
The library where the majority of the film is set was actually a set constructed from stratch in the Maine North High School Gymnasium!. The School had been closed for two years before the filming of the movie, and was used for park district purposes and for the Chicago Blitz before the Illinois State Police bought it and it became a Police Station. [Thanks to David Beck]
The football field used at the end was behind Glenbrook North High School, 2300 Shermer Road, Northbrook, IL. The exterior of Glenbrook North was also used at the beginning of the movie when the characters were dropped off for detention. [Thanks to Matthew Berry]
The High School in The Breakfast Club is the same school as in Weird Science. Shermer High School. [Thanks to Jeremy]
The address that Anthony Michael Hall says in the beginning. "Shermer High School, Shermer, IL 60062." Shermer is the street that Glenbrook North is on, and the zip code used is for Northbrook, IL where Glenbrook North is located. John Hughes was an alumnus of Glenbrook North. [Thanks to Eric Field]
Featured Link: John Hughes Movie Locations
See any errors? Something we've missed? [Let us know]
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The soundtrack has a good cross section of pop music from the era and is readily available on CD.
The theme song, "Don't You (Forget About Me)", was written for the film by Keith Forsey. It was a number one hit for Simple Minds, and both Billy Idol and Bryan Ferry turned down offers to record it first (although in 2001, Billy Idol recorded Don't You (Forget About Me) as a bonus track for his Greatest Hits album). -Thanks to Ashley
Although Simple Minds scored a massive hit with '(Don't You) Forget About Me' they were less than impressed about it as it was the only song they performed which they didn't actually write. Apparently, they weren't very keen on doing the song at all. -Thanks to Becky Parsons
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