Release Year: 1986

Genre: Comedy

Director: John Hughes

Writer: John Hughes

Stars: Matthew Broderick, Mia Sara, Alan Ruck

Have you ever had one of those days where you just want to steal a Ferrari, skip school, catch a ball game, marvel at priceless works of art, munch on some pancreas, and hijack a parade? 

Yeah, us too. 

Fortunately, we can live this glorious experience vicariously in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, in which Ferris takes his brooding BFF Cameron deep into Chicago in an attempt to break him out of his existential funk.

Released in the summer of 1986 by Paramount Pictures, Ferris Bueller's Day Off is the third installment in writer-director John Hughes' teen trilogy that also includes Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club. Simply put, Hughes "got" teenagers. Like its predecessors, Ferris Bueller captures the timeless qualities of being a teen—angst, rebellion, hatred of gym class—all while putting a uniquely '80s spin on them.

With its memorable soundtrack handpicked by Hughes himself, as well as its unconventional storytelling style that sees Ferris repeatedly breaking the fourth wall to talk to the audience, Ferris Bueller's Day Off captured the attention of American filmgoers. Bueller recouped its $6 million production budget in its first weekend in theaters and went on to become one of the ten highest grossing films of 1986, raking in a cool $70 million.

In the decades since its release, Ferris Bueller's popularity has never faltered, and it retains a fierce fan following. Bueller buffs annually make pilgrimages to Chicago to reenact Ferris and his friends' day off; film theorists endlessly debate whether or not Ferris actually exists (he does); and it's a safe bet that somebody, somewhere, is quoting Hughes' script for the film—which he churned out in just six days—right now.

For some, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, with its message to make every sick day count, isn't merely a movie.

It's a way of life.

Cameron's Day Off is more than just another teen comedy. It's more of—wait, what's that? We got the name of the movie wrong? 

Our bad.

But come on. It's an honest mistake: Ferris Bueller isn't actually the protagonist of Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

Ferris Bueller's Day Off is Cameron's story. He's the one that evolves. 

In this way—and in a move we're sure rebellious Ferris Bueller himself would appreciate—the movie manages to be a pillar of the teen comedy genre while also subverting its conventions.

You want emotional dialogue, hilarious clashes with authority, and young love? You got it. You want an all-encompassing high school setting with typical prom-night antics? Too bad, sport. You won't find those conventions in Ferris Bueller.

Still, the movie remains monumental in the teen comedy genre. Writer-director John Hughes built a career on his skillful, soulful representations of being a teenager, a tortuous time when, according to Hughes, "it feels as good to feel bad as it does to feel good" (source).

And Ferris Bueller's Day Off is that career's high point.