48 Fun Facts About The Breakfast Club

John Hughes wrote The Breakfast Club first, but which film became his directing debut instead?

Sixteen Candles: Hughes feared opening his directing career with so sparse a drama, so he dashed off the comedy in a couple of days and it jumped the queue.

On which day of the week do the five students serve detention in The Breakfast Club?

Saturday: at 7:06 in the morning Vernon tells the five they have exactly 8 hours and 54 minutes to think about why they are there.

In which fictional Illinois suburb, used across John Hughes's films, is The Breakfast Club set?

Shermer: Hughes borrowed the name from Shermerville, which is what Northbrook, the suburb where he went to high school, was called until 1923.

In The Breakfast Club, which singer's wardrobe does Bender accuse Vernon of raiding?

Barry Manilow: invited to ask questions, Bender wonders aloud whether the singer knows Vernon raids his wardrobe, and the joke costs him another detention.

In The Breakfast Club, Vernon's essay must describe what?

Who they think they are: Vernon wants at least a thousand words from each of them, and gets one letter for all five telling him he already sees them as he wants to.

In The Breakfast Club's closing letter, which label fits the loner Allison?

A basket case: the letter lists a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess and a criminal, then turns on Vernon by saying each of the five is all of those at once.

In The Breakfast Club, what does Allison shake onto her drawing to make it snow?

Her own dandruff: Allison scratches it from her hair over the winter scene she has drawn, though what fell on set was a kitchen stand-in, most often said to be Parmesan cheese.

Who plays the rebellious John Bender in The Breakfast Club?

Judd Nelson stayed in character off camera and needled the actress playing Claire so hard that Hughes nearly fired him, until the rest of the cast talked the director round.

Which actor tried out for Bender in The Breakfast Club but ended up in another role?

Emilio Estevez had just played the young punk in Repo Man; one account has Hughes seeing the athlete in him, another has him simply short of anyone else to play Andrew.

In The Breakfast Club, what does Bender remove so the library door will not stay open?

A screw: without it the heavy door swings shut on Vernon's view of them, and Bender shrugs that screws fall out all the time because the world is an imperfect place.

Which comic actor was dropped as The Breakfast Club's janitor after playing him as an over-the-top Russian?

Rick Moranis turned up with gold teeth and a thick Russian accent, a broad sketch-show turn the serious film had no room for, and John Kapelos took over as Carl.

In The Breakfast Club, how does Bender stop Vernon catching the others outside the library?

He runs off singing loudly: Bender belts out an army marching chant to draw Vernon to the gym, and takes the punishment alone, locked in a supply closet for it.

Which agency moved into the closed high school where The Breakfast Club was filmed?

The Illinois State Police: Maine North High School shut in 1981, played the film's school three years later, and the home of cinema's best-known detention now houses a police district office.

How did Hughes make The Breakfast Club for $1 million?

One main set: Hughes had never directed when he wrote it, so he built the script around a single room and a handful of actors to keep it cheap enough to get made.

Which muttered Breakfast Club insult earns Bender his extra detentions?

Eat my shorts: Bender mutters it, repeats it loudly when challenged, and keeps answering back until Vernon crows that he has him for the next two months.

Why is Claire in detention in The Breakfast Club?

She skipped school to go shopping: her father shrugs it off as he drops her at the door, telling her it does not make her a defective and promising to make the lost day up to her.

What did Bender do to earn his detention in The Breakfast Club?

Pulled the fire alarm: Bender plays it for laughs all day, until he rolls up his sleeve and shows the others a cigar burn his father gave him.

In The Breakfast Club, which sport does Andrew, who taped a classmate's buttocks together, compete in?

Wrestling: Andrew admits he humiliated the boy to win the approval of his bullying father, then breaks down wondering how he could ever apologize for it.

In The Breakfast Club, Brian is in detention because of an incident involving what?

A flare gun in his locker: it went off by accident, and Brian admits to the others that he had brought it to school to end his life over one failing grade.

In The Breakfast Club, which class does Brian fail, the first F of his life?

Shop: Brian took it as an easy way to protect his grade average, then his ceramic elephant lamp refused to light, and Bender, who takes the class himself, was not amused.

In The Breakfast Club, why does Allison say she came to detention?

She had nothing better to do: Allison only says so after the others have confessed what they did, and the whole group, Allison included, ends up helpless with laughter.

In The Breakfast Club, where do all five sneak off to together?

Bender's locker: he keeps a bag of marijuana there, and once it has gone round back in the library the group finally start telling each other the truth.

In The Breakfast Club, how does Bender get back to the library after Vernon locks him in a closet?

Through the ceiling: he crawls along above the tiles telling himself a joke, crashes down before the punchline, and hides under Claire's table while the others cover for him.

In The Breakfast Club, which two characters are ashamed of being virgins?

Brian and Claire: he bluffs to Bender rather than let her find out, and she only blurts it out after Allison goads her with invented stories about her own love life.

In The Breakfast Club, what does Allison rip off Andrew's letterman jacket as they part?

The state championship patch: she tears it off to keep straight after they kiss in the parking lot, moments before his father pulls up and stares at them both.

What does Claire give Bender at the end of The Breakfast Club?

One of her diamond earrings: hours earlier Bender had sneered at them and asked whether her daddy bought them, and now he puts one in his own ear.

In The Breakfast Club, what does Carl tell Vernon, who says students keep getting more arrogant?

That he is the one who has changed: Vernon frets that the kids see him as a joke, and Carl asks what he would have made of a man like himself at sixteen.

What is the last shot of The Breakfast Club?

Bender raising his fist on the football field: he crosses it alone as the closing letter is read out, and the picture freezes on his silent cheer.

In The Breakfast Club, what does Bender say his father gave him for Christmas?

A carton of cigarettes: his father handed it over with 'Smoke up, Johnny', a memory Bender throws at Claire before telling her to go home and cry to her daddy.

Which celebrated photographer shot the huddled-cast poster for The Breakfast Club?

Annie Leibovitz took the group portrait, and the poster sold the five as a brain, a beauty, a jock, a rebel and a recluse, not quite the labels the film itself uses.

Which band performs 'Don't You (Forget About Me)', the song that opens and closes The Breakfast Club?

Simple Minds kept refusing a song they had not written, and Jim Kerr says they 'couldn't give a toss about teenage American schoolkids', yet they finally recorded it in a single afternoon.

Which comedy's heroine leads her group to a national title with a mash-up featuring 'Don't You (Forget About Me)'?

Pitch Perfect: The Breakfast Club is love interest Jesse's favourite film, so after the pair fall out Beca slips its anthem into the Bellas' winning mash-up as her apology to him.

Which singer turned down 'Don't You (Forget About Me)' while finishing his album Boys and Girls?

Bryan Ferry says the demo sounded like a hit to him, but the album was way behind and he did not want the distraction, so The Breakfast Club's theme went to a band that did not want it either.

Which rock frontwoman, then married to its singer, badgered him into recording 'Don't You (Forget About Me)'?

Chrissie Hynde liked the song and kept asking him what the problem was. His closing 'la la la' was only sung for want of lyrics, and producer Keith Forsey refused to let him replace it.

In which of these countries did 'Don't You (Forget About Me)' top the singles chart in 1985?

The United States: the band had struggled to break America, yet The Breakfast Club's theme went to No. 1 there while stalling at No. 7 at home in Britain.

In The Breakfast Club, which tune are the five whistling when Vernon walks in?

'Colonel Bogey March': it is the tune the prisoners of war whistle in The Bridge on the River Kwai, and the moment Vernon enters, Bender switches to the opening of Beethoven's Fifth.

Which nickname, coined by a 1985 New York magazine cover story, stuck to The Breakfast Club's young stars?

The Brat Pack: David Blum's story opens on a night out at the Hard Rock Cafe in Los Angeles and casts Hollywood's new young stars as the 1980s answer to Sinatra's Rat Pack.

In The Breakfast Club, what does Brian say his fake ID is for?

Voting: Andrew calls it the worst fake ID he has ever seen, since Brian has accidentally made himself 68, and Brian answers as if nothing could be more obvious.

Which 2001 parody film saw Paul Gleason reprise his role as Vernon?

He also played the vice principal again in an A-Teens music video for 'Dancing Queen'.

In which city did all five stars of The Breakfast Club finally share a stage again, at a 2025 fan convention?

Chicago: the C2E2 panel was the first time in 40 years all five had appeared together, near where they shot the film, and one star joked they could finally retire the cardboard cut-out.

What was the unmade Breakfast Club sequel reportedly about?

The five reunited in detention at university: as one star told it in 2005, the twist was that each would be the polar opposite of who they were at school, and Hughes died in 2009 with nothing filmed.

Which musician's lyrics fill the opening title card of The Breakfast Club before it shatters like glass?

David Bowie: the lines come from his 1971 song Changes, and the idea was not the director's, since Ally Sheedy says she found them and showed them to John Hughes.

Which of Anthony Michael Hall's real-life relatives play Brian's family at the start of The Breakfast Club?

His mother and sister: they scold Brian in the car in the opening minutes, and the father who collects him after detention is John Hughes himself in an uncredited cameo.

Why was The Breakfast Club library built as a set in a gymnasium?

The real one was too small: the two-story set filled the gym of a school that had closed in 1981, and the room where five teenagers made their peace later became a warehouse.

A&M, whose film arm backed The Breakfast Club, is better known as what?

A record label: Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss's A&M struck a small deal for the script in 1982, released the soundtrack album, and saw the $1 million film gross at least $46 million.

In The Breakfast Club, what does Claire unpack for lunch, to Bender's open disbelief?

Sushi: Claire has to explain that it is rice, raw fish and seaweed, and Bender cannot believe she means to eat it.

Which two films were ahead of The Breakfast Club when it opened at No. 3 in February 1985?

Beverly Hills Cop and Witness: Eddie Murphy's comedy was in its eleventh week and still on top, yet the detention film took in about five times its $1 million budget in three days.

Which award did The Breakfast Club receive at the 2005 MTV Movie Awards, marking its twentieth anniversary?

A Silver Bucket of Excellence: not all five stars made the reunion that came with it, and the band Yellowcard played the film's famous theme live on the night.