The afterlife is the nostalgic journey of the Ghostbusters.

Warning: This article contains major spoilers for Ghostbusters: The Afterlife.

To be fair, Ghostbusters: The afterlife knows its origin: not only is it a love letter to Ivan Reitman’s 1984 original Ghostbusters, but it also quotes a wider range of Ghostbusters legends and many resurrects. Easter eggs. The afterlife includes not only the returning characters of "Ghostbusters," but also the secret cameo of a new generation of characters. In other words, this is the right combination of fan service and traditional conspiracy.

Strangely, the fan service of "Ghostbusters: Afterlife" has received varying degrees of criticism. The initial ranking is lower than Ghostbusters (2016), but this kind of cynicalism is short-sighted. The restart of Paul Feige failed because it did not pay tribute to the original and criticized the direct sequel for doing exactly what the fans of this team originally wanted, which is not worth celebrating. It shows an inherent misunderstanding of this franchise. Crucially, Ghostbusters: The afterlife limits the playing time of the original Ghostbusters to a total of minutes, while also establishing a future where there can be more Ghostbusters movies-there is a new team - It is possible.

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Hybrid Ghostbusters: Afterlife commentary, this movie is a treat for franchise fans, giving a subtle and public nod to the original movie and the broader legend of the Ghostbusters universe. This is Ghostbusters: every Easter egg, reference and tribute in the afterlife.

The entire premise of "Ghostbusters: Afterlife" is based on the idea of ​​the infamous Gozer follower and cultist Ivo Shandor-Ghostbusters (1984), the architect of the building, which is secretly a PKE antenna to help Gozer break through-using Summerville as Construction metal. When Shandor's own tomb was located at the mouth of hell in a literal sense, it was a bit strange why it was necessary, but as a result, Summerville was built entirely by Shandor, and his name appeared on many buildings, including mining companies. As another Shandor reference, heralding the reappearance of the character, when Phoebe looked for an ad for Ghostbusters, the recommended video next to it included a video about Shandorian cultists. Shandor himself was played by JK Simmons, who performed in a secret (but not unrecognized) form for a few seconds.

As revealed in the trailer, Ray Stanz has Bible verses tattooed on his arm, and the same verse-Revelation 6:12-is used by Egon as a warning at the entrance to the "dirt farm". When Winston and Ray pondered the signs of the apocalypse, this passage also appeared in Ghostbusters:

Lei: When he opened the sixth seal, I saw a big earthquake. The sun became as black as sackcloth and the moon became blood.

Winston: The sea boiled and the sky fell.

Expand the quote to 6:12 to include lines about the sky turning black and the moon turning red.

When Phoebe first explored Egon's house, she found a small stone statue of Zuul on his table. Obviously, on a more important scale, the statue at the foot of Somerville Mountain also depicts Gozer the Destroyer and her minions, Zul and Wentzklosso (gatekeeper and keykeeper). Gozer's return confirms the background story of Ghostbusters, implying that travelers have been to Earth before, and expanding it more specifically to connect the entity to several major disasters on Earth. Unexpectedly, Olivia Wilde (Olivia Wilde) played Gozel (at least in the form of a "human").

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The opening scene of "Ghostbusters: The Afterlife" hints at Egon's ghostly presence in his farmhouse. When Phoebe, Trevor and Callie moved in, they saw a pile of books in the living room. They are piled high, apparently as a tribute to what the Ghostbusters found when they hunted down the ghost of the New York Public Library in 1984. "Asymmetrical book stack!" As Lei said, this is a known sign of hoax activity.

In a strange quirk, when it comes to the relationship between Jenny (Annie Potts) and Egon, the afterlife does not seem to clearly follow the Ghostbusters II classic. She calls herself Egon's friend, emphasizing that their relationship is deeper. In Ghostbusters II, Egon and Janine broke up after the original movie brought them together. The latter is related to Rick Moranis' Louis, which is not mentioned here. It’s a bit logical for Louis not to watch the movie, but it feels that the classic explanation of their relationship comes more from the Extreme Ghostbusters. Seeing that they are locked in a will they don’t want, they finally see Egon’s work and The ghost hindered them.

In addition to many old Ghostbusters equipment-which obviously includes Egon's PKE Meter and the first original proton bag found by Phoebe-his secret underground laboratory also has mushroom jars and many labeled petri dishes. This is a tribute to Egon’s now legendary embarrassing "chat" line from the original Ghostbusters to Janine: "I collect spores, mold and fungus."

Egon’s choice to communicate with Phoebe through chess is an interesting choice in two respects: First, the first issue of the IDW comics of Ghostbusters saw death challenge Egon to a game of chess to save his mortal soul (Egon’s Stand-in, Eduardo, wins). More touchingly, "The Real Ghostbusters" confirms that Egon likes chess but no one plays it: he connects with his isolated granddaughter through a shared appreciation of the game is a smart and deep.

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Three horror movies are shown or mentioned in "Ghostbusters: Afterlife". The first two were shown by Mr. Grooberson to his class-Stephen King's Nine Points, and then the children's game. The third is a more personal reference. In the big tent of the movie theater in Summerville is the Cannibal Girls. This is Ivan Reitman's second directorial feature film in 1973, ten years before he took over the Ghostbusters.

The book Phoebe and Podcast consulted to understand the legend of Gozer and the Devil Dog is Tobin's Spirit Guide, which occupies an important position in the expansion of Ghostbusters, including animation spinoffs and video games. When Venkman heard a possessed Dana say the name Gozer in Ghostbusters (1984), Ray Stantz also consulted the same source. The same book also appears in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer".

When Phoebe found the Ghostbusters uniform hidden in the hidden basement of Egon's underground, she found the Nestle Crunch in the top pocket of Egon's work clothes. This is a deep reference to Ghostbusters. After the initial team was expelled from the university, Venkman immediately said to Egon, "You...you won this", and he handed him a Nestle crunch bar. It has never really been explained in the universe and is widely regarded as product placement, but in the director's comment on the first film, Ivan Reitman claimed that Egon would continue to eat snacks as a conscious idea.

In another candy callback in "Ghostbusters" (1984), when Trevor restored Ecto-1 to a vaguely suitable state on the road, Spengler’s children looked at the glove box and found a Twinkie. This is a lovely callback to the Egon moment in the original movie. Egon uses Twinkie as an analogy to explain the strong psychological kinetic energy level before Gozer first appeared in New York.

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Okay, so it's right there, but the infamous Ghostbusters slogan "Who are you going to call?" Bokeem Woodbine's domineering Summerville police chief (and Lucky's father) said. When Phoebe asked her, Trevor and Podcast if they had the right to call when they were arrested for driving in Ecto-1, he said this. Later, when Carrie Coons’ Callie was possessed by Zuul, she almost copied Sigourney Weaver’s frequently repeated lines "There is no Dana, only Zuul...", replacing Dana with "Mom", when her children check whether she is okay Time. For the third reused circuit, Phoebe told Podcast to "turn on my power" when she was about to test the proton bag for the first time. This circuit mimics the circuit when Ray first powered his bag in 1984 .

In Ghostbusters II, when the team lost their jobs (only a few months after they rescued everyone from Gozer, New York lost ridiculous interest in their services), Ray paid the bill by selling books. He opened Ray's mystery book. Although the afterlife does not seem to be particularly dependent on the canon of Ghostbusters II, after Egon disbanded Ghostbusters, Stanz returned to the same bookstore.

Ghostbusters fan Josh Gade is one of the three secret performances of Ghostbusters: Afterlife and Olivia Wilde as Ivo Chandall of Gozel and JK Simmons. He provides the sound of the new Ghostbusters ghost Muncher-or more appropriately the grunt-a level 5 metal chewing ghost.

When Paul Rudd's Mr. Grooberson went to Walmart and was attacked by Zuul (after finding the possessed Mini-Puft Mallows), he bought a bucket of Baskin Robbins ice cream. This is a strange little callback to Paul Rudd's role as Ant-Man's MCU, because it was a job he accepted after his release from prison. As another curious reference, Mr. Grooberson also chose the Blue Velvet flavored ice cream topping sauce, which he sneered at, probably because it was very inappropriate to mention David Lynch’s controversial classics.

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Afterlife's Mini-Puft Mallows will inevitably stand out from Ghostbusters: Afterlife is the best-selling new element, but fans of the wider "Busters Legend" have already recognized them. The masochistic Mallow first appeared in the real Ghostbusters comic in 1989, and then returned in the one-off comic Ghostbusters: Deviations in 2016, where they were interpreted as the sentient version of the original Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man Defecation. Speaking of Stay Puft, there is a billboard for the company to advertise, and there is a huge mascot in Summerville, which shows that the PR company behind them is skilled enough to some extent to take the whole apocalyptic thing from everyone’s memory Erased.

Although Rick Moranis regrettably did not return in Ghostbusters: The Afterlife, there is a brief reminder of his role in the previous movies in Egon's secret basement lair. The homemade colander helmet he wore in the original Ghostbusters in 1984 appeared in the debris of the desk that Phoebe found in her grandfather's property.

When Callie was possessed by Zuul and ran away to seduce Paul Rudd's Vinz Clortho to infect Gary, she tore off her clothes to show that she was wearing Sigourney Weaver in the Ghostbusters. The orange and gold dress worn by Gozer's goalkeeper when he took over.

At least the original Ghostbusters learned from their initial battle with Gozer in New York. When the demon entity asked to know whether Lei was a god, it was of course a callback to the original movie, but Lei did not fall into a trap, but remembered the suggestion of "When someone asks if you are a god, you say yes"! "

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When he was asked in 2010 whether he would return to the potential Ghostbusters 3, he had previously stated that he would reject any method, and Bill Murray said he would only return as a ghost. This may not be a direct tribute to that, but Egon, who returned as a ghost, did immediately withdraw the abandoned plan. More relevantly, an episode of the real Ghostbusters-aptly called "Egon's Ghost"-saw him being "killed" by an invention of his own and turned into a ghost.

Without Ray Parker Jnr shouting "Bustin' makes me feel good!", it would not have been a Ghostbusters movie. Fortunately, Afterlife used the original version of the song in the closing subtitles instead of the updated "modern" version.

In the midpoint scene, Ghostbusters: Afterlife repurposed the infamous scene from Ghostbusters, Bill Murray’s Winkman replayed his scene with Sigourney Weaver’s Dana Barrett. ESP card test. This time he was the subject, and it was eventually revealed that he was cheating with a sign, and he was a terrible person in the 1980s, who would only shock his male participants in the past.

The last scene of Ghostbusters: The afterlife sees Winston Zedmore send Ecto-1 back to the New York fire station and "bring it home" after Egon stole it (and seems to ignore that Ray actually bought it The fact of it). He also told Janine about the importance of being a Ghostbusters to him, and it seems that he has built a traditional team in the future. Then there is the last shot of the fire station's containment unit, flashing ominous lights, which we saw in the Ghostbusters before, when Walter Peck shut down the unit and flooded the ghost into New York. Ominous warning to Ghostbusters: maybe a sequel to the afterlife?

Next post: Why did it take 31 years to make "Ghostbusters 3"

Simon is a senior editor and has been writing online since 2010-long before anyone wanted to read his work. He loves incompetence. Like it, a lot.