Fictional Illinois city (suburb of Chicago) where several John Hughes movies, including Ferris Bueller's Day Off and The Breakfast Club, are set. Because of these movies, it was the destination of Jay and Silent Bob in Kevin Smith's movie Dogma because they thought no one was dealing drugs there and they could fill a need. (I thought this conclusion was rather odd, as the marijuana in The Breakfast Club had to come from somewhere.)

"When I first started making movies, I thought I would just invent a town where everything happened. Everybody, in all my movies, is from Shermer, Illinois. Del Griffith from Planes, Trains & Automobiles lives two doors down from Samantha Baker. Ferris Bueller knew Samantha Baker from Sixteen Candles. For 15 years I've written my Shermer stories in prose, collecting its history." --John Hughes, in Premiere magazine

...and if you pay attention to Anthony Michael Hall's opening monologue in The Breakfast Club, you'll hear the town's ZIP code given as "60062". Look it up...

"Shermer, Illinois" is more or less based on the northern Chicago suburb of Northbrook, where John Hughes' family moved to during his formative teenage years. One of the village's early residents was a man named Shermer (hence the orignal name of "Shermerville", abandoned in the 1940s.) The main street through the center of town is named for him, and Hughes' alma mater, Glenbrook North HS, is located at 2300 Shermer Rd.

Ferris Bueller's Day Off actually used GBN for some of its exterior locations--the front doors as students rush in at the morning bell, the steps where Sloane waits with Rooney, the athletic fields with running PE students that Jeannie drives by. But most of the suburban exteriors in his films are shot in neighboring suburbs of Highland Park, Glencoe, Wilmette, and Winnetka, as well as two nearby closed high school campuses.

The way Jay and Silent Bob describe "Shermer" is pretty accurate, except recreational chemicals were readily available. People who dealt just weren't obvious about it. That said, it'd kick ass if they wreaked havoc on my little home town. :-)

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