• In an early draft of the script Ferris had two additional younger siblings.
• Sloane, Ferris' girlfriend, is based on a high school version of Nancy Hughes, John's wife. Cameron and Garth Volbeck (Charlie Sheen's druggie character) are based on acquaintances of Hughes from high school.
• Chicago was home to the World's Fair of 1893, where George Ferris unveiled his famous wheel. Could Ferris have been named after him?
• The movie takes place in the spingtime, but it was filmed in the fall. As a result, the crew had to paint a lot of leaves green to produce the effect of the desired season.
• Hidden burlap sheets covered the ground where the Ferrari crashed so the ravine would be protected from the broken glass (at the insistence of Highland Park, where this scene was shot). The crew had little idea of how things would go when the car crashed to the ground; fortunately a fence was there or the vehicle may have rolled into a neighbor's yard.
• Alan Ruck and Matthew Broderick had previously worked several times together on and off broadway.
• Cameron's fake "Mr. Peterson" voice was based on old drama coach Ruck and Broderick used to study under. Hughes never met the man and didn't understand the little in-joke at all, but it cracked up the two actors so much they used it for the voice.
• Ferris wears a different outfit in each scene before he and Cameron go to pick up Sloane.
• Hughes personally decorated Ferris' room to mimic his own bedroom as a teenager. Notice one of the posters on the wall was for Simple Minds -- the band who performed the theme song for The Breakfast Club.
• A drawing of John appears on the Bueller's refrigerator, created by his then-six-year-old son.
• Two cameo appearances by Hughes: his was actually the hand clicking the answering machine (not Cameron's), filmed after most of the crew went home...also during a downtown scene a crowd of people move in front of traffic, but Hughes is the one crawling under a car in the opposite direction.
• Charlie Sheen, playing a drug addict at the police station where Jeannie is taken, stayed awake for more than 48 hours before the scene was shot to produce the desired drugged-out effect.
• The detective at the police station is named Steven Lim, the same name as the First Assistant Director.
• Another famous cameo: comedian Louie Anderson as a flower deliverer. A scene featuring him talking to Mr. Rooney was cut from the film, much to Anderson's dismay.
• A scene of the kids eating pancreas at the Chez Quiz was cut, but was referred to in the taxi scene.
• Mia Sara says that Matthew Broderick actually tickled her feet and knees to get her to laugh naturally in the taxicab.
• An entire subplot involving a Ferris prank on a Chicago radio station regarding NASA was cut from the film and the trailers (which had to be retrieved from the theaters they were already sent to) due to the Challanger explosion in January of 1986. (This entire subplot is explained on the FBDO commentary DVD.)
• Interesting connections to other Matthew Broderick films: Ferris breaks into his school's computer and changes his grades, similar to his character's feat in Wargames...Ferris picks up Sloane from school disguised as her father, wearing a trenchcoat and hat, and looking a lot like his future role as Inspector Gadget...Early in the parade sequence, a theater marquee advertises "Godzilla '85." Broderick would go on to star in 1998's Godzilla.
• In 1986 the Beatles' "Twist and Shout" reappeared on the charts after being played in both Ferris Bueller and Back to School (sung by Rodney Dangerfield).
• Polly Noonan, the girl on the schoolbus who offers Roony a gummy bear, is listed in the credits before she is even seen on screen.
• Ferris dances to the "I Dream of Jeannie Theme," and has a younger sister with the same name, portrayed by Jennifer Grey. After filming, Matthew Broderick and Jennifer Grey dated for some time.
• Also after filming, Lyman Ward and Cindy Pickett (Mr. and Mrs. Bueller) fell in love and got married in real life.
• The girl in the pizza parlor who Rooney mistakes for Ferris, and who consequently spits soda in his face, is Debra Montague. Ferris Bueller's Day Off was her only film. There's a photo of her -- and every single other cast member (including bios) -- at the Save Ferris website.
• In the schoolbus at the end of the film, Ed Roony reads graffiti that says, "Rooney Eats It."
• Did you notice? Ferris is confronted by Mr Rooney after 6pm, yet Rooney then gets on a bus full of school children carrying books (which is normally 3 to 4 pm).
• After the credits are finished rolling, Ferris comes out in his bathrobe and tells the audience, "You still here? It's over. Go home!"
• Based on the geography of Chicago and all the things that Ferris and his friends did, would he really have been able to finish it all by 6pm? I guess that's the natural wonder that is Ferris. :-)
• The closest Ferris has ever gotten to a soundtrack was one that Hughes and his company made for a mailing list of people who wrote fan letters years ago. (They used to do this often, but don't anymore.) There were about 100,000 of them, according to Hughes' interview at Lollipop.com.
• Ferris Bueller's Day Off premiered in theaters on June 11th, 1986, but received negative critic reviews.
• In 1990 Ferris Bueller was turned into a short-lived TV show on the USA network, starring Charlie Schlatter as Ferris, Jennifer Aniston as sister Jeanie, Brandon Douglas as Cameron and Ami Dolenz as Sloane. (Click here to see a video clip of the intro.) The show wasn't successful, but a FOX show loosely based on Ferris, "Parker Lewis Can't Lose", was.
• On Friday, February 28th, 2003, TNN aired "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" 9 times as part of "Ferris-Palooza." TNN then aired a parody called "Small Shots: Ferris Bueller's 10,000th Day Off."

Some Kind of Wonderful

• Who performs that drum solo in the beginning? The original song with lyrics can be found on German band Propaganda's 1985 album "A Secret Wish." For the SKoW opening credits, Hughes used a rare B-side instrumental cut of the song which is not on either the Propaganda album nor the SKoW album.
• The three main characters have names relating to The Rolling Stones: Amanda Jones, named after a song of the same name (which is played in the film); a drummer called Watts; and a character called Keith.
• Watts real first name is Susan. This was mentioned in the original script.
• The role of Keith Nelson was reportedly written with Eric Stoltz in mind.
• Molly Ringwald was offered the role of Amanda Jones but turned it down. She and John Hughes had no contact for several years thereafter, until she wrote him a letter.
• Martha Coolidge was originally signed to direct the film. She casted TV beauty Kim Delaney as Amanda Jones, and Kyle Maclachlan as Hardy Jenns. Martha scouted all locations, decorated the sets, storyboarded every sequence and rehearsed with her cast. Four days before shooting commenced, she found out that Howard Deutch was the new director of SKOW, and Paramount was asking Martha instead to direct a different teen comedy in Seattle. In 2004, she looked back on the experience with mixed feelings, saying the transition was for a movie ordinarily she never would have done. Martha described John Hughes only as "mysterious." Read more about here experience at boxofficemojo.com and in this article on this site.
• Chynna Phillips (of Wilson Phillips) appears briefly as "Mia."
• Pamela Anderson was an extra in the big party scene at the end of the movie.
• Lea Thompson and Eric Stoltz were dating in real life during filming.
• Director Howard Deutch later married lead Lea Thompson.
• Lea Thompson and Eric Stoltz played a couple again in the 80s teen movie The Wild Life, which also starred Ilan Mitchell-Smith from Weird Science.
• Read everything you would want to know about this movie at SomeKindofWonderful.org!

Planes, Trains & Automobiles

• No transportation company wanted to appear inept or deficient in any way, so crews had to rent twenty miles of train track and refurbish old railroad cars, construct a set that looked like an airline terminal, design a rent-a-car company logo and uniforms, and rent 250 cars.
• Neal's house was also a set built from scratch, consisting of seven rooms and taking five months to complete. It ending up costing $100,000. There's a stormy tale behind this; see the article Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hughes for more details.
• Hughes shot over 600,000 feet of film, almost twice the industry average.
• Neal races Kevin Bacon for a taxi in the beginning of the film, then later Neal's wife is watching Bacon's Hughes film, "She's Having a Baby."
• In a television version of the film, there is added footage during the New York-Chicago/Wichita flight where Del and Neal try to eat in flight.
• A road sign reads "Chicago 106 Miles," a reference to The Blues Brothers.
• Although it's not included in the theatrical or the network cuts, a shot of Del Griffith brushing his teeth was included on ads for the network version.
• After the credits Neal's boss is still at his desk analyzing the ads, his Thanksgiving dinner sitting on his desk.

She's Having a Baby

"She's Having a Baby is about coming to terms with the responsibilities of adulthood and saying goodbye to all those irresponsible things of your youth -- you know, the Saturday nights out. It's about finding a whole new set of values, and new things that are interesting in life. You can't do at twenty-six what you did at nineteen..." -- John Hughes



• Like most of his movies, the film was set in Chicago. One day downtown the office employees at One Magnificent Mile on Michigan Avenue took the day off work to appear before the cameras that filmed on their doorstep.
• The northern suburb of Skokie was the filming location for Jake and Kristy's home, where local residents played extras. The wedding was filmed at the Winnetka Congregational Church.
• Jake's commuter rail station was the Glencoe station, across the street from where Hughes lived when he commuted to Chicago during his own advertising career.
• The interior scenes were filmed on Paramount studios stages in Hollywood. The hospital delivery room scenes were at the Lakeview Medical Center in Pacoima, California.
• The film's score was composed by Stewart Copeland, former drummer for The Police. Hughes didn't feel harder rock would have suited the film, and using soft rock "would have violated all my other values and beliefs in music."
• The music on the trailer is by Penguin Cafe Orchestra.
• Elizabeth McGovern's real life younger sister, Cammie, played her maid of honor in the wedding scene. Hughes invited her for the role after seeing her photo.
• This movie was Alec Baldwin's first major film appearance.
• Kevin Bacon's nephew, Neal Bacon, appears in a flashback as Jake as a toddler.
• Various stars appear in the credits suggesting baby names: Kirstie Alley, Harry Anderson, Jay and Michael Astin, Dan Aykroyd, Matthew Broderick, John Candy, Dyan Cannon, Belinda Carlisle, Ted Danson, Judi Evans, Woody Harrelson, Robert Hays, "Magic" Johnson, Michael Keaton, Joanna Kerns, Penny Marshall, Bill Murray, Roy Orbison, Cindy Pickett, Annie Potts, John Ratzenberger, Ally Sheedy, Lyman Ward, Wil Wheaton, and Warren Zevon.
• The film features a dedication in the final credits: "Inspiration: Nancy Hughes" (his wife).