Summary
Written and directed by John Hughes, The Breakfast Club opens with a credit sequence set to the song “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” by Simple Minds. Set at Shermer High School, in Shermer, Illinois on March 24, 1984, the narrative begins with a voiceover of Brian narrating an essay to Vice Principal Vernon. Brian discusses the way he and several other students saw themselves at the beginning of their Saturday detention: as stereotypes, just as Vernon sees them. Behind the voiceover are shots of the empty school.
The scene cuts back to the morning, as each of the Saturday detention students is dropped off by their parents. John Bender (played by Judd Nelson) walks up on his own; he is wearing sunglasses. The students assemble at 7 a.m. Vice Principal Richard Vernon (Paul Gleason) tells them they may not talk, move, or sleep for the duration of their eight-hour detention.
Vernon passes out paper and pencils, informing the students they must write a 1,000-word essay on the subject of “who you think you are.” Bender puts his feet on the table. He asks if Barry Manilow knows that Vernon raids his wardrobe. Bender is told he’ll get the answer next Saturday. Vernon leaves the students in the middle of the library.
When Allison Reynolds (Ally Sheedy) loudly chews her nails, Bender says if she eats her hand she won’t be hungry for lunch. Bender stares down at Brian Johnson (Anthony Michael Hall) when he tries to empathize with him about how much it sucks to be there. Bender pretends to urinate under his desk. The wrestling jock, Andrew Clark (Emilio Estevez), tells him to knock it off.
Bender jokes that they should lock the doors and “knock up” the prom queen, Claire Standish (Molly Ringwald). Claire says they should just ignore Bender because he’s trying to get a rise out of them. Bender says she couldn’t ignore him if she tried. Bender asks if Andrew gives “the hot meat injection.” They shout at him to go to hell.
Claire tells Bender that Bender isn’t involved in any “activities” or clubs at school because he’s afraid of being rejected. Claire defends the popular kids’ clubs that she and Andrew take part in on the grounds they are social clubs. Brian says he’s in several clubs, including math and physics. Bender says the academic clubs are inherently “social” despite being for dorks. Andrew tells everyone to stop talking because Vernon is going to come back in, and he doesn’t want to miss his upcoming wrestling meet.
When Vernon leaves his adjacent office, going out to the hall to drink from the fountain, Bender gets up and removes something from the door that must be open for Vernon to see them from his office. The others shout at him not to mess with school property.
Vernon comes in demanding to know who closed it. The others don’t give up Bender, who says he thinks a screw fell out. Vernon demands that Bender give him the screw. Bender says he doesn’t have it. Vernon tries to prop the door open while Bender says it would be a fire code violation to have boxes blocking their exit.
Vernon gives up, saying the next screw to be knocked loose will be Bender. Bender tells Vernon, “Eat my shorts.” Vernon tells him he’ll have further Saturday detentions. He keeps adding the detentions on as Bender dares him to keep going.
Analysis
In the opening shots of The Breakfast Club, Hughes establishes the setting where the entirety of the film will take place: Shermer High School, located in the fictional town of Shermer, Illinois. With the voiceover in which Brian recites several lines of his essay for Vice Principal Vernon, Hughes subtly introduces one of the conflicts to be explored in the film: Dismissed by authority figures and fellow students as mere teenage stereotypes, the students struggle to see themselves the complex people they really are.
Hughes introduces the major theme of authoritarianism with Vernon’s condescending, heavy-handed address to the students. By placing unreasonable strictures on the students as they serve their all-day detention, Vernon betrays his true insecurity: Behind his tough, authoritarian demeanor, he knows he doesn’t have the respect of the students; thus, Vernon overcompensates by trying to strike fear into the hearts of the teenagers.
While Vernon embodies the theme of authoritarianism, John Bender represents the counterpoint theme of rebellion. Despite Vernon’s attempts at intimidation, Bender is flippant with Vernon, undermining his authority by poking fun at the man’s out-dated dress sense. With this early interpersonal conflict, Hughes establishes the struggle for dominance that characterizes Vernon’s and Bender’s relationship. For each character, the other provokes resentment—another of the film’s major themes.
The theme of social division arises once Vernon leaves the main room in which the students must serve their detention. Disobeying Vernon’s demand to not speak, Bender immediately begins provoking the other students. Through their hostile dialogue, Hughes shows that the students belong to distinct cliques within Shermer High: Brian is a nerd, Allison is a social outcast, Bender is a “burner” (drug user), Andrew is a wrestling jock, and Claire is a rich popular girl. While it seems that none of the students have much in common, the film will show the students coming to understand that there are emotional commonalities that lie beneath their superficial differences.
The theme of rebellion arises again when Bender sees an opportunity to further undermine Vernon’s authority while simultaneously securing some freedom and privacy for himself and the other students. With Vernon out of his office, Bender sabotages the mechanism that keeps the office door propped open. In a small but significant act of solidarity, none of the other students give Bender away to Vernon. Instead, they feign ignorance and implicitly side with Bender, despite their hostility toward him. This show of a united front against Vernon foreshadows the greater solidarity the students will develop amongst themselves.
