Ghostbusters

Ghostbusters, American comedy film, released in 1984, that was produced and directed by Ivan Reitman and written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. Combining elements of science fiction and horror, Ghostbusters brought together the irreverent sensibility of the late-night sketch-comedy television show Saturday Night Live (SNL) and the spectacular pleasures of the action-adventure films of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. The movie was a commercial and critical success, becoming the top summer blockbuster of 1984.

Plot and characters

Set in New York City, Ghostbusters begins with three parapsychologists—Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), Raymond Stantz (Aykroyd), and Egon Spengler (Ramis)—being called to investigate paranormal activity at the main branch of the New York Public Library. However, immediately after investigating the ghost sighting, they are fired from their research positions at Columbia University, where they have been conducting dubious experiments on students. With their professional reputations in tatters, they decide to go into business for themselves, setting up shop in an abandoned fire station and offering their services in “professional paranormal investigations and eliminations,” otherwise known as ghostbusting. Indeed, calling their business Ghostbusters, they transform a used ambulance into a ghostbusting vehicle and advertise their services in a TV commercial that baits customers with the opening line “Are you troubled by strange noises in the middle of the night?” The commercial ends with the assurance “We’re ready to believe you!”

One of the first people to seek out the Ghostbusters’ services is Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver), a classical musician who flees her Central Park West high-rise apartment after witnessing eggs burst open and cook themselves on her kitchen countertop and discovering supernatural phenomena in her refrigerator. After a slow start, the Ghostbusters soon find themselves much in demand after being called in to trap a ghost in a swanky hotel. As New York experiences an inexplicable spike in paranormal activity, the Ghostbusters are called on for spectral elimination throughout the city, and they become celebrities. In the meantime, the high demand for their services leads them to hire a fourth ghostbuster, Winston Zeddmore (Ernie Hudson). But the Ghostbusters’ success is complicated by a pesky Environmental Protection Agency official (William Atherton), who believes that the Ghostbusters’ spectral storage facility poses an environmental risk to the city. He succeeds in ordering a shutdown of the Ghostbusters’ protection grid, which results in all the ghosts that they have trapped being released to wreak havoc on New York City.

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Eventually, the Ghostbusters determine that Dana’s apartment building is at the center of a cult associated with the ancient god Gozer, which has been attracting spirits and causing the city’s rise in paranormal activity. The film’s climax features the four Ghostbusters on the building’s roof, facing off against Gozer (Slavitza Jovan) in order to prevent the world from coming to an end. When Gozer commands the men to “choose the form of the destructor,” Venkman tells his fellow Ghostbusters to clear their minds, realizing that whatever they think of will be chosen as the form that Gozer will take to destroy them. Regretfully, a thought pops into Stantz’s head—the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. Gozer then manifests as a 100-foot- (30-meter-) tall marshmallow person intent on scaling the building and vanquishing the Ghostbusters and the city once and for all. Happily, the four heroes emerge victorious in the ensuing battle and save the day.

Production

In its initial treatment, written by Aykroyd, Ghostbusters was designed to be a showcase for Aykroyd and his former SNL costar John Belushi, in the hopes that it would replicate the success of their previous big-screen collaboration, The Blues Brothers (1980). As envisioned by Aykroyd, the two would play custodial workers who travel between different dimensions to catch and dispose of ghosts. After Belushi died in 1982, the script was shelved for a while until Aykroyd showed it to director Ivan Reitman, with the idea that Murray would take Belushi’s place. Reitman liked the ghost-catching premise but thought that the space- or time-travel component would cost more money than they could ever hope to secure from a studio. Aykroyd duly revised the script, collaborating with Harold Ramis to produce a screenplay that relocated the Ghostbusters to New York and made the city a major character in the film. Rick Moranis, who played the nerdy neighbor of Sigourney Weaver’s character, also wrote dialogue used in the showdown with Gozer and improvised many of his lines.

Reception

Released on June 8, 1984, Ghostbusters became that year’s top summer blockbuster and a cultural phenomenon. The film cost an estimated $30 million to make and grossed $229 million at the domestic box office. Its theme song, written and performed by Ray Parker, Jr., occupied the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for three consecutive weeks. Critical response to the film was effusive, with reviewers anointing it a comedy classic. In New York magazine, film critic David Denby lauded the film for proving that the “loose and shaggy” humor of the kind of improv-based comedy pioneered on SNL and at Chicago’s Second City could successfully be translated to big-screen and big-budget entertainment. In 2015 Ghostbusters was added to the National Film Registry, a film preservation program established by the U.S. Library of Congress that selects films of cultural, historical, and aesthetic significance.

Sequel

In 1989 Columbia Pictures released Ghostbusters II, which picks up with the four heroes five years later, now fallen on tough times. Having been sued by the City of New York for the destruction they caused during their battle against Gozer, the Ghostbusters filed for bankruptcy and were forced to shutter their business. Their second-act careers include a return to academic research (Spengler), guest appearances at children’s birthday parties (Stantz and Zeddmore), and a gig as a cable TV host (Venkman). When Dana Barrett, now a single mother who works in art conservation, again finds herself in need of their services, the team reconvenes. This time their enemy is a pink ooze that flows throughout the tunnels of an abandoned subway system, both feeding off and intensifying the hostility, aggression, and other bad vibes reverberating between the people of New York. The sequel featured all the main cast of the original and was another box-office hit, though its domestic intake—$112 million—was below that of its predecessor.

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Reboots

Sony Pictures revived the series in 2016, releasing a gender-swapped adaptation of the original, titled Ghostbusters: Answer the Call and starring Leslie Jones, Kate McKinnon, Melissa McCarthy, and Kristen Wiig. Directed by Paul Feig, and featuring a screenplay written by Feig and Katie Dippold, the reboot generated intense online commentary before it was even released. In fact, some fans of the original responded with vitriolic anger to the new film and its all-female lineup after only having seen the trailer. A number of cast members from the 1984 film had cameo appearances in the reboot. Though the 2016 Ghostbusters grossed nearly $230 million worldwide, it failed to make enough to cover its costs, and plans for a sequel featuring the same stars and director were scrapped.

In 2021 the franchise was again relaunched with the release of Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Produced by Ivan Reitman, this reboot was directed by his son, Jason Reitman, who also wrote the screenplay (with Gil Kenan). In a departure from the previous films in the series, Ghostbusters: Afterlife mostly takes place in rural Oklahoma and centers on Callie Spengler (Carrie Coon), the estranged daughter of Egon Spengler. After being informed of her father’s death, Callie travels from her home in Chicago to Oklahoma to tie up the loose ends of his estate, bringing along her 15-year-old son Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and 12-year-old daughter Phoebe (Mckenna Grace). Many members of the 1984 cast returned for the 2021 reboot, with the exception of Ramis, who died in 2014, and Moranis. Decidedly less controversial than the 2016 version, Ghostbusters: Afterlife was sufficiently profitable for Sony to greenlight a sequel. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024) continues to follow Callie, Phoebe, and Trevor, as well as Callie’s love interest (Paul Rudd), but returns the action to New York City.