The Goonies ending offered up a huge moment of triumph for the kids and their families as they attempted to find a hidden treasure that would help them save their homes from a greedy land developer. Directed by Richard Donner (Superman), The Goonies follows a group of kids who are part of a group of outcasts known as the Goonies. Led by Mikey (Sean Astin), the kids find an old treasure map and believe that there is a hidden treasure near their home in Oregon. They try to find it after their parents reveal they might be forced out of their homes.

The kids used the map and found their way through a cave system. They discover the map is legitimate when they see an old pirate ship full of treasure. However, the Fratelli crime family also arrives there and sets out to get the treasure by eliminating the kids. Lucky for the kids, they befriended a third Fratelli son named Sloth (John Matuszak), who saved them. However, as the kids escaped from the caves and were rescued, they believed they didn’t get any of the treasure, failing in their mission to save their homes.

How Did The Goonies Save Their Town In The Ending?

Mikey Was Able To Escape With Enough Treasure To Stop The Land Developer’s Plans

At its heart, The Goonies is an action-adventure movie with young kids seeking to find buried treasure while trying to avoid bad guys trying to get there first. However, there was a deeper meaning behind The Goonies, and that involved the kids helping save their family homes from an unscrupulous land developer who wanted to buy up all the homes to expand a country club. The kids didn’t want to find treasure to become rich and wealthy. They wanted to save their families.

While on the pirate ship in the cave, Mikey grabbed a bunch of the valuable jewels and put them in a bag that he took with him. While the kids escaped the cave alive, and that was a reason to celebrate, they believed they failed to save their family homes. Mikey even felt bad that they didn’t get the treasure by choosing to “selfishly” save themselves. That was a big moment, but then housekeeper Rosalita found Mikey’s bag, and the jewels were in it.

There was enough treasure there to ensure the Goonies’ families had enough money to never have to sell their homes. These kids worked as a group to save their neighborhood from the greedy developers, thanks to Mikey’s quick thinking in grabbing the treasure and Rosalita’s luck in finding the bag before it was too late.

What Happened To The Fratellis & How Did They Release The Inferno?

The Crime Family Survived But Were Immediately Arrested

The main villains in The Goonies were the Fratelli family. Mama Fratelli led the criminal family with her two sons, Francis and Jake, as her main henchmen. She was a cruel woman, which was shown by how she treated her third son, Sloth. However, the family got what was coming to them. When the cave collapsed, Mama and her other two boys begged Sloth for help, and he saved them. They escaped the cave, only to be arrested by the police. However, Sloth was allowed to remain free and went to live with Chunk and his family.

Where Did The Inferno Originally Come From?

The Ship Originally Set Sail In The 17th Century

The entire focus of The Goonies movie was for the kids to seek out a mythical treasure. What they end up finding is a treasure ship in a cave by their homes. This ship is full of treasure but also has the skeletons of the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ bodies of the former crew around it. Finding the treasure ship was exciting for a kids’ adventure movie. However, how the Inferno arrived at this spot was a mystery to everyone.

It turns out that the Inferno initially set sail in the 17th century with One-Eyed Willy as its captain. The ship ended up involved in a war between the pirates and the English. While they attempted to escape, a British armada ended up sealing the ship inside a cave near modern-day Astoria, Oregon. The ship was stranded there for hundreds of years before the Goonies found it by using One-Eyed WIlly’s map. Before dying, One-Eyed Willy set up booby traps, believing if he couldn’t have the treasure, no one could.

Why The Goonies’ Ending Mentions An Octopus (Despite One Never Appearing)

Data Tells The Reporters They Fought An Octopus

During The Goonies ending, all the kids were talking to reporters at the scene about what they had just gone through. While this was mostly just a short moment of them talking about the amazing moments, there was a line that made no sense. Data told one reporter in The Goonies about “the octopus” which was “more dangerous.” The problem is that there was no octopus in the film. However, a deleted scene on the DVD showed that the kids battled an octopus in the cave near the pirate ship. Even without the scene, it still fits Data’s tendency to exaggerate.

The Goonies Ending Was Supposed To Be Very Different

The Final Moments Were Originally Days Later

The original Goonies ending has the kids fresh off their escape, explaining to reporters what happened as the pirate ship floats out to sea in the background. This leads to the discovery of the jewels and the kids saving the day. However, there was originally a different ending. The movie was supposed to jump to a few days later, where two gorillas were running rampant in the town, which tied into a deleted scene that saw the kids accidentally free them from the zoo when they were banging on pipes in the tunnels.

In the alternate ending, the kids were saying goodbye to each other at their homes when Rosalita found the jewels in the attic and convinced Mr. Walsh not to sign the papers. Most of what happened in the original ending happened here, but it had a very different feel since it almost seemed like their adventure might have been their imagination. Rosalita finding the jewels proves it really happened, though, making the ending more grounded and less fantastical than doing it with the pirate ship in the background.

The Real Meaning Of The Goonies Ending

Friendship & Family Always Comes Before Treasure

The Goonies is a movie that is made for kids and adults to enjoy, and therefore, there isn’t a real deep meaning behind the story and its conclusion. It is a basic Steven Spielberg idea (he came up with the story, and Chris Columbus wrote the script). Good defeated evil, and the kids found the treasure they needed to save their families. This is a story about friendship and never giving up, and The Goonies even has the quote, “Goonies never say die,” that the kids say more than once.

The film sees Mikey saying that they failed to save their families before Rosalita finds the treasure, and his dad makes it clear that they will always be rich if they have each other. When the jewels are found, it shows that the kids didn’t fail, but that came after Mikey’s dad gave him his reᴀssurance, proving that friendship and family are the most important, and if they hold onto those things, the treasure will follow.

What The Goonies’ Final SH๏τ Of The Inferno Sailing Away Represents

The Goonies Is About Childhood & Imagination

The Goonies ends with an interesting sH๏τ. The last show isn’t of the kids and their families celebrating, although that was shown right before the final image. Instead, they are all watching as the pirate ship drifts out of the cave and sails into the distance. The people on the beach look on in astonishment as they realize the kids are being honest about everything. This sH๏τ has a deeper meaning coming out of the film, as The Goonies is a story about childhood and imagination, and the pirate ship instills that into everyone on the beach and reminds viewers at home what it’s like to be a kid.