Ghostbusters; Afterlife
Came out; 2021
Time; 2 hour 4 minutes
Watched: Theater
Rating; PG-13 for supernatural action and some suggestive references
IMDB Rating; 7.6/10
Caution; Spoiler Alert
Staring;
Carrie Coon as Callie
Paul Rudd as Grooberson
Finn Wolfhard as Trevor
Mckenna Grace as Phoebe
Logan Kim as Podcast
Celeste O'Connor as Lucky
Billy Murry as Peter Venkman
Dan Aykroyd as Ray Stantz
Ernie Hudson as Winston Zeddemore
Annie Potts as Janine Melnitz
Sigourney Weaver as Dana Barrett Venkman
Bob Gunton as The Ghost Farmer
J.K. Simmons as Ivo Shandor
Story Line;
When a single mom and her two kids arrive in a small town, they begin to discover their connection to the original Ghostbusters and the secret legacy their grandfather left behind
Thoughts;
My brother saw this and said it was good. Sometimes I trust his judgement and sometimes I don't. This was one that was good. I remember seeing Ghostbusters 2 in the theatres when I was a kid, I also remember loving the cartoon!
I wasn't a huge fan of the all-girl version, that one is just ok, so going into this I wasn't sure what to expect, I was not disappointed at all!
I loved how this movie played into all the previous ones, kept true to characters in all of them, including Phoebe. I happen to like Paul Rudd and his acting, so he was a glee to see (a pun thrown in there lol)
The story line with Ivo and the New York connection was perfect!
Would recommend, will watch again, loved every second of it!
CAUTION; Major Spoiler Alert
Plot Summary;
A
proton blast shoots out the top of a mine shaft and into a swirling
vortex of clouds under a midnight sky. Then an old pickup truck comes
hauling out of the mine shaft and down a desolate rural road. The
driver is a bearded elderly man obscured in the darkness of his
trucks cabin. He looks down at the passenger seat and touches a ghost
trap that's holding a spirit. His truck is being chased by an unseen
creature that is eventually able to sideswipe the vehicle and send it
crashing into a cornfield. The man stumbles out into an open field in
front of an old farm house. He gets to the porch and turns around and
holds up the trap baiting the unseen spirit in the corn field. The
old man is Egon Spengler and he readies a foot peddle switch as
invisible steps are seen advancing in the dirt across the field. When
it is in position, Egon stomps the peddle and several electric towers
begin to active. But they short out before powering on the device
they were intended for and Egon quickly goes inside and shuts the
door. He hides the trap in a compartment under the wood floor and
then sits in a chair with his PKE meter. As fog fills the room, his
PKE begins to light up and it's arms extend reminiscent of when a
ghost is present. Egon is attacked in his chair and the PKE meter
falls to the floor and turns off. A spirit orb is seen leaving the
house from outside. Back in the house, the PKE meter activates again
eluding to a new ghost nearby.
We meet Carrie and her kids
Trevor and Phoebe as they are getting evicted from their apartment.
Carrie gets notice that her father has passed away in his farmhouse
in Oklahoma and takes the kids with her to collect anything of value
including the home. They find a dilapidated house full of clutter. As
they're looking around, Janine (the Ghostbusters receptionist) walks
in and tells them that Carrie's Dad (Egon) had a lot of debt and a
valueless farm. The ground begins to shake in what appears to be
tremors from an earthquake and the family huddled under a table.
Phoebe spots the PKE meter under the chair her grandfather was in
when he died.
Carrie takes Trevor and Phoebe into town to eat
after she admits to them that they will be staying there for a while
until she can figure out what to do. They find that it's a very small
southern town where everyone knew of the mysterious man they all
called "the dirt farmer" since there was no evidence he
ever grew any crops. Trevor applies to work at the burger joint
because he is smitten with the girl who works there named Lucky.
In
the following days Phoebe begins exploring the farm while using the
PKE meter. She notices a chess board with an initial move made so she
makes a move from her side of the board. Carrie starts Phoebe in
summer school and meets her teacher Gary (Paul Rudd) as she drops her
off. Gary is just there to collect a paycheck and has the kids watch
VHS's of old horror movies (the first one being "Cujo")
while he sits in the back doing research on the ongoing tremors in
the area. Phoebe impressed him with her knowledge on Seismology and
he explains to her that the tremor wave patterns don't match up with
typical earthquakes from history. Phoebe also meets a boy in her
class who calls himself "Podcast" since he's always
recording for his show with his microphone.
Back at the
farmhouse, Phoebe sees that another move is made on the chess board
and begins playing the ghost as the chess pieces begin moving in
front of her. The ghost leads her downstairs by turning on lights
until she finds the ghost trap under a floor panel. She takes it to
Gary where he explains what it is based on his knowledge of the famed
New York siege from 1984. He shows her and Podcast old footage of the
Ghostbusters commercial on YouTube. They rig the trap to a school bus
battery to get it to open. They succeed and a ghost resembling one of
the demon dogs from the original flys away.
Revelations come
to fruition as Trevor finds Ecto-1 in the barn under a tarp and
Phoebe finds Egon's lab in the basement. They both realize their
heritage and begin to take matters into their own hands. Phoebe
repairs a proton blaster with help from Egon's invisible ghost and
takes it out for a test with Podcast tagging along. Upon firing it,
they hear a rustling in a nearby warehouse. They find the metal
eating ghost named Muncher. They attempt to wrangle and capture him
but fail. Meanwhile, Trevor repairs Ecto-1 and takes it for a joy
ride where he comes upon Phoebe and Podcast who tell him what they
were doing. The trio take off to capture Muncher in Ecto-1. They
chase him thru the city and destroy tons of property with the proton
gun. They succeed in capturing it with Egon's RC car mounted ghost
trap. All the chaos alerted the police and they are subsequently
pulled over and put in the towns holding cell. During their time at
the jailhouse, Phoebe uses her "one phone call" option to
call the number of the Ghostbusters from the commercial. Ray Stantz
answers and explains that the team broke up after they had ostensibly
eliminated all the ghosts. He and Egon had a falling out after Egon
stole all their equipment claiming Gozer could still bring the end of
the world. Pheobe tells him that Egon was killed a week ago before
she is abruptly cut off by the sheriff claiming her phone time is up.
Carrie and Gary -who were out on a date during all of this- show up
and bail them out.
Phoebe confronts her Mom for not telling
her who their grandfather really was. Carrie counters with the
history she had with her Dad. She wasn't into science like he was and
felt like they never bonded and he didn't care about her. That's why
he left them and became a recluse on the Oklahoma farm she
concluded.
The kids -feeling there's got to be a reason their
grandfather would sacrifice everything to live on a farm in the
middle of nowhere- find in his lab that his "dirt farm" was
actually field of hundreds of ghost traps meant to capture Gozer.
They realize that his trap must've failed and set off to investigate
the mine shaft once more. By this time Lucky has become close with
Trevor thru work and the discovery that she is the sheriff's
daughter. So she tags along to the mine with Trevor, Phoebe, and
Podcast. They discover the root of all the tremors is the fact that
the mine is actually a portal to the evil dead and every time Gozer
attempts to raise the hoard of ghosts -along with the twin demon
dogs- a series of 4 seismic activated proton guns that Egon rigged up
inside turn on. They automatically cross beams and suppress the
constant attempts of the ghosts trying to escape. This was the source
of the recurrent tremors everyone in town was experiencing and
holding Gozer back was the insurmountable task Egon had taken on
alone since no one else believes him.
That same night, Gary
goes to Walmart to pick up some ice cream after his unusual date with
Carrie. He discovers several mini StayPuft marshmallow men roaming
the store causing chaos like a bunch of gremlins. He comes upon the
demon dog he released earlier and gets chased out to his car and
attacked just like the scene from Cujo. Back at the farmhouse, Carrie
finds the hidden lab and is finds that her Dad Egon had a memory
board of all her life on the wall. Just as she realizes that he truly
cared about her, the other demon dog finds her in the lab and
possesses her.
The kids come home to reveal their discovery to
Carrie but find her possessed before she jumps out the window and
runs off towards the mine shaft. She finds Gary -who has already
allowed the ghosts to start escaping by damaging the auto-proton guns
that were keeping them at bay. The two "merge energies" in
the mine. The kids retrieve Ecto-1 from the police impound with
Lucky's help. Phoebe and Podcast are able to get the RC ghost trap
and proton blaster out from the weapon holding cell by reaching in
and releasing Muncher who immediately eats away the bars and
escapes.
They arrive at the mine and witness Carrie and Gary
transforming into the demon dog forms with Gozer sitting between
them. Phoebe steps out from hiding to talk to and distract Gozer
while Podcast controls the RC trap and captures the demon dog
possessing Carrie. This releases her from dog form as she passes out.
The kids escape in Ecto-1 with Carrie as the Gary -still possessed in
dog form- chases after them.
They make their way to the
farmhouse and attempt the same trap as Egon. Carrie and Phoebe stand
on the porch holding the ghost trap with the demon dog that Gozer
needs to become fully resurrected. Gozer appears out of the corn
field and Phoebe tries to turn on the traps but they fail again just
as they had the first time with Egon. Just as Gozer is about to kill
Phoebe, she is hit with a proton blast from behind. It's Ray Stantz
who had just arrived with Peter Venkman and Winston Zeddemore! The 3
original ghostbusters cross the beams and fire at Gozer. She appears
subdued but then begins uncrossing the beams and blasts the
Ghostbusters back causing them all to fall down. Gozer approaches
them as Peter jokingly complains about the inherent troubles in their
relationship. Just as she reaches them she is again captured by a
sole proton beam. This time it's Phoebe who's aim is being guided by
the ghost of Egon. This is the first time his image is revealed to
the audience.
The other 3 ghostbusters jump up and join the
battle by firing their beams as well. With the combined force of 4
beams once again, Gozer is suppressed but not captured. Trevor
emerges from Ecto-1 and fired his proton beam at the electrical
towers. The burst of energy fires them up and activates all the traps
under the dirt field. Gozer and the demon dogs are destroyed.
The
three living ghostbusters stare in amazement at the sight of the
ghost form of their fallen comrade. They watch as he says goodbye to
fixes Phoebe's glasses -identical to his- and gives Carrie a hug. His
form fades and dissipates into the night sky. Lucky and Gary break
free of the frozen dog carcasses and Winston says he's going to fix
up Ecto-1. Overhead shot of Ecto-1 driving with emergency lights on
back in New York City.
