Stand By Me at 40: Wil Wheaton Looks Back

Yeah. This is one of those movies where I kind of want to explore more of the backstory with the characters. Not that I want there to be a show/remake or something. but that all the characters are so interesting and they give you just enough to make you want to learn more. It's enough to understand and interesting enough to want to see another day in their lives. How they grow over time, what friend groups they end up in, etc. it makes me think about the friends i had when I was like 6 to 10 years old and just grew apart from afterwards. Once I got to middle school and made friends, we've remained best friends to this day. One has passed away (brain cancer), but the rest of us remain in contact still. But I think back to those early childhood friends and how in the movie he says they just became another face in the crowd. and while watching, you think well that sucks...but then I think back...I had a best friend in the 2nd grade and we'd always hang out every single day of school on the playground, but after that we never had another class together. I remember seeing him a few times in college. He was completely different. He saw me and we both did a small wave hello and that was it. No greeting, no catch up, no conversation. Last time i saw him and now I'm in my late 30's. I had another best friend before that. We were best friends from like age 3 to 6 and i remember thinking we'd be best friends for life. But then I started going to a different school and that's when I became a quiet outsider. We were at a private school, but it got too expensive, so I went to a public school where i heard other kids curse for the first time. It was like a culture shock. If I ever had kids (I plan to never have any), I'd try to always have them keep in touch with their friends. phone numbers, emails, everything. Losing all your friends when you're a kid and not a social butterfly can have some affects on you that you only see in hindsight.

The more I think about it, the more upsetting it is for me that Rob died the way he did. He lived all that life just to be murdered by his own son. No idea what went on in their lives for things to come to that, but it's so awful.

Wil Wheaton talked about Rob for great length in this interview, how much Rob was care about those kids actors, how see them with same eye level, that's what made this film special to all of us in some way. RIP Rob! and thank you for your comment.

Oh wow, can you share some??

Wheaton's mentioned that a big reason the kids were cast so well was because they were very similar to their characters in real life; he and Feldman had lousy situations with their parents, Phoenix was wise and worldy beyond his years and O'Connell was a funny goofball.

My favorite was River Phoenix and Wil Wheaton at the campfire scene, River was breaking into tears by revealing about stolen milk money. River's perfomance was engaging, now I listened to Wil's coversation about both train and campfire scenes , it became even more endaring to me. Thank you for the comment.

Who, me??

Really, that bridge scene? I watched the film again last week and it's a bit of a mess you can tell the train is doing about 10mph. Also, the driver never heard of a f****** brake? I guess if you watch it when you're 10 it'd shit you up, now it just looks stupid.

I saw it (with the cast) last night in Seattle!

Maine or Oregon? Because I think the same confusion set the movie in Oregon, when clearly Stephen King intended it to be in Maine.

He already has. https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Body-Audiobook/B0G65WZH3K?srsltid=AfmBOopmGUKLU6e3zie67d4xVV0Q-wP5upjTzx9u9HBvDTVL4JH3fW9P