Reportedly written in just six days by John Hughes, Ferris Bueller's Day Off captures
a single, magical day in the life of a high schooler who understands, well…
“Life moves pretty fast.
If you don’t stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it.”
Ferris outsmarts his parents and his principal, steals a classic car, gets the girl, gives
his best friend self-confidence, dines in a fancy restaurant, takes in a baseball game,
and even sings a Beatles song on a parade float.
“They all adore him.
They think he’s a righteous dude.”
So why is it that we only ever got that single movie?
Here are some reasons why we never got to see a Ferris Bueller sequel.
“Bueller?
Bueller?
Bueller?”
It didn't need one
Director John Hughes and star Matthew Broderick stayed in touch for a few years after filming
wrapped on Ferris Bueller's Day Off and talked about ideas for a sequel.
According to Hughes, in those proposed movies, Ferris would, quote, "be in college or at
his first job, and the same kind of things would happen again."
The two ultimately decided that a sequel like that would basically be a lame rehash, because
the original movie was, quote, "about a singular time in your life."
“Incredible.
One of the worst performances of my career and they never doubted it for a second.”
John Hughes moved on
Hughes created a string of classic teen movies, including The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink,
and Sixteen Candles —and Ferris Bueller's Day Off was just about the last one.
After Bueller, Hughes only made one more teen movie in the '80s, 1987's Some Kind of Wonderful.
Then he shifted to family fare like Uncle Buck and Home Alone, and more grown-up films
such as She's Having a Baby and Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.
“Where’s your other hand?”
“Between two pillows.”
“Those aren’t pillows.
Ahhh!”
Busy Broderick
Matthew Broderick was one of the biggest stars of the late '80s, and a big part of that was
because of his role in Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
In the five years afterwards, Broderick starred in an eclectic bunch of movies, from contemporary
dramas like Torch Song Trilogy and Project X to comedies like Family Business and The
Freshman, to period pictures like Biloxi Blues and the Oscar-winning Civil War epic Glory.
With all that on his plate, Broderick just didn't have time to make a sequel.
Hughes didn't dig sequels
There aren't many sequels in the Hughes filmography.
While his screenplay for the first Vacation movie is based on a true story he wrote up
for National Lampoon, he skipped having anything to do with European Vacation — though he
did return to write Christmas Vacation.
“Ahh...It’s good.
It’s good.”
That's the only sequel Hughes ever worked on.
He reportedly toyed with a follow-up to The Breakfast Club for years — which would've
presumably been called "The Lunch Bunch" — but couldn't ever come up a legitimate reason
to get those five characters back into the same room again.
Similarly, he just couldn't conceive a worthy Ferris Bueller sequel.
“You’re still here?
It’s over.
Go home.”
Second movie second thoughts
In spite of his sequel aversion, Hughes still mapped out his ideas for Ferris Bueller 2.
He shared some of them with Jeffrey Jones, who played evil Principal Rooney.
At a Hughes tribute event after the director's death in 2009, Jones claimed Hughes had told
him some of his ideas for Bueller 2, but all Jones would say was that it was supposed to
be set in Hawaii, and that it fell apart because Broderick ultimately wasn't interested in
reprising his role.
What about a sequel series?
In the fall of 1990, NBC debuted a single-camera sitcom called Ferris Bueller, which operated
under the odd conceit that the show depicted the real life characters on which the movie
version of Ferris Bueller's Day Off was based on - and they hated the movie.
“This is television.
This is real.”
The show, which was pretty much a standard high school sitcom notable only for the participation
of a young Jennifer Aniston as Bueller's sister Jeannie, didn't attract much of an audience
and was cancelled halfway through the 1990-91 TV season.
“Not to worry, Cameron.
I fixed it.”
There were two sequels... sort of
Though there was no full length sequel, Matthew Broderick did sort of reprise his role as
Ferris Bueller on two occasions.
In John Hughes' 1988 relationship comedy She's Having a Baby, the end credits roll as a rapid-fire
montage of celebrities throw out their ideas for what Kevin Bacon and Elizabeth McGovern's
characters should name their new baby.
Among the cameos is Matthew Broderick, clearly in character as Ferris Bueller.
“Jim.”
And in 2012, Broderick returned again for a two-and-a-half minute Honda Super Bowl commercial
which features numerous nods to the movie.
He may not have technically been playing Ferris Bueller, but this could be the closest we
ever get to a sequel.
“He bought it.
How can I handle work on a day like today.”
Fan script
In 2011, an amateur screenwriter named Rick Rapier went viral when he released the first
12 pages of a Ferris Bueller sequel script he'd written.
The plot: Ferris Bueller is now 40 years old and is a motivational speaker, a la Tony Robbins.
But he's incredibly overworked, so with his business manager — Cameron Frye — he takes
a day off.
It couldn't gain much traction in Hollywood, however — Rapier hadn't been hired by anyone
to write the script, or even asked.
The script was never purchased, and Rapier's 15 minutes of internet fame were up.
“I changed my mind.
I want you out in front of the school with her.
I’d like to have a few words with you, by God.”
Maybe they'll do one someday
Alan Ruck, who played Ferris's best friend Cameron, has spoken about a loose idea for
revisiting the movie's characters in the distant future.
The plot: Cameron, still a sad sack at 70, commits himself to a nursing home even though
he's in relatively good health.
His old friend Ferris gets wind of it, busts him out, and the two old men have a blast—going
into the city, hitting a strip club, et cetera.
At the end, Cameron dies.
With Ferris Bueller 30 years in the past and both Ruck and Broderick in their 50s now,
that means this Ferris Bueller Returns could hit theaters sometime around 2036.
“I said it before and I’ll say it again.
Life moves pretty fast.
You don’t stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it.”
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