Ferris Beuller’s Day Off (1986): Favourite Films Series

Ferris Beuller’s Day Off (1986): Favourite Films Series

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” 

This famous quote from the titular character left no impact on me the first time I saw Ferris Beuller’s Day Off on TV. I was in elementary school, years away from the realities of high school, and I didn’t even watch the whole movie, but there was something about it that stuck with me. That something was the iconic moment when Ferris’ friend Cameron takes his anger out on his dad’s Ferrari, accidently sending it reversing through a giant plate glass window and crashing into the forest below. 

I bought the movie years later on DVD when I was in middle school, and watched it a little more attentively than the first time. I laughed my ass off from beginning to end (truly, it has the best end-credits of any movie I’ve ever seen), and afterwards realized there wasn’t a single scene that I found boring. Even though not every scene was pure hilarity, something interesting was always happening, and it built up to such an exciting conclusion. I revisited it a couple more times over the years, but the most-crucial re-visit happened when I graduated high school. This was when I really started taking movies seriously, and it was the first time I took notice of that quote (which I almost used as my quote for the yearbook), and of how well thought-out the story was. 

I didn’t enjoy high school, and I have a feeling writer-director John Hughes probably didn’t either. His other most-famous high school movie, The Breakfast Club, was a more dramatic and closer-focused look at high school kids spending a Saturday in detention together, and while it could be argued which one is a better film, Ferris Beuller or Breakfast Club, I always favour Beuller just because it gives such a big middle finger to school and is much funnier (not to say I don’t love The Breakfast Club, and not to compare them too much, I just love both for different reasons). 

Even though fourth-wall-breaking is a well-known trope in movies and TV, it’s rarely done as effectively as in Ferris Beuller’s Day Off. Ferris knows we’re in on his scam from the very opening scene when he sits up, looks straight at the camera, and declares “They bought it.” (Referring of course to his naïve parents thinking he’s sick). It’s a relatively simple beginning. Right away, the audience feels like Ferris does—we’re getting away with his scam, which few other characters in the movie are aware of. From there, things just get crazier, the stakes get higher, the drama and comedy increase, and it all happens in the confines of just one day. 

As Ferris explains his plan to us (the audience) in the early morning and demonstrates his conniving intelligence, he also sets up several gags that pay off big-time throughout the day, such as the simulated snoring and fake body in the bed. I didn’t even realize what he was doing the first time I watched because I was paying attention to Ferris talking. I have to give credit to Matthew Broderick. He isn’t one of my favourite actors, and I haven’t seen him in much else that I really liked, but he is Ferris Beuller. Without his charismatic and confident performance, the movie simply would not have worked. 

The supporting characters, too, are all great. Ferris’ best bud Cameron (Alan Ruck) and girlfriend Sloan (Mia Sara) are as classic and memorable as Ferris himself. It would’ve been easy to ignore Ferris’ sister Jeanie (Jennifer Grey) for most of the film, but Hughes makes a point to build up her character throughout, even giving us significant insight into her day, made frustrating and unusual thanks to her brother (as well as Charlie Sheen, in a very early role as a druggie at the police station). She’s made out to be a secondary antagonist, but comes around at the end in a way that feels organic, not forced.

The main antagonist, Dean of Students Ed Rooney (Jeffrey Jones) could’ve been the annoying cliché hard-ass authority figure who doesn’t “get” teenagers, and to a certain extent, he is, but there’s more to him than that. Rooney’s pursuit of Ferris, happening in parallel to Ferris’ adventure through Chicago, is hilarious. His day just keeps getting worse and worse—not always because he’s an idiot, necessarily (although mostly because of that)—and this is a big part of what keeps the comedy flowing. 

Even in the slower moments, like the art museum montage, it’s still funny. The camera continues to get closer on Cameron as he stares at a painting, reversing to the painting itself also getting closer, and though it’s very poignant (thanks in no small part to the perfect music choice) there’s also something about it that’s just…funny. 

And that’s how a lot of Ferris Beuller’s Day Off is, to me: just plain funny. It’s largely about the little moments, which is why I find the movie so re-watchable. There’s secretary Grace pulling endless numbers of pencils out of her hair, Ferris playing a tune on his keyboard with the “sick” sound effects, and Ferris’ dad dancing in his office as the parade goes by (on that note, the repeated gag of Ferris’ dad nearly seeing him out and about in the city gets funnier with each incident), just to name a few. I won’t go over every funny part—to do that would just be to go through the entire movie beat for beat.

Ferris Beuller’s Day Off is an expertly designed comedy film, as well as perhaps the most-unique cinematic look at high school. It’s almost like a fantasy movie, showing us what really would be the ultimate day of skipping school, but something that could never be pulled off in the real world. Many other high school movies have tried and failed to live up to it, and though some have come close, I have found none more enjoyable or funnier than Ferris Beuller’s ninth “sick day” of his final semester. “It's pretty tough coming up with new illnesses. If I go for ten, I'm probably going to have to barf up a lung, so I better make this one count.”  

Oh yeah, and it’s super-quotable, too. 

“You’re still here? It’s over! Go home…Go!”