"The Breakfast Club" is a 1985 American movie that shows teenagers growing up and has both funny and serious parts. It was written, produced, and directed by John Hughes. The main actors include Emilio Estevez, Paul Gleason, Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, and Ally Sheedy. The story follows five high school students from different social groups who are sent to Saturday detention by their strict vice principal.

John Hughes wrote the movie's script in 1982. He started casting actors after the 1984 movie "Sixteen Candles" was released. Filming happened from March to May 1984 at Maine North High School in Des Plaines, Illinois. Even though Universal Pictures helped produce the film, "The Breakfast Club" is often considered an independent movie because of its low budget, Universal not being the main producer, and the film's overall style.

The movie first showed in Los Angeles on February 7, 1985, and was released in theaters by Universal Pictures on February 15, 1985. It made $51.5 million, even though it only cost $1 million to make. Critics praised the film, calling it one of Hughes's most famous works and a key movie of the 1980s. The media later called the film's main actors the "Brat Pack." In 2015, the movie was remade in digital format and shown in 430 theaters to celebrate its 30th anniversary.

In 2016, "The Breakfast Club" was added to the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress because it is considered culturally, historically, or artistically important. The film is often listed as one of the best movies of the 1980s and one of the best teen movies ever made.

Plot

On Saturday, March 24, 1984, five students at Shermer High School in Shermer, Illinois, attend an all-day detention. The students include Brian Johnson, a student who is shy and not very social; Andrew Clark, a student who is popular in sports; Allison Reynolds, a student who is quiet and prefers to be alone; Claire Standish, a student who is well-liked by others; and John Bender, a student who often breaks rules. They meet in the school library with Vice Principal Richard Vernon, who tells them not to speak or move and asks each of them to write a one-thousand-word essay about who they think they are.

John Bender does not follow the rules and instead teases the others and refuses to obey Vernon. Vernon gives him eight more weekends of detention as a punishment. Later, the students secretly go to Bender’s locker to retrieve some marijuana. When they see Vernon returning to the library, Bender lets himself be caught so the others can return without being seen.

As punishment, Bender is locked in a storage closet. Vernon criticizes him and tells him he must prove how tough he is by hitting him. Bender is scared and does not act. After Vernon leaves, Bender escapes through the ceiling and falls into the library, where the others hide him.

While waiting, the students talk, listen to music, and use marijuana. They share information about their lives and why they were sent to detention:

• Claire is popular but feels pressure from her classmates. Her parents argue and use her to fight with each other. She was sent to detention for skipping school to go shopping.
• Bender explains that his father physically hurts him and his mother. He was sent to detention for pulling the fire alarm.
• Andrew is influenced by sports culture and is pressured by his father to succeed in wrestling. He was sent to detention for taping a student’s buttocks together to win approval.
• Brian feels extreme pressure from his parents to get good grades. He considered suicide after getting a bad grade and was sent to detention for bringing a flare gun to school. The gun exploded in his locker.
• Allison lies often because her parents do not care about her. She steals small items and keeps them in case she runs away. She says she went to detention because she had nothing else to do.

Although the students are different, they realize they all face similar challenges. Andrew and Allison connect over their difficult relationships with their parents. Brian and Claire both feel nervous about being virgins. The group believes their friendships will end after detention, but they agree they will think about their classmates differently in the future.

Meanwhile, Vernon tells the janitor, Carl, that students today are more arrogant than in the past. Carl suggests that Vernon is the one who has changed and cares too much about how students see him.

The group helps Brian write Vernon’s essay for everyone. Claire gives Allison a new look, which interests Andrew. Bender returns to the closet, and Claire challenges her reputation by kissing him. As they leave, Allison and Andrew kiss, and she takes the state championship patch from his jacket. Claire gives Bender one of her earrings, and they kiss.

Vernon reads Brian’s essay, which says that Vernon has made incorrect assumptions about the students and lists them as a brain (Brian), an athlete (Andrew), a basket case (Allison), a princess (Claire), and a criminal (Bender). The essay ends with “Does that answer your question? Sincerely yours, the Breakfast Club.” Bender walks home across the football field and raises his fist in the air as he leaves.

Production

The movie was first called The Lunch Bunch, but John changed the title after a friend from another school had a detention class named The Breakfast Club. Hughes wrote the script around the same time he wrote Sixteen Candles. He finished Sixteen Candles quickly, and the studio leaders liked it so much they let him direct his first film.

Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall both starred in Hughes’s 1984 film Sixteen Candles. After filming Sixteen Candles, Hughes asked them to join The Breakfast Club. Anthony Michael Hall was the first to accept, playing Brian Johnson. His real-life mother and sister also acted in the film as Brian’s family. Molly Ringwald was first asked to play Allison Reynolds, but she felt upset because she wanted to play Claire Standish (called “Cathy” in the first script). Other actors, including Robin Wright, Jodie Foster, Diane Lane, and Laura Dern, tried out for Claire’s role. Molly eventually convinced Hughes and the studio to let her play Claire. Joan Cusack was considered for Allison’s role before Ally Sheedy was cast.

Emilio Estevez was first chosen to play John Bender, but Hughes could not find someone to play Andrew Clark, so Estevez left the role. Nicolas Cage was considered for John Bender, the last role to be cast. Alan Ruck also tried out for the part, but the choice narrowed to John Cusack and Judd Nelson. Hughes first cast Cusack, but later replaced him with Nelson because Cusack did not look strong enough for the role. At one point, Hughes was upset with Nelson for staying in character and bothering Molly Ringwald off-camera, but the other actors persuaded Hughes not to fire him. Rick Moranis was originally cast as the janitor, but the film’s producer, Ned Tanen, removed him because his performance as a Russian caricature did not match the film’s serious tone. Moranis was replaced by John Kapelos.

In 1999, Hughes said that people were unsure about letting him direct the film because he had no filmmaking experience. He convinced the investors that the film’s low budget and simple setting would reduce their risk. Hughes originally planned for The Breakfast Club to be his first film as a director. He chose to film in one room and focus on high school students played by younger actors.

Main filming began on March 28, 1984, and ended in May. The film was shot at Maine North High School in Des Plaines, Illinois, which had closed in 1981. The same school was used for interior scenes in Hughes’s 1986 film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, which also used exterior shots from Glenbrook North High School. The library at Maine North High was too small, so the crew built a larger version in the school’s gym. The actors rehearsed for three weeks, then filmed in order. Judd Nelson tried different ideas for the ending scene before settling on the fist pump. The dance scene was originally written with Claire dancing alone, but Molly Ringwald felt uncomfortable, so Hughes let the others join her. On the Ferris Bueller’s Day Off DVD, Hughes said he filmed both movies at the same time to save money and time. Some scenes from both films show the crews working on each other’s projects. The first version of the film was 150 minutes long.

During a 25th-anniversary reunion, Ally Sheedy said a director’s cut of the film existed, but Hughes’s wife did not share details about it. In 2015, the first draft of the script was found in a cabinet at Maine South High School during an office move.

The film’s poster, showing the five main characters together, was photographed by Annie Leibovitz near the end of filming. This image influenced how teen films were marketed afterward. The poster described the characters as “five total strangers with nothing in common,” listing them as “a brain, a beauty, a jock, a rebel, and a recluse.” The poster’s image of Bender raising his fist was later used in the comedy-horror film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 and inspired the title page of chapter 29 in the manga Akane-banashi.

Themes

The film's main theme is the challenge that American teenagers face in being understood by both adults and themselves. It shows how teenagers feel pressure to fit into high school social groups and meet the high expectations of parents, teachers, and other authority figures. At first, the students seem very different from each other, but they eventually form a connection because they both dislike the pressure from peers and the expectations of adults. Another theme is stereotyping. After the obvious stereotypes are broken down, the characters try to understand each other's problems, correct some of their first wrong ideas, and realize they share more similarities than differences. The main adult character, Mr. Vernon, is shown as having no positive traits. He often speaks to students in a disrespectful way, looks at private student information, and hides his actions when discovered by a coworker. He also constantly shows off his power and repeatedly challenges Bender, the only student in the group who refuses to back down.

Release

The film had its first showing in Los Angeles on February 7, 1985. Universal Pictures showed the film in movie theaters in the United States on February 15, 1985.

The Breakfast Club was first made available on VHS and LaserDisc. In 2003, the film was released on DVD as part of the "High School Reunion Collection." In 2008, a "Flashback Edition" DVD was released with special features, such as an audio commentary by Anthony Michael Hall and Judd Nelson. A 25th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray was released in 2010, and the same disc was re-released with a DVD and a digital copy in 2012 as part of Universal's 100th Anniversary series.

On March 10, 2015, the 30th Anniversary Edition was released. This version was improved using digital technology and restored using the original 35mm film negatives to provide better picture quality on DVD, Digital HD, and Blu-ray. The Criterion Collection released a special edition two-disc DVD set and a Blu-ray disc on January 2, 2018. The transfer used the same version as the previous release but added new features, including fifty minutes of new, deleted, and extended scenes, an Electronic Press Kit, new and old interviews, a 1985 clip from the Today program, a new video essay, and an episode of This American Life. Criterion released the film on Ultra HD Blu-ray on November 4, 2025, using a new 4K scan of the film.

Reception

Roger Ebert gave the film three stars out of four and described the acting as "wonderful." He noted that the story was "more or less predictable" but said the film did not need surprising events because it focused on how teenagers learn to communicate and included realistic dialogue. Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four. He compared it to other successful films that explore personal stories, such as Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and The Big Chill. He praised The Breakfast Club for avoiding typical teenage movie scenes involving sex or violence, which made the film more enjoyable. Kathleen Carroll from the New York Daily News said John Hughes, the film’s director, skillfully portrayed teenage emotions and worked well with his talented cast, who she said deserved high praise.

Other reviews were less positive. Janet Maslin of The New York Times noted that some young actors, including Ally Sheedy and Judd Nelson, had roles that were difficult to perform. She suggested the characters could have interacted naturally without the film’s forced group discussion style. James Harwood of Variety criticized the film, saying it might be seen as deep or meaningful by teenagers because the characters mostly talk to each other instead of engaging in typical teenage activities like dancing or eating. He also said the film did not show the characters saying anything particularly intelligent.

In a 1998 review, James Berardinelli wrote that The Breakfast Club is not a perfect film but offers honest and refreshing storytelling compared to other teen-themed movies. He noted that the film’s dialogue was talkative but not confusing, and that viewers could easily connect with the characters.

On the review website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 86% based on 111 reviews, with an average score of 7.60 out of 10. The site’s summary says that while the film sometimes uses trendy ideas, its emotional honesty and strong young cast make it one of the best teen comedies. Metacritic gave the film a score of 66 out of 100 based on 25 reviews, which is considered "generally favorable."

In 2015, P. J. O'Rourke called The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller's Day Off John Hughes’s best works. He said The Breakfast Club shows Hughes’s political views because the students do not protest but instead focus on being individuals and enjoying freedom.

In February 1985, the film opened at No. 3 in the box office, behind Beverly Hills Cop and Witness. It earned $45,875,171 in the United States and $51,525,171 worldwide, making it a financial success despite its $1 million budget.

In 2005, Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, Paul Gleason, and Ally Sheedy each won a Silver Bucket of Excellence Award at the MTV Movie Awards.

Legacy

The Breakfast Club is often considered the most representative 1980s movie. In 2008, Empire magazine ranked it number 369 on its list of the 500 Greatest Movies of All Time. In 2014, it rose to number 38 on the same list. The New York Times included the film on its Best 1000 Movies Ever list, and Entertainment Weekly ranked it number 1 on its list of the 50 Best High School Movies. In 2001, a parody movie called Not Another Teen Movie included Gleason playing the same character again in a short scene that imitates The Breakfast Club. Scholar Björn Sonnenberg-Schrank called The Breakfast Club "the Citizen Kane of the teen film genre," highlighting its important place in American coming-of-age films and lasting influence. Actor Sebastian Stan compared the superhero movie Thunderbolts (2025) to The Breakfast Club, saying it is "the Breakfast Club of Marvel."

In 2005, the film received the Silver Bucket of Excellence Award during the MTV Movie Awards to celebrate its 20th anniversary. MTV tried to reunite the original cast for the event. Sheedy, Ringwald, and Hall appeared on stage, with Kapelos in the audience. Gleason presented the award to his former castmates. Estevez could not attend due to other obligations, and Nelson left before the on-stage reunion. Hall joked that the two were "in Africa with Dave Chappelle." Yellowcard performed the song "Don't You (Forget About Me)" at the event. At the 82nd Academy Awards in 2010, Sheedy, Hall, Ringwald, and Nelson joined other actors who worked with John Hughes, including Jon Cryer, Matthew Broderick, and Macaulay Culkin, to honor Hughes after his death. In 2012, the Nickelodeon series Victorious aired a parody of The Breakfast Club in an episode titled "The Breakfast Bunch."

In 2018, The New Yorker published an essay by Ringwald discussing Hughes's films in the context of the #MeToo movement. She described explaining a scene from the movie to her daughter, in which her character appears to be sexually assaulted. Some people criticized Ringwald for speaking about Hughes, but others, like Jenny Han, supported her essay as thoughtful and fair. In April 2025, all five main actors reunited in Chicago for a panel discussion, the first time the cast had been together in 40 years.

Soundtrack

The film's soundtrack, The Breakfast Club (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), was created by British pop musician Keith Forsey and released on February 19, 1985, by A&M Records. The album reached No. 17 on the US Billboard 200 album chart. The song "Don't You (Forget About Me)," performed by Scottish rock band Simple Minds, was released as a single in the United States on February 23, 1985, and reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was released in the United Kingdom on April 8, 1985.

The album includes ten songs that are played during the movie. These songs are performed by rock and new wave bands and singers, including three instrumental songs by Keith Forsey. Simple Minds' hit song "Don't You (Forget About Me)" is played during the film's opening and closing credits. Music videos were made for this song and for Wang Chung's "Fire in the Twilight," which reached No. 110 on the US Billboard Hot 100. The song "Colonel Bogey March," which the students whistle when Principal Vernon enters the room, is not included on the soundtrack.

In a June 25, 1985, review for The Village Voice, music critic Robert Christgau gave the album a "D−" rating and described the songs as "utterly negligible." He praised Simple Minds for trying to move away from their most famous song, "Don't You (Forget About Me)," which is best known for its use in the film's credits. In a later review for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave the soundtrack three out of five stars. He called Simple Minds' song an "undisputed masterpiece" but noted that the rest of the album is mostly "disposable" and affected by "80s artifacts" and "forgettable instrumentals."

Cancelled sequel

Hughes thought about making a follow-up movie, which would show the teenagers from the first film meeting again years later while in trouble at college, now acting very differently than they did before. The movie was not created before Hughes passed away.