‘The Breakfast Club’ Had Special Effects? The Film’s FX Supervisor Tells Us How Emilio Shattered That Window & More
Even movies that don’t feature fast car chases, huge explosions and sword fights require special effects — including 1985’s The Breakfast Club, which was mainly filmed in one room! ReMIND Magazine caught up with Emmy-winning special effects supervisor Bill Schirmer who shares some of his fun memories working on the iconic coming-of-age film The Breakfast Club.
When Emilio Estevez screams & shatters that window
@maxwanders Replying to @ggqute1 The breaking glass effect scene 🤣 #thebreakfastclub #emilioestevez #juddnelson #allysheedy ♬ original sound – M∆x 🕉️
The library where most of the filming took place was actually a set built inside the gymnasium at Main North High School in Chicago. The interior contained a smaller room with a giant window where Emilio Estevez’s jock character screams in frustration, causing the giant window to shatter in front of him.
Schirmer explains how the effect worked: “We used pyrotechnic special effects devices on that window, which was made of tempered glass, in order to fracture and crack it, making the shards rain down, and that is what you see in the movie.”
The detention clock
Everett Collection
The dreaded clock that the kids kept eyeballing hour after hour while waiting to be excused from detention was a lot more work than it looks. “We had to keep adjusting the time back and forth for continuity purposes because of all the takes — starting and stopping —extra long scene lengths, etc. By the way, that clock was actually five feet high in real life; it was a chore!”
The feminine hygiene war (that was edited out)
One scene Schirmer recalls working on that didn’t make the final cut featured the teenagers rifling through the purse of prudish Claire (played by Molly Ringwald), and then coming across her feminine hygiene products. A full-on war then breaks out. “We had air tubes launching these things through the air in slo-mo, hitting each other in the head,” he reveals. “It was funnier than hell, but in the end, [director] John Hughes, decided not to include it in the final print of the film.”
Universal Pictures/Everett Collection
Ally Sheedy‘s sandwich meat toss took a bit of work
“One hilarious scene I wasn’t supposed to be involved in was when Ally Sheedy’s character opens her sandwich, takes out a cold cut and tosses it behind her. The prop master tried desperately for more than an hour to make that slice stick to the face of a statue. Meanwhile, I was building something in my little room when someone finally said, ‘Let’s get Schirmer out here.’ So I took the slice, spun it thru the air, the prop master had been throwing it flat, and got it to stick … the very first time. There was dead silence as they all just stood there in disbelief while I walked away telling the crew if they needed anything else just let me know,” he says with a grin.
Universal Pictures/Everett Collection
Judd Nelson and Paul Gleason’s extra touches
Throughout the shoot, Hughes also used several gags Schirmer thought up, that went on to become fan favorites. Judd Nelson’s thug character striking a match on the bottom of his boot, as well as the commode seat cover that hangs from hapless principal Richard Vernon (played by Paul Gleason)’s pants after he comes back from the bathroom, were both Schirmer’s ideas.
And his contributions to the film’s most beloved visual gags didn’t end there. “During some downtime, I started poking pencils into a Styrofoam cup and spinning it to amuse myself; Hughes saw it and used it,” he recalls — the action wound up being assigned to Gleason’s character to perform at his desk. Schirmer fondly adds, “Hughes was an absolutely wonderful and extremely gentle man; when he was talking to you, he spoke from his heart. What a great script!”
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