Bender, Andrew, Brian, Allison and Claire are back together, 40 years after their fateful day in detention at Shermer High School.
The cast of the classic 1985 film “The Breakfast Club” reunited in full publicly for the first time since the film’s release at the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo April 12. The movie, which stars Judd Nelson, Emilio Estèvez, Anthony Michael Hall, Ally Sheedy and Molly Ringwald, follows five students from across the high school social landscape as they find common ground over the course of a Saturday detention.
Their appearance at the event marks their first reunion in 40 years, according to the convention.
The five-some spoke on a panel Saturday moderated by Josh Horowitz. The actors walked onstage altogether in a line, set to the “Colonel Bogey March,” which their characters memorably whistled in sync in one scene from the film.
During the panel, they discussed the experience of reuniting, stories from their time shooting the film and memories of writer and director John Hughes.
“I feel really, very emotional and moved to have us all together. This is the first time that Emilio has joined us. We don’t have to use the cardboard cutout anymore because he’s here,” Molly Ringwald joked.
When asked why it took Estevez so long to attend a reunion event, he told Horowitz, “I skipped all of my high school reunions, so this just was something that finally I felt I needed to do just for myself.
“But Josh, this one felt special. It’s here in Chicago, where we made the film, and obviously the 40th anniversary, and it just felt like it was time,” he added.
Members of the “Breakfast Club” group have publicly appeared together in various combinations but not all together — until Saturday. For example, to mark the 30th anniversary of the film in 2015, Sheedy and Ringwald attended a screening of the movie at South by Southwest.
In 2024, Sheedy and Estevez appeared in Andrew McCarthy’s “Brats” documentary, which saw McCarthy caught up with fellow members of the Brat Pack, or the term coined in 1985 for the then up-and-coming stars of movies like “The Breakfast Club” and “St. Elmo’s Fire.” Ringwald and Nelson had turned down requests to participate in the documentary, McCarthy said amid the film’s premiere.
