Movie Smarts

Ferris Bueller's Day Off Quiz: Give Your Memory a Day Out

A few easy wins, a few head-scratchers, and an explanation after every answer.

Published 2026-10-24 Updated 2026-10-24 15 questions

Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986). Watch the trailer.

Ferris Bueller's Day Off: Attendance Is More of a Suggestion

Ferris decides that a perfectly good day should not be wasted in class. He recruits his girlfriend and a deeply worried friend for an outing that grows much bolder than their original excuse. Back at school, an adult takes the absence far more personally than he should. It is a race between a teenager enjoying himself and everyone trying to prove he is not where he says he is.

Your name is on the roll. Let's see whether your memory showed up.

1. Who plays Ferris Bueller?
- John Cusack
- Matthew Broderick
- Michael J. Fox
- Anthony Michael Hall
Broderick was already a Tony winner for Brighton Beach Memoirs and had played the teenage hacker in WarGames, which is why the computer tricks sit so easily on him. The script was written in under a week with Broderick in mind.
2. Who wrote and directed the film?
- Cameron Crowe
- Amy Heckerling
- John Hughes
- Chris Columbus
Hughes grew up in Chicago's northern suburbs, and the school scenes were shot at Glenbrook North, his own old high school, with interiors in the Maine North building he had used for The Breakfast Club. Heckerling and Crowe set their teen films in California.
3. What is Ferris's best friend called?
- Duckie Dale
- Cameron Frye
- Brian Johnson
- Keith Nelson
Cameron is the hypochondriac with the cold, rich father, and Hughes said the film is really his story, with Ferris as the catalyst. He spends the day in a Gordie Howe Red Wings jersey. Duckie, Brian and Keith are from other Hughes films.
4. Who plays Cameron?
- Judd Nelson
- James Spader
- Alan Ruck
- Emilio Estevez
Ruck was twenty-nine playing a high school senior, and had acted alongside Broderick on Broadway in Biloxi Blues, which is where the easy friendship comes from. He later spent years on Spin City and played Connor Roy in Succession.
5. What is Ferris's girlfriend's name?
- Sloane Peterson
- Andie Walsh
- Allison Reynolds
- Claire Standish
Sloane is sprung from school with a call announcing her grandmother's death, Cameron doing the voice of her father while Ferris turns up in a borrowed car to play him. Mia Sara plays her, fresh from Legend opposite Tom Cruise.
6. According to the school computer, how many days has Ferris missed before he hacks the number down?
- Three
- Five
- Seven
- Nine
Grace, Rooney's secretary, reads the number out with relish, and Rooney is staring at the screen when Ferris, from his bedroom computer, cuts it to two. It is the first sign that Rooney is in over his head.
7. Which city does the group explore?
- New York
- Boston
- San Francisco
- Chicago
Hughes called the film his love letter to the city, and the day takes in the Sears Tower skydeck, the trading floor of the Board of Trade, Wrigley Field, a museum and a parade down Dearborn Street. The suburbs stand in for the fictional Shermer.
8. What prized car belongs to Cameron's father?
- A Ferrari
- A Lamborghini
- A Porsche
- A Jaguar
A 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California, with the plate NRVOUS, which Cameron's father loves more than his son. Real ones were far too valuable to risk, so the production used replicas, and one of them went through the garage window.
9. What is the principal's name?
- Richard Vernon
- Walter Peck
- Mr. Strickland
- Ed Rooney
Jeffrey Jones plays Edward R. Rooney, Dean of Students, whose pursuit costs him a shoe, a wallet and a fight with the Buellers' dog before he ends up on the school bus. Vernon is the Breakfast Club principal and Strickland is from Back to the Future.
10. Who plays Ferris's sister Jeanie?
- Jennifer Grey
- Molly Ringwald
- Ally Sheedy
- Phoebe Cates
Jeanie is the sister who cannot stand how Ferris gets away with everything, and her reward is the police station scene with Charlie Sheen as the burnout who talks her round. The actress was Baby in Dirty Dancing the following year.
11. What sport do they watch at Wrigley Field?
- Football
- Baseball
- Basketball
- Hockey
The footage is from a real Cubs game against the Braves, and Ferris catches a foul ball, which a sports report replays while Rooney stands in a pizza parlor with his back to the television. The Cubs lost the actual game.
12. What song does Ferris perform from the parade float after Danke Schoen?
- Great Balls of Fire
- Louie Louie
- Twist and Shout
- La Bamba
The float belongs to the Von Steuben Day parade, Chicago's real German-American parade, and the film shot in the middle of it. Hughes had brass added to the Beatles' recording, and the film's success sent the song back onto the charts.
13. What fake restaurant identity does Ferris claim?
- Sam Adler, the pizza king
- Abe Froman, the sausage king of Chicago
- Bob Harris, the mayor's nephew
- Frank Wilson, a food critic
The scene is at Chez Quis, where the maitre d' refuses to believe a teenager is Abe Froman and Ferris bluffs his way through, including a call on the restaurant's own phone. His father is having lunch in the same room and never sees him.
14. How do the friends try to lower the Ferrari's mileage?
- They replace the dashboard
- They tow it backward
- They run it in reverse on stands
- They disconnect the speedometer
Cameron's plan is to jack up the rear wheels and let the odometer unwind, which does nothing. He kicks the car in a rage at his father and knocks it off the jack, through the plate glass wall of the garage and into the ravine.
15. What art museum do they visit?
- The Louvre
- The Getty Center
- The Art Institute of Chicago
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Set to the Dream Academy's instrumental of the Smiths' Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want, with Cameron staring into Seurat's A Sunday on La Grande Jatte until a child's face dissolves into dots. Hughes said the museum was his teenage refuge.

All the answers

1. Who plays Ferris Bueller?

Matthew Broderick

Broderick was already a Tony winner for Brighton Beach Memoirs and had played the teenage hacker in WarGames, which is why the computer tricks sit so easily on him. The script was written in under a week with Broderick in mind.
2. Who wrote and directed the film?

John Hughes

Hughes grew up in Chicago's northern suburbs, and the school scenes were shot at Glenbrook North, his own old high school, with interiors in the Maine North building he had used for The Breakfast Club. Heckerling and Crowe set their teen films in California.
3. What is Ferris's best friend called?

Cameron Frye

Cameron is the hypochondriac with the cold, rich father, and Hughes said the film is really his story, with Ferris as the catalyst. He spends the day in a Gordie Howe Red Wings jersey. Duckie, Brian and Keith are from other Hughes films.
4. Who plays Cameron?

Alan Ruck

Ruck was twenty-nine playing a high school senior, and had acted alongside Broderick on Broadway in Biloxi Blues, which is where the easy friendship comes from. He later spent years on Spin City and played Connor Roy in Succession.
5. What is Ferris's girlfriend's name?

Sloane Peterson

Sloane is sprung from school with a call announcing her grandmother's death, Cameron doing the voice of her father while Ferris turns up in a borrowed car to play him. Mia Sara plays her, fresh from Legend opposite Tom Cruise.
6. According to the school computer, how many days has Ferris missed before he hacks the number down?

Nine

Grace, Rooney's secretary, reads the number out with relish, and Rooney is staring at the screen when Ferris, from his bedroom computer, cuts it to two. It is the first sign that Rooney is in over his head.
7. Which city does the group explore?

Chicago

Hughes called the film his love letter to the city, and the day takes in the Sears Tower skydeck, the trading floor of the Board of Trade, Wrigley Field, a museum and a parade down Dearborn Street. The suburbs stand in for the fictional Shermer.
8. What prized car belongs to Cameron's father?

A Ferrari

A 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California, with the plate NRVOUS, which Cameron's father loves more than his son. Real ones were far too valuable to risk, so the production used replicas, and one of them went through the garage window.
9. What is the principal's name?

Ed Rooney

Jeffrey Jones plays Edward R. Rooney, Dean of Students, whose pursuit costs him a shoe, a wallet and a fight with the Buellers' dog before he ends up on the school bus. Vernon is the Breakfast Club principal and Strickland is from Back to the Future.
10. Who plays Ferris's sister Jeanie?

Jennifer Grey

Jeanie is the sister who cannot stand how Ferris gets away with everything, and her reward is the police station scene with Charlie Sheen as the burnout who talks her round. The actress was Baby in Dirty Dancing the following year.
11. What sport do they watch at Wrigley Field?

Baseball

The footage is from a real Cubs game against the Braves, and Ferris catches a foul ball, which a sports report replays while Rooney stands in a pizza parlor with his back to the television. The Cubs lost the actual game.
12. What song does Ferris perform from the parade float after Danke Schoen?

Twist and Shout

The float belongs to the Von Steuben Day parade, Chicago's real German-American parade, and the film shot in the middle of it. Hughes had brass added to the Beatles' recording, and the film's success sent the song back onto the charts.
13. What fake restaurant identity does Ferris claim?

Abe Froman, the sausage king of Chicago

The scene is at Chez Quis, where the maitre d' refuses to believe a teenager is Abe Froman and Ferris bluffs his way through, including a call on the restaurant's own phone. His father is having lunch in the same room and never sees him.
14. How do the friends try to lower the Ferrari's mileage?

They run it in reverse on stands

Cameron's plan is to jack up the rear wheels and let the odometer unwind, which does nothing. He kicks the car in a rage at his father and knocks it off the jack, through the plate glass wall of the garage and into the ravine.
15. What art museum do they visit?

The Art Institute of Chicago

Set to the Dream Academy's instrumental of the Smiths' Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want, with Cameron staring into Seurat's A Sunday on La Grande Jatte until a child's face dissolves into dots. Hughes said the museum was his teenage refuge.