Ghostbusters

Before they are kicked out of Columbia, they investigate a haunting at the New York City Public Library and after seeing some symmetrical book stacking they encounter a ghost librarian (the Gray Lady) that runs them out of the Library.

Without a way to share their findings, Venkman, Stantz, and Spengler take matters into their own hands. They start a business named "Ghostbusters", a "professional paranormal investigation and elimination service", out of an old firehouse, using a 1959 Cadillac Miller-Meteor Ambulance dubbed "Ecto-1" to get about the city and hiring Janine Melnitz (Annie Potts) to handle the phones and clerical work. Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver) of 550 Central Park West, comes to the Ghostbusters and asks for their help after she experiences some horror in the kitchen of her own home. The Ghostbusters do a few tests to determine that she isn't crazy as she recounts a paranormal experience in her kitchen centering around the name "Zuul". Peter seizes the opportunity to get romantically closer to Dana and goes with her to the apartment. Using the Ghost Sniffer he checks out the place, finds nothing in the main room, and bedroom. Dana then directs him toward the kitchen where he finds eggs that cooked themselves on the counter but gets no readings on the Ghost Sniffer despite using it correctly.

Meanwhile, their funds are nearly dried up eating a Chinese food dinner, which they ate slowly. Janine gets a call with a serious client, and she rings the alarm bell. The Ghostbusters run and get dressed, then leave in the Ecto-1. They show up at the Sedgewick Hotel and the Hotel manager tells them that they are having problems with a resident ghost. Following a successful test of the equipment, they split up to search the hotel for the ghost. Peter finds the ghost which then slimes him. Egon calls Ray to tell him that the ghost is now in a ballroom. They enter the ballroom and as they attempt to capture it, they destroy the room and make a lot of noise. They ultimately manage to capture the ghost, and they find themselves an overnight success across both New York City and the nation. As the amount of calls grows, the team is required to hire a fourth member, Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson). An unwanted side effect of their newfound popularity produces Walter Peck (William Atherton) from the Environmental Protection Agency. He comes to the firehouse trying to inspect the Storage facility which Peter refuses to let him do.

One night, Dana enters her apartment and is talking on the phone to her mother. After she hangs up, she gets grabbed by claws that burst out of her chair. She is taken into the kitchen where she becomes possessed by Zuul. Meanwhile, Louis Tully (Rick Moranis), another resident of the apartments, is hosting a party for the fourth anniversary of him becoming an accountant when a dog (also described as a bear and a cougar - but really a Terror Dog) attacks, and chases him out of the building and to a restaurant where it possesses him.

Peter makes a visit to Dana's apartment. He quickly realizes that she has been possessed by Zuul, the Gatekeeper of Gozer. Changed radically by her possession, Dana aggressively tries to seduce him but ends up growling fiercely and levitating above her bed in frustration after he repeatedly rejects her advances.

Louis, similarly possessed by Vinz Clortho, Gozer's Keymaster, stumbles around Central Park. He harasses locals until finding a carriage horse and confusing it with the Gatekeeper. When the coachman questions him, Louis responds by angrily flaring his eyes red and growling at the man. Later, the cops bring Louis to the Firehouse and ask Egon if he'd take him, as he is exhibiting strange behavior. Egon recognizes that Louis is possessed. Peter later calls Egon to tell him about Dana being possessed by Zuul, aka the "Gatekeeper".

The next day, Walter Peck accompanied by an officer and laborer, obtains a court order to shut the containment grid down, and unable to stop him, the team flees the firehouse as the grid collapses and hundreds of freed ghosts flood the city. The explosion of supernatural energy causes Zuul to awake in her bed and allows Vinz Clortho to escape and make his way back to 550 Central Park West where they unite inside Dana's apartment with a passionate kiss. Peck orders the Ghostbusters arrested while the ghosts create panic across the city. While waiting in jail, the team recognizes that Dana's apartment building was a huge super-conductive antenna, designed and built expressly for the purpose of pulling in and concentrating spiritual turbulence. The mayor (David Margulies) orders the release of the Ghostbusters from jail. He has a conversation with the Ghostbusters about the events while Peck tries to counter-attack their story. In the end of the discussion, Peter wins over the mayor's judgment allowing them to get to work to prevent the potential catastrophe overriding Peck's demands.

Assisted by the police and Army, the Ghostbusters make their way to the top of 550 Central Park West. They are too late to prevent the possessed Dana and Louis from completing the ritual for the coming of Gozer. When the Ghostbusters reach the hidden part of the building, the possessed Dana and Louis open a dimensional gate at the top of the building and are transformed into the Terror Dog forms of their possessors. They then take their positions beside Gozer's Temple as the Ghostbusters stare in shock. When Gozer (Slavitza Jovan) emerges in a female humanoid form, the team tries to shoot her with their packs, but fails to harm her. Gozer disappears and tells them to select the next form it will take, and though the team tries to empty their minds, Ray is unable to. Ray thinks about the most innocent thing he could imagine: the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. The team finds that a giant version of the marshmallow mascot has begun to lay waste to the city as it makes its way to the apartments and starts climbing the building. Egon realizes that the only way to end the destruction is to reverse the particle flow through the gate by crossing the streams, resulting in "total protonic reversal" which would destroy Gozer and the interdimensional gate. The plan is risky at best, but there is definitely a very slim chance of their survival. As the giant creature reaches the top of the building, the team executes Egon's plan, causing the gate to seal itself, creating an explosion and burning the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man away into large amounts of liquid marshmallow fluff. The Ghostbusters find that they have all survived and that Dana and Louis have returned to their normal, unpossessed, human forms. The team is cheered on by the vast population of New York City as they leave the building and drive away.

The concept was inspired by Aykroyd's own fascination with the paranormal, and it was conceived by Aykroyd as a vehicle for himself and for his friend and fellow Saturday Night Live alumnus John Belushi. The original story as written by Aykroyd "Ghost Smashers" was very different than what would be eventually filmed. In that version, a group of Ghostbusters would travel through time, space and other dimensions taking on huge ghosts.

In late 1981, Dan Aykroyd began writing his first draft. ^[3] Work on the script was slow and steady over the next few years due to other projects Aykroyd worked on. On March 5, 1982, while he was writing one of Venkman's lines, Aykroyd heard Belushi had passed away. ^[4] Aykroyd sent a half-completed script to Bill Murray and spoke to him about picking up the mantle left by Belushi. Murray responded favorably to the script's concept so Aykroyd took it to Ivan Reitman. ^{[5] [6]} Reitman looked through the script, which only had 40-50 pages done at that point, and had no idea how he could make it into a movie- alternate dimensions, very little character work, an all black somewhat sentient car that could dematerialize and a special effects budget he estimated to cost in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Still, Reitman did like the comic attitude contrasted with a serious script. He set it aside. ^{[7] [8] [9] [10]} Undaunted, Aykroyd kept working on the script and finished it months later on January 20, 1983. The finished script was around 180 pages. He submitted the final script to Reitman in April along with concept drawings by artist friend John Daveikis and a videotape of himself wearing a jumpsuit based uniform and makeshift nutrona wands and a Proton Pack fashioned from styrofoam and old radio parts. At the time, several of Reitman's projects were stalled in various stages of development. Eager to get something into production, Reitman took another look. ^{[11] [12] [13] [14][15]}

Reitman honed in on the idea of a group of men operating from a firehouse and responding to emergency calls like firefighters would. Reitman got a laugh out of the concept, equipment, car and logo but had reservations about the fantasy elements. He had a lunch meeting with Aykroyd at Art's Delicatessen in May 1983. ^[16] Reitman made some suggestions to which Aykroyd immediately took to such as setting the movie in a modern American city, doing an origin story, and bringing in Harold Ramis. ^{[17] [18]} After their meeting, Reitman and Aykroyd went to The Burbank Studios and talked to Harold Ramis. At the time, Reitman and Ramis had offices there. Ramis happened to be reading one of Aykroyd's other scripts, one about the Canadian Mounted Police. Aykroyd told him to put it aside and take a look at his Ghostbusters script. After about 20 minutes, Ramis was in. ^[19] Later in the afternoon, Reitman called his agent Mike Ovitz, who also represented Aykroyd, Ramis and Murray, and asked him to set up a meeting with Columbia Pictures chairman Frank Price. ^[20] Reitman did a 5 minute pitch to Price about the Ghostbusters concept. Price liked it and asked about the budget. Without a final script and knowledge of such a movie, Reitman pulled a number out of thin air since his last movie was $10 million. Price advised him to keep the budget in the mid-$20 million range and gave Reitman 13 months to make a summer tentpole movie for 1984. ^{[21] [22]} With no script, two writers, two associate producers, most of the main cast, and no special effects house, Ghostbusters was greenlit.

The first collaborative script between Aykroyd and Ramis was completed on June 6, 1983. The main thrust of the draft was to come up with a new story that made sense to Aykroyd, Ramis and Reitman. ^[23] Ramis came up with setting up the main characters as parapsychologists working at a university. ^[24] More were slowly added to the crew - John DeCuir, cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs, costume designer Theoni V. Aldredge, and editor Sheldon Kahn. With input from Edlund and DeCuir, the budget was adjusted from $25 million to $30 million. ^{[25] [26]} A rough story outline was achieved in the first draft. They settled on how the main characters would start out and where they would end up but the fine details still needed to be worked out. In terms of pacing, the movie didn't take off until the hotel around page 40. ^[27] The Ghostbusters were fired from a small college in New England and went to New York. They investigated a converted farmhouse where a family was being bothered with incessant knocking. ^{[28] [29]} Aykroyd and Ramis added in a love interest named Zuul, an alien fugitive from another dimension. After watching a diet cola commercial, the alien and her compatriot transforms into a beautiful female human and a heavy set male human. ^{[30] [31]} The romance proved too comedic. Peter and Zuul go to a restaurant. Zuul sees woman taking their wraps off and attempts to take her blouse off. After leaving a restaurant, Zuul takes pity on a carriage horse and kisses it with genuine emotion, leaving the driver concerned. Peter takes Zuul to the Times Square Motor Hotel. The next morning, he wakes up to find Zuul has taken on a warthog form. ^{[32] [33] [34]} Some effects were still rather elaborate. When the Containment Unit releases the ghosts, they descend upon a subway station and hover over the tracks then hitch a ride on the express train to uptown. ^[35] Like the beginning, the end wasn't solely set in New York. Egon concluded a small community in northern New Jersey was the likely epicenter of major psychic activity. The reason was its proximity to three nuclear power plants and chemical waste storage areas. ^[36] The Ghostbusters would ultimately regroup in New Jersey and battle Gozer, who took on the form of a swirling psychic maelstrom topped by a disembodied aphid's head of monstrous proportions ^[37]

Aykroyd, Ramis, and Reitman relocated to Martha's Vineyard for two and a half weeks around the July 4th weekend to work on the second draft. Aykroyd was living there at the time and work took place in his basement with an old Royal electric typewriter. ^{[38] [39]} New things were added and characters evolved. Egon demonstrated his prototype equipment but after it was plugged into an AC outlet, the Firehouse and Manhattan suffers a black out. ^[40] The 'foul-smelling amorphous vapor' from Aykroyd's first script became a green, potato-shaped ghost that haunted the hotel. ^[41] Louis Tully was a visiting conventioneer. ^[42] The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man became the Ghostbusters' final encounter. ^[43] Aykroyd, Reitman, and Ramis concluded they needed a fourth Ghostbuster to explain certain things in a more down to earth sort of way. Reitman also felt the movie could use another good guy coming in and joining the Ghostbusters. ^{[44] [45]} Initially, Winston came to the firehouse for the job as security guard before Dana went to the Ghostbusters for help. ^[46] The ending was grander and wrapped up everything. Ghostbusters became a highly successful multinational corporation named Ghostbusters International. Peter and Dana moved in together. Egon and Janine got married. Ray returned to Fort Detmerring for another visit from its resident female ghost. ^[47] The July rewrite was completed on July 6. The July rewrite was constantly rewritten, re-edited and re-commented on. Aykroyd, Ramis, and Reitman left on July 10 with a strong script. As rewrites continued, Reitman started auditions. ^[48]

As preproduction went along, Reitman's team hired many freelance artists to draw out ideas for the ghosts and entities that would be in the movie. The artists were supervised by Michael Gross. Hundreds of concepts were conceived. Reitman did a simple mix-and-match to come up with the best assortment of designs. ^{[49] [50] [51] [52]} Gross was also doing preliminary research into who would work on special effects. ^[53] The only major special effects houses at the time was Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) and Apogee. ILM was too busy with its current slate of projects, which included Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, Indiana Jones, and Star Trek III. Apogee was busy with Dune.^[54] Michael Gross and Don Shay grew up in the same town and have been close friends since high school. Gross called Shay in for consultation on visual effects. Shay heard Richard Edlund was leaving ILM to set up his own effects studio. He set up a meeting with Ivan Reitman, Michael Gross, and Richard Edlund. During back surgery, Edlund received a phone call from Reitman to work on Ghostbusters. ^[55] Edlund's Boss Films (later Entertainment Effects Group) was hired to work on the movie. ^{[56] [57]} Columbia fronted $5 million to Richard Edlund to start his own effects house. It exclusively worked on Ghostbusters. ^[58] They had 10+ months to get their studio up and running, make up new techniques and styles, and design and construct everything. ^[59] It was discovered Filmation produced a children's live action comedy series called "The Ghost Busters" for the 1975-76 television season. Columbia entered negotiations with Filmation to secure the rights. Talks bogged down and uncertainty developed about the name of the movie. ^[60]

The next rewrite was fine tuned even more. Some scenes were still elaborate from an effects standpoint. The scene where Dana's eggs start cooking was accompanied by a loaf of bread splitting up into pieces of toast and every metal appliance and utensil flew across the room and stuck to the refrigerator door. ^{[61] [62]} Characters were brought back from the original script. Shandor was now a human with a morbid past. He was reimagined as a deranged surgeon and architect who worshiped Gozer who met his end when a failed abduction led police to his penthouse apartment, which was furnished with human bones. He was executed at Sing Sing by the electric chair. ^[63] Other characters were fleshed out better and were close to being finalized. Slimer's design and part was basically locked in. Peter and Ray discovered Slimer in the hotel. ^[64] Louis Tully, still scripted for John Candy, had rather earthier interests and hosted a party. ^[65] The sequence of Louis being chased by a Terror Dog was present. Louis attempts to hail a taxi but the Terror Dog jumps on the hood. Honing in on the New York attitude, the taxi driver isn't scared but really ticked off at the Terror Dog. Eventually, it falls off the cab and resumes his chase. The chase then shifts to Central Park. ^[66] The third rewrite was finished on August 6.

The final shooting script was completed on October 7. In total, the new script took about three months. ^[67] Around the time of shooting, it became apparent John Candy was going to pass on the role of Louis Tully. On the same day, Reitman called up Rick Moranis. Moranis was available and was sent the script. Two hours after receiving it, Moranis called back the same day and accepted the role. Moranis helped mold Louis into the accountant character seen in the final version. ^{[68] [69]} Bill Murray was due to return to the States a week or two before shooting began in October. Murray did some costume fittings then went back to Paris for a few more days of last minute photography for his movie "Razor's Edge." ^[70] Ivan Reitman and Harold Ramis drove to La Guardia International Airport and pick up Murray. Murray's private plane landed an hour later than scheduled. Murray then came through the terminal with a stadium horn programmed with 80 different fight songs. Reitman and Ramis 'dragged' Murray to a restaurant in Queens. ^[71] With about a week before principal photography, some camera and wardrobe tests were being conducted. Reitman decided to shoot a montage piece of the three Ghostbusters in uniform running down a street. Murray started filming on October 27, 1983 after taking a Concorde to New York and driving to 62nd Street and Madison for an 11 am start.^[72] Aykroyd, Murray, and Ramis suited up and Reitman filmed the montage piece on Madison Avenue around 61st Avenue. ^[73] In late October, a week of preliminary second unit work and three-and-a-half weeks of principal photography began in New York. ^{[74] [75]} Most of the Tavern on the Green scenes were filmed the week before principal photography. ^{[76] [77]} The scene with the Subway Ghost was also shot before principal photography. ^[78] New dialogue continued to be discovered, suggested and inserted during rehearsal and shooting. Scenes were rearranged, such as when Zuul and Vinz reunite. Some scenes and lines were ultimately cut. Some were improvised and looped later. ^{[79] [80] [81] [82] [83] [84]} On the first day of principal photography, shooting took place at the Avenue of the Americas at the New York Public Library and Irving Trust Bank. ^{[85] [86] [87]} The scene with the Zombie Taxi Driver was also done on Madison Avenue during the first week of shooting. ^[88] The scene where possessed Louis walks and just before Slimer appears in the hot dog stand was shot in Broadway. It was also one of the very first things shot. ^{[89] [90]}

The montage pieces were mostly shot in one day with a small unit. There were two trucks used to transport the unit, made up of six crewmen, a cameraman, and a soundman, and equipment. Aykroyd drove the Ecto-1. No permits were obtained for shooting at places like Chinatown, the Rockefeller Center, 42nd Street, Saks Fifth Avenue, and the United Nations. ^[91] The crew went to bed at around 6 am and got up at 10 am. They went and chased Ecto-1 around making up scenes. They shot the night before and the night after. They shot on Central Park West all night with the crowds. Then they went to bed for a couple hours and started shooting all the reaction shots to the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man on the street. ^[92] Edlund and his crew also filmed background plates around New York, such as on the top of RCA Building for the ghost montage. ^[93] While the police department was very cooperative with helping the film crew, the shoots caused a lot of major traffic jams. The locals weren't very happy with the various disruptions. In one instance, Gross hid his Ghostbusters badge while Medjuck simply lied and said they were filming "The Cotton Club." ^[94] Some local businesses minded as well. The most trouble the film crew got in during shooting in New York was at Radio City Music Hall. It was private property. The crew was shooting on the street and a man in a suit asked Ivan Reitman and if he had permission. Reitman pulled over the location manager and told the man they had a permit. The man then said that the city couldn’t give a permit there since it was private property. Reitman then directed the man to talk to Joe Medjuck. Medjuck kept him busy while Reitman just kept on shooting. Finally, the man called a police officer over and reiterated it was private property and the cop said, "They have a permit, I can’t stop them from shooting." The man then pointed to a plaque in the sidewalk that said that the property was owned by Radio City and the cop just replied, "Hey, anyone could have put that there." ^[95] Surprisingly, the film crew was allowed to shoot scenes in New York City Hall for two days. City Council president Carol Bellamy's office was used as a stand-in for the Mayor's office as both were identical. ^[96]

Three weeks into shooting, the crew quickly edited some footage together and did a first screening at Columbia Ranch. Footage from the library scenes were part of the first screening. The Library ghost's transformation was one of the only special effects done so far. The audience screamed and laughed. ^[97] Four weeks into shooting, the rights to the title Ghostbusters were still up in the air. As a precaution, three different signs were made to hang over the firehouse door. Ghoststoppers was on the only other name seriously considered. During the Central Park West shoots, when Ecto-1 makes its grand entrance, Joe Medjuck called Columbia from a phone booth to check on negotiations. He held up the receiver so the shouts of 300 extras chanting 'Ghostbusters! Ghostbusters!' could be heard. ^[98] Luckily, a deal was finally made with Filmation thanks in part to Frank Price after he left Columbia in October 1983.^[99][100]

Around November-December, the main unit wrapped up filming in New York and went to Los Angeles for nine weeks of shooting at The Burbank Studios and various locations. ^[101] On the first day, only one shot was finished. Three shots were done on the second day. The production fell seven days behind. Murray hated being called to the set when the crew wasn't ready so assistant director Gary Daigler gave him a two way radio. Murray and Aykroyd hung out at a nearby sushi restaurant until they were called back.^[102][103] A standing set was used for the Fort Detmerring scene. ^[104] Stage 12 at The Burbank Studios was used for Fort Detmerring interiors, Dana and Louis' apartments, the apartment hallway, Sedgewick elevator, and Sedgewick corridor ^{[105] [106] [107]} John DeCuir constructed the million dollar Temple of Gozer set on Stage 16. ^{[108] [109]}

Locations used in Los Angeles included the Biltmore Hotel for some Sedgewick Hotel and 550 Central Park West scenes, a firehouse for interior Firehouse scenes, and the Los Angeles Public Library for the downstairs stacks scenes. Two days were spent at the Biltmore's banquet hall. ^{[110] [111] [112] [113]}

Filming wrapped in February 1984 after 15 weeks of shooting in New York and Los Angeles. Richard Edlund and his special effects team had less than four months to complete about 200 to 260 optical effects.^[114][115] With around four to five weeks left, Ivan Reitman added 50 more shots then wanted to add 80 to 90 shots. Edlund allegedly met with Reitman out in the parking lot with a samurai sword and told him they had to do "the samurai cut." Edlund talked him down from a number of additional shots he requested.^[116] The effects cost $5.6 million total.^[117] Ghostbusters grossed more than $225 million.^[118]

For full coverage of trailers for the film, see Ghostbusters Movie Trailers article.

The original 114 minute test screening was completed on February 17, 1984. Sheldon Kahn is known to have owned a copy on Betamax tape.^[415] The Ghostbusters Ultimate Edition 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray 2022 Gift Set includes this test screening, referred to as a "preview cut" that contains alternate takes, additional scenes, and early effects.

The VHS version of the movie was released on October 31, 1985.^{[416] [417]} The DVD version of the movie was released on June 29, 1999 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, but it was actually released on June 16, 2009 to coincide with the release of Ghostbusters: The Video Game and the film's 25th anniversary.

In the United States, Ghostbusters premiered on the ABC television network on Thursday September 24, 1987 at 9:00 PM Eastern as the season premiere of the "ABC Thursday Night Movie" series. The movie ran, with commercials, until 11:07 PM. The "edited for television" version features several alternate takes to replace some of the more objectionable dialogue.

The Ghostbusters Movie was released all over the world. However, many aspects of the movie had to be localized.