Arguably the most iconic movie of all time, The Breakfast Club features five distinct teenagers; The Criminal – John Bender, The Athlete – Andrew Clarke, The Princess – Claire Standish, The Basket Case – Allison Reynolds, and The Brain – Brian Johnson. All from different high school cliques, this ragtag group of kids ended up together in detention one Saturday morning and changed the perspective of us all on what these teenagers are truly like.
The opening scene begins with multiple clips of the school, beginning with the front of the school then going to different parts within the school while a voice over reads a letter from the teenagers. A clock, an empty hallway, a soda bar area, and a student store display (with a lot of books/notebooks). All of these shots show the school as a relatively nice place. Then there are a few more shots; a piece of wood (presumably a desk or back of chair) with the words “I’m eating my head” engraved into it, a row of lockers with one spilled open and noticeably charred, a small stack of newspapers with wrestling featured on the front, a blue wall with “I don’t like Mondays” engraved into it, a case of trophies, a wall/presumed bathroom stall with words scrawled all over it, a pile of trash on stairs, a stage with red curtains and a banner that says “Senior Spirit Soars,” a notebook page with “Help” doodled all over it, a wall with “Man of the year” and a bunch of pictures of guys in suits on it right as the voice over goes into explaining how the principal (and possibly all the world) sees these kids. A computer lab – a brain, a locker room – an athlete, a guidance counselor desk – a basket case, a prom queen poster with spray paint on it – a princess, and a close up of a locker with spray paint on it and a piece of rope shaped like a noose – a criminal.
The next part of the opening scene is a clip of each of the teenagers getting out of their cars, going into the school. Each one gives you a little insight to their lives. The first to be shown is Claire, the typical preppy girl, obviously spoiled. The camera starts at the front of her dad’s BMW and going into the car where her dad talks about “making it up” to her that she has to go to detention for skipping class to go to shopping. Brian is the second to be shown, his mom, sister, and him are all shoved together in the front seat as his mom tells him to make time to study even though he isn’t allowed to – giving the feeling that education is the most important thing to his family. As he gets out of the car, very briefly “EMC 2” is shown on the license plate – again reinforcing how the family is very education oriented. The next is Andrew sitting in a truck with his father, and his father tells him that guys screw around but he got caught and goes into a lecture about how he can miss a match and blow his ride to college – pressing the wrestling thing while Andrew angrily gets out of the car – implying a negative relationship between him and his father. After that, it shows two characters around the same time – the basket case (Allison) and the criminal – John. John is walking across the street with a distinctive strut and sunglasses on, and then Allison’s car almost hits him as he just smoothly moves to the side, not even bothered. As Allison gets out of the car, and tries to say bye, her family zooms off – implying they do not care about her too much.
Each teen also shows a small encapsulation of their intended stereotypes as their own little mise-en-scene. Claire is wearing a leather jacket, has a clean haircut, wearing makeup, a nice purse, and diamond earrings to bring in her “spoiled and preppy” stereotype. Brian is wearing a beanie, and run down clothes to encapsulate his “nerdy” stereotype. Andrew is wearing a letterman jacket with a state champ patch on the arm – “jock.” John is wearing sunglasses, mismatch shoes, a trench coat and a red bandanna tied around his ankle – a “criminal.” Lastly, Allison is wearing ratty and baggy clothes, with her hair all disheveled – a “basket case.”
To me, the opening feels like a huge reference to how our culture views high-schoolers as a whole. It sets up individual stereotypes for each teenager, trying to get us to feel a certain way about each student before we even enter the detention scene, playing on our already preconceived idea of what teenagers are like.