2015 is an exciting year for all those of us over 30s who recall spending many hours during the long school holidays watching our favourite classic 80’s adventure movies on fuzzy, poor quality VHS copies (whether bought or recorded off the limited 4 channel telly).  There are a number of high profile anniversaries this year, including, The Goonies (today, 7th June – special 30th anniversary tribute will be forthcoming later in August after my visit to the actual Goondocks, Astoria ;)), and on October 21st, we finally catch up with Back to the Future Part II’s actual future, giving us the opportunity to comment and opine over what it got right, and what it got wrong (hover-boards being the most disappointing of all of the incorrect predictions!).

It was also fascinating to discover on Friday (for me, via a Tweet from the amazing T-shirt guys, Last Exit To Nowhere), the 5th June was the ACTUAL day that legend Ferris Bueller skipped school having executed a ridiculously complex and ingenious plan to convince his long suffering mother that he was really sick.  As Ferris himself informs us at the beginning of the movie, this being his ninth sick days so far that semester, coming up with new, “plausible” illnesses was becoming a real challenge for him.  However, fortunately for Ferris, and for us as lovers of the movie, his efforts proved convincing; so convincing, in fact, that the “Save Ferris” campaign is in full swing by the end of the movie, where his fellow students hold vigils for his recovery from what is perceived to be a life threatening affliction).  As Ferris himself informs us at the beginning of the movie, after 9 sick days so far that semester, he was really having to work on his illnesses.  What follows was, of course, one of the best days off imaginable, as Ferris, his girlfriend Sloane, and his reluctant buddy, Cameron, become tourists for the day as they enjoy the sights of the Mid-West’s best town, Chicago.

And how do we know this was THE date (taking into account the movie wasn’t released until 1986)?! Well, some baseball aficionados at Baseball Prospectus used footage from the movie to work out which game the truants were at by referring to the players.  See the article here: http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=12877 – AMAZING!

If you are ever in the Windy City, and you are interested in following in Bueller’s footsteps, then here is a list of the main sights from the movie (plus some other places you must certainly visit but weren’t there back in 1985!):

Some main Chicago sights (The Flamingo, Federal Plaza, The Art Institute of Chicago, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, Georges Seurat, The Sears Tower, or as it is now known, the Willis Tower, The Bean, The Station)

If you haven’t experienced the carnage that is Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, then you really are missing out (if you are based in Cardiff, an opportunity has presented itself courtesy of the team at Motley Movies – The movie will be playing on the Jacobs roof on the 15th August)!  I will leave you with one of Master Bueller’s more profound observations…

“Life moves pretty fast.  If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”