For much of the 20th century, movies about teenagers were frivolous and light-hearted. With a few exceptions (like Rebel without a Cause and American Graffiti) they were beach movies and musicals, they had PG-style romances, cutesy kids, melodrama, and little depth. That all changed when writer-director John Hughes began making movies about teenagers.
He made his mark with 1984’s Sixteen Candles, but it was his second teen movie that would forever change the genre. The Breakfast Club puts five very different teenagers into a Saturday detention who learn that they have more in common than they could have imagined beneath the veneer of their reputations and social statuses. The influential teen movie premiered in theaters 40 years ago on February 15, 1985.
It’s a Saturday in the Shermer High School library were popular girl Claire Standish (Molly Ringwald), nerdy Brian Johnson (Anthony Michael Hall), delinquent John Bender (Judd Nelson), jock superstar Andrew Clark (Emilio Estevez), and odd loner Allison Reynolds (Ally Sheedy) are serving an all-day detention. The teens are being overseen by no-nonsense vice principal Richard Vernon (Paul Gleason) who tells them to write an essay describing “who they think they are.”
As soon as Vernon leaves the library, the teens fall into their expected patterns. Bender antagonizes the others, Claire and Andrew act like they are above the situation, Brian tries to fly under their radar, and Allison quietly observes them. After a period of boredom, they leave the library to retrieve the marijuana in Bender’s locker. In a surprising act of consideration, he allows himself to get caught by Vernon so that the rest can get back to the library without being seen.
He slips out of the storage closet where Vernon put him and goes back to the library where the five teens share his weed. The mellowing effect of the drugs causes them to loosen up, share some laughs, and then eventually open up to each other. Brian talks about academic pressure and fear of failure, Claire complains about the pressure to be perfect, Bender talks about the physical abuse he suffers at home, Allison admits that she steals things because her parents ignore her, and Andrew confesses that his father relentlessly pushes him to be the best athlete.
The group bonds when they realize that they have more in common than they could have imagined. After a dance montage, and makeover for Allison, romantic sparks fly between her and Andrew, Claire kisses Bender, and Brian crafts the essay for all of them. He writes to the vice principal that “each one of us is a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, and a criminal,” and closes with, “Sincerely yours, the Breakfast Club.” The movie ends with Bender raising a fist while walking across the football field as Simple Minds’ “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” starts to play.
Hughes wrote the script – originally titled, The Lunch Bunch – at the same time that he wrote the script for Sixteen Candles. Since the latter script was finished first, he showed it to studio executives, and they agreed to back his directorial debut on the movie. With that movie completed, he started campaigning to direct The Breakfast Club, which was originally met with some resistance. He was able to persuade investors to let him direct it because of the movie’s simplicity of having one location and a very modest budget.
When it came time to cast The Breakfast Club, two of Hughes’ Sixteen Candles stars nabbed roles. Hall, who had played the geek so well in that movie, was a shoo-in for Brian. Ringwald was originally approached to play Allison, meanwhile the likes of Jodie Foster, Diane Lane, Robin Wright, and Laura Dern auditioned for Claire. But, Ringwald petitioned for the part of Claire and convinced Hughes and the studio. Meanwhile Sheedy nabbed the role of Allison. Estevez was actually set to play Bender, but when they couldn’t find the right Andrew, he was recast as the jock. John Cusack, Alan Ruck, and Nicolas Cage were all considered to play Bender before Nelson got the part.
The cast had only three weeks to rehearse before shooting began in March 1984. The movie was shot in sequence, an unusual thing in the film industry, which helped the cast to organically show their progression from strangers to friends. They filmed at Maine North High School in Des Plaines, Illinois, with a large library set constructed inside the school gymnasium.
The Breakfast Club was the No. 3 movie in its first week in theaters, and it earned a global total of $51 million on a very trim $1 million budget. It has had a significant impact on pop culture, opening the door to more serious films about teenagers, including the Hughes-written films, Pretty in Pink and Some Kind of Wonderful. Several TV shows have build episodes around the premise, including Riverdale, Dawson’s Creek, Victorious, and Degrassi: The Next Generation, and it was spoofed in the teen genre parody movie Not Another Teen Movie.
The Breakfast Club depicted teenagers through a different lens than had been seen before. Hughes movie treated them with more respect and sensitivity, showing their capacity for complex emotions, how much pressure they experience at school and home, and their desire to be accepted and to gain independence. Its themes resonate today, and forty years later, “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” still inspires viewers to raise a fist in solidarity.
