Ghostbusters II

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This article is about a film, it is also the title of a computer game - see Ghostbusters II (Computer game)

Template:Infobox Film Ghostbusters II is the 1989 sequel of Ghostbusters (1984); the sci-fi comedy films are about four parapsychologists.

Taglines:

Be ready to believe us.
The Superstars of the Supernatural are back!
We're back!
The Superstars of the Supernatural are back. And this time, it's no marshmallow roast.
Guess who's coming to save the world again?

1 Plot
2 Trivia
3 Cast
4 External links

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Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

It is five years after the events of Ghostbusters and after property destruction and "blowing the top off a high-rise" (as Winston puts it), the Ghostbusters have been banned from operating as paranormal investigators. To top it off, they have been presented with a lawsuit for all the damage they caused. As a result, they have had to find other ways to make a living.

Ray Stantz and Winston Zeddemore still attempt to make a living off their past as Ghostbusters by doing special appearances at children's birthday parties. The children we see in the film seem to have forgotten what the Ghostbusters did for the City, and are more interested in seeing He-Man. Ray also now owns an occult book shop. Peter Venkman has his own TV series, "World Of The Psychic", in which he ridicules people who believe they have telepathic powers. Egon Spengler, meanwhile, is a medical scientist at Johns Hopkins University. Dana Barrett and Peter Venkman never managed to stay together after Ghostbusters, and she had a baby named Oscar with a musician who played in her orchestra. As well as the orchestra, Dana restores old paintings at an art museum, overseen by Dr. Janosz Poha. He is at work restoring a painting of Vigo the Carpathian, a cruel 16th century Moldavian ruler.

At the start of the film, Dana is taking Oscar for a walk in his baby carriage when strange pink slime rises up from a crack in the street and gets on the wheel of the carriage (unbeknownst to Dana). As a result, the carriage takes on a life of its own and tears down the street, eventually heading into oncoming traffic. The carriage stops just in time and Oscar ends up safe, but Dana is obviously disturbed by what happened. She consults Egon at the University, who examines Oscar, and he recruits Stantz and Venkman to investigate what happened. Eventually, the original Ghostbusters find themselves back together and attempt to solve the mystery.

While posing as workmen, Stantz discovers a huge river of slime flowing through the ruins of Beach's Pneumatic Subway. It is eventually found out that this slime has been accumulating under New York City for decades. Stantz takes a sample of the slime for study, but the Ghostbusters are accosted by a police officer who arrests them for disrupting traffic by drilling a huge hole in the street. The resulting chaos sees Stanz inadvertently destroy a powerline, plunging the entirety of New York into a blackout.

In court, the Ghostbusters are tried by Judge Wexler for breaking the legal ban that stopped them from paranormal work. The exhibits at the trial include their proton packs and the jar of slime Stantz took for research. Because of the skepticism of Judge Wexler and the prosecuting attorney, as well as the ineptitude of their own lawyer (Louis Tully, played by Rick Moranis), the Ghostbusters lose the case. Apparently affected by the mere presence of the slime, Judge Wexler flies into a terrifying rage at the Ghostbusters (once swearing that, had he the power, he would have them "burned at the stake") and the slime uses his anger to release the vengeful ghosts of the Scoleri brothers, two murderers who Wexler had sent to the electric chair. Panicking, Wexler is compelled to remove the Ghostbusters' operating ban to let them bust the two ghosts: the Ghostbusters are back in business.

Although Venkman is still trying to rebuild his relationship with Dana, the Ghostbusters use their freedom to research the slime. They soon begin to find out what causes it to react. Spengler discovers that it is a kind of "mood slime", that feeds off of the emotions and feelings of people around it. Insults make it react violently, whereas plying it with soothing, calming words and compliments will make it settle down again. After coating the interior of a toaster with the slime and experimenting with Jackie Wilson's "Higher and Higher", they find that music makes it move and "dance". Further investigation into the river of slime beneath the city, meanwhile, reveals that the river is feeding off the bad vibes of the New Yorkers above and that it is making Janosz's painting of Vigo come to life. Vigo plans to use the slime's power to engulf the city in evil and live again.

When the Ghostbusters try to inform the mayor about the danger from the slime, he refuses to take them seriously and throws them out. To protect the mayor's image before the upcoming election, Jack Hardemeyer, the mayor's publicist, has them committed to a psychiatric ward in Parkview Hospital, classified as insane.

With the Ghostbusters imprisoned, Vigo's evil increases and New York is engulfed in supernatural chaos. Ghost sightings increase dramatically, and are often spectacular, including the ghost of the Titanic completing its voyage (leading a dock worker played by Cheech Marin to quip "Better late than never!") and the Mayor having a conversation with Fiorello LaGuardia (former Mayor of New York, who at the time of the film's release has been dead for 40 years). Eventually, it is learned why Oscar was spared from harm at the film's beginning: Vigo -- using Janosz as his lackey -- plans to use the baby as a new "host" body, planning to return to the physical plane at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve. Oscar is kidnapped by a ghost with a baby carriage and brought back to the museum holding Vigo's painting.

On New Year's Eve, the mayhem overrunning the City eventually convinces the mayor to send for the Ghostbusters. When he finds out that Hardemeyer had them committed, he fires Hardemeyer and releases the Ghostbusters, who trek to the museum to rescue Oscar. But a thick dome of hardened slime has risen around the building and hardened into a shell, shutting them out of it (even their proton packs are no use). Remembering how the slime reacted to human emotion, the Ghostbusters search for a symbol of hope and purity, eventually finding it by looking at the New York State licence plate of ECTO-1: the Statue of Liberty.

The Ghostbusters enter the statue and, using modified proton packs loaded with slime, coat the statue's interior in it. Using a portable stereo, they play the slime's favourite Jackie Wilson song, "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher", and the psychokinetic energy in the slime possesses the statue and brings it to life. Using an NES Advantage, they direct the statue to walk to the museum, accidentally crushing a police car underfoot en route, and, with the help of the good feelings from the positively-inspired crowd surrounding the building, use it to smash through the slime shell and let them into the building to confront Vigo. At first their efforts to quell Vigo's attempt to possess Oscar prove to have little effect, but Venkman manages to save the baby. However, Ray becomes possessed by Vigo instead. However, the stroke of midnight passes, and with the help of the good vibes of the celebrating citizens outside, the Ghostbusters manage to send Vigo back inside his painting. By shooting their slime cannons at Vigo's weakened form in the painting, he is destroyed forever. In place of Vigo's painting is an apparent reward from the natural order of things: a painting of Oscar and the Ghostbusters in an angelic setting.

After the Ghostbusters emerge from the museum, the Mayor recognizes their efforts toward saving the city not once, but twice, reinstates them to their original positions and their business blooms once again.

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Trivia

The original Laserdisc and VHS versions of the film were made incorrectly. Instead of being produced either in the original aspect ratio of 2.35:1 or panned and scanned at the aspect ratio of 1.33:1, the movie was panned and scanned in a 1.66:1 frame. Compared to the 'proper' pan and scan version at 1.33:1, width is definitely gained on the edges, though very slightly. However, the DVD version was transferred and encoded at the original aspect ratio of 2.35:1.

There are no opening titles. The movie's title is represented by an animation of the movie's logo, but it is never displayed onscreen.

The logo used in the movie is unique. Unlike the logo that appears in marketing materials, it is the original, lost design: the ghost has two legs stepping through the red symbol. After it was designed for the movie title intro, the design was lost, so it had to be redone. However, when it was redrawn they forgot to add in the second leg! So it appears the ghost has only one leg, or a funny-looking tail. It is apparently meant to be a leg, as there is an indication of a foot and an ankle.

At the end of the version shown in theaters, Slimer comes out from behind the Statue of Liberty and goes right into the camera (as he did at the end of Ghostbusters (1984)). The video version just ends with a pan up to the statue's head then a fade to black.

Vigo the Carpathian is portrayed by Wilhelm von Homburg. Oscar, Dana Barrett's son, is played by the two little Deutschendorf brothers, William and Henry. Vigo is supposed to reincarnate Oscar according to the plot, while interestingly the fictitious 16th century tyrant's full name, found in a computer encyclopedia by Egon, was Prince Vigo von Homburg Deutschendorf, a wordplay on the real actors' names.

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