Ghostbusters is a 1984 American
science fictionScience fiction film is a film genre that uses science fiction: speculative, science-based depictions of phenomena that are not necessarily accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial life forms, alien worlds, extrasensory perception, and time travel, often along with futuristic...
comedy filmComedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
directed by
Ivan ReitmanIvan Reitman, OC is a Canadian film producer and director. He is known for the comedies he has directed and produced, especially in the 1980s and 1990s.He is the owner of The Montecito Picture Company, founded in 2000.-Early life:...
and written by
Dan AykroydDaniel Edward "Dan" Aykroyd, CM is a Canadian comedian, actor, screenwriter, musician, winemaker and ufologist. He was an original cast member of Saturday Night Live, an originator of The Blues Brothers and Ghostbusters and has had a long career as a film actor and screenwriter.-Early...
and
Harold RamisHarold Allen Ramis is an American actor, director, and writer, specializing in comedy. His best-known film acting roles are as Egon Spengler in Ghostbusters and Russell Ziskey in Stripes , both of which he also co-wrote...
. The film stars
Bill MurrayWilliam James "Bill" Murray is an American actor and comedian. He first gained national exposure on Saturday Night Live in which he earned an Emmy Award and later went on to star in a number of critically and commercially successful comedic films, including Caddyshack , Ghostbusters , and...
, Dan Aykroyd,
Sigourney WeaverSigourney Weaver is an American actress. She is best known for her critically acclaimed role of Ellen Ripley in the four Alien films: Alien, Aliens, Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection, for which she has received worldwide recognition .Other notable roles include Dana...
, Harold Ramis, and
Rick MoranisFrederick Allan "Rick" Moranis is a Canadian comedian, actor, musician, and a magician. Moranis came to prominence in the late 1970s on the sketch comedy show Second City Television, and later appeared in several Hollywood films including Strange Brew; Ghostbusters; Spaceballs; Little Shop of...
and follows three eccentric
parapsychologistsThe term parapsychology was coined in or around 1889 by philosopher Max Dessoir, and originates from para meaning "alongside", and psychology. The term was adopted by J.B. Rhine in the 1930s as a replacement for the term psychical research...
(Murray, Aykroyd and Ramis) in New York City, who start a ghost catching business.
Ghostbusters was released in the United States on June 8, 1984 and like several films of the era, teamed Aykroyd and/or Ramis with Murray. The film made US$238,632,124 in the United States alone, the equivalent of $538,260,000 in 2010 prices, ranking
Ghostbusters as the 32nd biggest grossing in U.S. box office history after adjustment for inflation.
The film was followed by a sequel,
Ghostbusters IIGhostbusters II is a 1989 science fiction comedy film produced and directed by Ivan Reitman. It is the sequel to the 1984 film Ghostbusters and follows the further adventures of a group of parapsychologists and their organization which combats paranormal activities...
in 1989, and two animated television series,
The Real GhostbustersThe Real Ghostbusters is an American animated television series based on the 1984 film Ghostbusters. The series ran from 1986 to 1991, and was produced by Columbia Pictures Television, DiC Enterprises, and Coca-Cola Telecommunications. "The Real" was added to the title after a dispute with...
(later renamed
Slimer! And the Real Ghostbusters) and
Extreme GhostbustersExtreme Ghostbusters is an animated television series and a follow-up to the animated series Slimer! and the Real Ghostbusters. It is a part of the film/TV Ghostbusters franchise...
. Ramis, who co-wrote the first two films, confirmed that a script for a potential third film was being developed by
Gene StupnitskyGene Stupnitsky is a film and television writer. He usually works with Lee Eisenberg.In television, he wrote for the NBC comedy series The Office from seasons 2 to 6, and served as a co-executive producer and directed two episodes with Eisenberg, "Michael Scott Paper Company" and "The Lover"...
and
Lee EisenbergLee Eisenberg is a film and television writer. He usually works with Gene Stupnitsky.-Life and career:In television, he wrote for the NBC comedy series The Office from seasons 2 to 6, and served as a co-executive producer and directed two episodes with Stupnitsky, "Michael Scott Paper Company" and...
, the writing team best known for their work on
Curb Your EnthusiasmCurb Your Enthusiasm is an American comedy television series produced and broadcast by HBO, which premiered on October 15, 2000. As of 2011, it has completed 80 episodes over eight seasons. The series was created by Seinfeld co-creator Larry David, who stars as a fictionalized version of himself...
and the American version of
The Office. Ramis told a
Chicago TribuneThe Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
columnist in 2008 that the original films' four main cast members may have minor on-screen roles: "The concept is that the old Ghostbusters would appear in the film in some mentor capacity". The
American Film InstituteThe American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
ranked
Ghostbusters 28th in its
100 Years... 100 LaughsPart of the AFI 100 Years… series, AFI's 100 Years…100 Laughs is a list of the top 100 funniest movies in American cinema. A wide variety of comedies were nominated for the distinction that included slapstick comedy, screwball comedy, romantic comedy, satire, black comedy, musical comedy, comedy of...
list of film comedies.
Plot
After losing their academic positions at
Columbia UniversityColumbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, a trio of misfit
parapsychologistsThe term parapsychology was coined in or around 1889 by philosopher Max Dessoir, and originates from para meaning "alongside", and psychology. The term was adopted by J.B. Rhine in the 1930s as a replacement for the term psychical research...
—
Peter VenkmanPeter Venkman, Ph.D. is a fictional character from the Ghostbusters franchise. He is a parapsychologist and member of the Ghostbusters, appearing in the films Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II and in the animated television series The Real Ghostbusters...
(
Bill MurrayWilliam James "Bill" Murray is an American actor and comedian. He first gained national exposure on Saturday Night Live in which he earned an Emmy Award and later went on to star in a number of critically and commercially successful comedic films, including Caddyshack , Ghostbusters , and...
),
Raymond StantzRaymond "Ray" Stantz, Ph.D., is a fictional scientist and member of the Ghostbusters, appearing in the films Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters II, and Casper and in the animated television series The Real Ghostbusters . He is one of the three doctors of parapsychology on the team, along with Dr. Peter...
(
Dan AykroydDaniel Edward "Dan" Aykroyd, CM is a Canadian comedian, actor, screenwriter, musician, winemaker and ufologist. He was an original cast member of Saturday Night Live, an originator of The Blues Brothers and Ghostbusters and has had a long career as a film actor and screenwriter.-Early...
), and
Egon SpenglerEgon Spengler is a fictional character appearing in the films Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II, and in the animated television series The Real Ghostbusters and later Extreme Ghostbusters. He is a member of the Ghostbusters, and one of the three doctors of parapsychology on the team...
(
Harold RamisHarold Allen Ramis is an American actor, director, and writer, specializing in comedy. His best-known film acting roles are as Egon Spengler in Ghostbusters and Russell Ziskey in Stripes , both of which he also co-wrote...
) – establish a paranormal exterminator service known as "Ghostbusters" at a retired
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
firehouse. While still facing dire straits after setting up the company, they are summoned by the Sedgewick Hotel to investigate a haunting. At the hotel, they capture
their first ghostSlimer is a fictional green ghost featured in the 1984 supernatural comedy movie Ghostbusters , whose popularity soared from the subsequent spinoff animated television series The Real Ghostbusters. Slimer later starred in his own Slimer! cartoons when The Real Ghostbusters was extended to a...
and deposit it in a "containment unit" located in the basement of their office. Paranormal activity soon increases in New York City, and the Ghostbusters become celebrities containing it, while at the same time becoming increasingly burdened by the hectic schedule. To satisfy increased demand they hire a fourth member,
Winston ZeddemoreWinston Zeddemore is a fictional character appearing in the Ghostbusters films, TV series, and video games. He was played by Ernie Hudson in both movies and was voiced by Arsenio Hall in the first two seasons of The Real Ghostbusters. Buster Jones provided Winston's voice in the remaining seasons,...
(
Ernie HudsonErnest Lee "Ernie" Hudson is an American actor known for his roles as Winston Zeddemore in the Ghostbusters film series, Sergeant Albrecht in The Crow, and Warden Leo Glynn on HBO's Oz.-Early life:...
).
The Ghostbusters are hired by a woman named Dana Barrett (
Sigourney WeaverSigourney Weaver is an American actress. She is best known for her critically acclaimed role of Ellen Ripley in the four Alien films: Alien, Aliens, Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection, for which she has received worldwide recognition .Other notable roles include Dana...
), whose apartment at
55 Central Park WestThe building at 55 Central Park West, also known as the Ghostbusters Building, is a 19-floor housing cooperative located in Manhattan, New York City, U.S.A. The building was built in 1929 and designed by the firm Schwartz and Gross. Both the interior and the exterior possess unique architectural...
is haunted by a demonic spirit called Zuul, a
demigodThe term "demigod" , meaning "half-god", is commonly used to describe mythological figures whose one parent was a god and whose other parent was human; as such, demigods are human-god hybrids...
worshiped as a servant to Gozer the Gozerian, a
SumerianSumerian religion refers to the mythology, pantheon, rites and cosmology of the Sumerian civilization. The Sumerian religion influenced Mesopotamian mythology as a whole, surviving in the mythologies and religions of the Hurrians, Akkadians, Babylonians, Assyrians, and other culture...
shape-changer god of destruction. Venkman takes a particular interest in the case, competing for Dana's affection with her neighbor Louis Tully (
Rick MoranisFrederick Allan "Rick" Moranis is a Canadian comedian, actor, musician, and a magician. Moranis came to prominence in the late 1970s on the sketch comedy show Second City Television, and later appeared in several Hollywood films including Strange Brew; Ghostbusters; Spaceballs; Little Shop of...
). As they investigate, Dana is
possessedDemonic possession is held by many belief systems to be the control of an individual by a malevolent supernatural being. Descriptions of demonic possessions often include erased memories or personalities, convulsions, “fits” and fainting as if one were dying...
by Zuul, which declares itself "The Gatekeeper", and Louis by a similar demon called Vinz Clortho, "The Keymaster". Both demons speak of the coming of the destructive Gozer, and the Ghostbusters plan to keep the two apart. Thereafter the Ghostbusters' office is visited by Walter Peck (
William AthertonWilliam Atherton , born William Atherton Knight II, is an American film, stage and television actor.-Early life:Atherton was born in Orange, Connecticut, the son of Roby and Robert Atherton Knight...
) of the
EPAThe U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is an agency of the federal government of the United States charged with protecting human health and the environment, by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress...
, who arrests the team for supposedly housing dangerous chemicals in their basement and orders their ghost containment deactivated, unleashing hundreds of ghosts onto New York City. Freed from the Ghostbusters' custody, Louis/Vinz advances toward Dana/Zuul's apartment while the escaped ghosts create havoc throughout the city.
Consulting
blueprintA blueprint is a type of paper-based reproduction usually of a technical drawing, documenting an architecture or an engineering design. More generally, the term "blueprint" has come to be used to refer to any detailed plan....
s of 55 Central Park West, the Ghostbusters learn that it was built by a mad doctor and cult leader named Ivo Shandor, who designed the building to summon Gozer and bring about the end of the world saying humanity was too sick to live. The Ghostbusters are brought to the mayor's office and freed in order to combat the paranormal activity; but are unable to prevent the appearance of Gozer, who initially appears as a woman (
Slavitza JovanSlavitza Jovan is a former Serbian model known for her appearance as the deity Gozer in the 1984 film Ghostbusters. She also made an appearance, fifteen years later, in House on Haunted Hill.-External links:*...
). Briefly subdued by the team, Gozer disappears; but her voice echoes that the "destructor" will follow, taking a form chosen by the team. Venkman, holding that this means that whatever they imagine will appear as a destroying force, urges his comrades to avoid giving form to the destructor. Unable to keep his mind blank, Stantz attempts to imagine "something that could never, ever possibly destroy us"; whereupon the destructor arrives in Stantz's chosen form of the giant Stay Puft Marshmallow Man and begins laying waste to the city, including stepping on and destroying a church. To defeat this manifestation, the team decides to merge the energy streams of their proton packs (against which they were advised earlier in the film) while directing these against Gozer's entrance, at the risk of their own lives. The plan succeeds, destroying Gozer and the Marshmallow Man in a single explosion. Thereafter Dana and Louis are freed from the remains of their possessors, and the Ghostbusters are applauded by the city's population.
Development
The concept was inspired by Aykroyd's own fascination with the paranormal and it was conceived as a vehicle for himself and friend
John BelushiJohn Adam Belushi was an American comedian, actor, and musician, best known as one of the original cast members of the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, The Star of the Films National Lampoon's Animal House and the The Blues Brothers and for fronting the American blues and soul...
, fellow
Saturday Night LiveSaturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
alumnus. The original story, as written by Aykroyd, was very different from what was eventually filmed; in the initial version, a group of "Ghostsmashers" traveled through time,
spaceSpace is the boundless, three-dimensional extent in which objects and events occur and have relative position and direction. Physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions, although modern physicists usually consider it, with time, to be part of a boundless four-dimensional continuum...
, and other
dimensionIn physics and mathematics, the dimension of a space or object is informally defined as the minimum number of coordinates needed to specify any point within it. Thus a line has a dimension of one because only one coordinate is needed to specify a point on it...
s combating huge
ghostIn traditional belief and fiction, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a deceased person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to...
s (of which the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man was one of many). Also, the Ghostbusters wore
SWATA SWAT team is an elite tactical unit in various national law enforcement departments. They are trained to perform high-risk operations that fall outside of the abilities of regular officers...
-like outfits and used
wandA wand is a thin, straight, hand-held stick of wood, stone, ivory, or metal. Generally, in modern language, wands are ceremonial and/or have associations with magic but there have been other uses, all stemming from the original meaning as a synonym of rod and virge, both of which had a similar...
s instead of proton packs to fight the ghosts. Ghostbusters storyboards show them wearing riotsquad-type helmets with movable transparent visors. In addition to a similar title, the movie shares the premise of professional "exterminators" on a paranormal mission with
The Bowery BoysThe Bowery Boys were fictional New York City characters who were the subject of feature films released by Monogram Pictures from 1946 through 1958....
slapstick comedy
Spook BustersSpook Busters is a 1946 film starring the comedy team of The Bowery Boys. It is the fourth film in the series.-Plot:All of the boys have just graduated from school where they learned exterminating, except for Sach who flunked out. They set up their new business in a corner of Louie's Sweet Shop...
(1946, directed by
William BeaudineWilliam Beaudine was an American film actor and director. He was one of Hollywood's most prolific directors, turning out films in remarkable numbers and in a wide variety of genres.-Early life and career:...
).
Aykroyd pitched his story to director/producer
Ivan ReitmanIvan Reitman, OC is a Canadian film producer and director. He is known for the comedies he has directed and produced, especially in the 1980s and 1990s.He is the owner of The Montecito Picture Company, founded in 2000.-Early life:...
, who liked the basic idea but immediately saw the budgetary impossibilities demanded by Aykroyd's first draft. At Reitman's suggestion, the story was given a major overhaul, eventually evolving into the final screenplay which Aykroyd and Ramis hammered out over the course of three weeks in a
Martha's VineyardMartha's Vineyard is an island located south of Cape Cod in Massachusetts, known for being an affluent summer colony....
bomb shelterA bomb shelter is any kind of a civil defense structure designed to provide protection against the effects of a bomb.-Types of shelter:Different kinds of bomb shelters are configured to protect against different kinds of attack and strengths of hostile explosives. For example, an Air-raid shelter...
in May–June 1982. Aykroyd and Ramis initially wrote the script with roles written especially for Belushi,
Eddie MurphyEdward Regan "Eddie" Murphy is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, singer, director, and musician....
, and
John CandyJohn Franklin Candy was a Canadian actor and comedian. He rose to fame as a member of the Toronto branch of The Second City and its related Second City Television series, and through his appearances in comedy films such as Stripes, Splash, Cool Runnings, The Great Outdoors, Spaceballs, and Uncle...
; but Belushi died during the writing of the screenplay, and neither Murphy nor Candy would commit to the movie, so Aykroyd and Ramis made some changes and polished a basic, science-fiction-oriented screenplay for their final draft.
In addition to Aykroyd's high-concept basic premise, and Ramis' skill at grounding the fantastic elements with a realistic setting, the film benefits from Bill Murray's semi-improvisational performance as Peter Venkman, the character initially intended for Belushi.
Casting
Louis Tully was originally conceived as a conservative man in a business suit played by comedian John Candy; but with Candy unable to commit to the role, it was taken by Rick Moranis who portrayed Louis as a
geekThe word geek is a slang term, with different meanings ranging from "a computer expert or enthusiast" to "a carnival performer who performs sensationally morbid or disgusting acts", with a general pejorative meaning of "a peculiar or otherwise dislikable person, esp[ecially] one who is perceived to...
. Gozer was originally going to appear in the form of Ivo Shandor as a slender, unremarkable man in a suit played by
Paul ReubensPaul Reubens is an American actor, writer, film producer, and comedian, best known for his character Pee-wee Herman. Reubens joined the Los Angeles troupe The Groundlings in the 1970s and started his career as an improvisational comedian and stage actor...
; but the role was played by Yugoslav model
Slavitza JovanSlavitza Jovan is a former Serbian model known for her appearance as the deity Gozer in the 1984 film Ghostbusters. She also made an appearance, fifteen years later, in House on Haunted Hill.-External links:*...
.
Harold Ramis had no intention of acting in any role, as he planned only helping Aykroyd write the screenplay; but the crew struggled to cast the role of Egon Spengler, even after renowned actors such as
Chevy ChaseCornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase is an American comedian, writer, and television and film actor, born into a prominent entertainment industry family. Chase worked a plethora of odd jobs before moving into comedy acting with National Lampoon...
,
Michael KeatonMichael John Douglas , better known by the stage name Michael Keaton, is an American actor known for his early comedic roles, most notably his performance as the title character of Tim Burton's Beetlejuice . Keaton is also famous for his dramatic portrayal of Bruce Wayne/Batman in Tim Burton's...
,
Christopher WalkenChristopher Walken is an American stage and screen actor. He has appeared in more than 100 movies and television shows, including Joe Dirt, Annie Hall, The Deer Hunter, The Prophecy trilogy, The Dogs of War, Sleepy Hollow, Brainstorm, The Dead Zone, A View to a Kill, At Close Range, King of New...
,
John LithgowJohn Arthur Lithgow is an American actor, musician, and author. Presently, he is involved with a wide range of media projects, including stage, television, film, and radio...
,
Christopher LloydChristopher Allen Lloyd is an American actor. He is best known for playing Emmett Brown in the Back to the Future trilogy, Uncle Fester in The Addams Family and Addams Family Values, and Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. He played Reverend Jim Ignatowski in the television series Taxi and more...
, and
Jeff GoldblumJeffrey Lynn "Jeff" Goldblum is an American actor. His career began in the mid-1970s and he has appeared in major box-office successes including The Fly, Jurassic Park and its sequel Jurassic Park: The Lost World, and Independence Day...
were considered. Feeling he knew the character best, being its creator, Ramis accepted the role of Egon. He credited this move in revitalizing his acting career, having previously focused on off-screen work such as writing and directing.
Winston Zeddemore was written with
Eddie MurphyEdward Regan "Eddie" Murphy is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, singer, director, and musician....
in mind, but Murphy had to decline the role as he was filming
Beverly Hills CopBeverly Hills Cop is a 1984 American comedy-action film directed by Martin Brest and starring Eddie Murphy, Lisa Eilbacher, John Ashton, Judge Reinhold, and Ronny Cox...
at the same time. If Murphy had been cast, Zeddemore would have been hired much earlier in the film, and would have accompanied the trio on their hunt for
SlimerSlimer is a fictional green ghost featured in the 1984 supernatural comedy movie Ghostbusters , whose popularity soared from the subsequent spinoff animated television series The Real Ghostbusters. Slimer later starred in his own Slimer! cartoons when The Real Ghostbusters was extended to a...
at the hotel and been slimed in place of Peter Venkman. When
Ernie HudsonErnest Lee "Ernie" Hudson is an American actor known for his roles as Winston Zeddemore in the Ghostbusters film series, Sergeant Albrecht in The Crow, and Warden Leo Glynn on HBO's Oz.-Early life:...
took over, it was decided that he be brought in later to indicate how the Ghostbusters were struggling to keep up with the outbreak of ghosts.
For the test screening of
Ghostbusters, half of the ghost effects were missing, not yet having been completed by the production team. The audience response was still enthusiastic, and the ghost elements were completed for the official theatrical release shortly thereafter.
Cast
- Bill Murray
William James "Bill" Murray is an American actor and comedian. He first gained national exposure on Saturday Night Live in which he earned an Emmy Award and later went on to star in a number of critically and commercially successful comedic films, including Caddyshack , Ghostbusters , and...
as Dr. Peter VenkmanPeter Venkman, Ph.D. is a fictional character from the Ghostbusters franchise. He is a parapsychologist and member of the Ghostbusters, appearing in the films Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II and in the animated television series The Real Ghostbusters...
- Dan Aykroyd
Daniel Edward "Dan" Aykroyd, CM is a Canadian comedian, actor, screenwriter, musician, winemaker and ufologist. He was an original cast member of Saturday Night Live, an originator of The Blues Brothers and Ghostbusters and has had a long career as a film actor and screenwriter.-Early...
as Dr. Raymond StantzRaymond "Ray" Stantz, Ph.D., is a fictional scientist and member of the Ghostbusters, appearing in the films Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters II, and Casper and in the animated television series The Real Ghostbusters . He is one of the three doctors of parapsychology on the team, along with Dr. Peter...
- Sigourney Weaver
Sigourney Weaver is an American actress. She is best known for her critically acclaimed role of Ellen Ripley in the four Alien films: Alien, Aliens, Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection, for which she has received worldwide recognition .Other notable roles include Dana...
as Dana Barrett
- Harold Ramis
Harold Allen Ramis is an American actor, director, and writer, specializing in comedy. His best-known film acting roles are as Egon Spengler in Ghostbusters and Russell Ziskey in Stripes , both of which he also co-wrote...
as Dr. Egon SpenglerEgon Spengler is a fictional character appearing in the films Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II, and in the animated television series The Real Ghostbusters and later Extreme Ghostbusters. He is a member of the Ghostbusters, and one of the three doctors of parapsychology on the team...
- Ernie Hudson
Ernest Lee "Ernie" Hudson is an American actor known for his roles as Winston Zeddemore in the Ghostbusters film series, Sergeant Albrecht in The Crow, and Warden Leo Glynn on HBO's Oz.-Early life:...
as Winston ZeddemoreWinston Zeddemore is a fictional character appearing in the Ghostbusters films, TV series, and video games. He was played by Ernie Hudson in both movies and was voiced by Arsenio Hall in the first two seasons of The Real Ghostbusters. Buster Jones provided Winston's voice in the remaining seasons,...
- Rick Moranis
Frederick Allan "Rick" Moranis is a Canadian comedian, actor, musician, and a magician. Moranis came to prominence in the late 1970s on the sketch comedy show Second City Television, and later appeared in several Hollywood films including Strange Brew; Ghostbusters; Spaceballs; Little Shop of...
as Louis Tully
- Annie Potts
Anne Hampton "Annie" Potts is an American film and television actress. She is known for her roles in the 1980s popular films such as Ghostbusters , Pretty in Pink , Jumpin' Jack Flash , Who's Harry Crumb? and Ghostbusters II . Potts is also known as a voice-actress...
as Janine MelnitzJanine Melnitz is a fictional character in the Ghostbusters series. She is the Ghostbusters' secretary and confidante.-Importance to the Ghostbusters:...
- William Atherton
William Atherton , born William Atherton Knight II, is an American film, stage and television actor.-Early life:Atherton was born in Orange, Connecticut, the son of Roby and Robert Atherton Knight...
as Walter Peck
- David Margulies
David Joseph Margulies is an American actor.Margulies was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Runya , a nurse and museum worker, and Harry David Margulies, a lawyer. Margulies graduated from City College of New York. Immediately afterward, he made his stage debut in the off-Broadway play Golden 6...
as Mayor Lenny
- Slavitza Jovan
Slavitza Jovan is a former Serbian model known for her appearance as the deity Gozer in the 1984 film Ghostbusters. She also made an appearance, fifteen years later, in House on Haunted Hill.-External links:*...
as Gozer
- Paddi Edwards
Paddi Edwards was an English-American actress. Born Paddy Edwards, she worked steadily in film...
as Gozer (voice)
- Ivan Reitman
Ivan Reitman, OC is a Canadian film producer and director. He is known for the comedies he has directed and produced, especially in the 1980s and 1990s.He is the owner of The Montecito Picture Company, founded in 2000.-Early life:...
as Zuul (voice)/SlimerSlimer is a fictional green ghost featured in the 1984 supernatural comedy movie Ghostbusters , whose popularity soared from the subsequent spinoff animated television series The Real Ghostbusters. Slimer later starred in his own Slimer! cartoons when The Real Ghostbusters was extended to a...
(voice)
- Richard Foster as Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man
The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man is a fictional mascot from the Ghostbusters franchise of media, which sometimes appears as a giant, lumbering paranormal monster. It becomes the physical manifestation of the Sumerian demonic deity Gozer...
- Alice Drummond
Alice Drummond is an American actress of stage and television.Drummond was born as Alice E. Ruyter in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, daughter of Sarah Irene , a secretary, and Arthur Ruyter, an auto mechanic. She graduated from Pembroke College in 1950.She played Nurse Jackson on the TV series Dark...
as Librarian at the New York Public Library
- Jennifer Runyon
-Biography:She is known for guest appearances or secondary characters in various sitcoms and dramas, as well as a couple of made-for-TV movies. Among her roles are Sally Frame on Another World , Gwendolyn Pierce on Charles in Charge , and replacing Susan Olsen as Cindy Brady in A Very Brady Christmas...
as Female ESP volunteer
Cameos
- Roger Grimsby
Roger Grimsby was an American journalist, television news anchor and actor. Grimsby is known as one of the pioneers of local television broadcast news.-Early life:...
- Larry King
Lawrence Harvey "Larry" King is an American television and radio host whose work has been recognized with awards including two Peabodys and ten Cable ACE Awards....
- Joe Franklin
Joe Franklin is an American radio and television personality. From New York City, Franklin is sometimes credited with hosting the first television talk show...
- Casey Kasem
Kemal Amin "Casey" Kasem is an American radio personality and voice actor who is best known for being the host of the nationally syndicated Top 40 countdown show American Top 40, and for voicing Shaggy in the popular Saturday morning cartoon franchise Scooby-Doo.Kasem, along with Don Bustany and...
Box office
Ghostbusters was released on June 8, 1984 in 1,339 theaters and grossed $13.6 million on its opening weekend and $23 million in its first week, a studio record at the time. The film was number one at the box office for five consecutive weeks, grossing $99.8 million. After seven weeks at number one, it was finally knocked to second place by
PrincePrince Rogers Nelson , often known simply as Prince, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Prince has produced ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince founded his own recording studio and label; writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of...
's film,
Purple RainPurple Rain is a 1984 film directed by Albert Magnoli and written by Magnoli and William Blinn. Prince makes his film debut in this movie, which was developed to showcase his particular talents, hence, the film contains several extended concert sequences. The film grossed more than US$80 million at...
and had grossed $142.6 million, second only to
Indiana Jones and the Temple of DoomIndiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is a 1984 American adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg. It is the second film in the Indiana Jones franchise and prequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark . After arriving in India, Indiana Jones is asked by a desperate village to find a mystical stone...
as the year's top moneymaker. However,
Ghostbusters regained top spot the next week, and then again six weeks later. It went on to gross $229.2 million at the box office, making it the second highest-grossing film of 1984, behind only
Beverly Hills CopBeverly Hills Cop is a 1984 American comedy-action film directed by Martin Brest and starring Eddie Murphy, Lisa Eilbacher, John Ashton, Judge Reinhold, and Ronny Cox...
. At the time, these figures put it within the top ten highest-grossing films of all-time. A re-release in 1985 gave the film a total gross of $238.6 million surpassing
Beverly Hills Cop and making
Ghostbusters the most successful comedy of the 1980s.
Critical response
Ghostbusters received generally positive reviews from critics and is considered by many as one of the best films of 1984. It currently holds a 93% approval rating on review aggregate website
Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, based on 46 reviews. Film critic
Roger EbertRoger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four and wrote, "This movie is an exception to the general rule that big special effects can wreck a comedy ... Rarely has a movie this expensive provided so many quotable lines".
NewsweekNewsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
magazine's
David AnsenDavid Ansen is a reviewer and senior editor for Newsweek, where he has been reviewing movies since 1977. He came to Newsweek after several years as the chief film critic at Boston's The Real Paper...
wrote, "Everyone seems to be working toward the same goal of relaxed insanity.
Ghostbusters is wonderful summer nonsense". In his review for
TIME,
Richard SchickelRichard Warren Schickel is an American author, journalist, and documentary filmmaker. He is a film critic for Time magazine, having also written for Life magazine and the Los Angeles Times Book Review....
praised the three lead actors: "Of the ghost wranglers, the pair played by Writers Aykroyd and Ramis are sweetly earnest about their calling, and gracious about giving the picture to their co-star Bill Murray. He obviously (and wisely) regards Dr. Peter Venkman as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to develop fully his patented comic character".
Pauline KaelPauline Kael was an American film critic who wrote for The New Yorker magazine from 1968 to 1991. Earlier in her career, her work appeared in City Lights, McCall's and The New Republic....
had problems with the chemistry between the three lead actors: "Murray is the film's comic mechanism ... But nobody else has much in the way of material, and since there's almost no give-and-take among the three men, Murray's lines fall on dead air". In her review for
The New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
,
Janet MaslinJanet Maslin is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for The New York Times. She served as the Times film critic from 1977–1999.- Biography :...
wrote, "Its jokes, characters and story line are as wispy as the ghosts themselves, and a good deal less substantial".
Soundtrack
The film's theme song, "
Ghostbusters"Ghostbusters" is a 1984 song recorded by Ray Parker, Jr. as the theme to the film of the same name starring Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd. It hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on August 11 in 1984, and stayed there for three weeks...
", written and performed by
Ray Parker JrRay Erskine Parker, Jr. , is an American guitarist, songwriter, producer and recording artist. Parker is known for writing and performing the theme song to the motion picture Ghostbusters, for his solo hits, and performing with his band Raydio as well as the late Barry White.-Early life and...
, sparked the catchphrases "Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters!" and "I ain't afraid of no ghost." The song was a huge hit, staying #1 for three weeks on Billboard's Hot 100 chart and #1 for two weeks on the Black Singles chart. The song earned Parker an Academy Award nomination for "
Best Original SongThe Academy Award for Best Original Song is one of the awards given annually to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences . It is presented to the songwriters who have composed the best original song written specifically for a film...
". According to Bruce A. Austin (in 1989), this theme "purportedly added $20 million to the box office take of the film".
The music video produced for the song became a #1 MTV video. Featuring actress Cindy Harrell, directed by Ivan Reitman, produced by Jeffrey Abelson, and conceptualized by Keith Williams, the video integrated footage of the film intercut with a humorous performance by Parker. The video also featured cameo appearances by celebrities who joined in the
call-and-responseIn music, a call and response is a succession of two distinct phrases usually played by different musicians, where the second phrase is heard as a direct commentary on or response to the first...
chorus, including
Chevy ChaseCornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase is an American comedian, writer, and television and film actor, born into a prominent entertainment industry family. Chase worked a plethora of odd jobs before moving into comedy acting with National Lampoon...
,
Irene CaraIrene Cara is an American singer and actress. Cara won an Academy Award in 1984 in the category of Best Original Song for co-writing "Flashdance... What a Feeling." She is also known for her recording of the song "Fame", and she also starred in the 1980 film Fame.She married Hollywood stuntman...
,
John CandyJohn Franklin Candy was a Canadian actor and comedian. He rose to fame as a member of the Toronto branch of The Second City and its related Second City Television series, and through his appearances in comedy films such as Stripes, Splash, Cool Runnings, The Great Outdoors, Spaceballs, and Uncle...
, Nickolas Ashford,
Melissa GilbertMelissa Ellen Gilbert is an American actress, writer, and producer, primarily in movies and television. Gilbert is best known as a child actress who co-starred as Charles Ingalls's second daughter, Laura Ingalls Wilder, on the dramatic television series Little House on the Prairie...
,
Jeffrey TamborJeffrey Michael Tambor is an American actor, perhaps best known for his roles as George Bluth Sr. and Oscar Bluth on Arrested Development and Hank Kingsley on The Larry Sanders Show.-Early life:...
,
George WendtGeorge Robert Wendt III is an American actor, best known for the roles of Norm Peterson and Tug Clarke on the television shows Cheers and Modern Men.-Early life:...
,
Al FrankenAlan Stuart "Al" Franken is the junior United States Senator from Minnesota. He is a member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, which affiliates with the national Democratic Party....
,
Danny DeVitoDaniel Michael DeVito, Jr. , better known as Danny DeVito, is an American actor, comedian, director and producer. He first gained prominence for his portrayal of Louie De Palma on the ABC and NBC television series Taxi , for which he won a Golden Globe and an Emmy.DeVito and his wife, Rhea Perlman,...
,
Carly SimonCarly Elisabeth Simon is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and children's author. She rose to fame in the 1970s with a string of hit records, and has since been the recipient of two Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and a Golden Globe Award for her work...
,
Peter FalkPeter Michael Falk was an American actor, best known for his role as Lieutenant Columbo in the television series Columbo...
, and
Teri Garr-Early life:Garr was born in Lakewood, Ohio in 1947. Her father, Eddie Garr , was a vaudeville performer, comedian and actor whose career peaked when he briefly took over the lead role in the Broadway drama Tobacco Road...
. The video ends with footage of the four main Ghostbusters actors in costume and character, dancing in Times Square behind Parker, joining in the singing.
Score
The film score was composed by
Elmer BernsteinElmer Bernstein was an American composer and conductor best known for his many film scores. In a career which spanned fifty years, he composed music for hundreds of film and television productions...
, and is notable for its use of
ondes MartenotThe ondes Martenot , also known as the ondium Martenot, Martenot and ondes musicales, is an early electronic musical instrument invented in 1928 by Maurice Martenot. The original design was similar in sound to the theremin...
(a staple of Bernstein's 1980s work) and also the Yamaha DX-7 synthesizer. Orchestrators contributing to the film were Peter Bernstein, David Spear and Patrick Russ.
Critical reception
Reviewers at Allmusic have awarded both the
Original Soundtrack Album and the
Original Motion Picture Score 4 out of a total 5 stars.
Evan Cater describes the
Original Soundtrack Album somewhat pejoratively as "a very disjointed, schizophrenic listen" that "does very little to conjure memories of the film". However, he notes that there are exceptions to this, namely Ray Parker Jr's title track "Ghostbusters", Mick Smiley's "Magic", and the two inclusions from Elmer Bernstein's score.
Jason Ankeny describes the
Original Motion Picture Score as "epic in both sound and scale", noting that it "ranks among Bernstein's most dazzling and entertaining efforts, evoking the widescreen wonder of its source material", concluding that "his melodies beautifully complement the wit and creativity of the onscreen narrative."
Legacy
The film spawned a franchise of related sequels, animated television series, toys, computer and video games, and other merchandise.
The
American Film InstituteThe American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
ranked it 28th in its list of the top 100 comedies of all time (in their
100 Years... 100 LaughsPart of the AFI 100 Years… series, AFI's 100 Years…100 Laughs is a list of the top 100 funniest movies in American cinema. A wide variety of comedies were nominated for the distinction that included slapstick comedy, screwball comedy, romantic comedy, satire, black comedy, musical comedy, comedy of...
list), and nominated it for its lists of the 100 greatest movies in 1998 and 2007 and the 100 most heart-pounding movies (in AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills). The title song was nominated for AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs, and two quotes were nominated for AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes: "We came. We saw. We kicked its ass." and "I've been slimed.", both spoken by Venkman. In 2005,
IGNIGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
voted
Ghostbusters the greatest comedy ever. In 2006, Bravo ranked
Ghostbusters 76 on their
100 Funniest Movies list.
Entertainment WeeklyEntertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
ranked it as the
Funniest Movie of the Past 25 Years. In 2008,
Empire magazine ranked the film #189 on its list of
The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time.
In 2009,
National ReviewNational Review is a biweekly magazine founded by the late author William F. Buckley, Jr., in 1955 and based in New York City. It describes itself as "America's most widely read and influential magazine and web site for conservative news, commentary, and opinion."Although the print version of the...
magazine ranked
Ghostbusters number 10 on its
25 Best Conservative Movies of the Last 25 Years list. In 2000, readers of
Total FilmTotal Film is a British film magazine published 13 times a year by Future Publishing. The magazine was launched in 1997 and offers film, DVD and Blu-ray news, reviews and features...
magazine voted
Ghostbusters the 44th greatest comedy film of all time.
American Film InstituteThe American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
Lists
- AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies
The first of the AFI 100 Years… series of cinematic milestones, AFI's 100 Years…100 Movies is a list of the 100 best American movies, as determined by the American Film Institute from a poll of more than 1,500 artists and leaders in the film industry who chose from a list of 400 nominated movies...
- Nominated
- AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs
Part of the AFI 100 Years… series, AFI's 100 Years…100 Laughs is a list of the top 100 funniest movies in American cinema. A wide variety of comedies were nominated for the distinction that included slapstick comedy, screwball comedy, romantic comedy, satire, black comedy, musical comedy, comedy of...
- #28
- AFI's 100 Years... 100 Thrills
Part of the AFI 100 Years… series, AFI's 100 Years…100 Thrills is a list of the top 100 heart-pounding movies in American cinema. The list was unveiled by the American Film Institute on June 12, 2001, during a CBS special hosted by Harrison Ford....
- Nominated
- AFI's 100 Years…100 Songs:
- Ghostbusters Theme Song - Nominated
- AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes
Part of the AFI 100 Years... series, AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes is a list of the top 100 movie quotations in American cinema. The American Film Institute revealed the list on June 21, 2005, in a three-hour television program on CBS...
:
- "We came. We saw. We kicked its ass." - Nominated
- "I've been slimed." - Nominated
- AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) - Nominated
Releases
Director Ivan Reitman was not happy with the
laserdiscLaserDisc was a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. Initially licensed, sold, and marketed as MCA DiscoVision in North America in 1978, the technology was previously referred to interally as Optical Videodisc System, Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Optical...
release of the film because "it pumped up the light level so much you saw all the
matteMattes are used in photography and special effects filmmaking to combine two or more image elements into a single, final image. Usually, mattes are used to combine a foreground image with a background image . In this case, the matte is the background painting...
lines. I was embarrassed about it all these years". The DVD version of the movie was released and became one of the fastest selling units ever on Reel.com. Sony had announced at Comic-Con 2008 that the Blu-ray version of the film was to be released on October 21, 2008. However, it was released first through Sony Pictures' campaign site,
Ghostbustersishiring.com as a way to drum up sales of its release. The movie was released on Blu-ray on June 16, 2009 to coincide with the film's 25th Anniversary.
Ghostbusters was the first film ever officially released on a USB flashdrive. The film was also released onto YouTube for a week on a deal with Sony to provide ad-supported full-length movies on YouTube in August 2009, though it was only available in the United States.
Sony Pictures will re-release the film in nearly 500 theaters in the United States starting October 13, 2011, "and continuing on the next two Thursdays before Halloween."
Controversies and legal problems
In autumn 1984
Huey LewisHuey Lewis is an American musician, songwriter and occasional actor.Lewis sings lead and plays harmonica for his band Huey Lewis and the News, in addition to writing or co-writing many of the band's songs...
sued Ray Parker, Jr. for
plagiarismPlagiarism is defined in dictionaries as the "wrongful appropriation," "close imitation," or "purloining and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions," and the representation of them as one's own original work, but the notion remains problematic with nebulous...
, claiming that Parker copied the melody from his 1983 song "
I Want a New Drug"I Want a New Drug" is a song by American rock band Huey Lewis and the News from their third album Sports. It was released as the second single from the album, following the top-ten hit "Heart and Soul" in January 1984. The single reached number six on the U.S...
". Lewis had been approached to compose the main theme song for the movie, but he declined due to his work on the soundtrack for
Back to the FutureBack to the Future is a 1985 American science-fiction adventure film. It was directed by Robert Zemeckis, written by Zemeckis and Bob Gale, produced by Steven Spielberg, and starred Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover and Thomas F. Wilson. The film tells the story of...
. The two musicians settled out of court. It was reported in 2001 that Lewis allegedly breached an agreement not to mention the original suit, doing so on
VH1'sVH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...
Behind the MusicBehind the Music is a television series on VH1. It originally ran from 1997 to 2006, before it was stopped and only aired new episodes sporadically. The series places its generality on documentation of musical artists or groups who are interviewed and profiled, and discuss how their careers became...
.
External links