Ray is sweet-natured, nerdy, and a bit of a goof-ball. Who else would try to defeat basically the Devil by forcing it to take the form of a marshmallow mascot?
Vinz Clortho when possessing Louis Tully. Unlike Zuul who is a sinister and forceful presence, Vinz is just as dorky as the person it possesses. He describes Gozer's history of destruction sounding like an excited child than a terrifying demon.
Louis himself is a massive nerd with big glasses and a bad streak of luck. One may be reminded retoactively of Wayne Szalinski more than once watching him.
Three heroic scientific innovators who get paid for performing a service well and use their profits to expand and create jobs for more people are opposed by a villainous government bureaucrat who puts the world in danger when he tries to put them out of business, using public safety as an excuse but, in context, is clearly only on a power trip. Many would say this film is more Objectivist than the film adaptations of Atlas Shrugged!
The film pits the Mayor's office and law enforcement against the obviously personally biased federal bureaucrat, and the Ghostbusters get the full support of New York's finest, including a police escort to the apartment building, causing many to draw contrasts between the Ghostbusters and the typical fighter against the supernatural: vigilante superheroes. The animated series drew attention to this difference even more explicitly.
Does Peter actually believe in the supernatural before the encounter at the library? While Egon and Ray certainly do, there's a lot of hints he actually become a parapsychologist because it was a profession he believed would require no real peer review or work (and was also a great way to get in sweet with attractive university students, as we see in his first scene).
Jim Sterling and others have put the idea of Magic Versus Science front and center. Even going so far as to state the film's central ethos is Gozer is a stand-in for the Biblical God and the Ghostbusters prevent the apocalypse from occurring. Others have noted Winston certainly believes in God, Ray used to (see Word of God), and it may well be the case of God sending an unusual brand of heroes against a demonic entity.
Is Ray a goofball or a serious scientist who just so happens to be slightly less professional than Egon? Word of God, according to Dan Aykroyd, is Ray's enthusiasm has the Harsher in Hindsight motivation of being a failed seminary student who lost his faith in God. Becoming a parapsychologist was out of desperation to believe in something.
Egon:
Why is he so serious? Is it because he's autistic, was it a result of the childhood he mentioned in Ghostbusters II in which he never had a toy (and if that's the case, were his parents deliberately raising him to be serious or did he just develop that personality as the result of not having toys?) or is it just a personality trait? Different adaptations suggest different things — the comic books describe him as probably being "on the spectrum", while The Real Ghostbusters has pretty much all Spengler men being as serious as Egon. Ghostbusters: Afterlife also supports the interpretation of autism due to the autism-coded portrayal of his granddaughter Phoebe.
Why does he not respond when Janine hits on him? Some people think he's ignoring her because he's just not interested, some people think he doesn't want romance after a bad experience with Callie's mother (either a bad breakup or she died), and some people think he doesn't even notice. If it's the latter, some people think it's because he's autistic, while others think it's because he's gay or aro-ace.
Why does he have a sweet tooth? Is he compensating for his parents not allowing him any sugar as a kid (since he mentions they "didn't believe in toys")? Is it genetic (since in Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Phoebe and Callie are shown drinking hot cocoa)? Is it relating to the idea that sugar fuels the brain (since he's the smartest)? Or is it "just because"?
Did Louis Tully genuinely have feelings for Dana, or did he only become interested in her because he was fated to be the "Keymaster"?
When Walter Peck initially confronted Peter, did Peter turn him away because he was concerned that Walter might find out about their unlicensed nuclear technology, did he have him pegged as a Corrupt Bureaucrat looking for an excuse to issue bogus fines, was he pissed that Walter refused to acknowledge his doctorate? None of these are mutually exclusive either.
When Egon shouts, "Your mother!" before attacking Walter Peck, was he just too angry to come up with a proper insult before jumping in? Or, since Peck had just accused the 'Busters of violating the Environmental Protection Act, Egon may have been implying that Peck's very birth was an act against the environment, and again couldn't finish the thought out of anger (or because he was interrupted).
When they're buying the firehouse, Egon points out all of the building's flaws, to the point of claiming to think it should be condemned, only for Ray to exclaim, "This place is great! You guys should try this pole!". Is the joke that Ray is the only one who likes the building despite its obvious flaws, or that Egon actually did want to buy the building but was trying to drive the price down, and Ray spoiled it?
And You Thought It Would Fail: Up until the premiere itself, Ivan Reitman was afraid audiences would check out of the film with the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man due to finding it too absurd. It wound up becoming one of the most iconic scenes in the whole film (and arguably cinema altogether)
The dream sequence, which is the remnant of a cut scene that appears in its entirety in the novelization. The entire footage of the original scene, and others that were cut during production, has yet to ever be released.
That it had a lot of slapstick — the only slapstick scene was when Peter gets covered in ectoplasm at the hotel. Most of the comedy was dialogue-based.
That the proton packs worked similarly to a vacuum cleaner. What they actually do is send beams out to hold the ghost like a lasso, which is then sucked up by a second device, called a "trap".
The line "I ain't afraid of no ghosts" in the theme has led some viewers to think the Ghostbusters don't fear their enemies. They initially ran in fear from the librarian ghost, and they were clearly scared when battling Gozer; they just did it despite their fear.
When Peter Venkman drugs the possessed Dana with thorazine, some viewers were led to believe he brought it with him because he was going to rape her. Seeing as he refused to sleep with her while she was possessed despite being clearly tempted, this was almost certainly not true. He likely either found it in her apartment or was carrying it for self-defense.
Crosses the Line Twice: Peter's "scientific method" in his parapsychological test; rewarding and sucking up to hot girls but electro-shocking guys regardless of the accuracy of their predictions. So sleazy, it's funny.
Designated Hero: Fairly intentional, as the Ghostbusters never express any nobility to their actions up until the very end, when they have to save the day or all is lost. Up until that point, they're just small business owners trying to use their skill set to make a living. This is perhaps most emphasized after their first job, when they charge an exorbitant fee for their services and then threaten to release the ghost back into the hotel unless the manager pays up (and after causing tens of thousands of dollars of property damage trying to collect said ghost that the hotel's insurance will have to pay for, to boot).
Designated Villain: Many of the ghosts in the film, by and large, cause less damage than the Ghostbusters. The worst they do is scare people and slime them. Gozer on the other hand…
Ensemble Dark Horse: The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man is fairly popular and recognized despite only appearing for the last 20 minutes of the movie or so. Possibly has to with his Creepy Cute appearance.
If it's a Hurt/Comfort Fic, it'll usually involve someone consoling Egon when he has a nervous breakdown, someone getting sick (usually either Egon or the whole team), or one of the Ghostbusters consoling an insecure Original Character love interest.
If it's a prequel story, it usually stars Peter, Ray, and Egon as college students.
Mention Walter Peck to a more casual fan of the franchise and you might get some confusion who you're talking about. Mention "Dickless" and they'll know at once.
"Spook Central": 55 Central Park West, the apartment building featured as Dana Barrett and Louis Tully's home and Gozer's temple, derived from Ray's nickname as he discusses the supernatural importance of the building.
Peter asks Alice the librarian if there's any history of mental illness in her family, and she mentions that she had an uncle who thought he was St. Jerome. St. Jerome is the patron saint of librarians.
Peter's entire conversation with Zuul actually follows a lot of the accepted rules for conversing with a possessed individual.
Most of the theories, literature, and procedures the Ghostbusters use are used by real paranormal investigators, as Dan Aykroyd's father is one and Dan himself is an actual expert on the subject.
Peter's famous line "dogs and cats living together" feels like an Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking non sequitur, but most likely, it's meant to reference a famous apocalyptic passage from the Book of Isaiah that describes a time when "the wolf will lie down with the lamb," filtered through Peter's satirical sensibility.
In a Noodle Incident, Peter mentions a time when Egon tried to drill a hole in his head, giving no further explanation. Egon was probably attempting trepanation, a procedure believed during the 19th century to enhance psychic abilities.
Genre Turning Point: This film is perhaps the first major ghost/supernatural story where the supernatural entities are successfully fought through scientific research, which produces purely technological weapons effective against them.
The scene in which Peter tries to "scientifically" disprove the first ghost's existence. He asks the librarian if she has a family history of substance abuse... accusations of which later destroyed Bill Murray's second marriage.
Janine's "premonition" that Egon might meet his death going up against Gozer is Played for Laughs, given her hopeless crush. Given what goes down in Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Janine turns out to be right - Egon does get killed during a war with Gozer about 30 years later. Her comment about being "a little psychic" also becomes this if you factor in the animated series where she had a demon feeding off her for years without anyone noticing.
As he's being chased by Vinz Clortho in Central Park, Louis screams for help but nobody responds. In 2020, Rick Moranis was physically assaulted by an unknown passer-by in New York City's Upper West Side.
After their meeting with the library ghost, Peter tells Egon "I'm gonna take back some of the things I've said about you...". After they did Groundhog Day, Bill Murray and Harold Ramis had a major falling-out that stopped all talk about a third Ghostbusters movie, and they would not reconcile till shortly before Ramis's 2014 passing.
Hilarious in Hindsight: Venkman's line about "The franchise rights alone will make us rich beyond our wildest dreams!" in the first film—the Ghostbusters franchise has gone on to become hugely successful, with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of official merchandise, three cartoon series, four films, and a handful of video game adaptations over almost forty years.
Egon and Ray. In the scene where the Ghostbusters first meet Dana, they sit awfully close to each other when Ray has plenty of room off to his left, choose to huddle together in fear just before Stay Puft arrives, and in the sequel, when Vigo paralyzes the Ghostbusters, Ray is the first person Egon checks on and vice versa. It's almost enough to make one wonder if it wasn't intentional.
Lenny the mayor and Mike the archbishop's relationship seems rather warm. Lenny even touches Mike's face.
I Am Not Shazam: The name of the primary villain is Gozer, not Zuul. Zuul is just one of Gozer's demon dog minions. However, Zuul plays a more prominent role for much of the film and the famous "There is no Dana, only Zuul" line has embedded that name more in pop culture. Even the NES game makes this error by labeling 550 Central Park West "Zuul." The 2016 reboot also elected to use that name rather than Gozer as its Sequel Hook.
Jerks Are Worse Than Villains: The villain of the story is the nightmare demigod Gozer, but the most hated character by far, even amongst the Ghostbusters themselves, is Walter Peck, a smarmy, sneering Environmental Protection Agency Officer who wants to shutdown their operation.
"Crossing the streams"ExplanationThis Chekhov's Gun that comes into play in the film's climax became a near-instantaneous pop culture catchphrase over the years, both to nod to/parody the film and riff on its Accidental Innuendo factor.
"Who You Gonna Call?"ExplanationA line from the film's theme song that became a popular rhetorical one-liner over the years, sometimes including varying responses as punchlines.
"Bustin' makes me feel good!"ExplanationAn interjection from the film's theme song that garnered notoriety in the 2010s for its unintended sexual suggestiveness in light of the slang term "busting a nut" gaining widespread popularity. Consequently, it's since become common to repurpose the line in reference to sex.
"There is no X, only Zuul."ExplanationA line from the Zuul-possessed Dana that became a popular snowclone over the years.
Any description of the End Times now includes "Dogs and cats living together... MASS HYSTERIA!"
Super GhostbustersExplanationA comedy album by Swedish heavy metal musician and Vinesauce member Joel "Vargskelethor" Johannson that revolves entirely around chaotic, absurdist parodies of the film's theme song. The album quickly became a popular source of remixes and further parodies by both Vinesauce fans and Ghostbusters fans as a result of its bizarre nature and Joel's preexisting Fountain of Memes status.
"That's a big twinkie."ExplanationEgon analogizes paranormal activity in the New York area to "a twinkie 35 feet long, weighing approximately 600 pounds." (in comparison to a regular-sized twinkie representing the city's normal activity level), prompting this reaction by Winston.
"It's true, your honor: this man has no dick".ExplanationRay calls Walter Peck "Dickless", then Peck claims the Ghostbusters called an explosion. The judge asks, "Is that true?", and Peter affirms, then clarifies that he meant the part about Peck lacking a dick was true.
Before the first film came out, "slime" had no verb form.ExplanationSince Peter refers to "Slimer" coating him in Ectoplasm, people use "slime" as a verb to mean "to leave someone Covered in Gunge"
"When someone asks you if you're a god, you say YES!"ExplanationGozer asks the Ghostbusters if they're gods, and Ray says no. It then says, "Then DIE!" and zaps them, causing Winston to berate him for not lying.
"I ain't afraid of no ghost!"ExplanationA popular line from the theme song.
"If there's a steady paycheck in it, I'll believe anything you say."ExplanationWinston says this after Janine, giving him his job interview, asks him if he believes in a Long List of paranormal stuff.
William Atherton has had a quite respectable career spanning several decades, but it'll always come back to being called "dickless", which is what Ray Stantz called him in the movie. On the film's DVD Commentary, Ivan Reitman recounts the time a quite angry Atherton talked to him about a tour bus that pulled up beside him so everyone could shout, "Yo, dickless!".
A lot of fan fiction writers make Egon obsessed with Twinkies, even though in the movie, he only ate one.
Some viewers seem to think that Ray has a creepy kink for ghosts, based on one very short scene where he possibly has sex with a ghost (but it might have been an Erotic Dream).
One-Scene Wonder: The bored party guest played by Jean Kasem who dances with Louis to try and liven things up is recognizable to fans despite only having about half a minute of screen time.
Future character actor Timothy Carhart appears as Dana's musician pal in one scene.
Sacred Cow: While the sequel is a Cult Classic with a notable following and the 2016 reboot is... divisive to say the least, the original 1984 film is an undisputed cinema classic that continues to be a worldwide phenomenon. Minor criticism's okay, but don't call the movie bad or try to downright insult the characters. Especially Bill Murray.
The hotel sequence where the Ghostbusters take on and capture Slimer is quite iconic at showing off how the gang interact and do their thing. It helps that Slimer has gone on to become the Series Mascot.
The Ghostbusters battling Stay Puft.
The scene where the Ghostbusters bring their case to the Mayor contains many of the film's most quoted lines jammed into one three-minute sequence, including "Yes, it's true; this man has no dick", "We're talking Old Testament, real wrath of god type stuff", "Dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria!", and "You will have saved the lives of millions... of registered voters."
During the first establishing shot of the apartment building, the matted-in gargoyle overlooking the street in the foreground appears slightly translucent, enough that cars and traffic lines can still be seen through it.
You can see where the heated tiles Dana's eggs cook on end and the regular tiles begin by some eggs not landing on the heated ones.
The stop-motion terror dog just doesn't look like it's actually there, even though they do a fairly good job of having it crush a table and smash down a door. The puppets, however, are very well done.
Towards the end, a rather large rock harmlessly bounces off of a police barricade instead of crushing it.
In the widescreen version when the ghosts escape, there's several incomplete ghost trails.
Mr. Stay Puft unintentionally appears to be going through some buildings at times (known as "clipping"). It's particularly noticeable when he steps on the church, collapsing it from the top despite the foot never actually clearing the wall.
Stay Puft served to be one to the effect crew themselves, as the suit never worked right and even caught on fire a few times during production. Three suits in total were made as a result.
While Peck is wrong in his accusations towards the Ghostbusters and grossly overreacts to their snubbing of him, the fact that they operate potentially hazardous materials and equipment in a densely populated urban area means that there should be at least someone from the government looking into them.
The Dean Bitterman who fires Ray, Peter, and Egon early in the movie is supposed to be seen as a smug and narrow-minded jackass. However, his issues with the trio are not unfounded: The fields of paranormal studies and parapsychology are not traditional sciences, lack the foundational pillars of other scientific disciplines, and have generated no valid or useful research breakthroughs to justify their continued funding. It doesn't help the trio's case that Peter's first scene has him rigging an ESP experiment so he can flirt with a female student (the Dean's statement "You are a poor scientist, Doctor Venkman" is, at this point in the film, 100% correct).
Suspiciously Similar Song: "Who you gonna call??" A lawyer, apparently. Huey Lewis and the News sued Ray Parker Jr. for allegedly ripping off the bass line for the movie's iconic theme song from the News' "I Want A New Drug." The matter was settled out of court, but the happy ending is that the whole ordeal convinced The News to get into movie soundtracks themselves.note Alternatively, both songs' bass lines sound very close to M's 1979 hit "Pop Muzik."
Tear Dryer: After defeating Gozer by crossing the streams, the Ghostbusters are thankful that they've survived, but it looks like Dana and Louis, who were possessed by Zuul and Vinz Clortho, did not. That's when the charred remains of the terror dogs start to shatter, revealing that they survived, too.
Tear Jerker: It really is sad seeing Peter Venkman of all people mourning Dana when he believes she was killed during the crossing of the streams.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Between the Ghostbusters' first job at the Sedgewick Hotel and the final act where they confront Gozer's plan, there's very little ghostbusting. Plenty of scenes where they're about to 'bust or just finished 'busting, but no actual 'busting. Presumably this was to limit the number of (costly) special effects shots, but it still feels like there are a few setpieces missing from the middle of the film. This is one of the many reasons many fans really loved The Real Ghostbusters, as that cartoon showed more ghostbusting.
Ugly Cute: The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. Also Slimer (he's wrinkly and chubby and has sunken eyes, but there's something cute about him).
The very casual smoking of the four main characters was obviously done in an era before cigarettes carried such a great social stigma, particularly in Hollywood films. It was originally done to make the Ghostbusters seem more like un-glamorous plumbers or exterminators.
Peter's pick-up artist antics being Played for Laughs as the acts of a Lovable Sex Maniac have come to be seen as increasingly skeevy and uncomfortable, especially in a post-#MeToo world and given the fact he was a longtime university employee who has used his position to hit on his students. Some have made unflattering comparisons to Glenn Quagmire, a character very controversial for similar reasons. In particular, the scene of Dana and Venkman alone in her apartment can be unsettling for all the wrong reasons.
Viewer Name Confusion: Some viewers think Egon's last name is "Spangler", despite it being written on his nametag and his locker. It's "Spengler".
The proton pack streams in particular look about as good now as they would with modern CGI effects.
The cards flying out of the card catalogue in the beginning sequence were very good and simply done. A blower out of view blew the cards out as the drawers opened, with crewmembers behind a fake wall pushing the drawers out. And yes, there were multiple takes, meaning all of those cards had to be picked up and put back in the drawer for another shot.
The eggs cooking on the counter is another practical effect. The counter was actually super-heated, and those were real eggs really frying on the counter.
What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: Most people think of the original film as a family movie, and why shouldn't they? The famous theme song is popular at kids' birthday parties and Halloween mix CDs; there was plenty of merchandise targeted towards children, it spawned a popular cartoon, it's been shown on the Disney Channel several times, and even been released on home video as part of Columbia/Tristar's family collection. But the truth is, the film was meant for adults. There's blatant sexual references and language throughout the entire film, particularly one brief scene during the montage that played during the theme song that actually went so far as to feature a ghost giving Ray a blowjob. The original film is rated PG, which might be why people think of it as being for kids. However, if it were being released today, Ghostbusters would easily earn a PG-13 rating, with all the swearing, sex jokes, and casual smoking. The only reason it wasn't rated PG-13 in 1984 is because the PG-13 rating, which had just been introduced, had not yet been instituted (the first film to be released as PG-13, Red Dawn, was released two months later).
Woolseyism: In some Japanese-subtitled versions of the film, Winston's line, "Ray, when someone asks if you're a God, you say 'yes!'" uses "iesu" as the word for "yes", which is a Double Entendre in Japanese as "iesu" is both the Japanese pronunciation of the English-word "yes" (which is a commonly used loanword in Japan) and the Japanese name of Jesus. So basically, he's telling Ray to either just say "yes" or say that he's Jesus.
Another difference in the Japanese translations is the scene where Egon uses a Twinkie for a Phlebotinum Analogy. Instead of naming the specific brand, they are simply called "snack pies", both because Twinkies aren't very popular in Japan, and because it sets up for a later joke when Winston tells Egon to share his analogy with Peter and instead of being simply baffled by the mention of Twinkies, Peter mishears "dekapai" (big pie) as "deka-oppai" (big breasts).
When Gozer's body has to be chosen, Peter makes a half-joke saying that "if they think about J. Edgar Hoover, J. Edgar Hoover will appear and destroy them". The joke in the Italian version is pretty much the same...except instead of using J. Edgar Hoover as an example, Peter uses Adolf Hitler.
Bile Fascination: While the other three versions of the game are decent at worst, the NES version has acquired a staggeringly awful reputation, rendering this the only reason why anyone would play it.
Hilarious in Hindsight: One of the power ups you can buy is a "Ghost Vacuum." Essentially, a ghost trap that is on top of the car that sucks up ghosts during driving sequences. During the first fight at the start of Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire what do they use to capture the snake ghost? A drone ghost trap, launched from the top of Ecto-1, that uses a vacuum-like vortex to suck up the ghost!
"GOWSHT BUSHTER!" ExplanationThe game begins proper with a digitized voice sample shouting what's supposed to be "GHOSTBUSTERS!", but the NES version is noticeably muffled and jarring sounding.
Misaimed "Realism": The decision by the NES port's development team to implement how much fuel your car has, and avoid running out of it, is horribly botched, and it all adds to the overall Padding experience. Tellingly, whereas the developers of the Master System port fixed up the other new gameplay elements introduced by the NES port, they dropped the fuel mechanic altogether.
Polished Port: The Sega Master System port is considered by many to be the best version of the game, keeping hold of everything from the original home computer versions, adding in the additional content of the NES port in a way that's executed far better, and throwing in a few graphical upgrades as well.
The NES port. Unlike the original Commodore 64 game and the ports for the Atari 2600 and Sega Master System, which were all considered good games in their day, the NES version was poorly received for the controls of the stairwell section, the need to buy gas, the unrelenting difficulty of the previously mentioned stair section, the drunk drivers in the driving sections, and the Engrish in the ending text.
The Apple ][ port was clearly coming up against the limitations of the hardware, as evidenced by the sluggish frame-rate and controls, the ghosts often being hard to discern against the backgrounds, and the sound effects being annoyingly clicky and beepy due to the game not supporting the Mockingboard sound card.
The Problem with Licensed Games: The NES version is considered one of the worst licensed games ever made, and for good reason. It's boring, tedious, repetitive, overly hard, has one music track that plays non-stop over the entire game, and has terrible Engrish that has the audacity to call itself "a great game".
The driving sections introduce a limited gas tank. If you run out of gas, not only does your progress get interrupted, but you need to pay for more. If you are unable to pay for the gas due to not having enough money, it's a game over. Not helping matters are the other cars that constantly swerve into different lanes that give additional penalties if you hit them. The longer you spend moving on the main screen, the more distance you have to travel.
The shop. The trap is not on the first item screen, and there is no indication you can scroll down. A player could fail to realize how to get the trap and end up never being able to play the game.
In the stairwell. You have to hit the A button repeatedly to move. Not only is this very tiring, but combined with how slowly the Ghostbusters move, it makes it nearly impossible to avoid the ghosts.
The final fight has a time limit, requiring you to beat Gozer before Staypuff reaches the top. You can monitor Staypuff's progress by moving to the bottom of the screen, but every time you go down there, even by accident, Gozer's health fully refills.
That One Level: The stairwell in the NES version. The player has to ascend 22 floors of stairs while avoiding ghosts, but there's no way to fight back against the ghosts, and the controls require the player to mash the A button in order to move, making the whole section a tiring Marathon Level.
this film is more Objectivist than the film adaptations of Atlas Shrugged!
