A handful of misfit teens and pre-teens take to their bikes to explore a hidden world buried deep underneath their own little suburban town. Sound familiar? Maybe like the first season of that 80’s throwback Sci-Fi show from 2016 whose fourth season is premiering on Netflix today? Definitely could be an iMdb descriptor for Stranger Things, but it’s also the plot of the 1985 smash hit The Goonies, the pirate-themed adventure flick that has captivated kids and adults alike for nearly four decades.
Paving the Bike Path For Stranger Things
And the reason the plots of the two sound so similar is because Stranger Things‘ creators the Duffer brothers make no bones about their penchant for 1980’s nostalgia and the era’s influence on the show that introduced America to the Upside Down. For millennials who cut their teeth on The Goonies, Ghostbusters, the Indiana Jones franchise, and the plethora of teen romances with a bad boy love interest from the era, Stranger Things drops one 80’s Easter egg after the next like manna from heaven.
And it all started in 1985 somewhere in the Pacific Northwest with a plucky group of kids from the wrong side of the docks. In The Goonies, the Goon Docks neighborhood has been bought out by developers, and soon everyone who lives there will have to pack up and move away, separating the tight-knit yet awkward group of friends known as “the goonies.”
Meet The Goonies
Young teens Mikey (Sean Astin), Data (Ke Huy Quan), Chunk (Jeff Cohen), and Mouth (Corey Feldman) seem resigned to their fate, choosing to distract themselves with the “truffle shuffle,” police chases, and whether or not Michael Jackson did actually stop by Chunk’s house to use the bathroom once.
Bored, distraught, and fueled by Mikey’s dad’s bedtime stories, the goonies take to their bikes one overcast Saturday intent on discovering a one-eyed pirate’s buried treasure from the 17th century, a loot they hope will help them do what their parents could not: save the Goon Docks from becoming a yuppy golf course.
They’re joined on their mission by big brother Brand (Josh Brolin) and two other upper classmen Andy (Kerri Green) and Stef (Martha Plimpton). Together, the adventurous group of misfits bicker their way through the subterranean system of tunnels that runs throughout town.
Yes, The Goonies is the progenitor of the “kids on bikes on a dangerous mission” movie, the beginning of a device that the Duffer brothers pay great homage to in Stranger Things. (It’s also used to great effect in the 2017 iteration of Stephen King’s It, also starring Finn Wolfhard.)
Walk the Plank
On their journey, they run into one little snag…well, three big snags known as the Fratelli’s, a crime family comprised of a matriarch mafioso and her two impossibly inept sons. Favoring the subterranean living of a basement in an abandoned restaurant, think of this trio as something like the Demogorgon of the Goon Docks.
The Goonies is a thrill-a-minute swashbuckling adventure complete with X-marks-the-spot treasure maps, 17th century pirates, lots of rich stuff, and of course some bats and booby traps. It’s also filled with chemistry between the actors and spot-on dialogue that makes the bonds between the young characters feel as real as any friendship ever could.
And with the help of the third Fratelli brother Sloth, the goonies manage to avoid the plank, the Fratelli’s, and seeing their beloved Goon Docks turned into a golf course.
The Legacy of The Goonies
No doubt many of the viewers of Stranger Things are Gen Z and teens close in age to the characters on the show. The show is filled with adventure, intriguing mysteries, and otherworldly monstrosities, but none of it is too intense to exclude a healthy teen following, though it is a bit sweary.
But outside of its teen following, there’s no doubt that a majority of ST viewers are 80’s and 90’s babies looking for a hit of nostalgia, and the Duffer brothers manage to deliver just that in way that is addictive to people of a certain age.
The Duffers have leaned so hard into their 80’s inspo that they cast 80’s teen icon and star of a few spooky movies herself Winona Ryder in a lead role as Joyce Byers. And for Season 2, they cast none other than Mikey himself, Sean Astin, as Joyce’s love interest. Clearly a very obvious nod to the show’s roots, the Goonie love runs deep.
Goonies Never Say Die
Beyond an onscreen legacy, the effects that films like The Goonies and shows like Stranger Things can have on culture at large is powerful. Adolescence is a delicate time, a time when identity and a sense of self are just beginning to form. During such a transition, seeing kids of a similar age coming together to tackle a mutual problem can have an empowering effect on people just beginning to figure out their place in the world. It can inspire young people to look for places in their own little world where they can make a difference.
And the world needs all of that it can get right now. Even if it’s not a murderous crime family in a bullet-riddled RV or a Demogorgon from another dimension, there are still monsters out there that need slaying.
Slay, kids. Slay.
The Goonies is streaming now on Tubi, and Stranger Things Season 4 (Part 1) is streaming now on Netflix.
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