Filmsite Movie 

Review
Ghostbusters (1984)
Pages: (1) (2) (3)
Plot Synopsis (continued)

Continuing Problems with EPA Agent Walter Peck - The Destruction of the Ghost Storage Facility:

EPA agent Walter Peck ominously returned to the Ghostbusters HQ with an NYPD Police Captain and a Con Edison Man (Larry Dilg) with a court order, to present arrest and search warrants, and to search the firehouse and deactivate and shut down their illegal and dangerous containment unit. He handed Janine a manila folder with orders to: "Cease and desist all commerce order, seizure of premises and chattels, ban on use of public utilities for unauthorized waste handlers, and a federal entry and inspection order."

Spengler warned that shutting down the containment unit storage facility would have devastating consequences: "I'm warning you, turning off these machines would be extremely hazardous, " but Peck ignored his dire predictions, and ordered powering down the protection grid:

You're facing federal prosecution for at least half a dozen environmental violations. Now either you shut off these beams off or we shut them off for you.

Spengler once more reiterated: "This is a high voltage laser containment system. Simply turning it off would be like dropping a bomb on the city." Venkman arrived just in time via taxi to be supportive of Spengler against Peck, and although he asserted that the Ghostbusters wouldn't be responsible if they shut down their system, he was ignored.

The Con Edison Man, who mentioned cluelessly: "I've never seen anything like this before," dutifully followed Peck's orders by pulling down on a large lever to shut off the power grid to the entire facility. Red alarm lights flashed and a warning buzzer cleared the area as everyone evacuated in a panic. Everyone listened and watched as explosive rumblings rocked the basement storage facility, and fled from the building onto the street (and the 'Keymaster' wandered off).

The destructive blast that erupted from the top of the building released hundreds of captured ghosts back into NYC, represented by pink strands or bolts of psychokinetic, paranormal energy zapping out into the sky. And then, after Ray and Winston arrived at the facility in the Ecto-1, the self-righteous Peck blamed the Ghostbusters and ordered that they should all be arrested: "Hold it! I want this man arrested. Captain, these men are in criminal violation of the Environmental Protection Act, and this explosion is a direct result of it!"

The Reunion of Louis/Vinz and Dana/Zuul at the Ivo Shandor Building - The Doorway to Ghostly Energy:

During the chaos as ghosts were released back into the public, Louis (aka Vinz Clortho) made his way back to his apartment building. The plan was to meet up with Dana (aka Zuul) on the rooftop. Down on the street level, the gluttonous hotel apparition Slimer pigged out at Sabrett's Hot Dog Cart. It appeared that most of the ghostly energy escaping throughout the city was directed toward Dana's and Louis' building. The explosion of supernatural energy caused Dana to wake up from her sedated state in bed. She approached her panoramic living-room window of her corner penthouse, and grinned and growled at the growing pink energy streams. A small explosion ripped out the window and the entire wall of her apartment. She stared outward as the wind blew her wild hair.

While incarcerated in prison, Ray and Spengler continued to look at the blueprints of Dana's apartment, and Ray explained in common-sense terms how "the whole building is a huge super-conductive antenna that was designed and built expressly for the purpose of pulling in and concentrating spiritual turbulence." He called the building "Spook Central." Spengler added the fact that Ivo Shandor, who was the architect and designer of the building, was the insane leader in the 1920s of a Gozer-worshipping cult that performed bizarre rituals on the rooftop intended to bring about the apocalyptic end of the world:

It's the building! Something terrible is about to enter our world and this building is obviously the door. The architect's name was Ivo Shandor. I found it in Tobin's Spirit Guide. He was also a doctor. Performed a lot of unnecessary surgery. And then in 1920 he started a secret society...After the First World War, Shandor decided that society was too sick to survive. And he wasn't alone. He had close to a thousand followers when he died. They conducted rituals up on the roof, bizarre rituals intended to bring about the end of the world, and now it looks like it may actually happen!

The building was functioning as an antenna to attract and concentrate spiritual energy to summon Gozer and bring about supernatural chaos and the apocalypse. Winston was skeptical that they could convince a federal judge to release them from jail because "some moldy old Babylonian god is going to drop in on Central Park West and start tearing up the city." Ray corrected him: "Sumerian, not Babylonian." However, a Jail Guard (Reginald VelJohnson) allowed them to be released to speak to the Mayor Lenny Clotchof (David Margulies) about the impending crisis of freed ghosts on the loose in the city.

Meanwhile, Louis arrived at the entrance to the Ivo Shandor building and looked up toward the demolished outer section of Dana's upper level apartment. Louis entered her apartment - and they greeted each other as 'The Keymaster" and 'The Gatekeeper.' The two were reunited and shared a passionate kiss. Amidst lightning rumblings, they proceeded to the rooftop (the Temple of Zuul) by ascending a mythical staircase hidden behind Dana's refrigerator.

The Ghostbusters Are Released to Save NYC:

In City Hall, the four Ghostbusters were brought forward to speak to the NYC mayor, as Peck accused them of being con-men and creating hallucinations (of ghosts) with nerve gas:

These men are consummate snowball artists. They use sense and nerve gases to induce hallucinations. People think they're seeing ghosts, and they call these bozos who conveniently show up to deal with the problem with a fake electronic light show.

Ray and Venkman both retorted toward Peck:

Ray: Everything was fine with our system until the power grid was shut off by dickless here.
Peck: They caused an explosion.
The Mayor: Is this true?
Venkman: Yes, it's true. This man has no dick.

Others in the room argued that the phenomenon was not an hallucination. The newest Ghostbuster employee Winston implored the Mayor: "I've only been with the company for a couple of weeks. But I gotta tell you, these things are real." Venkman predicted that "this city is headed for a disaster of Biblical proportions," that Ray further confirmed and elaborated upon: "What he means is Old Testament biblical, Mr. Mayor. Real wrath-of-God-type stuff. Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling!" Spengler added: "Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes! Volcanoes!," and Winston also chimed in: "The dead rising from the grave!" Venkman put a cap on their defense: "Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria!" He begged the Mayor with one final point:

If I'm right and we can stop this thing. Lenny, you will have saved the lives of millions of registered voters.

Their exaggerated arguments convinced the Mayor to release them to deal with the dangerous ghost problems, prove themselves, and save NYC.

The Ghostbusters' Concluding Confrontation with Gozer and Zuul/the Keymaster on the Apartment Building's Rooftop:

The Ghostbusters were escorted in their Ecto-1 vehicle by police and National Guard vehicles and troops through the streets of New York to the condemned Ivo Shandor Building apartment complex, where they were encouraged and swarmed by hundreds of adoring, cheering New Yorkers waving signs. Black storm clouds formed above the building. Once they arrived and were about to enter, they were momentarily distracted by the peoples' immense adulation, until Venkman ordered: "Gotta run, gotta date with a ghost!" The Ghostbusters looked up to marvel at lightning flashes in the sky, signaling that a gateway had already been ritualistically opened up on the rooftop to the ghostly spectral dimension by Dana/Zuul and Louis/Vinz/Keymaster. While the group of ghost-exterminators donned their proton packs to enter the front of the building, an earthquake shook the street and they were temporarily swallowed (with a police car) into a gaping pit as the street cracked open under their feet, but then emerged unhurt. After an exhausting long climb up the interior stairs to the 22nd floor, they entered the remnants of Dana's destroyed, burned-out apartment. Shortly later, they continued up the hidden staircase behind Dana's refrigerator to ascend to the rooftop.

Meanwhile, Dana and Louis were already on the rooftop and lying prone on a large stone pedestal or platform. They both awoke and stood in awe of a large Temple of Zuul structure before them. The two stood on opposite sides of the platform on smaller pedestals, and raised their arms up to the sky to absorb and redirect bolts of lightning strikes toward the two heavy doors of the Temple to slowly swing them open. The Ghostbusters arrived to watch as Dana and Louis were transformed by more lightning bolts into the demonic forms of the Terror Dogs. They directed their menacing roars toward the Ghostbusters before they ran through a thick layer of ground fog to take positions at the Temple's entrance to stand guard on each side.

Another set of Temple doors opened and Gozer the Gozerian revealed itself in front of the four Ghostbusters. The demonic creature emerged first as an exotic female (voice of Paddi Edwards, and portrayed by supermodel Slavitza Jovan, inspired by the look of popular singer Sheena Easton) in a tight jumpsuit, with bloody eyes and short-cropped dark hair. The Ghostbusters watched as Gozer walked forward from the Temple, and petted one of the two Dogs. Spengler reminded everyone that Gozer could choose to take any shape it wished: ("It's whatever it wants to be"). Venkman goaded Ray into stepping forward to speak to Gozer - and he made a formal request that Gozer return to her place of origin:

Gozer the Gozerian! Good evening! As a duly designated representative of the city, county and state of New York, I order you to cease any and all supernatural activity and return forthwith to your place of origin or to the nearest convenient parallel dimension!

Gozer angrily responded: "Are you a god?", and when Ray answered that he wasn't, she responded: "Then die" - and she blasted the group with lightning bolts from her fingertips - the Ghostbusters were hurled across the roof to the edge of the building, and were nearly propelled over the side. Winston angrily chastised Raymond for his stupidity:

Ray, when someone asks you if you're a God, you say YES!

Venkman decided to retaliate and have the group blast Gozer with their own charged-up proton guns: "All right. This chick is toast!...Let's show this prehistoric bitch how we do things downtown." When the group attacked, Gozer yowled at them, deftly jumped over them, and flipped away from their powerless proton streams. After she landed behind them, Venkman reacted: ("Nimble little minx, isn't she? Aim for the flat top!") and urged a second attack with a "full-stream" blast, and then Gozer disappeared. Although they interpreted Gozer's vanishing as a victory and they began to celebrate prematurely: (Ray exclaimed: "We neutralized it! You know what that means? A complete particle reversal!"), their equipment had actually failed to exterminate Gozer. Her booming, disembodied voice demanded that the Ghostbusters choose or select her next physical form:

Subcreatures! Gozer the Gozerian, Gozer the Destructor, Volguus Zildrohar, the Traveler, has come! Choose and perish!...Choose! Choose the form of the Destructor!

Venkman encouraged everyone to clear their minds and blank out so that Gozer might disappear forever: ("Empty your heads. Don't think of anything. We've only got one shot at this"). Almost immediately, Gozer announced: "The choice is made! The Traveler has come!" Venkman was in disbelief that Gozer had not been destroyed. He asked each of the other Ghostbusters to describe what they had imagined. Each one said that they had thought of nothing, except for Ray who sheepishly admitted that something had inadvertently popped into his mind:

I couldn't help it. It just popped in there!...I - I tried to think...It's the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.

Ray explained how he had accidentally thought of a harmless, beloved corporate mascot from his childhood - the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man, who advertised marshmallows: "I tried to think of the most harmless thing. Something I loved from my childhood. Something that could never, ever possibly destroy us. Mr. Stay-Puft...We used to roast Stay-Puft marshmallows, by the fire at Camp Waconda!" Venkman sarcastically thanked Ray: "Nice thinking, Ray," and then swore about their predicament: "Mother pus-bucket."

Gozer had reappeared as the white, bulbous, Marshmallow Man - a gigantic, 10-story (100 foot) tall figure that was terrorizing the streets of New York City. Resembling King Kong (or Godzilla), it lumbered through the narrow avenues, and stomped on a church. Venkman was personally offended: "Nobody steps on a church in my town!" The Ghostbusters opened fire on the creature (Ray: "One, two, three! Roast him!"), and set it ablaze, as it began to scale the outside of their skyscraper. Venkman attempted to look on the bright side of things: "This Mr. Stay-Puft isn't so bad. He's a sailor, he's in New York; we get this guy laid, we won't have any trouble!"

To combat the new manifestation of Gozer, Spengler - against his own earlier danger warning, suggested a "radical" idea. He proposed that the team members cross their proton energy streams at the dimensional gate in order to generate a positive energy influx big enough to destroy the gateway door, and to obliterate Gozer's portal: ("The door swings both ways. We could reverse the particle flow through the gate....We'll cross the streams....There's definitely a very slim chance we'll survive").

The last minute idea to cross their four proton streams, although highly dangerous and risky, caused a massive, catastrophic explosion that destroyed Gozer's Temple of Zuul, closed the gateway doors to Gozer's dimension, banished Gozer, and incinerated Gozer's avatar as the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man. From the sky, molten, sticky-white marshmallows splattered and rained down on everyone (including a big liquid glob of sludge that directly pummeled Peck). Their strategy had proved successful and they survived - and so did the city. Spengler joked about being covered in gooey marshmallow fluff: "I feel like the floor of a taxi cab."

The Ghostbuster Heroes Welcomed by Street Crowds in NYC:

On the rooftop, the previously-possessed Dana and Louis were freed with some assistance from the Ghostbusters. They emerged from the burned, hardened, but broken and crumbling wreckage of the Terror Dog statues (Ray: "It smells like BBQ'd dog-hair"). Venkman carried Dana after her rescue, and Ray congratulated Louis for his good fortune: "You have been a participant in the biggest interdimensional crossrip since the Tunguska blast of 1909!" Spengler made a special request of Louis: "We'd like to get a sample of your brain tissue." Winston exclaimed "I love this town!" as they all exited from the rooftop to the street level.

To the tune of the upbeat "Ghostbusters" theme song and as the closing end credits began to be displayed, the Ghostbusters and Dana and Louis were now safe, and returned to the street crowds to be welcomed as heroes. Venkman kissed Dana before escorting her into Ecto-1, and Janine kissed Spengler, while Louis was redirected to a Red Cross ambulance vehicle to be driven off and ignored as he shouted out (with the film's last line of dialogue): "What's goin' on? Does anybody wanna interview me? I'm an eyewitness. I was up there! I want to go with them in the car." The other Ghostbusters entered the vehicle before it drove off.

At the end of the closing credits, the greenish hotel ghost Slimer flew through the sky and roared toward the camera, before the screen faded to black.


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