When my friend invited me to join her family for their once-a-month movie night, she asked which John Hughes movie she should show her 14-year-old twins. The answer was obvious. It had to be something fun, school-related, and iconic. Ferris Bueller's Day Off seemed like the perfect choice, since we Gen X-ers loved it when we were exactly their age in 1986.
The fraternal twins (one boy, one girl) sat down on a rare early Saturday evening when neither had dance practice or a sleepover. We gathered in our comfy clothes, popped some popcorn, and hit "rent now."
They were excited by the opening scene, where an adorable Matthew Broderick (doesn't matter what generation one is, he transcends them all) is pretending to be sick in bed with worrying parents. His sister Jeanie is suspicious and exhausted by his antics, but Ferris prevails. He then delivers a brilliant monologue about eating life up and living in the moment. His now-famous line, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it,” is still plastered in quote books and on Bumble profiles.
The twins seemed inspired, and one of them actually teared up in the first five minutes.
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Spoilers ahead: the movie is pretty simple. Ferris is a super cool high school kid with a beautiful girlfriend, Sloane, played by Mia Sara. His best friend is a depressed hypochondriac named Cameron, who is played to perfection by Alan Ruck. Ferris skips school a lot (nine times!) and grabs each day by the neck. There are themes of hedonism, nihilism, and Taoism, but neither twin mentioned them.
The first thing both kids did bring up was how privileged the characters were. Affluent Chicago suburbs, after all, was the setting John Hughes knew best. They also noted, as many have over the years, that Ferris seemed rather selfish and insensitive to what others in his life wanted and needed.
Who is the true hero of 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off'?
There have been many conversations over the years about Cameron being the true hero of the film. He has an unwavering story arc, unlike Ferris's. He's sad, but pushes through it and even gets the guts up to stand up to his father after accidentally totaling the old man's prized Ferrari.
In fact, there was a theory that Ferris was a figment of Cameron's imagination—a Fight Club scenario, if you will. Robert Vaux writes on CBR, "The theory holds that the entire day is a fantasy taking place in Cameron's head while he lies sick in bed. His sickness actually supports the theory: once Ferris comes over, it vanishes, and Cameron plunges energetically, if reluctantly, into the events of the day. According to the theory, it's because there are no events of the day. He's still sick at home, and the whole thing is a daydream."
I fully expected the twins to have similar thoughts. If not the Fight Club part, at least the idea that Cameron was the true protagonist. But what they (both of them) said instead was shocking. "No," the daughter told me. "I mean, I liked Ferris, and I loved Cameron. But it's Jeanie who's the hero here."
Jeanie, the sister mentioned earlier, was played with pure rage by Jennifer Grey. She spends most of the movie attempting to narc on Ferris rather than enjoying her own beautiful day. She is angry and determined until…she meets a "bad boy" at the county jail, played complete with bloodshot eyes by Charlie Sheen.
(Sheen stayed up super late the night before the shoot so that he looked weary. "I just figure if I show up looking tired, that's going to be an asset. I need to look tired, so I'm gonna be tired. There was no booze, no dope, there was nothing involved in that night preparing for this," he said.)
Taken aback, their mom pushed back. "Jeanie, the sister? Why?"
The son answers, "She just changes the most. She starts out, like, having it in for Ferris. Really, having it in for EVERYONE. And then she just like figures it out." The daughter adds, "Yeah, in the end she was rooting for Ferris. She came the farthest from where she started and she's the one who kinda saved him."
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Gobsmacked, I turned to Reddit for more answers. In the subreddit r/movies, someone recently posted, "Something I noticed about Ferris Bueller's Day Off." They then proceed to drive the Cameron theory forward. "At the start of the film, Cameron is in bed sickly and not really confident in himself, but as the movie progresses, he starts to get more confidence, and by the end, he gains the courage to stand up to his father."
What is a flat or static character?
A Redditor replies with this thoughtful answer: "I've heard it called a flat character arc when the protagonist doesn't change but is instead the catalyst for those around them to change. It's hard to pull off but is often the most satisfying kind of character. Ted Lasso (especially in season one) is a good example."
Others echo that idea, offering up characters like Forrest Gump and The Dude from The Big Lebowski. Chauncey Gardiner in Being There is another great example; he remains the same while the world projects its own personality onto him. So is Mary Poppins; she blows into town, has a big effect on everyone around her, and then flies off.
These characters stayed exactly the same while the world or others in their lives changed around them. It's described on a YouTube clip as "The moment you realize the main character is not actually the main character."
- YouTube www.youtube.com
This would give credence to the twins' opinion. But I'd never heard anyone choose Jeanie before (and they weren't swayed by Grey's performance in Dirty Dancing because they hadn't seen it yet). When pressed one more time, their answer didn't change. "No doubt, it's the sister. She should have a spinoff." Their mom was so proud, and we all totally agree.
This article originally appeared last year. It has since been updated.
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