The Volbecks

The most well known member of the Volbeck family is Garth Volbeck — an eighteen-year-old outsider in the Shermer, Illinois community. 

Image: Paramount Pictures


While Garth is referenced in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off only as “Boy In Police Station” during the final credits, much more can be learned about the Volbeck family with a close look at the film and a dive into the movie’s novelization and script. 

We are first introduced to Garth late in FBDO during his conversation and unexpected moment of teenage passion with Ferris’s sister Jeanie inside the Shermer Police Department. From these few moments, we learn two important pieces of information:

  1. Garth has been brought to the police station for drug-related reasons. 
  2. Ferris and Garth know one another well enough that Garth is about to suggest Jeanie talk with Ferris about her issues with her brother (unaware that Ferris is her brother).

Image: Paramount Pictures


The film concludes their time together with Jeanie sharing her name with Garth but stops short of Garth sharing his in return. In both the novelization (Chapter 25) and the original script (Scene 189), their conversation and budding relationship go a bit further. From the book:

Garth: Can I see you again?

Jeanie: Yes, I can sneak out tonight after everyone’s asleep. Where should we meet?”

Garth: I don’t know. I may be in jail … Hey, what’s your name?

Jeanie: Jean. What’s yours?

Garth: Garth Volbeck.

Garth is described in Chapter 25 as a “head-banger” with the script (Scene 186) mentioning that his t-shirt features Canadian metal band Triumph. But it’s Ferris himself who, earlier in his day off, shares a great deal of information about the Volbecks beyond our brief introduction to Garth at the police station.

Image: Paramount Pictures


In Chapter 8 of the FBDO novelization, Cameron is growing worried that he may be identified having just made a “phony phone call to Edward Rooney.” Ferris suggests that excessive worry is probably why Cameron is frequently sick and shares with him the story of Garth Volbeck – a “kid who has a something to worry about” due to his “screwed-up” family situation:

“His mother runs a gas station. His father is dead, and his sister is rumored to be a prostitute.

“It isn’t true. She just puts out so people will hang out with her. Garth also has an older brother in jail whose [sic] a registered psycho. I once watched the guy eat a whole bowl of artificial fruit just so he could see what it was like to have his stomach pumped.

“But how do you think that makes Garth feel? I mean, the guy is so conditioned to grief he doesn’t even feel it anymore.”

Cameron asks Ferris what Garth is up to now.

“He’s gone, man. Gone from school. Gone from life. His legacy is a gas station.”

While this characterization of Garth paints his life as one full of instability, a monologue from Ferris early in the original script (Scene 16) takes the Volbeck family to a much darker place:

[Ferris] walks across the room to his dresser. He opens his underwear drawer. There’s an old model of a submarine on the top of the dresser. He picks it up.

“In eighth grade a friend of mine made a bong out of one of these. The smoke tasted like glue.

“His name is Garth Volbeck. He’s a serious outsider. Not a bad guy, I like him. I’m probably his only friend. I do what I can for him. I mean, if I was him, I’d appreciate it. Do unto others, right? Anyway, his mother owns a gas station. His father’s dead and his sister’s rumored to be a prostitute, which is complete bullshit. She only puts out so other people will hang out with her. It’s sad but I don’t hold it against her. Better to hold it against the guys who use her and don’t care about her.

“My parents never allowed Garth over here. It was because of his family, mainly his older brother. He’s in jail. I could see them not wanting his brother here because he is a registered psycho. I wouldn’t want him here. I once watched the guy eat a whole bowl of artificial fruit just so he could see what it was like to have his stomach pumped. But Garth isn’t his brother. It isn’t his fault that his brother’s screwed-up. A lot of fights with the parents on that point. I always felt for Garth. I was sleeping at his house once and I was laying in the dark worrying that his brother was going to come in and hack me to death with an ax and I heard Garth crying. I asked him what was wrong and he said, ‘Nothing.’

“...Nothing was wrong. There was no specific thing he was crying about. In fact, he wasn’t really even aware that he was crying. He just cried himself to sleep every night. It was a habit. The guy’s so conditioned to grief that if he doesn’t feel it, he can’t sleep. How could you possibly dump on a guy who has to deal with that kinda shit? My parents acknowledge the trudge of the situation and I’m sure that deep down, they do feel for him but still the guy’s banned from our house.

“Unfortunately, now my parents have a legit argument. Garth doesn’t need his brother to give him a rep anymore. He’s getting one on his own. He’s lost. It’s over for him. He’s eighteen. Gone from school. Gone from life. His legacy is a gas station.”

The Volbeck House

Furthering the Volbeck family’s presence in the Shermer community, we learn from the FBDO script that one of the houses Mrs. Bueller is shopping to the family from Vermont is currently owned by the Volbecks. In Scene 47 of the original script, we find Mrs. Bueller sitting behind a desk talking with two colleagues. This scene occurs just before she takes the infamous “nine times” phone call from Mr. Rooney:

MRS. BUELLER

“No one is going to consider a house with a black living room. Not even those jerks from Vermont. Let’s be realistic.”

One of the co-workers responds just before the phone rings.

CO-WORKER 

“Mrs. Volbeck’s dead set against putting any money into the house.”

Solidifying the fact that the Volbeck family home is currently for sale is a deleted scene where the family from Vermont is being shown a home by their real estate agent, Mrs. Bueller. Outside the home is a unique yard decoration — a large tire painted white and marked with the family name. Volbeck.

Image: Paramount Pictures

The Towing Business

Also outside the Volbeck home, we see a tow truck parked in the driveway with a logo on the door. 

Image: Paramount Pictures


The truck and the logo are noticeably similar to the ones seen at approximate 01:10:57 in the film as Mr. Rooney’s car is towed away from the street in front of the Bueller home. The company tasked with removing Mr. Rooney’s car?

Volbeck’s Wrecker Service.

Image: Paramount Pictures


And just for fun, here’s a look at the Volbeck’s employee who rigged up Mr. Rooney’s car. We don’t get a good look at him in the film, but there he is in a few seconds of cut footage wearing a Hawaiian shirt and cut-off jean shorts. In the film we see him from a brief second as he closes the door to the truck before he and his partner drive away.

Image: Paramount Pictures


At the Shermer Police Station

Using the film’s final cut as the baseline standard, we don’t learn much about Garth or the Volbeck family by watching the scene at the police station. 

Image: Paramount Pictures


He never mentions his name but does make mention of his sister as he confirms the public’s perception of her that Ferris references in the book and the script.

“You wear too much eye make-up. My sister wears too much. People think she’s a whore.”

The biggest take-away from the police station is by far one of the most subtle references to the Volbecks that remains in the film. Let’s first remember this exchange between Jeanie and Garth:

Garth: Drugs?

Jeanie: Thank you. No. I’m straight.

Garth: I meant, are you in here for drugs?

Jeanie: Why are you here?

Garth: Drugs.

Let’s also recall the first thing Ferris tells us about Garth Volbeck in the original script when he picks up the model submarine off his dresser:

“In eighth grade a friend of mine made a bong out of one of these. The smoke tasted like glue.”

Now take a look at the scene where Mrs. Bueller is in Detective Lim’s office speaking with him about Jeanie’s alleged phony phone call (01:27:49 in the film). Seen on the detective’s desk is something missed by FBDO viewers for years. There, in plain sight, is a model submarine modified with a pipe protruding from its top near Detective Lim’s right hand.

Image: Paramount Pictures


A person would have to be paying especially close attention to the few seconds the submarine model is shown and also be familiar with the specifics of the original FBDO script to have even the slightest chance of making this connection. A connection which, as far as I can tell, has gone undiscovered until now.

Back at the Bueller House

Returning to the Bueller house at the end of the film, Jeanie puts the local water tower message into literal practice and saves her brother from the clutches of Edward R. Rooney, Dean of Students. Inside the house, before their parents are able to check on Ferris face-to-face, Jeanie makes it clear in the script (Scene 204) that Garth Volbeck is still on her mind.

Jeanie: Do you know a guy named Garth Volbeck?

Ferris: Vaguely.

Jeanie: Is he cool?

Ferris: He’s cool. But stay away from his brother.

Notes

It has been suggested that Charlie Sheen stayed awake for over 48 hours straight prior to filming the police station scene in order to achieve his desired look for the character.

Sheen reprised his role in 2013 for Season 2, Episode 14 of The Goldbergs – an episode titled "Barry Goldberg’s Day Off."

Image: Happy Madison Productions


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