99 Fun Facts About Goonies

In The Goonies, which comic-book hero's logo is on the T-shirt Sloth reveals aboard the pirate ship?

Superman: the shirt is an in-joke about the film's director, who had made his name with Superman: The Movie in 1978.

Which two words complete Mikey's rallying cry, 'Goonies never', in The Goonies?

Say die: Mikey snaps 'Goonies never say die' when a friend fears someone may already be dead, then talks the group out of abandoning the hunt.

Which future Lord of the Rings actor plays Mikey Walsh?

Sean Astin kept the prop treasure map as a souvenir of his film debut, only for it to be thrown out at home years later, mistaken for a crumpled scrap of paper.

Which racket are the Fratellis running in the basement of their restaurant hideout in The Goonies?

Counterfeiting money: the boys whoop over stacks of $50 bills in the basement until Brand looks closer and declares them phony.

Which screenwriter wrote The Goonies?

Chris Columbus was hired by Steven Spielberg, who had come up with the story himself and wanted a writer to turn it into a full screenplay.

Why are the Goonies about to lose their homes?

A country club is expanding: its owner, Elgin Perkins, is foreclosing on the Goon Docks to lay out a golf course, and his son Troy is Brand's rival for Andy.

Where do the boys find the treasure map and the 1632 doubloon?

In the Walshes' attic: Mrs. Walsh has just explained that her husband wants nobody up there, and the boys go rummaging anyway.

Where are the Goonies when Mikey gives his 'it's our time down here' speech?

Under a wishing well: rich kid Troy is at the top ready to haul them up in the bucket, and Mikey persuades his friends to stay below and keep hunting.

What does Chunk find in the restaurant freezer besides ice cream in The Goonies?

A dead body: drawn in by the smell of ice cream, Chunk opens the freezer door and a corpse topples out onto him.

In The Goonies, what is Sloth's real first name?

Lotney is the Fratellis' chained-up son, and he changes sides once one of the kids befriends him, arriving in time to save the Goonies from his own family.

Sloth actor John Matuszak won two Super Bowls with which NFL team, whose shirt Sloth wears in The Goonies?

Oakland Raiders: Houston had made Matuszak the first overall pick of the 1973 draft, but he won his rings in Oakland, and Sloth's Raiders shirt is a nod to that old team.

Which candy bar does Chunk offer Sloth when they first meet?

Baby Ruth: sharing the bar wins Chunk a friend, and Sloth soon breaks them both out of the basement to go after his own family.

What does Mikey toss aside near the end of The Goonies with a shrug of 'who needs it'?

His asthma inhaler: Mikey is the group's asthmatic leader, but once the adventure is over he flings the inhaler away.

Which flavour of ice cream does Sloth chuckle over when he raids the hideout's freezer?

Rocky Road is what Sloth holds up with a chuckle while his young cellmate phones a sheriff who has heard too many of the boy's tall tales to believe him.

Which pop star does Chunk claim once came to his house to use the bathroom in The Goonies?

Michael Jackson: when the others scoff, Chunk backs down and admits it was not the singer at all, then insists that his sister did visit.

Which Goonie is a James Bond fanatic who builds his own gadgets?

Data plays a tape of the Bond theme before sliding down a rope to Mikey's house, and his 'Pinchers of Peril' later save him from a fall.

Which language does Mouth speak fluently, which he uses to terrify the Walshes' new housekeeper?

Spanish: Mouth abuses the skill to feed the new housekeeper wild lies about the house, yet at the end it is his translation of her shout that stops Mr. Walsh signing the foreclosure papers.

Which future Oscar nominee made his film debut as Brand Walsh in The Goonies?

Josh Brolin, 16 and reading up on method acting, recalls telling Steven Spielberg that the tunnels stood for his mother's womb, and being told to just act.

After kissing someone in the dark cave, Andy asks Stef what question about Brand?

Whether he wears braces: in the dark she had kissed his little brother Mikey by mistake, and Brand only catches on when she later asks what happened to his braces.

Whose skeleton do the Goonies find in the tunnels, still carrying candles?

Chester Copperpot was a treasure hunter who vanished chasing the same legend, and Mikey takes heart from the bones: even a professional never made it as far as they have.

Andy has to play which unusual instrument correctly to keep the floor from collapsing?

An organ made of bones: Andy gets the job because she once took piano lessons, at the age of four, and each wrong chord sends part of the floor crashing away.

What is the name of the pirate's ship the Goonies find in the grotto?

The Inferno was a full-size set modelled on Errol Flynn's ship in The Sea Hawk, and it was scrapped after filming because nobody could be found to take it.

Why is The Goonies' director said to have kept the pirate ship set from his young cast?

To film their real reactions: by one actor's own account he swore and spoiled a take, and another has since said he had already had a sneak peek.

Which treasure does Mikey tell the others to leave behind for One-Eyed Willy in The Goonies?

The gold on his scales: 'Save that for Willy,' Mikey says, but the Fratellis later grab it anyway and set off the ship's last booby trap.

What do the Goonies discover their last 'candle' actually is?

A stick of dynamite: one of the boys lights it and remarks that this candle sparkles, a moment before the others realise what he is holding.

Which item of Mikey's turns out to be full of jewels, saving the Goon Docks?

His marble bag: Mikey had swapped the marbles for jewels, and the Fratellis forgot to check it when they stripped the kids of their haul.

Which sea creature gets a mention at the end of The Goonies although its scene was cut?

An octopus attacked two of the kids in a sequence dropped from the final cut, yet it survived as a level of the 1985 home-computer game based on the film.

Which singer had a top-ten hit with 'The Goonies 'R' Good Enough' from the soundtrack?

Cyndi Lauper promoted it with a 12-minute, two-part video in which the young cast, a troupe of pro wrestlers and Steven Spielberg all turn up.

Which then-unknown band appears as female pirates in the two-part 'Goonies 'R' Good Enough' video?

The Bangles were friends of the song's singer, who picked them for the soundtrack album a year before their second record made them stars.

Which composer wrote The Goonies score, including the 'Fratelli Chase' theme reused in many trailers?

Dave Grusin's score had to wait 25 years for an album of its own, in 2010, even though its chase theme had long been borrowed for other films' trailers.

Anne Ramsey earned an Oscar nomination for which film released two years after The Goonies?

Throw Momma from the Train put her slurred growl to work as a household tyrant, a voice owed partly to cancer surgery in 1984 that removed part of her tongue and jaw.

Robert Davi, the opera-singing Jake Fratelli, went on to play the villain in which James Bond film?

Licence to Kill made him drug lord Franz Sanchez, whose attack on Felix Leiter drives Bond to quit MI6 for revenge; a year earlier he had been an FBI agent in Die Hard.

Joe Pantoliano, who plays Francis Fratelli, later won an Emmy for playing which Sopranos gangster?

Ralph Cifaretto won him the Emmy for the season in which Tony Soprano kills the character off, in a fight over a racehorse that died in a stable fire.

Ke Huy Quan, who plays Data, had played which sidekick in Temple of Doom the year before?

Short Round came his way by chance: it was his younger brother who went to the open audition at Castelar Elementary School, and Ke ended up with the part.

For which 2022 film did Ke Huy Quan win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor?

Everything Everywhere All at Once ended an acting break of nearly two decades that Quan had spent as a stunt choreographer and assistant director, and made him the first Vietnam-born actor to win an Oscar.

Which fellow Goonie negotiated Ke Huy Quan's contract for his Oscar-winning role?

Jeff Cohen, the film's Chunk, grew up to be an entertainment lawyer, and Quan thanked his 'Goonies brother for life' from the stage as he accepted the Oscar.

Who paid for Goonies actor Jeff Cohen's college education after he asked only for a reference?

Richard Donner and his wife read the personal story Cohen sent with his request, then phoned to say they would pay for his degree at Berkeley.

The jail scene that opens The Goonies was shot in a real former jail, which reopened in 2010 as what?

A film museum: the old Clatsop County Jail, a working lock-up until 1976, became the Oregon Film Museum on the film's 25th anniversary, with Goonies exhibits in its cells.

Which Cannon Beach landmark looms over the beach chase that opens The Goonies?

Haystack Rock stands at Cannon Beach, well down the coast from the town where the Goonies live, although the film makes it look like a short bike ride away.

Where were The Goonies' underground cave scenes, including the pirate ship grotto, filmed?

A soundstage at Warner Bros. in Burbank housed the tunnels, the grotto and a full-size pirate ship, so only the above-ground story was shot on location in Oregon.

Which 1985 release beat The Goonies to the top of the box office on its opening weekend?

Rambo: First Blood Part II was in its third weekend and still took $10.2 million to the newcomer's $9.1 million, though The Goonies went on to earn more than $60 million in North America.

Which pop-punk band named a 2003 album 'So Long, Astoria' after the Goonies' hometown?

The Ataris' singer Kris Roe wrote the title song about his own beginnings, writing songs in his bedroom in Anderson, Indiana.

Which earlier film by The Goonies' screenwriter does a sheriff's jibe at Chunk's prank calls nod to?

Gremlins: the sheriff recalls Chunk's last prank, about little creatures that multiply when you throw water on them, and so dismisses his genuine cry for help.

What is Chunk's real first name in The Goonies?

Lawrence is how he politely introduces himself to Sloth, and it is the name the weary sheriff uses when he assumes he is fielding another prank call.

What is visible on Jeff Cohen's chest during the Truffle Shuffle scene?

Chickenpox struck Cohen just before filming began, and he came to work without telling anyone because he feared the part would be recast.

Which Goonie is played by Corey Feldman?

Mouth lives up to the name to the end: thanked by Stef, who admits his voice is nice when his mouth is not ruining it, he fires back that she is pretty when her face is not.

Martha Plimpton, who plays Stef, is the daughter of which actor?

Keith Carradine and Shelley Plimpton, her parents, met while both were performing in the original Broadway run of Hair.

Which part of Sloth's face in The Goonies was a mechanical piece worked by remote control?

One of his eyes: John Matuszak spent five hours in the makeup chair each day and had to blink his real eye in time with the mechanical one on a countdown.

What does Mikey and Brand's father do for a living in The Goonies?

Museum assistant curator: Mr. Walsh is about to sign the foreclosure papers on the family home when his sons' pirate jewels turn up, and the deal is off.

What happens to the pirate ship in the final shot of The Goonies?

It sails off to sea: the ship breaks free of the caved-in grotto with nobody at the helm, and Mikey waves it off with a thank-you to its long-dead captain.

Ke Huy Quan spells out a swear word in The Goonies because he had promised whom he would not curse?

His mother made him promise not to swear on screen, so he yells the word letter by letter, in a film where the other kids curse freely.

The Goonies was filmed over five months in which unusual way?

Almost entirely in sequence: most films are shot out of order, with scenes grouped by location or cast to suit the schedule, but this shoot kept close to the story's order.

Which Arnold Schwarzenegger comedy was also filmed in the Oregon town where The Goonies is set?

Kindergarten Cop sent his detective undercover as a teacher in the same coastal town, which has also hosted Short Circuit and Free Willy.

Which Japanese company made the 1987 NES game The Goonies II, though no film sequel existed?

Konami gave the game a plot of its own: the Fratellis kidnap the other Goonies, and Mikey has to rescue them along with a mermaid named Annie.

Which company produced The Goonies?

Amblin Entertainment is Steven Spielberg's company, and he did more than back the film: he came up with the story and quietly directed a few scenes himself.

Andy, the cheerleader who joins the Goonies, is played by which actress?

Green had just been in Summer Rental and went on to Lucas with Corey Haim.

The Goonies' director married which film producer in November 1985, the year the film came out?

Lauren Shuler persuaded him to direct Ladyhawke, the two fell in love making it, and she went on to produce the X-Men films under her married name.

Which member of the crew has an uncredited cameo as the sheriff's deputy in The Goonies?

Richard Donner, the director, turns up as a deputy in the beach finale, a scene whose crowd also includes crew members and some of the young actors' real parents.

Anne Ramsey won which honour for playing Mama Fratelli?

A Saturn Award for best supporting actress went to her gang matriarch, who ends the film being told by Sloth, the son she kept in chains, that she has been bad.

Which blockbuster director came up with the original story for The Goonies?

Steven Spielberg originated the story and stayed so close to the shoot that one young star later wrote he behaved like a co-director on set.

Which pirate punishment do the Fratellis force on the captured Goonies aboard the treasure ship?

Walking the plank is interrupted when Chunk and Sloth turn up and distract the Fratellis for long enough to let the Goonies jump overboard and swim to safety.

Which film about an animal's escape was written by the actor playing Mikey's father in The Goonies?

Free Willy began as a story he conceived in 1984 while working on The Goonies, and it turned out to be his only film as a screenwriter.

Chunk's outfit in The Goonies pairs plaid pants with which style of shirt?

Hawaiian shirts and plaid pants had each turned up in the young actor's earlier roles, so the director decided to put him in both at once.

Which wrestler appears in a puff of smoke to end the Goonies theme song's music video?

André the Giant materialises when the singer whistles, then drives off the creditors who had come to evict her family.

How do the Goonies finally reach the underground lagoon where the pirate ship lies hidden?

Down water slides they plunge, a thrill the critic Roger Ebert likened to a toboggan ride on a chute.

Whose bike does Brand take to catch up with the Goonies once they have let down his own tires?

A little girl's bike, taken from the child next door, leaves Brand struggling to keep up and humiliated when he runs into the girl he likes.

What became of the full-sized pirate ship built for The Goonies once filming had finished?

It was scrapped because nobody could be found who wanted it, a sad end for a set built under production designer J. Michael Riva.

How do the younger Goonies get past Brand, who has been ordered to keep Mikey at home?

They tie him up and ride off with the map, and when Mrs. Walsh comes home to find Mikey gone she orders Brand to go after them.

Which creatures does Brand set loose in the tunnels, tipping off the Fratellis to the Goonies?

Bats pour out when Brand finds a way past some fallen boulders, and the colony flies up the passage and shows the Fratellis where the tunnel begins.

What does Mr. Walsh do with the foreclosure papers at the very end of The Goonies?

He tears them up and announces that no family in the neighborhood will have to give up its home for want of cash.

Which event does Chunk rush in to report early in The Goonies, only for his friends to scoff?

A police chase really had torn through town as the Fratellis fled a jailbreak, but Chunk's long record of tall tales meant nobody listened.

Despite its young heroes' frequent swearing, The Goonies reached cinemas with which MPAA rating?

Rated PG, the film let its kids curse freely, and the critic Roger Ebert argued that was fair because most children really do talk that way.

Astoria, the Oregon port where The Goonies is set, sits where which major river meets the Pacific?

Columbia is the river, and Astoria, founded on its south shore in 1811, is the oldest city in Oregon.

Which excuse lets Mikey slip downstairs in the Fratellis' hideout, where he first meets Sloth?

He needs the toilet, he insists, though he is really searching for a way into the pirate's cave when he finds someone chained to a chair.

How does Jake Fratelli fool a prison guard during the jailbreak that starts The Goonies?

He fakes his own death in his cell, and the guard who falls for it was played by the veteran Hollywood stuntman George Robotham.

Which object does Mikey lift from the neck of the long-lost treasure hunter found in the tunnels?

A key hangs there, and it later fits a door deeper in the tunnels, where using it sets off yet another booby trap.

In The Goonies, which nation's armada chased One-Eyed Willy until he was sealed in a cave?

The British fleet drove him into the cave, where he was buried alive along with his ship and all it carried.

The Goonies is set on the Oregon coast, but in which other state was its closing beach scene filmed?

California's Sonoma County coast stood in for the Oregon shore, and the end credits thank the people of Bodega Bay alongside those of Astoria.

Which Frozen voice actor reunited the Goonies cast online in 2020 to launch his charity web series?

Josh Gad got the idea for Reunited Apart while rewatching the film at home during lockdown, and the episode raised funds for a disaster-relief charity.

Which Star Wars series about four lost children was openly inspired by The Goonies?

Skeleton Crew came about when its co-creator Jon Watts told Lucasfilm's president he wanted to make a sort of Goonies set in that galaxy.

Which band behind the ballad Keep On Loving You contributed a song to The Goonies soundtrack?

REO Speedwagon supplied Wherever You're Goin' (It's Alright), which was issued as a single in Europe but failed to chart.

What is the name of the Walsh family's new housekeeper in The Goonies, played by Lupe Ontiveros?

Rosalita has been taken on to help the family pack up and move, and at the end she is the one who makes the discovery that saves the house.

What is the first name of Andy's jock boyfriend in The Goonies, the son of developer Mr. Perkins?

Troy is the spoiled son of the man behind the foreclosures, and Andy and her best friend ditch him to go looking for Brand.

Astoria's annual Goonies Day falls on June 7 to mark which milestone in the movie's history?

The film's opening day was June 7, 1985, and the anniversary party has drawn hundreds of tourists to the town.

What led the owners of the real Goonies house in Astoria to restrict public access in 2015?

Crowds of fans, between 1,200 and 1,500 a day during the film's 30th-anniversary summer, pushed the owners, their neighbors and the city to act.

In the video for The Goonies' theme song, the singer's family faces eviction from which business?

A gas station run by her parents is the setting, and behind a picture on its wall she finds a cave, a treasure map and the film's young cast.

In the NES game The Goonies II, which captive creature named Annie must Mikey finally rescue?

A mermaid called Annie is the last to be saved, after Mikey has released his kidnapped friends from cages hidden around caverns and mazes.

Which toys-to-life game added a Goonies level pack with a pirate ship and a Sloth figure?

Lego Dimensions gave the pack a Sloth figure that can turn into the other Goonies, plus a bonus level retelling the plot from his and Chunk's side.

Which community's advocacy groups protested The Goonies over its bumbling family of crooks?

Italian Americans in an alliance of organizations said they opposed censorship but wanted to warn the studio about characters shown as criminals or buffoons.

Which Hacks star read Mama Fratelli when The Goonies cast reunited for a 2020 script reading?

Jean Smart stepped in because Anne Ramsey, who played the matriarch on screen, had died in 1988.

The Fratellis' restaurant hideout in The Goonies was a set built at which spot on the Oregon coast?

Ecola State Park, near Cannon Beach, hosted the replica of an abandoned restaurant, which has since been demolished.

The Goonies score borrows a Max Steiner theme first written for which Errol Flynn swashbuckler?

Adventures of Don Juan lends its theme to two scenes, from a score Steiner took over after the studio's first-choice composer retired from film work.

Which laserdisc arcade game, built from Lupin III anime footage, appears on screen in The Goonies?

Cliff Hanger took most of its footage from The Castle of Cagliostro, a Lupin III film directed by Hayao Miyazaki.

The Goonies star Ke Huy Quan became the first Oscar-winning actor to have been born in which nation?

Vietnam was his home until his family left as refugees, and after a spell in a Hong Kong camp they were admitted to the United States in 1979.

Goonies star Ke Huy Quan helped stage the fight scenes for which superhero film?

X-Men needed fight scenes, so the action director Corey Yuen brought him to Toronto, where he worked on the closing duel between Wolverine and Mystique.

Which Marvel series cast Goonies star Ke Huy Quan as Ouroboros, a time agency's repairs technician?

Loki brought him in for its second season, and the part earned him a Critics' Choice nomination for best supporting actor in a drama.

Ke Huy Quan returned to acting in which Netflix film, pitched as The Goonies meets Indiana Jones?

Finding 'Ohana gave him his first role in 19 years after he overheard its director describing the project and approached her himself.

Corey Feldman followed The Goonies with which Stephen King adaptation about four boys on a trek?

Stand by Me, set like The Goonies in Oregon, cast him as Teddy Duchamp alongside River Phoenix, Wil Wheaton and Jerry O'Connell.

Martha Plimpton of The Goonies earned an Emmy nomination as Virginia Chance in which Fox sitcom?

Raising Hope ran from 2010 to 2014, and during that run a recurring guest part on a legal drama won her the Emmy itself.