The Breakfast Club 4K Ultra HD Review

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

A Generational Touchstone: More Than Just a Teen Movie

If you were a teenager in the 1980s, as I was, then John Hughes’ The Breakfast Club was almost like the 12 Angry Men for your generation. Hughes, who had previously directed the mushy but successful Sixteen Candles (1984) and would follow this one up with Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986), wrote and directed this middle film in his “teen trilogy.” He handed a generation of kids a nearly perfect fishbowl view of those awkward high school years, a time spent struggling to both create an individual identity and to fit in.

The Plot: Five Stereotypes in Saturday Detention

“You see us as a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, and a criminal. Correct?” That’s how The Breakfast Club begins, with a voice-over from Anthony Michael Hall’s “brain,” Brian Johnson, reciting the opening line of the essay he has written for his fellow Saturday detention detainees and for Principal Mr. Vernon (Paul Gleason). What follows is a character study of these teenage archetypes: “the athlete” Andrew Clark (Emilio Estevez), “the basket case” Allison Reynolds (Ally Sheedy), “the princess” Claire Standish (Molly Ringwald), and “the criminal” John Bender (Judd Nelson).

Breaking Down the High School Hierarchy

Thrown together for various ‘crimes’ committed in school, these disparate high school students find themselves in an unwanted predicament. They initially fall into the usual school hierarchy, with popular girl Claire and jock Andrew at the top of the heap, eccentric Allison and nerdy Brian at the bottom, and rebellious John Bender railing against everyone from the outside. However, as they find common cause in standing up against the callous Mr. Vernon and begin to share personal anecdotes with each other, they start to realize that they aren’t so different after all. Each of them is trying their best to fit in and avoid being, for lack of a better word, a loser.

The Lasting Legacy of The Breakfast Club

Teen films often fall by the wayside. They may be popular amongst their target audience for that fleeting moment when kids are young and impressionable, but then they lose their broader appeal. The Breakfast Club is one of the few films of the genre that is truly transcendent. While looking back on it through older eyes, one sees it from a different perspective; the fact that there are multiple perspectives to see it from gives it a distinct advantage. It is not just teen fodder, but a film that gives an honest look at the teenage experience at that moment in the mid-1980s. Hughes would never quite strive for that sort of emotional depth again in his films, either as a writer or director, but we’ll always have this film to look back on.

The Video

This new 4K digital restoration of The Breakfast Club was created from the original 35mm camera negative provided by Universal and is presented in a 1.85:1 HEVC 2160p (4K UHD) Dolby Vision encodement. The upgrade over the 2018 Blu-ray is incremental at best, but this release still looks great. After what seems like a rough start with the opening Universal Pictures splash screen and opening credits looking pretty soft, really clear up and the transfer looks clean, crisp, and filmic with a thin layer of grain, with natural colors. The film grain structure is more refined than the 2018 Criterion Blu-ray release and colors look just a hint more vibrant. The specular highlights aren’t much brighter, but there is a little more pop in the fluorescent lights in the classroom and those sorts of items.

The Audio

The Breakfast Club arrives with the same audio mixes as the 2018 Blu-ray from Criterion. The original monaural soundtrack was remastered from the 35mm DME (dialogue, music and effects) track. Clicks, hiss, thumps, hum, and crackle were manually removed using Pro Tools HD and iZotope RX. Additionally, a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 remix is included. Both tracks are clean and intelligible. The mono mix is a little boxy but has good punch. The 5.1 adds just mild atmospherics through the surround channels while the dialogue and effects remain in the front with a mostly narrow stereo field; it’s a glorified mono track with an incrementally wider and fuller soundstage.

The Supplements

As always, the Criterion Collection packs this release with a hefty dose of high-quality special features including commentaries, interviews, and archival features. The bonus features are all loaded onto the Blu-ray except the audio commentary which appears on both the 4K and Blu-ray discs. There is nothing new included over the 2018 Blu-ray release from Criterion Collection.

• Commentary recorded in 2008 featuring Anthony Michael Hall and Judd Nelson (On 4K & Blu-ray)
• Deleted and Extended Scenes (00:51:39) – A selection of scenes cut from a 150-minute rough cut of The Breakfast Club.
• Cast and Crew – Interviews with the cast and crew. The first was conducted by Criterion Collection in New York City in 2017, the rest were recorded on the set of the film in 1984:
  • Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy
  • Judd Nelson
  • Ally Sheedy
  • Irene Brafstein
  • Paul Gleason
• Two Audio interviews with director John Hughes:
  • John Hughes – American Film Institute, 1985
  • Sound Opinions, 1999
• Electronic Press Kit (1080i; 00:23:49)
• Today (1080i; 00:09:42) – This excerpt from a 1985 episode of NBC’s Today features host Jane Pauley interviewing actors Molly Ringwald, Judd Nelson, Anthony Michael Hall, Emilio Estevez, and Ally Sheedy.
• Describe the Ruckus (1080p; 00:12:13) – This video essay by the Criterion Collection features actor Judd Nelson reading from director John Hughes’ production notes for The Breakfast Club.
• This American Life (1080p; 00:15:13) – In this episode of Chicago Public Media radio program This American Life, host Ira Glass interviews actor Molly Ringwald about what happened when she watched The Breakfast Club with her daughter, and, for the first time, saw the movie from the point of view of the parent, not the teenagers.
• Essay by author and critic David Kamp

The Final Assessment

One of John Hughes’ finest moments as a writer/director, this enduring classic from 1985 stands the test of time and remains a highly watchable film for teens and adults. The Criterion Collection 4K release looks and sounds gorgeous, but may not be a necessary or immediate upgrade for anyone who owns their also superb 2018 Blu-ray release.

The Breakfast Club is out on 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray November 4, 2025 from the Criterion Collection

Details

• Rating Certificate: R
• Studios & Distributors: Universal Pictures | A&M Films | Channel Productions | The Criterion Collection
• Director: John Hughes
• Written By: John Hughes
• Run Time: 97 Mins.
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Video Format: HEVC 2160p (4K UHD)
• HDR Format: Dolby Vision (HDR10 Compatible)
• Primary Audio: English LPCM 1.0
• Secondary Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1
• Subtitles: English SDH
• Street Date: 4 November 2025