The Goonies


The Goonies is a 1985 American adventure comedy film directed by Richard Donner from a screenplay by Chris Columbus based on a story by Steven Spielberg. The film stars Sean Astin, Josh Brolin, Jeff Cohen, Corey Feldman, Kerri Green, Martha Plimpton, and Ke Huy Quan with John Matuszak, Robert Davi, Joe Pantoliano, and Anne Ramsey in supporting roles. In the film, a group of children who live in the "Goon Docks" neighborhood of Astoria, Oregon attempt to save their homes from foreclosure. In doing so, they discover an old treasure map which takes them on an adventure to unearth the long-lost fortune of One-Eyed Willy, a legendary 17th-century pirate, while being pursued by a family of criminals who are after the treasure as well.
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 grossed $125 million worldwide on a budget of $19 million. Critics reviewed the film positively and it has since become a cult film. In 2017, 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".
On February 14, 2025, a sequel was confirmed to be in the works with Potsy Ponciroli writing the script along with Steven Spielberg and Chris Columbus producing.

Plot

Facing foreclosure of their homes in the "Goon Docks" area of Astoria, Oregon to an expanding country club, a group of boys who call themselves "the Goonies"—Michael "Mikey" Walsh, Richard "Data" Wang, Clark "Mouth" Devereaux, and Lawrence "Chunk" Cohen—gather for a final weekend together. While 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.
Seeing the treasure as their last chance to save their homes, the boys overpower and bind Mikey's older brother, Brandon "Brand", to get past him and make their way to an abandoned restaurant on the coast that coincides with the map. Brand soon follows alongside Andrea "Andy" Carmichael, a high school cheerleader with a crush on him, and her tomboy best friend, Stephanie "Stef" Steinbrenner.
The group soon 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 after being mistakenly locked in a freezer.
Chunk flags down a nearby car to go to the sheriff's station, but it turns out to be the Fratellis, who kidnap and imprison him. They interrogate him until he reveals where the Goonies have gone and begin pursuit. Chunk is left behind alongside their hulking and deformed younger brother “Sloth”, whom he befriends.
After Sloth frees them both, Chunk calls the sheriff, who thinks it is another one of his tall tales. Chunk and Sloth follow the trail of the Fratellis.
The Goonies evade several deadly booby traps along the tunnels and obtain candles from the skeletal remains of a previous treasure hunter Chester Copperpot, while barely staying ahead of the Fratellis. They finally reach the grotto where Willy's pirate ship, the Inferno, is anchored. The group finds the ship 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 plotting their escape, the Fratellis appear and strip them of their haul. They then 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 share a kiss.
The Fratellis proceed to grab all the treasure they can, including those on Willy's scales, which triggers one last booby trap, forcing them to drop the treasure. The Goonies attempt to use a last "candle" only to find it is a stick of dynamite, causing the grotto to cave in. With Sloth's help, the Goonies and Fratellis barely escape.
The groups emerge on Astoria's beach, where the Goonies reunite with their families and the Fratellis are arrested by the police. The Goonies prevent Sloth's arrest, and Chunk invites Sloth to live with him, which he accepts.
Just as Mr. Walsh is about to sign the foreclosure papers, the Walshes' housekeeper, Rosalita, discovers that Mikey's marble bag is filled with some of the ship's jewels that had not been seized by the Fratellis and tells Mr. Walsh not to sign. He triumphantly rips up the papers, declaring that they have enough money to negate the foreclosure.
As the Goonies are recounting their adventure to the dumbfounded police and press, everyone's attention is drawn to the Inferno, having broken free of the grotto, sailing off majestically on its own into the distance.

Cast

  • Sean Astin as Michael "Mikey" Walsh, the asthmatic leader of the Goonies who is determined to save his neighborhood by finding One-Eyed Willie's treasure
  • Josh Brolin as Brandon "Brand" Walsh, a high-school athlete and Mikey's older brother
  • Jeff Cohen as Lawrence "Chunk" Cohen, a clumsy and gluttonous member of the Goonies and habitual fabulist
  • Corey Feldman as Clark "Mouth" Devereaux, a member of the Goonies nicknamed for his cheeky tongue and Mikey's best friend who is fluent in Spanish
  • Kerri Green as Andrea Theresa "Andy" Carmichael, a high-school cheerleader and Brand's love interest who is panic-prone
  • Martha Plimpton as Stephanie "Stef" Steinbrenner, a snarky tomboy and Andy's best friend
  • Ke Huy Quan as Richard "Data" Wang, a member of the Goonies who is a James Bond fanatic and amateur gadgeteer and Mikey's next-door neighbor
  • John Matuszak as Lotney "Sloth" Fratelli, the deformed and much-abused, but muscular and child-hearted son of Mama Fratelli whom Chunk befriends
  • Robert Davi as Jake Fratelli, Mama Fratelli's counterfeiter son who just escaped from jail
  • Joe Pantoliano as Francis Fratelli, Mama Fratelli's favorite son
  • Anne Ramsey as Mama Fratelli, the Fratellis' matriarch
  • Mary Ellen Trainor as Irene Walsh, Mikey and Brand's mother
  • Keith Walker as Irving Walsh, Mikey and Brand's father and an assistant curator at the local history museum
  • Lupe Ontiveros as Rosalita, the Walsh family's housekeeper who can only speak Spanish
  • Curt Hanson as Elgin Perkins, Troy's millionaire father and proprietor of Astoria Country Club who is behind the foreclosures at the "Goon Docks"
  • Steve Antin as Troy Perkins, the spoiled son of Elgin Perkins who is Brand's rival for Andy's affection
  • Paul Tuerpe as the Sheriff
  • George Robotham as a prison guard who gets fooled by Jake's feigned suicide
  • Michael Paul Chan as Data's approving father
Director Richard Donner makes an uncredited cameo appearance as a sheriff's deputy. 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.

Production

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 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. Donner said that the Truffle Shuffle scene was "painful" to film as Cohen was getting mocked for weight and the humor was from pain.
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.
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 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, at 368 38th Street. The road leading to the home was closed to tours in 2015. The scenes along the coast were filmed in Oregon, but they were a considerable distance from Astoria. The Goonies bicycle to Ecola State Park 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. The final scene was shot at Goat Rock State Beach in Sonoma County, California.
The film also marked Wes Takahashi's first major motion picture as an animation supervisor for Industrial Light & Magic.