For the last 40 years, The Goonies has been one of the most enduring films in the Gen X canon. Like many people my age, I grew up watching the movie, which came out in the summer of ‘85, and you can currently watch it with a Netflix subscription. I never really thought about the setting, however.
I bought into the idea that The Goonies and Back to the Future took place on the same fall day in 1985 (a fun theory that has sadly been debunked), but it never occurred to me that the location of the “Goon Docks” was key to the whole story. Recently, though, Corey Feldman, who played Mouth in the classic, explained why the location, Astoria, Oregon, is critical to the story.
Astoria Is One Of The Few Places It Makes Sense To Set The Story
In a recent interview with The New York Times, Corey Feldman spoke to writer Will Dudding about the town and the story. Dudding was exploring the town of Astoria today, in the context of the movie that he also grew up watching. It occurred to him that the coastal town was the “perfect location” for a story about pirate ships and lost treasure. It goes beyond the dramatic scenery, however. Feldman agreed, telling the Times:
Where else can you do it? Where you’re going to be off the coast of a fishing town and you’re going to have these great rock formations, where there is this possibility that some ship went into an open cave at some point.
He’s completely correct, of course. You need an ocean and caves, and it needs to be a small-ish town to really make the story work (even if other stuff doesn’t make perfect sense).. Add in the beautiful scenery, and there really is no other place where the same story works.
I Never Thought About That As A Kid
I grew up in the Midwest, 700 miles from the closest ocean. The timeless nature of the movie appealed to everyone, but to me, it was just some kids in a rundown part of a small town saving their neighborhood. The great context of the location never made an impression on me, besides thinking the giant rock formations on the coast were cool as hell. Unconsciously, I suppose I figured the Goonies’ adventures could have happened anywhere.
That’s not true. You need a coast so a pirate ship from the 17th century could access the also-necessary cave, and it needs to be in an out-of-the-way spot where a pirate might try to hide. The Pacific Northwest, especially the Oregon coast, provides all those things. It’s a unique spot for a unique story. Does that mean the whole story falls apart without the location? Well, yes and no.
The Adventure To Find Lost Pirate Booty Is Part Of The Charm
Without the pirate booty, The Goonies has a totally different feel. It plays into the magical realism of the movie. If it’s a bunch of kids, for example, tramping around the desert looking for stolen gold, it’s not nearly as charming a story. That works for an Indiana Jones adventure, but not kids trying to save their houses.
The moody, rainy vibe of the Oregon coast plays into the story perfectly, as well. Until the very end, there is little sun or brightness in the movie. That makes it into the final scene, when the last bag of gems is discovered by Rosalita, allowing the Goonies’ parents to pay off the developers trying to foreclose on the Goon Docks. The sun is finally out. That impact is subtle, but it’s important.
The Pacific Northwest Is A Little Like The End Of The World
I’m not going to pretend like we’re living in ancient times and don’t have an interconnected world in every way. Even in 1985, without the internet, nowhere really felt like “the end of the world.” However, the Pacific Northwest still, even in 2025, has a little bit of that “this is the edge” vibe. It’s a vibe that anyone from there, or who lives there, takes pride in. It’s exactly the kind of place a pirate like One-Eyed Willy would hide, right?
The dramatic rocks and coastal scenery, again, add to that vibe and allow even a kid like me, growing up hundreds of miles from anything like that, to subconsciously understand that this is the kind of place where an adventure like The Goonies could happen. We have a lot of caves around here, but no 17th century Spanish pirates were hiding their gold there, unless they somehow made their way through the North American river systems (which didn’t happen).
I See It Clearly Now
As the writer of the Times article wrote, Astoria is not only the perfect location for The Goonies, it’s the only way the quotable movie works on the level that it does. It’s simply not as charming, and probably not as enduring as it’s been, if it were set anywhere else. Dudding writes:
With fog above the water, it almost seemed impossible that there wasn’t a pirate ship loaded with treasure lurking somewhere among these rocks. The conditions were perfect. Now, if only I had a doubloon and a treasure map.
Like Fenn’s Treasure in the Rockies, I want to follow Dudding to Oregon and start searching for pirate booty. In the meantime, as the weather gets chilly where I live, it’s the right time to rewatch The Goonies again, armed with all this new information that I never thought about before. In fact, the movie’s story happens in late October. It’s just too perfect, just like Astoria.