The Goonies
Short description
The Goonies follows a group of kids in a coastal town whose neighbourhood is set to be cleared and demolished to make way for a golf course. Led by Mikey Walsh and joined by his older brother Brand and their friends, the group finds an old treasure map and sets out to locate the hoard of a long-dead pirate, hoping the discovery will let their families keep their homes. Their search takes them into a network of underground caves and booby-trapped passages, while a family of criminals on the run pursues them, also after the gold.
Richard Donner directed the film, the fourth of the eighteen features he made in chronological order, arriving between The Toy and Ladyhawke. Chris Columbus wrote the screenplay, and Donner produced with Harvey Bernhard. Sean Astin plays Mikey, with Josh Brolin as Brand, Jeff Cohen as Chunk, Corey Feldman as Mouth, Kerri Green as Andy and Martha Plimpton as Stef.
Released in June 1985, the film runs 114 minutes and was made for about 19 million dollars, going on to take roughly 70 million worldwide. On IMDb it holds 7.7 from around 325,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.5 from about 6,400, while critics rated it 6.7 from 65 reviews, so audiences have consistently been warmer towards it than reviewers.
What's left behind the scenes
- Data's belt reads '007'.
- Jenny Lew Tugend, the assistant director, played Data's mother.
- Anne Ramsey actually slapped Robert Davi during the scene where the Fratelli brothers argue. As instructed by the director, she was supposed to hit him as hard as possible.
- In Italian, 'fratelli' means 'brothers'.
- Upon his first appearance on screen, Corey Feldman watches the opening scene from "Some Like It Hot" (1959).
- To cry in the 'confession' scene with the Fratelli family, Jeff Cohen thought about his mother's death.
- The word "shit" and its derivatives are uttered 19 times throughout the film.
- One-Eyed Willy's real name is William B. Pordobell.
- Mauff wears a "Purple Rain" (1984) t-shirt throughout the entire film.
- In 1986, Konami released a video game based on the film "The Goonies".
- In the basement of the house where the Fratelli family is hiding, 'The Sea Hawk' (1940) is playing on the television.
- Richard Donner, the film's director, played one of the sheriffs in the film's finale.
- The pirate ship was built life-size. All scenes on the ship were filmed on the actual ship, not on separate sets.
- Steven Spielberg directed at least one scene in the film.
- When Chunk calls the police to report the Fratelli brothers, the officer doesn't believe him and recounts fabricated stories. One of them involves small creatures that begin to mutate when watered. This is a reference to "Gremlins" (1984), which was also written by Chris Columbus and starred Corey Feldman.
- Robert Davi, a professional opera singer, suggested that his character sing in the film.
- In the film's finale, Slote is wearing a Superman emblem t-shirt. Richard Donner directed "Superman" (1978).
- According to Sean Astin, he was allowed to keep the map showing the way to the treasure after filming was completed. However, his mother accidentally threw it away a few years later.
- On the DVD commentary for the film, Jeff Cohen (Chunk) states that his character's confession about vomiting on a theater balcony is fabricated and not based on a real incident. However, this is incorrect. Steven Spielberg pulled the exact same prank as a child in Phoenix.
- Filming took place over five months. Most scenes were shot in roughly the same chronological order as they appear in the film.
- John Matuszak spent five hours in the makeup chair to transform into Sloth.
- After filming, Richard Donner kept One-Eyed Willy's head and a model of the ship as keepsakes.
- In the original version of the film, the woman Mikey's mother hires is a Spanish woman named Rosalita (Lupe Ontiveros). In the dubbed Spanish version, her name is Rossana and she is Italian.
- The actors were forbidden from visiting the pirate ship set until filming the scenes that take place on or near the ship. To enhance the effect of surprise, the scene where the boys first see the pirate ship was decided to be shot without rehearsal. However, its first take with the boys' genuine reaction was ruined because one of them swore loudly.
- The music playing in the scene where the boys find the tunnel after accidentally spilling water is taken from 'The Great Escape' (1963) from the scene where the Germans discover the tunnel after accidentally spilling coffee.
- Josh Brolin's directorial debut.
- Jeff Cohen contracted chickenpox after being cast as Chunk. However, during his illness, he still came to the set because he was afraid he would be replaced by another actor.
- In the scene where the ceiling of the cave with the pirate ship collapses, Jonathan Ke Quan (Data) shouts "Holy S-H-I-T". However, he doesn't say it all at once, but spells out "shit" letter by letter, because he promised his mother that his character wouldn't swear in the film.
- American pop singer Cyndi Lauper, who recorded the song “The Goonies 'R' Good Enough” for the film, played an episodic role as a singer on television within the movie.
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