Rewatchables Reference

• The final 15-minute stretch: the Larry Lester speech (Estevez's 'the fucking humiliation' monologue), Brian's breakdown ('I don't like what I see'), the lipstick trick, Bender railing on Claire, Brian asking if they'll still be friends after this, everybody shitting on Claire, Brian talking about pressure, and Ally Sheedy admitting she had nothing better to do.
• Bender stealing the screw and earning eight more Saturdays – 'You just bought yourself another Saturday. You just want one more right there.'
• Bender's impression of his dad – 'Stupid, worthless, no good, goddamn freeloading son of a bitch' – going for the Oscar.
• Bender vs. Vernon in the closet – 'I'm gonna knock your dick in the dirt.' Vernon threatening a student, and Bender realizing he went too far.
• Everyone getting high – Anthony Michael Hall's Richard Pryor impression and the dance sequence.

• The fist pump ending – Judd Nelson improvised it, and it became one of the most iconic freeze frames of the 1980s.
• The Simple Minds soundtrack – 'Don't You Forget About Me,' plus 'Fire in the Twilight' by Wang Chung.
• Claire's love of sushi – so gross in 1985, completely normal now.
• The archetypes still feel real – the jock, the burnout, the prom queen, the nerd, the outcast. 'The definition of a rewatchable.'
• Brian getting the boner – 'the hot beef injection.'
• The close-up photography style – each character gets many great close-ups that consecrate them as icons. 'It's creating iconography.'

• Bender trying to stick his head in Claire's crotch – 'not flying as much in 2020.'
• Bender's bullying in general – he's 'genuinely a sociopath' with a guillotine and a knife in his locker.
• The dance sequence – nobody can explain why Emilio Estevez doing gymnastics on the library railing earned a 'you nailed it.' Bender joining in doesn't track.
• Boredom as a concept – 'just pick up your phone.' Also, they're literally in a library and could just read.
• The nymphomaniac bit from Ally Sheedy – 'so unreal.'
• The movie's all-white cast – 'every John Hughes movie.' Wesley Morris noted how race both functions and doesn't function in the film.
• The library window breaking scene – Hughes himself said his biggest regret was using the breaking glass.

• Molly Ringwald was supposed to play Allison – she initially didn't want to play Claire because it was too close to her Sixteen Candles character.
• Robin Wright, Jodie Foster, and Laura Dern all auditioned for Claire.
• Emilio Estevez was originally going to play Bender. Hughes couldn't find an Andrew, so they switched.
• Tom Cruise was considered for the Andrew role – 'the perfect person.'
• John Cusack was originally cast as Bender but was replaced by Judd Nelson because Hughes didn't feel Cusack was threatening enough.
• Nicolas Cage was considered for Bender – 'too much. That just tips it.'
• Rick Moranis was originally cast as the janitor but left due to creative differences.
• Anthony Michael Hall was offered the lead in Full Metal Jacket after this but withdrew after protracted negotiations.

• Judd Nelson – the dad impression. 'Stupid, worthless, no good... What about you? Fuck you. No, Dad, what about you? Fuck you.' Goes on for so long it becomes incredible.
• Runner-up: Anthony Michael Hall – 'You don't think I understand pressure?'

Paul Gleason as Vernon – Clarence Beeks from 'Trading Places'. 'The Vincent Hanna Over-Acting Award' caliber performance.

Carl the janitor – 'I'm just some untouchable peasant? Maybe so. But following a broom around after shitheads like you for the last eight years, I've learned a couple of things. I look through your letters. I look through your lockers. I listen to your conversations. You don't know that, but I do. I am the eyes and ears of this institution, my friends.'

• Bill wouldn't recast a single part but would like to see the Tom Cruise version of Andrew and the John Cusack version of Bender.
• Wesley nominated Edward James Olmos for Vernon – 'this movie goes Stand and Deliver.'

• Bender's flinch when Vernon fakes a punch was genuine – Judd Nelson really thought Paul Gleason was going to hit him because 'nobody liked Judd Nelson.'
• The same high school set was used for both Breakfast Club and 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off', shot concurrently.
• Hughes was disappointed in Nelson for staying in character and tormenting Ringwald off-camera. He nearly fired him.
• Anthony Michael Hall and Molly Ringwald started dating during filming. When Hughes found out, their relationship was never the same.
• John Kapelos (Carl the janitor) had a feud with Estevez after making an Apocalypse Now heart attack joke, not realizing Estevez was Martin Sheen's son.
• Ally Sheedy's dandruff was achieved with parmesan cheese.
• The Annie Leibovitz poster shoot created an image that Wesley described as 'an album cover but a movie poster' – conflating the two was incredibly appealing.

• Molly Ringwald – yes. 'I can't think of another star whose stardom existed for such a brief period of time but was so important.' Her three Hughes movies are one work, like the Godfather trilogy.
• Judd Nelson – yes.
• Anthony Michael Hall – yes, though it's bittersweet. His apex leads to 'Weird Science', an SNL year at 18, then Johnny Be Good trying to break out of the nerd mold. 'He might have been the most talented of the five.'
• John Hughes – probably Ferris Bueller, but the three Ringwald movies are really one work.

• They're all expelled for what they did – hotboxed half the school, shattered glass, destroyed library property, threw lunch meat on a statue, ripped up books, destroyed the library door. Vernon is fired for being 15 feet away while it turned into 'a Kiss concert.'
• Vernon only checks on them three times in seven hours. He could have just put them in another room.
• Why did all five of them have to go to Bender's locker to get the pot?
• Emilio Estevez's dance moves – 'what made everybody go, you nailed it, Emilio?'
• Their parents pick them up and none of them notice their kids reek of pot.

Not really as scripted TV. Wesley suggested it works better as reality television – five different kids in detention each episode doing group therapy. 'You could do a version of this but you couldn't script it.'

• What's going on with the flare gun in Brian's locker? 'Is there a whiff of a school shooting?' Was he going to use it on himself? A cry for help?
• Is this the official beginning of Claire having bad taste in men for the rest of her life?
• What was the ending to Bender's blonde joke? Apparently there wasn't one – he just did the setup.
• Where does everyone go to college? Bender: no college (jail). Brian: Berkeley or Northwestern. Andrew: Michigan State or Purdue on a wrestling scholarship. Claire: legacy at an elite school or University of Miami. Allison: RISD, Evergreen, or Antioch.

Anthony Michael Hall – consensus pick on rewatch. 'He is the person that, by the time this movie is over, if I'm a director, I want to see what that guy can do.' Also Judd Nelson for the sheer force of the performance, and Molly Ringwald for anchoring the film.