1985 film directed by Richard Donner
"Goonies" redirects here. For other uses, see Goonies (disambiguation)
The Goonies is a 1985 American adventure 😗 comedy film directed and co-produced by Richard Donner from a screenplay by Chris Columbus based on a story by Steven 😗 Spielberg and starring Sean Astin, Josh Brolin, Jeff Cohen, Corey Feldman, Kerri Green, Martha Plimpton, and Ke Huy Quan, with 😗 supporting roles done by John Matuszak, Anne Ramsey, Robert Davi, Joe Pantoliano, and Mary Ellen Trainor. In the film, a 😗 group of kids who live in the "Goon Docks" neighborhood of Astoria, Oregon, attempt to save their homes from foreclosure 😗 and, in doing so, they discover an old treasure map that takes them on an adventure to unearth the long-lost 😗 fortune of One-Eyed Willy, a legendary 17th-century pirate. During the adventure, they are chased by a family of criminals who 😗 want the treasure for themselves.
The film was produced by Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, and released by Warner Bros. theatrically on June 😗 7, 1985, in the United States. The film grossedR$125 million worldwide on a budget ofR$19 million and has since become 😗 a cult film.[3][4] In 2024, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the 😗 Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[5][6]
Plot [ edit ]
Facing foreclosure of their homes in the "Goon 😗 Docks" area of Astoria, Oregon, to an expanding country club, a group of children who call themselves "the Goonies" (Mikey, 😗 Data, Mouth, and Chunk) gather for a final weekend together.
Rummaging through the Walshes' attic, they come across a 1632 doubloon 😗 and an old treasure map purporting to lead to the treasure of legendary pirate "One-Eyed Willy", believed to be located 😗 somewhere nearby. Mikey considers One-Eyed Willy to be the original Goonie. Seeing the treasure as their last chance to save 😗 their homes, the kids overpower and bind Mikey's older brother Brand and make their way to an abandoned restaurant on 😗 the coast that coincides with the map. Brand soon follows alongside Andy, a cheerleader with a crush on him; and 😗 Stef, Andy's friend.
The group eventually discovers that the derelict restaurant is a hideout of the Fratelli crime family: Francis, Jake, 😗 and their mother. The Goonies find a tunnel in the basement and follow it, but Chunk leaves to alert the 😗 police. When Chunk flags down a motorist to go to the sheriff's station, it turns out to be the Fratellis 😗 who imprison him with their hulking, deformed, younger brother Sloth. The Fratellis interrogate Chunk until he reveals where the Goonies 😗 have gone, and begin pursuit. Chunk is left behind with Sloth, whom he befriends. After Sloth frees both of them, 😗 Chunk calls the sheriff, who thinks it is another one of Chunk's tall tales. Chunk and Sloth follow the trail 😗 of the Fratellis.
The Goonies evade several deadly booby traps along the tunnels, while barely staying ahead of the Fratellis. They 😗 finally reach the grotto where Willy's pirate ship, The Inferno, is anchored. The group discovers that the ship is filled 😗 with treasure, and they start filling their pockets, but Mikey warns them not to take any on a set of 😗 scales in front of Willy's skeleton, considering that to be their tribute to him.
As the Goonies are planning their escape, 😗 the Fratellis appear and strip them of their loot. The Fratellis start to bind the Goonies' hands and make them 😗 walk the plank until Chunk and Sloth arrive and distract the Fratellis long enough for the Goonies to jump overboard 😗 and swim to safety. Brand saves Andy from drowning and they kiss. The Fratellis proceed to grab all the treasure 😗 they can, including those on Willy's scales; this triggers another booby trap, which causes the grotto to cave in. With 😗 Sloth's help, the Goonies and Fratellis barely escape.
The two groups emerge on Astoria's beach, where the Goonies reunite with their 😗 families and the police. The Fratellis are arrested, but Chunk prevents Sloth from also being taken; he invites Sloth to 😗 live with him, which Sloth accepts. Just as Mikey's father is about to sign the foreclosure papers, the Walshes' housekeeper 😗 Rosalita discovers that Mikey's marble bag is filled with gems he took from the ship that had not been seized 😗 by the Fratellis. Mikey's father triumphantly rips up the papers, declaring that they have enough money to negate the foreclosure.
As 😗 the Goonies are recounting their adventure to the disbelieving press and police, everyone's attention is drawn to the Inferno, having 😗 broken free of the grotto, sailing off majestically on its own in the distance.
Cast [ edit ]
Director Richard Donner makes 😗 an uncredited cameo appearance as a sheriff's deputy.[7] The film's cinematographer Nick McLean also has a cameo as Mouth's father. 😗 The part of the dead FBI agent was performed by stuntman Ted Grossman.[8]
Production [ edit ]
The old Clatsop County Jail, 😗 where the scene of the Fratelli jailbreak took place; the site is now home to the Oregon Film Museum.
Much of 😗 the filming was done on location in Astoria, Oregon, the setting of the film.
Principal photography on The Goonies began on 😗 October 22, 1984, and lasted five months. An additional six weeks of audio dubbing and recording were used. The shooting 😗 script was lengthy, at more than 120 pages, to which several sequences were eventually cut from the final theatrical version. 😗 During the film's dénouement, mention is made of an octopus, which refers to a scene that was excised from the 😗 final cut.
In the documentary The Making of The Goonies, Richard Donner noted both the difficulties and pleasures of working with 😗 so many child actors. He praised them for their energy and excitement, but also said that they were also unruly 😗 when brought together. As a result, the documentary frequently showed him coaching the actors and revealing some techniques he used 😗 to create realistic performances. One of these tricks involved One-Eyed Willy's pirate ship, which was actually a full-sized replica of 😗 a pirate ship created under the direction of production designer J. Michael Riva. Donner restricted the actors from seeing the 😗 ship until they filmed the scene wherein it is revealed to their characters; the characters' first glimpse of the ship 😗 was also the actors' first view of it, bringing about a more realistic performance. However, that particular scene in the 😗 final cut was actually the second take, due to the cast feeling so overwhelmed at first sight that the scene 😗 had to be reshot. The entire set was scrapped after shooting because they could not find anyone who wanted it.[10]
In 😗 his book There and Back Again, Sean Astin claimed that Donner and Spielberg were "like co-directors" on the film as 😗 he compared and contrasted their styles when directing scenes.[11]
Some of the on-location filming was done in Astoria. The interior and 😗 exterior of the old Clatsop County Jail features as the holding place of Jake Fratelli at the start of the 😗 film. (The building was later converted into the Oregon Film Museum, which opened on the 25th anniversary of The Goonies 😗 with memorabilia from this and other local films.)[12] The museum where Mikey's father works is, in reality, the Captain George 😗 Flavel House Museum. The Walsh family home is a real home on the eastern end of the town.[12] The road 😗 leading to the home was closed to tours in 2024. The scenes along the coast were filmed in Oregon, but 😗 they were a considerable distance from Astoria. The Goonies bicycle to Ecola State Park (in reality, over 26 miles south 😗 of Astoria) and then find the starting location of the map using Haystack Rock as a guide. Underground scenes were 😗 filmed at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California, including the cavernous set where the Goonies find One-Eyed Willy's ship, which 😗 was in Stage 16, one of the largest sound stages in the United States.[13] The final scene was shot at 😗 Goat Rock State Beach in Sonoma County, California.[14][15][16]
The film also marked Wes Takahashi's first major motion picture as an animation 😗 supervisor for Industrial Light & Magic.[17]
Music and soundtrack [ edit ]
The Goonies: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack features music by Cyndi 😗 Lauper, REO Speedwagon, The Bangles, and others. The cast members (except Kerri Green) appeared alongside professional wrestlers "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, 😗 The Iron Sheik, Nikolai Volkoff, and "Captain" Lou Albano (who previously appeared in her "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" video) 😗 in the 12-minute "The Goonies 'R' Good Enough" music video. Steven Spielberg makes a cameo appearance. Lauper also has a 😗 cameo in the film, performing the song on TV, although the song was not completed until after filming.
Dave Grusin's score 😗 was unavailable for 25 years. The main theme, "Fratelli Chase", has been used in numerous trailers, such as Innerspace, Scrooged, 😗 and Guarding Tess, and was re-recorded by Grusin and the London Symphony Orchestra for the album Cinemagic. The score makes 😗 liberal use of the Max Steiner-composed theme from Adventures of Don Juan.[18]
Soundtrack label Varèse Sarabande released the score on CD 😗 in March 2010 in a limited edition of 5,000 copies. The company reissued the score on CD as a wide 😗 release in June 2024, but with the previous CD's four bonus tracks omitted.[19]
Release [ edit ]
Warner Bros. released the film 😗 in cinemas across the United States on June 7, 1985.
Home media [ edit ]
The Goonies was first released on VHS 😗 and Betamax video in the United States in March 1986 and the LaserDisc and CED versions also debuted that year. 😗 Warner Home Video released a theatrical widescreen laserdisc on January 29, 1992. Warner Home Video released The Goonies in widescreen 😗 on Region 1 DVD on August 21, 2001.[20][21] Warner Home Video released The Goonies on Blu-ray Disc in October 2008 😗 in Europe and November 2010 in North America. The video is in 1080p high-definition VC-1 and accompanied by a Dolby 😗 TrueHD soundtrack. Warner released the film on Ultra HD Blu-ray in September 2024 in North America.[22]
Reception [ edit ]
Critical response 😗 [ edit ]
Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 77% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 😗 64 reviews, with an average rating of 6.5/10. The critical consensus: "The Goonies is an energetic, sometimes noisy mix of 😗 Spielbergian sentiment and fun-house tricks that will appeal to kids and nostalgic adults alike."[23] At Metacritic it has a rating 😗 score of 62 based on 13 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[24]
Roger Ebert gave the film three stars out of four 😗 and called the film "a smooth mixture of the usual ingredients from Steven Spielberg action movies, made special because of 😗 the high-energy performances of the kids who have the adventures."[25] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune also awarded three stars 😗 out of four and wrote that after a dull start "some kind of minor movie miracle takes place, and The 😗 Goonies gets its act together as the kids stop trading wisecracks and get closer to finding their long-lost pirate treasure, 😗 thereby to help save their parents' homes. Only then do we accept The Goonies for what it is—a funny juvenile 😗 windup toy about kids in perilous, comic-book situations."[26] Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote that the film "has 😗 a kind of breakneck pacing that keeps it fast, funny, ingenious, entertaining, and — only a small point while the 😗 movie is in progress — almost entirely without staying power."[27] Variety called it "a dangerous Disneyland sort of a film 😗 stamped with the Steven Spielberg style of high fun. Like other Spielberg summer extravaganzas, pic is a roller coaster ride 😗 best enjoyed as it's speeding along. Once it stops to consider the sacred state of adolescence, it becomes painfully syrupy."[28] 😗 Michael Wilmington of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the film "resembles nothing so much as a wildly exaggerated fun-fair 😗 ride, one that keeps comically exposing you to dangers, comically pulling you away, then, finally, with a shivering plop, deposits 😗 you on dry land, in the bosom of your family."[29] Paul Attanasio of The Washington Post called it "an artfully 😗 crafted movie, thrumming with energy and sometimes wit, and utterly uninvolving for anyone over the age of 12."[30] Colin Greenland 😗 reviewed The Goonies for White Dwarf and stated, "The Goonies I was unable to enjoy because of a bunch of 😗 kids yelling and screaming all the way through. Not the audience, the actors."[31]
Box office [ edit ]
The Goonies grossedR$9 million 😗 in its opening weekend in the U.S., second on the charts behind Rambo: First Blood Part II.[32] It grossedR$63.9 million 😗 in the United States and Canada, placing it among the top-10 highest-grossing films of 1985[33] andR$60.6 million overseas for a 😗 worldwide gross ofR$125 million.[2]
Awards [ edit ]
Ramsey won a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as "Mama" 😗 Fratelli.[34] At the 7th Youth in Film Awards (now known as Young Artist Awards), Astin's portrayal of Mikey won the 😗 award for Best Starring Performance By a Young Actor in a Motion Picture. Cohen, Feldman, and Plimpton were also nominated 😗 for awards for their performances in The Goonies. The film itself was nominated for best adventure motion picture.[35]
Legacy [ edit 😗 ]
Special anniversary events for the film, hosted by the city of Astoria, have drawn about 10,000 to 15,000 visitors.[36] The 😗 home used for the Walsh family has become a tourist attraction, receiving between 1,200 and 1,500 visitors a day during 😗 the summer of the 30th anniversary. As a result, in August 2024, the residents and owners of the home, their 😗 neighbors, and the city of Astoria took steps to limit public access to the home.[37]
Video games [ edit ]
Datasoft produced 😗 a Goonies video game for Commodore 64, Atari 8-bit family, and Apple II in 1985, which was later ported to 😗 the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC by U.S. Gold.[38][39] This game features eight screens in which a player had to 😗 use two members of the Goonies group to solve puzzles and reach an exit to advance to the next stage. 😗 The screens were largely inspired by actual sets and puzzles seen in the film. A reference to the aforementioned "octopus 😗 scene" is included, as the seventh level.
In 1986, Japanese game developer Konami created two versions of The Goonies for the 😗 MSX (The Goonies) in Japan and Europe, and Family Computer (The Goonies) in Japan. The Goonies II was also released 😗 on the Famicom (and its international counterpart, the Nintendo Entertainment System). The Goonies II was released in North America, Europe, 😗 and Australia, although the original was one of the NES games released as part of the Nintendo VS. System arcade 😗 machine in the 1980s. The Goonies II has little to do with the film. In it, the Fratellis have kidnapped 😗 all the Goonies (except Mikey, whom the player guides) and have hidden them in cages across a terrain of caverns, 😗 mazes, and abandoned buildings. As Mikey, the player must rescue them all and ultimately free a mermaid named Annie. Mikey 😗 was also a playable character in Konami's 1988 Famicom title Wai Wai World, which included a Goonies-themed level.
In February 2007, 😗 Chrysler's Jeep division sponsored The Goonies: Return to Astoria, a Flash-based online game developed by Fuel Industries. The player's goal 😗 is to collect map pieces and doubloons, and then race the Fratellis to One-Eyed Willy's treasure.[40][41]
A Goonies level pack for 😗 Lego Dimensions was released on May 9, 2024. The pack includes a constructible pirate ship, a skeleton organ, and a 😗 Sloth minifigure who is able to change into the other Goonies and unlocks a bonus level that adapts the plot 😗 of the film from the perspective of him and Chunk.[42]
Cancelled sequels and adaptations [ edit ]
We tried really hard, and 😗 Steven (Spielberg) said, 'Let's do it.' We had a lot of young writers submit work, but it just didn't seem 😗 to call for it. —Richard Donner[43]
The possibility of a film sequel has been confirmed and denied many times over the 😗 years by the original cast and crew. Donner said that he had a story he liked and Spielberg behind him, 😗 but in 2004, several of the actors from the original revealed that Warner Bros., the film's owner, had shown no 😗 interest in a sequel.[44] Sean Astin told MTV in October 2007 that Goonies 2 "is an absolute certainty ... The 😗 writing's on the wall when they're releasing the DVD in such numbers."[45] Donner has expressed doubt that a sequel will 😗 ever happen, as many of the actors had not shown interest in returning for one.[46] Corey Feldman stated in his 😗 November 25, 2008 blog post, "NO! There is no Goonies 2! I'm sorry but it's just not gonna happen .... 😗 Course now that I've said that, they'll do it."[47] However, on the July 2010 release of The Making of a 😗 Cult Classic: The Unauthorized Story of The Goonies DVD,[48] Richard Donner states a sequel to The Goonies is a "definite 😗 thing" and will involve as much of the old cast as possible. "It will happen," says Donner. "We've been trying 😗 for a number of years."[49] On April 5, 2014, Richard Donner revealed a sequel is in the works, and he 😗 hopes to bring back the entire cast.[50] In the 2024 reunion event, Spielberg stated "Chris, Dick and I — and 😗 Lauren [Shuler Donner] — have had a lot of conversations about [a sequel]...Every couple of years we come up with 😗 an idea but then it doesn't hold water."[51] In May 2024, Feldman stated that despite Columbus saying that he is 😗 writing a sequel, the chances for a sequel are "dead" as Donner had chosen to direct Lethal Finale as his 😗 final film, and the cast did not want to return if Donner was not involved.[52] Donner died almost two months 😗 later, making the chances of a sequel even less likely.
Rumors of adaptations and sequels in other media took off in 😗 2007, including a comic-book miniseries,[53] an animated television series and a musical adaptation of the film. Corey Feldman said he 😗 was asked to reprise the role of Mouth in an animated series that would feature the original Goonies characters as 😗 adults and focus on the adventures of a new set of kids.[54] Apparently, this project was briefly in the works 😗 for Cartoon Network before being shelved.[55] Entertainment Weekly reported in March 2007 on a potential musical adaptation of the film. 😗 "Steven and I have discussed it, and it's something that I'm fairly passionate about right now," Donner says.[56] Variety reported 😗 in October 2008 that Donner had met with Broadway entertainment attorney John Breglio, and is "confident things are moving in 😗 the right direction."[43] As of May 2011, the musical was still in the beginning stages, but Donner was hopeful that 😗 an "irreverent" script would be completed by October.[57]
On February 12, 2024, Fox ordered a pilot for a drama series from 😗 Sarah Watson, creator of The Bold Type, about a woman helping film students create a shot-for-shot remake of The Goonies. 😗 Greg Mottola is attached as director, and as executive producer along with Richard Donner and his wife, Lauren Shuler Donner.[58] 😗 On May 7, 2024, Fox announced that the pilot would not be moving forward.[59] On December 15, 2024, Disney+ picked 😗 up the series for development now titled Our Time.[60]
Reunion [ edit ]
On April 27, 2024, through his YouTube channel, Josh 😗 Gad aired a virtual cast reunion via Zoom as the first episode of Gad's "Reunited Apart", a charity fundraising effort 😗 during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the Goonies reunion supporting the Center for Disaster Philanthropy. All the living primary cast participated, 😗 with the event dedicated to the cast members who have since died. In addition to the cast, director Richard Donner, 😗 producer Steven Spielberg, and writer Chris Columbus were also present, and even Cyndi Lauper made an appearance.[61][51]
On December 5, 2024, 😗 the cast had another virtual reunion, this time for a live reading of the full movie script that was broadcast 😗 on multiple social media outlets. The characters whose original actors had died were played by other actors, including Josh Gad 😗 as Sloth, Jean Smart as Mama Fratelli, and Kristen Bell as Irene Walsh. Cary Elwes served as the narrator. The 😗 event earned overR$130,000 in donations for the charity No Kid Hungry.[62][63]
See also [ edit ]
