The Goonies
1985 · Directed by Richard Donner
A pack of kids from the Goon Docks find a pirate treasure map and save their neighborhood. The template for every kid-adventure movie since.
Why It's Cult
The Goonies is the 1985 ur-text for the feral-kids-on-bikes subgenre. Stranger Things is a Goonies riff. Super 8 is a Goonies riff. Spielberg produced, Donner directed, and between them they invented a tone — scary enough to be real, funny enough to stay with you — that everyone's been chasing since. Chunk's truffle shuffle. Data's gadgets. Sloth. You know.
The Plot, Officially
Mikey and his friends have always wanted to go on an adventure. One night they are all in Mikey's attic and Mikey stumbles across an old map. Mikey has always wanted to know if One-eyed Willy ever was a real person and now he might. They set off and later realize that they have to go through the evil Mama Fratelli's restaurant to get to a secret passage to the caves. As they try to get into the caves Mama Fratelli catches Chunk and he is left behind. He then meets Sloth one of Mama Fratelli's sons with a messed up face. He befriends Sloth. Meanwhile Mama Fratelli and her sons are trying to get to the treasure too. Will the kids make it there before Mama Fratelli does? Will Chuck ever get out of her basement?
Starring
Sean Astin, Josh Brolin, Jeff Cohen
Where to Watch
via JustWatch →
