When Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick) wakes up, he knows that he doesn't want to go to school. He's ready to take a day off and stop to take a look around. If you don't, life just might pass you by. But in order to do that, he has to convince his parents that he's sick enough to stay home, but not sick enough to go to the doctor.
In order to do that, Ferris gives us his plan. He's going for the clammy hands. While he's bent over from coughing, he licks the palms, which gives them the wet feeling. He also gives us a point-by-point on-screen blow of why not to go for a fever (you might end up at the doctor's office). Which is a little odd, really, because the on-screen thing isn't used elsewhere. But it works, and his parents head to work and he has the day off. Now he just has to get through it.
The first task is to get his friend Cameron Frye (Alan Ruck) to come over and pick him up. The reason being is that Ferris doesn't have a car. So after a few phone calls, Cameron is finally on his way. This gives Ferris time to set up his home in case anyone comes to the door. He has a tape on time-delay if anyone rings the doorbell, and a mannequin and trophy as a counterweight so that if anyone looks in his room, it looks like there is a body in the bed.
The only real problem with this is that he has a snoring sound going in his room. I'm not sure how his snoring can be going, along with the doorbell tape. Perhaps he has more than one tape deck. It's never really mentioned, and we don't see a detailed layout of his stereo system. We'll let that slide.
When Cameron shows up, it's time to get Sloane Peterson (Mia Sara) out of school. She's Ferris' girlfriend, so Ferris needed Cameron. While Cameron calls in to have Sloane dismissed, Ferris gets ready. You see, Ed Rooney (Jeffrey Jones) is onto Ferris, and he suspects that it's Ferris on the phone so he starts berating him about it not really being a dead grandmother. So just about then Ferris calls in on the other line. That does the trick, and Mr. Rooney is very apologetic, getting Sloane out to meet them. Now they just need a car.
Cameron has a car, but he doesn't have a nice car. So they go back over to Cameron's house and get the Ferrari. Not just any Ferrari. A 1961 Ferrari, with just over 100 miles on it. It's Cameron's father's prized possession. Probably more than Cameron himself. Somehow Ferris gets it out of the garage and they're off to the school to pick up Sloane.
They head downtown, and leave the car at a garage, but Cameron isn't too keen on this idea. Ferris thinks that if they slip the guy a $5, it will be fine, and everything looks good. But as they are walking away, the parking attendant and his buddy head out the other side. I hope the car is okay when they get back!
Meanwhile, Ferris has made plans at Chez Quis - if you say it out loud you get "Shakeys", which is a pizza place in some parts of the country. Here, however, it's a fancy French restaurant, and in a classic bit of tomfoolery Ferris manges to get past the stuffy host by pretending to be Abe Froman, the sausage king of Chicago. On their way out, however, they have another problem - it seems that Ferris' dad was eating at the same restaurant! Slipping into the taxi just before his, they make it out just in time.
On the prowl for Ferris, Mr. Rooney thinks that he's caught him in a pizza place, but it's really just a girl in a similar leather jacket, and he gets cola squirted on him. Too bad, because as he's cleaning up, he could see Ferris on the television set, catching a foul ball at an afternoon Cubs game. After the game, Cameron says that he hasn't done much, so Ferris takes it upon himself to make sure Cameron has some fun. He takes over a float in the parade and sing Danke Schoen and a rousing rendition of Twist and Shout, at which point Cameron sure seems to be having a great time.
Then it's getting time to head home, so they go to the garage and pick up the car, only to see that it has two hundred miles on it! Cameron goes into a sort of state of shock, so the three head to Sloane's house, and sit at the pool. That's when Cameron falls head-first into the pool and Ferris has to dive in to save him, but when he comes up, he seems better. He just had to come to grips with things. They had back to Cameron's and set up the car in reverse to get rid of all those extra miles. Unfortunately they don't come off, and then he just loses it.
I mean he really loses it. He starts beating the car. When he does, the jack that's under the car loses its balance and the car goes flying into the ravine. It's a lot worse than a couple hundred extra miles now. His dad will be furious. But Cameron seems to have turned a corner, and he's ready for the heat this is going to bring down on him.
At this point, Ferris is ready to head home, because the time is getting short, so he starts running. Along the way, he runs into his sister Jeanie (Jennifer Grey), fresh from the police station, who wants to catch him before he gets home, so the race is on. Ferris cuts across yards while Jeanie speeds down residential streets and through stop signs.
Once he makes it home, Ferris is greeted by none other than Mr. Rooney, who has the spare key, and isn't going to let Ferris inside. That's when Jeanie opens the door, and lets him inside with a wink of her eye. For Mr. Rooney, she tells him to get lost - and offers him his wallet, which he left in the house earlier. She tosses it out, and the dog takes off after Mr. Rooney. It's going to be an even longer day for him. Ferris rushes upstairs and gets in bed just as his mom and dad get there. He even has time to toss his foul ball at the snoring sound and shut it off, just in time.
The Bottom Line: A great coming-of-age romp through Chicago. Not particularly believable for a college senior to be able to pull off everything that he does, but still quite entertaining to watch the film, and except for the almost non-stop barrage of language, including at least one f-bomb, it would be entertaining for the whole family. As it is, probably best left to the older kids.
Rated PG-13 for pervasive language.
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