The Breakfast Club | Canadian First Time Watching | Movie Reaction | Movie Review | Movie Commentary 

As a midwesterner raised in the '80s, I can confirm a poor kid from Chicago would have found a rich kid's sushi very strange.

The jock (Emilio Estevez) is Martin Sheen's son and Charlie's brother, but the actor uses their original last name of Estevez.

I saw this when I was a kid. The scene where the guy is crawling through the ceiling and telling a joke to himself, only to fall through before he can finish it always stuck in my head. I always wondered how the joke ended, what was the punch line. Over the years, finding that out became a sort of low key obsession. Whenever the opportunity presented itself, I would read or listen to background information on the movie, or read through joke books looking for that one joke, just so I could hear what the punch line was. Year after year went by, but the joke's conclusion eluded me. Then, one day decades later, I was working on a Sunday and listening to the radio. Like stations often do on an early Sunday morning, they stopped playing music and did a couple of hours of talk; supposedly as a service to the public, but it really was part of maintaining their broadcast license. Anyway, this show just so happened to have on one of the writers for this movie. At this point, I had pretty much given up finding out how the joke ended, but I listened anyways. Eventually, there was a call in section to the show, and someone called in and asked what I wanted to know. I stopped working and became all ears. I was finally going to get my answer! "So how does that joke end?" the caller asked. "Oh, we never wrote an end to the joke" the writer answered. "We knew the character was never going to finish it, so we didn't bother making one. It's not like it was an actual joke we found somewhere. We just made it up for the movie, so we didn't waste time finishing it." My scream was so loud I'm pretty sure I scared several people.

And yeah, bullies in the 80’s and 90’s were EXACTLY like this. Chaos for its own sake, pissing everyone off just because they can, saying outrageous shit to you just to see what will push your buttons, so they can push them some more. And hating themselves mostly, and probably having a terrible relationship with their parents (but not necessarily).

Emilio Estevez is brothers with Charlie Sheen (Carlos Estevez). Their father is Martin Sheen, which is his stage name, his birth name is Ramon Estevez. Emilio decided to go into showbiz with his given name to separate himself.

The influence this movie has had on pop culture is immeasurable.

One of the most iconic 80’s films. Indeed, the references to this film roam far and wide as this movie was a touching point for every story about a group thrown together or just any film involving teen angst.

This movie was an anthem for what it was like to be in high school in the 80's. We Gen X'ers were the latchkey kids, before cell phones but after parents started working multiple jobs and leaving us on our own to be raised by the TV and each other. Between this movie and Ferris Bueller, John Hughes showed that he really got the inter-generational forces we were all being shaped by.

"5 actors that I don't know who any of them are" That hurt. They were part my generations "It Group" (mostly after this movie) known as the Brat Pack.

It was originally titled Detention but John Hughes changed the name after he heard a friend's teenage son refer to his school's morning detention class as “The Breakfast Club.”

"Hey, how come Andrew gets to get up? If he gets up, we'll all get up, it'll be anarchy!" That was my favorite movie quote for so long.

Bender doesn't mind getting detention because it takes him out of his horrible home life for a while. The most annoying thing about this movie to me was the "makeover" scene. Allison was perfectly fine the way she was, and didn't need to change.

I saw this movie when i was in high school, in the late 2010s. It resonated with me, because I was the class clown in my group. But a year later after graduating, everyone abandoned the clown (or I moved away to another state). This movie opened my eyes on how most kids feel everyday, it si all nice and breezy on the surface, but on the inside there is a storm of confusing hormones, misplaced feelings and short anger at everyone. I am glad that this movie exists, it shows the human side of most people in the world. And it shows if you stick around long enough, you won’t get out (just like with the janitor’s picture being in the opening montage).

You might be too young to get it, but that theme they were all whistling while Bender had on the red scarf (at 10:54 ) was the theme song from the 1950's movie Bridge Over the River Kwai, about brutal treatment of Brisith prisoners of war in a Japanese prison camp. Kind of telling you how the five felt about being in the library for detention.

The context that you were missing is, this movie was one of The Defining Moments for Generation X. We either knew those characters, or we were those characters. This, and Goonies, for similar reasons.

I was a senior in high school when this came out and I can honestly say I went to school with everyone in it. This and Fast Times at Ridgemont High were the most accurate depictions of High School in the early to mid 80’s

I love this movie. It's so accurate that I can actually picture faces of kids from my highschool in each of these roles. The early 80's were a very different time. Parents didn't hover over their kids in the 70's and 80's so most of us were able to relate to feeling ignored and the pressure of trying to be perfect so they would love us. Corporal punishment was still allowed in schools so it wasn't uncommon to see teachers pop kids on the back of their heads for not paying attention in class. The scene where the teacher threatened to beat up Bender seems crazy now but it was realistic for the time. "Wait til I see you after graduation" was a threat heard by more than one trouble maker. It was also common for kids to get high on campus back then. We had designated smoking sections on highschool property until around 1983 and students continued using them for years after they were outlawed. Pot was always rolled in a joint so if a teacher started walking over someone would eat the evidence. Potheads paid the good kids to hold their stash because no one ever searched them. The scene where Bender shoved that bag down Brian's pants was exactly what would have happened back then. I love watching shows that accurately capture my highschool years. This is definitely one of them!

This group was known as the Brat Pack in the 80s. The jock is Emilio Estevez who is Martin Sheen's son and Charlie Sheen's brother. The brothers were in Young Guns together along with several other popular actors from that period--Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, Dermot Mulroney. It would be a good one for you two to watch.

When Vernon said that the kids turned on him, he's not talking about the five sitting in the library for detention, he's talking about their entire generation. The movie takes place in 1984, and he mentioned that he's been teaching for 22 years, so, that means that he started his educational career overseeing a completely different generation of kids with a completely different mindset towards adults.

This is a staple for nearly everyone in my generation. Such a cinematic gem.

You should also check out "Pump Up The Volume". For a lot of us born in the 70s it was another one like Breakfast Club that helped many kids connect with their feelings of disconnection. It's my favorite high school movie.

So glad to see my favourite reactors cover one of my all time favourite movies. John Hughes was a master!

In a movie chalk full of quotable quotes, I still quote Vernon's random "HAGANAGA!" the most.

When I was a 14 year old kid watching this movie, I had the biggest crush on Ally Sheedy to the point where it led me to always talk to the weird girls at school. This was the best lesson The Breakfast Club taught a dork like me, ha ha.

I was young in the '80s, but this movie is absolutely iconic. Just the soundtrack can evoke so many memories. Thankfully good ones because I had a decent childhood, haha

I think Andy and Allison have a much better chance of lasting than John and Claire. With the first, it's a matter of her opening up and trusting him, so if he turns out trustworthy, he could give her the support she needs to get past the idea that no one cares about her. Whereas Claire has a big social pressure to avoid guys like John, and he's sunk in his negative, antagonistic view of the world that has convinced him he has to fight for every breath. That's not an easy thing to get past, and it's not likely she would stick - though she might. It all depends on how strong a person she really is.

I always loved that scene where Sporto is trying to put Bender in his place by saying "he has a name... what's your name?" LOL, always made me wonder why Hughes didn't have Bender laugh in his face or point out the fact that even he didn't know Brian's name.

12:24 - Sushi was considered a "weird" food back in the 80s and in rural America it still is in 2023.

@George "I know what the movie is trying to say, but she was so much better before" is and always was the single "let down" for me. I had a big crush on Ally Sheedy back in the days, esp. because she was that quirky and outsider-ish (the Emo-girl before there was "Emo"). Yes, it should visualize her opening up, coming out of her shell, and that's a good thing for the character. But I always felt a make-over to symbolize that was the wrong decision, as it could be misunderstood as "you have to become mainstream, give up your own style", and that's contrary to the main message of the movie. Besides, she was way hotter with "that black shit on"... ;)

Welcome to the generation defining film of the 80's. A perfect combination of cast, screenwriting, musical score and general awesomesauce ....

George, we were saying "eat my shorts" in high school in the '70s, before this movie and before Matt Groening started using it in The Simpsons.

This was probably the movie of my teenage years that influenced me the most. Even back than, I never been a fan of teenage comedies, but this one is just so much more than just a comedy. It really hit's the right spots how it feels growing up. And it's so clever to put all those feeling into 5 stereotypes, as you can relate to all of them in some parts.

I love how this movie is shot as a series of close ups. Most of the time there is only one kid in the shot at a time. It's like a series of high school yearbook photos.

It wasn't shown here, but honestly, one of my favorite exchanges in the entire movie is the scene between Vernon and Carl (the janitor). Vernon says, "You think about this: when you get old, these kids - when _I_ get old - they're going to be running the country... Now this is the thought that wakes me up in the middle of the night. That when I get older, these kids are going to take care of me." To which, Carl replies, "I wouldn't count on it." It's the one time in the movie where Vernon (who is basically the avatar for the entire older generation throughout the majority of the movie) is directly confronted by a peer for the way he looks down on the youth generation. It's a sorely needed reality check (and one that is just as relevant now, with the tension between boomers and Millennials/Gen Z), that just because you get to a point where you're older and (maybe) a bit wiser from experience, it doesn't preclude you from having to show some basic respect to the generations coming along after you.

The “extreme” teachers/adults in John Hughes movies is partly because it’s from the perspective of the kids.

I'm Canadian too, none of my schools ever did "weekend detention" or "after school detention." In elementary school detention was losing recess privilege's and in middle/high school it was losing lunch and having to eat in the classroom.

In Canada in the 80s, I can confirm that we had this sort of detention. My school called it "Ice" (like you were "put on ice"). If you skipped ice on Saturday you would just get more ice until you got suspended. Once you got suspended 3 times you were expelled.

Over the years, fans have asked Judd Nelson what the punchline is to his "Naked blonde walks into a bar" joke, since he falls through the ceiling before he can finish it. He admitted that he made the joke up on the spot and that it has no punchline, so it's become a fan pastime to come up with their own punchline for it.

“Five actors on the poster, and I don’t know who any of them are”. Oof, that one hurt me. I’m old! 🤣

The principal was in the movie National Lampoons Animal House, Molly Ringwald (Clare) did a lot of John Hughs movies, Anthony Michael Hall (Brian) was in Weird Science.

I had a graduating class of about 110 people, and on graduation day, that night after we got our diplomas, I met somebody from my graduating class that I'd never met before, didn't know the name of, and she didn't know who I was either. We were both pretty surprised. Apparently she moved into town the year before, and we'd never had a class together and were in different social circles, so small as our school was we just never encountered each other before. For a school as big as the one these kids went to, it's not totally crazy to think they wouldn't know each other.

Paul Gleason plays the same character in almost every movie or tv show he’s in. Great character actor

Emilio Estevez is Charlie Sheens brother, Martin Sheen's son. Emilio kept the original surname. Charlie Sheen's original name was Carlos Estevez. And Martin Sheen was Ramon Estevez. Emilio is famous through this movie and his portrayal of Billy the Kid in both Young Guns movies.

this came out my senior year in HS- and it DID have an effect- kids were identifying as this character or that and we were actually talking to each other- I remember Eric P- total brain/Physics star just gushing about the film. Never heard him talk before. We had 1200 kids over 3 grades.

3:00 No, but the deputy chief in 'Die Hard' and the Duke brothers fixer in 'Trading Places'.

Yes Emilio Estevez is Charlie Sheen's brother and they play in a couple of movies together. Like "Men At Work" (comedy) and "Young Guns" (comedic western)............

George & Simone, to answer your question, Emilio Estevez is the son of actor Martin Sheen and the older brother of Charlie Sheen. He goes by Martin Sheen's real name.

One of the best coming of age stories ever made, about teenagers, spending Saturday detention, getting to know each other and how they deal with everyday life.

I always felt bad for Brian. He did all the work and was the only one who doesn't get a date!

The guy you thought was the dad in Ferris Beuller was actually Mr. Beeks in Trading Places. I don't recall if you've covered that one but other reaction channels have, recently.

I swear this is a group therapy session on display as a movie.

Actually Martin Sheen is an Estevez. His real last name is Estevez, he just changed it to Sheen because he was getting into acting around the Cuban Missile Crisis and it wasn't the best time in the US to have a Hispanic name. Emilio is Martin Sheen's son, he just kept his dad's birth name, but Charlie took his dad's screen name.

Dick Vernon was not a teacher. He was the Vice Principal. While a Vice Principal in the 80s would have had much the same education and credentials as a teacher and might have taught one class per semester, his or her primary role would have been handling student discipline, campus security, liaison with truant officers, etc. At a large high school like this one, those could well have been the Vice Principal’s only responsibilities. Many teachers viewed the Vice Principal as school administration, not part of the teaching staff. Many in school administration viewed the Vice Principal as a wannabe Principal who wasn’t capable of holding that position and was forced to do all the things that the Principal didn’t want to do. Because the Vice Principal was in charge of student discipline, many students had very negative opinions of the Vice Principal. Because of all of this, many Vice Principals didn’t like their jobs and lot in life. John Hughes’ Dick Vernon character dials all of that up to eleven.

I think I got more grey hair when I heard you didn't know any of the actors, lol.

Being an early 80's high school student, I related in all kinds of ways to this movie. Real enough, but exaggerated at the same time. It's a perennial favorite; John Hughes was absolutely killing it back then. I have to confess that I was crushin' on Ally Sheedy a bit after seeing this.

As someone that was suspended in middle school for attacking a bully and defending my late-mother's honor with what he had said, I can say that suspension is NOT a punishment if your parents don't care. My dad was proud and argued with the school for defending the bully (small town, popular dad), and literally nothing happened to him. We even had a history of violence in the past, where he physically attacked me the year prior. He never learned his lessons from the literal scars I gave him then, and I got to have 9-10 extra days of Winter Break in 6th grade, since the day I was suspended was the day we came back from it, there was a weekend, and we had about 2-3 snow days in that time that didn't count toward my punishment. This was around 2009-10, and just after Christmas and my birthday, so I got to play Sims 3 and Legos and listen to Fearless deluxe album the whole time. I was a good student and didn't fall behind since we picked up my work. Lovely memories.

I find it kind of sad, but the students who most hate school and can't wait to leave it are the ones who miss it the most after they leave. Can't tell you how many "burnouts" would come back just to visit teacher and friends after they graduate. Really they were the ones that needed it most and didn't know it. Bender might be ahead of the curve by showing up to all those detentions because he craves the structure and relative normalcy of school. He's not getting that at home.

as a canadian i can confirm i had detention once it happens

If they made "The Breakfast Club" today it would be a silent movie with 5 kids looking at their cell phone.

2:10 “I don’t like Mondays” is a reference to a statement made by a girl who shot up a children’s playground in 1979 (and the Boomtown Rats song based on the incident). 10:41 John Kapelos is a phenomenal character actor. He’s been in everything from this to “The Shape of Water,” plus “Roxanne,” and the TV show “Forever Knight” along the way.

Yes, in the 80's sushi (at least in small town south) was considered weird. Why would you eat fish raw? Disgusting. You can always roll it in corn meal and fry it up. My mom is still disgusted by it. I have found a taste for tuna, however.

Only the coolest picture of the Brat Pack ever.. "Yeah, i dont know any of these actors". That hurt my stomach! Damn im getting old...

"The cover has five actors. I don't know who any of them are." ugh. i feel old.

I like that the movie is not about fixing these kids' problems. It's not about making them "better" people, it's about giving them a chance to open up, to be free of all the weight of their insecurities and let themselves be vulnerable for a few hours a week.

You realise that all this is leading up to you two watching Not Another Teen Movie, right?

Trivia: For the shot between Claire's legs Molly Ringwald was too young so they used a body double just for that one frame.

Most of the bullies at school got beat and neglected at home. Others, like the Jock, joined them so *they* wouldn't get bullied and teachers didn't give a crap, unless it happened in front of them and then they were *forced* to have do something about it, inconveniencing them and some teachers were bullies too.

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.

This was one of the most defining films of my teenage years. We often defined ourselves in terms of these five characters. I was Brian. And that is one of the things that always bothered me about this film. Regardless of what happens on Monday, the group puts Brian back "in his place" while they are still there by, as Simone points out, having him do their homework for them. And that is one of the things that has always bothered me in this film. Still, one of the boldest and most daring teen films ever made!

Sushi was considered rare in the 80s. It was new to the states, it was part of the Japanese culture invasion and the concept of raw fish was offputting to traditional palates. Sushi was connected to yuppie culture or a food for those of means, like caviar

One interwebs conspiracy theory is that Ally Sheedy was the only at detention. She imagined it all.

Do they just not have movies up there in Canada? I swear you guys must have seen some of these movies before lol.

Please watch the STAR TREK movies. 🖖

The answer becomes rather obvious as the movie goes on.... but Bender would rather be at school than home. Makes him purposely getting 2 straight months of detention make a lot more sense.

I also forgot that a lot of these scence was impervise like when Allison was drawing that wasn't dandruff that was parmesan cheese, Bender wasn't suppose to said anything while in the ceiling that was a joke of his own that he didn't finish telling cause he fell, Bender really did flitch because he thought that the principal was gonna hit him. There's more but im not gon say

I've always thought emo Ally Sheedy was cuter than her dolled-up make over version.

Your reactions to the Ally Sheedy de-gothification scene was perfect. She was absolutely so much better before.

The point is, that every thought, that comes from every character, likely happens to every single viewer at one time or another. When the characters examine each other, and challenge each other, they are looking in the mirror asking questions of themselves. We are one.

Hughes was a god back then. This, home alone, 16 candles, uncle buck, vacation, ferris, etc

I was in HS during the 90s and here's how it worked in California, regarding detention (it's incredibly terrible). Any minor thing would get you "detention". Detention was staying after school for 1 hour, in a classroom that was designated. In detention, no joke, you could not read, study, sleep, talk, or do anything productive. The idea was that you had to sit there for 1 hour, bored. No essays or anything. IF you failed to show up for a detention, they would give you two more. Fail to show up a second time and BAM - Saturday Work Detail (which is what this movie basically is). You were given detention on a Saturday, that went from something like 8AM to 1PM, and they would have the students doing mindless work, like writing essays, or moving school stuff around, cleaning the lockers....etc. Miss a Saturday Work Detail and you're given another one, plus the one you still have to do, so 2 total. Miss ANOTHER Saturday, and you're suspended. Once you get so many suspensions, they expel you. Yes, that all happened to me. They don't expel you from the school system, just that school, and you were sent to a more 'remedial' school, where they don't really care what you do. Sadly, this was the fate for a TON of kids I knew, simply because they were bored at school, and would ditch.

I love how the student of the year from decades ago turns out to be the janitor.

"There IS no Shermer, Illinois" -- Jay

When I was in school in Canada, the school I went to from grade 4-8 was 400 kids, but that was *after* one of the nearby schools got closed down and so their kids had to merge with our school. So 400 was "a lot" to us. haha (Then I moved to the US when I was 13 and my high school was like 3,000 - 3,500 kids.)

I remember on the last day of my junior year in High school my art teacher played this movie for us.

Good spotting of the Sheen kid. Martin Sheen was born Ramón Antonio Gerardo Estévez.

Martin Sheen , Charlie Sheen & Emilio Estevez . Dad & 2 brothers .

Actually, the Sheens are Estevez' . Martin Americanized a name when he broke into acting as no one at time was going to pay to see a movie for a Hispanic star.

I'm Swedish and I had detention every week in my 8th and 9th grade because I rarely went to class, one of those "he has so much potential but he just doesn't apply himself". Wasn't weekends though, was just that we had to go sit in a room for an hour at the end of the week. We were allowed to do schoolwork if we wanted or just sit there, usually that hour was enough to catch up on a hole week for me. Looking back at it it's crazy how little I applied myself and still managed a B+ average somehow. I remember once doing a whole years worth of math in an afternoon. Actually turned in QBasic code as part of my solutions, were allowed to skip all the classes and still got an A+, only teacher who ever let me do that. Kind of sad how absolutely shit our education is, I'm barely above average in intelligence, I can't imagine someone actually smart having to deal with it.

5:37 Martin Sheen Born Ramón Antonio Gerardo Estévez had 2 Sons named Carlos Irwin Estévez (Charlie Sheen) & Emilio Estevez

The scene where they’re all discussing life is still one of the best performances I’ve ever seen out of a film. The mixture of darker themes coupled with the comedy always felt like such a perfect balance to me that I’ve only grown to appreciate more as I’ve aged.

An absolute masterpiece. I was that age when this came out and cannot begin to express just how much of an impact it had. We all looked at the other cliques the next Monday at school in a slightly different way even as we kept to our own.

Emilio Estevez is Charlie Sheen's brother. Estevez is the real family name, Martin Sheen adopted the last name Sheen as a stage name. I grew up in this era and that movie did not exactly reflect my high school experience, then again, I was one of the chameleons you sometimes see in school. I had friends in the jocks(I ran track and played tennis), the nerds(was top 10 in our class), the preps(I wore Ralph Lauren, Dockers, etc, although got them from outlet stores, slightly irregular, meaning they were like 1/3 price), the stoners(occasionally smoked a joint with others) and my best friend won the male "Shyest" award in the "Who's Who". I took the senior year prom queen to our junior prom. I was not the most popular, nor the least popular but got along with most everyone. So I was kind of related to that essay at the end, "each of is is a brain and an athlete and a basket case..."

Emilio Estevez is in fact Charlie Sheen's older brother. Estevez is their original family name, but Charlie and Martin changed their last name to Sheen.

Saturday school sucked. I had to go a few times for skipping class. And a fun fact, John Hughes is Brian's Dad dropping him off. What's amazing is how these stereotypes still remain, I was absolutely Bender but nicer. I was the rebel with a cheerleader girlfriend. Timeless...

Bender: "Screws fall out. The world's an imperfect place..." is still one of my favorite lines. So random (yet true, lol), and the way he says it is so funny.

The cast were some of the biggest young stars at the time: Emilio Estevez (the Jock--yes, he's Martin Sheen's son & Charlie Sheen's brother), Molly Ringwold (the Princess), Ally Sheedy (the Recluse), Anthony Michael Hall (The Nerd), and Judd Nelson (the Criminal); along with a few others, they were known as the Brat Pack. Ringwold & Hall were featured in several of Hughes' teen flicks in the '80s, playing essentially the same roles in each. The movie does provide a pretty accurate depiction of cliques in American high schools of the 1980s, aside from the complete lack of ethnic diversity. Sheedy's character was not meant to be a stoner (that was Judd Nelson), but rather an outcast (an "art kid", or a sort of proto-Goth). Where this movie really stood out for us actual teenagers at the time was in its relatively honest & forthright portrayal of what we went through on a daily basis...other "teen movies" of the era were typically either "coming of age" flicks (i.e., protagonist having sex for the first time) or about the evils of drug use (or both). This one really spoke to us, to the point where high school me & my friends could have quoted you every single line.

"I don't know anyone who's ever had detention, or talk about it, or been. Like my school definitely didn't have detention." As someone from the US, my high school had multiple detentions. Lol. There was TOR/ISS, which was the "Time Out Room/In School Suspension". It had around 20 desks, and kids would get sent there for a number of reasons. From trying to leave campus during lunch (it was a closed campus), to getting in fights. We also had detention as depicted in this film, which was called "Saturday School". Basically... You got TOR for a minor offense, Saturday School for a moderate offense, ISS for a severe offense, and if they gave someone an at-home suspension they were probably drunk at school with illegal fireworks in their locker.

Bueller, Bueller..........? What a classic tag line. John Hughes was such a product of his times.

My school in the 80's Texas gave a choice detention or corpal punishment. Three licks from the paddle or 1 hour detention after school.

Emilio Estevez plays the jock - he is Charlie Sheen's brother and Martin Sheen's son. Martin Sheen was born Ramón Antonio Gerardo Estévez.