Transcript

Intro Clip

You're not fooling anybody, Bender. The next screw that falls out is gonna be you. Eat my shorts. What was that? Eat my shorts. You just bought yourself another Saturday, mister. Oh, I'm crushed. You just bought one more right there. Well, I'm free the Saturday after that. Beyond that, I'm gonna have to check my calendar. Good. Because it's gonna be filled. We'll keep going. You want another one? Say the word. Just say the word. Instead of going to prison, you'll come here. Are you through? No. I'm doing society a favor. So? That's another one right now. I've got you for the rest of your natural-born life if you don't watch your step. You want another one? Yes. You got it! You got another one right there! That's another one, pal! Cut it out! You through? Not even close. Bye. Good. You got one more right there. You really think I give a shit? Another. You through? How many is that? That's 7, including when we first came in and you asked Mr. Vernon here whether Barry Manilow knew that he raided his closet. Now it's 8. You stay out of it. Excuse me, sir, it's 7. Shut up, peewee.

Steve

It's Two Dads, One Movie. It's the podcast where two middle-aged dads sit around and to shoot the shit about the movies of the '80s and '90s. Here are your hosts, Steve Paulo and Nic Briana. Hello everybody, welcome to another episode of Two Dads, One Movie. I'm Steve.

Nic

And I'm Nic.

Steve

And today we are continuing our walk down Two Dads, Two Decades through the 1980s to 1985 and the teen coming-of-age comedy drama classic, The Breakfast Club. Yeah. Nic, this is like, you know, one of the classic John Hughes movies. You picked this for us. Tell us a little bit about your history with The Breakfast Club and why you chose it for 1985.

Nic

Yeah, I actually didn't watch this much early on, but in recent years, this is one that my wife and my daughter and I have watched together a couple of times, and I'd seen it in the past. But I thought just in light of you picking Fast Times at Ridgemont High a few weeks ago, it would be cool to kind of check in on the teen high school situation.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

You know, with a few of these movies. And I know we might have some more coming up too. But yeah, I just would be wondering how this would look to me under, uh, the lens of like trying to analyze it and talk about it for an hour and a half instead of just sitting there and letting it wash over me like it has so many times. So, uh, interesting cast, you know, kind of the first big role for some people and others who were like popping in at different points throughout the '80s. And John Hughes, you know, one of our favorites here on the pod. So, uh, yeah, I thought this might be a fun one to talk about, and it's a mix-up from all the explosions and gunshot wounds that I'm used to recommending for the show.

Steve

I was gonna— I think we've definitely moved several steps away from January at this point, where, you know, there was a nice little run there of lots of action, and that's great. But like, yeah, we've, we've been, you know what, last week was Ghostbusters, week before that was Strange Brew, and then Fast Times. So, you know, we're getting a better mix, I think, of like the kinds of movies that, that we grew up watching to, to some extent. For myself, for The Breakfast Club, like, this was a movie I probably would have seen for the first time sometime in high school, uh, not earlier than that. Um, you know, I didn't really— I don't think I appreciated it as much at the time. It felt like because it was, you know, when we were in high school and these kids in this movie, whatever, they're not really kids, the actors, but when they're in high school, it all felt so different. It was like, wow, school, you know, things aren't like that anymore. It's such a different world, you know, now that we're in the mid to late '90s and not the mid-'80s. And then in retrospect, as I've gotten older, this has looked more and more like my childhood. Yeah. As time has gone on and I go, oh, oh no, never mind. That really was like that.

Nic

And it's almost like it's not for high schoolers because you need a little perspective on high school to fully enjoy it, you know?

Steve

Absolutely correct. I think that's really, really an accurate statement about most of John Hughes's teen comedies, which he was so famous for, is they really are about retrospecting on your own teenage years and seeing yourself in these people often, especially in this movie, a little bit in all of them, right? I mean, they're really, it's, you know, I don't think they're all such kind of caricatures in some way. It's probably hard for you to look back and go like, well, I was exactly this person or that person, but we all kind of experienced a lot of these similar things.

Nic

[Speaker:JASON] For sure.

Steve

[Speaker:ADAM] I also feel like looking back at this now as a parent gave me a very different view. I don't think I've watched it in the last like 10+ years, you know, give or take, since I had my, you know, my wife had our first child. And so there were elements of this movie that hit way different, and we'll get into it obviously as we get to those scenes, but really hit me so differently being a parent and looking at it kind of from that perspective. I also wanna like just point out, this is one of the two kind of what we might call the primary Brat Pack movies. The kind of common accepted definition of who is in the Brat Pack is basically you were either in this movie or St. Elmo's Fire or both. They both came out in 1985. St. Elmo's Fire was basically this cast minus Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall, but plus Rob Lowe and Andrew McCarthy. So that pretty much rounds out, you know, the brat pack, as it were. Obviously there was a lot of other actors and actresses— Demi Moore, John Cusack, you know, who were sort of, uh, associated with but not really core to it.

Nic

They kind of rose above it a little bit. It's like saying that Beyoncé was in Destiny's Child. It's like, she's Beyoncé, you know.

Steve

There is that, but there are also people who, who didn't necessarily have great careers spectacular careers, like, I don't know, like Matt Dillon.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

Is like kind of associated with this group because, you know, even Matthew Broderick, you know, the people like that, Jennifer Grey, who were in those kinds of movies at the time, but not necessarily with this core group.

Nic

Right.

Steve

Like, as an example, if you think about these are kind of the first Brat Pack movies in that these are the movies that helped define the term, but The Outsiders came out a few years before this. What, Sixteen Candles came out before this. And those are obviously clearly associated movies, you know. But I think it's interesting to, to kind of look at this movie remembering that this was kind of such a cultural thing.

Nic

Totally.

Steve

Yeah. And how it defined the way Americans looked at Hollywood at this time.

Nic

Right.

Steve

Really interesting. Cool. All right. Well, hey, let's jump into the facts on The Breakfast Club.

Nic

Yes, sir.

Steve

All right. The Breakfast Club was released on February 15th, 1985, with an R rating and a running time of 98 minutes.

Nic

Crisp.

Steve

Written and directed by the incomparable John Hughes, starring literally starring 7 people total. But really, Emilio Estevez, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, probably your kind of top 3 cast members. Rotten Rotten Tomatoes score, 87%. Not a surprise. On IMDb, a really hearty, healthy 7.8. Also not a surprise to me. And then Siskel and Ebert gave this one two thumbs up. So kind of like critically acclaimed all around. The crowd likes and everything. No awards at the time that it came out to speak of that I could find, but it was added to the National Film Registry in 2015, along with a lot of the other movies that we do. Yeah, I noticed. And here's the—

Nic

who decides on that? There is a board.

Steve

Yeah, there's a National Film Preservation Board. I don't know.

Nic

We got to get on that, baby.

Steve

I don't know who— yeah, how it's selected. Appointed by, is it like government associated or is it some private group that's doing this? I honestly don't know. I just think it's a neat little thing to point out these kind of, you know, really important movies that have gotten that recognition.

Nic

It would be funny if it was like super political and we see like all these Kevin Sorbo direct-to-video movies getting put in there.

Steve

Deuce Bigelow is now on the National Film Registry. Yeah. Here's the fun part about the facts on Breakfast Club. $1 million to make. Now, it was 1985. I understand you could do things for a lot cheaper, but when you have a movie set entirely in one location, they never leave this school. They do in the front of it. They do throughout it. They never leave the school for any scene shot in this movie. The entire cast is like 13 people, and the primary cast that is in 98%, 99% of the movie is 7 people, right?

Nic

Because it's just the parents dropping them off or the other people. Yeah, that's it.

Steve

And so they— that's all though. All that shooting clearly was done in a day. Yeah, I didn't look it up, but I bet this movie took like a week to shoot at most. Like, just a quick thing. And so yeah, it cost $1 million, it made $51.5 million at the box office. So at 51.5 times what it cost, which is the largest multiplier we've ever seen— Knox, Nightmare on Elm Street— yeah, Nightmare on Elm Street was like 30 times or something in that ballpark— is now dethroned officially with the release of this episode for us. So yeah, so that— those are the facts on The Breakfast Club. And yeah, man, let's dive into it. How do we kick this movie off?

Nic

I love how this just starts off because I was surprised, honestly, when you went through the awards, there were no nominations, nothing for the song, because I feel like this is really even detached from the movie, like just such a great song and such a memorable song of the era, right?

Steve

Absolutely.

Nic

So we don't get any visuals other than a black screen with yellow lettering showing us the opening credits while we get almost the entire Don't You Forget About My Song playing. And it's great. And I'm grooving to something that has like no pictures on, like I'm already in on this movie. Like, I think it's very effective how it just like— all right, people. And also if they released this, maybe the song was out a little before the movie or something. I don't know how that worked, but it's like if people knew the song and then they get hit by it at the beginning, they would be super psyched about that.

Steve

I'm pretty sure I remember reading that this song was for the movie, right? I think it was, it was, it was released, it was kind of—

Nic

when they put singles out, I don't know if it like just lead up to it or I don't know how that kind of thing works.

Steve

That's a good point. Yeah.

Nic

Um, but anyway, great, uh Great song to start off. And then we get a David Bowie quote, right, on the screen, which I forget exactly what it says, but something motivational, something based about like, like, the kids are all right, leave them alone.

Steve

It was— it's— I'm paraphrasing.

Nic

And then we see a little of the budget in action because the quote like explodes and shatters, and then we're at the exterior of the high school.

Steve

It actually reminded me very significantly of the opening of The Thing, John Carpenter's The Thing, where the, the, the logo like burns into the backdrop or whatever. It's like, like that, but not as cool. Yeah, like something similar. Um, yeah, so we get there and so we're in the front of Shermer High School, right? This is fictional Shermer, Illinois, where all of the— basically all the John Hughes films take place in one way or another. Uh, and you know, the kids start arriving. We have, we have cars pulling up and, and we get very briefly introduced to each of the, you know, people who are going to be spending the hour and a half with, uh, the kids in detention and their parents. And I think in one case a little sister. Um, but yeah, there's, there's, there's not a whole lot of interactivity here, but we do get a little hint as to like what each of them deals with when it comes to their parents.

Nic

Yes, a little bit of that.

Steve

And I love in particular when Ally Sheedy's character Allison shows up, is dropped off by what's clearly both of her parents, or two adults sitting in the front of the car. And she gets out of the car and they don't drive away immediately. And so she sort of like takes a step towards the front window to like, to like maybe say goodbye or something. And then they basically just speed off without her. And it's very— to me, that was like the most poignant of the arrivals. Yeah. In a lot of ways. Yeah.

Nic

And she, you know, later it seems like she's almost putting on the— she's trying to give off the effect of someone who doesn't have both their parents and whose home life— so like maybe, you know, she's lying about a lot of stuff later. But yeah, this is a great scene, and I love a drop-off scene, kind of like the beginning of Airplane where we're watching all the characters get dropped off at the beginning at the airport. One thing that I spotted for the first time watching this, there's kind of a Anthony Michael Hall voiceover where he's kind of reading like the essay that they end up writing later, and it's showing a montage of different shots from the school, you know, and the school that's closed for the weekend, you know, so just papers out, whatever. And it shows the trophy case, and there's a little thing that says Man of the Year for each year, and it's Carl, the janitor. So Man of the Year. So it's funny that that's like put in our face at the beginning because I think that enhances your enjoyment of the movie if you kind of spot that early on.

Steve

Yeah, I noticed that too. I don't think I'd noticed it before, and I thought to myself like, oh wow, yeah, so the dude really peaked in high school, like, right? That's kind of the, the story there of Carl is, uh, yeah, hey man, man of the year, good for you. You never really left, right?

Nic

You know, I will say he seems like a, like a pretty, uh, thoughtful, like, you know, self-assured type guy when he's in it later. Like, he doesn't seem like he hates his life doing what he's doing.

Steve

He doesn't hate his life because he never left the place where he was the man. So there's an element, I think, of just, you know, the Peter Pan syndrome of like, never had to actually grow up.

Nic

High school. Yeah, exactly.

Steve

Never had to leave that place. He could still be a big man on campus in his own mind. Right, but we are spending way too much time talking about Carl, that's for sure.

Nic

We'll be back, Carl.

Steve

Absolutely.

Nic

Um, yeah, so, you know, we see everyone getting dropped off here, and, uh, Emilio Estevez's dad is one of the cops from The Fugitive. That's very recognizable, like Chicago. I swear he's one of those actors who's like, yeah, I'll act in anything as long as it's filmed within the city limits of Chicago.

Steve

It's got to be inside the loop.

Nic

So it's great to see him, uh, taking a day off from chasing Richard Kimball. Um, so yeah, there they end up, you know, having to spend their Saturday school and they're inside the library. Yeah, which is an amazingly like well-funded— it's crazy how nice this school is. I mean, throughout this movie it's— they're like, oh, shit sucks. And it's like, people would kill to have the resources that your school has in 1985.

Steve

It's wild. Yeah, it's big two-story room, beautiful sculpture like in the middle of it, like all, you know, yeah, it's really quite amazing. And we are— they all kind of arrive, they find their seats. We get introduced briefly to John Bender, Judd Nelson's character, who shows up and kind of kicks Brian, who is played by Matthew Michael Hall, out of the chair he apparently wants to sit in. Yeah, but they're all kind of getting themselves situated. And I think it's interesting, we get the first indication that while all these people are obviously in different, you know, social cliques within their high school, Andy and Claire, the Emilio Estevez and Molly Ringwald characters, are clearly more connected. Than any of the other 5— the other 3, rather. Um, because, you know, he is a jock, she is a popular girl, and so therefore they run in a lot of the same circles. Um, and so they're sitting at the kind of the same table, a seat between them, but like basically with each other, and everybody else is spread out around the room. And this is when we get to meet Paul Gleason.

Nic

Paul Gleason. And we love Paul Gleason, and we've seen him in Die Hard and Trading Places.

Steve

Love to hate him, really. Yeah, he— I—

Nic

it's a face. He's really good at it. He's very good at being kind of a despicable, in-charge, like semi-incompetent type person, drunk on his own power kind of idea.

Steve

Oh, that's always it.

Nic

And this, this killed me when he comes in and he's, he's laying out, you know, what the day is going to be like for them. He's like, it's 7:06 AM. So this starts at 7 AM. That is absolutely brutal. Can you think of yourself, high school era, having to wake up an hour before you would for school to like go in? Is—

Steve

oh yeah, I mean, I think our school might have started at 7:30. I don't remember for sure because I know senior year I didn't have a class until third period.

Nic

So like, do the late start, right?

Steve

It was like 9 something before I had to show up. Yeah, that would have been bad.

Nic

So he's running down to them and he's the hard ass. He's, you know, no talking, you know, no moving, no sleeping. And by the end of this 9 hours, you got to write a 1,000-word essay about like who you think you are, right? Basically.

Steve

And what did he give them to write 1,000 words on?

Nic

A single sheet of paper.

Steve

I laughed my ass off when he was handing out individual sheets of lined paper and a pencil. Yeah. To write 1,000 words. Bitch, I couldn't do that if my life depended on it.

Nic

Right.

Steve

It is physically impossible. To write unless I could write the word I as in the singular pronoun. Yeah. Over and over again. Maybe I could fit it. Maybe in front. Maybe.

Nic

And, you know, it's funny, he did point out, he said, and this is a real essay, not 1,000 of the same word written in a row. It's definitely like, all right, Bender, I've seen your ass here before. I know the kind of shit you try to pull. Exactly. So then Bender, the Judd Nelson character, is sassing back a little bit. So he's like, you know, are there any questions? You guys sit here, be quiet, obey me. And he said, Does Barry Manilow know that you raided his wardrobe? Yeah, right. And he gets pissed off and he throws another Saturday.

Steve

That's right. See you next week, Bender. Yeah, exactly.

Nic

Um, when he leaves, uh, he leaves and now it's just the kids in the library, right? And the door's propped open and it looks right into the open door of his office across the hall, so he can kind of lean back in his chair and peep in on him. Uh, there's a very funny thing where, um, Bender and Brian, Anthony Michael Hall, are both like taking their jackets off at the same time. And then Bender looks at Brian and Brian is kind of like, oh, I can't do this at the same time as you. And then pretends he blows into his hands and like zips his sweater up again.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

I just love that.

Steve

Oh my God.

Nic

All right. So now we got our kids hanging out here.

Steve

Yep, exactly. Uh, and I, well, there's a couple of great lines. They basically start arguing with each other for the most part. The initial, uh, conversations and interactivity between the kids in detention is all acrimonious. It's all aggressive, and it's mostly Bender. Bender's just kind of—

Nic

he's really poking his Molly Ringwald.

Steve

Yeah, yeah, really getting in on everybody, making fun of everybody else. Uh, and so Andy and Emilio Estevez like turns to him, and there's just a line I absolutely love early on when he says, 'If I lose my temper, you're totaled, man.' I just love that line.

Nic

Got it right here.

Steve

And they're just like— and then Bender responds like, 'Totally.' And he goes, 'Totally.' It's just like, it's so '80s. Yeah.

Nic

And it's so like all the threats back and forth, like all these things I couldn't keep track of writing them down. But yeah, especially the stuff that Estevez is saying. It's just like, oh, perfect, perfect. Um, he also— so Bender insults, uh, Estevez's character who's Gordo. What do we call him?

Steve

Gordo? No, no, he's Andy. Gordo's his character in Mighty Ducks.

Nic

Oh, okay. So Andy— oh no, it's because Bender calls him Sporto as an insult.

Steve

Yeah, which, which is jock.

Nic

What a very funny— yeah, haha, you're good at sports.

Steve

I think it's more like, call me Sporto, quit telling people I'm good Sports. You gotta remember, liking things and caring about things is totally unfair.

Nic

That's true.

Steve

So that is having a commitment to something is what he's making fun of.

Nic

Like, yeah, uh, Bender says something, uh, to Molly Ringwald about a hot beef injection, I think. Uh, yes. So he's just being like very vulgar and gross, and he's picking on her, and Andy's sticking up for her, right, a little bit. And then Brian keeps kind of chiming in, like trying to be a part of it, which is very funny because they're telling Bender—

Steve

Andy and Claire are telling Bender, you don't matter here. Yes, you don't, you don't, you might as well not exist at this school. You don't do anything. You're not in any clubs.

Nic

Crazy initial insult, by the way, because that is like devastating.

Steve

The worst thing you can say is someone off the bat, like they did not mess around at all. They went straight nuclear on him. And so when he reacts really negatively, it really should come as no surprise to anybody. But yeah, but Brian, they're talking about like this club, that club. I mean, this— I mean, I'm in sports or whatever. You don't do anything. And Brian's in the back going like, I'm in the Latin club, I'm in the math club, the physics club. And Bender finally is like, what the hell are you talking like? You keep saying stuff. What are you saying? What? And he asked Claire, are you in the math club? She goes, that's an academic club. And he goes, what do you guys do there? And he's like, oh, we talk about physics and math club. We talk about math, you know. Oh, oh, we had a banquet at the end of the year or whatever. And he goes, see, it's sort of social, demented and sad, but social. Like, why is that different? And it's like, there is something I think in this, and I'm going to point this out a few times, I think, but in this watch through, I liked John Bender way more than I ever remember liking John Bender. Yeah. He, comes with such— it's, it's— he's so checking, like, he's not wrong, he's just an asshole, right? But he comes with such honesty and immediately pokes holes in this.

Nic

He's got near every single person's weakness nailed down from the beginning. Like, he knows what— whatever he doesn't know about himself, he has an incredible amount of emotional intelligence to just be picking on people this effectively.

Steve

Yeah, well, I think he— I think he knows himself very, very well. He's just figured out how to put up barriers and be defensive about things, but he reads them for Phil.

Nic

Oh my god, dude, this is Mike McD sitting at the judges' table. Yes, he comes in and he's— I put you on all your cards. I know what everyone's thinking. Yeah, and I feel the same way about Bender because I really did enjoy him, and by the end of it was like, oh, he's the star of the movie. Like, I see it. Yeah, he pushes all the action forward. Like, he's the one making everything happen in this, but But yeah, incredible beginning for him.

Steve

Yeah, absolutely.

Nic

So one of the things that Bender does is he goes over to the door, which has been propped up.

Steve

Oh yeah.

Nic

And he steals like the pin that keeps it open, right?

Steve

So it's like one of those pneumatic things. You take the little pin out, it just doesn't have anything to like hold it open anymore.

Nic

Like, yeah, yeah, yeah, right. So then it shuts and obviously Vernon comes over and he's pissed like, oh, what's going on? And he's like, well, this door has to be open. So he tries to prop it open with a little folding chair and they're like, It's not gonna happen.

Steve

Somebody's like, the door is way too heavy, sir. Yeah, it like slams and then it whips shut in such a funny way.

Nic

Like they added that effect. Oh, it's not from the real door. Like they put a motor behind that and thank God they did. I'll bet they chiseled off some of the budget.

Steve

A crew member sitting behind the thing just pushing it, just pushing it real hard from where you can't see it, but the chair goes flying.

Nic

Really like it. And then they put the most like cumbersome magazine rack in there, like something they have brochures on in a hotel lobby or whatever. And you can't even climb around it. And, uh, Andy Emilio Estevez is really like hamming it up trying to like get through, which is very funny. So I do like that they're all kind of bonded because nobody ratted on Bender about what happened to the door. And this is the very beginning of the day.

Steve

It's interesting because you'd think somebody in the— like, I feel like, I feel like Andy and Claire understand well enough that that, you know, angering an authority figure doesn't do anybody any good. I feel like just that— Allison doesn't talk to anybody at this point anyway, so that doesn't— she's not going to get involved. And then I feel like Brian probably wanted to say something, part of him did, but he's like, I'm not gonna— like, Bender will be so mad at me. I'm not— like, he's scared of Bender enough. So I feel like there's— it's not that they like Bender, it's that they each have a reason for not bringing any attention on themselves in a lot of ways. Um, I do love watching it. It's like, there's, there's that door, but there's another— it's a double door. Why didn't they just open the other damn door? Like, it's so weird. They didn't even try opening the other door.

Nic

The other thing My wife pointed out when we were watching this, she said the door has one of those built-in door stops on there. It's like they couldn't have taken that off. Nice.

Steve

For the movie, it needed to be this way for the movie, and that's fine. Um, but yeah, the door slamming on that chair is absolutely hilarious. Yeah.

Nic

Uh, uh, so, so they're getting shit for this and they finally realize, okay, well, the door is going to stay shut, whatever. Vernon is pissed because his day is already going sideways and it's like 7:22 AM and, uh, And Bender says to him kind of under his breath, eat my shorts.

Steve

Yeah, which is great.

Nic

We got a lot of proto-Bart Simpson behavior like between this and future films. Um, and they get into this great exchange where it's like, okay, that's another Saturday. So you want another? He's like, yeah. So, and him morphing from like being tough to being scared to like seeing a look of this guy's really bullying me just like my fucking dad does, which we see a few times in the movie. Like, I think this is just such a great exchange because because he's not just the tough, like, I don't care what happens to me guy in that moment. You really see him crumbling under the weight of that.

Steve

Well, and I think that the most impressive thing— I 100% agree with you— and I think one of the most impressive parts for both Judd Nelson and Paul Gleason as actors in this movie comes immediately after the scene. So it's a very famous scene. In all honesty, it's probably the intro clip that the audience heard before we started. I feel like that's what I'll pick. But, you know, he basically says, I got you for the next 8 weeks. Next 2 months of your life are here on Saturdays. Like, I got you, right? And then Vernon leaves and Nelson yells, or, you know, Bender yells, "Fuck you," like, as the door shuts, kind of like hidden by the slam of the door. Both actors then breathe out a sigh of frustration where they both make it absolutely clear from their faces and body language that they know individually, "I went too far." Like Vernon knows he went too far. That was stupid. He should not have done that. You know, Bender knows he went too far. He should have shut the fuck up. And that recognition, that recognition by both these characters of the fact that they just got in a big dick swinging contest and both wished that they hadn't. I think it's really powerful. Just moment for those actors. I think it's really telling and kind of like just an interesting moment for each of them because they move on from there. I mean, obviously nobody changes over this. Yeah, but there is this moment of like, goddamn it. Like, you know, just that we've all done that, that sigh of like, you know, sometimes you like mete out a punishment to your kid for something that they did and you realize after the fact, like, fuck, I took that too far. And then you got to ask yourself, do I need to change anything? Do I not? Like, whatever. A lot of times you just go, nope, what's done is done, let's just move forward. And they're doing that here. But I really thought that— found that interesting from both of these characters, right?

Nic

Yeah. Oh, that's great. Yeah, I mean, they're— the tension between these two guys is really fantastic. So, and what Vernon says to Bender, I think before he leaves the room, he says, you know, you should do something with your— spend more time trying to do something with yourself and less time trying to impress people.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

Which I thought in the context of everything else Vernon has said, and I'm like, oh, that's like a decent thing to say. I mean, that's not like a mean thing that you don't say to a kid.

Steve

100%. Uh, it is, but it's also like Vernon, you know, physician heal thyself. Like, like, like, take your own damn advice, dude. Like, what he's saying is so evident of a lack of self-reflection on his part because he's doing exactly the same thing. He wants to appear powerful to these children.

Nic

And throughout this whole movie, he does not seem annoyed that he's there on a Saturday.

Steve

He doesn't care. He's got nothing better to do.

Nic

He loves it.

Steve

It's his little fiefdom. Yeah, it's his little controlled area. Yeah, I don't imagine that Dick Vernon's home life is very satisfying. No, a term we'll talk about later. We get it.

Nic

We have a few montages in this movie which I think are really effective. When we get kind of a bored kids montage, you know, Bender's feeling a little defeated and it's just all the different kids like, you know, they can't do anything except stare at their essay paper. They're looking around, they're changing positions. Ally Sheedy is making a really disgusting drawing where she's shaking her head and then the dandruff is becoming snow.

Steve

And I mean, the picture is fantastic. It's a fantastic illustrator.

Nic

But yeah, the dandruff snow is going to harm the resale value of that, dude.

Steve

Um, she also like wraps, uh, like a little thread tightly around the end of her finger and it turns purple. And for whatever reason, that always makes me cringe hard. There's something about that that I'm like, I can feel it in my fingertips when I see someone do that and it just does not make me feel good.

Nic

But that is a classic I'm bored thing to do.

Steve

You know?

Nic

Oh, if they had some glue to like let dry on their hand and then peel it off.

Steve

Little rubber cement. Yeah, the best. Yeah, we cut then to— I think it's just like at the end of that little montage, we've got a point where Bender's like ripping pages out of books, right? And it's like, which, as much as I did end up like Bender by the end of this movie, this is fine. This is fucking infuriating. Like, yeah, you don't have to do this shit. Like, it's just— anyway, but, uh, they do make fun of him because he says like, oh, Moller is like so important, you know. They correct him, it's Molière. And I love Brian goes, oh, I love his work.

Nic

Yeah, he goes, uh, he goes Molière really pumps my nads. That's right, that's what Bender says. Another great phrase. Yeah, and I— and Brian quietly being like, I, I love— I love that kind of stuff. He is such a great— like, so innocent and like, oh, like, no, this is school, we're supposed to like school and everything. Like, I really— Anthony Michael Hall is fantastic.

Steve

He really is. Yeah.

Nic

Um, and they're kind of talking about— I don't know, just they start getting into their home life and stuff, parents and stuff.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

And Claire, Molly Ringwald, uh, starts talking about like her, her parents use her and everything. So that's, you know, going to be a theme. Yeah, that they're using her to make each other mad.

Steve

Andy and Bender are kind of at each other. Yeah, quite a bit. Yes, yes, because I think it's Bender is leaning into Brian more, right, laying into him, and Andy kind of is like, hey man, knock it off, right? I think that's where we're at. Uh, and basically Andy takes Bender down, like they're about to fight, and Andy like gets him into like an arm hold or something and slams him down into the ground before bouncing back up. But it's like, you know, It's, it's a moment where Andy is showing like, dude, you're the biggest guy here, Bender. Don't get me wrong, but you are not like in total control. Like you don't get to just do whatever you want. Right, right. But of course then Bender takes everything a step further by pulling a switchblade.

Nic

The official weapon of crime, should we say? Because there's never a good guy switchblade. Almost never.

Steve

No. Yeah, that's, I guess that's true.

Nic

It's only used to threaten or like ask for a wallet or whatever.

Steve

That's true.

Nic

But yeah, that's That's crazy for him to escalate it that way. And, and, you know, that's clearly like Andy is like, I'm not you now. Like, that's not a world that I live in.

Steve

No, exactly. But of course, he— all— Bender also like, like stabs the blade into like the chair back or whatever, and then Allison immediately grabs it and takes it. And it's like you can't see her, but her hand comes from off screen and like takes the blade. Okay, so she— I don't think it ever comes back. It's not Chekhov's switchblade. It doesn't come back. But yeah, she takes it from him. So now he doesn't have it.

Nic

It's kind of a general klepto throughout.

Steve

She's a little hoarder.

Nic

Yeah. Um, yeah, now, uh, now Carl comes in. Yeah, I believe. And, uh, and Carl says— he says hi to Brian.

Steve

Oh, that's right.

Nic

Clearly, I'm sure he knows him just from—

Steve

yeah, whatever.

Nic

Brian's doing clubs after school, like, he'd know.

Steve

And just Brian seems like the kind of guy who would say hi to a person working at school, like, hey, how's it going? And the kid— and he might go like, hey, what's your name? My name's Brian. I'm Carl. Brian, nice to meet you. And that's all it would take for Brian to remember Carl's name for the rest of his life, because Brian's that kind of guy. And then he would say hi, you know what I mean? So And he's not the kind of kid who, if Carl says hi to him, is gonna give Carl shit for it, right? He'll be all like, "Fuck you, janitor." Like, that's not Brian, you know? So that's all it really is, but it does sort of like indicate to the rest of the people in the room that like—

Nic

Brian's like the only one that sees that guy.

Steve

There's that, yeah.

Nic

As like, you know, someone else who's there. Yeah, totally. And then Bender, you know, starts laying into Carl, you know, "How does one become a janitor?" And just being such a dick. I mean— think about a kid, like a whatever he's supposed to be in this movie, 16, 17-year-old, something like that, talking to a working adult like that who does a job that's like an admirable job. Like, there's nothing wrong with that job, necessary, appreciated. And talking to them like that, it's like, oh, you piece of shit.

Steve

Frankly, no offense really meant, although maybe a little offense, to a kid that does not appear to have significant prospects ahead of him. Like, this is a kid gearing towards college and like some grand, you know, not that I accept it from like some rich asshole kid, but you'd think, okay, at least I see where their smugness originates from, right? This guy has no reason to be smug. No, Bender does.

Nic

Like, he's crazy. But then Carl cuts right into these kids, which is really great. He doesn't hold back and he's talking about, oh, okay, you guys think you're big? Like, yeah, I hear everything, I see everything. And it goes to what you're saying about him needing to still be big man on campus. Because the way he describes his position, he doesn't say, you know what, you're someday you're going to know what it's like to work for a living or whatever. He is like, I have power over you kids, just like I did when my picture was in the fucking trophy case in the front of the school.

Steve

I am the eyes and ears of this institution, my friends, is what he says. And it's like a little grandiose, a little, a little self, you know, delusions of grandeur and whatever. But like, yeah, clearly Carl feels still plugged in.

Nic

Yes.

Steve

And, and, and if not better than these people, certainly they're equal, right? There's definitely no reason that he's not— no reason that he is in any way inferior, yeah, to any of them.

Nic

So plus he knows how they're doing high school wrong, whereas he did it right.

Steve

Yeah, right.

Nic

Um, so yeah, this is a great, great interaction. And then we get kind of another little montage where they're all whistling together, the Colonel Bogey March.

Steve

Okay. Yeah, I knew—

Nic

God, I fucking knew you knew that. I didn't even bother looking it up. I was like, okay, Steve's got it.

Steve

I always think of it as like the classic summer camp marching song.

Nic

Yes, totally.

Steve

Like that's the sort of thing I always think of. It's like, I think it was in, I think I first saw it in the movie The Parent Trap, the old Hayley Mills version when they all go, when the two girls meet in summer camp away, there's a scene where they're all marching through whistling the Colonel Bogey March.

Nic

So yeah, but it's so funny that that song, I don't know what the original words are. It's been the most weirded out song in the history of the world. Cause the only ones I know are like, scrotum, it is a sack. Of skin, like all those like versions of those.

Steve

Exactly.

Nic

Yeah. Um, so, so it's lunchtime now. Yeah, we're deep enough into the day where it's 11 AM. They've been there for—

Steve

oh wait, actually before lunch though, there's a scene where Bender, uh, is looking through like a medical book or something and asks Claire if she would date a guy with elephantitis of the nuts.

Nic

Yes.

Steve

You know, and like, well, would you go on a date with him? Would you ride in his car? You have to sit in the back because his nuts are going to take up the second seat. Um, and they get into a little bit of like like, are you a virgin? Are you— there's a lot of conversation about who's a virgin throughout the whole movie. And, uh, Brian basically is like, no, I'm like, like, I've laid plenty of times, you know. He says, oh, with the— like, well, like, who? And he goes, uh, she's from Canada, met her at Niagara Falls, you wouldn't know her. And it's like the classic Canadian girlfriend, right?

Nic

Yes.

Steve

Um, but then he's sort of like— and Bender's like, would you lay anybody around here? And, and Brian kind of nods towards Claire and then goes, you know, whatever. And it's One of the few like truly kind of shitty things Brian does in the movie is sort of like let, you know, tell Bender essentially that he has banged Claire. That's what he's claiming. And immediately Bender calls him out on it by telling Claire he did this. And like there's this whole awkward scene and Claire's basically just like, Brian, that was hella shitty. Why'd you do that? And Brian apologizes. And this is the one thing about Brian is he's like the only dude who like apologizes for shit for most of the movie.

Nic

I mean, he did not dig his feet in at all. And he told her the truth about, he's like, you know what? I was actually just embarrassed to admit this.

Steve

Exactly.

Nic

It's like, well, there you go, Brian.

Steve

Exactly.

Nic

What a, what a mature man.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

Um, yeah, that very important scene, and I'm glad we, uh, we got into that. The Canadian girlfriend, really, really funny. Um, I wrote down what everyone had for lunch.

Steve

Oh good.

Nic

In case we care here.

Steve

Okay, there's definitely one I want to discuss, which is the whole Claire and Bender interaction, but I love— yeah, especially Andy's insane lunch.

Nic

Okay, so, uh, here's what we have for lunch. We have Claire, we have the rich girl, we have She has the official meal of snobs in the '80s, sushi, uh, which is just raw fish, you know, it's just—

Steve

and see, according to her, in rice and seaweed.

Nic

And it's for people who, like, there's still people today in 2026 are like, oh, sushi? It's like, have you ever been? There's a billion things you could get. It's crazy for you to have that. So it's very funny that only, like, the rich girl has her special container, brings her sushi, when now you can buy, like, 3 varieties at AM/PM. Yeah, right.

Steve

Yeah. Uh, not that I would recommend that, by the way. Don't go buy gas station sushi. Don't do that.

Nic

Uh, Allison— Allison has some kind of a sandwich with olive loaf on it, which she pulls off and flings it up and sticks it to the ceiling. And then she has a bunch of Pixie Stix in there she pours on her sandwich, and a little Ziploc bag of Captain Crunch that she puts on her sandwich. Very Pee-wee's Big Adventure.

Steve

Yeah, yeah, yeah, very true.

Nic

So, uh, that's her lunch. Um, Bender, of course, he doesn't have anything. He's from a broken home. Uh, Brian has a thermos full of Soup, right? A little juice box of apple juice and a PB&J with a crust cut off.

Steve

I mean, he's not wrong because he refers— he says to Ben, when Bender sits down, says, well, what are we having? Kind of thing. He goes, you know, probably just your normal lunch or whatever. And then the first thing he pulls out is a thermos full of soup. I go, I have never once in my life brought a thermos full of soup to school. Like, I'm just saying, sandwich, yes, juice box, sure, you know, whatever. Like, but like a thermos full of soup, that's, that's pretty advanced. That's advanced lunch, dude. Totally.

Nic

Yeah, AP lunch. Uh, okay, and then Andy's lunch.

Steve

Oh my God.

Nic

All right, so we have a giant— and this is like if we were familiar with the TV show Parker Lewis Can't Lose. Yeah, Larry Kubiak, the bully from the show, always had this giant sack for his lunch.

Steve

It's a grocery—

Nic

proto-Kubiak lunch. Yeah, big grocery bag here. And Gordo pulls out 3, uh—

Steve

sorry, if you're gonna keep doing that, I'm gonna keep laughing at it.

Nic

Um, I even wrote Gordo. So Andy pulls out 3 sandwiches which are like overstuffed, like deli, whatever.

Steve

Yeah, just a turkey sandwich, whatever. Big.

Nic

A full-size bag of chips, right? Like a family-size party bag of chips, right? And then, uh, also a bag of cookies.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

A quart of milk, an apple, and a banana.

Steve

Like, I, I, I don't want to do the calorie— the caloric calculation here, but I also kind of want it done for me. Like, just the sheer number of calories— because I get, like, the joke is, right, he's an athlete, he's in training, it's in the season, so it's like, you know, he's You got to keep eating because you're going to be working out, you're going to do whatever. And I get that all, but this looks like— I mean, it looks like 3,000 calories, give or take.

Nic

Like the chips and cookies, like, yeah, for sure.

Steve

But he also doesn't have time to do that.

Nic

Well, that's the other thing is that, uh, the Vernis says they have 30 minutes for lunch, right? So Andy better get cracking. He better start Joey Chestnut-ing his, uh, sandwiches. He's gonna get through it real quick.

Steve

One of the interactions between Bender and Claire over her lunch is, you know, he asked like, what is that? And she says Is it sushi? He goes, and he kind of wrinkles his nose, goes, sushi? Like, but like he doesn't know. And she says, yeah, it's rice and raw fish and seaweed. And he says, you won't let a guy's tongue in your mouth, but you're gonna eat that? And she's like, you know, looks at him disgusting, goes, can I eat? And he goes, I don't know, give it a try. Yeah. I just love that.

Nic

He has some good lines.

Steve

Very funny.

Nic

Really funny. One thing he does that I don't really like.

Steve

Okay.

Nic

He's doing this impression of Brian's family. Oh yeah. 'Cause he's giving Brian a hard time for his lunch. He's like, oh, how perfect, Brian. Because he's the last person left to bully who hasn't taken his lunch out. So he's going to get there. There. And he's doing a, oh, honey, our son is so— it's like Bender, you got better material. You're right. That shit sucks. But they kind of get into it about their families and they're like, well, what about your family? You know? And he does an impression of his dad, which is devastating. I mean, honestly, for his thing to be like lazy, worthless, like, and his face changes completely and like really, really, uh, tough, this scene. I mean, great job by, yeah, by Judd Nelson.

Steve

And clearly, you know, it's, it's really obvious. I think even to the, to the— again, thinking of these characters as children, right? Like, it's obviously they're all professional actors, but like the kids are all reacting in a way where even if they're trying, even if like Sandy says, like, oh, that sounds like made-up bullshit or whatever, they're still reacting like, man, there's a reality to what he's doing that does— isn't something people make up, right? There is like this authenticity to the way he's acting angry and shut up, bitch, make me a pot pie or whatever. He says all this stuff And when Andy calls Bender out on it, like, that's bullshit. That's what you want people to think. You want people to think— that's when he shows him his scar. He's got a forearm scar about the right size, you know, about the dimensions of a nickel. Yeah, right. And he says, it's a cigar. That's what happens in my house when you spill paint in the garage. And it's like— and that's when Bender kind of loses it. And this is like one of the most— one of the earliest vulnerable moments for Bender. Yeah, like, I don't think he wanted to reveal that. I think he was pushed to reveal that by the way Andy was talking to him, and he wanted to prove that he wasn't bullshitting, but he didn't actually want to open up to these people in any way. Yeah, so he like kind of storms off, and everybody else is pissed at Andy for at least a moment of like, dude, that was, that was too far. Like, you— that was not cool. How could I know? It's like, well, yeah, you can't know, but that's a good reminder, kids. You never know the people you meet, right? The fuck they're dealing with.

Nic

Don't keep pushing someone.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

Um, yeah, I mean, really, uh, really gnarly.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

And, uh, then we have a little bit of comic relief. We see Vernon sitting at his desk eating just a shitty looking lunch, and he pours coffee from a thermos and it spills, but it looks like it's 90% just grounds. It looks like it's wet coffee grounds.

Steve

It really is crazy. Looks like sludge. He even makes a comment. He kind of mutters to himself as he leaves. I didn't quite catch it, but it's something about the coffee being terrible. Yeah, but I was like, why would you even have that coffee? Like, what the fuck is that? It almost looks like there's a scene in a movie, The Birdcage, we'll do someday where they have Turkish coffee and one of the characters knows it's Turkish coffee and sips and go, oh, Turkish coffee. How? What a delight. This is a rarity. And the other person's like, what is this, sludge? It's like, yeah, I served you sludge. Like, it's Turkish coffee. I don't think that was this. So this looks like, yeah, Folgers that didn't work right or something. He didn't get the water hot enough.

Nic

The crystals didn't dissolve.

Steve

But yeah. So then he has to, the key for that though is he has to now go wander. He has to head off to the bathroom to like, you know, get cleaned up or whatever. And I believe this is where the kids take a little field trip to Bender's locker. So Vernon has left his office and is wandering the halls. The kids now all leave the library and are following Bender to his locker. And we get there and we have, we saw a bunch of the lockers at the opening of the movie. And one of them has this graffiti on it that's like, you open this locker and you die or whatever. Also, weirdly, it looked like he had two of them, kind of one above and one below.

Nic

I don't know if he had two lockers, but yeah, you're right.

Steve

For the movie. Okay. And sure enough, he opens the locker and it's got a guillotine in it that actually cuts the toes off of like his gym shoes, it looks like, or something, which is like, man, you really should be more careful what you keep in your locker if you're going to have a fucking guillotine in it. Like, goddamn. But yeah, they are there to grab marijuana. That's what they're there for. They're for Bender's pot stash.

Nic

And he's got like a series of paper bags. It's like Gordon's lunch bag with Brian's lunch bag with Andy's lunch— yeah, Gordon. Fuck that shit. His last name's Gordon. I'm not tripping, am I?

Steve

No, it's not. It's something else. Or no, you are tripping because it's Andy something else. But like, no, but, uh, one of the things that I love in this scene is like, it's, uh— well, actually, no, no, that's right. So I was gonna ask you, and, and, you know, if you don't want to admit this on the air, you don't have to, but did you smoke pot in high school? Was that—

Nic

oh, that was not true. Yeah.

Steve

All right. All right. So first off, the concept of keeping your marijuana in your locker at school is insane to me. I knew lots of people who smoked pot in high school. Mom and Dad, if you're listening, it definitely wasn't me. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. But a lot of friends who did, and nobody would ever have it on campus if you could help it.

Nic

Right.

Steve

Right. And you certainly wouldn't be leaving it in anything on campus. So that's insane. But I cannot imagine this is Chicago, you know, suburban Chicago in 1984. '84, I think technically we were told the date is like fall of '84 when this actually takes place. Uh, and that weed must have been the stemmiest, seediest, dirtiest, the most terrible stuff. There's no way it was good.

Nic

Oh, my buddy got the good shit from Alberta. Yeah, like, yeah, nightmare, nightmare stuff.

Steve

No good at all. I was just thinking when I was watching this, going, man, that must be some dirt-ass dirt weed.

Nic

Although we find out, uh, it does, uh, does the job.

Steve

Also doesn't last very long, if we're being honest about their They're fun times together. They don't last very long when we get there, but yeah. So yeah, so they— this is when then I think they realize as they start heading back, Vernon is also like—

Nic

they see him, they run into a section of the hall that's kind of like closed off, right? They're like, oh shit, we're kind of screwed here. Yeah, Vernon's gonna be back. And Bender takes off to distract him, like singing through the halls and making noise and everything.

Steve

Yeah, it's actually a really great moment for the whole— for the whole group because they notice Vernon's in the halls and try to run around him, and they get to a point where they could go one of two ways, and Bender is suggesting they go go one way. And Andy says, no, no, no, we got to go this way. We're done listening to you, pal. We're going this way. Well, then that. And so essentially Andy leads them to this blocked off hallway, at which point, like, they could all get in trouble. Bender decides to sacrifice himself for the betterment of the group, which is so— it comes out of left field, really. It's interesting in some ways. I mean, it's— if you're looking at all the little signs that John Bender is a very self-aware person throughout the beginning of this movie, it maybe isn't as surprising. But like, I'm sure like to the characters, it's nearly shocking. Bender would act selflessly in any way. But he shoves his weed into Brian's pants and, yeah, just like running down the halls, hitting the locks on lockers and screaming and yelling. And Vernon starts chasing him and the other kids are able to get back to the library without any problem.

Nic

Nothing happened. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, and it's almost, you know, he knew that the— that he's gone too far at certain points. Yeah, yeah. Um, and he's probably also like, whatever, I'm already in the most trouble I could ever be.

Steve

I'm gonna be here like 2 months.

Nic

What are you gonna go throw another life sentence on my life sentence? I give a fuck. Um, so, uh, so Vernon, you know, grabs Bender, like, he, you know, brings him back there and basically says, like, you guys want to laugh, like, visit Bender in 5 years. And he's really dressing him down in front of them, really embarrassing them. And he takes him to this, you know, supply closet, and, uh, and he's trying to get Bender to, like, throw a punch, basically. Yeah, he's in his face He's like, you know, I make $31,000 a year and I have a home and I'm not about to lose it knocking you out right now, but it's all I want to do. Basically, like, I'm going to find you in the future and I'm going to kick the shit out of you.

Steve

Yeah. Once you're 18 and you're no longer a student that I'm in charge of in any way. Yeah. I'm going to beat the shit out of you.

Nic

And you just see Bender is just in— he's dissociating like he's had to do with his dad his whole life.

Steve

Exactly.

Nic

And is just sitting there kind of frozen. And, uh, yeah, really, me— Vernon pushes it pretty far, pretty far before stopping.

Steve

Way further than he ever would if he thought for a second anyone would know. Yeah, like, that's the key. It's like, yeah, what Vernon is saying to Bender in that moment—

Nic

no one's ever gonna believe it.

Steve

That's the only reason he's doing it is he knows he can get away with it. Uh, and this is the time when Bender is absolutely the most childlike. You know, we're reminded that, again, we don't get exact ages for these kids, but yeah, 16, 17— these are children. Yeah. And this is the one time where Bender really looks small. And really looks like a kid again, is in his sort of non-action towards Vernon in this moment. Because here's the thing, like, I honestly believe just looking at these two people standing next to each other, you know, if I was going to have to put money on a fight between Paul Gleason and Judd Nelson, I'm picking Judd Nelson at this stage in their lives for sure. But he also is a kid and isn't, you know, like the consequences of what he would be doing are actually so astronomical. He probably is frozen and even he couldn't make a reasonable decision to hit Vernon. It wouldn't make sense to him at all. Yeah, yeah, to do that. And, and I think again, that's another thing Vernon knows, having dealt with— you know, there's no way this is the first John Bender he's ever dealt with, right? This is not the first kid he's treated like this in his educator career.

Nic

And he might have been that, you know, at least as far as family background. Like, you probably don't act the way Vernon does if he wasn't pushed around at some point too.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

Um, so Bender's— he's in the supply closet and immediately is like, yeah, I'm gonna go back. He just goes up into the drop ceiling like So we get a little, uh, John McClane from Bender. I was actually funny.

Steve

I was so prepared to be like, oh cool, he's climbing through the vents, like we should make this thing. Nope, not through vents at all, just drop ceilings. Yeah, acoustic tile, like no weight bearing whatsoever. He is lucky that when he falls through the ceiling that it is to the upper level of that library or he would be a dead man, right? If he had fallen the full two stories of the library, we wouldn't be seeing any more John Bender, but he is somehow aimed just right that he's able to land only 8 feet down and right.

Nic

Okay, and it's out of the sight of Vernon, so when he walks into the library, he doesn't notice that spot because it's, you know, up around the corner.

Steve

Yeah. Um, so Vernon hears a ruckus.

Nic

Yeah, so he comes in there and Bender, uh, you know, he's back with the group, and Vernon comes in and Bender gets under the table where Andy and Claire are sitting.

Steve

Correct.

Nic

And, uh, yeah, Vernon's, uh, "Uh, what was that ruckus?" And then I think it was Brian who says, "Uh, could you describe the ruckus, sir?" Yeah.

Steve

And then, and then, uh, uh, so we get a shot of what Bender sees, which is between, uh, Claire's legs, under her skirt, sees her underwear. And he goes and he puts his head basically between her knees. She initially gasps, but then clearly clamps her knees down on the side of his head, which makes him yelp out. Yes. And like, I think hit his head on the, the table. And they all are like, like coughing and like, you know, slamming the table, like make noises. And then one of them goes like, was that the ruckus that you were describing, sir? No, that was not the ruckus. But once again, they're all kind of— they're defending each other.

Nic

It is. I mean, it's becoming a unified group here, and we're just barely past lunch.

Steve

Yeah, exactly.

Nic

Uh, yeah, so, so Vernon leaves, and Bender says, all right, let's— oh, Vernon, uh, says something earlier before he took Bender to supply closet. Yeah, he's like, oh, you know, I bet you have dope. Like, what if I took your dope away? Basically, like, you don't care about anything in your life except for me. You're talking about family, I'll say dope or whatever. And he's like, oh, my dope's actually in Brian's, uh, pants right now.

Steve

It's possible, sir, it's in Brian's underwear right now. And then he asks Brian for his doobage.

Nic

Yes. Um, so we get it, we get a really fun scene of them like passing around the joint and smoking. A few highlights, uh, Brian Anthony Michael Hall at this age, probably the best drunk/high actor of all time between this, like, Weird Science and things. He is so funny and he doesn't get— he doesn't get time to really eat up the screen in this, but the little bits of him we get are good. For some reason, Emilio Estevez turns into Jim Cotta and starts doing— starts doing like somersaults and parkour down the hall and like doing all this Like the kind of hobby horse, like, what do they call it?

Steve

Like the, the, the, I don't know what they call it. It's like the horse, like the pommel horse jumps over the book stacks. Also though, before he gets to that, Andy does something that is so insane to me that I'm sure I never noticed before this watching, this viewing of this movie. He comes out of that like listening room or whatever he's in, right? Yeah. With the music starting and everything and he hotboxes the smoke and he takes another drag off of the joint he's got. It is still an inch long. And he just flicks it like a cigarette butt. Who flicks a roach? That's like— you can't do that.

Nic

That's good stuff in Illinois in 1984.

Steve

Yeah, Bender should kill him for that alone. Yeah.

Nic

And then, uh, and then, you know, maybe a slightly less ridiculous part, um, where they're jamming out to the music and, uh, Andy gets behind the glass in the music room and he screams and the glass just shatters.

Steve

Still very ridiculous. I don't know if we're supposed to believe he just yelled loud enough, 'cause it certainly wasn't, you know how a lot of times there's like a running gag, I think, I feel like especially when we were kids in entertainment of like an incredibly high pitch, like soprano's vocal, you know, like singing could shatter glass. But it had to do, as far as I remember, it had to do with the high pitch. And Andy is not a high pitched, does not have a high pitched voice. So I guess he's just supposedly loud enough to do it. Like what the hell would happen?

Nic

Just enough teen energy. You get enough weed into a wrestler. So this is, this is really fun. And it is like, as much of this movie is just kind of people sitting around talking, it's very realistic. Yeah, this takes us out of that. Yeah, you know, a little bit. Yeah, but I think it's nice because it— things got very heavy for a while.

Steve

Yeah, it's not enough that I would put this in the genre of fantasy films, like the way we do like with Groundhog Day, right? Is that like, you know, they're not fantasy like Dungeons Dragons, but they're like fantastical premises. Yeah, it's not that. We don't get to that level. Um, but it is, yeah, there's like, it's a part comic relief, part just sort of like, you can take a breath for a while. Um, and it's good because, you know, we do lead up soon to some heavier shit, including like right away, uh, Vernon's going through the faculty's confidential files, right? He's down in the basement, he's going through confidence for finding out about mental health problems of his colleagues and stuff, like really dirty shit. And that's when Carl walks in on him and be like, hey, how's it going, Dick? Like, you know, and, uh, they, you know, talk a little bit and basically Carl agrees to not rat him out for $50. Yeah, yeah, another indicator how well Carl's life is going for him.

Nic

Well, and Vernon is just trying to be the eyes and ears of the school like Carl is. He's just trying to do a little spying there. Yeah, um, they're— after they've smoked, uh, weed, they're all kind of going through each other's purses and wallets and everything. Yeah, and, uh, turns out Allison had stolen Brian's wallet because she comes out with all these details about him. Uh, this is a really funny detail of the movie is that Brian has a fake ID and they're like, this is the worst fake ID I've ever seen. It says you're 68 years old. What do you need a fake ID for? And he says, so I can vote.

Steve

Which is like admitting to voter fraud, buddy. Like, that's, you know, now we know why the SAVE Act is trying to make its way through Congress because of Brian and his, uh, and his fake ID. But yeah, 68 years old, I don't think it's going to work for him.

Nic

I don't think he's going to ask for that.

Steve

No, it reminds me actually, when I, when I, we saw, I saw that scene this time, it reminded me of, uh Superbad and the whole McLovin. You ever see Superbad? Yeah, the whole McLovin thing. And it was, you know, he made himself like 26. Why didn't you just do it 21? Why'd you have to make yourself like 28 years old or whatever it was? And he had an excuse for it, but it's like true. It's like, man, you really got to pay attention. You can't just pick a random year. No.

Nic

You know what I mean? Emilio has a line here where they're talking about, you know, your home life is unsatisfying. And he says, everyone's home life is unsatisfying, or we'd live with our parents forever. Yeah, it's such a great way of like how a teen would be looking at that kind of thing.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

Um, and he's bonding a little bit with Allison a little bit. Yeah, Andy and Allison are bonding a little bit. Um, Carl, I will say, with the scene where he's talking to Vernon, because Carl's kind of like chilling, they're having a couple old styles now. Yeah, yeah, right. They're having a couple beers.

Steve

He has the most Midwestern beer of all time. Like, it's really good.

Nic

He has a great, uh, 80s White Sox shirt on. Yeah, like the old school Tim Raines, Carlton Fisk, like just, uh, one of the best logos.

Steve

Yeah, yeah, for sure. Um, but yeah, like, uh, they're just, they're chilling out there, Carl and Vern, and basically Vern's trying to talk about how, oh, it's the kids that are failing us and they weep for the future and all that kind of crap. And Carl's like, man, you're an idiot. Like, this is, this is, you're just wrong. Like, like, this is what kids are. Kids have always been like this. Like, no, no, there's no way. And I'd love— there's a line where Vern goes, you know, I've keeps me up at night. These are the kids who are going to take care of me when I'm older. And Carl goes, wouldn't bet on it. Like, not the way you treat kids, dude.

Nic

Yeah. Yeah. So there's Carl kind of being a little more wise than the guy who's trying to get $50 to not tell about going through the files. So he, he's, he ebbs and flows a little bit.

Steve

With Carl, I think there's at least a little self-awareness that he is who he is and, and is trying to relive things or whatever, maybe, or like, you know, won't leave the school because of the comfort of him being there and then the memories of it. But I think he is self-aware enough to recognize that he's doing that. Yeah. And just, he's just okay with it for whatever reason. It's like, that's fine. That's just how I roll. But I think that gives him a little more kind of, you know, ability to look at other adults around and go, now, are you doing the same thing that I'm doing? And you're not self-aware about it?

Nic

He can definitely point that out.

Steve

Yeah. He can see himself in them, you know? And now we get to one of the most important scenes of the movie, really. So they are sitting on the floor. It looks like they're upstairs in the library. They've all clearly kind of come down off their highs, which is why I was saying about the weed wasn't that good because it clear— everybody's pretty, pretty clear-eyed at this point.

Nic

Yeah. It was like 20 minutes of the most high you've ever been.

Steve

Right.

Nic

And then kind of DMT or something.

Steve

I don't know what they did, but, but they are sitting there for 20 minutes. This scene takes place for, so it is, you know, about a 20th of, you know, about, about a fifth of the movie takes place in this scene. And the number of different topics that these kids go over in this time is pretty amazing. It starts off with, with, you know, what's the worst thing you'd do for $1 million? Like, really kind of your basic kind of a would you rather or whatever. And it just goes into more and more different things. They talk about sex and about virginity and like who has and who hasn't. And then Allison out of nowhere pops up and is like, I'll do anything sexual. I don't care. Yeah. And just, and everyone's like, what do you mean? And she talks about how she bangs her therapist. Yeah. And it was like, and everybody's kind of freaking out. Like, that is fucked up. Like, you, like, that's, that's terrible. He's taking advantage of you. And there's a line that Allison says here that I think I think is funny, but, but not haha funny. More like underscoring the misunderstanding of sex and consent that a lot of people have, especially young kids, which is why they get— they can get taken care of. Well, they get taken advantage of because horrible adults want to take advantage of them and try to, but a lot of times it happens because children don't have a really solid understanding of what consent is. Because she says, I don't think what he could do could actually be construed as rape because I paid him. Yeah, for the therapy session, right? But it's That is such an absolutely twisted concept around what is consent and what is, you know, actively like, you know, a normal sexual interaction. Right. Right. That it's kind of almost mind-blowing. So it's like funny in that, like, I didn't laugh out loud at it, but I was like, oh my gosh, she so misunderstands.

Nic

But she was making— do you think she was making a joke? Because I thought she was making that joke because then she admitted that she— that none of that happened.

Steve

Yeah. And that you could be sure you could be right. The way I read it was that she was— this was all part of the made-up part, and she was making it up because that is how she would understand it would have gone down if it had gone down. Like, that this was still within what she would see as real if what had actually happened had happened. She does later admit it was all made up. She's never— she's never done that. It was a way for her to, you know— she basically— Claire, uh, accuses her of like using it as a way to get Claire to admit that she's a virgin, right? And that maybe that was part of it. But I think that when everything that— the way I read it was everything Allison describes within her lie are things she thinks are actually her imagining how it would be if it was real. If it happened, this is what would have happened kind of thing. I could be wrong. It could have been a little, but it's, I feel like that would be a very higher order thinking for a teenager to really kind of understand the levels of quote joke they're telling there. You know what I mean?

Nic

Like, okay, to be ironic now, probably not happening in that moment. It's pretty advanced for someone who hasn't spoken yet in the movie.

Steve

We haven't got a lot of indication that she's like particularly be, you know, worldly with her thoughts necessarily, right?

Nic

So, but yeah, um, yeah, great scene here. Um, Claire admits that, that she's a virgin, right? And Allison says, you know, I, I am too. Like, I'm not a nympho, I'm a compulsive liar. Yeah, exactly. Uh, and they get into like what they did to— oh yeah, to end up in Saturday School. And Andy is talking about how, oh, I taped Larry Lester's butt cheeks together. Yeah. And, uh, and he was like, do you know him? And Brian was just— gave a very much like, yeah, I know, like, like, I heard this story from my friend. You piece of shit.

Steve

Exactly. He's already heard the other side.

Nic

Yeah. Um, and the way that Andy tells the story though is kind of showing a kid who learned— I mean, he knows he should never have done it in the first place, but is really realizing the impact of what he did to this kid because His whole thing was, I need to bully because my dad needs me to be tough. My dad needs me to be a champion. I'm pinning people even if I'm just talking to some fucking kid on the bus. Yeah, like everyone's my opponent. I need to defeat everybody, and I do that because of my dad, and my dad is the biggest influence on my life. Fuck, I sent this kid home and he has to tell his dad about that. Yeah, I've basically like created my nightmare for this kid, you just to do something that I don't want to do in the first place.

Steve

Yeah, it's— Andy is in the moment, it seems, discovering what empathy is. Yeah. And understanding that we need to view the world not only through our own eyes, but as much as we can through the eyes of the people around us. Yeah. And at least consider what does this mean for their life the way we're interacting with them, right? I mean, that's basic empathy. And he— it's an abject lesson. It's one that he won't soon forget. Andy, nor Larry Lester either. They're both going to remember this for the rest of their lives. And, you know, to see that, that is one of the most emotionally mature kind of, you know, moments in the film, I feel like, is Andy's description of this and the way he describes it. He's near tears. Doesn't quite break out in tears, but he is very near tears. Yeah. Talking about the influence his dad has over him. And like you said, the realization that Larry has a dad too. Yeah. He doesn't know anything about Larry's dad. He doesn't know how Larry's dad will react. Like, you know, I know that like if my son came home that way, like I would not, feel anything but love for my son and deal with it. But there are parents out there who would blame the kid. Well, if you weren't so weak, they wouldn't have done this to you. That kind of thing. Maybe that's what Larry Lester's dad is like. So there is a really radical sort of like maturity on display here by Andy when really in a lot of ways he did the most immature thing to get in there. Yeah. Right. I mean, I guess Claire's skipping school to shop is also not very mature, but the kind of sophomoric immaturity of action that Andy did is really kind of one of the main things that we see, you know, or one of the most childish things we see of what people— why people are here.

Nic

Well, the thing he did, there's no benefit. At least Claire goes and has a fun day.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

The thing he did is only for the purpose of doing that thing, right? Which gets, yeah, nothing for anybody except to say, hey. Oh, and, and Andy then starts talking about, you know, my dad only cares about my wrestling and everything. I sometimes I wish my knee would give. That's right. So he could just forget about me.

Steve

Yeah. Yeah.

Nic

Uh, which is so crazy. It's dark. Uh, and then Bender, you know, the, the true adult in the room chimes in with, uh, hey, I think your dad and my dad should go bowling together, which great way. If, and if you're ever in a real life moment of that kind of attention, that is the perfect type of thing to say where you're showing like, I understand, but also let's let a little air out of the room.

Steve

And I'm not going to make it about me. There's a way a lot of people try to commiserate with people who are sharing vulnerable things that ends up making it about them. Like, oh, well, I experienced this this to, right? Let me tell you about it, or whatever. Which is like, you know, the speaker feels like they're trying to relate, but the person who gave up the original story is now thinking, okay, now we'll talk about you instead. Yeah. But the way Bender did this was, I'm in the same boat as you, but he didn't put himself— he didn't center himself at all, right? He's just, hey, I think these two assholes, we both know, really like each other's story or anything like that. It was just like, it was a way to say, very nice, I'm similar. And again, again, Bender, best character in the movie. I never thought I would say that.

Nic

Let's see, we're talking about now, uh, special skills that they have for some reason. And Claire's— they're, you know, is there anything you could do that's special? And Claire's skill is that she holds her lipstick between her boobs and like puts it on. I think that's much of a—

Steve

like, Molly Ringwald doesn't— no offense to her, she doesn't have particularly large bosom. I don't think she could actually hold anything in between, like in her cleavage. But I think she like tucked it into like her bra sort of and then put it on her, right? Something like that. But you know, it's It's just interesting, like, yeah, party trick thing, whatever.

Nic

Um, and then, uh, he notices, uh, Bender notices, I think, Claire's earrings. She has these diamond earrings on, and again, now he's back in immature jealous, like, you have things I don't have, and he's lashing out at her and talking about, oh, those must be nice. Oh, what were they, a Christmas present?

Steve

You know, did you work a job to earn the money to buy those?

Nic

You know, yeah, he's going after her for it. You know, your parents just grant you everything. You know what Christmas was like in my house. And then he has this great speech about, you know, my dad gave me for Christmas a carton of cigarettes. Smoke up, Johnny.

Steve

Like, yeah.

Nic

And the anger that he has, every impression of his dad is just brutal.

Steve

It is, right? Yeah. And I'm sure well-earned. Yeah. Like, you know. But yeah, then I think it's Brian then gets into a little bit of a turn away from that topic where he starts asking, what's Monday going to be like? Yeah, right. We're all going to leave here today. Tomorrow, Sunday, like, whatever. But then Monday morning, we're all back at school. We're all back here together. Are we friends? Like, I think of you as my friends now. Like, are we friends? And this is one of the most heartbreaking sort of segments from here for a few minutes in the movie, because Claire— and, and there's an element here where you have Claire's— they yell at Claire, you're a bitch, because of what she says. And it is super shitty. It's also incredibly self-aware. She is absolutely saying to all of them what they're all thinking about the realities of social life in high school, which is I'm popular, you're not. My friends would never understand why I would even say hi to you. That's just going to keep being reality. Yeah. Like you don't understand what it means, what I have to do to maintain what I have. And it's obviously incredibly selfish. It is conceited. They say you're being so conceited and it's like, you know, she is, but she's also being incredibly pragmatic given the reality she finds herself in. Right. And I don't have to like it, but I can respect it that she is being so open and honest with that. Them about that and not just saying, oh yeah, of course, and then, you know, fucking talking behind his back or some shit later. Like, she's being incredibly open and honest about it. It's just a real shitty thing to be honest about.

Nic

It is. But she's also not saying it in a dismissive way. She's just like, yeah, you know, unfortunately, no, I am not going to talk to you next week, instead of like, ew. Right, fair. Like, it's, uh, yeah, she's realizing kind of how— which is the first step in improving, right, is just recognizing what the fuck is going on. Yeah. So hopefully that leads to some growth for Claire. But yeah, Brian is very upset by this, you know, and he's going around the room saying like, would you talk to me? And he's like, I wouldn't do this to any of you guys. Like, we're friends after today. Well, you're worried about what your friends would think if you said hi to me. He's like, my friends wouldn't care if I said hi to you. And then Claire, again, kind of going into a little less mature, says, well, your friends wouldn't mind because they look up to to us.

Steve

And that's just like, whoa. Which is, again, like, yeah, it's sort of like, it's wrong. It's not the reality, but it is also a little bit accurate in that the societal schism or strata of high school has placed her and her friends higher than him and his friends. And there is a reality of those above do not fraternize with those below, and those below don't mind fraternizing with those above in general. Obviously there are individuals that are different, but like, that's a reality. This was the kind of thing that I never really thought of. Of when I was watching this movie younger and now retrospecting so far with high school so far in the rearview, it's like, nope, that is absolutely accurate. That is how things were. Even I, you know, was not like a popular kid, but I had a lot of friends, a lot of different friend groups, the theater stuff, like whatever, you know, kind of like all over. There was definitely still a strata hierarchy at the time of like, no, if that person talked to me, I'd be interested because they are higher up than I am. Right. If there's this person way below me, it's like I would say hi, but like I don't I don't particularly care one way or another. Like, you know, I mean, there's an element of that, um, and it's super shitty, but it's super real for children, for high schoolers.

Nic

It's so hard to understand that shit while you're in it. Yes. It's like, damn it, if you could just have your 5 years older self advise you on high school and like, it would be a breeze, you know?

Steve

Help.

Nic

Yes. Oh my God. Yeah. And, um, it is nice like that there's this tension, that Claire is honest and it doesn't turn into like, yeah, of course, right? Like, we're—

Steve

let's go to fairy tale. Yeah, right, exactly. Yeah.

Nic

Uh, they're kind of talking now about what Brian did to get in there, or he offers this up. He's like, you know what I did? Which again, nobody's really asking him about himself in any way.

Steve

Exactly, yeah, which is another example of that strata thing, right? But yeah, he tells him he brought a gun to school. And this was hard to watch. This was something that this time watching it, it almost brought me to tears. 'Cause now thinking again as a parent, this was less about thinking back to my high school days and more about thinking ahead to my kids. Kids and thinking about how Brian's parents, if they're at all good people, which we see his mom is like angry at him for being in detention. She's angry about whatever, but she probably doesn't know the whole story about why he had the gun in the first place. I have to believe that if his parents had any idea that the pressure they were putting on him was close to driving him to suicide, that they would reevaluate their priorities. I have to believe that that's the case. It might not be, but like in my headcanon, Brian's parents are oblivious, not evil. For sure. You know? And so thinking about that and thinking about the pressure that all kids put on themselves, even before parents add more, is scary as hell. And so hearing him, and again, kudos Anthony Michael Hall, it's a well-acted scene of talking about, really, this is the best part, not talking about, it's in the moments and the silences between his sentences that are the most powerful and are the scariest as a parent because they're the things that your kids aren't saying that you really have to worry about. Stuff he shouldn't say as he's going through his head. Tense for me watching this. And I didn't— I don't remember ever being as affected by this speech as I was this time. And I think, again, because I have not seen this movie since I had kids and it's hard to watch. And Brian's admittance that he's that close to, you know, I can't get an F. Yeah, I can't. And if I get an F, even if I, you know, whatever, even though I live with the F, it drags my grade point average for the entire year down to a B. I can't have that. Yeah, my parents can't have that. He is fully convinced. His parents would rather he be dead than get an F. He believes that wholeheartedly. And that is horrifying and terrifying as a parent.

Nic

No, for sure. And that's a great thing to bring up. And I mean, this movie, a lot of the movie is about just the pressure or lack of interest that your parents show and like how that can trickle down to you. But yeah, be nice to your damn kids. Your kids are awesome. Your kids are beautiful. And it's fine what their grades are.

Steve

And life is fucking hard. And they're trying to figure it out. Exactly. And we're all trying to figure out there's no fucking There's no guidebook for parents. There's no guidebook for growing up. If you don't remember that from your own childhood, think about it again. Yeah, because they are all just doing their best to get through this world.

Nic

Absolutely. Absolutely. No, that's really important. Um, and so this is, this is a very heavy scene, but then Brian does say at the end of it, he was like, well, they're like, well, where did you get a gun? He's like, uh, it was, it was a flare gun. It went off in my locker. So then they're all kind of burned it out, you know.

Steve

That's funny.

Nic

So that's great.

Steve

And it really— I'm not even I don't know for sure, but I don't think you can kill yourself with a flare gun. I don't know. I guess in the side of the head could still do a lot of damage. Quickly.

Nic

You could, you could cause yourself to die in a very long and drawn out way.

Steve

I suppose that's true. Right. Yeah. It's not nearly as dangerous because I think it's Alice and asks, was it a handgun? He goes, no, it was a flare gun. It's like, you know, if it had been a pistol, clearly that is a killing machine, but a flare gun, yeah, it would have been harder to get that job done.

Nic

One thing, you know, one thing I just thought of now though, we kind of see this with with Brian's embellishment of his story, or like, you know, leaving out a very important detail. True. And with Allison, you know, kind of the way that these two characters who are kind of the least popular ones, the ones who don't get a lot of attention, respond to getting attention from the group. They're a little like— they're doing a little Enrico Palazzo a little bit, you know, like, let me ham up this story a little and, uh, and see where it goes. And then they realize, okay, well, let me pull it back, you know.

Steve

As soon as they get asked about it or pushed on any of it, they immediately revert to honesty. Yeah, yeah. Whereas I feel like Bill Bender consistently doubles down into whatever stance he's taking, right? And Brian and Allison are the opposite.

Nic

Um, okay, so we get this heavy scene and this wraps up, and it's really, it's really great. We got them dancing again.

Steve

Yes, another, uh, really goofy-ass dance montage, which I enjoy the shit out of, and one that's been like, you know, recreated by, uh, by comedy troupes and different groups and on TV shows. It's really, it's a very, very classic moment and really necessary after that 20 minutes of sitting on that chair on the floor with them and ending with Brian's conversation about nearly committing suicide, we really needed to like take a breath and like have something just clean and palate cleansing happen. So this whole dance sequence, I think really is meant to be that before we kind of wrap the movie up.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

And so it's, but that I feel like was the climax. I feel like the conversations about what'll happen on Monday and Brian's thing and Allison being close to like all that is the kind of the climax of the movie. And we're into Denouement more than anything else else at this point.

Nic

Yeah. So yeah, um, and I remember when I, when I first saw this, so there's a scene of Claire with Allison like, oh, let me, let me make you pretty. And then the way she makes her, I'm like, I liked her before. I thought she looked better before. This is kind of a weird look on her. Um, but she puts makeup on Allison, and then they also— this is shitty too. This is kind of, uh, pushing me more towards nobody learned any lessons. Okay, because They're like, hey, you know, Vernon wanted us to write an essay, but really, what's the point in all of us writing an essay? Hey, nerd, write our fucking essay for us. And then Brian has to, you know, we're going to go hook up. Why don't you write this essay for us, you fucking dork?

Steve

I don't disagree with you, but I do. I will point out Claire asked him initially, Brian, you're going to do the essay no matter what, aren't you? And he goes, yeah, I'm writing something like he was not going to leave without writing it. So he's like, could you just like write something about all of us instead? He's like, yeah, okay. I mean, that's essentially how it played out. I get what you're saying. I did think that too, but then I also was kind of like, he really was gonna write that essay one way or another. And he doesn't— he's not the kind of person that gives a shit what effort other people are putting into. Yeah, he's doing what he's told to do, and that's all that matters. That makes sense. So I don't think he minds.

Nic

And it's realistic too that like whatever, whatever evolution results from this day that these characters had together, they're not fully changed. Oh yeah, by the end of the day. Absolutely. It's not transformative. Brian's still gonna do Brian shit. They're all, yeah, gonna do their stuff. Yeah. Um, yeah, so Brian, uh, Brian's gonna write the essay, and there's a cool like voiceover of him reading the essay, which is not a— not a thousand words at all.

Steve

Um, no, not close.

Nic

And we have the students, uh, getting picked up now. Yes. So we've got Claire and Bender have kind of had a little romance. She gives him his diamond earring.

Steve

Really? Uh, quite something. It's almost like, uh, I feel like that is the rich girl version of handing over the Letterman jacket, right?

Nic

Yeah. Yes, totally. Her custom chopsticks and her diamond earring. Those chopsticks were nice. They were, they were good. She better bring those home. Don't throw those out. Um, yeah, so they're all getting, uh, picked up and stuff. And I think the last scene we get is, uh, is Bender walking across the football field and does like a big fist in the air like celebration.

Steve

It's a little corny.

Nic

And the song starts up.

Steve

It's a little corny.

Nic

Yeah, we do get more of these. He like jumped super high and did it. So in reality, all he does is throw a fist up.

Steve

That's much better. Yeah, the jumping would have been much worse. It's not Dragon Dragon Ball Z, you know, like, um, one thing I wanted to point out in this scene is, um, you know, Brian was— everybody's getting picked up by the same people that dropped them off, essentially. Yeah, Brian is— was dropped off by his mom and his little sister and picked up by a man, his dad, right? Yeah. Do you know who that was? That was John Hughes.

Nic

Oh, was it?

Steve

Yeah, John Hughes driving a car. And I feel like there's a moment where I, I want to imagine there's a moment where John Hughes, like, the actress who played the mom had to like leave, or like he needed to do a pickup shot like we didn't quite get that, and now we're not going to bring that actress back. I'll just get in the car. But yeah, but he's uncredited in the role as Brian.

Nic

Oh, that's so funny. Oh man.

Steve

Wow.

Nic

What a—

Steve

what a, uh, it's Breakfast Club.

Nic

What a film.

Steve

Yeah, good stuff.

Nic

It's a good one.

Steve

Yeah, very much. You want to, uh, you want to give us your wrap-up?

Nic

Yeah, let me, let me give my wrap-up. Uh, actually, I got a little factoid, uh, which I should have dropped earlier, but the actual ages in real life of the different actors when this movie was filmed here. Okay, we got Anthony Michael Hall, age 16.

Steve

Oh wow, okay.

Nic

Uh, Molly Ringwald, age 16. Okay. Emilio Estevez was like 21 or 22. Okay, turned 22 during filming. Ally Sheedy, 21, and Judd Nelson, 24. Wow, okay.

Steve

Um, that makes a lot more sense now that in the same year those three, the ones who were 20-plus, older in St. Elmo's Fire where they played 20-somethings, right? Like post-college, I think, even, right? So not surprising then that Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall did not make it into that movie. Yeah, would have been odd.

Nic

Yeah, totally. So this holds up for me. I mean, I thought I enjoyed watching this a lot. I really cared about the characters. I thought this was a great conversation and getting to get into like high school psychology and the effect that your parents have on you and the effect that your peer groups and like the different social stratas of high school and like this encapsulates that really well. And even though this movie is 40 years old, I think this is still relevant. Um, I think all the themes here still hold up. I think all the character types are still out there.

Steve

Yep.

Nic

Um, I think, uh, yeah, man, I don't know what to pick apart too much about this movie. I really did— the supporting cast, uh, Carl and Vernon, were great. Uh, this is a 4 out of 5 for me. This this is very enjoyable. I think I'd watch this again, you know, 5 years from now or so. And, uh, I got a lot from it, and I got a lot from this conversation. And it helps kind of like bouncing those ideas off each other as we kind of try to understand this movie as like mid-40s people who have kids or are going to have kids that age.

Steve

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, for that, I think, you know, it's funny enough, I'm actually right, kind of right where, where you are. Uh, I'll go ahead and just say I'm also a 4 out of 5 on this movie. I think for me there is, uh, there is so much that's still relatable. There's some stuff that doesn't hold up. You know, there's an F-slur near the beginning of the movie that I almost always knock the movie down a little. Yeah, it's like there's— well, actually there's two because there's that and then Andy actually calls him.

Nic

Oh, that's right.

Steve

So, you know, don't love that stuff, but that is of its time. I'm not going to like freak out about that. But, you know, it does maybe knock down from any kind of perfect level, right? We have stuff like that because it makes it harder for me to want to share with my kids and stuff like that. But in general, this is still an incredibly poignant movie. It's incredibly well acted by a group of relatively young, as you just pointed out, maybe not as young as they seem in the movie, but, you know, relatively young actors. You know, Hughes at his height as far as writing goes. I mean, really wonderfully scripted movie as well. And, you know, how do you not like Paul Gleason as the heavy, right? If that guy ever gets to— whenever he's the villain in something, it's fun. Yeah, it's quality. One of our faves. Absolutely. So, yeah, I'm also a 4 out of 5 on The Breakfast Club. That makes us 8 out of 10. And, you know, I think that's perfect. This is absolutely a great movie. If you have not seen The Breakfast Club in a long time, go back and check it out. I think especially if like Nic and I, you kind of are at a different stage of life than the last time you saw it, maybe it could really— there are perspectives you can take on this movie that would never have occurred to you if you just— if you last saw it when you were like in high school or college or something like that. Yeah. So there you go.

Nic

All right. Well, Steve, we're moving through the '80s. We are. You're up next here. This was 1985, right? So two dads, two decades.

Steve

Moving on to 1986. And you know what? We are going to stay very close to this movie. Okay. As it turns out, and I got to be honest, I didn't really plan this out. We were kind of going through and picking different years and stuff. And I immediately saw the reminder that this particular movie came out in '86 and just, and I penciled it in right away. And as it turns out, it's another written and directed by John Hughes. We are going to see Shermer High School again. Okay. Not nearly as much. The movie takes place in lots of different scenes and in settings. But yeah, we're going to go to 1986 and we are going back to suburban Chicago and then to the city itself because we are going to take a day off with Ferris Bueller. Okay. Matthew Broderick, Alan Ruck, Mia Sara, written and directed by John Hughes. This movie was for a while, this was like one of my favorite movies of all time. We saw Ghostbusters, I think last week. Yeah. And there was a time when that was literally my favorite movie at a point in my life. Ferris Bueller maintained a top 5 position for for me for a lot of my life. I wouldn't put it there now necessarily. I mean, we'll see after I watch it again, but, but there was a time when I could have quoted most of this movie by heart, and it really is just such a special piece of, of sort of like '80s teen comedy culture, in my opinion.

Nic

Nice. All right.

Steve

Very cool. All right. So that's a wrap. And if you like what you hear, please head on over to Apple or Spotify and send us a 5-star review. It really helps new people find the show. You can check out our website @twodads1movie.com. That's the number 2 and the number 1. There you can sign up for an account, sign up for our newsletter, The Rewind, explore the movies that we've covered, and get sneak previews of upcoming episodes. We'd also love it if you followed us on Instagram @twodads1movie. Once again, this has been The Breakfast Club, another episode of Two Dads, One Movie.

Nic

I'm Steve.

Steve

And I'm Nic. Thank you so much for listening, and we'll catch you next week.

Nic

Thanks, everyone.