Kevin Bacon Is Our Forever Prom Heartthrob: 15 Photos from 'Footloose' to Take You Back to the '80s!

The actor's 1984 film will never not have us dancing

Kevin Bacon is going back to high school.

Last month, the actor announced he'd be traveling to Payson, Utah — where his beloved 1984 film Footloose took place — to visit the high school ahead of prom.

According to Today, students from the school campaigned hard to get the actor there, donating to his SixDegrees.org charity and attracting his attention through some viral moments.

“I’ve been amazed at the work that all of you have been putting into this, with the musical and the flash mobs and the re-creations," he said on Today. "It hasn’t gone unnoticed by me."

With the star returning to where it all began, take a look back on some of his best Footloose moments from the film and its starry premiere.

Everybody Cut Footloose!

On a 2024 episode of his Six Degrees podcast, Kevin Bacon revealed that the cast and crew reshot the memorable end scene long after filming.

"The ending of Footloose has this big dance sequence and in the original, when we originally shot it in Utah it went into slow motion," the actor shared. "When they tested the movie everybody said, 'We don't want slow motion, we want to see people getting down. We want to feel the music and see everybody rocking out.' "

"So we went to California a year later and reshot the ending but not in slow motion, with new choreography and new dancers and a whole bunch of new things," he added, noting that he believes the changes made "definitely helped the movie a lot."

Lose Your Blues

“I think that it was a great gift to be part of that movie,” Kevin Bacon told Today in 2022. “I certainly took it very seriously when I was doing it and I love that people will still come up and say that they just showed it to their kids.”

Been Working So Hard

The film made more than $80 million at the box office in 1984, making it the sixth-highest-grossing film of the year.

Put Your Feet on the Ground

But for Kevin Bacon, that major momentum was daunting.

“There was such a machine sort of behind it once they knew that they had a hit,” he shared in a 2019 interview. “And once they wanted to keep people on then it was like the press and the this and the that and the weird thing was that, for me, even though it’s what I dreamed of and I’d fought so hard for, I was very resistant to it.”

“I’d put aside the pop star idea because I’d fallen in love with the craft of acting, you know, and I wanted to be Meryl Streep. I didn’t want to be David Cassidy," he added, "and so when the movie came out, I was a pop star.”

Jack, Get Back

And when asked how he felt about a reboot of the film, Kevin Bacon was clear on his answer, saying it would be a "disaster."

Kick Off the Sunday Shoes

Kevin Bacon recreated the iconic dance on a 2014 episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and admitted to the host he had to rent the movie to relearn the moves.

Please, Louise

"You work so hard over the course of your life, you do work that you hope is going to affect people," he continued to Fallon. "Moving roles, complex dramas. People come up to me in airport right now and they say, 'I gotta tell you, the most moving thing you've ever done ... was your appearance on Jimmy Fallon.' "

Playing So Cool

PEOPLE's review of the film called Kevin Bacon "so brilliant" as an actor.

Tear Up this Town

Actors John Laughlin and Chris Penn were among Kevin Bacon's young costars in the film.

I've Got This Feeling

In a 2016 chat with PEOPLE, costar Sarah Jessica Parker revealed that a hair change almost cost her the role of Rusty.

"I first got it and turned it down," she shared. "They wanted me to cut my hair off and dye it red because the character's name was Rusty, and I was like, 'Oh God, my hair just grew back from Annie.' I couldn't imagine cutting my hair off and dying it red again, and being a redhead didn't really suit me, so I passed, and they hired Tracy Nelson."

But when things didn't work out with Nelson, Parker got a second chance. "They called me from the set. It didn't work out, and they said, 'Can you fly to Utah tomorrow?' I was like, 'I can, but I cannot cut my hair off and dye it red.' They were like, 'Don't worry about your hair. Just get here.' "

Ooh-wee, Marie

"It was electric," costar Lori Singer told PEOPLE of her chemistry with Kevin Bacon.

The Film's Premiere

Kevin Bacon shined at the film's starry 1984 premiere in Hollywood.

Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell at the Film's Premiere

Also in attendance: a young Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell.

Cher at the Film's Premiere

Cher stepped out to show her support, too!

Jamie Lee Curtis at the Film's Premiere

As did a young Jamie Lee Curtis.

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