The Breakfast Club was founded on the 24th of March during their Saturday detention. To commemorate this anniversary, we are revisiting the iconic film to learn more about its production and reflect on its legacy. The Breakfast Club, a 1985 film by John Hughes, is still one of the most memorable films of our time.
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What was the date of The Breakfast Club’s detention?
On March 24, 1984, five Shermer High School students report at 7:00 a.m. for an all-day detention: nerdy Brian Johnson, varsity wrestler Andrew Clark, introverted outcast Allison Reynolds, popular snob Claire Standish, and rebellious delinquent John Bender.
The five are referred to in the voiceover as “a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, and a criminal.” They assemble in the school library, where Vice Principal Richard Vernon orders them not to speak, leave their seats, or sleep until 4:00 p.m. Each must compose a one-thousand-word essay describing “who you believe you are.” He leaves, occasionally returning to check on and reprimand them.
John disregards the rules and spends the majority of his time tormenting and harassing Claire, Brian, and Andrew. All of them eventually feel pity for him after observing how he deals with abusive adults such as Vernon, who gives John eight additional weekends of detention.
At one point, the five leave the library to retrieve John’s stash of marijuana; John allows himself to be apprehended by Vernon to give the others time to return to the library without being discovered. John is punished by being placed in a storage closet by Vernon, but he is able to escape and return to the library by crawling through the ceiling panels.
When Vernon investigates the noise caused by John’s escape, the others help John hide and provide cover for him. Students kill time by conversing, arguing, listening to music, and smoking marijuana. Gradually, they divulge their secrets and reveal their strained relationships with their parents.
- Claire is subject to intense peer pressure due to her popularity, and her parents use her as leverage during arguments.
- She is in detention for skipping school to go shopping; John’s father is verbally and physically abusive, and Vernon states that John is in detention for pulling a false fire alarm; Allison is a compulsive liar whose parents are neglectful, and she dreams of running away.
Andrew admits that his father emotionally abuses him in order to get him to succeed in wrestling, leaving Andrew unable to think independently; he was sent to detention for taping another student’s buttocks together in an attempt to win his father’s approval.
After receiving a F in shop class and contemplating suicide due to parental pressure, Brian was placed in detention for bringing a flare gun to school. Allison asserts that she was not actually referred to detention and only showed up out of boredom. Despite their differences, they all recognize that they share similar problems.
In the meantime, Vernon complains to Carl, the janitor, that students today are less respectful than they were when he first began teaching. Carl informs Vernon that he, not the students, has changed. Claire gives Allison a makeover, which piques Andrew’s romantic interest.
- By kissing John, Claire decides to break her “pristine” innocent appearance.
- Although they anticipate that their new friendships will end once detention is over, they believe that their shared experiences will alter the way they view their peers.
- As the detention period draws to a close, the group requests that Brian complete the assigned essay for everyone, while John returns to the storage closet so that Vernon believes he never left.
After leaving, Brian leaves the essay in the library for Vernon to read. Allison and Andrew kiss as the students part ways, as do Claire and John. Allison removes the state championship patch from Andrew’s jacket and keeps it for herself, while Claire gives John one of her diamond earrings.
Who was The Breakfast Club in 1984 on March 24?
On March 24, 1984, at 7:00 a.m. on a Saturday, five teenagers from different cliques and backgrounds met at Shermer High School to serve detention in the classic John Hughes film The Breakfast Club.
What arrived first, 16 candles or Breakfast Club?
Mentioned in a biography – John Hughes’ films Sixteen Candles (1984), The Breakfast Club (1985), and Pretty in Pink (1986) made stars of a group of young actors known as the Brat Pack, including Molly Ringwald, Emilio Estevez, and Judd Nelson. (This was a play on words.) 
How long did the Breakfast Club’s detention last?
Are You a Princess or a Rebel? Today is the day of The Breakfast Club’s fatal detention. Universal/Kobal/Shutterstock At 7:00 a.m. on this date, March 24, 1984, five high school students reported for an all-day Saturday detention. To be more precise, a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, and a criminal attended Saturday detention for the entire day.
- They discovered more about themselves than they ever imagined was possible.
- Today is the date of that fateful day for these children, the thief John (Judd Nelson), the princess Claire (Molly Ringwald), the athlete Andy (Emilio Estevez), the basket case Allison (Ally Sheedy), and the genius Ralph ( Anthony Michael Hall ).
While The Breakfast Club celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2015, we have yet to experience a year in which the film’s quotes are no longer highly relevant. For instance: “We’re all pretty bizarre. Some of us are simply better at concealing it.” “Screws are constantly falling out; the world is an imperfect place.” “When you become an adult, your heart dies.” Today, in honor of the most significant date in one of the most iconic high school films of all time, read Brian’s letter to Mr.
- Vernon: Dear Mr.
- Vernon: We accept that we had to spend an entire Saturday in detention for whatever we did wrong, but we find it absurd that you require us to write an essay describing who we are.
- You perceive us as you wish.
- In the most straightforward language and practical definitions.
- We discovered, however, that each of us is a brain, an athlete, and a basket case.
a princessand a criminal. Does that address your query? Sincere regards, The Breakfast Regulars Wishing everyone a happy Breakfast Club Detention Day! Now go forth and rebel. Or a mind. Or a competitor. Or a complete mess. Alternatively, a princess. Or whatever the devil you desire to be! Are You a Princess or a Rebel? Today is the day of The Breakfast Club’s fatal detention.
Why was Brian held in detention?
Top 10 Movie Wimps – TIME MCA / Everett In the 1985 film The Breakfast Club, which takes place during Saturday detention, Brian Johnson (Anthony Michael Hall) is the “brain.” John Bender (Judd Nelson), the “rebel”, even steals his lunch due to his weakness.
- As the five students in detention get to know one another, however, they discover that Brian is in detention for bringing a flare gun to school with the intent of committing suicide after failing a shop class project.
- At the conclusion of the film, he heroically writes the group’s required essay, which, while well-written, still means he did everyone’s work for them.
Come on, dude. Next: Top Ten Film Cowards – TIME
What occurred on the 24th of March, 1984?
0 of 2 minutes and 13 seconds Volume 90% Shift-question mark provides access to a list of keyboard shortcuts. Keyboard Abbreviations Play/Stop SPACE Increase Volume ↑ Decrease Volume ↓ Seek Forward → Seek Backward On/Off Captions c Fullscreen/Exit Fullscreen f Mute/Unmute m Seek % 0-9 The film ‘The Breakfast Club’ premiered on March 24, 1984.
How did The Breakfast Club influence the 1980s?
How ‘The Breakfast Club’ Became an Exemplar of Adolescent Life The Breakfast Club, which debuted in Los Angeles on February 7, 1985, is possibly the best film ever made about American high school life. Considered one of the most influential films of the 1980s, this film is a compilation of the anxieties, confusion, and joys of adolescence.
Hughes went on to write or direct other classics such as, Home Alone, and Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. In addition, it was instrumental in launching the careers of, Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson, and. The novel’s most enduring impact, however, was to establish a model for taking the inner lives of its characters seriously.
The film’s power derives from its reduced simplicity. One Saturday, five students are assigned to library detention at their high school. John Bender (Nelson) is the bad boy, Claire Standish (Ringwald) is the rich society girl, Andrew Clark (Estevez) is the jock, Brian Johnson (Hall) is the nerd, and Allison Reynolds (Sheedy) is the oddball.
- Assistant Principal Vernon (Paul Gleason), a bullying disciplinarian, assigns them to write a 1,000-word essay on who they believe they are during the nine hours they are required to sit quietly in the library.
- Carl Reed (John Kapelos), a janitor who, as revealed briefly in the opening montage, was the high school’s Man of the Year in 1969, is the only other character with whom they have significant interactions.
Faced with long hours of boredom, the children initially engage in status- and hobby-based conflict. However, as the day progresses, prompted by Bender’s confrontations with Vernon, they develop a sense of unity and eventually reveal their innermost feelings to one another.
The film concludes with a note that Brian writes on behalf of everyone, in lieu of the actual essay assignment, stating that “what we learned today is that each of us is a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, and a criminal.” The optimistic clarity of its vision is what prevents this from being melodramatic.
The film Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, directed by Mike Nichols and based on the Edward Albee play of the same name, is frequently compared to The Breakfast Club. In Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, four characters work through the insurmountable difficulties of their lives by talking to and tormenting one another over the course of a single drunken night.
- In the earlier film, however, the adults reflect with morbid bitterness on what molded them into the wrecks they’ve become, whereas in Hughes’ film, the adolescents struggle toward the future, burdened by the world but somehow still hopeful.
- They are not oblivious to the fact that they will eventually become adults and may lose much of the enchantment they feel, but they cannot help but be excited about the opportunities that lie ahead.
Watch the Trailer for “The Breakfast Club” This optimism is juxtaposed with an unexpectedly harsh depiction of the cruelty of high school life. In addition to containing numerous memorable scenes, Hughes’ screenplay deftly condenses the manner in which children destroy one another into a few terse lines of dialogue or even a scathing glance.
- Bender’s ridicule of his weaker and less cool peers is bolstered by his humiliation at being poor, whereas Claire’s arrogant superiority as a member of the upper class is undermined by the ease with which others identify her self-absorption.
- One of the tragedies of the characters’ lives is the extent to which their insecurity and stress are externally imposed, especially by their parents, as evidenced by the fact that each character is susceptible to his or her own unique brand of insecurity and anxiety.
It is frequently claimed that The Breakfast Club’s depiction of the adult world is excessively harsh. This film depicts significantly more conflict between children and their parents than a contemporary film would. “When you grow up, your heart dies,” Allison says at one point.
- Assistant Principal Vernon and Carl drink a beer and argue about the children in the film’s most unexpected scene.
- Older generations have always and will always have a great debate about the younger generations.
- Vernon asserts that children have evolved and grown more conceited with each passing year.
They have turned against him. Carl, who jokes that as a child he wanted to be, responds that Vernon is the one who has changed, not the children. Carl asks Vernon, if he were 16 years old, what he would think of himself now. The film hinges on the insight contained in this debate, namely that there is no correct response.
Occasionally, the Man of the Year becomes a janitor, and occasionally, the idealistic teacher becomes the despotic assistant principal; frequently, children grow up to become parents who pass on all sorts of baggage to their children, either by emulating their own parents or by attempting the opposite.
The Breakfast Club is not an anti-adult film. Unlike many inferior films, it takes seriously the inevitable connection between the worlds of youth and adulthood. Eventually, high school students will become adults. Perhaps even the kinds of adults who make their lives almost impossibly difficult, though they desperately hope not.
- All of the best teen films, from Rebel Without a Cause to American Graffiti to Big Wednesday to, address the necessity of aging.
- The magic of The Breakfast Club, however, is that it captures so vividly the often-overlooked profundity of the teenagers themselves.
- Each generation’s desperate, doomed desire to be different is neither presented with condescension nor as a tragedy in this text.
Instead, this hope is viewed as a constant reminder of the possibility of life, an acknowledgement of human potential that each new generation of high school students embraces as they pass through those years, reminding the rest of us of its existence: How ‘The Breakfast Club’ Became an Exemplar of Adolescent Life
Where was detention held in The Breakfast Club?
30 years ago ‘The Breakfast Club’ served detention served detention 30 years ago today at Shermer High School. John Hughes’ coming-of-age comedy set in suburban Chicago was released in 1985, but the story took place on March 24,1984. Fans acknowledged the anniversary on Twitter.
- In the cult classic, five very different teenagers – played by “Brat Pack” stars Molly Ringwald, Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy, Judd Nelson and Anthony Michael Hall – spend their Saturday in the school library for various offenses.
- Spoiler alert: At first they don’t relate to one another, but at the end of the day they realize they have a lot in common.
As Andrew Clark, played by Estevez, said in the film, “We’re all pretty bizarre. Some of us are just better at hiding it, that’s all.” : 30 years ago ‘The Breakfast Club’ served detention
Why did Allison go to detention in The Breakfast Club?
The Basket Case – Allison went to detention by personal choice, citing nothing better to do with her time. Regardless, she wound up being lumped into the other kids; once during Carl The Janitor’s “sh*theads like you” insult, and the other with Vernon referring to her as “Missy” in a derogatory manner twice.
What did each kid do to get detention in The Breakfast Club?
The Breakfast Club’s confession scene is one of the movie’s most pivotal and revealing, and it was also surprisingly ad-libbed by the film’s cast. One of The Breakfast Club’s most memorable scenes was reportedly ad-libbed by the actors on set. The scene where the teens sit down in the library and confess why they are each in detention is one of the most emotional moments of the film.
- It is also the moment that makes The Breakfast Club more than just an 80s teen comedy, but a commentary on teenage life that still resonates today.
- Andy (Emilio Estevez), Bender (Judd Nelson), Brian ( Anthony Michael Hall ), Claire (Molly Ringwald), and Allison (Ally Sheedy) find unexpected common ground with each other during the endless Saturday detention they are forced to share.
The library confession scene is arguably the most important in depicting that common ground. Andy confesses that he attacked and humiliated a weaker student in the locker room in order to garner respect from his father. Bender pulled a fire alarm; Claire skipped school to go shopping.
- Brian failed a project in shop class and brought a flare gun to school to attempt suicide, but was caught when the flare gun went off in this locker.
- And Allison volunteered for detention because she had nothing better to do.
- Each of these reasons reveals a struggle at the heart of the characters’ motivations.
Director John Hughes left the confession scene largely unscripted, aiming for authenticity that was less likely to occur naturally if the actors simply delivered lines. Hughes reportedly told each actor the general reason for their character having detention (for example, Estevez knew that his character had bullied another character), leaving the details and the flow of storytelling up to the chemistry between the actors.
While other small parts of the film (such as Bender’s unfinished “blonde woman” joke) were also improvised, it is incredible that the actors were able to successfully ad-lib such an important scene. Ultimately, the actors’ improvisation is likely what made the scene so powerful. Hughes permitted the actors to alter portions of the script while filming The Breakfast Club and encouraged their input on how the characters behaved, spoke, and dressed.
Consequently, it makes sense that he wanted the confession scene, arguably one of the most important scenes in the film, to feel natural and be based on the actors’ perceptions of their characters’ motivations. Brian’s need for perfection, Andy’s pressure to succeed, Claire’s feeling of being trapped in her popularity, Bender’s anger at life, and Allison’s loneliness are all present in their confessions, as are themes of parental pressure, popularity, and struggles to succeed in a high school environment that connect the characters’ internal struggles.
Each character ultimately finds themselves in detention due to an unresolved conflict in their lives. It is the confession scene that brings these motivations to the forefront, giving the characters depth and enabling them to relate to one another outside of the high school social context. Without the improvised dialogue in this scene, the portrayal of adolescence in Hughes’s 1985 film may not have been as successful.
The chemistry between the actors and their total dedication to their roles, particularly in the film’s most significant improvised scene, is what makes The Breakfast Club so timeless. Next: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off: The Potential Ferris Bueller Actors 
In The Breakfast Club, why is Andrew Clark in detention?
The Breakfast Regulars Stephen Clark (Emilio Estevez) Andrew (Emilio Estevez) fits the archetype of a jock. However, as you may have guessed by now, he is not merely a stereotype of a meathead. Like everyone else in this film, he possesses emotional depths that are concealed.
No one is actually a stereotype on the inside; they simply act like stereotypes constantly. Initially, he conforms to all the stereotypes associated with him. He believes that Bender is a “nothing,” a person who “doesn’t matter.” When Bender harasses Claire, Andrew defends her and nearly fights Bender, who threatens him with a knife.
This is technically chivalrous, but it feels like Andrew is simply acting in accordance with his character. Actually, he is not a defender of the weak. As it turns out, he is in detention because of a vicious act of bullying he committed to impress his friends and his father: ANDREW: And my companions simply laughed and cheered me on.
Afterward, as I sat in Vernon’s office, I could not stop thinking about Larry’s father. And Larry will have to return home and explain what transpired. And the humiliation he must have felt is beyond description. It must have been unreal. I mean, how do you apologize for such a thing? There is no way that everything is due to me and my father.
God, I f***ing despise him! He has become such a mindless machine that I can no longer relate to him. “Andrew, you have to be the best! I will not tolerate losers in this household. Your ferocity is a joke! Win. Win! Win!!” You filthy scumbag! Occasionally, I wish my knee would give out and I would no longer be able to wrestle.
