Greatest Film Scenes
and Moments



Ghost Busters (1984)

 



Written by Tim Dirks

Title Screen
Movie Title/Year and Scene Descriptions
Screenshots

Ghost Busters (1984)

In director Ivan Reitman's sci-fi fantasy comedy, with the catchy theme tune: "Who ya gonna call? - Ghostbusters!" and the film's logo: a red-lined "No Ghosts" sign, about a trio of eccentric parapsychologists called upon to investigate hauntings in various NYC locations:

  • the unorthodox group of three defrocked, eccentric, Columbia University parapsychologists: Dr. Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), Dr. Raymond Stantz (Dan Aykroyd), and Dr. Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis), who were in the offbeat business of supernatural extermination of poltergeists, spirits, ghosts, and other haunts, using proton pack weapons
  • the scene of Venkman conducting an ESP test (to identify symbols on 80 cards) with two paid student volunteers, and always accepting whatever answer the cute female (Jennifer Runyon) provided ("Incredible! Five for five. You can't see these, can you?...You're not cheating me, are you?"), but electrically shocking her male counterpart for every response
  • the trio's first encounter with ghosts in the New York Public Library stacks, when Ray calmly noted the purplish librarian ghost (Alice Drummond) before them: "A full torso apparition, and it's real" - he suggested: "We've got to make contact. One of us should actually try to speak to her"; Peter Venkman volunteered and approached the figure: "Hello, I'm Peter. Where are you from? Originally"; the gray-haired ghost turned and shushed him, with her finger to her lips. When that didn't work, Ray decided to take charge and yelled: "Ready? Get her!"; suddenly, the library worker turned toward them, and was transformed into a screaming spectral hag (with effective special effects) - a great scare!
The Librarian Ghost
  • the confrontation with a green ghost in a hotel corridor, when Raymond zapped it with his proton pack gun; Venkman came face to face with the creature, that covered him in ectoplasm during an attack; he delivered a one-liner exclamation of: "He slimed me!" after being covered in slime
  • the parody covers of various magazines proclaiming their heroic fame
  • Venkman's statement - a paraphrasing of the famous Latin phrase: "We came, we saw, we kicked its ass" - spoken to the Hotel Manager (Michael Ensign) about capturing their first ghost Slimer in a box: ("What you had there was what we refer to as a focused, non-terminal repeating phantasm, or a class-five full-roaming vapor. Real nasty one too") - however, the manager refused to pay a special offered price of $5,000 for entrapment and storage of the beast
  • the City Hall scene of EPA lawyer Walter Peck (William Atherton) accusing the Ghostbusters in front of mayor Lenny Clotchof (David Margulies) of being con-men and of causing an explosion: ("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"); when Raymond retorted to Peck: ("Everything was fine with our system until the power grid was shut off by dickless here"), Venkman confirmed: ("Yes, it's true. This man has no dick")
  • two of the Ghostbusters' customers who became involved with the demons: cellist musician Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver) (possessed by ancient demi-god Zuul (the "Gatekeeper")) and her nerdy accountant neighbor Louis Tully (Rick Moranis) (possessed by the "Keymaster") who realized that their apartment building (and her refrigerator) had become a gateway for hell
  • Venkman's seduction by the possessed Dana, who proposed: "I want you inside me" - and when he refused ("No, I can't - it sounds like you got at least two people in there already. It might be a little crowded"), she levitated above her bed; later, he described her: "I find her interesting because she's a client and because she sleeps above her covers... four feet above her covers"
  • the scene of the Ghostbusters confronted by the monstrous god Gozer in the shape of a woman, the Gozerian (voice of Paddi Edwards, and portrayed by supermodel Slavitza Jovan) atop the skyscraper; Ray threatened Gozer: "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?...Then die," blasting them with lightning bolts from her fingertips; fourth Ghostbuster Winston Zeddmore (Ernie Hudson) angrily chastised Raymond for his stupidity for blasting Gozer: "Ray, when someone asks you if you're a God, you say YES!", followed by Venkman's threat: "All right. This chick is toast...Let's show this prehistoric bitch how we do things downtown" - and the Ghostbusters, with full strength, neutronized the "nimble little minx," explaining her extermination as "a complete particle reversal"
Confronting the Monstrous God Gozer
  • the climax's legendary visual image of the evil, menacing, 20-story-tall monstrous 'destructor' - a giant, 100 foot tall Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, selectively imagined to be harmless by Raymond: ("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") - Venkman's reaction: "Mother pus-bucket!"


The Biased ESP Test



Ghost Attack, Spewing Ectoplasm: "He slimed me"

Ghost Containment Box

"We came, we saw, we kicked its ass"

"This man has no dick"

Seduced by Dana Possessed by Zuul

Dana Levitating

Louis Tully Possessed by the "Keymaster"

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