The Goonies is a 1985 adventure-comedy film directed by Richard Donner. The screenplay was written by Chris Columbus from a story by executive producer Steven Spielberg. A band of kids from the “Goon Docks” neighborhood of Astoria, Oregon, hoping to save their homes from demolition, go on an adventure to find the buried treasure of One-Eyed Willy, a legendary 17th-century pirate.

Principal photography on The Goonies began on October 22, 1984 and lasted five months. There was an additional six weeks of ADR recording.^[1] The shooting script was lengthy, over 120 pages, and several sequences were eventually cut from the final theatrical version (which explains the reference to the octopus in the final scene).

In The Making of the Goonies, director Richard Donner noted the difficulties and pleasures of working with so many child actors. Donner praised them for their energy and excitement, but said 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 pirate ship created under the direction of production designer J. Michael Riva. Donner forbade the child actors from seeing the ship so that the first time the characters see the ship is also the first time the actors saw it. (It was later noted that the full-sized version of the ship 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 co-directors” on the film as he compares and contrasts their styles when directing scenes.

The museum where Mikey’s father works is, in reality, the Captain George Flavel House Museum.

Info taken from Wikipedia