My husband and I are going to Chicago in June. We'd love to see places featured in the movie Ferris Bueller's Day off. (Weird, I know.) Any tips?

The obvious ones:
Sears Tower, Michigan/State Avenues (the parade), Wrigley Field (Cubs game), and Chicago Art Institute are easily located.
The exterior of the Bueller home: is in Long Beach, California.
The high school(s) were Maine North HS in Des Plaines (western suburb of Chicago....trivia fact, same HS used for The Breakfast Club), and Glenbrook North HS (near north suburb).
The pizza parlor was in Brentwood California.
Hope you have fun. I loved that movie.

The town where the principal went to look for him is downtown Highland Park. The exterior high school scenes were filmed at Glenbrook North, in Northbrook. Most of John Hughes films were filmed in the North Shore suburbs. If I can think of any more sights I'll post again.

Can't help but think of that movie every time I go to the Art Institute. I hear the background music from that scene, and I stare at the Seurat painting just like Cameron did

Took the wife and kids to Chicago for a week last July. Can't help but point out the obvious importance of the Sears Tower. Granted, it seems a little obvious (from what I recall in the film it was featured in a brief scene) but it was extremely useful in giving us an idea of how the city and surrounding areas are laid out. It was also enjoyable to take in the views and enjoy the city's architecture from a unique perspective. We spent at least an hour up there. Hope you have a good time. My 14-year old son and I are big fans of that movie also.

The parade was filmed on Monroe St. in the loop.

Ferris was, loosely, supposed to live in Wilmette/Winnetka and go to New Trier HS, which was played in the film by Glenbrook North (and apparently Maine North). When he drives into Chicago he SORT of drives down the Kennedy but the near approach has him, inexplicably, come in from the west (so you can get the skyline). I've never figured out how he could get from place to place (art inst., restaurant, Wrigley Field, Monroe st.) in one day and still get home in time to leap hedges and flop into bed.

A challenge: any overlaps in scenery between Ferris Bueller and Home Alone?

Florence -

The parade was on Dearborn, not Monroe.

Actually, a portion of the "parade" was filmed on Financial Place - a one block street between the Board of Trade & the Insurance Exchange Buildings off Jackson Boulevard.

A good source of info for movie locations is imdb.com - the internet movie database.

To H:

The Italian Village Restaurant is in the background in the parade scene, so at least a portion was filmed on Monroe. The Italian Village is on Monroe.

Florence -

H is right - parts of Monroe (and other cross streets) may be seen as the parade goes North up Dearborn, but the parade absolutely went up Dearborn - not Monroe.

People, people, it's ridiculous to expect that movie events are "geographically correct." Never happens, but that's part of the fun of seeing a movie shot somewhere near you -- you can count the inconsistencies.

As Mahj pointed out, the road scenes in F. B. were stunningly confused -- one shot showing them on one street, another showing them turning a corner onto another street that is miles away, etc. etc. etc. So the parade in F.B. went wherever the director thought it would make a good shot.

Anyone remember "Love Story"-- set in Cambridge at Harvard? There's one shot where Ali McGraw rides her bike directly into what was the trolley yards at the time -- which sent up a great whoop of laughter in the Brattle St. theater when locals saw her do that.

More recently, Patch Adams went to "medical school" on the main (non-medical) campus of UNC-Chapel Hill, but his wanderings around campus -- if you tried to track them -- took him to bizarre corners. There were lots of chuckles in the Chapel Hill theater when that was shown.

I'm sure lots of other people in lots of other cities can provide 1000s of examples of this kind of "geographic license."

So, 80s kid, have a great time in Chicago but don't get too rigorous about trying to follow Ferris's footsteps -- half the time, they just beamed him up from one place and down in another.

Thank you for all the help! We can't wait to see as much of it as we can while playing hooky from work.

Couple follow-up questions:

Is the fancy restaurant in this movie (Chez Henri? I think?) a real place? Is it the same one where the Blues Brothers aked "How much for the little the women?"

Also, do a lot of scenes in these movies overlap?

The restaurant in the movie was called Chez Louis, in the Blues Brothers they went to Chez Paul, which was actually a real restaurant that is now closed. I don't know if it (ferris) was filmed at the same restaurant. As far as I remember Chez Paul looked different on the inside and outside. I wish I could remember the address of Chez Paul, I will try to find out, at least you could see it from the sidewalk, its a private residence now. I think its on the corner of Dearborn and Chestnut, (or very close) maybe someone else knows for sure.

Chez Paul was at 660 N. Rush.

Found a great site for you. Get ready, alot to type. http://www.geocities.com/xanderubi/h...locations.html

Great URL! Too funny.

Again, THANK YOU!