History Film / FerrisBuellersDayOff

* CentralTheme: You'll only be able to enjoy the aspects of life when you are able to see its joys.

* HaHaHaNo: Cameron does this in response to Ferris' suggestion that they take the miles off his dad's Ferrari by driving home backwards.

* ContemplateOurNavels: The scene in the art gallery brilliantly uses this trope in regards to Cameron, who has been worrying about nearly every detail of their journey. As his gaze zooms in on the pointillist[[note]]A style of painting from the late 1800s in which small points of paint made up a full image[[/note]] Seurat painting to find the details within it, he sees less and less of those details, finding only contextless dots. The realization to let go and enjoy his journey shows up in his eyes, and works -- at least until [[spoiler:he notices the odometer on the car.]]

* StaggeredZoom: Used in the museum scene of Cameron staring at Seurat's ''Art/ASundayAfternoonOnTheIslandOfLaGrandeJatte''.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome:
** Because Rooney parked his car illegally near the Buller's home, his car gets a ton of unpaid parking tickets and eventually gets towed, despite Rooney's protests.
** Because the intruder (Rooney) wasn't inside the house when Jeannie phoned the police, the police automatically assume Jeannie is a prankster and bring her in to the police station for questioning.
** When Jeannie thinks she's found Ferris at home but it's really Rooney, rather than share an awkward humorous moment, she immediately freaks out, thinking it's an intruder and runs upstairs to call the police.

* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: Rooney never considers talking to Ferris Bueller's sister about her suspicions about Ferris playing hooky. If he had done that, he would at least have an ally in addition to his secretary Grace and someone who knows the kids' modus operandi. In fact, when Jeannie tries to go see him, she is rude to Grace and skipping class, but wanted to tell Rooney that she thinks her little brother isn't really sick and is goofing off. The way it works out, Jeannie kicks Rooney in the jaw on pure instinct.

* DidntThinkThisThrough: Jeannie should've waited instead of telling Rooney to get out of her house or the police will get him. Otherwise, she wouldn't have been mistaken for a phone call prankster and taken into police custody.

** When Jeannie thinks she's found Ferris at home but it's really Rooney, rather than share an awkward humurous moment, she immediately freaks out, thinking it's an intruder and runs upstairs to call the police.

* MinnesotaNice: Grace talks with the standard Minnesota Nice accent and may well be a native Minnesotan, as the movie is set in Chicago, Illinois (a mere two states away). However, she also exhibits the dark side of this trope by secretly being mean and nasty, saying rude things about people when they aren't around.

* HumiliationConga: The entire film is one for both Rooney and Ferris' sister Jeannie. Jeannie at least manages to learn KnowWhenToFoldThem and even may get the last laugh on the long term.

* HighSchoolHustler: Ferris is a classic example. It's not clear how much hustling he does in the day to day, but he's apparently well-liked by all the cliques at school and has worked out scams on his parents and school down to an artform.

* HeterosexualLifePartners: Ferris and Cameron, possibly. They've been best friends since at least the fifth grade, and when Sloane jumps into the car with him she looks down where Cameron is crouched and says cheerfully, "Hi, Cameron, are you comfortable?" as if this sort of thing has happened before. ("Hi, Sloane, ''no.")''

* {Foil}: Rooney and Jeannie hate that Ferris gets away with everything and want to see him punished. When Jeannie realizes how pointless her vendetta against Ferris is she offers him a last minute reprieve when he gets caught by Rooney.

* {Foil}:Rooney and Jeannie hate that Ferris gets away with everything and want to see him punished. However by the end of the film Jeannie realizes how pointless her vendetta against Ferris is.

* Foil: Rooney and Jeannie. Both of them hate that Ferris gets away with everything and want to see him punished. However by the end of the film Jeannie realizes that getting revenge on Ferris won’t make her life any easier and she goes to bat for him.

-->'''Sloane:''' You knew what you were doing when you woke up this morning, didn’t you?

* FrenchCuisineIsHaughty: The upscale French restaurant that Ferris and company visit has the requisite snooty maître d’. Also parodied, in that the restaurant is named ''Chez Quis'' [[note]] which would literally mean "at whose house?", except that the French ''qui'' is never plural [[/note]], as a pun on the pizza chain Shakey's.

* ArtisticLicenseCars: Cameron's dad's Ferrari has a back seat, while the real 250 GT Spyder California was a two seater, and the odometer is unable to turn back when put in reverse. The mechanism to prevent that was not mandated or even available until the 1970s, meaning the odometer on a 1961 model ''would'' roll back when driven in reverse (or, better yet, disconnect the odometer cable and roll it back with an electric drill, though this is probably beyond most high-schoolers' abilities).

* {{Bowdlerise}}: The original script for the movie is quite a bit edgier than the finished film.

** Creator/CharlieSheen's stoner character is named Garth Volbeck. The film doesn't mention this. Also, a deleted backstory shows that he and Ferris were friends in the eighth grade. Garth's family's pretty messed up, and Ferris tried to help him and be his friend, but Garth eventually dropped out of high school and wound up in the police station next to Jeannie. That's why Ferris is so intent on giving Cameron a good time - he blames himself for not helping Garth enough when he could.

* LightFeminineAndDarkFeminine: Kind, innocent Sloane (light) and angry, sassy Jeanie (dark).

* TheResenter: This is Jeannie's entire motivation. Her brother gets away with everything, while she CantGetAwayWithNuthin and can't even convince others of her brother's con when she unravels it.

'''Ferris''': Bueller. Ferris Bueller.

* {{Jerkass}}: Rooney and Jeannie. The later becomes more of a JerkWithAHeartOfGold by the end.

* DeanBitterman: Rooney. He's a pretty strict disciplinarian and has declared Ferris his ArchEnemy because the kid is the local HighSchoolHustler with nine absent days (''before'' Ferris hacked the computer). Take note that Cameron is ''also'' home sick and Rooney doesn't decide to personally visit him to make sure he's actually sick.

* CrowdSong: Not only does everybody in Chicago sing along to "Twist and Shout", but many of them dance in unison too. Somewhat justified. It's a well-known song/dance.