Love ’80s movies? Here are 12 behind the scenes images from ’80s movies that will take you back to a radical decade of flash, attitude — and what feels, in retrospect, like a simplicity.
As much as the culture worried at the time about fears like drugs, nuclear war, and even heavy metal, we made it through the ’80s surprisingly OK. The ’90s were arguably more sedate.
These behind the scenes images from classic ’80s movies might make you nostalgic for a time before AI, CGI, social media scolds, and all the other annoyances of the modern movie age.
Risky Business (1983)
Risky Business made stars of Tom Cruise and Rebecca De Mornay (above), but also perfectly captured the mood of the early ’80s — it was a time when young America was ready to grab every opportunity, and live.
The film is best known for the scene of Cruise dancing to Bob Seger, a perfect encapsulation of ’80s movie teenage freedom. But the film also has a gritty, seamier side, and a sense of melancholy that lingers long after the film ends.
There are consequences to the pursuit of more more more, as Risky Business astutely points out. But the risks can be worth the rewards.
Back to the Future (1985)
Behold Christopher Lloyd and Michael J. Fox against a blue screen — sans DeLorean, flames, and terrorists — just before the scene in which Marty McFly races back to the 1950s in Back to the Future, one of the most crowd-pleasing of all ’80s movies.
One of the most charming things about Robert Zemeckis’ sci-fi comedy is its own nostalgia for the 1950s: the cars, the clothes, the rock n roll.
And one of the wildest things about watching Back to the Future today is that it takes place 41 years ago, even further back in time than 1955 was for the characters in the beloved film.
Back to the Future was executive produced by Steven Spielberg, whose name is going to come up a lot in this list.
The Breakfast Club (1985)
For a certain demographic who went to high school in the ’80s, Molly Ringwald was the face of the decade.
She’s pictured above with writer-director John Hughes on the set of The Breakfast Club, with whom she also collaborated on 1984’s Sixteen Candles and 1986’s Pretty in Pink (which Hughes wrote but didn’t direct.)
Hughes is one of the directors most associated with ’80s movies, and also wrote and directed the next film on our list.
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)
Alan Ruck and Mia Sera, who play Cameron and Sloane, on the set of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
The photo above was taken during the film’s ebullient parade scene, in which Ferris (Matthew Broderick) leaps onto a float with a gathering of frauleins to sing the Beatles’ version of “Twist and Shout” — one of many iconic moments in one of John Hughes’ most beloved films.
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off celebrates its 40th anniversary in June, and occasion marked by Jason Klamm’s new book Ferris Bueller… You’re My Hero. Here’s an excerpt that recounts the making of the parade scene.
Beverly Hills Cop (1984)
For some, Molly Ringwald is the face of ’80s movies. For others, Tom Cruise. But let’s not forget Eddie Murphy, who kicked off the decade as perhaps the greatest performer ever to appear on Saturday Night Live — starting when he was only 19 — and ended it with classic Coming to America, one of the 12 funniest movies we’ve ever seen.
In between, he made Beverly Hills Cop, a movie that highlighted his comic chops and incredible way with characters, but also his strengths as an action star. In the behind the scenes image above, he rehearses a fight scene for the classic ’80s movie.
It’s a celebration of cinematic excess that also makes fun of that excess, positioning Murphy’s Detroit cop, Axel Foley, as a fast-talking fish out of water who quickly makes fools of everyone on land.
Better Off Dead (1985)
Some people don’t recognize Better Off Dead as one of the most essential of classic ’80s movies. Are those people wrong? You bet your two dollars.
A magnificently dark and absurdist teen comedy, the Savage Steve Holland masterpiece follows Lane Meyer (John Cusack) as he flips burgers, pines for ex-girlfriend Beth, dreams of skiing the K12, and meets someone amazing.
Above, the core cast — from left to right: Aaron Dozier, Amanda Wyss, Cusack, Dan Schneider, Diane Franklin, and, in the very ’80s movie stretched-across-the-floor spot, Curtis Armstrong.
And congratulations ot Dozier, whose perfectly named villain, Roy Stalin, is one our list of the 12 best cocky blond guys in ’80s movies.
Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)
Above, Phoebe Cates films one of the most iconic moments of all ’80s movies, the pool scene in Fast Times as Ridgemont High.
Based on writer Cameron Crowe’s experiences undercover at a real Southern California high school, the film endures thanks to director Amy Heckerling’s decision to take her teenage characters seriously, and to take their side in a story of kids trying to keep up in a world moving too fast.
It launched the careers of many stars, including Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Forest Whitaker, and Judge Reinhold — though Cates decided to quit Hollywood while she was at the top of her game.
Ghostbusters (1984)
Like many Hollywood stars, the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man is a little… shorter in person in this behind the scenes image from Ghostbusters, one of the most enduring of all ’80s movies.
Ivan Reitman’s horror comedy, starring Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson as ghost-trappers who dress like exterminators, spawned a franchise that ensures today.
But for us it peaked at the moment that an innocent memory of campfires turned into the nightmarish spectacle of a giant marshmallow man trampling Godzilla-style through the grime of ’80s New York City.
Gremlins (1984)
Executive produced by Steven Spielberg (center), Gremlins highlighted the talents of young Corey Feldman and Zach Galligan. The latter played a young man who gets a very adorable pet, known as a mogwai, for Christmas.
Unfortunately, as everyone who grew up in the ’80s knows, things go very badly when you get a mogwai wet, or feed it after midnight.
Gremlins — particularly the microwave scene — was one of the films that led the MPAA (now known as the MPAA) to introduce the PG-13 rating, for scenes deemed a little too much for younger audience.
Another key film in that decision was the next film on our list.
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
Suffice it to say, Steven Spielberg had a very busy ’80s. And he hasn’t really slowed down — his next film, Disclosure Day, arrives in theaters in early June.
The director takes a rare break, above, on the set of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. He’s hanging out with future wife Kate Capshaw, who stars in the film as Willie Scott; George Lucas, who wrote the story and produced; and Indiana Jones himself, Harrison Ford.
One of our favorite things about Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is that it never really slows down.
E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
Spielberg had huge hits with Gremlins and the Indiana Jones films, but nothing he’s made before or since has landed with audiences like E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial.
The painful but ultimately heartwarming story of a lost alien who wants to go home was the most successful of all ’80s movies in terms of box office, which makes it all the more stunning that it has never had a sequel or remake.
Not that it needs one: E.T.’s influence turns up everywhere, most notably in the runaway Netflix hit Stranger Things.
Spaceballs (1987)
Bill Pullman, Mel Brooks and Rick Moranis on the set of Spaceballs, Brooks’ hilarious sendup of the Star Wars saga.
Brooks is wearing Moranis’ helmet, but that’s OK — he’s the director. He of course played Yogurt, the wise figure who explains that merchandising is the most powerful force in the galaxy.
Spaceballs lands quite quite high in our ranking of all 11 Mel Brooks films, and it’s very long-awaited sequel arrives in theaters next April, when Brooks will be 100 years old.
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Main image: Lisa Freeman, Lea Thompson and and Christen Kauffman behind the scenes of Back to the Future. Universal.
