Fridge / Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Fridge Brilliance:

• Why does Cameron wear suspenders and a belt? To illustrate how uptight and insecure he is.
• Cameron stares at a pointilist painting. The camera zooms in closer and closer until the subject matter becomes incomprehensible. Cameron is fixated with it because he is afraid that, just like the painting, the more you look at him, the less you see. He feels he is nothing.
• Cameron wears a Detroit Red Wings jersey in Chicago, the land of their bitter rivals. This highlights his alienation to his surroundings.
  • Alan Ruck claims John Hughes told him that Cameron wears a Red Wings jersey because his grandfather in Detroit took him to Red Wings games as a kid, and despite his strained relationship with his father, he had an excellent relationship with his grandfather.
  • Which is still a subtle way to show how disconnected he is to his surroundings: he has a great relationship with his grandfather who lives in faraway Detroit, but a lousy one with his father, who lives in the same house as him.
• Arguably, Rooney did Ferris a favor— because he left his post and committed several crimes in trying to catch the boy, he can't properly punish Ferris without the risk of indicting himself in the process.

---