The Breakfast Club (partially lost deleted scenes of comedy-drama film; 1984)

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TheBreakfastClubDeletedScenes-Poster.jpeg

The film’s theatrical poster.

Status: Partially Lost

In a December 1999 Premiere magazine article for which the cast and crew of the 1985 cult classic The Breakfast Club were interviewed, it was revealed by the late writer/director John Hughes that over an hour of content was cut from the film before its release, presumably at the request of Universal Pictures, who had previously expressed fears of the film not resonating well with audiences, with the one and only copy of the uncut version in existence (as owned by Hughes) being screened for said magazine, in what is known to be its only screening. While the complete 2½ hour cut of the film remains unseen by the public, a selection of extended and deleted scenes were detailed by Premiere in their aforementioned article.[1][2]

Notable Deleted Scenes

Cover of the December 1999 issue of Premiere, in which the existence of the cut content was revealed.

Among additional sequences of Bender being obnoxious and Allison trying to prove herself as being more of a rebel and less of a loner are some extended versions of scenes from the final cut, such as additional dialogue from Andy's father in the opening sequence, in which, after stating "No school's going to give a scholarship to a discipline case", he follows up with "Not a white one, anyway." Another extended scene sees Allison, after claiming that she can write with her toes, actually doing so on camera; she then goes on to describe her home life, comparing her house to a museum, due to it being "very pretty and very cold." Notably, this line ended up being slightly modified and incorporated into Hughes' Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

In the scene where the bored students are seen falling asleep in detention, Allison was originally shown fantasizing about what each of them was like internally, visualizing Andy as a hedonistic Viking, Bender as a prison inmate, Brian as an astronaut, and Claire as a bride. Another scene depicts Carl the janitor, after entering the library, predicting where each of the students will become ten years, citing future Andy as being a district sales manager (who marries a beautiful stewardess that later becomes overweight), future Allison fruitlessly pursuing a career as a poet, future Bender as having committed suicide, future Brian being successful but dying at the early age of 35 due to a heart attack, and future Claire as having had six facelifts and two boob jobs by the age of 40.

Additional cut content includes an extended version of the pot-smoking scene, in which Brian and Claire are seen singing "All My Lovin'" by The Beatles, a scene in which Allison breaks into the teachers' lockers using a switchblade, where she finds a copy of the Prince album 1999, remarking "You know what this means? They're human," and a few scenes from various trailers that didn't end up in the film, such as Allison locking herself in a listening room and singing "My Life" to herself. The scene is notable in that it was apparently improvised and made several cast members cry.

Several other differences between the definitive and uncut versions of the film have been noted, chiefly an extended make-out scene, in which not only Bender and Claire are seen kissing, but also Andy and Allison. Lastly, during Hughes' small cameo as Brian's dad in the final scene (a performance which he later criticized), he was originally given the short line “Buckle up.”

Availability

After Hughes' death in 2009, Ally Sheedy revealed in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that the 2½ hour cut of the film still exists, although Hughes' widow Nancy did not reveal any details on its whereabouts[3]. As of this article's publication, only a handful of the cut scenes have been released, namely two scenes involving Mr. Vernon buying a soda with the students' money via TV airings. On January 2nd, 2018, Criterion released a Special Edition Blu-Ray which contained 50 minutes of outtakes and deleted footage from the original rough cut. One piece of footage that wasn't in the deleted scenes compilation, the scene of Allison singing "My Life", is briefly seen in another featurette. Allison's singing can be briefly heard for a split second before her actress Ally Sheedy speaks about making the scene as the video portion continues. Whether the uncut version will see a release is unknown.

Gallery

Compilation of deleted scenes from the Criterion release (1/2)

Compilation of deleted scenes from the Criterion release (2/2)

Compilation of MORE deleted scenes clips and photos not seen in the release

References