Posted by We always complain a little too much about the infamous deleted scenes of the movies we love. They have something close to a guilt: they took away a pleasure, an aspect that fan would have enjoyed for sure. But not all deleted scenes are out because of length reasons. Sometimes the scenes are removed because they somehow worsen the action. And perhaps, afterwards, they become the most searched and discussed scenes of that movie, even though the movie itself didn’t need it. It’s what happened with The Goonies, one of the most watched and celebrated teenage films of the 80s, for that tasty mix of action, fantasy and adventure that never gets boring.
There was a scene, however, that was deleted before the film was released and became popular only several years later, when the DVD was released. It takes place during the escape from the pirate ship and shows a last, quick shot before returning to the surface, where a giant octopus appears. You can find it below.
The absence of that scene disappointed many people in the theatres, teenagers who already knew about the presence of the octopus thanks to the information released during promotion. Looking at it now, years later, the scene looks in fact bizarre and absurd, in some way not fitting the fluid mechanics of the film. And the way the kids escape from the danger, sticking a cassette player stuck in the octopus mouth, is quite wacky.
Small, additional detail: the song you hear in that scene is Eight Arms to Hold You. It was composed exclusively for that scene and released in the movie soundtrack, although it didn’t appear in the final version of the film. It was released under the alias “The Goon Squad” and ended up at the top of the Billboard Dance chart. You can find it in streaming below.
