50 Fun Facts About Stand by Me

Who directed Stand by Me (1986)?

Rob Reiner had directed only This Is Spinal Tap and The Sure Thing when he took the job; he stepped in after the first director attached to the project had to drop out.

Stand by Me is based on a novella by which author?

Stephen King drew the story from his own childhood; after a private screening he left the room for a while to compose himself, then said it was the best film yet made from his work.

What is the title of the 1982 novella that Stand by Me adapts?

The Body was the film's working title too, until the studio swapped it for the name of the song that plays over the end credits.

In Stand by Me, Teddy insists that his father stormed the beach where?

Normandy is Teddy's proudest boast: he flies at the junkman for calling his father a loony, even though that same father once held his ear to a stove.

Which holiday weekend frames Stand by Me's journey?

Labor Day weekend closes the boys' summer, and with it the foursome: the narrator says that as time went on two of the four friends drifted away from the others.

Which actor plays Denny, Gordie's late older brother, in the flashbacks of Stand by Me?

John Cusack appears only in flashbacks as Denny, the favoured football-star son whose death leaves Gordie's grieving parents barely noticing the boy still at home.

Who plays the young Gordie Lachance in Stand by Me?

Wil Wheaton said the director cast four boys who already were their characters, and he was the awkward, sensitive one; soon afterwards he joined Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Which character does River Phoenix play in Stand by Me?

Chris Chambers was not the part River Phoenix read for: he auditioned as Gordie, but the director saw in him the cool, protective leader of the group.

Which character does Corey Feldman play in Stand by Me?

Teddy Duchamp's rage came easily to Corey Feldman, who said he drew on his own unhappy home life to play the boy whose father had burned his ear.

Which character does Jerry O'Connell play in Stand by Me?

Vern Tessio went to Jerry O'Connell, at 11 the youngest of the four, who had made only commercials; he said he stayed in character all summer, saying the things Vern would.

Who plays the town bully Ace Merrill in Stand by Me?

Kiefer Sutherland is said to have kept up Ace's menace off camera too, so that the younger boys' fear of him looked real, though not all of them remember being scared.

Which actor plays the adult Gordie, who narrates Stand by Me?

Richard Dreyfuss was a late fix: the director, a friend since high school, had tried three other narrators whose voices never sounded right, and Dreyfuss offered to appear on screen too.

In Stand by Me, what is the name of the dead boy the four friends set out to find?

Ray Brower is found first by Vern's older brother, who cannot report it because he was in a stolen car at the time; Vern overhears him and tells his friends.

In Stand by Me, what has Chris stolen from his father to bring on the trip?

A Colt .45 pistol is what lets quiet Gordie face down the town bully at the end: he fires a warning shot into the air, then levels it at him.

What does Ace steal from Gordie early in Stand by Me?

A Yankees cap was a gift from Gordie's late brother Denny, which is why losing it to the town bully stings far more than the price of a hat.

In Stand by Me, what is the name of Milo Pressman's supposedly ferocious junkyard dog?

Chopper is said to be trained to attack one very specific part of a trespasser on command, but the beast that finally chases Gordie turns out to be a harmless-looking pet.

What is the name of the boy in Gordie's campfire story about a pie-eating contest?

He drinks castor oil beforehand and triggers what Gordie calls a barf-o-rama.

What was mixed with pie filling to fake the vomit in Stand by Me's barf-o-rama scene?

Cottage cheese, the large-curd kind, went into vats of pie filling from a local bakery; a hand-pushed plunger then shot five gallons of it through a hose hidden on the contest's star.

In Stand by Me, what does Chris admit he stole from school, only to be suspended after handing it back?

The milk money never reached the office: Chris says the teacher he handed it to kept it for herself, knowing nobody would take a Chambers kid's word over hers.

In Stand by Me, Gordie faints after finding what on himself once the boys wade through a pond?

A leech in the worst possible place is what fells Gordie; the cast found the scene grim too, because the man-made pond had sat open to the forest for six weeks before they shot it.

In Stand by Me, how does River Phoenix's character die as an adult?

Stabbed in a diner fight that was not his: by then a lawyer, he stepped between two strangers arguing in a fast-food restaurant, and one of them had pulled a knife.

Which Oregon town stood in for the fictional setting of Stand by Me?

Brownsville still shows off its 1950s storefronts: about 100 residents worked as extras, and since 2007 the town has thrown a Stand by Me Day each July for visiting fans.

Stand by Me was mostly shot in Oregon, but its train-trestle chase was filmed in which state?

California's Lake Britton trestle hosted the chase, but the danger was a trick of the camera: a long lens squeezed the distance, so a train far down the line seemed to be right on the boys' heels.

At the director's insistence, what did the cigarettes smoked by the boys in Stand by Me contain?

Cabbage leaves, by most accounts, stood in for tobacco: the director, who went on to campaign for anti-smoking laws, would not let his young cast light the real thing.

Which British director was first attached to Stand by Me but pulled out before filming?

Adrian Lyne had promised himself a long break and could not start before spring 1986; the producers refused to wait that long, so the script went to a friend of theirs instead.

Which TV producer paid for Stand by Me from his own pocket after its studio was sold days before filming?

Norman Lear, the man behind All in the Family, said he believed in the script and put up the whole budget himself.

Which studio finally agreed to distribute Stand by Me after the other majors had all turned it down?

Columbia Pictures had itself cancelled the film and then passed on it; its production chief gave in only after screening it at home, where his daughters loved it.

In Stand by Me, the boys debate whether which cartoon hero could beat up Superman?

Mighty Mouse loses on a technicality: Teddy rules that he is only a cartoon while Superman is a real guy, and no cartoon could ever beat up a real guy.

How do the boys in Stand by Me finally report the dead boy they find?

An anonymous phone call ends their dream of becoming town heroes: after the stand-off they agree that taking the credit for finding him would be wrong.

For which Academy Award was Stand by Me nominated?

Best Adapted Screenplay was its only Oscar nomination; the script began when one writer gave the novella to his partner's wife as a birthday present and both men fell for it.

Which future star auditioned for the Stand by Me role that went to River Phoenix?

Ethan Hawke lost the part to his own first screen partner: he and River Phoenix had starred together in Explorers, a flop that drove Hawke away from acting for a time.

How did Stand by Me's director bond his four leads before filming?

Theatre games in a hotel suite turned the four into real friends; one of them said that when viewers saw them as comrades it was real life, not acting.

Which TV Western's theme song do the four boys sing as they walk the tracks in Stand by Me?

Have Gun – Will Travel's theme, The Ballad of Paladin, breaks out in a single unbroken take: the youngest boy starts it after a pause, a piece of timing the director prized.

Which production company did the director of Stand by Me co-found in 1987 and name after the film's fictional town?

Castle Rock Entertainment was set up on the strength of the hit; it went on to make When Harry Met Sally and Seinfeld, and to film more of the same author's stories, Misery among them.

The author of the novella behind Stand by Me named it his favourite adaptation alongside which other film?

The Shawshank Redemption cost its director just $5,000 for the film rights; the author never cashed the cheque, and years later sent it back framed with a note about bail money.

In Stand by Me, what do Ace and his gang smash from their moving car for sport?

Mailboxes are the target in the gang's game of 'mailbox baseball'; in real life the prank is a federal crime in the United States, punishable by a fine or up to three years in prison.

Which singer co-wrote the song Stand by Me with Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller?

Ben E. King built it on an old gospel hymn and first offered it to his former group, the Drifters, who turned it down, so he recorded it himself as a solo singer.

Which 1991 film nods to Stand by Me with a scene of four children walking to see a corpse?

Boyz n the Hood borrows the children's trek and a closing fade-out; its director, John Singleton, said the earlier film was the last one he saw before starting college.

Which 1995 film is often described as a female counterpart to Stand by Me?

Now and Then has four women look back on the summer of 1970, when they were 12; a review at the time said it promised to be a Stand by Me for girls.

Which video game nods to Stand by Me by showing four boys on railroad tracks on the hero's home TV?

Pokémon Red and Blue never name the film, though the scene is generally taken as a nod to it: check the television at home and the hero reports a movie with four boys walking on railroad tracks, then decides he had better go too.

What is set into a street of the Oregon town where Stand by Me was shot, marking where Vern finds one?

A penny was set into the roadway to draw visiting fans: it marks the spot on the main street where the youngest of the four excitedly stoops to pick one up.

In Stand by Me, what does a boy earn from his friends for flinching?

Two punches on the arm, delivered with the words 'Two for flinching': the first pair lands moments after one boy boasts that he packed a comb in case they end up on TV.

In Stand by Me, how do the boys decide who must walk to the store for food?

A coin toss, odd man out, sends Gordie; the first throw lands four tails, a 'goocher' that Vern takes for a terrible omen until Teddy scoffs and makes them all flip again.

Which 1988 film earned Stand by Me's River Phoenix an Oscar nomination?

Running on Empty brought him a supporting-actor nomination at 18: he plays the musical son of radicals on the run from the FBI, who must choose between his family and an audition at Juilliard.

The novella behind Stand by Me sets the story in which state, rather than Oregon?

Maine is where the novella puts the boys' home town, in the summer of 1960; the film-makers moved it across the country to Oregon and set the journey a year earlier.

Which 1998 McKellen thriller shares Stand by Me's source book?

Apt Pupil made it three films from the book's four novellas, stories that had sat unpublished in a drawer until the author gathered them into a single volume.

In Stand by Me, what does Vern say he would pick if he could eat only one food for life?

Cherry-flavoured Pez, 'no question about it', comes out in the same campfire chatter that fails to settle what Goofy is: Teddy says a dog, but Chris objects that he drives a car.

In Stand by Me, what killed the missing boy whose remains the four friends set out to find?

A passing train struck him, and the four reach the spot by walking the same line, where they twice have to get out of a locomotive's way themselves.

To make River Phoenix cry in Stand by Me, the director told the actor to remember what?

An adult letting him down was the memory he was told to summon; he never said who it was, and he went on crying after the take until the director gave him a hug.

In Stand by Me, what does Ace pull on the younger boys when they refuse to give up their find?

A switchblade comes out when Chris refuses to step aside, and Ace is ready to use it; his gang still leaves empty-handed, with Ace swearing he will get even.