Ferris Bueller's Day Off Best Moments Ranked

The 1986 John Hughes comedy "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" is one of those endlessly quotable and memorable movies from one's youth. The film stars Matthew Broderick as teenager Ferris Bueller, who plays sick one day and decides to have an adventure away from his life as a senior in high school. He lures his best friend Cameron Frye (Alan Ruck) and his girlfriend Sloane Peterson (Mia Sara) along as well.

Ferris and friends face some adversity along the way, mostly inflicted by Dean of Students Ed Rooney (Jeffrey Jones), and Ferris' sister Jeanie (Jennifer Grey), who both know that Ferris is skipping school and faking sickness just to get a day off. There are plenty of valid criticisms of "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," mainly that Ferris is kind of a jerk, but the movie has become a classic teen romp with some pretty funny, touching, and wonderful moments. Here are the best of those moments ranked. 

There's no denying that throughout the film, Ferris treats his supposed best friend, Cameron Frye, like absolute crap. It all starts right after Ferris convinces his parents he's sick and should skip school. Ferris doesn't have a car, so to avoid spending his day off stuck in his suburban Illinois house, he calls up his pal Cameron to bum a ride. Cameron drives his own crappy car, but he also has access to the multiple fancy automobiles owned by his wealthy parents.

The problem is, though, that Cameron is actually sick. From the crumpled tissues lying around his bed to the various pills and cough syrups adorning his bedside tables, it's pretty clear that it's a bad idea for Cameron to go out. But he knows Ferris is just going to keep calling him. Cameron pleads with the universe while still in bed, singing an old spiritual tune known as "Go Down Moses," but changing the lyrics to, "When Cameron was in Egypt's land, let my Cameron go!" It's pretty clear he wants to be free of his obligation to his friend: He fights with himself in the car, gets out, gets back in again, hits the seat, and kicks the ground before finally heading out to pick up Ferris.

Over the course of the movie, Ferris' classmates of all ages, and even school faculty and staff members, express their sympathy for his illness: pooling money, sending flowers and get-well cards, and offering Ferris general well-wishes. The joke is that these reactions paint Ferris as a well-loved school celebrity, all while Rooney and Jeanie try to tear him down. But one funny-as-heck moment comes when Jeanie has finally made it home: She's waiting for the police to come after calling them about Rooney's invasion (which we promise we'll get to), and she opens the door to see an odd ensemble: a guy with balloons, another guy with flowers, a creepy masked character, and a naughty nurse.

It's not really clear if this nurse is just there to sing a funny song, if she's a stripper, or if she's an actual sex worker, but her little rhyme goes as follows: "I heard that you were feeling ill / Headache, fever, and a chill / I came to help restore your pluck / 'Cause I'm the nurse who likes to ..." Jeanie slams the door before the nurse can finish, but we all know what she was going to say.

Another funny but heartfelt moment comes toward the end of the movie. When the trio realizes that the parking attendants have obviously taken the Ferrari out for a joyride, increasing the odometer by thousands of miles, Cameron has a little bit of a freak-out. He starts hyperventilating, goes catatonic, and doesn't speak. The gang stops at someone's pool for a dip to snap Cameron out of it.

Though this is the same home used for the front of Sloane's house at the end of the movie, writer and director John Hughes has said the characters just stopped at a stranger's house and broke into their pool. "We never identified where this was or whose house this was. I always presumed it was just someone else's house. It wasn't really Sloane's house, it certainly wasn't Matthew's house, and it wasn't Cameron's house. They just sort of stopped and used somebody's Jacuzzi," he says in the DVD commentary.

The catatonic Cameron eventually hurls himself off of the diving board and into the pool. Ferris thinks he's attempting to take his own life and jumps in to save him. Once he pulls Cameron out, his worried look, frantic attempt to revive Cameron, and concern for his best friend prove Ferris really does care about Cameron, even though he often treats him poorly. Cam's eyes pop open, and he gives Ferris a sarcastic look, saying, "Ferris Bueller, you're my hero."

On their day off, Ferris, Cameron, and Sloane visit the Sears Tower and the Chicago Stock Exchange, then take in a Chicago Cubs game at Wrigley Field, and later, a street parade (which we'll get to in a bit). But the most cerebral and meaningful of their outings has to be the one they take to the Art Institute of Chicago.

This slower (in a good way) moment in the film follows the trio as they explore the museum and utilizes long shots of world-famous paintings, like "Nude Under a Pine Tree" by Pablo Picasso, "Nighthawks" by Edward Hopper, and "Greyed Rainbow" by Jackson Pollack. But the most poignant moment comes when Cameron stops in front of "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" by Georges Seurat.

Writer and director John Hughes explained himself in DVD commentary, Smithsonian Magazine reports, that as Cameron examines the painting deeper and deeper, "The closer he looks at the child, the less he sees with this style of painting. The more he looks at it there's nothing there. He fears that the more you look at him there isn't anything to see. There's nothing there. That's him." Eleanor Harvey, senior curator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, adds, "Cameron could not have anticipated that this would be anything but a fun goofball day and in a sense that painting becomes our first concrete clue that Cameron is deeper than everyone else in that movie."

Ferris, Cameron, and Sloane have a pretty amazing time, and it's actually quite miraculous that they manage to fit so much into one day. But once Ferris realizes it's about five minutes until 6 o'clock, the time when his parents usually get home, he has to book it from Sloane's house to his own ... without a car.

On the way, he almost gets hit by Jeanie driving their mom home, runs alongside his dad, darts through someone's backyard while they're having a picnic, races through someone's entire house, steals a can of soda from a guy grilling outside, stops to talk to some girls sunbathing in their yard, and still manages to jump on a kid's trampoline and make it home before his parents do.

There, he gets caught by Rooney, still waiting for him in his own backyard. But for some reason Jeanie vouches for him, claiming he'd tried to get home from the hospital by himself. Once Ferris is safely back in bed, he gives us his signature line: "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you might miss it."

Throughout the movie, as Dean of Students Ed Rooney tries to catch Ferris in a lie, Ferris, Cameron, and Sloane subject him to numerous pranks and schemes that help them get away with cutting school. None of the scenarios in which Rooney is lied to, beaten up, or humiliated are quite as funny as a phone prank that occurs early in the movie when Ferris and Cameron try to get Sloane out of school.

Cameron calls pretending to be Mr. Peterson, Sloane's dad, and tells Rooney's assistant that they've had a death in the family, so Sloane needs to come home. Rooney thinks it's Ferris, so he starts to insult, berate, and ridicule Mr. Peterson and his daughter, claiming they'd need to see the dead body in order for Sloane to be let out of school, all the while using plenty of profanity that a competent school official would never use with a parent.

But then the phone rings again, and it's Ferris Bueller calling to ask for his homework to be sent home with his sister. The look of absolute embarrassment and dread on Rooney's face is enough of a gut-buster, but what follows is absolute chaos as Rooney and his assistant Grace (Edie McClurg) try to rectify the situation with "Mr. Peterson" as Cameron goes on the offensive and berates Rooney over the phone.

The most fun, most memorable, and all-around best moment of "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" comes at about the one-hour mark. After leaving the museum and getting stuck in some serious Chicago traffic due to the city's Von Steuben Day parade, the gang decides to walk back to the parking garage. But Cameron and Sloane lose Ferris in the crowd, and Cameron naturally believes he's ditched them. That's when Ferris pops up on a parade float, surrounded by backup dancers, lip-syncing Danke Schoen by Wayne Newton.

As Ferris entertains the crowd, Cameron and Sloane elaborate on the divide between Ferris and Cameron: Cam comments on how Ferris can face any obstacle, while Cameron can't handle anything. None of them knows what they want to do in life, but at least Ferris isn't afraid, while Cameron has to learn to be brave. The realization is a big one, and the somber moment turns to happiness when the float's song shifts to "Twist and Shout" by the Beatles.

It's not really clear what Ferris said or did for parade officials to allow him to hop on the float, but an elaborate dance party erupts while Ferris is lip-syncing, and the whole parade — members, audience, and passersby, including an oblivious Mr. Bueller up in his office — enjoy a fun dance break. It's a true moment of whimsy and happiness in an already joyful film.