10 Great Movies That Were Almost Ruined By Bad Editing

This Spielbergian cult classic might have a place in the heart of every '80s kid, though nostalgia for the period has blinded us to a truly terrible editing job. Mistakes can be expected when the cast is made up primarily of children, and it falls on editors to be extra vigilant when pouring over hours of footage in search of the best moments.

This wasn't the case with The Goonies - far from it. One of the most glaring mistakes to make it all the way through the editing process is Mikey (Sean Astin) calling his big brother Brand (Josh Brolin) by his real name, with Astin himself admitting to the blunder on the DVD commentary. Amazingly, this happens more than once in the final cut of the film, with Data (Jonathan Ke Quan) also referring to Josh Brolin by his given title.

As far as revealing errors go, actors being called by their real names is the cardinal sin. Nothing will take you out of a movie like being reminded that you are watching a bunch of actors, and allowing it to happen more than once really cheapens the experience. You can only assume that Spielberg and co-editor Michael Kahn hoped that Josh's name would be lost among the chatter, though there is no explanation for the way they edited the film's ending.

After the Goonies make their escape from the Fratellis and are asked for an account of their adventure, Data mentions an octopus, though, having previously cut the scene with the octopus themselves, surely Spielberg and Kahn realised this made no sense whatsoever? It seems likely that the scene was cut late in the editing process and that Data's reference to it was simply overlooked.

However, despite being strewn with numerous other errors that ought to have been picked up in the editing process (from blinking dead men to people singing with their mouths closed), The Goonies never loses its charm and the spirit of the movie outshines the errors.