Movie Trivia: The Goonies
Who hasn’t seen The Goonies at least five times? It’s one of the best movies ever. Even though I’ve seen it a million times (and consider myself somewhat well-versed in movie trivia), I learned a ton of new stuff by watching the commentary. Here’s what I learned… and if you have your own tidbit to contribute, leave a comment!
The actress who played Harriet Walsh, Mary Ellen Trainor, married Robert Zemeckis. She was in four of his movies – Romancing the Stone, Back to the Future Part II, Death Becomes Her and Forrest Gump. They divorced in 2000.
Corey Feldman memorized all of the Spanish for the scene where he purposely mistranslates all of Mrs. Walsh’s instructions for the maid. If you recognize the housekeeper, by the way, it may be from Selena – she played Selena’s killer Yolanda.
It took them two days and more than 100 takes to shoot the scene in the attic where the kids discover One Eye Willy’s map. One Eye Willy’s full name is William B. Pordobell, by the way.
Mouth’s real name is Clark.
The cast said they were all terrified to shoot the Cyndi Lauper video “Goonies R Good Enough” because all of the wrestlers (Rowdy Roddy Piper and Andre the Giant) intimidated them.
The guy who played Sloth is John Matuszak. Have you ever noticed that he’s wearing an Oakland Raiders t-shirt in part of the movie? That’s a little inside joke – Matuszak actually played for the Oakland Raiders. His nickname was the Tooz. He died from a heart attack just four years after The Goonies came out at the young age of 38. It’s widely assumed it was caused by his massive steroid use.
Sloth took about five hours of makeup every day. His eye was operated by remote control off camera. Photo from Goonies.org, which is a really neat place to visit if you like Goonies trivia.
At about 40:30, (they’re in the Fratellis’ hideout), Sean Astin and Josh Brolin are arguing. Sean Astin accidentally finishes up one of his exclamations with “Josh!” instead of “Brand!” Check it out. I was kind of delighted by this one.
When rocks are falling from the cave ceiling and Data yells “Holy S-H-I-T,” it’s not because that’s the line that was scripted. It’s because Jonathan Ke Quan promised his mom he wouldn’t say any curse words in the movie.
Robert Davi, who plays Jake Fratelli, the singing brother (AKA, the Fratelli who isn’t Joey Pants), is really a trained opera singer.
The Goonies are called the Goonies because they all come from the “Goon Docks” neighborhood of Astoria, Oregon. Do they explain that in the movie somewhere? I swear I’ve watched this movie about 30 times and I’ve never noticed an explanation. Maybe I’m really unobservant.
When Chunk is sobbing while being interrogated by the Fratellis, he was really crying – he said he thought of his mother dying.
Jeff Cohen, who played Chunk, stopped acting around 1991. He’s now an entertainment lawyer in L.A. He says he ran for class President at U.C. Berkeley with the slogan “Chunk for President,” which is pretty smart. I would have voted for Chunk. Word is that he used to do the Truffle Shuffle at football games. I love that he has a sense of humor about it.
Goonies never say die… which means don’t count Goonies 2 out. Rumors about an animated sequel have been floating around for years – some actors have said it’s not even being discussed, and others say it’s nearly a certainty.
The guy that plays Troy, Andy’s boyfriend before she and Brand hook up, is Steve Antin. Not only is he a writer, his whole family is pretty famous – his brother is the celebrity hair stylist Jonathan Antin, his sister Robin Antin created the Pussycat Dolls (the burlesque act, not the group), and his other brother Neil Antin is also an actor. Steve dated David Geffen for a while in the late ’80s.
The kids hadn’t seen the pirate ship set until the moment you see in the film, so if they look particularly awed, that’s why. Corey Feldman claimed he and Sean Astin saw it before the fact, but none of the other actors would believe him. Sean Astin had slipped out of the commentary by this point so he didn’t have any backup. Sadly, the pirate ship was just junked afterward – they tried to donate it to an amusement park or another movie, but no one would take it, so it was destroyed.
Wow, random bit of information: Martha Plimpton, who plays Stef, is Keith Carradine’s daughter (and David Carradine’s niece). “Plimpton” is her mother’s name.
Richard Donner said that after the kids wrapped for the day, the rest of the cast and crew would sometimes go back in and turn the water jets on so they could ride the slide in the caves where the Goonies flew down to get to the pirate ship.
Richard Donner still has the head of One Eye Willy in his office.
If you’re ever in Oregon and want to go on your own Goonies tour, check out TheGoonies.org – it lists all of the locations the movie was shot at and what still exists today. You can still go do your own Truffle Shuffle in front of the Goonie House – the owners don’t mind.
When the kids escape from the pirate ship and are thrashing about in the water, they encounter an octopus. You don’t see this in the movie because it was cut, but Data still references it when he’s telling his mom about their adventures at the end of the movie.
Do you have a movie you’d like to know some behind-the-scenes info on? Leave me a Tweet and let me know!
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