Ghostbusters - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of Ghostbusters or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to Ghostbusters

[francisco]

When Alice the librarian is asked whether anyone in her family had ever had any history of mental illness, she says she had an uncle who thought he was St. Jerome, the patron saint of librarians.

[aaron]

In the dubbed French version, Venkman mentions Joseph Stalin as the potential embodiment of evil. In the Italian version, it's Adolf Hitler, although he's called "Adolfo Hitler." In the Spanish dub, it's Zedong Mao.

[nicholas]

Ivan Reitman didn't like the Deluxe Laserdisc Edition. The higher-density lighting made a lot of the matte work too obvious to ignore.

[aaron]

John Candy quit the role of Louis Tully because his ideas for the character were being rejected. According to Ivan Reitman in the DVD commentary, among Candy's suggestions he wanted the character to have a German accent and have a pair of schnauzer dogs. No one felt the German accent was appropriate for the character and since there was "dog imagery" in the movie (i.e.: the Terror Dogs), they felt having Tully own dogs was "too much". So John Candy quit early in production and Rick Moranis was cast at the last minute; Candy and Moranis are both veterans of SCTV (1976), along with Harold Ramis. Candy did, however work with each main Ghostbuster - Bill Murray and Harold Ramis in Stripes (1981), Dan Aykroyd in The Great Outdoors (1988), The Blues Brothers (1980) and Steven Spielberg's 1941 (1979), Annie Potts in Who's Harry Crumb?? (1989), and Ernie Hudson in Going Berserk (1983). He was also featured in the Ghostbusters music video.

[fred]

The original script had a budding romance between Janine and Egon, but most of it was edited out of the film. The special edition DVD features a deleted scene of Janine giving Egon a coin for luck before he goes off with the other Ghostbusters to fight Gozer. The relationship between Janine and Egon was explored more in The Real Ghostbusters (1986).

[eli]

Ivan Reitman got the idea for the lights behind the door from Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977).

[lonnie]

The eggs that fry themselves are sitting next to a package of "Stay-Puft" marshmallows. A large advertisement for "Stay-Puft" marshmallows (complete with the marshmallow man) is visible on the side of a building when the ghosts are freed during the "Magic" montage.

[caroline]

Paddi Edwards dubbed over Gozer's lines because Slavitza Jovan's accent came across as comedic.

[duane]

Scenes in the montage of the Ghostbusters running and driving the Ectomobile around New York were done on the first day, largely without film permits. In one scene, someone who looks like a security guard begins chasing them, and Dan Aykroyd is driving the Ectomobile.

[addison]

Dana Barrett's apartment is 2206.

[leo]

Venkman uses Zener Cards in his ESP experiment. Zener Cards use five simple symbols, and all appear in the scene: a star, a circle, a square, a cross, and a set of wavy lines. They do not include a figure-eight, which is one of Jennifer's guesses.

[linda]

The music video for the song "Ghostbusters" featured numerous celebrities who didn't appear in the film, including: Chevy Chase, Irene Cara, John Candy, Melissa Gilbert, Ollie E. Brown, Jeffrey Tambor, George Wendt, Al Franken, Danny DeVito, Carly Simon, Peter Falk, and Teri Garr. The Ghostbusters themselves (in costume) danced down Times Square right behind Parker. Cindy Harrell played the girl in the haunted house.

[edgar]

Christopher Walken, John Lithgow, Christopher Lloyd, and Jeff Goldblum were all considered for the role of Dr. Egon Spengler.

[jamie]

In May 2017, the Royal Society of Open Scientist dug up the preserved remains of a new species of dinosaurs called a crurivastator (translates to "destroyer of shins") in the US state of Montana. One of the scientists remarked that the skull of the crurivastator resembled Zuul the Terror Dog and the dinosaur's skeleton was put on display at the Royal Ontario Museum and the dinosaur was named after the Terror Dog.

[jesse]

The interiors for the hotel scene were mostly filmed at the famous Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, on the corner of 5th and Grand. This famous location has been used for hundreds of films, TV shows, and commercials, plus a few music videos. The three doors that the Ghostbusters walk through in the movie are actually located on the entrance on 5th St. The Grand Avenue entrance leads to the main lobby, which used to be the hotel ballroom. The room's formerly solid walls have been replaced by glass doors (at the entrance) and archways. The reception desk is where the long banquet table was located in the film. To the right would have been the bar that Egon blasts. The bar to the right of the main lobby has a picture of the old ballroom on one of the walls, giving a better perspective of what the room looked like in the early 1980s.

[tamara]

Eddie Deezen was considered for the role of Louis Tully.

[gerald]

When Venkman mentions the time Spengler tried to drill a hole in his head, Spengler's response ("That would have worked if you hadn't stopped me") was actually ad-libbed by Harold Ramis.