Movies Will Make Gen Z Wish They Grew Up in the 80s
There’s just something about the 80s. I wasn’t even alive at the time, but if I could choose any decade to have grown up in, the 1980s would be my obvious choice. Because that’s not possible, I will instead “take a chill pill,” “veg out,” listen to “Don’t You Forget About Me” on repeat, and live through 80s movie characters. Totally tubular!
My dad will never fail to remind me that he saw this movie in theaters, and for that I will always be jealous of him. If five high school students from different cliques found themselves in detention together these days, they would all sit on their phones and complain on Twitter or “X” or Threads the whole time, and we all know it. They would not find common ground, they would not work together to take down a power-hungry principal, and they would not become friends. It’s sad but true. Maybe none of this would have happened in real life in the 80s either, but at least there would have been a chance.
Just take a look at these people. Would you ever see a high school student dressed like this today? I would love to have grown up in a time where it wasn’t considered “weird” or “uncool” to wear something other than yoga pants and Uggs to school. These people are objectively killing it, particularly Ducky over there on the right. I wish he were real!
There is no way Ferris could pull his Day Off, off in the year 2023. There are simply too many phones with cameras. By the end of the day, at least three images of Ferris playing around Chicago would have wound up in a text message to Ferris’ mom, and possibly even Principal Rooney. Also, Ferris’ mom seems like the type to have a tracking app on his phone, and she’d probably check up on him throughout the school day to make sure her cold-stricken son didn’t wind up in the ER or something.
I know this is a really strange addition to this list, but hear me out. Don’t you wish the biggest problem in the world was the earthly presence of a sweet and cute alien with a glowing pointer finger? I can tell you this right now: these days, if a large group of government agents dressed in biohazard suits embarked on a high-speed chase, the reason would not be as harmless. And yeah, maybe that’s a Steven Spielberg movie thing, not an 80s thing: but it did seem like a simpler time back then.
Sure, Sam’s family may have forgotten about her Sweet Sixteen birthday, and yes, she suffers every embarrassment imaginable all day. But my gosh, at least chivalry is still alive in her world. Let me end by quoting Olive Penderghast, played by Emma Stone, in the 2010 movie Easy A:
“Whatever happened to chivalry? Does it only exist in 80s movies? I want John Cusack holding a boombox outside my window. I wanna ride off on a lawnmower with Patrick Dempsey. I want Jake from Sixteen Candles waiting outside the church for me. I want Judd Nelson thrusting his fist into the air because he knows he got me. Just once I want my life to be like an 80s movie, preferably one with a really awesome musical number for no apparent reason. But no, no, John Hughes did not direct my life.”