The Goonies - Production

Production

Principal photography on The Goonies began on October 22, 1984 and lasted five months. There was an additional six weeks of ADR recording. The shooting script was lengthy, over 120 pages, and several sequences were eventually cut from the final theatrical version. During the film's denouement, mention is made of an octopus which seems like an exaggeration of the actual events but actually refers to a scene that was excised from the final cut.

In The Making of The Goonies, director Richard Donner notes the difficulties and pleasures of working with so many child actors. Donner praises them for their energy and excitement, but says 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 mock-up of a pirate ship created under the direction of production designer J. Michael Riva. Donner forbade the child actors from seeing the ship until they filmed the scene wherein it is revealed to their characters. The characters' first glimpse of the ship was thus also the actors' first view of it, bringing about a more realistic performance. However, Corey Feldman admits to having seen it beforehand with another co-star he does not name. It was later noted that the set 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 codirectors" on the film as he compares and contrasts their styles when directing scenes.

Some of the on-location filming was done in Astoria, Oregon. The interior and exterior of the old Clatsop County Jail features as the holding place of Jake Fratelli at the start of the film. (The building was later converted into the Oregon Film Museum, which opened on the 25th anniversary of The Goonies with memorabilia from this and other local films.) The museum where Mikey's father works is, in reality, the Captain George Flavel House Museum. The Walsh family home is a real home at 368 38th Street. The scenes along the coast were filmed in Oregon, however they were a considerable distance from Astoria. The Goonies bicycle to Ecola State Park and then find the starting location of the map using Haystack Rock as a guide. Underground scenes were filmed at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California, including the cavernous set where the Goonies find One-Eyed Willie's ship, which was in Stage 16, one of the largest sound stages in America.