Ghostbusters II
Ghostbusters II is a 1989 American supernatural comedy film directed by Ivan Reitman and written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. The film stars Bill Murray, Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver, Ramis, Rick Moranis, Ernie Hudson, and Annie Potts. It is the sequel to the 1984 film Ghostbusters and the second film in the Ghostbusters franchise. Set five years after the events of the first film, the Ghostbusters have been sued and put out of business after the destruction caused during their battle with the deity Gozer the Gozerian. When a new paranormal threat emerges, the Ghostbusters reunite to combat it and save the world.
Ghostbusters II
Ivan Reitman
- Bill Murray
- Dan Aykroyd
- Sigourney Weaver
- Harold Ramis
- Rick Moranis
- Ernie Hudson
- Annie Potts
Columbia Pictures
- June 16, 1989
108 minutes
United States
English
$30–40 million
$215.4 million
After the success of Ghostbusters, Columbia Pictures wanted a sequel but struggled to overcome objections from the cast and crew. As with the first film, Aykroyd and Ramis collaborated on the script, which went through many variations. The pair wanted to convey a message about the consequences of negative human emotions in large cities. They settled on the idea of negative feelings creating a mass of supernatural slime beneath New York City that empowers malevolent spirits. With a budget of $30–40 million, filming took place between November 1988 and March 1989 in New York City and Los Angeles. Production was rushed and large sections of the film were scrapped after poorly received test screenings. New scenes were written and filmed during re-shoots between March and April 1989, only two months before its release.
Ghostbusters II was released on June 16, 1989, to generally negative reviews. Critics responded unfavorably to what they perceived as largely a copy of the original and a softening of its cynical, dark humor to be more family-friendly, although the performances of Peter MacNicol and Rick Moranis were repeatedly singled out for praise. As the sequel to the then-highest-grossing comedy film of all time, Ghostbusters II was expected to dominate the box office. Instead, the film earned $215.4 million during its theatrical run compared with the original's $282.2 million, making it the eighth-highest-grossing film of the year. Columbia Pictures deemed it a financial and critical failure, effectively dissuading Murray from participating in a third Ghostbusters film. Its soundtrack single, "On Our Own" by Bobby Brown, was a success, spending 20 weeks on the United States music charts.
The film failed to replicate the cultural impact and following of Ghostbusters. Although some critics retrospectively praised it, Ghostbusters II is generally seen as a poor follow-up to Ghostbusters and responsible for stalling the franchise for decades. The film spawned a series of merchandise including video games, board games, comic books, music, toys, and haunted houses. Despite the relative failure of Ghostbusters II, a second sequel was pursued through to the early 2010s. Following the mixed reviews and financial underperformance of the 2016 series reboot, the series returned to the original films with Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021) and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024).
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Plot[edit]
Five years after saving New York City from destruction by the shapeshifting god Gozer,[a] the Ghostbusters have been sued for the property damage incurred and barred from investigating the supernatural, forcing them out of business. Ray Stantz now owns an occult bookstore and works a side job alongside Winston Zeddemore as unpopular children's entertainers; Egon Spengler works in a laboratory experimenting with human emotions; and Peter Venkman hosts a television talk show about psychics.
Dana Barrett, Peter's ex-girlfriend, has an infant son named Oscar with her ex-husband and works at an art museum restoring artwork. She contacts the Ghostbusters after Oscar's baby stroller rolls, seemingly independently, into a busy intersection. At the museum, a painting of Vigo the Carpathian, a 16th-century European tyrant and powerful magician, comes to life and enslaves Dana's boss, Janosz Poha. Vigo orders Janosz to bring him a child to possess, allowing him to escape the confines of his painting and live again to conquer the world. Because of his infatuation with Dana, Janosz chooses Oscar.
Meanwhile, the Ghostbusters excavate the intersection where Oscar's stroller stopped and discover a river of slime running through the abandoned Beach Pneumatic Transit system. Ray obtains a sample but is attacked by the slime and accidentally breaks a pipe that falls onto a power line, causing a citywide blackout. The Ghostbusters are arrested and taken to court for the damage and for investigating the supernatural. Upon presentation as evidence, the slime sample responds physically to the judge's tirade against the Ghostbusters and then explodes, manifesting the ghosts of the Scoleri brothers, whom he had sentenced to death. The Ghostbusters capture the ghosts in exchange for a dismissal of the charges and the right to resume their business.
One night, the slime invades Dana's apartment, attacking her and Oscar. She seeks refuge with Peter, and they rekindle their relationship. The Ghostbusters discover the slime reacts to emotions and suspect it has amassed from the negative emotions of New Yorkers. Determining Vigo and the slime are connected, Egon, Ray, and Winston investigate the river of slime, but they are pulled in. They emerge at the museum and begin fighting each other until Egon realizes the slime's negative energy is influencing them. The Ghostbusters tell the mayor of their discoveries but are dismissed; his assistant Jack Hardemeyer has them committed to a psychiatric hospital to protect the mayor's political interests. A spirit appearing as Janosz kidnaps Oscar, and Dana pursues them into the museum, which is then covered with impenetrable slime.
On New Year's Eve, the slime rises to the streets, causing widespread supernatural chaos. Discovering Hardemeyer's actions, the enraged mayor fires him and has the Ghostbusters released. Determining that a positive symbol will rally the citizens and weaken the slime, the Ghostbusters use slime charged with positive emotions to animate and pilot the Statue of Liberty through the streets filled with cheering citizens. At the museum, the slime barrier partially recedes due to the positive emotions, and the Ghostbusters use the Statue's torch to break through the ceiling, stopping Vigo from possessing Oscar, then rappel through the ceiling and neutralize Janosz with positive slime. Vigo takes on a physical form, immobilizes Dana and the Ghostbusters, and recaptures Oscar. The gathered crowds outside begin singing a chorus of "Auld Lang Syne", and their positivity weakens Vigo, sending him back to the painting and freeing the Ghostbusters. Vigo possesses Ray, but the Ghostbusters use their weapons to free him and defeat Vigo, his painting being replaced by their likenesses surrounding Oscar. Afterwards, the city lauds the Ghostbusters and the Statue of Liberty is returned to Liberty Island.
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As well as the main cast, Ghostbusters II features Wilhelm von Homburg as Vigo the Carpathian (voiced by Max von Sydow). Several relatives of the cast and crew appear in the film; Murray's brother Brian Doyle-Murray plays the Ghostbusters' psychiatric doctor, Aykroyd's niece Karen Humber portrays a schoolchild, and director Ivan Reitman's children Jason and Catherine portray, respectively, the rude child at the opening birthday party and a girl that is part of Egon's experiments.[1] Reitman cameos as a pedestrian.[2] Judy Ovitz, wife of talent agent Michael Ovitz, who represented many of the principal cast, appears as a woman in a restaurant who is slimed.[1]
Mary Ellen Trainor appears as the host of a children's party, Cheech Marin plays a dock supervisor, and Philip Baker Hall portrays the city police chief.[1] Bobby Brown (credited as Bobby Baresford Brown), who contributed to the film's soundtrack, cameos as a doorman.[3] Ben Stein plays a public works official for the mayor, and Louise Troy appears as a woman wearing a possessed mink fur coat.[1] Kevin Dunn and Chloe Webb appear as, respectively, Milton Angland and Elaine, guests on Venkman's television show.[4]
Thematic analysis[edit]
Positivity vs. negativity[edit]
Several elements of Ghostbusters II deal with the consequences of actions. Instead of being lauded as heroes after defeating Gozer, the Ghostbusters are driven out of business because of the associated destruction they caused. The slime amasses beneath the city as a consequence of negative emotions projected by New Yorkers.[151] When writing the script, Aykroyd and Ramis wanted to show that negativity had a lasting impact on the person inflicting it or the one receiving it. Aykroyd noted that, at the time, he considered major cities to be places where danger was rife and life held little value.[20][24] Writing for Mashable in 2019, Pravit Chatterjee argues that this theme is more relevant in the contemporary age of social media and hate speech.[151]
Similarly, positivity is presented as a uniquely powerful force. Their previous combined efforts defeated Gozer, a god of destruction, but the Ghostbusters are completely powerless against Vigo and the accumulated negativity fuelling him. It is only when the citizens gathered outside the museum unite to sing a chorus of "Auld Lang Syne" that their positivity overwhelms Vigo, allowing the Ghostbusters to defeat him.[152][153][151] In 2016, A. Bowdoin van Riper wrote that while destruction-heavy films set in New York made before the September 11 terrorist attack had taken on darker, unintended meanings, Ghostbusters II was now more relevant. Its ending, which can be seen as "hokey" or false, now seemed "touchingly real".[152] Murray described it as a "story about innocence restored, and good values, and the power of faith in ordinary people".[154] Unlike Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters II lauds the values of community and family over their Ghostbusters' personal successes.[153] Indeed, the Ghostbusters' involvement in the sequel comes from the threat to their personal acquaintance Dana Barrett and her son. They are drawn out of retirement and break the rules of their legal settlement with the city to help, despite the lack of financial rewards and the personal risk to themselves.[155]
Fatherhood[edit]
Ghostbusters II is among many films released during the 1980s and 1990s that dealt with issues of fatherhood; these included Three Men and a Baby (1987), Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989), Uncle Buck (1989), Kindergarten Cop (1990), Parenthood (1989), Hook (1991), and Mrs. Doubtfire (1993). These film types appeared among their respective release years' highest-grossing films, and focus on redeeming or celebrating the concept of fatherhood in different forms from warm and friendly to authoritarian.[156] These father figures are initially unprepared for their responsibility. Nicole Matthews argues that the need to present a film targeted at both adults and children leads to the central characters being infantilized and immature.[157] These films each share a similar concept, that female characters are either absent or not important to the overall story.[158]
Ghostbusters II's driving plot is ostensibly about a mother (Dana Barrett) trying to protect her son who is the target of a malevolent force. Instead, it becomes about Peter Venkman and his relationship to the child, both representing a surrogate paternal figure and lamenting that he is not the child's biological father. The film focuses on moments of paternal tenderness such as Venkman using his treasured football shirt to clothe Oscar.[159] This focus is evident during the film's finale where Vigo's portrait is replaced by an image of the Ghostbusters as four paternal figures surrounding Oscar, with no female present. Instead a sword is depicted penetrating a stone; a symbol of fertility.[159][160]
Jim Whalley wrote that when Dana describes Venkman as "the most charming, kindest and most unusual" man she has met, "kind" would not be an applicable description of his character in Ghostbusters, evidencing his growth and maturity in the intervening years. Venkman's inability to commit to Dana ended their original relationship, but he is shown to have changed and now be willing to serve as a partner and father.[153] Similarly, Murray's comedic talents are seemingly ineffective throughout the film, unable to charm his way out of difficult situations as in Ghostbusters and further the narrative. He instead serves as comic relief, and it is the Ghostbusters' noble heroism that progresses the story.[155]
Politics[edit]
As with the previous film, Ghostbusters II criticizes political institutions. The team actively questions authority in a deteriorating city filled with unhappy people. Government representatives are shown to be more concerned with proper processes than the imminent threat of the ghosts.[161][151] They are shown to be incompetent or pursuing an agenda of self-interest that means they cannot be trusted to protect the people they represent.[161]
The Ghostbusters' outspokenness results in them being sent to a psychiatric institution to silence them.[151] The Ghostbusters are freed from the governmental bonds—the legal requirements barring them from operating as paranormal exterminators—but only while they are solving more problems than they create.[162] Christine Alice Corcos describes the courtroom scene, in which the executed Scoleri brothers' return to wreak havoc, as a demonstration of the failure of the legal system. The government must again empower the Ghostbusters to deal with the problem, reaffirming the team's personal liberty over government influence.[161] Corcos also analyzed the slime as a symbol of pollution. The human soul is polluted by negativity, which is given a physical form as slime beneath the city until there is too much for the Earth to handle.[163]
Zoila Clark considered the ghosts to represent immigrants to America.[164] Several antagonists and ghostly forces are foreign—the Scoleri brothers, the passengers of the Titanic, Janosz, and Vigo.[165] Vigo is compared to Count Dracula, a threatening foreign entity that hypnotizes subjects with his eyes, and aims to take an American woman for his own.[166] The Statue of Liberty is of French origin and although it is described as a symbol of purity, Murray's character sexualizes it, defining it outside the American stereotype of purity.[167]
Legacy[edit]
Critical reassessment[edit]
Since its release, Ghostbusters II has been labeled as the film that "killed" the franchise because it made less money from a larger budget than Ghostbusters and because the filming experience and resulting reception dissuaded Murray from involvement in a third film.[168][169] While some modern critics continue to criticize it as a bad film or inferior to its predecessor, others argue that it suffers from being compared with Ghostbusters and is otherwise above average.[34][109][169] In a 2014 interview, Reitman defended the film, saying while it was unfairly compared with Batman at the time, he felt Ghostbusters II still holds up well against the superhero film.[105]
Digital Spy defended the film as being as good as or better than Ghostbusters. It said the plot of Ghostbusters II is arguably better executed than that of the first film, with multiple threads coming together in a "seamless" third act with a positive ending that works better with modern audiences.[105] Den of Geek compared it to sequels to other genre-specific classics like Back to the Future Part II and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), which were considered not as good as the original but as good films in their own right, while Ghostbusters II is perceived as being a bad film despite a close similarity to the original.[34] Deadspin said that like those aforementioned films, Ghostbusters II's darker setpieces and comedy made it more suited for adults than children, but that it is better than most people remember.[169] Uproxx called it the ideal film to watch during the New Year period because it offers an unsubtle, simple morality tale about treating others well.[170]
Contemporary review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes offers a 55% approval rating from 40 critics, with an average rating of 5.4/10. The site's consensus reads: "Thanks to the cast, Ghostbusters 2 is reasonably amusing, but it lacks the charm, wit, and energy of its predecessor".[171] The film has a score of 56 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 14 critical reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[172] In 2009, Den of Geek listed it as the eighteenth best blockbuster sequel of all time.[173]
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