The Goonies Information

The Goonies is a 1985 American adventure"comedy film directed by Richard Donner. The screenplay was written by Chris Columbus from a story by executive producer Steven Spielberg. The film's premise features a band of pre-teens who live in the "Goon Docks" neighborhood of Astoria, Oregon attempting to save their homes from demolition, and in doing so, discover an old Spanish map that leads them on an adventure to unearth the long-lost fortune of One-Eyed Willie, a legendary 17th-century pirate.

Plot

Goonies, a group of friends living in the "Goon Docks" neighborhood of Astoria, Oregon, face foreclosure on their families' homes from the expanding Astoria Country Club. On one of their last days their morale sinks particularly low due to Mikey's older brother Brandon having failed his driver's license exam, destroying their plans to "cruise the coast in style" during their "last Goonies weekend." While rummaging through the Walshes' attic, they find an old newspaper clipping, a Spanish map, and an artifact relating to a rumor of a lost but not forgotten pirate treasure somewhere in the area. Hearing the call of adventure, Mikey tries to persuade his friends to join him in search for the treasure hoarded by a pirate named One-Eyed Willie. Initially reluctant, the group eventually decides to evade the authority of Brandon, and escape for one last "Goonie adventure."

They then head down the coast and stumble upon a derelict seaside restaurant that seems to match coordinates set by the map and an old doubloon, unaware that the Fratellis, a family of fugitives, are using the restaurant as their hideout. After first encountering the family, the Goonies come back after the Fratellis have left and discover their criminal intents, and send Chunk, the group's clumsy, heavy-set dreamer and teller of tall tales, to get help. However, the Fratellis return before they can leave, forcing the Goonies to use a cavern underneath the restaurant to escape. The Fratellis capture Chunk and interrogate him, learning nothing until a colony of bats burst out of the cavern beneath the restaurant. Chunk is placed in the same room with the forsaken and deformed Fratelli brother, Sloth, while the rest of the Fratellis enter the cavern and follow the Goonies' trail.

As the Goonies traverse the cavern, Mikey discovers that it matches up with the map and convinces the rest of the group to continue to follow it to find the treasure. They overcome many deadly traps set by One-Eyed Willie, and eventually arrive at a large underground cavern and a lagoon where Willie's ship, the Inferno, lies waiting. While others begin to fill their pockets with the riches on the ship, Mikey locates Willie's remains, and reverently acknowledges him as the "first Goonie", leaving part of the treasure with him as a mark of respect. However, as the Goonies exit the hold, they are cornered by the Fratellis, who take their treasure and force the kids to walk the plank. The Goonies are saved by the timely arrival of Chunk and Sloth, now close friends, who help the rest of the group to shore. With the children no longer a threat, the Fratellis ransack the rest of the ship, including the share of the treasure Mikey left for Willie. This sets off a final booby trap, causing the cave to begin collapsing. The Goonies flee through a hole in the cave, finding themselves on a beach. Two passing policemen spot them and call in for help.

The Goonies are soon reunited with their families while the Fratellis are taken into custody and Chunk offers to take Sloth into his home. As the Astoria Country Club calls upon Mikey's father to sign over the final deed to his property, Rosalita, the Walshes' maid, discovers that Mikey's marble bag contains a large handful of precious jewels taken from the ship. Mikey's father quickly estimates that their value is more than enough to save the Goon Docks. As the families rejoice, they spot the unmanned Inferno, now free of the cave, drifting away.

Cast

The Goonies

• Sean Astin as Michael "Mikey" Walsh
• Corey Feldman as Clark "Mouth" Devereaux
• Ke Huy Quan as Richard "Data" Wang
• Josh Brolin as Brandon "Brand" Walsh, Mikey's older brother
• Jeff Cohen as Lawrence "Chunk" Cohen
• Kerri Green as Andrea "Andy" Carmichael, Brand's love interest
• Martha Plimpton as Stephanie "Stef" Steinbrenner
• John Matuszak as Lotney "Sloth" Fratelli

Others

• Anne Ramsey as Mama Fratelli
• Joe Pantoliano as Francis Fratelli
• Robert Davi as Jake Fratelli
• Mary Ellen Trainor as Irene Walsh
• Keith Walker as Irving Walsh
• Steve Antin as Troy Perkins
• Lupe Ontiveros as Rosalita

Cast notes

• Director Richard Donner makes a cameo appearance as an ATV-riding deputy

Production

Principal photography on The Goonies began on October 22, 1984 and lasted five months. There was an additional six weeks of ADR recording. The shooting script was lengthy, over 120 pages, and several sequences were eventually cut from the final theatrical version. During the film's denouement, mention is made of an octopus which seems like an exaggeration of the actual events but actually refers to a scene that was excised from the final cut.

In The Making of The Goonies, director Richard Donner notes the difficulties and pleasures of working with so many child actors. Donner praises them for their energy and excitement, but says that they were a handful when brought together. The documentary frequently shows him coaching the young actors and reveals some of the techniques he used to get realistic performances. One of these tricks involved One-Eyed Willie's ship, which was actually an impressive full-sized mock-up of a pirate ship created under the direction of production designer J. Michael Riva. Donner forbade the child 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 thus also the actors' first view of it, bringing about a more realistic performance. However, Corey Feldman admits to having seen it beforehand with another co-star he does not name. It was later noted that the set was destroyed after shooting because they could not find anyone who wanted it.

In his book There and Back Again, Sean Astin claims that Richard Donner and Steven Spielberg were "like codirectors" on the film as he compares and contrasts their styles when directing scenes.

Some of the on-location filming was done in Astoria, Oregon. 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.) The museum where Mikey's father works is, in reality, the Captain George Flavel House Museum. The Walsh family home is a real home at 368 38th Street. 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 Willie's ship, which was in Stage 16, one of the largest sound stages in America.

Reception

Film critics were generally favorable toward The Goonies. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 63% of critics have given the film a positive review, based on 41 reviews, with an average rating of 6/10 and the critical consensus: "An energetic, sometimes noisy mix of Spielbergian sentiment and funhouse tricks that will appeal to kids and nostalgic adults alike." At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from film critics, it has a rating score of 60, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Several reviewers noted that the film appeared to be enjoyable for children and teens, but not so much for adults.

The Goonies grossed US$9 million in its opening weekend in the US, second on the charts behind Rambo: First Blood Part II. It grossed over US$61 million that year, placing it among the top ten highest-grossing films of 1985 (in the US).

Ramsey won a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Film for her role. 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.

Home video

VHS and Laserdisc

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.

DVD

Warner Home Video released The Goonies in widescreen on Region 1 DVD on August 21, 2001. The DVD featured several notable extras, including:

1. Commentary by actors Ke Quan, Feldman, Astin, Green, Plimpton, Cohen, Brolin, and director Donner. This option frequently switches back and shows the actors and Donner gathered together as they are watching the film while recording the commentary. Midway through the film, Sean Astin had to leave, much to the puzzlement of his costars, and without ever getting to say a personal message to Cyndi Lauper that he intended to. He left a Samwise Gamgee action figure in his place, however. In an interview with IGN.com, Astin explained that the recording session started late, which resulted in him having to leave early to honor a prior commitment to his friend (and fellow Goonies castmate), Joe Pantoliano.
2. A 7-minute behind-the-scenes documentary called "The Making of The Goonies".
3. The 12-minute, 2-part "The Goonies 'R' Good Enough" music video by Cyndi Lauper. The video is notable in its casting of some '80s wrestlers, like André the Giant and Captain Lou Albano. The video was directed by Steven Spielberg.
4. Deleted scenes:
   • A scene where Data tries out his gadgets, including the "Pinchers of Peril" and "Spy Eyes", outside of the Fratelli hideout. The boys then realize the map can be folded like a MAD Magazine.
   • The octopus attack (where the "Eight Arms to Hold You" song can be heard) that Data describes to a reporter at the end of the film.
   • The convenience store scene (which explains why the map, which was intact in the Walshes' attic, is singed later in the film). The convenience store scene, however, cuts about 15 seconds short, not showing Mouth retrieving the map from Brand's pocket and the boys fleeing the store with Brand chasing.
   • A scene with Sloth and Chunk, where Chunk talks about his friend Joey who only goes out to play at night.
5. The theatrical trailer.

Blu-ray

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. Extras mirrored that of the DVD release:

1. Commentary (with hidden video treasures) by director Richard Donner
2. "The Making of The Goonies" featurette
3. Deleted scenes
4. Cyndi Lauper's two "The Goonies 'R' Good Enough" music videos
5. Soundtrack remastered in Dolby TrueHD 5.1

The special features are presented in 480i/576i standard definition.

Video games

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 both 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 had little to do with the film, but achieved a following for its inventive gameplay. In it the Fratellis have managed to kidnap all of the Goonies (except Mikey, whom the player guides) and hide them in hidden 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.

Datasoft produced a Goonies video game for 8-bit Commodore 64 in 1985, which was later ported to the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Atari and Apple II by US Gold. This game featured 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 February 2007, DaimlerChrysler's Jeep division sponsored The Goonies: Return to Astoria, a Flash based game, developed by Fuel Industries. The player's goal is to collect map pieces and doubloons, and then race the Fratellis to One-Eyed Willie's treasure.

Soundtrack and score album

See The Goonies: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack for more information

The Goonies: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack featured music by Cyndi Lauper, REO Speedwagon, The Bangles, and others. The cast members (except Kerri Green) appeared alongside professional wrestlers "Rowdy" Roddy Piper and "Captain" Lou Albano 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 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.

Soundtrack label Varèse Sarabande released the score in March 2010 in a limited edition of 5000 copies.

Proposed sequels and adaptations

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The possibility of a film sequel has been confirmed and denied many times in recent 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. 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," Donner has expressed doubt that the sequel will ever happen, as many of the actors had not shown interest in returning for a sequel. 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." However, on the July 2010 release of "The Making of a Cult Classic: The Unauthorized Story of The Goonies" DVD, 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."

Rumors of adaptations and sequels in other media took off in 2007, including a comic book miniseries, an animated television series, and a musical adaptation of the film. Corey Feldman said he was asked to reprise the role of Mouth in a cartoon series that would feature the original Goonies characters as adults and focus on the adventures of a new set of kids. Apparently this project was briefly in the works for Cartoon Network before being shelved. 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. 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." 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.

See also