Summertime means outdoor movie screenings of The Goonies. I didn’t make up the rules.

The Goonies is an iconic nostalgic treat about a band of pals who seek buried treasure to save their homes. It isn’t just a rite of passage film, it’s an adventure film, a swashbuckling pirate film, a film about misfits. It’s glorious, is what it is.

Let’s check out the moments that made the screenplay so special.

OPENING IMAGE

Screenwriter Chris Columbus opens with a solemn pact amongst the goonies — and even in this, his detail lets us know the kind of journey we’re in for. Above all else, this will be a film about friendship, and the goonies have the unfailing sincerity that only children can have. Their secret handshake is a “poetic, beautifully synchronized series of movements which displays a sense of kinship and brotherhood.”

Then, without any ado whatsoever, we’re in jail with the film’s baddies. JAKE FRATELLI (“a 33 year old excitable boy, strong, muscular, with the face of a KILLER”) fakes his death to lure the prison guard into his cell where they read a smarmy note before he attacks him, steals his clothes, and makes a break for freedom, where MAMA FRATELLI (“a 56 year old, heavyset woman, with grey hair and a MENACING, EVIL face”) and FRANCIS FRATELLI (“a 31 year old man with dark hair and crazed eyes”) await with the getaway car.

Oh yeah, right off the bat we see that these are savvy criminals with swagger — perfect antagonists to our young would-be heroes. We jump back to them and begin to get their introductions:

MOUTH, watching the Fratelli car chase on television, oblivious to the fact that they go screaming by outside the window in real life.

DATA, dumpster diving for parts for his crude inventions.

ANDY, one of the prettiest girls in town leads cheerleaders in a music number at the high school.

TROY PERKINS (not a goony, oh no, much too arrogant and spoiled) golfs with his “daddy.”

STEF, fishing with her father.

CHUNK, double fisting pizza and a chocolate milkshake while playing a video game.

And finally, MIKEY, “a 13 year old HYPOCHONDRIAC. CUTE. A wiry, SKINNY body. SHORT for his age. BRACES. In that AWKWARD stage of adolescence,” who has just missed the car chase and laments that nothing exciting ever happens around here anyway.

His older brother BRAND is a “HANDSOME, MUSCULAR youth,” who hangs upside down from a chinning bar with metal anklets, doing crunches.

Mouth shows up and gives us some important exposition: this is the goonies’ last weekend together. Soon, Chunk and Data follow.

Columbus gives us great detail here with very little. Another one of Data’s inventions is being used. Mouth rips on the older Brand for failing his drivers test. Chunk — the only goony to have seen the car chase — tries to regale it only to be reminded of his previous tall tales. We get a sense of each of these kids’ personalities and their boisterous group dynamic.

And while the kids would drive you insane if you had to be responsible for them, watching them in the film, they’re hilarious. Mouth translates for the Spanish-speaking assistant but he purposefully messes with her, telling her that Mikey and Brand’s (very kind) mother will lock Rosalita in the attic with the cockroaches if she doesn’t do a good job.

The Walsh’s are moving because rich people are coming to town and seizing their house — thus, the kids’ last weekend together. But before they let their parents sell all their cool stuff to said rich people, they decide to go up into the attic and see if there’s anything cool up there to take.

INCITING INCIDENT

In the attic, they discover a map and a golden doubloon that belonged to “One Eyed Willy, the biggest pirate of his time.” Willy hid his ship, the INFERNO, with millions of dollars worth of treasure on board, and hid it in a cave where the king’s men sealed him up with cannon fire. Convinced they have a key to Willy’s treasure, courtesy of the lost treasure hunter Chester Copperpot, they decide to go after the treasure to save their home.

Mikey, Data, Mouth, and Chunk ditch Brand and run into Andy, Stef, and Troy. Mikey is smitten with the older Andy. Stef and Mouth take shots at each other. And Troy acts like the bully and misogynist he is. Brand arrives just in time to save Mikey from getting punched by Troy — but the bully promises revenge in the form of his father kicking the kids and their families out on the street.

Mikey, Chunk, Data, and Mouth continue on their treasure hunt and things get interesting. Not only does it seem like the key they found might actually lead to the treasure, but they end up squaring off against the Fratellis in their hideout.

I really love the detail of Mama Fratelli immediately taking a strong dislike to Mouth. Each time they clash for the rest of the film, you just gotta root for Mouth and his audacity. Mama is smart and lethal and (spoiler alert) she’s gonna be foibled by a bunch of kids — and it will be Mouth who really gets under her skin.

FUN AND GAMES

A game begins where the Fratellis pretend to be owners of the beaten down restaurant and the goonies pretend they believe them. It’s a bit of a stand-off and probably more of a hostage situation when Mama forces the boys inside. Mikey breaks off to go use the restroom and discovers, locked downstairs in a room resembling a jail cell, the third Fratelli brother SLOTH — a muscular man in chains being tormented by Jake. We don’t see Sloth’s face yet, but when Mikey does, “his eyes fill with terror.”

Mikey runs back upstairs and into Brand’s arms. Chunk has eaten some of the “fish surprise” from the "restaurant" and Mama releases the kids. They run for it but Mikey insists they go back inside once the Fratellis leave and find their treasure once and for all.

Andy and Stef followed Brand and suddenly there’s a will-they-won’t-they spirit in the air.

I love the detail here — it tells us what we truly need to know about Brand’s character. He has the chance to leave with the girl of his dreams and have “the best night of his life,” but he realizes he can’t leave without his brother. He’s a good guy. Luckily for him, Andy thinks so, too. She and Stef follow Brand who follows the kids — and they don’t know it yet, but the high schoolers have become goonies.

In the house, the kids realize that the "restaurant owners” are actually the Fratelli Mob — who return. As they attempt to hide, Chunk gets stuck in a freezer with a dead body while the rest of the group crawl through the fireplace down to a hidden passageway. They tell Chunk to run for the police as the rest of the group hides further underground.

Out running for his life, Chunk is intercepted by the Fratellis, who snatch him up and throw him into the back of their car and back to their hideout for interrogation. He gives up his friends with the first question.

MIDPOINT

The goonies flee through the hidden passageway, soon in pursuit from the Fratellis, who want the treasure for themselves. Through luck, quick thinking, and Data’s madcap inventions, they manage to stay one step ahead of the pursuing bad guys.

Chunk, meanwhile, is left with the Fratellis’ other prisoner, Sloth, the supposed monster whom we finally get to see.

The goonies get a chance to turn back, to escape through the town wishing well, but a motivational speech from Mikey inspires them to carry on.

Was this the right choice? Soon, they’ll wonder, as the Fratellis close in on their heels.

Meanwhile, Chunk and Sloth actually bond over chocolate. Sloth breaks free of his chains to get to a candy bar and just like that, they’ve become the oddest pair of heroes you ever did see. Chunk manages to call the sheriff but he laughs the kid off, thinking it’s another tall tale. Don’t cry wolf, kids!

BAD TO WORSE

The path to the pirate treasure becomes more and more dangerous as the Fratellis start to catch up with the kids. Booby traps and riddles with fatal repercussions test each kid one-by-one.

On the bright side, Andy mistakes Mikey for Brand in the dark and kisses him — Mikey’s first kiss.

The Fratellis are close enough to fire shots. The goonies are able to escape just narrowly at every corner — balancing acts, playing an organ made of bones to open trap doors, and finally, they make it through a slide and into a giant cavern containing…a pirate ship!

Notice here the styling of a 1984 screenplay — you can see why there’s a soft rule to keep action lines to three lines. The eyes want to glaze over hugh chunks of paragraph…but don’t let them. Columbus captures the wonderment of the kids’ adventure with their discovery.

There’s so much treasure, but unfortunately, they won’t get to enjoy it for long. While the kids know not to steal from Willy himself, the Fratellis don’t, and they managed to make their way hot on the kids trail…and with guns.

ALL IS LOST

Mama Fratelli forces the kids to drop their treasure and walk the plank, starting with Andy. Real formative moment for young Shannon when she first watch Brand dive in to save Andy and they kiss in the water with her wrists still bound…but…I digress.

That’s not how it was originally written, however, and I’d like to thank whoever made the changes. CPR is just less sexy.

Just when it seems all is lost, Chunk and Sloth arrive! The goonies launch their last stand but are one by one thrown overboard. The Fratellis greedily grab all the treasure they can as the kids swim back to the ship. Mama takes treasure from One Eyed Willy and it sets off one final booby trap.

The entire cavern begins to crumble and fall apart on top of them. They flee to a cavern entrance where Sloth manages to hold the escape path open long enough for the kids to escape. Chunk begs him to join them, but he kisses Chunk’s cheek and steps back into the cavern, seemingly to perish with his family.

But instead, he swims to his mother and brothers, wraps his enormous arms around them, and saves their lives as the pirate ship begins to sail free.

The goonies escape into daylight where their worried parents and the sheriff department are searching for them. The adventure is over. Their forced move and separation about to begin.

The goonies say their final good-byes.

FINALE

Suddenly on the beach, Sloth appears, dragging his waterlogged family before the police. He reunites with Chunk, who asks his stunned parents to adopt him.

As Mikey’s dad prepares to sign over his home to Troy’s terrible father, they are interrupted by Rosalita, who begins shouting in Spanish as Mouth struggles to translate. Sloth has coughed up a diamond and she’s screaming for them not to sign.

Sloth has brought a slew of gemstones — diamonds and rubies and emeralds, enough to save the goonies’ homes! The day is saved. The sheriff realizes Chunk was telling the truth this time.

And in the background, a pirate ship sails from the crags of the shoreline.