We’re back with a new one, and this time we’re bringing you a little something about two movies from 1985 that are so loved by my generation. If you were a kid in the 80s, you probably love Back to the Future and The Goonies. But what you probably didn’t know is that they share something in common: they take place on the same day. Both of these films were released in the summer of 1985, and have the same producers, but despite these films being 35 years old, nobody has every pointed this out! As a kid, I watched these movies more times than I can count, but I never noticed this until now.
Now you’re probably thinking, wait a minute, Back to the Future is a time travel flick, and goes to several different years. That is true, but the day that it all starts, and the day that Marty McFly initially travels from, is Saturday October 26th, 1985. This date is seen several times in the films, such as the main panel of the Delorean:
The first time travel event takes place early morning on this Saturday, and in fact, Back to the Future Part II begins with this date appearing on the screen before the opening credits.
Now, while Back to the Future‘s date is clear, The Goonies is not so clear, but all the clues are there to see it. The first clue is when Mouth comes in and says that it’s the “last Goonie weekend”, and also asks Brand and Mikey: “what is this a nuclear Saturday or something?”
So that, to me, pretty squarely points to this being a Saturday. That, and the fact that the Goonies are all out of school this morning, and are able to go out on this adventure.
Now the next clue, points to the month being October. There are other indications of this, and the clue after this further confirms it, but there is a calendar behind Brand showing the month right after all the Goonies gather at Mikey’s house.
The next clue has thrown off many into thinking it is a different date. For example, the Goonies Wiki even has the date wrong! On this site, they claim that The Goonies takes place on October 24th. I can’t blame them, because as they pointed out, the novelization uses this date. However, this can’t be the case, which I will explain. The reason for this confusion comes when Steph notices a newspaper hanging on the wall.
Then we get a close-up of the paper, showing the date of October 24th 1985.
While it’s hard to see in this image, you can tell in the scene that the date says October 24th, 1985. However, this date was a Thursday, and not a Saturday as I have previously established. Furthermore, check the headline. The article is somewhat readable, and describes the crime that put Jake Fratelli in jail. Mama Fratelli and Francis broke him out of jail at the beginning of the film, but they wouldn’t stage a break-out the very same day he was arrested. They would have needed a couple days to plan the break-out. And if The Goonies takes place on a Saturday, in October, and after the 24th, then it must be…you guessed it.
Therefore, I posit that this was the paper from two days prior, and the Goonies takes place on Saturday October 26th, 1985.
Now what could this mean? Well, for one thing it could just be an amazing coincidence. However, a closer look and we see that these two films shared some of the same producers. So maybe this date was one of their birthdays or had some other significance. Another cool connection between these two films is that they both start off with a “Rube Goldberg” type device. Doc Brown’s house has sort of a machine that makes his breakfast and feeds his dog Einstein, and so do the Goonies to open the gate. Both of these are cool moments in the film, but have nothing to do with the date! So with that, I’ll bring this little article to a close. I hope everyone is doing well, and have a great weekend.
Brought to you by @davestrrr and stay tuned to Spoiled Blue Milk for more fan theories!