

The credits play out as expected, until they get to a credit for Sigourney Weaver, one of the stars of the 1984 Ghostbusters, who hasn’t actually appeared in the film at that point. What happens in Ghostbusters: Afterlife ’s mid-credits scene? (He wrote and directed Groundhog Day, among other movies.) He died in 2014. It’s a tribute to Harold Ramis, who played Egon Spengler in the original movies, co-wrote both original Ghostbusters scripts, and was a celebrated comedian and filmmaker in his own right. What does “For Harold” mean at the end of the movie? But human ghosts who fight gods and hug their kids is certainly a new twist for a Ghostbusters story. We can presume, given the shape of so many traditional ghost stories, that Egon hung around on Earth because he had unfinished business to take care of, and once his grandkids defeated his mortal enemy (immortal enemy? she certainly hasn’t aged as much as everyone else since the 1980s), he could go on to whatever’s next. The Ghostbusters’ biggest enemy in the live-action movies isn’t even a ghost, she’s a god.
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It’s incredibly unclear what ghosts are in this series - whether blobby monster-ghosts like Ghostbusters’ Slimer and Ghostbusters: Afterlife’s equivalent critter Muncher are the spirits of dead humans, or “ghosts” in this world are mostly just weird spectral critters, or what. So wait, is there an afterlife in Ghostbusters: Afterlife ? Egon’s ghost shows up to help them take Gozer down, they all say an emotional goodbye to their silent spirit friend, and he fades out. Midway through the film, as Phoebe begins to understand who her grandfather was and what kind of threat he was fighting from the rural Oklahoma farmhouse Callie has inherited, she calls the Ghostbusters’ old phone number from their 1984 ads, and talks to Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd), who fills her in on what broke up the Ghostbusters, long before Egon’s death.Īnd when Phoebe, Trevor, and their friends try to fight the Sumerian god Gozer, who arrived in New York in the first film, all three surviving Ghostbusters - Ray, Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), and Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson) show up in their old suits and gear to join the battle. The Ghostbusters’ secretary Janine (Annie Potts) turns up early in the film, to check up on Egon Spengler’s old home, where his adult daughter Callie (Carrie Coon) and her kids Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) have come to live after Egon’s death. Most of the key cast of 1984 Ghostbusters shows up for this third entry in the trilogy.

Is Bill Murray in Ghostbusters: Afterlife ? The mid-credits scene is an extended in-joke for fans of the 1984 Ghostbusters, but the post-credits scene expressly teases a possible sequel at some point in the future. Ghostbusters: Afterlife has two bonus scenes - one a short ways into the credits, and one afterward. That’s exactly what director Jason Reitman does with Ghostbusters: Afterlife, his direct sequel to 1989’s Ghostbusters II, and his continuation of the work his father, Ivan Reitman, did in directing the original two Ghostbusters movies. And other creators aren’t just picking up on the MCU’s habit of adding end-credit scenes, they’re also picking up on the specific way that MCU movies now use them, with a mid-credits scene to add a little button onto a movie’s story, and an end-credits scene that shifts the focus toward the future of a hoped-for franchise. Now every film has one, even when they don't make sense.Post-credits scenes used to be a rare fun bonus for the cinematic faithful who stuck out the entirety of the credits, but Marvel Cinematic Universe movies have made them into almost an obligation for fandom-friendly movies.
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Started adding a little hook for the next movie on the end of its earlyįlicks. Post-credits scenes came to prominence when Afterlife certainly spends a good portion of its run-time winking at vocal fans of the original films, and a little bit of extra knowledge is required for the post-credits scenes to make sense.

Critics are divided about the nostalgia factor in Afterlife ( the Guardian called it "slimy, stinking corpse of a sequel" that's "custom-made for a fandom that worships everything and respects nothing"). Especially since the all-female 2016 reboot sucked the Ghostbusters franchise into culture war controversy, it's been a lightning rod for heated discussion. Whatever the thinking behind this tonally strange scene, it shows some of the issues with Ghostbusters (and fan-courting blockbusters) these days. Ernie Hudson (center) with Kate McKinnon, Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones and Melissa McCarthy filming a cameo outside the Ghostbusters firehouse in New York City in September 2015.
