Superman vs. Lex Luther. Luke Skywalker vs. Darth Vader. A bunch of kids from Oregon vs. three gun-toting criminals and a power-hungry businessman.
The last of those three may not ring quite as many bells for your average person-on-the-street, but the good v. evil struggle in The Goonies is real. There's no gray area here. The Goonies may not be perfect human specimens, but they're trying to retrieve a treasure that belongs to no one (living) and use it to get their families out of debt, and save their homes. Totally honorable.
On the other side of the doubloon, you've got three straight-up awful people who will steal or kill without blinking an eye, and are motivated purely by greed.
Speaking of greed, that's also the principal motivator for Mr. Perkins, who's trying to take advantage of good people by forcing them out of their homes so some rich folks can practice their short game.
Questions about Good v. Evil
- Mouth is a Goonie, but he's a pretty unlikeable character. He makes fun of his own friends, he never shuts up, and he throws hissy fits. Is he still on the side of "good" even though he's got some definite character flaws?
- We probably all agree that the Fratellis are evil. But how do you think they got that way? Sloth turned out all right (in this respect, at least), but what happened to the rest of the family to make them so terrible?
- Is it too simplistic to reduce these characters to either "good" or "evil"? Is it possible that each of them has shades of both?
- What was One-Eyed Willy—good or evil?
Chew on This
Chew on This
Murdering pirates—which is what Willy and his men were—are definitely evil. The fact that Mikey sides with them puts him on the side of evil, too.
Mr. Perkins isn't evil. He's just a businessman, trying to take advantage of a solid business opportunity.