Movies - TV
Richard Donner Cut The Goonies' Octopus Attack For A Simple Reason
By JEFF KELLY
Director Richard Donner’s “The Goonies” is a beloved adventure comedy film that follows a group of adolescents on their journey to find One-Eyed Willy’s treasure. The movie has many memorable moments, but one that sticks out revolves around a cryptic line Data (Ke Huy Quan) says to the reporter, which has confused many fans: “The octopus was very scary!”
The theatrical version didn’t feature an octopus in the film, but Donner did shoot a sequence where the young heroes needed to fend off an octopus in the cave that houses One-Eyed Willy’s pirate ship. While the deleted scene can be found on YouTube and occasionally in cable edits, Donner explained why it was never released in theaters: “Because it was bad.”
The octopus scene didn’t add anything to the plot, and the fake animatronic monster might have been distracting, though Donner left Data’s line in because he liked the mystery, even if it didn’t make sense. The movie had several other mistakes, such as Sean Astin calling Josh Brolin’s character “Josh” twice; Donner said, “I figured, just leave them in, it keeps people guessing.”