[12] Walk the Plank! Other Pirate Tropes/Stereotypes

 

When the Goonies actually board the Inferno, they are followed by the Fratelli's, the criminals who are looking to profit off of One-Eyed Willy's treasure for themselves. What ensues is an altercation between the Fratelli's and the Goonies, and we see several popularized tropes in many pirate films. Mama Fratelli forces the kids the 'walk the plank,' before the lovable Sloth and his new companion Chunk come to the rescue, with Sloth swinging in on a loose rope and approaching the deck via cutting down a mast with a dagger (which we've seen in other pirate films, as Errol Flynn does in Captain Blood -- earlier on in the film, you can actually see that this is the movie Sloth is watching when we're first introduced to him in the basement scene). 

Film clip: The Goonies Walk the Plank

With the exception of one instance that appeared in an article of The Times in 1829 reported a pirate attack in the Caribbean (Cordingly), the concept of walking the plank was not common pirate practice. There were really no other accounts covering this form of punishment, but it seems to have remained quite popular in pirate culture in order to make pirates seem fearful and merciless, but without requiring one to write or film more graphic torture tactics such as flogging. 

Sources

Cordingly, David. Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life among the Pirates. Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2006.