Ghostbusters: Difference between revisions

 

 

'''Peter:''' [[Sarcasm Mode|Why worry]]? [[What Could Possibly Go Wrong?|Each of us is carrying an unlicensed nuclear accelerator on his back]]. }}

 

* [[Bunny Ears Lawyer]]: Ray and especially Peter, who both have Ph. Ds, in Physics and Parapsychology/Psychology respectively. Both are extremely childish and, especially in Peter's case, fairly unprofessional.

* [[Casual Danger Dialog]]: Egon is a master of this, usually as a way of flatly commenting that he's scared out of his mind ''despite'' being overly calm and talking plainly.

'''Egon''': Sorry, Venkman, but I'm terrified beyond the capacity for rational thought. }}

** He manages Casual Danger ''Laughter'' in 2. Ray and Peter laugh nervously while waiting for the Scolari Brothers to strike, and Egon chimes in with a monotone "[[Flat Joy|Ha. Ha ha.]]"

* [[A Half Dozen Guys in A Basement]]

* [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold]]: ''Venkman''.

* [[Lovable Coward]]: For all his charm and bravado, Peter Venkman is not the bravest of men. With a few exceptions any acts of heroism on his part will usually be very very reluctant ones. That said, he will step up to the plate if necessary; he just won't be very happy about it. Of course, we still like him, because he's Peter Venkman.

* [[Mad Scientist]]: Mostly Egon, but a little bit in Ray as well. Capitalism and a general sense of the good of mankind steers this towards positive and constructive directions.

'''Egon''': [[Throw It In|That would have worked if you hadn't stopped me]]. }}

* [[Magic Versus Science]]: Science wins.

* [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]]: Ray gets this a lot.

** He chooses Gozer's destructive form as Stay Puft.

'''Peter''': ''I'' didn't choose anything! ''[[[Beat]], then looks at Ray]'' }}

** Knocking out all the lights in New York in the sequel. Ray is quite the klutz.

** Mentioned in the first film is that time Egon tried to drill a hole in his head. This is an actual procedure, called 'trepanation', which is sometimes claimed to confer psychic powers. "That would have worked if you hadn't stopped me." (Which was allegedly a [[Throw It In]] from Harold Ramis.)

* [[Not Quite Dead]]: Justified since this is a franchise about '''ghosts'''. Also notable in the account of Vigo's death.

'''Peter:''' [[Major Injury Underreaction|Ouch.]]<br />

'''Ray: '''There was a prophecy. Just before his ''head'' died, his last words were "Death is but a door. Time is but a window. I'll be back." }}

* [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits]]: The Ghostbusters themselves.

* [[Reasonable Authority Figure]]: Lenny the Mayor fills this role to some extent in the first two movies. He's a rather cynical politician whose public image and chances of re-election / further political office are never far from mind, and is as reasonably skeptical of the claims of apocalyptic supernatural phenomena as any reasonable person probably would be, but when suitably convinced of their claims ultimately proves to be a fairly staunch ally. However, it is suggested that between the first and second movies, he either had them publicly thrown under the bus, or just didn't do much to stop it from happening.

'''Mayor:''' I appreciate that. }}

** By the time of the game, he seems to have been replaced with a more straightforward example of this trope; the current mayor got elected on a pro-Ghostbuster platform, and now has the city [[Hero Insurance|covering their collateral damage]].

* [[Signs of the End Times]]:

** Part 1

'''Winston Zeddmore:''' Myth? Ray, has it ever occurred to you that maybe the reason we've been so busy lately is 'cause the dead ''have'' been rising from the grave? }}

** Part II

'''Peter Venkman:''' Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria! }}

* [[Sliding Scale of Comedy and Horror]]: Straddles the line quite well; the funniest moments and the scariest are often one and the same.

 

* [[Above the Influence]]: In the first Ghostbusters, Venkman comes to visit Dana and finds she is possessed by Zuul, which makes her want to sleep with the Keymaster. He refuses, since she isn't in her right mind.

'''Venkman:''' *laughs* Go ahead - no, I can't. Sounds like you got at least two people in there already. Might be a little crowded." }}

* [[Arbitrary Skepticism]]: Played with. While Peter is certainly a believer in the paranormal, he has a bit more practical sense than Ray and Egon, who are willing to believe ''anything'' is supernatural related. "Right, [[Sarcasm Mode|no human being would ]]''[[Sarcasm Mode|ever ]]''[[Sarcasm Mode|stack books like this]]."

* [[The Alleged Car]]: Ecto-1 is an ancient ambulance/hearse that we're introduced to with Ray listing off the numerous things they'll have to fix. Remarkably, they apparently do.

* [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking]]:

'''Dr. Peter Venkman''': Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria! }}

* [[Audience Surrogate]]: Winston.

* [[Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever]]: "It's the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man!" {{spoiler|Ironically Stay Puft was described as a '100 foot marshmallow man'.}}

* [[Badass Boast]]: Averted (& lampshaded).

* [[Bathos]]: Evoked at the end of the first movie. The city is being destroyed by an evil god, yes, but it's in the form of a giant, smiling, sailor hat-wearing guy made of marshmallows.

* [[Beautiful Condemned Building]]: Despite its numerous flaws, Ray falls in love with the old firehouse.

* [[Brand X]]: Stay-Puft Marshmallows.

* [[Brick Joke]]: Ray has a rather underwhelming plan to catch the first ghost seen in the movie.

** This is brought back near the end of the movie when the protagonists come face to face with the film's [[Big Bad]].

'''Peter:''' GO GET HER, RAY! }}

* [[Captain Obvious]]:

'''Peter Venkman:''' They go up. }}

* [[Cosmic Horror]]: Gozer ''et al''.

** Bill Murray, who else?

** Sigourney Weaver's character Dana Barrett shows shades of this as well when Peter compliments her on her cello playing:

'''Dana Barrett:''' Thank you. ''[beat]'' You're good; most people can't hear me with the ''whole orchestra playing.'' }}

** Janine, upon seeing a police officer at the door:

* [[Dean Bitterman]]: Dean Yeager inadvertently starts the Ghostbusters by firing them from their cushy academic jobs.

* [[Demonic Possession]]: Dana Barrett and Louis Tully.

* [[Have a Gay Old Time]]: An unusually recent example: "Somebody brought a cougar to a party and it went berserk."

* [[Heroic BSOD]]:

'''Egon:''' Sorry, Venkman. [[That Makes Me Feel Angry|I'm terrified beyond the capacity for rational thought]]. }}

* [[Hoist by His Own Petard]]: The Ghostbusters had only just figured out the significance of Zuul, Gozer, Ivo Shandor, and Dana Barret's apartment building by the time of the final confrontation. Dana, their first customer, only came to them when she did because she saw their commercial on TV, and she only saw them on TV because it was on when she got home. It is implied that it was on when she got home because of paranormal activity in her apartment (along with the eggs and the doomfridge). If Zuul coulda just dialed it back on the poltergeisting, Gozer would have been triumphant.

* [[I Am Not Spock]]: According to the DVD commentary, the first movie ruined William Atherton's life, what with random people yelling "Hey, dickless!" at him on the streets and all...

* [["I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight]]: Averted in the first film, as Venkman was utterly foiled in his attempt to reach Dana.

'''Peter:''' What a lovely singing voice you must have. }}

* [[Ironic Echo]]: Near the end of the movie Venkman tells Ray to ''Get her!''

* [[It Has Been an Honor]]: In conjunction with using the [[Forbidden Chekhov's Gun]].

'''Ray:''' Nice working with you, Dr. Venkman. }}

* [[It Is Beyond Saving]]: In the [[Backstory]] Shandor believed this about society in general, which is why he wanted to cause [[The End of the World as We Know It]].

* [[It Was Here, I Swear]]: Dana sees a temple and terror dogs in her fridge. Later, she brings Peter to investigate:

'''Peter''': Well, I'm sorry, I'm just not getting any reading. }}

** There's also a bit of a [[Take That]] in that scene, against Coca-Cola (there's a Coke can very visible in the fridge).

* [[Kitschy Local Commercial]]: The commercial the Ghostbusters put out. It has no music, the characters are wooden and it looks like it was shot for about 5 bucks.

* [[Lampshaded Double Entendre]]:

'''Peter:''' What a crime. }}

* [[Let's Split Up, Gang!]]

* [[Long List]]: Ray's list of repairs the Cadillac needed and Egon's similar list of problems with their building. Also, Peck's injunctions against the 'Busters.

* [[Magnetic Plot Device]]: All of those ghosts concentrating in New York is explained by Ray describing Dana Barret's high-rise apartment building as being built as a conductor for supernatural energy. The reason why the tower was made like this is that Ivo Shandor, leader of a cult of Gozer worshipers, made the tower so that Gozer would have a doorway into our world.

* [[Ms. Fanservice]]: Now we already know Dana Barret is physically attractive, but once she gets possessed by one of the Terror Dogs she becomes EVEN MORE smoking hot than she was.

* [[Muggles Do It Better]]: See [[Magic Versus Science]]. Ancient god, meet [[Mad Science|unlicensed nuclear accelerator.]]

* [[Naive Newcomer]]: Subverted by Winston, who adjusts to his new job very quickly.

* [[Never My Fault]]: Walter Peck condemns the Ghostbusters for causing the explosion he himself had caused, in spite of their warnings.

* [[Oh Crap]]: The look on Mr. Stay Puft's face when the Ghostbusters cross the streams.

** Alternatively, the Ghostbusters's reaction to Stay-Puft

'''Winston''': What is it?!<br />

'''Ray''': [[Department of Redundancy Department|It can't be!]]<br />

'''Winston''': [[What the Hell, Hero?|What did you]] ''[[What the Hell, Hero?|do]]''[[What the Hell, Hero?|, Ray?!]] [[Oh Crap|Aw, Shit!]] }}

*** And again when Stay-Puft turns to face them with its maniacal grin...

'''Peter:''' [[Unusual Euphemism|Mother pus bucket]]... }}

** When Walter Peck turns the containment grid off, the result is an [[Oh Crap]] combined with a [[This Is Gonna Suck]].

* [[Pillar of Light]]: Rises over the city when the ecto containment unit explodes.

* [[Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner]]: Venkman gets two of these in rapid succession

'''Venkman:''' "...let's show this [[Eldritch Abomination|prehistoric]] [[Precision F-Strike|bitch]] how we do things [[Big Applesauce|downtown]]." }}

* [[Precision F-Strike]]: The containment grid's shut down, and ghosts are streaming into the atmosphere in a pillar of blinding light. What drives home how bad the situation isn't the ensuing montage, or that a possessed man escapes in the crowd. It's that what's happening is enough to tip Egon over into angrily insulting Peck's mother.

** Winston gets a good one in on the mayor

* [[Shared Mass Hallucination]] / [[Scooby-Doo Hoax]]: [[Invoked]] by Peck, who accuses the Ghostbusters of being frauds that use nerve gas to make people believe they're seeing ghosts, and then "put on a light show" to get rid of them.

* [[Snub By Omission]]: When Peter Venkman introduces his team at the library:

'''Dr. Peter Venkman:''' Yes, I'm Dr. Venkman, Dr. Stantz, Egon... }}

* [[Styrofoam Rocks]]: At the end, when debris falling is from the top of the skyscraper. In one shot you can see a rock, which had supposedly tumbled from several hundred feet in the air, fall straight down and bounce off of a wooden police barrier.

* [[Baby Carriage]]: In the opening scene of the second film, with a more ghostly version used in a later scene.

* [[Badass Boast]]:

* [[Big Applesauce]]: Mocked at the end by Venkman, who asks why any being would want to return in 1980s New York, rather than sunny Southern California.

* [[Big Bad]]: Vigo

* [[Extra-Strength Masquerade]]: The giant demonic marshmallow man and plague of ghosts from five years ago everyone remembers and even had physical evidence of was all the world's most elaborate hoax. Obviously.

* [[Expospeak Gag]]: This exchange

'''Dr. Egon Spengler:''' I think they're more interested in my [[Gag Penis|Epididymis]]... }}

* [[Flat Earth Atheist]]: The number of people in the movie who claim not to believe in the supernatural a mere five years after a prehistoric deity marched through downtown Manhattan is staggering.

* [[Forbidden Chekhov's Gun]]: Crossing the streams. They are warned never to do it, and it becomes their [[Finishing Move]].

* [[Funny Foreigner]]: Janosz Poha.

'''Dr. Janosz Poha:''' (with Slavic accent) The Upper Vest side...? }}

* [[Fur and Loathing]]

* [[Hoist by His Own Petard]]: The Ghostbusters use a positively-charged version of Vigo's slime to animate the Statue of Liberty, which allows them to bypass the slime barrier surrounding the Manhattan Museum of Modern Art. The slime blowers are then key to incapacitating Janosz and {{spoiler|the possessed Ray}} without hurting them. When Vigo is forced back into the painting, the slime blowers are the only weapon that visibly hurt him.

* [[Jerkass]]: Egon with his hilariously cruel experiments, including fooling a couple into thinking they are there for marriage counseling and watching them from behind a two-way mirror, then making them wait for hours and slowly pushing up the temperature.

* [[Medium Awareness]]: The updated Ghostbusters sign with the ghost giving the "two" sign. It doesn't make much sense in the context of the film.

** Or does it? The movie revolved around their comeback after 5 years of inactivity, so a redesigned logo might seem fitting. It was also their ''second run'' as ecto-exterminators...

* [[Primal Fear]]: The sheer ''number'' of things Dana has to go through as Oscar is repeatedly manipulated, snatched away, and almost possessed...

* [[Rasputinian Death]]: The team recounts the death of [[Big Bad|Vigo the Carpathian]]:

'''Peter Venkman''': Ouch. }}

* [[Real Life Relative]]: Ivan Reitman's son and future director Jason Reitman plays the boy at the birthday party in the beginning who tells Ray "My dad says you guys are full of crap", and Jason's sister plays the girl with the puppy in Egon's experiment.

** As another example of [[Shown Their Work]], in searching for the source of the supernatural energy spike which caused little Oscar's runaway [[Baby Carriage]] at the start of the movie, the Ghostbusters discover the fictional Van Horne station filled by the river of slime. This is a reference to [[wikipedia:Beach Pneumatic Transit|Beach's Pneumatic Railway]] which was built beneath Broadway and later shut down by Boss Tweed, and the movie depiction even resembles some of Beach's designs with its tile walls and mosaic frescoes. (Interestingly, while the Manhattan Museum of Art was also fictional, the building used for its facade, the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House near Battery Park, is within a mile of the original tunnel's location.)

* [[Square-Cube Law]]: In spite of the general [[Rule of Cool]] and [[Applied Phlebotinum]], the law gets a brief nod during the Statue of Liberty scene...

'''Ray:''' I'm afraid the vibrations would shake her to pieces. We should have padded her feet... }}

* [[Theme Tune Cameo]]: Ray and Winston try to sing the GB theme song at a birthday party for "ungrateful yuppie larvae", but sadly, they're shouted down by their cries for [[He-Man and the Masters of the Universe|He-Man]].