This has been noticed by others on the net and elsewhere, but from the first time I saw this movie I was struck by the time problem. After Ferris' parents leave the house, he presumably has all of an eight-hour workday to beat both of them back home. Here's the problem: During that time, Ferris

1. Fools around a little bit at home
2. Coaxes Cameron to get out of bed and come pick him up
3. Picks up Sloane from the high school
4. Goes into Chicago with his friends
5. Goes to the top of the Sears Tower
6. Visits the Chicago Traders Exchange
7. Dines at a fancy restraunt
8. Visits an art museum
9. Goes to at least part of a baseball game
10. Sings on a float in the parade
11. Drives back to his suburb from Chicago
12. Tries to run the mileage off Cameron's dads car and ends up wrecking the car

And he still makes it back home ahead of his parents. Does Ferris really have time to do all this stuff?

I also found it incredible that the ultra-suspicious dean would mutter think "That's the way it is in their family" when Sloane makes out with her father! And shouldn't Ferris have been more clever than that?

Watching this film recently, I was struck by how static a character Ferris really is. He doesn't change. He doesn't grow. Why is that? Apparently because he's "perfect" as the movie begins. Well, maybe, but I have my doubts.

Ferris has only 8 hours to grew up, Murray, in addition to the things above. He simply didn't have time.

Here's a page dealling with the time problem of Ferris Bueller.
http://www.ticnet.com/josh/bueller.htm

Well, Cameron certainly found time to change. But this is an aesthetic criticism and not nitpicking. I think it's almost conceited on the director's part to postulate that Ferris is so perfect that he has no room for growth.

I find it totally impossible to take this movie seriously enough to pick nits in it.

I forgot about Ferris going over to Sloane's to swim in the pool. And in the novelization, Ferris does even more stuff than what's listed here.

When Ferris is running home, he passes two girls sunbathing and stops to talk to them. Neither sunbather has any sunlight shining on her.

And is there any reason why Ferris' sister would suddenly cover for him when he finally gets busted?

I think she did it cause she wanted to get back at the Principal. I would've done it too, in her place.

Jeannie covers for Ferris because she finally finds someone who digs her for herself(Charlie Sheen's character), as opposed to being Ferris' sister

I work at a school, and the one in this movie must really hate their prinicpal. Our principal can't be so much as twelve seconds overdue without *someone* sending out a search party. Maybe that's why Ferris gets away with so much nonsense--nobody on staff asks for the principal to ever really decide anything!

Of course, nitpicking this movie is like sandblasting a cracker (with thanks to Scott Adams).

Couldn't Ferris have dismantled the Farrari's dash board & wound the mileometer like dodgy car dealers do, or can't you do that with a Farrari. Anyway the speedo cable on most cars are connected to the front wheels.

Do you mean a Ferrari?

Mark: I believe the line was "like sandblasting a SOUPcracker." Dogbert said it in refernce to hypnotizing Ratbert.

Sorry I was typing a bit too fast! (I had a dodgy connection last night.)

Beuller? Ferris Beuller?

Just caught a rerun on Comedy Central, and spent all day looking for a licence plate nit, but they all appeared to be Illinois plates.

Would someone who owns a one-of-a-kind (ok, one-of-one-hundred) Ferrari put a license that says NERVOUS (sp?) on it?

When Cam is "catatonic" and they are at a bench by a beach. I know Lake Michigan is big, but does it have beaches like the one shown in that scene? With sand and waves and everything?

The speedometer cables for the ford thunderbird, mercury cougar ,chevy pickup, ford aerostar,
mercury zephyr, and ford pinto are connected to the transmission. I
know because I have either replaced the cable,worked on the transmission or
worked in the transmission area. Also I had to replace the digital dash in
my cougar and know that the odomter is only displayed disgitally as they have a mechanical
odometer inside the dash. of course I've never had a ferrari and doubt I ever will so
things could be quite different for them.

The police who came to the Bueller residence must arrested Jeanie without checking the house. That would explain how they missed the wallet on the floor and the dog in the backyard knocked unconscience and a broken vase around it.

Since Jeannie did a complete turnaround and covered Ferris' backside, as well as handing the principal his wallet -- she's now got both of them, each powerful in his own way, in her back pocket, so to speak.

Each of them owes her bigtime! Smartest move she could have made.

After I first saw the movie in the theatre (and had to keep sitting down 'cause it's not over when you think it is), one comment from one of my fellow moviegoers was: "I want to see the sequel where Cam faces his dad!"

Re: "I know Lake Michigan is big, but does it have beaches like the one shown in that scene? With sand and waves and everything?"

Yes indeedy. Nice ones. We like to watch all the east- and west-coasters stop by and gawk; they all seem to be expecting some garden pond, and here we have a body of water that's just as spacious as their oceans and doesn't sting your eyes.

Regarding the time problem, Ferris also seems to attend Glenbrook North High School, which is fairly well up on the Nort hShore and also way west of the Edens expwy, so he'll need close to one hour each way to get into downtown Chicago. In addition, the Art Institute, Wrigley field, and most of the nice beaches are not within easy walking distance of each other.

In the beginning of the movie Ferris says that one should not believe in a ism. That one should only believe in one's self. The nit is the fact that what he is said is humanism. So he contradicts what he says since he apparently does believe in a ism.

Could you move this to the Ferris Bueller's Day Off section when you get a chance? Thanks.

I just saw this finally in its completion last night. Some have addressed the time problem--I really don't have a prob with it too much (maybe Ferris' parents work really late), except the last scene with Mr. Rooney getting on the school bus. And even then I could accept it as a late school bus at the end of its run if not for it being packed with kids.

Nits
*Ferris' conniving to get into the restaurant never really strikes me as convincing (I know, I know, is anything in the movie convincing? But this more than anything else), as the matire'd, if Abe Froman is so famous, should at least have a mild idea what he looks like?!

*Did Mr. Rooney just randomly pick that arcade to walk into out of all the ones in Chicago? Or did he (he of little life) walk into all the arcades?

*Some faculty members I know would just let Ferris graduate, and let him perish in the real world. But I don't think that Ferris or Rooney are overly concerned about whether Ferris will graduate or not? Rooney just wants to destroy Ferris, and Ferris is worried about being defeated once in his life.

*I've read that the guy that gives Rooney flowers at Ferris' house is Louie Anderson. If so, an odd twist-of-fate, as the actress playing Rooney's secretary (Edie McClurg) played Louie Anderson's mother on "Life with Louie".

*Definitely a killer supporting cast in this film. While I really enjoy Matthew Broderick's performance, a film just about Ferris would be excruciating (notice how the majority of laughs come from the supporting cast). Jeffrey Jones steals every scene he's in as Edward J. Rooney, "Dean of Students". Jones has the distinction of playing three of my favorite comic parts--the relaxedly banal father in "Beetlejuice", the genially sleazy mayor in "Transylvania 6-5000", and the arrogantly obnoxious Ed Rooney.

*Ahh, Ben Stein. "Anybody? Anybody? Anybody?"

*Read the original script--Ferris has three siblings (very wisely reduced to one), the "Bueller? Bueller?" scene only has two "Buellers", and the school bus tag with Rooney is omitted. Very wise decisions in the rewrite.

He's a righteous dude!

Note in how in a lot comedies like this, a lot of the great laughs or highest plaudits go to the authority figure/straight man/moron. Jeffrey Jones' Dean Rooney, John Vernon's Dean Wormer ("Animal House"), and Ted Knight's Judge Smails ("Caddyshack") are three prime examples. Are there any others?

Ray Walston's "Mr. Hand" from Fast Times At Ridgemont High.

Pay attention to the end of the movie when Mr. Rooney boards the school bus...am I crazy, or is one of the students seated on the bus a young Tim Russ (Tuvok on Voyager)? I would bet money on it.

Ferris really deserves something bad to happen to him after he enters the real world. He spends too much time being the hero in his own story to realise he's the villain in someone else's.

That's nice, Judi

Heard something on the radio that reminded me...

At the end of each installment of her 1988 variety show (that spawned the Simpsons), Tracy Ullman would come out on stage in her bathrobe, and tell everyone to go home. I wonder if that was a tribute to the end of this movie?