"Ferris Bueller's Day Off" Revisited Quiz

Answer: Chicago

"Chicago is what I am. A lot of 'Ferris' is sort of my love letter to the city." John Hughes - Writer Director

So said John Hughes in the 2010 "AMC Video Blog". The director was not born there but he did grow up in the Windy City in a neighbourhood called Northbrook. He eschewed Hollywood and Los Angeles. He set 16 of his movies in Chicago and this one showcased many of Chicago's more famous places: Wrigley Field, Lake Shore Drive, Willis Tower, the Chicago Board of Trade Building, The Chicago Art Institute, and Glencoe Beach. The "A.V. Club" an online entertainment news blog, called Ferris Bueller's Day Off a "103-minute commercial from the Chicago Office Of Tourism" in 2015.

Ferris Bueller, the character lived in Shermer, a place created by Hughes and the setting for several of Hughes' movies (Northbrook was previously called Shermerville). The school setting, Glenbrook North High School in Northbrook is where Hughes went to high school.

In its simplest terms, this movie is about Ferris Bueller who, with his two closest friends, skipped school, took his friend's father's car without permission and saw some of Chicago's favourite places.

Answer: Sloane's classmates cheer when Ferris comes to drag her out of class to accompany Ferris and Cameron.

"The sportos, the motorheads, geeks, bloods, wastoids, dweebies, they all adore him. They think he's a righteous dude." Grace to Rooney

Ferris could get away with anything. He is both extremely popular and beloved by everyone: The English faculty sent him flowers when they learned he was sick. His sickness, via word of mouth, turns into a need for a kidney transplant and a fund is started to pay for it - the town water tower is daubed with "Save Ferris". He lies, cons and manipulates adults with ease. The way he manipulates Dean Rooney and the Chez Quis maître d' is inspired genius.

However, his mischief goes too far initially, and he is in danger of becoming an antihero: He treats Cameron poorly: making him give up the keys to his Dad's prize Ferrari, making him feel guilty for being sick, getting him to do his dirty work by impersonating Sloane's Dad to get her out of class, and when Cameron does not comply, Ferris kicks him in the butt. Ferris relies on his charm to paper over his own personality flaws. Near the end of the movie, it is Ferris who offers to take the heat for Cameron's Dad's wrecked Ferrari: Hero status restored.

Answer: Ferris breaks the fourth wall

"The question isn't "what are we gonna do", the question is "what aren't we going to do." - Ferris

Breaking the fourth wall in movies is risky - it acknowledges an audience exists, whereas most movies rely on the audience being passive unseen observers. With Ferris speaking directly to the audience, it lends authenticity to the character as he gives us an insight into his methods. If the movie was seen without this device there would have been a risk that the shenanigans, lies and misdeeds would cause the audience to have a negative view of Ferris but by taking us into his confidence we, the audience, are beguiled by his charm. We want him to win, to succeed against the very norms of society in which the audience exists. He shares with us the secret symptoms of how the clammy hands works as a 'sickness-clincher'; we see him make up the contraption with ropes, a mannequin and trophies, as way of convincing his mother that the lump in the bed is Ferris, not a literal deadweight. This is not immediately apparent until later in the movie when the device is revealed in full when Ferris mother returns home. (This device is known as a Chekhov's gun - a literary device that means everything used in the transcript must be essential in the movie. We saw an even bigger one later in the movie. In Ferris's case, that foul baseball that he catches at Wrigley Field covers his tracks at the end of the movie, when he throws it accurately at his stereo, turning it off just before his parents entered.

The fourth wall monologues are also important for another reason: this is how we heard of Cameron's backstory and we identify how dysfunctional he has become.

While Ferris lies, cheats, and steals his way through his one day off, he always tells us the truth about how everything goes down that day - he does not try to cover things up or try to justify how he behaved. In this sense, he is a very reliable narrator and therefore this makes him authentic and it endears us, the audience to him. Job done.

Answer: Economics Teacher

In this movie, (except for antagonist Dean Rooney - special case), adults are all portrayed as being one-dimensional, not unlike how we viewed grown-ups in the "Peanuts" cartoon strip". This is best exemplified by the school scene featuring Ferris' unnamed economics teacher, played by Ben Stein. This attendance check was played out in a deadpan monotone with the students being either bored or half asleep and it sums up exactly why Ferris does not want to be in school. (This is the only time Ferris is connected to his school - All we, the audience, see is his empty chair.)

Ben Stein was not even an actor when he took the role. Director Hughes was introduced to him through a series of acquaintances (he was a lawyer by profession and was a speechwriter for Presidents Nixon and Ford, previously). Hughes gave him the job because he "looked like a teacher". While the Bueller monologue was scripted, the lecture, equally monotonous, on the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act and supply-side economics was not. Apparently, Stein was talking to some of the cast about it off-camera and Hughes incorporated it into the script. Ben Stein said in a 2011 "Showbiz Tonight" interview, that it was the "Best day of his life".

Answer: In the art gallery

"How did you get to be so sweet?" Katie Bueller to her son Ferris.

Ferris' parents are more character adults portrayed as being naive or at least preoccupied with their own lives. Katie and Tom Bueller are well-to-do, suburban parents who are obsessed with their jobs. Neither recognises the deceptions pulled by their son, despite the blatant obviousness of the same right in front of them. Ferris' Mom thinks her son is so sweet she wouldn't believe he was capable of the stunts he is about to pull. Ferris' Dad is so preoccupied, he fails to notice the three friends in the same restaurant or, later, in a stationary cab alongside his own in traffic He fails to recognise, initially, Ferris and Cameron who duck, nor Ferris' girlfriend Sloane. In the same scene, the pre-occupied parent is reading a newspaper that has a "Rally Around Sick Youth" headline on the front page. It is implied that he has not noticed this story. Later, when he hears the music from the parade that goes past his office building, he rises from his desk, looks down from his office window, and begins dancing. While he might have been too high up to recognise Ferris (prominently singing on a float), if he could hear the music then he certainly could have heard Ferris's voice saying "Cameron Frye, this one's for you".

While we are pleased to be involved in the movie, with Ferris explaining via the broken fourth wall the intricacies of the movie, there is one section where the director is having fun with the audience: He makes the licence plates of Ferris' parents' cars references to his previous movies.

Katie Bueller's Chrysler LeBaron Town & Country station wagon, beige of course, has the license plate of 'VCTN' which was a reference to "National Lampoon's Vacation", (1983) directed by Harold Ramis and written by John Hughes. Tom Bueller's 1985 Audi 5000 S Turbo C3 has the plate 'MMOM' which stood for "Mr. Mom", written by Hughes.

On second viewing, there is more: Jeanie Bueller's car is a 1985 Pontiac Fiero with a plate of "TBC" which was a reference to "The Breakfast Club" (1985); Dean Rooney's boxy 1985 Plymouth Reliant K has a plate of "4FBDO", which stands for "for 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off'." (Oh the irony!) but perhaps the most telling is Cameron's Dad's, 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder: it's plate is "NRVOUS".

Cathy Pickett and Lyman Ward, the two actors who played Ferris' parents, met for the first time on the set of the movie, fell in love and married after the movie launched, and had two kids. They divorced in 1992, after playing a married couple in another movie, "Sleepwalkers".

Another Fun Fact: The movie takes place in a single day, so the three friends need to wear the same clothes for the entire time they are in the car. Cameron's outfit is the one non-Chicago reference in the entire movie. He is wearing a Detroit Red Wings shirt with Gordie Howe's number nine on it (symbolic of Cameron at odds with the rest of the world?). John Hughes was a big fan of Gordie Howe and the man himself donated the shirt that Cameron proudly wore for most of the movie.

Answer: Mia Sara

" Ferris, please. You've gone too far. We're going to get busted." - Sloane

She was perhaps the thinnest character in the movie, as she had little scope to shine. Ostensibly, she was Ferris' girlfriend - there was a scene where Ferris talks of marrying her, but they only share a deep kiss when Ferris was disguised as Sloane's father! There is not much interaction between them and then there is this scene where Ferris was cutting through neighbours' yards, trying to beat his parents home, yet he stopped to introduce himself to sunbaking girls - a sleazy move.
Sloane had a couple of moments in the film: When she pseudo-flirted with Ferris' dad in an adjoining stationary cab and also when Cameron thinks Ferris had ditched them at the Parade. Sloan calmed him down indicating she was a solid friend.

Sloane's role appeared to be the middle ground between the extreme guile of Ferris and the self-deprecation of Cameron. She was not above skipping school - she spins a tale about her grandmother dying, but she was otherwise nice throughout the movie.

Perhaps, tellingly, Molly Ringwald, one of Hughes' favourites, wanted the role of Sloane but Hughes refused, saying the role was too small for her.

Sloane was played confidently and competently by Mia Sara, who had a solid resume for someone who was not in the spotlight much. She was married to Jason Connery in 1996. The couple divorced in 2002 after having a son in 1996. She had a daughter in 2005 with puppeteer Brian Henson. They married in 2005. She also has a pilot's license.

Answer: 9 which changes to 2

"I did not achieve this position in life by having some snot-nosed punk leave my cheese out in the wind" - Ed Rooney

Dean of Students, Ed Rooney, is an ineffective, middle-aged man. Ferris is his nemesis. Ferris repeatedly outwits his authority, so when he (correctly) assumes Ferris' absence at school is not genuine, he demonstrates that he is prepared to do anything, including overstepping his authority to catch Ferris out. He fail, again and again. He gloats to Ferris' mother on the phone that he would fail Ferris as he has had more than nine days away from school. He becomes horrified when he sees the computer record change from nine days absent to two (Ferris, hacks the school computer - an early demonstration that Ferris could easily better Rooney).

He goes on to insult Sloane's father on the phone, as he assumes it was Ferris scamming (it was actually Cameron). He fawns over Sloane when he finally (wrongly) believes the dead grandmother story; he knocks out the Bueller pet rottweiler with a flowerpot while trying to enter the Ferris home, but is knocked out by Jeannie who believes he is an intruder. His car is towed because he is a loser.

He sees Ferris as the cause of all his authority problems at school. In fact, Rooney is just jealous: Ferris has power and influence and is loved by the student collective, a position Rooney craves and expects. Instead, Rooney is a blundering, ineffectual buffoon - a clown.

When he finally catches Ferris at the end of the day, by dangling the house key in front of Ferris, he launches into an egotistical monologue before he takes down the opposition (classic villain mistake), giving just enough time for Ferris to wriggle out of the dilemma (with help from a surprising source).

Rooney also plays another important role in the movie. While Ferris' antics oscillate between hero and antihero realms, his misdeeds are minor, compared with Rooney's. This clown ensured we like Ferris as Rooney gives us someone to despise.

Answer: Charlie Sheen

"You ought to spend a little more time dealing with yourself, and a little less time worrying about what your brother does." - Junkie.

Besides the Rooney subplot, the arc of Jeannie throughout the movie provides a second subplot. Jeanie is a bitter girl. She hates that her brother gets away with so much and resents her parents for their inability to see through Ferris' shenanigans. At school, she is resentful of the student body's collective sadness over Ferris' (apparent) illness. When she reports Rooney as an intruder in the Ferris Home (after she knocks him out with a kick to the face), she is hauled into the police station and charged with making a prank call (this would never have happened to Ferris). At the police station, she meets a junkie, about to be charged and, after an initial hostile conversation, she tells him she hates her brother because he skips school frequently when everybody else still has to go. The junkie, played with aplomb by a pre-star Charlie Sheen, tells Jeannie to deal with herself rather than think of what her brother is doing.

This appears to be a turning point in the movie as, towards the end of the movie, when she sees Ferris whilst driving her mother home (Ferris is unseen by Katie), Jeannie says nothing. Then when it appears Rooney has finally caught Ferris at the eleventh hour, Jeannie opens the door, drags Ferris inside and thanks Rooney for driving Ferris home. She then shows Rooney she has his wallet which he must have dropped when he broke into the Ferris home earlier. Jeanie tosses the wallet in the yard. As Rooney tries to retrieve it, we hear the family rottweiler recognise Rooney as his attacker. Rooney's screams are off-camera. Later a mauled Rooney is seen getting picked up by a school bus.

Farris makes it to his bedroom, gets into bed and uses the baseball to silence the stereo making the snoring sounds.

Answer: Twist and Shout

Von Steuben's Day celebrates Frederich Von Steuben, a founding father of Prussian descent. A parade is held in mid-September each year and this is the parade depicted in the movie. Chicago and New York City have the biggest such parades. Chicago is a big parade town - the St Patrick's Day parade in Chicago was featured in Harrison Ford's "The Fugitive" (1993).

Our three friends wander into the parade, and Ferris goes missing, Cameron tells Sloane that Ferris abandoned them, and then Ferris appears on a float with a microphone. He dedicates Wayne Newton's "Danke Schoen" to Cameron before singing the song. In the next song, Ferris leads a huge crowd in a huge dance party to The Beatles' version of "Twist and Shout".

The scene is a huge success. The parade was real with movie footage intercut into the parade footage. The movie filming is advertised to attract a bigger crowd, which eventuated. Some of the footage, like people dancing in the street, and window washers dancing in their high-rise platforms are unscripted and are real people captured by the roaming cameras. The two songs are highly choreographed, but Matthew Broderick had injured his knee in a previous scene and couldn't perform the required knee-spins, so director Hughes gave the order to improvise. This is what happens but few notice in the movie itself.

However, in the real world, Paul McCartney was not impressed with the version of "Twist and Shout" that was played. While the song is clearly the Beatles' recording replete with John Lennon's shredded voice, there was some overdubbing with the inclusion of the horns from those surrounding the float, from which Ferris is singling. No action was taken by McCartney but Director Hughes, a big Beatles fan was embarrassed.

It should be noted that at this point, Cameron has started to loosen up and started to enjoy himself.

Answer: Cameron

"The 1961 Ferrari 250GT California. Less than a hundred were made. My father spent three years restoring this car. It is his love. It is his passion." - Cameron
"It is his fault he didn't lock the garage." - Ferris

The movie should have been titled "Cameron's Day Off" because, at its nub, this was what the movie was all about: Ferris trying to get his friend Cameron to face his fears so he can rid himself of all his psychological issues wrapped up as chronic hypochondria. (Cameron believes his Dad loves the Ferrari more than he loves Cameron - The Ferrari is a symbol of both Cameron's devastating misplaced attention and his son's sum of all fears.).

"Cameron, this is my ninth sick day. If I get caught, I don't graduate. I'm not doing it for me, I'm doing it for you." - Ferris

Not that Ferris was so altruistic that he (and Sloane) are not going to enjoy the day as well. Ferris' plan, of taking the Ferrari on a spin (and returning it unnoticed by Cameron's father) would go a long way to helping Cameron. The plan worked except for the parking garage attendants clocked up 170 miles on the odometer while our friends were enjoying the city.

(Incidentally, there were four Ferraris. The genuine one is on display in Cameron's garage and three cheaper copies - fibreglass replicas built on Mustang mechanicals. One was used for the friends' driving scenes, one with beefed-up suspension for the parking attendants' escapade and one that crashed).

There was a moment in the art gallery when Cameron examines Georges Seurat's "Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte". Cameron sees himself in the painting, as the little girl dressed in white, who is holding her mother's hand. The mother isn't paying any attention to the girl and she seems upset. As the camera pans in on the girl, she is reduced to a group of dots, demonstrating how Cameron identifies with her discomfort but also with her absence. His sense of self has been destroyed by all of his anxiety. This painting signifies Cameron's lack of identity as he has been reduced to a collection of dots. It is at this point we realise that Ferris' monologues about his friend are accurate.

Back at the garage, Ferris and Cameron jack up the car and run the car in reverse, hoping to take off the extra miles. It doesn't work. At this point, Cameron starts to get angry. "Who do you love?", Cameron rhetorically asks his absent father while kicking the front bumper, damaging the car.
"Who do you love? You love a car!"
Cameron does not hate the car, it's what the car represents: an absent pre-occupied father who loves an inanimate object more than his own son, and the fear and anxiety that such knowledge has shaped him. By kicking the car repeatedly Cameron, kicks it off the jack. It reverses through the back glass wall of the garage and crashes into the woods below. He sends his fears with it, and he realises he now has the strength to finally confront his missing, withholding parent.

This is not the way Ferris wanted Cameron to face his fears but it works nonetheless. There is nothing left for Ferris to do but to get home before his parents, to ensure his day off is not discovered. (We never find out what happens to Cameron, but we assume he has conquered all his psychological issues).

Cut to the final scene where Ferris is lying in bed, his parents happy that he is 'recovering' from his illness:

"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it" - Ferris.