the Usual Breakfast Club Suspects

[evenwolf]

------begin tongue in cheek------ do not read if you missed Usual Suspects.-------

Cracked published this article which proposes alternate realities for many beloved films.  One of the most interesting proposals is this one:

# 4.   Ferris Bueller's Day Off Was All in Cameron's Head

Cameron creates Ferris in his mind. Ferris is the total opposite of Cameron: he's fun, spontaneous and has a loving family and foxy girlfriend. At the beginning of the film, the imaginary Ferris convinces a bed-ridden Cameron to "borrow" his dad's Ferrari 250 GT California and cruise all over Chicago. Given Cameron's crushing social incompetence, it's likely that Sloane is fictional too and represents a girl that he has a crush on.

Read more...

Let's face reality.  John Hughes is not known for having psychological twists in his movies.   Obviously any evidence you can muster to prove the point "Ferris exists in Cameron's head" was not what the author intended.  

Now that I've made my case I'd like to introduce a radical new theory.  I came up with this theory an hour ago and it is mindblowing.  I've already rewatched this movie 4 times since then and its exploded my brain each time with deeper levels of meaning.

The film the Breakfast Club is about a group of 5 misfits (a brain, a beauty, a jock, a rebel and a recluse) who are detained together but only one is left to tell his captor the story.   The theory is this:   Anthony Michael Hall's character is the mastermind.  This mastermind is perceived by his captor as a weakling but in fact he IS the Breakfast Club.  The ENTIRE Breakfast Club.   At the end of the movie his captor reads a note written by him where he admits HE IS THE BREAKFAST CLUB!!  HE WAS ALL OF THEM the whole time!

Tagline for Usual Suspects: "Five Criminals . One Line Up . No Coincidence"

Tagline for Breakfast Club: "Five strangers with nothing in common, except each other."






Remember the ending for Usual Suspects?  Mere coincidence?  Obviously there was only ONE person in detention the entire movie!    And I'm not even sure what movie I'm talking about any more!  

[GarageGothic]

I heard the Ferris Bueller theory somewhere before, and I think at least on an archetypal structure level it's totally true that Ferris represents a suppressed side of Cameron's personality (reminds me also of the Metaphilm's Calvin & Hobbes/Fight Club theory). Not sure I would go so far as to say the story didn't happen, but there's surely a bunch of Freudian stuff going on.

The Breakfast Club theory, on the other hand, I'm not sure I get the point of the Usual Suspects comparison. Are you saying that none of the events happened, and that the other characters are figments of Anthony Michael Hall's imagination - which isn't really what happened in Usual Suspects. Or that he somehow manipulates the others to do his bidding? I'd love to hear more evidence if you can find it.

If you enjoy this kind of (over-)analyzing of films I strongly urge you check out Metaphilm if you don't know it already. Always a joy to read, and even when you disagree you still usually learn something new.

[evenwolf]

----end tongue in cheek----


I suppose there will be a few discrepancies.  Let me back to you after the 5th viewing with a thorough analysis!    jk!!

You did watch the youtubes?


-edit-
Seriously though, while referring to my theory please use the full name "Usual Breakfast Club Suspects" theory.  Or people might get confused.   By the way I am completely hammered.

[GarageGothic]

You did watch the youtubes?

Well, yes, but are you sure that the final clip - using the Usual Suspect analogy - doesn't rather prove that Judd Nelson was in fact the mastermind?  :o

[Anian]

Not starting an argument or anything, but I read all of this as:
you basically apply the Fight club/C&H (though probably it's been done before, but just for clearness sake) twist to Usual suspects and Breakfast club?
All in all you're applying multiple split personallity to each movie and that's what you call "radical theory"?

[GarageGothic]

Speaking of alternate readings of 1980's teen movies, when I get around to watching it again I really have to do a write-up of my hypothesis that The Goonies is actually a metaphor for a young boy's discovery of masturbation (searching for the treasure of One-Eyed Willie, how more blatant can you get?). Seriously, try watching the film with that in mind - the scene where they break the penis off the statue and glue it back on the wrong way gets a whole new meaning.

[tzachs]

After reading your posts, I've realized that I've got a theory on my own about fight club. So I quickly went and viewed the movie 3 times, and I'm sure that my theory is flawless.

If you haven't seen it, stop here!


Basically, you know how Eduard Norton & Brad Pitt are really the same guy?
Well, I claim that they are really two different people! Pitt just screwed with Norton's mind, making him believe he has multiple personalities so that he would take the fall. Watch the movie again, all the clues are there!

[Anian]

Basically, you know how Eduard Norton & Brad Pitt are really the same guy?
Well, I claim that they are really two different people! Pitt just screwed with Norton's mind, making him believe he has multiple personalities so that he would take the fall. Watch the movie again, all the clues are there!

Did he show a picture of Norton to everybody he ever met and told them to speak to that guy like he's Durden?
Also in the book, there are some...let say dream sequences, that make it sort of clear it's the same guy. Also the book has a slightly different ending which shows it.

Although if someone made film like that and then twist it so you think they're the same person but then twist it...would be an interesting way to, but it has been done less directly (like some framing a murder plot etc.).

[TerranRich]

I love threads like these!

My favorite over-analysis is the Back to the Future trilogy, but nothing more complicated than saying that they were all made with each other in mind (which of course has been debunked by the creators of the film). People used to love claiming that they could see BTTF2 Marty skulking around in the BTTF1 movie...which would've been mind-blowing and totally awesome.

I also like to claim that the 2009 Star Trek movie took place in not only an alternate timeline (after Nero goes back to the 2230s), but an alternate universe as well, where technology developed slightly differently (Nokia still exists, flashy viewscreens, slightly different uniforms, etc.), people look a bit different, and events happened only slightly differently from what we knew (Checkov being slightly older than he should've been, the crew coming together all at once instead of a few at a time, etc.). It's entirely possible that Nero, when he traveled through that black hole, crossed to another universe as well as another time period.

[Ali]

Gladiator is exactly like a baseball movie, except more boring because no one is playing an electric organ.

[GarageGothic]

@Ali: That's exactly when I said when I watched it!!!! Except the fucked it up in the final act by letting him lose the team - which really disappointed me.

[LimpingFish]

My favorite over-analysis is the Back to the Future trilogy, but nothing more complicated than saying that they were all made with each other in mind (which of course has been debunked by the creators of the film). People used to love claiming that they could see BTTF2 Marty skulking around in the BTTF1 movie...which would've been mind-blowing and totally awesome.

I've never heard that before, but I did learn that the storyline in Futurama where...

Spoiler

Nibbler turns out to have been around in 1999, and was responsible for nudging Fry's chair so it would tip him over into the cryogenic tube, ensuring Fry would exist in the year 3000 so he could stop a plot by the brain creatures to destroy the universe...and that the creators admited that they had planned for this reveal all along, and that Nibbler's shadow is visible on the wall during that scene in the very first episode.

[close]

And it is!

[Calin Leafshade]

Sometimes I like muffins for breakfast and other times I prefer cereal..

It's funny how life turns out in the end.

[TerranRich]

LimpishFish: That is awesome! Now I gotta re-watch the first episode!

[Matt Frith]

I had to check out that Futurama episode after that statement.  Needless to say my mind = blown.

[evenwolf]

After reading your posts, I've realized that I've got a theory on my own about fight club. So I quickly went and viewed the movie 3 times, and I'm sure that my theory is flawless.

Absolutely brilliant!   You are right on the money sir!