Fan CastingThe Breakfast Club

The plot follows five students at fictional Shermer High School in the widely used John Hughes setting of Shermer, Illinois as they report for Saturday detention on March 24, 1984. While not complete strangers, the five teenagers are all from a different clique or social group: John Bender (Judd Nelson) "The Criminal"; Claire Standish (Molly Ringwald) "The Princess"; Brian Johnson (Anthony Michael Hall) "The Brain"; Andy Clark (Emilio Estévez) "The Athlete"; and Allison Reynolds (Ally Sheedy) "The Basket Case". At the start of detention the students are given an assignment by the principal, Mr. Vernon. They are each asked to write a 1000 word essay detailing "who you think you are". Starting out the day the students are mostly silent, as the day progresses they gradually open up to each other and pass the hours in a variety of ways: they dance, harass each other, harass the principal, Mr. Vernon, tell personal stories, argue, draw, smoke marijuana, and put on makeup. Their deep conversations reveal their inner secrets (for example, that Allison is a compulsive liar and Brian and Claire are ashamed of their virginity). They also discover something that they all have in common - strained relationships with their parents and are all afraid of making the same mistakes as the adults around them. However, despite these developing friendships, the students are afraid that back in school on Monday, they will return to their very different cliques and never speak to each other again.