*THE BREAKFAST CLUB* First Time Watching MOVIE REACTION

What other Brat pack movies should we check out?
1980's Playlist: krplus.net/p/PLQHhQlj8i5drsQx2uSifPV3sKWZEJrnyx.html
FERRIS BUELLER: krplus.net/bidio/dq2Phn57nqSyi2E

Three days ago, March 24, 2024, was the 40th anniversary of the day they spent in detention.

Allie Sheedy is my favorite character here; her acting is so delightfully intense, love it. When she delivers the line, "I care" it touches me deeply every time. Second place I give to Carl. Such a cool guy, and if you watch it enough times his award for "most likely to succeed" (or something like that), so he was no slouch in high school, is shown at the beginning.

Apparently John Hughes had planned to do a sequel with the characters when they were in their 30s (15-20 years after the Breakfast Club) but he never got around to it before his untimely death in 2009.

Bender was trying to be an asshole to Carl when he asked how does one become a janitor. Carl didn't react the way Bender expected, which was to get mad and start an argument, Carl instead kept his cool and that's why Bender smiled. It was disbelief that he couldn't get under someone's skin.

John Hughes made the best teen movies. The older we get, the more we identify with the janitor-lol.

John Hughes really tapped into something special with this movie. Everything from the performances, the dialogue, the music, to the balance of humour and drama is spot on. Its an Absolute classic.

“Mixed media” is the wittiest possible response to that moment.

You may have missed it but Carl the Janitor was shown during the opening. He was the Shermer High Man of the Year in 1969.

I always get choked up during the scene of them confessing to each other the reasons why they’re all in detention. Powerful scene beautifully written.

Fun Fact: That was actually Anthony Michael Hall’s mother and sister dropping him off for detention.

This movie has no business being as good as it is...some very smart people really added a lot of heart and soul to create this gem

Brian - In for bringing a gun to school
Andrew - In for taping assaulting a kid
John - In for pulling the school's fire alarm
Claire - In for ditching class to go shopping
Allison - Had nothing better to do

I love how John Hughes encouraged his young actors to improvise whenever possible. For instance, the entire sequence of the characters talking about why they were in detention was completely unscripted, as was Brian's reasoning for needing a fake ID.

The scene with all of them sitting around arguing, fighting, talking and laughing in a circle is so amazing. The actors did such a great job portraying all of the sides of their characters.
I was in high school when this came out in theaters, and definitely hit home for me, and my friends.

The fact that Ally Sheedy was there by choice and the principal didn't even know has to be one of the greatest reveals of all time. I really hope she wasn't lying. 😂

Watching your reaction made me realize for the first time ever, that the janitor must have found/reported the gun going off in Brian's locker. That is why he makes a point to say "how are you doing?" every time he sees him, knowing this a kid who potentially had "self delete" issues.

*Their detention was 40 years ago: March 24, 1984* 😮

Jen instantly calculates how much more weed is in the bag than her usual 😂

re: Ferris Bueller's Day Off- Someone's probably pointed this out already, but Ferris Bueller and The Breakfast Club all go to the same high school.

After seeing this in the theater, I bugged our drama teacher to let us do it as a play. I harassed him about it for over two years, going as far as typing up a script, designing the set, and creating a lighting plan. He finally let us do it during our senior year for two weekends in 1988. We sold out every performance.
As a bonus, I got to play Carl the Janitor.
😁

Fun fact: Judd Nelson (like most actors) stayed in character of Bender in between shoots and it actually passed a lot of people off during shooting.

As a high-schooler in the 80s, it still amazes me how much this movie moved us. We didn't take it as preachy or as an adult trying to teach us a lesson. For both kids and adults to appreciate it so much shows what a masterpiece it is. Oh, while it's not exactly a brat-pack movie, if you haven't done 16 Candles yet, you should. Molly Ringwald is the main character, and it's where Anthony Michael Hall (Brian the brain) got his start. It's not exactly thoughtful, but it's a lot of fun.

This is one of those movies everyone should see. Eternally relatable.

The Whistle was from Bridge on the river Kwai.
(The Mickey Mouse club song was from Full Metal Jacket(

I love it when Bender puts the knife into the table, And then you see Allison’s hand pull it out, taking it offscreen 😂

"David Bowie! A poet!"
A poignant line from Changes. RIP to a true wordsmith.

🥸 In case you didn't notice, one of the five kids (Anthony Michael Hall) was Chevy Chase's son in "National Lampoon's Vacation" and another one (Ally Sheedy) was Matthew Broderick's girlfriend in "War Games." It's strange how all of these actors have been working stedily over the last 40 years, and yet most people still associate all of them with the 1980s. 😎👍

4 of 5 Breakfast Club actors I met at last year RI comic con. Molly, Ally Sheedy, Anthony Michael Hall, and Judd Nelson.

Such a classic, they did a really good job showing what high school was like. The story is great, the characters were great, we can all relate to them in some way and you can’t forget simple minds: “don’t you (forget about me)” such an iconic song.

This is such a great movie. I remember watching it in psychology class in high school. Everyone needs to listen to the band Gunship and their song, “When you grow up, your heart dies.” Wonderful song.

"Oh wow; mixed media' LMAO 😅 ❄️

"instead of going to prison, you'll come here!" And "they love me around here, I'm a swell Guy." Are the funniest lines in this movie

In case you are wondering the "dandruff" that was used to make snow in the drawing was really parmessan cheese.

Writer, Producer Director John Hughes has his only onscreen cameo in this movie playing Brian's Dad sitting and waiting in the red car at the end. He had no lines but is onscreen so watch for him next time. He defined the 80s especially its youth. RIP John Hughes

The name of the high school was Shermer High. That was also the name of the school in Ferris Bueller, Weird Science, and Sixteen Candles. It's in an imaginary suburb near Chicago

“No, Mr. Johnson”. Underrated line if I ever heard one.

This came out when I was a senior in high school and their talking points hit so close to home. I ended up writing an essay about this movie the following year in college freshman English class. It’s been almost 40 years later and I’m sitting in my den with the movie poster of this on the wall beside me.

That line gets me every time."Well everyones Homelife is unsatisfying, if it wasn't, people would live with their parents forever!
It's sooo true.

🤟 "mess with the bull, get the horns" goes back to the cowboy days.

"What? I'm a f'n idiot because I can't make a lamp?"
"No, you're a GENUIS because you can't make a lamp"
That line always tickles me
3:25 "Sunshine of Your Love" by Cream

The whistling is from the classic movie "The Bridge On The River Kwai" (1957).

Hughes has such a great body of work in the 80’s. When you watch all of them you will see the formula.
I think one of the most noticeable features is his musical/score choices, usually just before the end as the characters resolve their differences/come to realizations. Its always very similar, light, airy, a little melancholy but satisfying. After seeing the movies so many times just hearing any of these pieces evokes the emotions the scene evoked in the movie.
This one was the ‘love theme’ that plays over Claire/Bender and Andrew/Allison.
Some other notables;
PT&A when Neal gets on the L train and remembers his journey with Del.
Uncle Buck when mom gets home and opens the door to face Tia.

The part about your heart dying when you grow up is wildly poignant. It's rare to truly remember how intense things felt as a teenager. When something does bring back a full-force memory of it, it's shocking and saddening to realize how little we feel now in comparison. Even the negative feelings were nourishing. That's what this movie manages to capture. They're not afraid of fear, because there's always tomorrow.

While Allison's makeover is seen as controversial compared to her classic "dark" look, I didn't mind it, since she and Claire were bonding, and Allison was allowing someone to do something nice for her. I also love Andy's response "I can see your face", indicating that he liked her before.

The ultimate teen movie. Haven’t seen another that hits as hard as this one.

'The Reaction Club' - Saturday morning detention with Jen! A brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess and a criminal all in one! This is where the wasteoids come to blaze up!

ah cute Ally, such a crush on her when i was younger. She was so popular in the 80's had a nice run of about 5 years with some big movies, but got messed up on drugs and partying and that kind of ended it for her after the 80s.

Great music in this film! Brought the 80s back to life! The 80s was a Great time, movies, music and no cell phones! Everything was done face to face! Not facebook to facebook.lmao 😅😅😅 ❤️💛😁

This was one of the ultimate Brat Pack movies...as every cast member was considered a member of the Brat Pack. The other official members of the Brat Pack are: Andrew McCarthy, Rob Lowe, and Demi Moore, all of whom were in St Elmo's Fire (another Brat Pack film) with Emilio Estevez (Andy), Judd Nelson (Bender), and Ally Sheedy (Allison). Only Anthony Michael Hall and Molly Ringwald were not in St. Elmo's Fire.
However, there are many others who are considered members as well, mainly because they were around this core group socially and professionally: Tom Cruise, Robert Downey, Jr., Timothy Hutton, Charlie Sheen (Emilio Estevez's brother), James Spader, Jon Cryer, John Cusack, Matthew Broderick, Mary Stuart Masterson, Joan Cusack, Jami Gertz, Nicholas Cage, Kiefer Sutherland, Sean Penn, and Lea Thompson. Melissa Gilbert (who was engaged to both Estevez and Lowe at different times) considered herself a member in her autobiography, even though she was never a film actor, but a TV star from Little House on the Prairie.
During filming, Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall were dating.
When Anthony Michael Hall gets into the car at the end, the man driving, playing Brian's father, is writer-director John Hughes, while Brian's mom and sister who drop him off were Anthony Michael Hall's real mother and sister.
Both Anthony Michael Hall and Molly Ringwald were approached by John Hughes to be in the film toward the end of filming Sixteen Candles, which they both starred in. Hall signed on first, Molly was asked to play Allison, but wanted Claire.
Originally, Bender was cast with John Cusack...but he was let go because he was thought to be "not intimidating enough", and Judd Nelson was the last one cast.

you had me at "mixed media" lol

John Cusack was originally cast as John Bender. I love the final cast.

“when you grow up… your heart dies…”
this is only true if you stop being curious about feelings, the way things are in the world, or about science.
being curious about everything is perfect. 👍🥰

This is one of the movies that defines my generation. It's so accurate to the time it was made in. Most of the kids in my HS fit into the categories played by the characters in this film.

Great reaction as always, Jen. This is considered a 'perfect movie', but many people (including the director and the actors) have one regret about one scene in the movie ---- they regret the makeover scene of Ally Sheedy's character. They believe that having Claire give her a makeover towards the end of the movie, takes away from her quirky off-beat character. I'm actually divided on that. I don't think the makeover necessarily took away from her character....it merely added a new dimension, showing that teenagers go through phases and different styles. It showed that people's characters are not always just one thing....characters can be nuanced and complex. At least that was my takeaway from that scene.

Breakfast Club is a timeless tale that just happens to be set in the 80s. This movie cuts so raw. It's such a good movie.

As always, I liked your outro thoughts. I look at this film as a teen group therapy session. Nice job, Jen, and fun chat!

I remember the 80's like it was 40 years ago.

March 11, 2023 was the last day of detention for Bender
Love this movie 🍿

I was in Junior High when this movie came out. I can still see it - the movie title - on the marquee.
The ‘80’s, to any of us who lived in them, feels no more than twenty years ago.
I’ll give you a fun little ‘80’s thing to do, i.e., sound like the eighty’s. Whenever you talk and there’s a pause between words, many people, for example, will say something like, hum or ahh - “And then, hum, when everything is, ahh, put back together…”, - instead of that say, “like”. “And then, like, when everything is, like, put back together…”. It’s continuous though. Anytime there’s a pause you say “like”.

Jen did John Hughes "Uncle Buck" and now she does John Hughes's "Breakfast Club". These young actors really held down the early eighties especially showing the young adult anxieties ... for the upper middle class kids! the working class kids I grew up with were kind of shaking our heads at this movie! 😀

Something I notice as an adult - Bender has a grey streak in his hair because of his stressful home life 😭

Anthony Michael Hall chose this film, and the later Weird Science (also 1985) as why he wasn't in the National Lampoon's Vacation (1983) sequel European Vacation (1985) Dana Barron (Audrey from NLV) refused to reprise her character because AMH wasn't reprising the Rusty character. Thus setting a tradition for having complete different actors for the kid roles in all the Vacation films. European, Christmas, Vegas, the 2015 film.

I'm 62 and this movie still gets me every time. I feel all the emotions like I was in high school.

This is one of my favorite movies. It has a sense of humor and it can also make you think back to your High School days. They all have their reason for being in Saturday detention and somehow they overcome their differences and form a bond with each other. It is a fun movie to watch. Highly recommend!

John Hughes captured the essence of the 80s in all his movies.
Love your reactions as always Jen.

TBC is one of THE MOST important teen movies of the 1980s! It helped Shape a Generation!

Iconic. When this came out, I was in 10th grade & it hit home for all of us. We so identified with the characters, as they were us.

A defining movie of my generation. I have so many stories inspired by this movie and how it affected myself and my classmates. Wonderful reaction Jen.

Classic 80s, great reaction. 💜
I'd spend Saturday detention with these 5.

Nice reaction, Jen! I'm a GenXer, saw this movie in the theater during my Junior year of high school- a seminal movie for me. I really appreciate your observations about the music/soundtrack. Your comments about the soundtrack made me have a new and deeper appreciation for it. Thanks for that, and keep up the good work my friend.

I've never noticed before that Bender didn't have a lunch of his own

My parents went to high school with Paul Gleason, aka Principal Vernon. Even though he usually played a jerk as a character actor, he was a really nice guy in person. RIP Paul Gleason.

I could imagine the next day at school Bryan is getting bullied and the Bender and Andrew show up and protect him. Maybe Bender helps Bryan in shop class, e.t.c.

Born in '71 i was an 80's teen, Bender's clique at the time this came out.😅 From "Mr Mom" through "Home Alone", i was blessed to catch Hughes flicks on the big screen throughout, but i actually, purposely, didnt see this one in theater cause i heard it was a drama & about spending all day in detention. So took me a while to catch it on VHS. My mom knew my high school princle when he was her teacher when she was in high school & told him to stop suspending me & sending me home so i wound up spending basically an entire year in "In School Suspension", i.e., the local Breakfast Club!😅
Rock On, mofos!!!
🤘🌎❤️

Claire is an ESFJ, Bender is an ESTP-T, Brian is an INTJ, Andrew is an ISFJ, Allison is an INFP, and the ahole principle is an ESTJ .

This movie became a ritual amongst my friends and I. Every Saturday night after the bar closed, we would head over to a buddy's house, continue to drink and watch this movie. We watched so often we all knew all the lines and would recite them while watching. To change things up, we decided to have each of us draw a character name from a hat and we would act out that character. Yes we were idiots, but we had fun.

Thank you Jen! Had this movie memorized and quotable for years. Class of 1990, so this is what I came into and came from. Love your reactions. Came for the Star Trek, here for the torch-passing lol

Ally Sheedy is also in Short Circuit, Molly Ringwald has a cameo in Not Another Teen Movie, and Emilio Estevez directed the criminally underrated movie Bobby

This movie was on repeat for years in the 80's and 90's. I'm almost positive that the majority of Gen X can relate to one of these characters and that we knew these characters personally. It is a perfect representation of the generation. Everything was so simple yet so complicated, at the same time.

It's ridiculous how many great movies John Hughes wrote, but this is arguably his most iconic one of them all. He died way too young. RIP John.

Then whistling reminded me of them of spaceballs in the desert.

A true classic that I actually never got around to. I guess it's time to change that.

Not just one of the greatest movies of the 80s, but of all time. I'm terrified that Hollywood will try to remake it

what made this movie stand out was that even though they used Stereotypes for the Characters John Hughes did a great job of writing them as People with Depth and I think that helped make them so relatable.

Another great one Jen. When I saw you did The Breakfast Club I had to watch it! Keep up the great work!!!

I like the design of that library.

They whistled the Mickey Mouse Club theme at the end of FMJ.

One of my favorite movies about that time in life. Also, I was in high school at that time too.

This Movie Is Forever Legendary, Happy 40 Year Anniversary To This Film!!💎🙌❤️🙏

Saint Elmo’s Fire is probably the quintessential Brat pack flick bedsides this one, yet the characters are deeply flawed and ridiculous at times, but the title song by John Parr is pretty epic. One endearing one for Judd Nelson would be Making The Grade. He plays a street kid who is hired by a rich kid to complete his final year at prep school, and Andrew Dice Clay plays his bookie:)

"you mess with the bull, you get the horns" is a rendition of an older saying, meaning the exact same thing with only one word changed, "if you play with the bull, you get the horns" which was popularized in the 60', but was nowhere near as popularized as this movie made "if you mess with the bull you get the horns".
if you like the nerdy kid (anthony micheal hall) watch the movie "weird science", nerds, computers, AI, teenage kids, parties and peer pressure, what could go wrong? (it also has a short lived TV show spin off)... i can guarantee you will like "weird science".
also both molly ringwald and anthony michael hall were both in sixteen candles, but that not my kind of movie, not have i seen it, so i wouldn't watch a reaction to it, but its apparently its a good movie, you might enjoy that one too.

John Hughes never won an Academy Award, but he sure gave the world some fun movies. RIP Mr. Hughes and thanks for the laughs.

Jen Murray Awesome Video Today!!🔥🐐🐐💎

A movie you MUST watch and review that will bring you to absolute tears at the end is called “Without a Trace” (1983).
I posted about this in the TMC Movie Fan site earlier this week and got over 5,000 likes and 1,000 comments thus far.
That’s how impactful this movie was.

Even the intro scene is great. They introduce us to the characters through their parents. And in Bender's case the lack of parents.

RISKY BUSINESS (1983), SIXTEEN CANDLES (1984), BETTER OFF DEAD (1985), REAL GENIUS (1985), etc .... these are "Teen Angst" films, and much of what makes them work so well are the Eighties soundtracks. This is probably the most celebrated film in this genre.

"We could live like fat rats, if we were the blunt connection in Shermer, Illinois ... But you know what we found out when we got there? There IS no Shermer in Illinois..."

R.I.P To A Great Director John Hughes, Still Miss You Always 😢

The whistling is from The Bridge Over The River Kwai. Great classic movie starring a younger Obi Wan Kenobi. You should definitely react to it.