Ghostbusters: Answer the Call (2016)

July 15, 2016

July 15, 2016

Ghostbusters (also known as Ghostbusters: Answer the Call) is a 2016 American supernatural comedy film directed by Paul Feig, who co-wrote it with Katie Dippold. Starring Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones, Kate McKinnon, and Chris Hemsworth, it is a reboot of the 1984 film and the third installment in the Ghostbusters franchise. The story focuses on four eccentric women who start a ghost-catching business in New York City after a paranormal encounter.

A third Ghostbusters film had been in various stages of development following the release of Ghostbusters II in 1989. Sony Pictures rebooted the series following the death of the original cast member Harold Ramis in 2014, and because another cast member, Bill Murray, refused to commit to a sequel. Some of the original cast and their family members make cameos in new roles, and Ramis is commemorated in the film's closing credits. The announcement of the female-led cast in 2015 drew a polarized response from the public.

Ghostbusters premiered at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles on July 9, 2016, and was released in the United States on July 15, by Sony Pictures Releasing. The film grossed $229 million worldwide against a $144 million production budget, making it a box-office bomb with losses for the studio of over $70 million. Sony abandoned plans for a sequel, opting instead to continue the original film canon with Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021).

Storyline

Particle physicists and estranged friends Abby Yates and Erin Gilbert co-authored Ghosts from Our Past, a book detailing their paranormal investigations since high school. Erin later disavowed the work, while Abby continues her research at the Kenneth P. Higgins Institute of Science in NYC, with engineering physicist Jillian "Holtz" Holtzmann as her partner. Now a professor at Columbia University and in line for tenure, Erin, discovering that Abby republished their book, convinces her to cease its publication if she helps Abby and Holtz investigate an alleged haunted house, the Aldridge Mansion. They encounter the malevolent ghost of the late Gertrude Aldridge before she escapes, restoring Erin's belief in the supernatural and friendship with Abby. Erin loses her bid for tenure at Columbia after their vlog becomes viral. Erin offers to join Abby and Holtz, but Thomas Shanks, the dean of the Higgins Institute, fires them, too. After stealing equipment, they establish temporary headquarters above Zhu's Authentic Hong Kong Food. They verbosely name themselves "Conductors of the Metaphysical Examination", build trappings, and hire jock Kevin Beckman as a receptionist.

MTA staffer Patty Tolan encounters a ghost in a subway terminal built under a haunted ACF and contacts the team. They find the ghost and test Holtz's prototype proton packs on the entity, but fail to capture it. They advertise their services with a "no ghosts allowed" logo that Holtz used based on a graffiti artist's defacement, and the name pundits have labeled them—"Ghostbusters". Patty joins the team, providing expertise on NYC, PPE, and a repurposed hearse from her mortician uncle Bill Jenkins, named "Ecto-1".

Mad scientist and occultist Dr Rowan North has triggered supernatural events by attracting ghosts across Manhattan with self-developed ionizers modeled on Ghostbusters' technology, allowing him to experiment and create a dimensional vortex powered by turned PSI energy. When Rowan plants another device at a concert, the Ghostbusters are called and capture a gargoyle-like spirit there, becoming city sensations but antagonizing him. When debunker Dr. Martin Heiss challenges the quartet, Erin releases the ghost as proof; it throws him out of a window and escapes.

The group is brought before Mayor Bradley and his deputy, Jennifer Lynch, who reveal that they and the DHS are aware of the city's supernatural activities. While privately acknowledging the team's work, they publicly denounce them as fraudsters. The quartet realizes Rowan is planting his devices along ley lines, with their alignments intersecting at the Mercado Hotel in Times Square, a site of violent occurrences where Rowan's vortex will breach a ghostly dimension, potentially triggering an apocalypse. When they confront him in his boiler room laboratory, Abby warns him of imprisonment, but unwilling to turn himself in, Rowan electrocutes himself with his main machine. After deactivating it, Holtz finds an annotated copy of Ghosts from Our Past that explains the similarity between their technologies. Erin later discovers that Rowan planned his suicide to become a ghost himself.

Rowan returns as a deity-like ghost and attempts to kill the Ghostbusters at their headquarters by possessing Abby, but Patty stops him. He then possesses Kevin, escapes to the hotel, opens the portal, and releases galvanized ghosts. Rowan subdues the authorities, but the Ghostbusters fight through his army to reach the portal. After leaving Kevin, Rowan asks the quartet what form they would like him to appear in. When Patty suggests a ghost, Rowan appears as the ghost in the Ghostbusters' logo, grows to a kaiju-like size to become a destroyer form, and goes on a rampage. The team uses Ecto-1's reactor as a makeshift bomb, detonating a nuclear explosion inside the vortex. This reverses the portal, forcing Rowan and the ghosts back in, restoring the city. Rowan tries to drag Abby with him in retaliation, but Erin leaps into the portal and rescues her until Rowan the Destroyer deceases after falling deep into the vortex.

Despite the city's fascination with the supernatural and its lauding of the Ghostbusters as heroes, the mayor's office continues to denounce them publicly while covertly funding their operations. With added resources, the Ghostbusters move to a disused firehouse, where they build more equipment, including an ecto-containment system. While investigating EVP, Patty hears the word "Zuul".

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Movie Trailer

Sound Effects Used

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  • Ghostbusters: Answer the Call (2016)/Image Gallery

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