Forty years ago this month, “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” immortalized Chicago on film when the fictional teen skipped school and spent the day in the city with his girlfriend and best friend.
Their adventures showcased iconic sites such as the Art Institute of Chicago, the Flamingo sculpture in the Loop and the Willis Tower — or Sears Tower, as it was known in 1986.
TV and movie tour company On Location Tours held a Downtown walking tour tracing the steps of Ferris and friends on Thursday to mark the movie’s June 11 release date. On Location also offers Downtown and suburban Chicago tours highlighting films such as “The Blues Brothers,” “The Fugitive,” “The Breakfast Club” and “High Fidelity.”
But its “Ferris” tour particularly resonates with locals, said Dan Goldrosen, who leads On Location’s Chicago tours.
“Chicagoans feel a sense of pride. In those days, not a lot was filmed here. It was a novelty,” he said.
The film’s director, John Hughes, grew up in Northbrook and called the movie his “love letter” to Chicago, Goldrosen said. In the movie, “he used the city as a character.”
Goldrosen is also an actor who has appeared in “The Bear,” “Shameless,” “Chicago P.D.” and other productions. The Morton Grove native recalled taking the Skokie Swift, also known as the Yellow Line, to Wrigley Field when he was 12, so he especially loves the baseball scenes in “Ferris.”
Ben Stumpe was one of more than 30 people who joined Thursday’s tour. “Ferris” is his mother’s favorite movie, and he also fell in love with it at age 9. Stumpe grew up in Missouri, and the film inspired him to move to Chicago and attend DePaul University.
“I thought Chicago would be a fun time,” he said. In the movie, Chicago seemed “dreamy.” Stumpe was captivated by “its architecture, Downtown and energy.”
The tour’s first stop was the steps of the Art Institute. The movie features indelible scenes in the museum of Ferris and friends admiring Georges Seurat’s pointillist masterpiece and Marc Chagall’s stained glass.
While growing up, Hughes regularly visited the Art Institute, and the director featured his favorite artworks in “Ferris,” Goldrosen said.
On its website, the Art Institute even introduces Seurat’s “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte” by referencing the 1980s teen film. “In ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’, Ferris’s best friend Cameron Frye intensely studies this nearly ten-foot-wide painting,” the museum’s website says.
The tour continued into the Loop to Alexander Calder’s crimson Flamingo sculpture at Federal Plaza. Then the group made its way down Dearborn Street toward Daley Plaza, where Ferris joined a real parade, the city’s annual Von Steuben German Day Parade.
During filming, Hughes caught shots of real window washers and construction workers grooving as Ferris infectiously lipsynced the Beatles’ version of “Twist and Shout.”
New York-based On Location started offering Chicago tours in 2023. Its “Ferris” tour is normally for private groups of at least three people for $65 each. But one day every year, On Location offers it as a public tour. This year, the company will likely offer several public “Ferris” tours each week because of more interest sparked by the movie.
“The anniversary has given the city a great pop culture moment to rally around,” said Erin Miller, On Location’s marketing manager.
The increased interest comes as international tourism to the U.S. drops overall. In 2025, visitors to the U.S. fell 5.5%, compared to 2024, and international visitor spending fell 4.6%, the World Travel & Tourism Council said. The figures marked the first time international visitors to the U.S. decreased since 2020, according to the International Trade Administration.
But across the board, On Location is getting more inquiries for film and TV-themed experiences, rather than general vehicle and walking tours, Miller said.
Xiao Stroming, originally from China, also joined the “Ferris” tour. Around 1989, she watched a pirated VHS copy of the movie in Beijing, since movies were restricted in her country. Stroming saw “Ferris” again in the 1990s while in college in the U.S. She had not yet been to Chicago but thought, “That place looks really cool.”
Stroming eventually attended graduate school at the University of Chicago and now lives in Kildeer, north of Chicago. She is a 1980s and ’90s film buff who “knows literally everything about every film.” But even Stroming learned something new on the tour.
In the movie, Ferris parks the red Ferrari at a Loop garage, where two valets borrow it for a joyride across the city. It turns out the garage, at 172 W. Madison St., is where Stroming regularly parks when she’s Downtown.
The anniversary tour let her “discover new things,” she said. “And it’s really special to do it today.”
