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The Addams are a close-knit extended family with decidedly macabre interests. They are humans with supernatural abilities..The very wealthy, endlessly enthusiastic Gomez Addams is madly in love with his refined wife, the former Morticia Frump. Along with their daughter Wednesday, their son Pugsley, they reside in an ornate, gloomy, Second Empire-style mansion. Much of the humor derives from their culture clash with the rest of the world. They invariably treat normal visitors with great warmth and courtesy, even though their guests often have evil intentions. They are puzzled by the horrified reactions to their [to them] good-natured and normal behavior since they are under the impression that their tastes are shared by most of society. Accordingly they view "conventional" tastes with generally tolerant suspicion.
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Five students — "Criminal", "Athlete", "Brain", "Basket case", and "Princess" — report for Saturday morning detention on March 24, 2013 at Shermer High School in the Chicago suburb of Shermer, Illinois. While not complete strangers, each of them comes from a different clique, and they seem to have nothing in common. They gather in the high school library, where they are ordered not to speak or move from their seats or sleep by the assistant principal. They are to remain there for a period of eight hours, fifty-four minutes (from 7:06 A.M. to 4 P.M.). He assigns a 1,000-word essay (in which each student must write about who he or she thinks they are) and then leaves, returning occasionally to check on them. "Criminal", who has a particularly negative relationship with assistant principal, disregards the rules and riles the other students, mocking "Brain" and "Athlete", and harassing "Princess". "Basket Case" is initially quiet except for the occasional random outburst. The students pass the hours by arguing and smoking marijuana that Bender retrieves from his locker. Gradually they open up to each other and reveal their inner secrets — for example, "Basket Case" is a compulsive liar, "Athlete" hates his father, "Criminal" comes from an abusive household, "Brain" has contemplated suicide, and "Princess" is a virgin. They also discover that they all have strained relationships with their parents and are afraid of making the same mistakes as the adults around them. However, despite these developing friendships, the students are afraid that once the detention is over, they will return to their very different cliques and never speak to each other again. Towards the end of the day, the other students ask "Brain" to write the essay that Assistant Principal assigned earlier. "Brain" does so, but instead of writing about the assigned topic, he writes a letter to assistant principal objecting to his request to describe to him who they are, stating that the man has already judged who they are (an athlete, basket case, princess, brain, and criminal), and that he will not accept any different accounts from them. "Brain" signs the essay as "The Breakfast Club" and leaves it at the table for assistant principal to read when they leave at 4 P.M
