Every Other Word in THE LOST BOYS is ‘Michael’
I remember seeking out to find THE LOST BOYS. There was an article in Tiger Beat or some boy-crush-crazy magazine that one of my sisters had, and an image in there was of Coreys Haim and Feldman getting holy water to fight vampires. But I was too young to see it. And so I waited until it popped up on WLVI Channel 56, accepting that there’d be some censoring but also confident in my parents’ apathy that they would forget about the previous outlawing of Joel Schumacher’s 1987 vampire teen classic. And I loved it. Dearly. I bought a copy on VHS and watched it a bunch, even if the Superman discussion in the comic book store doesn’t really make sense and isn’t at all reflected in the actual issues being shown. Glayven.
And yet, it was probably a solid 20-25 of watching THE LOST BOYS before I noticed they kept saying one word. A lot. “Michael.” The name of the character played by Jason Patric. At first I thought it was a funny tic that was just used early on so people would remember the name of the hot stud with the blown back brown hair. But as LOST BOYS kept playing, characters kept saying it. A lot. Along with some deviations—Mikey, Mike, etc. Hell, the first time he meets Star (Jami Gertz), his name is said four times in just two lines of dialogue:
I was losing my mind. And decided to make a drinking game of it, albeit late, where I would take a sip each time (but I was a purist and only allowed for the full “Michael”—let some hero attempt to cover “Mike” and “Mikeys” too). Reader, I drank a lot. The next day, with a belly full of regret and ears full of people saying “Michael”, I did a quick search and happened upon this 2016 video by Dan Nixon. Nixon includes the variations (and possibly some Sams? that much is unclear), but the word Michael is said 114 times in THE LOST BOYS. 114 times someone mentions, screams, and yells “Michael” in 1987’s THE LOST BOYS; a movie which has a running time of 97 minutes.
That’s a rate of 1 Michael every 1.18 minutes!
If you are someone who enjoys the occasionally tasty beverage, I would suggest giving the “Drink Every Time They Say “Michael” In THE LOST BOYS” game a try this spooktacular season. It’s fun and really underscores just how often the word is used. I made some friends do it recently and it gets incredibly absurd with the quickness. Also, Alex Winter’s character is named “Marco” and I swear that was just thrown in as a sort of rodeo clown to fake you out and drink incorrectly. Crafty Schumacher and screenwriter Jeffrey Boam! Your liver will hate them, but you gotta respect it.