‘Stand by Me’ stars reflect on the movie, Rob Reiner and its return to theaters 40 years later

“We’ve stayed in touch loosely through the years and we’ve gotten together here and there,” Feldman said. “But there’s never been a time that the three of us just hung out … it was like a high school reunion, but only for three people that really got it.”

Remembering Rob Reiner

It was just the start of a multi-city tour that had been long in the works. Then the Reiner news broke, and they knew they had each other.

“My first thought was, ‘I am so glad that I have a place to land with my grief,'” Wheaton said. “There’s not a lot of other people in the world who really know what this feels like.”

For better or worse, in some ways they’d been here before with their co-star River Phoenix, who died in 1993. At a 25th anniversary screening, they remembered Reiner saying to no one in particular that it “feels like there should be a chair here for River.”

And in that spirit, O’Connell, Feldman and Wheaton started figuring out what they could do to honor and remember the filmmaker who not only changed their lives but who gave them an experience they’ve all been chasing ever since.

“We know how much Rob loved ‘Stand by Me.’ We know what it meant to him,” Wheaton said. “It never occurred to me to just shelve it all. I thought, well, now we really have to get out there.”

Wheaton and O'Connell were also among those who stood on the Oscars stage for the Reiner tribute. Feldman was not there, because he was not invited, he said on social media. The show's representatives did not respond to the AP's request for comment.

But the trio will continue on together. The tour still has a handful of stops left, in Anaheim, California; Seattle; Portland, Oregon; Indianapolis and Chicago. And for broader audiences, a 4K restoration of the film is coming back to select theaters in the U.S. and Canada for one week starting Friday.

The movie that almost never was

People like to say that Hollywood doesn’t make movies like “Stand by Me” anymore, but, in 1985, they weren’t exactly clamoring to make it either. Yes, it was based on a Stephen King novella, but it was also a small hangout movie with no stars. Just four 12-year-old boys on a quest to find a dead body.

Though Reiner had hits under his belt as a filmmaker, everyone passed. And even he had modest expectations for its reach: As Reiner told his screenwriters, according to a New York Times article in 1986, “There’s no way this picture is going to do business, because no one who went to ‘Rambo’ will go to see our film.”

Somewhat ironically, O’Connell told the AP, “Rambo: First Blood Part II” was the movie he saw the night before he boarded the plane to Oregon to film “Stand by Me” and that, “as an 11-year-old, I thought it was the greatest film I had seen in my life.”

“Stand by Me” was definitely not “Rambo.” And the only reason it did get made was Norman Lear, who saved it after his company’s new owner, Coca-Cola, refused to put up the money. Lear funded it himself, to the tune of “$8 million and change,” as he told the Times in 1986. It would end up earning over $52 million in its initial run in the late summer of 1986.

The film tapped into something universal about youthful friendships, lazy summer days, bullies, dark home lives and adventure. Perhaps most importantly, the boys were relatable and true, their friendship forged through off-screen games that Reiner played with them.

“Rob took the time to really reach us and help us make authentic emotional connections to what our characters were experiencing,” Wheaton said. “We were kids. I don’t think I’ve even turned 13 yet. River hasn’t turned 15 yet. And Rob is talking to us the way you talk to seasoned professionals and bringing these incredible performances out of us.”

Though it was set in 1959, it's also become a kind of nostalgic catch-all for any generation who lived through a time before cellphones.

“I think it’s what’s so special about ‘Stand by Me’ is that it’s not like any epic adventure movie,” O’Connell said. “There are no, like, stunt sequences with cars rolling over and explosions. It’s a simple movie.”

‘Stand by Me’ on the big screen

O’Connell has seen the film many times over the years, but usually at home, flipping through channels with his dog or cat as a companion. But watching in a movie theater again was transportive.

“Getting to see it on the big screen, it’s a different experience,” O'Connell said. “I think it’s because it is such an epic film with little boys.”

At the screenings, they’ve all noticed a wide range of ages in the audience, from young kids to grandparents. Wheaton said it seems to be resonating in particular with “the ‘Stranger Things’ generation,” referencing a show that was heavily inspired by “Stand by Me.”

O’Connell said he plans to take his 17-year-old daughters and “as many of their friends who will come,” collect their phones, lock them in a bag and “make these Gen Z-ers sit down and watch a real movie.”

Wheaton laughed: “How (expletive) old do we sound right now?”