Thursday, August 6, 2009

Ferris Bueller/Fight Club Theory


With news of John Hughes' death today, I thought I'd post this thing from Metafilter I mentioned before. It's an alternate interpretation about the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off, with all the goings on of the day, including Ferris Bueller himself, being figments of Cameron's imagination.
One day while he's lying sick in bed, Cameron lets "Ferris" steal his father's car and take the day off, and as Cameron wanders around the city, all of his interactions with Ferris and Sloane, and all the impossible hijinks, are all just played out in his head. This is part of the reason why the "three" characters can see so much of Chicago in less than one day -- Cameron is alone, just imagining it all.

It isn't until he destroys the front of the car in a fugue state does he finally get a grip and decide to confront his father, after which he imagines a final, impossible escape for Ferris and a storybook happy ending for Sloane ("He's gonna marry me!"), the girl that Cameron knows he can never have.

A little like Tyler Durden, in Fight Club. Actually, a lot of movies are more interesting if you apply this story overlay to them.

1 comment:

Galspanic said...

I like this theory. I was going to suggest a memorial John Hughes line thread, but I think this is better.