The 2016 version of Ghostbusters (Answer the Call), a remake of the original, featured an all-female starring cast. Many folks had an issue with that. I didn’t…I just enjoyed it for what it was. Get a life!
Or an afterlife. The 2021 version, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, was billed as a sequel to Ghostbusters II. It involves the recently deceased Egon Spengler’s estranged daughter, Callie (Carrie Coon) and her kids, Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and Phoebe (McKenna Grace), who inherit Egon’s Oklahoma ranch, as well as a whole lot of otherworldly problems. The film left me pleasantly surprised.
Here are some fun lines from both.
GHOSTBUSTERS: ANSWER THE CALL (2016)
Dan Aykroyd had a cameo as a cab driver: “I don’t go to Chinatown, I don’t drive wackos, and I ain’t ’fraid-a no ghosts!”
Erin Gilbert (Kristen Wiig) returns from a dimensional vortex with white hair. She asks Jillian Holtzmann (Kate McKinnon), “What year is it?” Jillian replies, “It’s 2040. Our president is a plant.”
Patty Tolan (Leslie Jones) sees a ghost leaving on a subway train: “I guess he’s going to Queens. He’s going to be the third scariest thing on that train.”
Erin: “Why am I operating the untested nuclear laser?” Jillian: “You have the longest arms.”
Abby Yates (Melissa McCarthy): “We just gave a ghost a nuke. We should probably run.”
Bill Murray had a cameo as a ghost skeptic.
Patty is showing the others around a haunted subway tunnel: “Up above us was the old New York prison. It’s the first place in New York where they executed people. I’m telling you, it used to take so long that they just be like, ‘Shoot ’em! We using too much electricity.’”
The Ghostbusters are surrounded by nasty spirits. Erin says, “I’m not good in a fight.” Abby replies, “Well, here’s your chance to work on that.”
Abby puts the Ghostbusters on social media. She tells Erin, “We have over a hundred comments already. I wanna show you. Read that.” Erin (reading): “‘ Ain’t no bitches gonna hunt no ghost.’”
At a Hard Rock concert, a Famous Rock Star (Ozzy Osbourne) sees a dragon ghost: “Sharon! I think I’m having a flashback!”
GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE (2021)
Janine Melnitz (Annie Potts) tells Callie, “Your father wasn’t much of a homemaker. He could barely keep the power on.” Callie asks, “You’re saying he left us nothing?” Janine: “Well, I wouldn’t say nothing. There is quite a bit of debt.”
Lucky (Celeste O’Connor) asks Trevor, “What are you doing here in Summerville?” Trevor replies, “Honestly, my mom won’t say it, but we’re completely broke. And the only thing that’s left in our name is this creepy old farmhouse my grandfather left us in the middle of nowhere.”
Phoebe confronts the Spirit of Gozer, who asks, “Have you come to offer yourself in sacrifice?” Phoebe says, “What?” Gozer: “Are you prepared to die?” Phoebe: “No, I’m twelve. Are you?”
Phoebe is defending her grandfather to her mother: “He wasn’t nuts!” Callie: “Okay then, he was an asshole! Welcome to the family!”
Trevor (asking Lucky about a job): “Maybe you could put in a good word for me.” Lucky: “I’ll tell them you have a pulse.”
Phoebe is a twelve-year-old rocket scientist.
Phoebe (distracting Gozer with a bad joke): “A grasshopper walks into a bar and the bartender says, ‘We have a drink named after you,’ and the grasshopper says, ‘You have a drink named Steve?’”
The old Ghostbusters have reunited in Oklahoma to fight Gozer and Zuul. Peter Venkman (Bill Murray) intercepts Gozer as she is about to kill Callie and Phoebe: “Hey, flat-top. Have you missed us?” Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd) says, “Gozer the Gozerian! In the name of the county of Summerville, state of Oklahoma, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, all the members of Ducks Unlimited, the Association for the Advancement of Retired Persons, I command you under the National Invasive Species Act to depart this world immediately.”
Ray (reminiscing about the past): “We lost the firehouse. It’s a Starbucks now.”
Supernatural storm clouds gather over Oklahoma.
Phoebe, chatting with teacher Gary Grooberson (Paul Rudd) about science: “Is it safe?” Gary: “History is safe. Geometry, that’s safe. Science is all particle accelerators and hydrogen bombs. Science is giving yourself the plague and gambling on the cure. Science is reckless.” Phoebe: “Science is reckless?” Gary: “Totally! Yes! It’s punk rock. It’s a safety pin through the nipple of academia.”
Science can also help you survive a pandemic—my own observation. Next week I will offer my opinion on how the Ghostbusters films rank. And remember: “If there’s something strange in your neighborhood…”