Why The Breakfast Club Is Rated R

Summary The Breakfast Club, a classic film, is rated R due to strong language, drug use, and serious themes.

The movie includes depictions of bullying, sex, suicide, depression, and abuse, leading to its R-rating.

Apart from The Breakfast Club, most of John Hughes' movies were PG-13, with Planes, Trains, and Automobiles also being R-rated.

John Hughes’ The Breakfast Club is now regarded as a classic, and to new viewers, it might come as a surprise that it’s rated R, but it earned this rating. John Hughes was responsible for some of the most popular and beloved movies of the 1980s, with his legacy being coming-of-age teen comedies that launched the careers of many successful actors and actresses. Hughes wrote and directed now-classics like Sixteen Candles, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and The Breakfast Club, the latter considered one of his best works and the one that started the “Brat Pack”.

The Breakfast Club follows five high school students serving a Saturday detention: Brian (Anthony Michael Hall), Claire (Molly Ringwald), Andrew (Emilio Estevez), Allison (Ally Sheedy), and John Bender (Judd Nelson). The group is overseen by principal Richard Vernon (Paul Gleason), who wants them to keep quiet and write a 1000-word essay on “who you think you are”. Although they all come from different backgrounds and school cliques, the group ends up bonding and learning they aren’t so different, after all. While it doesn’t sound like a movie that would get an R-rating, there are reasons for it to get it.

Related 10 Harsh Realties Of Rewatching The Breakfast Club, 39 Years Later The Breakfast Club first premiered 39 years ago, and while it's a rightful beloved 1980s coming-of-age classic, the movie isn't without its flaws.

The Breakfast Club's R-Rating Explained: Language, Sexual Material, Drug Use

The Breakfast Club Has Some Scenes That Earned It An R-Rating

The movie deals with some serious themes and has strong language, depictions of the use of illicit substances, and addresses topics like bullying, sex, suicide, depression, abuse, and more.

According to the Motion Picture Association (MPA), an R-rating is given to content with adult material, thus viewers under 17 should be accompanied by a parent or adult guardian. Although the premise of The Breakfast Club doesn’t suggest any content associated with an R-rating, the movie deals with some serious themes and has strong language, depictions of the use of illicit substances, and addresses topics like bullying, sex, suicide, depression, abuse, and more. The use of strong language in The Breakfast Club shouldn’t be surprising, but as the movie progresses and the characters open up, more serious topics come up.

The most obvious display of The Breakfast Club’s R-rating is when the whole group smokes weed, which leads to the movie’s only musical scene.

The Breakfast Club doesn’t have any explicit sexual content (except for the scene where Bender gets his head between Claire’s thighs without her consent) but it does have different mentions of sexual activity, such as Bender teasing Claire about being a virgin and Allison claiming to be a nymphomaniac and having an affair with an older man. The most obvious display of The Breakfast Club’s R-rating is when the whole group smokes weed, which leads to the movie’s only musical scene.

As for the topics addressed in The Breakfast Club, there’s bullying not just among the students (both in detention and unseen characters) but from Principal Vernon, as well. When the group shares their reasons for being in detention, they talk about peer pressure, pressure from their parents, and academic pressure, depression, suicide attempts, physical abuse from their parents, neglectful parents, and stereotypes.

Related Wild Breakfast Club Theory Gives A Darker Meaning To Its Iconic Ending A theory gives The Breakfast Club a dark twist that makes its characters' journeys more complex while giving the ending a darker tone.

How The Breakfast Club's Rating Compares To Other Movies Directed By John Hughes

The Breakfast Club Addressed Themes That Other John Hughes Movies Didn’t

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The rest of the movies directed by John Hughes were given a PG-13 rating, given to content with material that might be inappropriate for children under 13.

The Breakfast Club isn’t John Hughes’ only R-rated movie, as Planes, Trains and Automobiles also got this rating for its strong language and sexual situations. The rest of the movies directed by John Hughes were given a PG-13 rating, given to content with material that might be inappropriate for children under 13. This rating was given mostly due to the strong language used in these movies, though some of them, like Sixteen Candles and Weird Science, also had sexual material. The Breakfast Club isn’t as explicit as other movies from the decade, but it addresses more serious topics than other John Hughes movies.