Ferris Bueller Took His Crazy Day Off 30 Years Ago Today
Alan Ruck and Matthew Broderick playing ball in ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’ (Paramount)
On this day in 1985, Ferris Bueller was crowned the Sausage King of Chicago.
While we generally celebrate the anniversary of a film’s release, we’re breaking from tradition to commemorate the actual date upon which young Ferris took over Chicago in John Hughes’s classic comedy Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. While the movie never explicitly states that June 5 was the day that our titular hero — played, of course, by Matthew Broderick — feigned illness and lived out his every fantasy, the stat-heads at the site BaseballProspectus.com pinpointed the date by paying special attention to the baseball game that he attends at Wrigley Field.
If you recall, Ferris — flanked by his girlfriend Sloane (Mia Sarah) and best bud Cameron (Alan Ruck) — catches a foul ball in the 11th inning. That information, along with the names of the players on the field, helped them pinpoint a June 5 game against the Cardinals.
Even more impressive than his bare-handed catch and elusive maneuvers was the fact that Ferris had to have caught the foul ball sometime after 4 pm, meaning that he had less than two hours to accomplish the rest of that day’s adventures. That’s a quick turnaround — but, as Ferris once noted, life does move pretty fast.
Watch the baseball scene from ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’ below:
