Movie; Ghostbusters; Afterlife (2021) Caution; Spoiler Alert

 

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.