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Mistakes

When Vernon is in the basement files and Carl walks in, the card in the drawer is tilted and it stays this way for a few shots. In the next shot, the card is straight, but in the shot after that, it is tilted again. See more...

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John Hughes, the director, originally wanted John Cusak to play Judd Nelson's bad boy role. He finally gave in when he realized that John didn't look "tough enough". See more...

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The Breakfast Club (1985) - 20 corrections

Directed by John Hughes, starring Ally Sheedy, Anthony Michael Hall, Emilio Estevez, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, Paul Gleason (add more)

Genres: Comedy, Drama

Comments made in brackets are corrections from other visitors. To submit your own corrections for mistakes, just click "edit" under an entry, then choose "correct entry". You can also submit corrections for corrections, if you think a mistake has been unfairly removed.

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During the scene where Mr. Vernon asks for Andrew's help in putting the magazine rack in the doorway, he tells Andrew to be careful of the magazines when crossing back. Naturally Andrew slips and crushes some of the magazines. However, all Andrew had to do was use the adjacent door. Even if it was locked from Andrew's end, Mr. Vernon could have pushed it open for him on his end. [Character mistake.]
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In the scene where Andrew and Bender are about to get into it, Bender pulls out a switchblade, and stabs it into a nearby chair. The shot goes back to Andrew, and then goes back to Bender. In this shot, the switchblade is not stabbed into the chair. [Absolutely wrong. You see Allison Reynolds' (Ally Sheedy) hands reach into frame and take the knife.]
Edit
At the beginning of the movie, Brian reads the beginning of his essay/letter to Vernon. It reads like this: Dear Mr. Vernon, we accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did wrong. But we think you're crazy to make us write an essay telling you who we think we are. What do you care? You see us as you want to see us. In the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain. The question, "What do you care?", disappears at the end of the movie when he reads it again, yet it's supposed to be the same essay he writes at the end of day. [There are actually a lot more differences in the two versions of the essay than just that. It's definitely intentional and purposeful that he is not saying the same thing and not a continuity error.]
Edit Corrected by Myridon
In the shot where the principal is talking to John in the closet, he takes off his suit coat. When he leaves the closet you see him pick something up (I think the coat) and he's wearing it when he's in the bathroom. When the shot goes back to John escaping, it shows John's jean jacket and a suit coat just like the one the principal has lying next to it. If he took his coat then why is another coat left there? I doubt he had two on. [Bender was wearing a trenchcoat over top of his jean jacket. That's the '2nd' jacket you are refering to.]
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When John Bender (Judd Nelson) is in the gym shooting hoops and the teacher (Dick) comes in, Bender is wearing a white tennis shoe on his left foot and a black boot on his right foot. His white shoe comes off and is left in the gym so he's then only wearing one black boot on his right foot. The next time you see him and for the rest of the movie he is wearing black boots on both his feet. Where did the left black boot come from? [Watch closely when Bender tries to get around Dick (excuse me, Rich) to leave the gym and return to the library. He makes a "fake out" sort of move, toying with the teacher, and picks up his second boot and jacket as he does so.]
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Why is there a piece of wood covering the front of the table that Molly and Emilio were sitting at but there aren't pieces covering the fronts of the tables that the other kids are sitting at? I know that Judd Nelson hides underneath the table later on in the movie, but still, it looks like a piece of wood was just attached to the front of the table at the last minute or something---it doesn't look natural. [There's nothing wrong with having a piece of wood on the front of a table. Nothing says there can't be.]
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A Shermer High School newspaper is shown with the headline "Clarke Sparks Grapplers." In the credits at the end of the film, Andrew's last name is spelled Clark. [So the newspaper made a typo - a mistake within the "world" of the movie, not a mistake (necessarily) of the filmmakers.]
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Following the scene where Bender shoves the "wad" down Brian's pants, we see him running past rows of lockers. As the camera aims to show the angle of the hallway, he heads towards a full-dark window. This isn't possible, since the detention was held during the daytime. [The window you are talking about is a window to another room, not an outside window. ]
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Molly Ringwald's hair changes styles in just about every shot. [She could have easily pushed it away or shaken her head. It isn't fixed with hair spray.]
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After Claire gives Allison a makeover, Allison is wearing different clothes. Where did the clothes come from? Did they go shopping in the middle of detention? [The skirt was worn by Allison since the beginning, the belt was from Claire, and the white shirt was either in Alison's bag, worn underneath all her black stuff (it is winter, after all).]
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The door to the library is closed and Vernon is in his office across the hall, so why can't he hear the music blasting from the library during the music and dancing scene? [During the dancing/music scene, Vernon is downstairs with Carl in the basement, looking through files and talking. Therefore, he wouldn't hear the music.]
Edit Corrected by LuMaria
In the scene where the five are running through the halls trying to dodge the principal, they run past a window where it is full-on dark. Since the detention took place on a Saturday morning and afternoon, there is no way this could have actually happened. [At least one of the scenes with the dark window is correct because the window was NOT an exterior window. You can see that it is simply a window to another room in the school. This would be dark since the lights would not be on.]
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In the scene where Bender is in the gym shooting baskets, the teacher kicks the ball and Bender jumps out of one of his sneakers. You can see him slip the shoe off before he jumps out of it. [This is not a mistake, he leaves the sneaker purposely.]
Edit Corrected by Sol Parker
Towards the end of the movie Allison reveals that she's attending the detention simply because she has nothing better to do. This was probably done to emphasize her being a loser with no life, but it's ludicrous in realistic terms. Vernon would have surely had a list of the students scheduled for detention, and would have immediately realized that one extra student was there who had no business being there. And as far as I know there is no High School that would allow a student to sit through a detention session just for the fun of it. [Allison also states she is a compulsive liar.][Vernon didn't know her name either, it's possible that she wasn't supposed to be there and he didn't care.]
Edit Corrected by Sereenie
The time on the clock in the hall is way different from when the troublemaker guy runs down the hall than the on the clock in the gym when we see him a second later shooting basketballs. [When the janitor/custodian first talks to the group he mentions that the library clock is fast 20 minutes. This could explain the discrepancy between the library clock and the gym clock.]
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In the scene where Bender escapes from the closet, he is shown crawling above a drop-ceiling, eventually falling through. Bender shouldn't have been able to crawl as far as he did because a drop-ceiling would never support his weight. [Not true. If he was careful to maintain his weight on the support struts, and carefully distributed across his feet and hands, many drop ceilings would support his weight readily. It was putting all his weight onto one of the tiles that was the kiss of death.]
Edit Corrected by Rooster of Doom
In the scene where John, Brian and Claire are talking about virgins, the last shot of Brian you can hear dogs barking in the background. [Fair enough but it isn't really a mistake-there could well have been dogs barking outside the school.]
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There is a scene where the janitor catches the principal looking through the confidential files. The label on the front of the file drawer is first aligned correctly, then it is angled and sticking out of its holder, and then it is properly aligned again. [There are two different drawers open: the one by the janitor and the one by the principal. Only one has a crooked label, the other is fine.]
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How does John Bender get back up into the ceiling from the library? [He could easily have gone up to the top floor of the library and piled up a couple of tables. The ceiling isn't that much higher than the top floor, and he is seen to be quite a good climber.]
Edit Corrected by Shay
In the scene where the gang is running through the halls trying to get back to the library, there is a close up of their feet and you see that Bender has two black shoes, but later when he is in the gym his left shoe is now white. [He changes it. When Vernon finds him in there and drags him out you can see his other shoe (the black one) off to the side.]
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