the breakfast club is a 1985 american coming of age comedy-drama movie. it was written and directed by john hughes. it is set in a chicago suburb in 1984. it stars emilio estevez, anthony michael hall, judd nelson, molly ringwald and ally sheedy as high school students. it also stars paul gleason as their teacher and john kapelos as the cleaner of the school. it was released to positive reviews on february 15, 1985.