A few years ago, a fan theory made its way around the internet that I absolutely love: The Goonies and Back To The Future took place on the same day, October 26, 1985. There was plenty of evidence provided that made a very compelling case for the theory, and frankly, it seemed like an open-and-shut case. Today, I learned that everything I knew was wrong, and the events of the two quotable movies, while close on the calendar, didn’t happen on the same day. Let’s get into it.
The Fan Theory Totally Works… At First
The easiest part of the theory is determining exactly what day Marty meets Doc at the Twin Pines Mall and goes back in time to 1955. The date is shown on the time machine, and it’s very visibly “OCT 26 1985.” We know that the real October 26, 1985, was a Saturday. Those two things are established facts. It’s the second part that makes things tricky.
Here’s how the internet came to its conclusion that the Goonies also have their adventure on Saturday, October 26th. It starts with knowing that it’s a Saturday, which is established by a few different lines in the movie, mostly by Mouth (Corey Feldman), who mentions that it’s the weekend and that it’s Saturday. Ok cool, we know that Oct. 26th was a Saturday, good start.
The other piece of evidence is a newspaper article shown on camera about the Fratelli’s prison break. The newspaper is dated October 24th, 1985. So, the theory goes, the newspaper came out on Thursday, October 24th, and we’re now watching the cast of Goonies play out their search for One-Eyed Willie’s gold on the following Saturday. Amazing! The proof is right there! Marty McFly went back in time on the same day the Goonies found pirate treasure and saved their neighborhood from greedy developers! Or did they?
Time To Rain On The Parade Like a Chilly Fall Day In Oregon
Thanks to the diligent killjoys over at Snopes, we’ve now learned that two events missed each other by two days. Even though The Goonies happens on the Saturday, in their universe, that Saturday was on October 24th, not the 26th (it’s not the only thing that doesn’t make sense in the movie). The newspaper article recounts the jailbreak, which you’ll remember took place earlier that morning, and Chunk (Jeff Cohen) witnessed the car chase. So there’s one strike against the theory.
The second and third strikes, according to Snopes, come from the original script and the novelization of the movie that was released around the same time the movie was, in the summer of ‘85. In both, the date is explicitly stated as the 24th. Additionally, the novel, which was based on the original script, includes a detail about the eviction notice, which apparently read that the following day, October 25th, would be the day all residents of the Goon Docks would have to leave.
So there it is. Proof, as produced by the good folks over at Snopes, that The Goonies and Back to the Future didn’t happen on the same day. This little tidbit of accidental movie magic was such a fun piece of trivia, that I’m bummed it turns out not to be true. It’s also disturbing that The Goonies is set in an alternate universe with a different calendar than the rest of us, but that’s another story. Hopefully, one less heartbreaking.