Life moves pretty fast — and somehow, it’s already been 40 years since Ferris Bueller’s Day Off hit theaters.
The John Hughes-helmed teen comedy follows high school senior Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick) in one of the most epic fake sick days in history, as he and his best friend Cameron (Alan Ruck) and girlfriend Sloane (Mia Sara) skip school to galavant around the city of Chicago.
Hughes famously wrote the script in less than a week, coming off the success of films like Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club.
Keep scrolling for 25 Things You Don’t Know About Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, as seen in the latest issue of Us Weekly, on newsstands now:
Mia Sara, Alan Ruck and Matthew Broderick in ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’ Paramount Distribution / Courtesy Everett Collection
1. Coming off the success of teen movies like The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink, Hughes’ Ferris Bueller’s Day Off premiered on June 11, 1986.
2. Hughes reportedly wrote the screenplay in less than a week.
3. Hughes called the movie his “love letter” to Chicago and insisted on filming at real city landmarks including Wrigley Field and the former Sears Tower.
4. Broderick was only 23 years old when he played teenage slacker Ferris Bueller.
Life moves pretty fast! Matthew Broderick shot to superstardom after playing high school senior Ferris Bueller in the 1986 film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. In the movie, Ferris decides to play hooky and convinces his best friend, the shy and nervous Cameron Frye (Alan Ruck), to ditch with him. After calling the school and pretending […]
5. Ruck — who played Ferris’ best friend Cameron — and Broderick had already become friends after starring together in the Broadway production of Biloxi Blues.
6. Hughes originally envisioned Anthony Michael Hall for Ferris, but Hall passed because of scheduling conflicts.
7. Hughes famously broke the fourth wall throughout the film, allowing Ferris to speak directly to the audience.
8. Charlie Sheen, who makes a cameo as a drugged-out delinquent, reportedly stayed awake for 48 hours straight to prepare for the role.
9. The iconic parade sequence was filmed during Chicago’s real Von Steuben Day Parade.
Matthew Broderick in ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’ Paramount / Courtesy Everett Collection
10. Choreographer Kenny Ortega — years before Dirty Dancing and High School Musical — staged Ferris’ famous parade dance moves.
11. Ortega said Broderick was a “nervous wreck” ahead of filming the “Twist and Shout” dance number in downtown Chicago, though he added, “he was the most charming, wonderful, sweet man to work with.”
12. Ferris’ beloved red Ferrari wasn’t actually a Ferrari. Production used several replica cars because the real thing was far too expensive.
13. One of the replica cars used in the movie later sold at auction for over $300k.
14. The “Bueller? Bueller?” classroom scene became one of the most quoted moments in movie history — and launched economist Ben Stein’s acting career.
Ben Stein in ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’ Paramount Distribution / Courtesy Everett Collection
15. “He wasn’t a professional actor. He had a flat voice, he looked like a teacher,” Hughes once said of casting Stein.
16. Edie McClurg improvised many of secretary Grace’s funniest lines, including her immortal description of Ferris as “a righteous dude.”
17. Hughes originally planned additional scenes involving Ferris’ younger siblings, but they were cut before release.
18. The actors that play Ferris’ parents, Cindy Pickett and Lyman Ward, got married — and then divorced — in real life.
19. They weren’t the only couple to form from the cast: Broderick would later get engaged to his onscreen sister Jennifer Grey.
John Hughes on set of ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’ with Mia Sara, Alan Ruck and Matthew Broderick Paramount / Courtesy Everett Collection
20. Another deleted subplot reportedly would have sent Ferris, Cameron and Sloane to a strip club, but the scene was scrapped due to time constraints.
21. The movie’s soundtrack helped make Yello’s “Oh Yeah” a pop culture staple.
22. Hughes hated “Danke Schoen” growing up, once calling it “the most awful song of my youth” — which is exactly why he used it throughout the movie.
Alan Ruck is looking back on Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Ruck, 69, exclusively told Us Weekly that starring as high school student Cameron Frye in the teen comedy, which celebrates its 40th anniversary in June, sparked a decades-long friendship with Matthew Broderick. “Matthew and I just made a movie together [The Best Is Yet to […]
23. Broderick admitted the role followed him everywhere. “For the past 25 years, nearly every day someone comes up to me … and says, ‘Hey, Ferris, is this your day off?’”
24. In 2014, the Library of Congress selected Ferris Bueller’s Day Off for preservation in the National Film Registry.
25. Hughes and Broderick never made a sequel. “The movie is about a singular time in your life,” Hughes once explained, while Broderick added, “It’s a lightning flash in your life.”
