Ferris Bueller's Day Off

While Matthew Broderick enjoyed success with his second film, 1983's WarGames, there's no doubt that his titular role in Ferris Bueller's Day Off remains his most iconic. Released in 1986 and directed by John Hughes, the film has Bueller skip school for a spontaneous adventure around Chicago - all the while attempting to avoid getting caught by the Dean of Students, Edward R Rooney (Jeffrey Jones).

The film was a box office success, returning $70.1 million on a budget of $5.8 million, and has become a frequent pop culture reference point for Bueller's tendency to break the fourth wall and talk directly to the audience. In fact, the film features one of popular cinema's first post-credits scenes, in which Bueller emerges in a dressing gown and tells the audience to go home.

The sequence in which Bueller gatecrashes a parade float to lip-sync Wayne Newton has also become enduringly famous.

The part of Sloane Peterson, ultimately played by Mia Sara, initially caught the attention of frequent John Hughes collaborator Molly Ringwald; however, Hughes refused to cast her, claiming that the role wasn't significant enough his Pretty in Pink star.

Ben Stein, who plays Bueller's totemically boring Economics teacher, claims he was cast due to a chance encounter with a former president: "Richard Nixon introduced me to a man named Bill Safire, who's a New York Times columnist," said Stein. "He introduced me to a guy who's an executive at Warner Brothers. He introduced me to a guy who's a casting director. He introduced me to John Hughes. John Hughes and I are among the only Republicans in the picture business, and John Hughes put me in the movie."