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We love a good info dump here at Popverse. And while a backstory or exposition dump can be schlocky at times, there are movies that bring a fair bit of charm to these types of scenes. Just look at the Indianapolis scene from Jaws, for instance (though it was likely oceanic whitetip sharks that attacked the USS Indianapolis crewmen, not tiger sharks), or even "Did you ever hear the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise?" which lives on as a meme. But how often do you get to hear about how an info dump scene was filmed? 

If you've watched The Goonies, you might remember the scene where Sean Astin's character recounts the lore of One-Eyed Willy towards the beginning of the film. With his friends and Josh Brolin gathered around him, Astin's character, Mikey, breathlessly recounts the tale of One-Eyed Willy that his dad told him. At Rose City Comic Con 2025, Astin revealed that the footage of him telling One-Eyed Willy's story was captured right after director Richard Donner had given him the gist of the story. 

“And so [Richard Donner] said, 'Come outside of stage 20,' or whatever it was. He was like, 'Sean, I'm going to tell you this story, okay? It's a long story. I'm going to tell it to you. You listen to it. Once you've heard it, I want you to tell it back to me, okay?' And the whole crew is inside waiting. I don't know what they were doing in there, twiddling their thumbs. So you have the natural nervousness of the director doing some new experiment with you, but we're also very aware of the pressure and stress of like, 'People are waiting for me? Oh my God!'" Astin began. 

"So he tells me that story about the Spanish Armada and One-Eyed Willy, and I hear it. He says, 'Tell me back,' and I told him the story. He says, 'Good.' We walked in and we sat down and shot it, and I just retold the story again and he made it feel like it was just me and him talking - and our group - but sometimes when you're a kid, you're very aware of the whole crew and all the lights and whatever else is going on, what's for lunch and catering, but all of a sudden now all that just kind of went away, and we're just in this moment.”

When you watch the scene now with that information in mind, the faraway look in Astin's eyes certainly ties into the fact that he was recounting a story that he had just heard. And it works for the kind of film that The Goonies is. Astin's Mikey is the heart of the movie, anyways. If you don't believe me, you can go rewatch The Goonies right now on Netflix. 

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