Whatever happened to the characters in “The Breakfast Club”?

From Susannah Gora, author of “You couldn’t Ignore Me If You Tried: The Brat Pack, John Hughes, and Their Impact on a Generation,” this article:

It has been 25 years since “a brain, a beauty, a jock, a rebel and a recluse” spent an unforgettable Saturday together in high school detention. But rather than going the way of acid-washed jeans and VHS, “The Breakfast Club” seems to take on more cultural resonance with each passing year, as new generations of teens flock to the movie, finding themselves reflected perfectly onscreen.

We know what has happened in the lives of the film’s stars since 1985: Molly Ringwald, Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy, Anthony Michael Hall and Emilio Estevez have continued to act in film, television and theater. Most of them reunited at the Oscars in March in memory of the film’s late writer and director, John Hughes, and again last week in New York for a 25th anniversary screening.

But what about the iconic characters those actors brought to life onscreen — what might have happened in their lives over the past quarter-century?

Sounds like fun. Let’s see what Gora imagines for two members of the quintet:

Brian Johnson (Anthony Michael Hall): Despite getting an F in shop class, Brian wrote a brilliant college-application essay inspired by his poignant response to Principal Vernon’s detention-day assignment to the group (a 1,000-word paper answering the question: Who do you think you are?). That essay, titled “Does That Answer Your Question?,” won him a scholarship to MIT. He later moved to Silicon Valley to become an Internet entrepreneur, but after turning down offers to sell his startup for $300 million, he wound up with nothing when the tech bubble burst. He realized, though, that there was a future in social networking. As an early investor in MySpace, he made enough money to impress and later marry a swimsuit model. He recently endowed a new library at Shermer High and keeps a ceramic elephant lamp in his office.

Claire Standish (Molly Ringwald): Claire and John Bender began an intense, clandestine romance after their day in detention; it was followed by an equally intense breakup. She moved to New York to study fashion at FIT but cheerfully put her career aspirations on hold after she met a banker at a Tommy Hilfiger show. They married, then she “squeezed out a few puppies” (as Bender predicted) and lived the life of a Wall Street wife: apartment on Park Avenue, summers in the Hamptons, winters in Aspen, sushi every night. She played tennis at her club and had lunch at the right places but still hated “having to go along with everything my friends say.” After sticking by her husband through his firm’s accounting scandal in the early 2000s and a short-selling scandal at decade’s end, she divorced him when she learned that he was seeing a younger woman. Recently, she and her kids moved back home to Shermer. She is almost ready to accept Bender’s friend request on Facebook.

It’s an intriguing idea: Imagining how characters, particularly the characters we have created, are doing after FADE OUT. I remember reading an interview the great playwright August Wilson who said that sometimes he would be writing when a character from an old story would show up just to say hello. He’d ask how they were doing and catch up with them. 

I suppose if we do enough to give life to our characters, they should be able to continue on. Our story with them may be finished, but their story carries on.

To find out what Gora thinks might have happend to Allison Reynolds, Andy Clark, and John Bender from The Breakfast Club, go here.