The ‘Goonies’ Cast Reveals How the Set Devolved Into A Prank War
Goonies never say die, nor do they say “uncle.”
This Saturday will mark the 40th anniversary of the release of the 1985 adventure comedy The Goonies, and the now-grown stars of the series still have the on-set antics from the landmark film’s production fresh in their minds. Before America fell in love with the group of friends who set out on a quest to find long-lost pirate treasure and save their homes from foreclosure, the cast of The Goonies became real-life pals with all the real-life rowdiness, wrestling and pranking that comes with being a bunch of kids given free rein to improvise and raise hell on a Hollywood set.
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Hell, even the adults of the Goonies team ed in on the antics, as many cast and crew from the film discussed in a recent conversation with Steven Spielberg personally fostered an environment where pranking and shenanigans were more important than being on schedule, which meant that The Goonies took an extra two months to shoot while the filmmakers were busy planning cross-continent flights just to screw with each other.
When asked about his experience with the proliferation of pranks on the Goonies set, Joe Pantoliano, who played one of the main villains alongside Robert Davi, itted that he had played a part in the practical jokes himself. “Davi was very proud that his parking spot was next to Spielberg’s so I stole his parking nameplate,” Pantoliano itted. “Then he got even with me. I was lying down and I heard this banging. He’d nailed my dressing room door shut. They had to come and pry my door open.”
However, some light carpentry was far from the most complicated pranking that occurred during the making of Goonies. Star Sean Astin said that the tricks only grew more technical from there, recalling one prank pulled on Donner, “They were very scared of the water and electricity, because the wishing well set was connected to the water slide set and you were all standing in water.” Then, the punchline, “We did a bit where they rigged up some sparks and one of these little junction boxes. Somebody went: ‘Dick, look out!’ and the thing went in the water and started exploding.”
“I think for a second it freaked him out, and then he was laughing really hard,” Astin said of the director’s reaction.
But the biggest, most expensive and most famous prank of all came from the big cheese himself, as actress Kerri Green recalled how Spielberg booked the entire Goonies cast flights to go surprise Donner at his home in Maui after filming finally ended. “Jeff (Cohen) would come to set in a big Hawaiian shirt, a camera around his neck and a big hat. Dick was like: ‘Oh, you goddamn kids. I’m exhausted. You’re killing me. I can’t wait to go to Maui,’” Green said. “So Jeff was like: ‘We’re coming with you.’ And Dick would just howl with laughter.”
“They arranged for Donner to go shopping, to get him out of the house,” Pantoliano recalled of the big Hawaiian reveal. “We opened up the suitcases and threw clothes all over the living room. Donner showed up and all he kept saying was, ‘What the fuck?’ Then we had a barbecue.”
Mercifully, the torture of Donner ended there, as Pantoliano recounted, “Steven had the foresight to stick us on an airplane afterwards and get us off the island so the kids wouldn’t bother Donner. So we went over to O’ahu for a five-day vacation. It was great.”
For such an eventful, playful, prank-filled production, Goonies would prove to be a life-changing experience for its young cast – one that would end up being hard to top. Astin added of the final Hawaii prank with heart-wrenching melancholy, “This experience for us kids was transformative. How do you complete that without causing major depression? For Steven to play that practical joke was really, to me, an instinctive way for him to honor us.”
