Most of my coming-of-age stories involve throwing rocks at abandoned factories, trying to climb my friends’ houses with a makeshift grappling hook and failing miserably, and smashing old lightbulbs in the woods because my friends and I were very easily entertained. The boys in Rob Reiner’s Stand by Me had their eyes on an entirely different prize when the golden question presented itself: “You guys wanna go see a dead body?”
Grounded in preteen mischief, this 1986 Stephen King adaptation is the ultimate coming-of-age story about four boys whose lives are changed forever after answering with an emphatic “yes” and setting out on the adventure of a lifetime.
A bona fide classic that endures to this day, Stand by Me is being discovered by a younger generation now that it’s streaming on Netflix. Let’s just hope kids today don’t get any wise ideas after their first viewing.
Four Kids And A Dead Body
Set in 1959 Oregon, Stand by Me follows four boys on a mission to find a dead body in the wilderness as narrated by a grown-up Gordy Lachance (Richard Dreyfuss). Hoping they’ll be hailed as heroes for finding missing boy Ray Brower, Gordie (Will Wheaton), Chris (River Phoenix), Teddy (Corey Feldman), and Vern (Jerry O’Connell) set out on Labor Day weekend to track him down. Along the way, they encounter obstacles that would scare most kids straight, including junkyard melees, leeches, and dangerous locomotives.
While the journey sounds straightforward in Stand by Me, the real obstacles they never considered were how their friendships would be tested along the way. Gordie, still grieving the loss of his older brother Denny (John Cusack), must face his parent’s neglect. Chris fears he’ll never escape his family’s problematic reputation. Teddy’s personality reflects his father’s PTSD from serving in World War II. And Vern, who first overheard his brother Billy (Casey Siemaszko) talking about the body, struggles as the group’s punching bag, enduring constant jokes about his weight and cowardice.
Lessons Are Learned, For Better Or For Worse
Stand by Me is raw yet entertaining and endlessly quotable, showing preteens coming to terms with their shortcomings and leaning on each other for support when things get tough. As serious as their situation becomes, they still bond over junk food, Gordie’s vivid storytelling, and their dream of being the heroes of the day when they finally find Ray’s body to give his family closure. Never fully realizing how dangerous their mission truly is, their curiosity compels them to see it through, marking their last significant adventure before high school pulls them apart.
Equal parts touching and morbid, Stand by Me is timeless, and its message resonates because boys will be boys, and naivety often sparks life’s most important lessons. Perhaps the most surprising part of this Stephen King adaptation is that it doesn’t take place in Maine.
Stand by Me is streaming on Netflix.