It’s been quite the journey for fans of the original Ghostbusters movies to arrive at a point where a proper sequel to the franchise would see the light of day. Truth be told, Dan Aykroyd (Ray Stantz in the films) had a script ready to go way back in 1990, just one year after Ghostbusters 2 hit theaters. Unfortunately, nearly 20 years of development hell followed, as well as the unfortunate death of Harold Ramis (Egon Spengler). But then, finally, in 2016 … a reboot of the first film was made. It seemed to the fans of old that all hope was lost. The return of the original Ghostbusters team, or at least the universe in which they existed, had been left behind.
Well it seems there’s something to this whole ghost thing, for in July of 2019, the franchise came back from the dead with the announcement that casting had been completed for Ghostbusters: Afterlife, a legitimate sequel to Ghostbusters 2 to be directed by Jason Reitman, son of the first two films' director, Ivan Reitman. The movie was to be released in July of 2020.
And then the COVID-19 pandemic happened. Like most big studio releases, the completed film went into limbo, awaiting the reopening of the world’s theaters. But then, finally (for real, this time), a new release date was set, and fans could once again rejoice! And now we can rejoice even harder, for a new trailer has also materialized. Many plot details, characters old and new, and Easter Eggs have been thrown into this new look at the film, so we’re here to point them all out and let you know what you might expect from the long overdue threequel. Let’s dive right in, as I think we’ve all had our fill of waiting.
So, the trailer opens with a shot of the fictional, rural town of Summerville, OK, where the film takes place. Callie Spengler (daughter of the late Egon, played by Carrie Coon) and Mr. Grooberson (a schoolteacher played by Paul Rudd) are pictured in the local diner, discussing Callie’s kids, Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and Phoebe (Mckenna Grace), the latter of whom seems to be keeping mom at a distance. We see a shot of Phoebe being bullied at school, and Mr. Grooberson refers to her nerdy awkwardness. Phoebe is shown inside the family’s inherited farmhouse, sliding wooden floor tiles around like a puzzle. The solution unlocks a hatch, inside which she finds a ghost trap, the device the ghostbusters used to contain errant spirits. It seems Phoebe has inherited the brilliant mind of her scientist grandfather, and all the popularity that gift brings during middle school years.
The trailer then turns to Trevor, who tells his friend Lucky (Celeste O’Connor) that the reason his family came to Summerville is that they’ve fallen into poverty and had nowhere else to go beyond the aforementioned farmhouse left to them by Egon. Inside the farmhouse, a framed black and white photo of his grandfather standing with fellow ghostbusters, Ray, Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), and Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson) sits on a counter.
Janine Melnitz (Annie Potts), the team’s old secretary, pops in for a visit with Callie, and subtly implies that despite appearances, there is more to their inheritance than meets the eye. This leads into a scene in which Trevor discovers Ecto-1, the ghostbusters’ old war wagon, sitting tarped inside the barn. He subsequently fixes its engine and takes the vehicle on a joy ride through some wheat fields.
This frolicsome scene is quickly countered by ominous clouds shadowing Summerville, as well as earthquakes shaking up the local businesses. Mr. Grooberson tells the kids that these tremors are happening on a daily basis, despite the fact that the town lies on no fault lines.
As if that weren’t enough to indicate trouble of the ghost-related variety, we see Trevor and friends gathered around an old mine shaft, out of which some sort of fiery entity emerges, blasting into the sky with a shriek. A voiceover from Phoebe states that Egon came to the town for a reason. This implies that Egon was likely on to Summerville’s status as a hotbed of supernatural activity.
Next stop, nostalgia city, where Phoebe is watching an old TV ad for the ghostbusters’ services (from the first movie) on YouTube. Ray, Egon, and Peter are heard spouting their cheeseball sales pitch to eliminate unwanted hauntings from potential customers’ lives while a few fast shots are shown. The first is an unnatural, thick fog invading a home. Next, someone discovers a P.K.E. meter (the psychokinetic energy meter used in previous movies to detect ghostly activity) in an old box. Then, a hanging lamp stretches out toward Callie’s fraught face.
Things start to get weird as we observe Mr. Grooberson at the supermarket, staring at a tiny Stay Puft Marshmallow Man (a Godzilla-sized one presented a major threat in the first movie) standing on a shelf looking back at him. Grooberson spins around to find a whole army of these tiny creatures wreaking havoc on everything within the store, including themselves. This becomes apparent when a handful of them use a blowtorch to cook a s'more containing one of their own as an ingredient.
A blink-and-you-might-miss-it flash of the kids lowering themselves via platform into what looks like an enormous, ancient temple follows. This is most likely the same underground space that the group saw the burning entity emerge from earlier. Here’s where things really get nuts. A gigantic statue is standing before them, and its resemblance to the big bad of the first movie, Gozer, is uncanny. Further evidence that this is indeed a former place of worship to the Sumerian god of Destruction comes in the form of a smaller statue beside the first. It closely resembles one of the Devil Dogs (the terrifying forms taken by demigods Zuul, The Gatekeeper and Vinz Clortho, The Keymaster) that served Gozer in Ghostbusters.
The trailer then returns to signs of ultimate doom surrounding Summerville. A giant cyclone containing whirling spectral lights representing ghosts hangs above a mountain. Purple lighting strikes down upon it. Phoebe stares down into a boiling pit of lava. Ghost lights fly out of the temple. And then, the big reveal: a dark, monstrous figure with electricity crackling off its hands climbs up from the abyss. Yep, it’s Gozer alright.
Some of the original movies’ horror-based humor appears in the form of a skeleton in mining gear sitting in the diner while a waitress trepidatiously serves it coffee. Scarier fare follows as what looks like a giant werewolf composed of black smoke roars at a cowering police officer. It then shoots off into a plume that flies between two school buses, shattering the vehicles’ windows. Phoebe screams and shields her face from the glass.
We turn back to Mr. Grooberson, who races out of a Walmart in fear. A large, four-legged beast comes crashing through the front window panes behind him. While it doesn’t have glowing red eyes, it otherwise looks much like a Devil Dog, horns and all.
At long last, the heroes of the film take action, speeding into town in Ecto-1. Phoebe pulls on a lever, and her seat, attached to an extending mechanical arm, bursts out of the side door. She is armed with a proton pack, the primary weapon of the ghostbusters in the previous films. At the same time, a small ramp pops open below the car, and a drone-like, four-wheeled version of the ghost trap drops onto the street to ride alongside. Phoebe then bombards a fleeing ghost with a proton stream. Jason Reitman has revealed publicly that this chubby, misshapen little spirit is named Muncher. Muncher is apparently of the same class of ghost as the franchise’s popular Slimer.
The trailer cuts to the Ghostbusters: Afterlife title shot. Afterwards, we see Mr. Grooberson, Phoebe, and another child staring at a laptop that’s streaming the end of the old Ghostbusters TV ad. Peter, Ray, and Egon proclaim their business’s slogan: “Ghostbusters, we’re ready to believe you!” A phone number pops up on the screen below the trio.
Immediately thereafter, a red phone starts ringing inside an occult book shop. Someone picks up the receiver. While only his arm is visible, the voice is unequivocally that of Ray’s, who owned an occult book store even before he became a ghostbuster. “We’re closed,” Ray says before the trailer wraps up.
What must be noted before we wrap up here is that Ray’s arm was sporting a tattoo that wasn’t present in the first two movies. All but the digits ‘6:12’ are difficult to make out, but Reitman has revealed that the tattoo is a call-back to the conversation Ray had with Winston about ‘Revelations 6:12’ in the first movie. Ray quoted it as saying, “And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood.” He noted that the verse refers to the rising of the dead and end of the world, which he deemed nothing but myth. But Winston was quick to point out that the ghostbusting business was at that time booming, and that may have been because the dead were indeed rising. It seems by his new ink that this sobering notion left quite an effect on old Ray.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife releases, with all sweet hope and luck, on November 11, 2021 in theaters. Watch the new trailer below.