History Film / StandByMe

* AdaptationalLocationChange: In the novella, Castle Rock in Maine. In the film, it's in Oregon.

* EverybodySmokes: They're 12, but all of the main four smoke. Even the generally wholesome lead, and the timid chubby one. Actually pretty common given the setting of the late 1950s/early 1960s.

* EpicFail: One of the other three kids says something along the lines of "You looked as scared as that fat guy in [[Creator/AbbottAndCostello Abbott and Costello]] when they met the mummy" to Vern. The "fat guy" was Costello. Apparently, the kid can remember the comedy duo's name but not which is Abbott and which is Costello so rather than taking a stab at with a name he just referred to the man by their build.

* KarmaHoudini: Ace and his gang get no immediate comeuppance for all of the things they pull, including [[spoiler:threatening Gordie and his friends with a knife in the climax]]. Ace's threat of "we're going to get you for this" even pays off in the book ([[spoiler:though he doesn't use the knife, he just beats Gordie up pretty badly]]. In this movie, the climax is the last time Ace and his gang are seen onscreen.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: While Ace is clearly a complete amoral sociopath, the other members of his gang are just run-of-the-mill hoodlums, bullies, and troublemakers who clearly aren't happy with some of Ace's more reckless and outright criminal behavior, but go along with it out of cowardice and peer pressure.

** Also adapted out were two additional boys in Gordie's group of friends; brothers John and Marty DeSpain, who were away visiting family in another state during the events of the book, with the movie just focusing (obviously) on the main four.

* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: When they’re camping for the night and Gordie is being encouraged by the others to tell them a story, Vern adds, “But not one of your horror stories, okay? I don’t wanna hear no horror stories.”

* SparedByTheAdaptation: [[spoiler: Vern and Teddy. Vern dies in a house fire in the book, and Teddy kills himself and others by driving drunk. Both are still alive in the FramingDevice of the movie. Chris also gets to live a bit longer in the movie than in the book. In the movie, he graduated from college and became a lawyer. In the book, he died the same way while still a student.]]

* ShoutOut: To Ralph Ellison's ''Literature/InvisibleMan'', which Gordy feels like after he reads it.

* FramingDevice[=/=]NostalgicNarrator: The Writer (aka the adult Gordie, played by Creator/RichardDreyfuss) recalls and narrates the events of the film after learning that [[spoiler:Chris was stabbed to death while trying to break up a fight at a restaurant]].

[[caption-width-right:335:''No I won't be afraid, oh I won't be afraid\\
Just as long as you stand, stand by me'']]

---> ''Series/WagonTrain'' is a cool show and all, but they never get anywhere. They just keep...[[BuffySpeak wagon training]].

--> '''Vern:''' Do you think Mighty Mouse could beat up Superman?
--> '''Teddy:''' What are you, cracked?...Mighty Mouse is a cartoon. [[ComicallyMissingThePoint Superman is a real guy.]]
** The conversation around the campfire counts as this, as well, and is described in the voiceover as the kind of things boys talk about before they start noticing girls.
--> ''Series/WagonTrain'' is a cool show and all, but they never get anywhere. They just keep...[[BuffySpeak wagon training]].

* RRatedOpening: The film opens with the Writer sitting in his parked car while his son and a friend ride their bikes down the road together. Brooding over the newspaper story he's just read about the fatal stabbing of an attorney [[spoiler:named Christopher Chambers]].

* RRatedOpening: This begins with the writer reading a newspaper about the murder of someone in his car.
* RealSongThemeTune: Ben E. King's classic "Stand By Me" song [[RevivalByCommercialization made the Top 10 chart all over again thanks to its use in the film]].

Over Labor Day weekend, 12-year-old Gordie (Creator/WilWheaton) and his friends Chris Chambers (Creator/RiverPhoenix), Teddy Duchamp (Creator/CoreyFeldman) and Vern Tessio (Creator/JerryOConnell) journey into the woods near their home to look for the body of a boy named Ray Brower, who was struck by a train while picking berries. All of the boys, for various reasons, live in the shadow of their fathers and older brothers. Gordie's talent for storytelling (as illustrated by his improvised short story '[[StoryWithinAStory The Revenge of Lard-Ass Hogan]]') pegs him as the most likely of the four to have a promising future.

Over the course of the film, the viewer comes to learn about the boys' personalities through their misadventures and conversations. The foursome is also contrasted with a gang of older bullies called the 'Cobras', led by local hood 'Ace' Merrill (Creator/KieferSutherland).

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Ace is clearly a complete amoral sociopath, the other members of his gang are just run of the mill hoodlums, bullies, and troublemakers. They aren't happy with some of Ace's more reckless and outright criminal behavior, but go along with it out of cowardice and peer pressure.

[[quoteright:337:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/51ylsbxkfgl_9971.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:337:''No I won't be afraid, oh I won't be afraid\\

Over Labor Day weekend, 12-year-old Gordie (Creator/WilWheaton) and his friends Chris Chambers (Creator/RiverPhoenix), Teddy Duchamp (Creator/CoreyFeldman) and Vern Tessio (Creator/JerryOConnell) journey into the woods near their home to look for the body of a boy named Ray Brower, who was struck by a train while picking berries. Each of the boys, for various reasons, live in the shadow of their fathers and older brothers. Gordie's talent for storytelling (as illustrated by his improvised short story '[[StoryWithinAStory The Revenge of Lard-Ass Hogan]]') pegs him as the most likely of the four to have a promising future.

The twelve-year-old Gordie (Creator/WilWheaton) and his friends Chris Chambers (Creator/RiverPhoenix), Teddy Duchamp (Creator/CoreyFeldman), and Vern Tessio (Creator/JerryOConnell) journey into the woods near their home to look for the body of a boy named Ray Brower, who was struck by a train while picking berries. Through the boys' misadventures and conversations, the viewer learns about each character's personality. Each of the boys, for varying reasons, live in the shadow of their fathers and older brothers. Gordie's talent for storytelling (as illustrated by his improvised short story '[[StoryWithinAStory The Revenge of Lard-Ass Hogan]]') pegs him as the most likely of the four to have a promising future.

The film contrasts the four main characters, who are depicted as well-meaning and relatively virtuous, with a gang of bullies called the 'Cobras', who are led by local hood 'Ace' Merrill (Creator/KieferSutherland).

The incredible AllStarCast featured, in addition to all of the above, Creator/JohnCusack as Gordie's older brother and Creator/RichardDreyfuss as adult Gordie (aka "The Writer") in the FramingDevice.

''Stand by Me'' is a 1986 ComingOfAge film directed by Creator/RobReiner, based on the novella ''The Body'' from the collection ''Literature/DifferentSeasons'' by Creator/StephenKing. Set in fictional Castle Rock, Oregon (Maine in the original story) in 1959, the film is told through the recollections of its main character, Gordie Lachance, who's now a freelance writer.

** Ace and his gang are the worst of them. They're a group of hardened delinquents who show no regard toward the people they hurt.

** Vern is overweight, emotionally sensitive, and rather easily scared. He gets picked on a lot, even from his friends.

* ActorAllusion: Quidaciolu's, the grocery store that Gordie stops in for supplies. The store owner is played by Bruno Quidaciolu, aka Creator/BruceKirby.

!!''Stand by Me'' contains examples of the following tropes: