The Lighthouse Lounge
The original idea...was to have a cemetary on the hill, with the Goonies hiding behind gravestones. But owing to the area’s rich lumbering history, they opted for the logging camp look.Included in the Fourth Draft script is another scene that was rescued from deletion: Data using his Spy Eyes to get a closer look at the FBI agents going into the restaurant. The final version of the sequence involves Data getting far more upset at his invention breaking; not only that, he accidentally uses his Pinchers of Peril on Mouth’s butt. Ouch.
Inside, the Goonies meet the Fratellis properly. Unlike the previous bits involving the Lounge, there are many changes here. Something previously mentioned was the change in Mouth’s personality, which better explains the reason he started doing an Italian impression in the first place.
Something else interesting is that, instead of four rounds of “water”, the Goonies get an order of “Fresh Fish Surprise”: a gross sludge with fish heads in it. This is actually meant to be Sloth's meal - no wonder he wants that Baby R--I mean, Almond Joy so bad.
Instead of Jake coming up from the basement yelling about Sloth, we have Francis doing so, slathered in green ink from his printing press. Not to mention, we get to hear his machine in action, properly giving a set-up for the discovery, rather than it being kind of out of the blue and never touched on ever again. Since there’s a switch in character, Jake is the one dealing with the dinner they have to turn over to the Goonies.
On the one hand, having an introduction to the kids of all three criminal members of the family makes a little more sense. But, on the other, I can already tell this was a scene that Donner looked at and thought “this is way too long, let’s halve this”.
There’s also the tiniest of set-ups for Sloth in here, an odd choice. Like I said, the scene was halved by Donner and the Fresh Fish Surprise was removed, leaving no reason to really mention a third Fratelli brother.
A well-known fact about The Goonies is that Jake’s interest in operatic singing was an addition by the actor slash singer who portrayed him, Robert Davi. Either way, singing or not in the script, he cruelly doesn’t feed his older brother and leaves.
Here’s another reason I think Fourth Draft Mikey is a jerk - in the final product, he attempts to help the poor guy and reach his food, only getting a glimpse at the man in the shadows after doing so. In the script, Mikey just kind of sees him and then gets scared away. The bit with helping him get his food is far, far more humanizing, and makes the audience empathize in the Goonie’s direction.
...of course, he still does refer to Sloth as an “It”, so points still detracted… but his heart is mostly in the right place in the final version.
Brand collects Mikey when he scurries up, a scene that is extended for, uh…
...yeah. Moving on.
Back in the now-dark graveyard, we’re introduced back to Stef and Andy, who provide a shock for the Goonies when they suddenly offer light off a set of matches that they materialize out of thin air. The Goonies wander off to get back into the Lounge and Mouth starts this obnoxious Elmer Fudd impression that absolutely takes him from being charmingly annoying to straight up annoying. There is absolutely no reason for him to do this, nothing sets up the impersonation, and it continues on long past its welcome.
Because the setting of the exterior was changed by Riva, Stef and Andy were initially meant to be scared off by a gargoyle. Or, well, Andy was, because Stef’s just kind of vanished
from this scene for some reason. Sigh.
At least coming face-to-face with a disgusting fish head on a rake is actually a fright. The two girls screaming over that has some actual comedic value to it, because where the hell did this rake even come from? It’s like a proto-Sideshow Bob gag. Having Andy scream and run from a gargoyle isn’t so much a “laugh at their reaction” thing as it feels like a “laugh at how dumb this girl is” thing. It makes her kind of unlikeable, in a different direction than the other Goonies.
The Basement
According to the script, the Goonies being scared into the basement room is meant to be one based on the “State Room” scene from The Marx Brothers’ A Night at the Opera. Cute little tidbit.
Another piece of information here that’s actually kind of really important is that Mikey drops the doubloon. Ever wonder how Chunk got the doubloon for the later scene involving his interrogation with the Fratellis? Apparently he was meant to pick it up and pocket it here. Instead, he makes a beeline for the water cooler and does his best job with drinking from it.
There’s a strange exchange here between Brand and Mikey that just feels… off. They’re brothers: of course they fight and tease and whatnot, but there’s just something here that I can’t quite put my finger on. Maybe it’s because this is, at the core, the two fighting over Andy? Maybe.
Still, the weird animosity just continues to put Mikey into the category of “assholes we’re meant to be rooting for for some reason”. According to Sean Astin in the DVD commentary, there was an early script he read that had Mikey getting kissed by Andy at the end, but nobody seems to confirm this, even going as far as to tell him that he’s thinking of the kiss in the caves.
Perhaps this strange obsession of Mikey vs. Brand fit into the story in that early version, and these little bits were left in the Fourth Draft? That’s makes sense in my head, so I’m adopting a running theory of “this b-plot was orphaned and ultimately scrapped out as it came time to actually shoot the movie”. Again, reminder that this script began October 12, 1984, and filming began on the 22nd. We were rather close to this being included in the movie just because they forgot it made no sense anymore.
Another change comes with the money press. In the movie, Data tinkers with it until it activates and the Goonies all clamor around until Brand points out it’s fake. In the script, however, there’s no false hope with the fifty dollar bills, it’s pointed out almost immediately they’re “bogus” and they quickly move onto the next best thing.
Just goes to show how more real and down-to-earth the final version is. If a kid sees free fifty dollar bills, do you think they’re going to think much about it in the moment? Everyone’s homes are on the line - save for Andy - and this money could have easily saved them if it wasn’t for the fact it’s all fake.
Chunk’s excited reaction to the ice cream in the freezer is absent, as is the great moment of everyone staring at the corpse of good ol’ Teddy Grossman behind him. In the script, they see this and scurry off to get away but stop when the Fratellis arrive home. Simple change here in the final movie, with no escape scene, just to simplify filming and the flow of the movie.
Reactions to the Fratellis coming home for the second body are pretty overdone in the original too: here we have Andy praying and being too caught up in her praying to help stuff the body back in the freezer.
A line that throws me for a loop is this:
Why does Andy have a lighter? And if she had a lighter on her, why didn’t she use that instead of a match earlier? It’s such an odd choice. It never comes up any other time in the movie, either, so it’s just so… surprising to see this here. Does she smoke? I mean, alright, teenagers rebel and smoke, but it honestly doesn’t much fit her character, especially this version of her that’s constantly being described as “angelic” in Mikey’s view.
Down in the beginning of One-Eyed Willy’s caverns, Data attempts to use his Bully Blinders, a series of bright lights that only blind our Goonies and run out of juice immediately. In the movie he simply apologizes and that’s that. Here, however, there’s an extra bit that honestly answers a question that has bothered me.
Is this where the first lantern in the movie comes from? Was this a tiny bit cut from the movie? There is a bit of a hard cut from Data saying his sorries to Mikey pointing out a light ahead and, in the next scene with them, Data is seen lighting a lantern that comes from nowhere… is this the source of that? Or was it just lying around in the underground plumbing for the Astoria Country Club?
It’s nitpicking the tiniest of details, but it’s interesting this was included in the original script and handwaved over in the final. Would it have killed them to have a single line about a lantern, maybe even in the background of everything else?
No comments:
Post a Comment