The Goonies Movie Essay

One movie that pertains to the family adolescent life cycle is The Goonies. Not only is this movie a cult classic, but it also gives a great perspective on an adolescent’s life cycle. This movie revolves around a group of kids in search of a way to save their home from the rich towns people. While on this search they stumble on treasure map from the infamous “One Eyed Willy”. Thus begins the adventures of the Goonies on their mission to save their homes.
The reason I choose this movie was quite simple. I was raised on this movie, not only is it one of my favorites, it clearly demonstrates the many facets of adolescent behaviors in the family life cycle. One of the main characters, Mikey, played by Sean Astin is of adolescent age. Throughout

this movie, many developmental changes occur that emphasize the life cycle of the adolescent.
In Borysenko’s (1996) book of development, we are introduced to 9 stages of development that range from infancy to the aging individual.

We are introduced to adolescence in the 5th stage of development. Adolescence begins for boys around the age of 14 and continues up until the age of 21 years of age. At this stage of development, there are many changes that occur emotionally, physically, sexually and spiritually (McGoldrick, Carter, & Garcia Preto, 2011). At this time, adolescent kids are going through changes in their body. They are dealing with coming into their own sexuality. Skills pertaining to social skills and social relationships are being developed through experience. Adolescents are also increasing their skills of physical and mental coordination, such as learning about the world and working on their own coordination. Adolescence is also characterized by learning their own identity and where they fit in the world, as well as learning their relationship with peers and those around them. Spiritual identity is also developed along with a deeper understanding of life. Independence is something that is also weighing on the mind of an adolescent. Overall changes in the family structure can also occur when a child of this age reaches this

stage.
The character Mikey, is around the age of 14 years old, which is of adolescent age.

Mikey and his fellow comrades, the Goonies, are together throughout the whole movie. Each particular member brings a certain aspect to the group. Literature states that boys tend to interact in more of a group setting (Fabes, Martin, & Hanish, 2003). One of Mikey’s noticeable qualities is a new found sense of independence. As adolescents begin to mature emotionally, they want to refrain from boyhood things, into a more mature state (McGoldrick, Carter, & Garcia Preto, 2011). This is characterized by Mikey’s need to explore and take on a new adventure to save his family home. Mikey and the Goonies find themselves in one part of the movie, at the local wishing well. At this time, Mikey gives a speech about choosing to take a risk and continue the adventure versus riding up a bucket into a reality that will be changing dramatically. Now since it is the movies of course; we know that at the end of the movie all will be right in the world. However, in a real life scenario, with armed and dangerous escapees following you, you might try to find a way out immediately, versus continue on an adventure for a dead pirate’s gold. Research shows evidence that increases in sensation seeking, risk-taking and reckless behavior in adolescence is influenced by puberty and not chronological age (Steinberg, 2005). Mikey is also using his newly founded cognitive skills of problem solving to work through

the many booby traps created from “One Eyed Wille” along the way. Mikey does not resonate with some a typical behaviors of adolescence. Research has found that normal behavior can include aggression, withdrawal and lack of emotion (McGoldrick, Carter, & Garcia Preto, 2011). As one may imagine, there can be contrasting differences and similarities associated with the adolescent development for girls and boys. If Mikey would have been an adolescent girl, there would have been many differences in his character personality. Literature states that girls are more prone to feelings of abandonment and approval (Rose & Rudolph, 2006). If Mikey would have been a female, he would have been preoccupied with keeping everyone happy and to avoid conflict. Girls are also shown to have more empathy and sensitivity then boys do (Rose & Rudolph, 2006). This would have created the movie to look more like an episode from, The Babysitters Club, then, The Goonies. What I mean by that, is the overall feeling of the movie may have had more emotions and moral conflict, versus adventure. This also ties in with the fact that girls, typically will have more friendship stress or social network stress as opposed to peer stress for boys (Rose & Rudolph, 2006). Not only do adolescents go through changes at this time, so will the entire family as a whole. Many different emotions can be learned from an adolescent sibling relationship, including, jealousy, aggression, fairness, empathy, aspiration, and rivalry (Vandell & Bailey, 1992). Mikey’s brother, Brand, goes through some of these emotions throughout the movie. As typical brother relationships, there is a certain amount of subtle sibling rivalry throughout the movie. Brand’s behavior’s include aggression from annoyance of Mikey deflating his bike tires, to feelings of aspiration toward the end of the movie when he understands the purpose of the mission that Mikey accomplished. Sibling relationship, no matter the turmoil that occurs are still an important source of support to each other. Throughout the movie, Brand, experiences conflict within his relationship with Mikey, these conflict also help each other develop skills such as negotiation and compromise (Shantz & Hartup, 1992). Unfortunately, Mikey and Brand’s parent’s do not have a significate role in the movie. However, if they had been present more, we might have seen some unresolved issues within the parent’s relationship (McGoldrick, Carter, & Garcia Preto, 2011). In conclusion, The Goonies, is not only a time honored classic for many generations, it also demonstrates many different concepts that are characteristic of families in the adolescent life cycle stage. One thing that I have personally always admired about this movie is that adolescents, who are not always looked at as a source of inspiration, can and made the impossible happen, all because, “Goonies never say die!”.