Film

The Goonies

Name: The Goonies
Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Family
Released: 1985
Cast: Sean Astin, Josh Brolin, Jeff Cohen, Corey Feldman, Kerri Green

A gang of misfit kids in a doomed Oregon town chase a legendary pirate's treasure through booby-trapped caves, chased by a family of bumbling crooks. It's pure 1980s Spielberg-produced adventure: loud, sentimental, occasionally terrifying for a PG film, and built entirely around the joy of kids being braver and funnier than the adults around them.

TMDb rating

7.5

If you liked this

Stand by Me1986

Same era, same Corey Feldman, but the quieter, sadder cousin — four boys walk to find a body and end up finding something about growing up instead. Less treasure, more truth.

But No pirates, no booby traps, no jokes at this pace — it's melancholy where Goonies is manic.

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial1982

Spielberg's other great kid's-eye adventure, and the one that proves he can do wonder without a single joke about slime. Bikes, government agents, a friendship that still gets people.

But It's sincere in a way Goonies never is — if you want wisecracks and chaos, this will feel slow and soft.

The Sandlot1993

A summer, a gang, a legendary threat (a dog instead of a pirate), and the same warm nostalgia for childhood as its own kind of adventure. Funnier and gentler.

But Lower stakes throughout — nobody's house is being demolished, nobody's diving into underground caverns.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Treasure Island1950

One-Eyed Willie and his map are pure Robert Louis Stevenson — this is the source code, decades before Spielberg remixed it for kids on bikes.

Disney's first all-live-action feature, and the actual bones of every pirate-treasure story since — Long John Silver is the template every one-eyed villain gets measured against.

But It's stately and old-fashioned where Goonies is chaos — a 1950s adventure film pace, not a sprint.

The Monster Squad1987no page yet

Written by two of the era's best genre guys, this is kids-vs-danger cranked into horror-comedy, with Dracula and Frankenstein's monster instead of the Fratellis. Same anarchic energy, more monsters.

But Cheaper effects and a rougher script — it's a cult favorite for a reason, and the reason isn't polish.

Explorers1985

Same year, same instinct — kids building something dangerous and wonderful out of scrap and belief, this time a homemade spaceship instead of a treasure map.

But The tone shifts hard once they actually leave Earth, and not everyone loves where it goes.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom1984

Spielberg again, treasure again, traps again — just with an adult doing the diving instead of a kid with asthma. Darker, faster, more relentless.

But It's genuinely intense for a PG film — heart removal and child slavery aren't exactly Goonies stakes.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom poster

Hook1991

Spielberg's other pirate-adjacent adventure about reclaiming lost childhood, with Dustin Hoffman having the time of his life as Captain Hook. Big, silly, occasionally moving.

But It's bloated and sentimental in ways critics never forgave — some find its whimsy exhausting rather than charming.

Super 82011

A direct love letter to this exact kind of film — kids on bikes, a small town, a secret too big for them, shot with real affection for the genre.

But It knows it's an homage, and that self-awareness costs it some of the original's unguarded charm.

Stranger Things2016

The clearest modern descendant — a gang of kids, a small town, a supernatural threat, and the Goonies' DNA is all over the bike chases and walkie-talkie banter.

But It's a multi-season commitment, and the later seasons trade some of that scrappy intimacy for spectacle.

The Curse of Oak Island2014no page yet

Same engine as the Goonies' cave crawl — old maps, secret tunnels, treasure lore passed down for generations — except this time the stakes are somebody's actual retirement fund.

A real family spending years and millions digging up a real island for a legendary, possibly nonexistent treasure — obsessive map-reading and tunnel excavation, but nobody's acting.

But It's slow reality TV built on speculation and dead ends — seasons pass without a definitive answer.

The City of Lost Children1995no page yet

Same core idea — kids banding together against grown-up villains in a world too big and dangerous for them — pushed into darker, stranger, foreign-language territory.

A French fantasy about a gang of orphaned kids navigating a nightmarish, beautifully strange world to save a kidnapped child, from the visual mind behind Amélie.

But Subtitled, surreal, and genuinely unsettling in places — this is Goonies' warmth replaced by something closer to a fever dream.