To avoid being typecast, Hall turned down roles written for him by John Hughes in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" (Cameron Frye) and "Pretty in Pink" (Phil "Duckie" Dale), both in 1986. Instead, he starred in the 1986 film "Out of Bounds", Hall's first excursion into the thriller and action genre. The film grossed only $5 million domestically and was a critical and financial disappointment. Critic Roger Ebert described "Out of Bounds" as "an explosion at the cliché factory," and Caryn James from "The New York Times" claimed that not even "Hall, who made nerds seem lovable in John Hughes' "Sixteen Candles" and "The Breakfast Club", do much to reconcile" the disparate themes of the movie.