The 80s were an excellent decade for filmmaking. After the structural and technological experimentation of the 70s, the great 80s filmmakers- George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, John Hughes, Robert Zemeckis, and John Carpenter, to name a few- were able to focus their craft and turn out some of the most widely beloved films in history. Over thirty years later, there are still dozens of films from the 80s that are routinely placed in “must watch” and “best of” lists. But nothing is perfect, and even the best movies can have some pretty abysmal characters within. Looking back, a lot of characters in the 80s were not quite the heroes or innocent sidekicks we thought they were. Whether it’s due to shifting political climate, changes in cultural concepts of heroism, or that we were just too blinded by cool special effects at the time to notice, some pretty bad characters have been labeled as the good guys. Time to change that. Here are ten of the worst characters from 80s movies.

10 James Dalton – Road House

It pains me to say it, but Patrick Swayze’s James Dalton, the protagonist in 1989’s action-brawler Road House, is just walking, talking, high-kicking nonsense. Dalton makes the list because of sheer unbelievability. Though Swayze performs admirably as the character, it’s the character himself who sinks the oily, neon-lit ship.

James Dalton is a cooler, or as everyone else on planet Earth would say, a bouncer. Somehow he’s become famous for bouncing, which I guess means his bar has the fewest unwanted guests? Even though zero unwanted guests is the average number for any establishment at any given time? Anyways, he’s become such an outstanding bouncer by studying tai chi, meditation, and philosophy, apparently. But despite his enlightenment, he still refuses to wear practical, non-bulge-highlighting clothing or drive a car that isn’t a giant phallic substitute. To top that off, his transcendence melts away the instant he’s threatened, causing him to rip out people’s throats with his bare hand. Seriously, he did that. Left an open, bleeding hole in a guy’s neck and everything. Dalton is a man of many faces, and they all belong in different movies.

9 Long Duk Dong – Sixteen Candles

Long Duk Dong makes the list for being cruelly insulting to an entire continent, even for his time. Yes, Sixteen candles came out back in 1984, but by then it was well-known that crapping all over an entire culture was a no-no. “The Donger” as he calls himself, exhibits essentially every Asian stereotype writer/director John Hughes could think of, including being accompanied by a gong hit every time he came on screen.

The character was widely criticized immediately following the film’s release by several high-profile groups, but their concerns were shrugged off by John Hughes and Universal Pictures. Yet criticism remains to this day; even star Molly Ringwald recently reflected that the character, “is a grotesque stereotype.” What began as an ignorant attempt to get cheap laughs has since become an enduring symbol of insensitivity, earning The Donger a spot on the worst list.

8 Howard the Duck – Howard the Duck

There’s no controversy here. Howard the Duck is one of the single worst movies ever made. Even diehard Marvel comics nerds (maybe especially diehard Marvel comics nerds) can find little to like about this two-hour piece of flaming duck crap. The movie tries to make Howard the Duck a snarky, wise-cracking anti-hero ala Ferris Bueller (see below), but only managed to force a few half-assed duck puns and phone in a character arc (/motivation/backstory/personality, etc.), before they roll credits. There is seriously nothing in this movie to love, unless you are into human-on-anthropomorphic-bird relationships, in which case: good on you, not here to judge.

7 Lewis Skolnick – Revenge of the Nerds

This is another case of behaviors aging poorly, but unlike the overt mockery that is Long Duk Dong, this one is insidious and creepy. Revenge of the Nerds is a good movie, for the most part. It did the world a good deed by helping to shift the typical movie hero from square-jawed jock a**holes to relatable, clever underdogs. But for all the respect it gives to misfits, it very pointedly disrespects women.

The nerd girls are publicly called pigs by a whole fraternity; the movie’s heroes break and enter into a female dorm, watch them undress, then steal their underwear; and to top it off, our main protagonist Lewis Skolnick decides to win over the popular girl’s heart by… raping her. That’s the actual climax of the film. We’re supposed to laugh and cheer at that. Pretty hard to root for the underdog when they’re a cruel sociopath.

6 Ferris Bueller – Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

“You can never go too far.” -Ferris Bueller, 1986. Yes, you can, Ferris. And only insane people think that, Ferris. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is 103 minutes of a privileged, conniving, scheming, lying, narcissistic, manipulative, bullying, ungrateful, compassionless little jerk taking advantage of everyone that cares about him. The casualties of his campaign of exploitation include his best ‘friend’ Cameron, his ‘girlfriend’ Sloane, his high school dean, the school’s secretary, a Ferrari 250 GT California, his sister, his mother, his father, and worst of all the real Abe Froman, Sausage King of Chicago.

5 All the Ghostbusters – Ghostbusters

Another painful admission for me: the Ghostbusters are just not good guys. Yes, they saved New York twice, but in doing so they played god, not just with spirits but with human lives. For one thing, the guys punish every ghost they encounter with eternal prison. Eternal. Prison. Not just for the big bads like Vigo and Gozer, no every ghost gets the same infinitely harsh deal. Even if one ‘Buster just happens to see an innocent murder-victim ghost floating by on her unfinished business of finding her killer- BOOM: eternal prison in a box.

And, in Spengler’s own words, the four untrained ‘Busters carry unstable nuclear reactors on their backs. One of the film’s supposed villains, an EPA inspector, correctly determines this and tries to regulate these portable atom bombs, but the four jerks with no training and too much confidence shut him down and ridicule him. And really, if your film’s protagonists are chiefly in conflict with the EPA? Maybe they’re not the best people.

4 Daniel LaRusso – The Karate Kid

It’s impossible to make this point better than Barney Stinson already has, but Daniel LaRusso is not the real Karate Kid. Johnny Lawrence is, by almost any metric, the protagonist in that story. Lawrence grew up without knowing his father and abused by his stepfather. He took up karate as a way to regain his agency and become his own person. He poured his heart and soul into his craft but even then lost early in his first tournament. His steadfast determination caused him to double down on his training, and he eventually became the best fighter in the city, and in doing so moved beyond his fear and loathing for his step-father. Hero’s journey completed. Enter Daniel LaRusso, who bullies Lawrence and settles all of their disputes with violence instead of getting to know the tortured soul that Lawrence hides. Then LaRusso steals the championship from Lawrence with an illegal face kick, in what has to be one of cinema’s greatest tragedies.

3 Everyone – Weekend at Bernie’s

This goes without saying: failing to report a death, tampering with the body, and disturbing a crime scene are bad ideas. But dressing the body up, puppeting it for days, and even letting someone have sex with it without telling them… that’s another level. Larry and Richard, the supposed protagonists of Weekend at Bernie’s, are creepy, selfish monsters. But they’re not alone. The rest of the cast are either vapid, coke-addled partiers or members of the mob. So really, no one comes out of that movie looking squeaky clean. I give Weekend at Bernie’s two decomposing-thumbs-puppeted-with-string’s down.

2 Doc Brown – Back to the Future

Imagine you’re a parent (say, Lorraine McFly) and your son (Marty) tells you that he spends all his free time hanging out with an 80-year-old man (Doc Brown). Moreover, this old man is a failed nuclear physicist and regularly has your son help him test his experimental new nuclear technology. Even more, the old man has dealings with Libyan terrorists. Still more, the old man thinks your son is the perfect candidate to test the completely unfounded, unregulated, unknown science of time travel. How would you feel about this situation between the old man and your son? In this case, as Lorraine, you would probably feel fine, because that way the younger version of you gets to have sex with your son in 1955. This movie is messed up.

1 The Ewoks – Return of the Jedi

Some Star Wars fans love the Ewoks, some hate them. The debate has raged on for over 30 years with no end in sight. So let’s end it: the Ewoks are garbage characters. The original Star Wars trilogy is an unbelievably mixed bag of good and bad film components. On the one hand, the movies brought sci-fi to the mainstream, revolutionized special effects, and are each a detailed love letter to Joseph Campbell’s treatises on comparative mythology. On the other hand: Ewoks.

The end of Return of the Jedi was a cathartic climax to an adventure a decade in the making, and scenes like those in Palpatine’s chambers crackle with emotionality and high-stakes drama. Yet for some reason (toys), George Lucas chose to alternate those scenes with long, slapstick sequences of Ewoks fumbling their way through the forest (because of toys). The intense anxiety of Darth Vader choosing between letting his only son die and killing his mentor is sandwiched between shots of fat, fuzzy forest beavers pawing at Stormtroopers (to sell toys). Lando and Ackbar’s desperate final assault on the second Death Star is thrilling but cuts to some hairy, bucktoothed tater-tots slapping AT-ST’s with their grubby hands (which sold more toys). I just wish I could figure out why (I want to go buy toys).

For many people, the 1980s is their favorite film decade, and it’s easy to see why. The stories were full of adventure, and there were creative, practical effects. In addition, the ’80s saw the birth and/or continuation of many beloved classic franchises. You could travel back in time with Marty McFly or join Luke Skywalker in a galaxy far, far away to fight the Empire. Put simply, ’80s movies are fun.

This list reveals interesting behind-the-scenes facts about some of the best films from the 1980s, including childhood classics, teen flicks, and action movies.

Related: Top 10 Creepy Scenes In Movies

10 Real Tears in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

Working with child actors is notoriously difficult, so Steven Spielberg had his hands full when directing E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), but he had a trick up his sleeve. Spielberg shot the film in chronological order, a rarity in Hollywood. He did this because it meant “the kids knew, emotionally, where they had been the day before, and they pretty much didn’t have any idea of where they were going the next day.” He goes on to say that when E.T. began to die, Drew Barrymore, Henry Thomas, and Robert MacNaughton “really believed that this was happening to their lives.” This emotional connection to the plot helped the kids to cry at the right moment.

Thomas, who played E.T.’s best friend Elliott, needed little help in summoning tears, though. In his audition, he was asked to do improv and was able to cry on command. His emotional performance prompted Spielberg to immediately declare that Thomas got the job.^[1]

9 A Military Advisor Was Brought in for Predator

Predator (1987) was filmed in Mexico, but a week before principal photography was due to start, the cast arrived to receive military training from Gary Goldman, who was an officer in Vietnam. Director John McTiernan had told Goldman that “these guys look like a bunch of ballerinas. They don’t look like soldiers.” Goldman was brought in to run the actors through military simulations and critique their performance.

Goldman started by taking the cast on a run because while most of them had muscles, he states that “in combat, if you can’t run, you’re f—ed. It doesn’t matter how many inches your neck is.” He also taught them how to use weapons properly. Bill Duke’s character Mac carries a machine gun, and Goldman explains that “in real life, they fire in bursts of six, and you fire another burst of six, and another, and that keeps the barrel from melting.” Goldman set up the practice, and the actor fired off about “200 rounds in one thing, and Bill is just cackling like a madman.”^[2]

8 Cary Elwes’s Injuries during The Princess Bride

Cary Elwes, who played Westley in The Princess Bride (1987), was first injured only a few weeks into filming. André the Giant, who played Fezzik, convinced Elwes to have a go on his ATV, but he caught his big toe between the clutch and a rock and broke it. He attempted to conceal the injury from director Rob Reiner for fear of being fired. He failed but kept his job. Elwes would put as little weight on his foot as possible when filming. It is particularly noticeable in the scene with Buttercup (Robin Wright) on top of the hill.

The second injury happened while shooting and made the final cut of the film. The scene where Count Rugen (Christopher Guest) knocks Westley out wasn’t working because Guest was being too gentle with his sword, which was a real weapon rather than a prop. Elwes convinced Guest to really go for it, but he accidentally hit him too hard. Elwes was knocked out and woke up in the hospital, still in costume, getting stitches. The doctor was the same one who treated his broken toe and remarked, “Well, Zorro! You seem to be a little accident prone, don’t you?”^[3]

7 Tension on the Set of Dirty Dancing

The onscreen chemistry between Baby (Jennifer Grey) and Johnny (Patrick Swayze) is partly what makes Dirty Dancing (1987) such a classic, but onset, there was tension between the pair. Swayze had been professionally trained as a dancer, while Grey came to the movie as a complete novice and was scared to try potentially dangerous stunts (like the iconic lift). Grey describes their relationship as “a marriage where you have two opposites. He’d do anything, and I’d be scared to do anything.”

In his autobiography, Swayze went into more detail, explaining that they “had a rough start” on their first movie together, Red Dawn (1984). While they got along better during the filming of Dirty Dancing, there were still moments of friction. Swayze writes that she “seemed particularly emotional, sometimes bursting into tears if someone criticized her. And other times, she slipped into silly moods, forcing us to do scenes over again when she’d start laughing.”^[4]

6 Toht’s Melting Face in Raiders of the Lost Ark

The scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) where Major Arnold Toht’s (Ronald Lacey) face melts off lives in the nightmares of many children, and they have special effects artist Chris Walas to thank for it. To achieve the effect, Walas began by sculpting Lacey’s head. He then created a gelatin that melted at a low temperature. Next, different colored layers of this gelatin were painted into the mold to act as skin, muscle, and blood. This gelatin face was then placed over a heat-resistant stone skull.

Two propane heaters were set up to melt the face while Walas “was underneath it with a heat gun with this hot gelatin dripping down on me” so that he could make “moment by moment adjustments.” The full melt took about 10 minutes but was sped up to just a few seconds for the movie. Director Steven Spielberg described it as “one of the most amazing effects I’d ever seen.”^[5]

5 The Pirate Ship in The Goonies

One of the best scenes in The Goonies (1985) is when the titular group finally finds One-Eyed Willy’s ship, the Inferno. Director Richard Donner explains that production designer J. Michael Riva was determined “no matter what, to build a full-scale pirate ship.” And that is exactly what he did. The scenes with the ship in the cave were shot on Stage 16, the biggest stage Warner Bros. Studios had.

The Inferno was 138 feet long, and the tank it was built in could hold almost 2.3 million gallons of water. The ship was hidden from the child actors so that their genuine reactions could be filmed for the shot in the movie. However, the Inferno was so impressive that Josh Brolin, who played Brand, the older brother of the Goonies leader Mikey (Sean Astin), yelled “F—k!” upon seeing it and the take had to be scrapped. In an Instagram post, Brolin admits that “F—k seems, even now, totally appropriate.” Sadly, no one wanted to buy the Inferno once the film wrapped and it was destroyed.^[6]

4 Martial Arts Training for The Karate Kid

The Karate Kid (1984) ends with the showdown between underdog Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) and bully Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) at the All Valley Karate Tournament. Their match is presided over by a referee who is unfamiliar to most people but was crucial to the making of the film. That referee is Pat E. Johnson, the martial artist who served as the combat choreographer and trainer for the movie.

Johnson, who spent time training with Chuck Norris, taught Macchio and Pat Morita (Mr. Miyagi) separately from the Cobra Kais. He understood the importance of their mentor-student relationship, so he fostered that bond through his karate training. Johnson explains that “they would share their aches and pains like two little old men, and they built camaraderie through the training.” When training the Cobra Kai actors, he “would be harsh, very strict” to mirror the ruthless teachings of Sensei Kreese (Martin Cove).^[7]

3 Sound Design for The Empire Strikes Back

Ben Burtt was the sound designer for the majority of the Star Wars movies and created the sound of the lightsabers, R2-D2’s beeps, and Darth Vader’s heavy breathing. He is also responsible for popularizing the Wilhelm scream. George Lucas wanted The Empire Strikes Back (1980) to be grander in scale, which meant Burtt was tasked with creating many new sounds. While most sci-fi movies used electronic sounds for a futuristic feel, Burtt filled Star Wars with natural noises.

Tauntaun sounds come from slowed-down recordings of an Asian Sea Otter, which make high-pitched squawks that almost sound like talking. The wampa’s effects were created by combining the slurping of a lion eating a cow’s head with the roar of elephants. The noise of AT-AT’s walking is a mixture of a squeaky dumpster lid, a metal shearing machine, and artillery shells exploding. Burtt’s method ensures that audiences “don’t know what it is, but they realize it is real in some way, and that illusion is a key factor for all of the sound design in Star Wars.”^[8]

2 The Alien Queen in Aliens

When writing Aliens (1986), James Cameron knew that he had to bring in new elements to avoid simply rehashing the story of Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979). He thought that the adult alien form we see in the first movie “couldn’t possibly have laid the thousand or so eggs that filled the inside of the derelict ship.” This led to him creating and designing the alien queen, which was brought to life with the help of special effects artist Stan Winston.

Cameron came up with the idea of suspending a puppet from a crane and then having two puppeteers inside to operate it. Other elements of the puppet would be controlled through external wires and hydraulics. Winston created a prototype queen made of brooms and garbage bags to test the idea. The final puppet was made out of a lightweight polyfoam, stood 14 feet tall, and was hung on a variety of rigs depending on the shot. There were up to eight operators, and they had to work completely in sync to create an organic feeling performance.^[9]

1 Recasts in Back to the Future

It feels unimaginable that anyone other than Michael J. Fox could have been Marty McFly in Back to the Future (1985), but the role was originally played by Eric Stoltz. Writer and director Robert Zemeckis had his heart set on casting Fox, but at the time, the actor was filming Family Ties. Gary Goldberg, the series creator, told Zemecjis that Fox was too busy. So Stoltz was cast instead, but after a few weeks of filming, he was fired for not bringing enough humor to the character.

Zemeckis reached out to Fox again, and he agreed to take the role, resulting in a horrendous work schedule as he filmed for the movie and TV show simultaneously. Fox explains that he only slept about three or four hours each night for the three or four months required for filming. As a result, Fox noted that “I really, truly thought I was terrible.” Recasting McFly also meant recasting his girlfriend, Jennifer, who was played by Melora Hardin when Stoltz was involved. Hardin was let go before she even filmed any scenes because Zemeckis and his co-writer Bob Gale felt that she was too tall to star opposite Fox. The shorter Claudia Grace Wells was brought in to replace her.^[10]