Spud media

I’ve got a trip to Chicago coming up, so I rewatched Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. You know, getting some homework done. It’s a hilarious movie, a charming movie, John Hughes’ magnus opus as far as I’m concerned. This time I realized a much deeper meaning beyond a slacker skipping school. Of course there’s the obvious message of living in the moment, cest la vie, enjoy life because it’s short. That’s great, but the movie has a really cool second meaning that I’ve never noticed before. It’s the perfect illustration of the true nature of luck.

Our hero is lucky. That’s what he’s known for- he does whatever he wants and gets away with it, something others fail to do. This draws the ire of our antagonists- the sister Jeanie, who jealously wants to expose her brother; and the Dean of Students Ed Rooney, who aims to hold Ferris back a year for inspiring bad behavior in the student body.

The movie takes us to the Bueller abode, and we see that luck isn’t the full story. Ferris has planned for every contingency. The dummy in the bed, the fake voicemail messages, the doorbell recording. He’s prepared for the unlucky outcomes while he’s out screwing around on the Loop.

What looks like pure good luck to the outside world is actually a very calculated chain of events. Lucky for us, even Ferris Bueller can’t account for every possible outcome, and true luck still plays a factor. This is how the movie shows two kinds of luck, what we’ll call Luck be Design and Luck by Change.

The first of the failsafes is put to the test when Mom comes home to check on him. To plan for that, Ferris puts a dummy in his bed attached to a lever system, which rolls over when the door is opened. That gimmick can only work so far as Mom doesn’t actually enter the room, which, luckily, she does not.

“4000 restaurants in the downtown area, and I just happen to choose the one my father eats at.” -Ferris Bueller

Luck by Chance is how Ferris keeps running into his father downtown. The first of these is when the trio bluffs their way into the fancy restaurant, commandeering Abe Froman’s table (Luck by Design). By odds of 4000:1 against, Dad is there for lunch, too (Luck by Chance). The trio gets lucky again, dodging this bullet by slipping into Dad’s taxi when he isn’t looking.

The second chance encounter with Papa Bueller complicates things. This is the one where, in a city of 3 million people, both of their cabs pull to a stoplight side by side. With quick thinking, Ferris puts Sloane in his seat. He and Cameron slouch down to hide, rubbing a lucky rabbit’s foot.

This 1.5 second gag reveals a lot about our hero- Ferris Bueller actually believes himself to be lucky. 

Studies have been done on this that have shown people who believe themselves lucky end up in a self-fulfilling prophecy. One experiment I read about involved an ad in a newspaper informing the reader of their Lucky Day- phone this number and collect your $300 prize. The prize was available to everyone- but most people didn’t even see it.

It’s not that thinking yourself lucky creates more opportunities, but that you’ll notice the opportunities that others miss. 

Ferris’ spontaneity makes a lot more sense when you look at him this way. Read between the lines and we can bet that he saw a second taxi coming, that’s why he and his friends dove into the one his dad was supposed to take. That’s not luck, that’s action. 

A 17-year-old boy who’s always been lucky, either by Chance or by Design, is obviously going to keep rolling the dice. So he jumps up on a parade float and starts lip syncing. Sloane and Cameron try to stop him so he doesn’t get spotted, but THEY, not Ferris, get pushed away by police. He gets away with it again. 

Then comes the third chance encounter with Dad, who looks down from his office window. Suddenly Ferris is swarmed by hot German chicks, and Dad doesn’t see him. This time, Ferris really was saved by Lady Fortuna.

“You knew exactly what you were doing when you woke up this morning, didn’t you?” -Sloane Peterson

A throwaway line in the movie creates a major plot twist that doesn’t get enough attention. Ferris Bueller, known as the guy who does whatever he wants and gets away with it, had a plan the whole time. Spontaneity be damned; the whole Day Off was a calculated attempt to break Cameron out of his shell before graduation. Ironically, Luck by Chance is the factor that made Ferris’ goal become a reality, because he didn’t expect to take the Ferrari out that day.

Cameron screwed up the phone call to Rooney and Ferris used his lucky eyes to find a new opportunity in stealing Cameron’s dad’s unlocked automobile. He also couldn’t have expected the garage attendants to take it for a 150 mile joyride. These random Chance events were not part of Ferris’ master plan, but are exactly what cause Cameron to snap and choose to stand up for himself against his tyrannical father.

Luck by Design started the job, Luck by Chance finished it.

Even though Ferris planned the whole day, and got his desired outcome (ultimately by accident), he nearly faced his own downfall out of sheer bad luck. Rooney, torn to shreds from his own run of bad luck, was waiting at the back door. Rooney found the spare key and stopped Ferris from getting in the house. Ferris was saved again by pure luck, great luck, when Jeanie opens the door with a change of heart. 

We, the viewers, get to see Jeanie’s transformation. She starts out resentful that Ferris gets away with everything, then makes out with a Charlie Sheen, and realizes she doesn’t have to worry about what Ferris is doing at all. That’s not her problem. 

Ferris doesn’t have the luxury of knowing all that. Jeanie coming to the rescue is complete luck in his eyes, but we know that it was a chain of events so complex that it may as well be luck.

Then come the final moments of the climax when Ferris gets back into bed just as his parents are climbing up the stairs. He forgot to turn off the Snoring Machine. Just his luck, he’s got the foul ball from the Cubs game in his pocket. He lugs it, kills the stereo, and the ball bounces into an open glove.

Luck by Chance, by Chance, based on a day devoted to Luck by Design. Is that still Luck by Design? We’ve reached a point now where it doesn’t make much of a difference.

Reciprocally, let’s take a look at Ed Rooney, our main protagonist. Rooney has what I like to call Permission Brain, where nothing can be done outside of the set rules, thus he is completely incapable of thinking outside of the box. He steps into Ferris Bueller’s way of life in order to catch him, and things don’t go well. He has a run of Bad Luck that results in him being mauled by a Rottweiler.

Rigid thinking kills luck. You lose opportunities, both by Design and by Chance, if you aren’t looking for them.

The lesson of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off: because life is short, you should seize the day, live in the moment, and take chances as they come; but you should also always have a plan. That way you can beat the odds however they come to you.

Stay dangerous, my friends ■