#tbc asks

1. After the kids sneak out of the library, they pass the faculty lounge. Mr. Vernon is at the coke machine. He loses his money and starts kicking the machine. The kids carefully walk past the open door unnoticed. Allison, however, pauses in the doorway. Claire says to the rest, “She’s nuts, but she’s cool."

Hm. Considering this happened before the confession scene, the relationship between Claire and Allison might’ve confused the audience. How can Claire go from hating Allison, to liking Allison, to hating Allison, to liking Allison? And I think it’s simply extra focus on Vernon that we don’t need. Plus, it gives the audience the idea, "Well, maybe Vernon is just having an off day; maybe he's not such a bad guy," when I believe that this is what he always acts like.

2. Before Allison and Andrew leave to get the sodas, they collect money from everyone. Brian hands over a couple dollars and Bender sticks his hand out for money from Brian. Brian laughs, but Bender stares at him stonily, and Brian shrugs and hands Andrew money for Bender. Claire pulls out a fifty and asks Mr. Vernon if he can break it.

They actually filmed this scene. I think removing it was a good call. It certainly didn’t ruin the movie, but it didn’t add anything either. It kind of came off as a filler scene. Plus, I think the characterization of each individual student was slightly too obvious and exaggerated.

3. Near the end, Allison says to Andrew, “I don’t want to be alone… anymore.” He responds, “You don’t have to be.” This can be seen in the trailer.

This is all right. It’s a sweet exchange between two kids who end up getting together anyway. I think it wouldn’t have wasted any time, considering it happens while Allison is revealing her makeover to Andrew, but it would’ve taken away a bit of mystery. I liked how neither Allison and Andrew nor Claire and Bender said anything about their future relationships, and John Hughes simply left it up to the viewers’ imagination.

4. Carl, the janitor, talks with Vernon about where the kids will be in thirty years. Bender will commit suicide, Claire will have “two boob jobs and a face lift,” Brian will become very successful but die of a heart attack due to the stress of a high paying job, Allison will be a great poet but no one will care, and Andrew will marry a gorgeous airline stewardess who will become fat after having kids.

I am extremely glad they removed this scene. First of all, these are rather negative predictions, and I don’t necessarily agree with any of them. There’s some truth there but I have other guesses that I think are much more likely to happen. And this scene practically turns Carl into a villain.

5. In a dream sequence, Allison imagines Andrew as a gluttonous Viking, Bender as a prisoner, Claire as a bride, Brian as an astronaut, and herself as a vampire. In an unfilmed alternative to this dream sequence, all five kids imagine random things, including cars, naked women, Godzilla, beer, and fighter planes. These things end up filling the room until Vernon interrupts.

This is interesting and it displays John Hughes’s understanding of the teenage mind - but it’s a little strange and it would’ve entirely changed the whole vibe of the movie.

6. Originally, John Bender was not going to walk to school. He was going to be driven by his dad in a rusty tow truck, and have a brief fight with him before his dad drives off. Bender is tossed a bagged lunch, his father saying, “You are a waste of lunch meat.”

This is fitting with the whole characterization of Bender but it gives away too much about his home life too early.

7. After Bender demonstrates life at Brian’s house, Brian stops him and corrects him with a much more pessimistic version of the skit. Claire then proceeds to act out her life before asking Bender to demonstrate his version. Bender’s routine changes here - after mimicking his mom, he stops and comments, “Then they make me work to pay off the dentist for the teeth he busts.”

The home life reenactment was one of my favorite ideas in the entire movie, but this scene would have overused it. And Bender’s reenactment was perfect. I’m glad nothing was added to it. Plus, it doesn’t really fit into Claire’s character.

8. In the lunch scene, Brian’s lunchbag contains a note from his mom, and Bender reads it.

There’s nothing negative about this scene but it wouldn’t have added anything. And actually, it would not have made much sense, considering how Brian’s mother acted early on the movie. I think the “balanced lunch from Mom” idea was more about how Brian’s parents wanted him to be perfect in every aspect of his life, not how they cared about him in a childlike way.

9. The scene where Andrew and Allison are walking to get the sodas is extended to the point where Allison pulls out a pack of cigarettes and smokes one.

Eh, this is rather pointless. Plus, Allison doesn’t seem like the kind of person who would smoke. And I think that would’ve forced the Allison and Andrew relationship into a gender swapped parallel of the Claire and Bender relationship.

10. After getting the sodas, Bender shakes one can violently and waits to see who gets the rigged one. Allison ends up with it, and when she opens the can, all the soda squirts directly into her mouth.

What they ended up with was almost the opposite. Bender tosses a can to Allison and she catches it smoothly. That almost demonstrated the ease of their relationship without even requiring a friendship. This kinda makes a joke out of Allison and pushes Bender too far into the class clown category.

11. After Vernon asks who has to use the lavatory, the five go to the bathroom. Vernon gives the boys two minutes and the girls three minutes. Claire catches Allison eating a bag of chips in a stall, repulsing her. Bender mocks Brian for sitting down to urinate instead of using a urinal.

This definitely fits into their characters but it’s fairly useless. Plus, it simply adds another location into the movie, and a highlight of the movie is the fact that they used a total of only five rooms.

12. When Allison says, “I can write with my toes,” she actually does so.

She would have to pull out paper, a pencil, and actually write with her toes… this seems like an extremely pointless addition to the confession scene. And it sort of ruins the flow of conversation.

13. A few staff members were cut out of the script before filming - Dr. Lange, a history teacher who dresses oddly; Andrew, a sociopathic film studies teacher; Brian, a neurotic gym teacher; Ed, a mute cafeteria worker; and Robin, a gym teacher. Robin helps Vernon on a few workout machines until Vernon injures his back, and she eventually visits the students while they are in their circle in the library.

One of the most incredible aspects of the movie is the very small cast. Removing these extra characters might’ve been the best decision John Hughes ever made. And the repeated names are kind of odd. Plus, how would a visit from a teacher fit into the whole confession scene? And the workout scene is just more attention on Vernon that we simply don’t need.

14. Bender and Claire’s kissing scene in the closet was cut because Hughes felt that “screen kissing wears thin very quickly.” Molly Ringwald described it as a “great kiss.”

I adore this scene (it can be found in the trailer). But I agree with John Hughes and I’m glad he cut it, yet still made it available to the public.

15. Hughes was pressured into writing a scene somehow involving sex, and what he came up with was eventually cut. Vernon watches some female faculty members in a swimming pool, and he even spies on one woman swimming nude.

Way, way too much focus on Vernon. And while Vernon is definitely a creep, this raises it to a whole new level.

16. During the smoking scene, Allison locks herself in a small room, hugs herself, and hums. In the same scene, Claire and Brian begin singing the Beatles’ All My Lovin’.