Ghostbusters: Afterlife Explained: What’s Up With the Ending?

 

Single mother Kelly (Carrie Coon), along with her 15-year-old son Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and 12-year-old daughter Phoebe (Mckenna Grace), are evicted from their rental property because Kelly has no money to pay rent. About a week ago Kelly’s father Egon died, who had broken with his family thirty years ago and settled in the middle of nowhere in Summerville to conduct experiments in the paranormal realm. And Kelly has no choice but to move with the children to her father’s abandoned house, because at least there you don’t have to pay rent.

Kelly’s children, of course, are terribly unhappy that they had to move into this hole, but there is nothing to do, you have to somehow adapt. Trevor, who really liked a girl named Lucky (Celeste O’Connor), who works at a local diner, got himself a job at this diner, lying about being seventeen years old.

And smart Phoebe Kelly attaches to a local summer school: there, however, Phoebe won’t have to study much, since the teacher Gary Gruberson (Paul Rudd) plays old horror films on ancient videotapes for the kids in the lessons, and he goes about his own business: he is a seismologist and he is very worried about the constant strange earthquakes that occur in Summerville County.

At school, Phoebe met a boy named Podcast (Logan Kim), with whom she became friends, and they spend a lot of time together.

Meanwhile, in the old house of Egon, who was called the Dirty Farmer in the town, all sorts of strange and incomprehensible incidents occur: light bulbs turn on and off on their own, some objects move by themselves. The inquisitive Phoebe rummages through every junk that the house is literally stuffed with, and first discovers an indicator of the presence of otherworldly forces, and then – not without clues from something otherworldly – she also finds the famous ghost trap, which was used by ghost hunters more than thirty years ago.

After that, it turns out that her grandfather Egon, whom she never knew, is the same Egon Spangler – one of the three ghost hunters.

***

“Ghostbusters” is a cult film of the mid-eighties: with its budget of $ 30 million, the picture collected around $ 300 million around the world and became the highest grossing comedy in the history of Hollywood, until in 1990 it was moved from this pedestal by the film “Home Alone”.

The screenplay was written by Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Rick Moranis and directed by Ivan Reitman. The Ghostbusters Trinity was played by Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. Interestingly, the role of Dr. Peter Venkman, played by Bill Murray, was originally written for Dan Aykroyd’s old friend John Belushi, but John died of an overdose in 1982, when the script was still being written, after which Bill Murray was invited to this role. Harold Ramis was not originally going to play in the film, he wanted to limit himself to writing the script, but then decided that he himself was quite suitable for the role of Dr. Egon Spangler, after which he played him.

The sequel to the film was released only five years later, in 1989. For a long time, Bill Murray refused to star in the sequel, because he was in conflict with the then head of Columbia Pictures, David Puttnam, and only after Puttnam left this post, Murray agreed to take part. The sequel also did well at the box office, showing an MCC of 5.8, but its rating is noticeably lower than that of the first film.

The triquel has been rumored for years. Ivan Reitman was ready to do it, but Bill Murray categorically refused any offers. In 2014, Harold Ramis died, after which even those sluggish attempts to somehow revive the project stopped altogether.

In 2016, in the wake of fashionable – as they are called – “fem-remakes”, director Paul Feig directed the new “Ghostbusters”, where Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig and Kate McKinnon played the hunters. The picture has a good rating on IMDB, although the first time after the release it was below the plinth, the picture failed at the box office, although not with a wild crash. I tried to watch it, but I only lasted half an hour.

And in 2021, the fantastic comedy “Ghostbusters: The Heirs” was released. To be honest, I didn’t plan to watch it at first. Well, what else can they film – kids as ghost hunters? Again some complete nonsense?

However, out of interest, I looked at the rating, and it turned out to be quite high. Moreover, if we also take into account the fact that such sequels are usually somewhat underestimated by fans of the original film, then it turns out quite well. Then I saw that the film was directed by Jason Reitman, the son of Ivan Reitman, and Jason is a very good director: he put “Smoking Here”, “Up in the Air” and “Tally”.

Well, in the end I decided to try to watch it with my son: he didn’t watch the original film, but he watched the children’s animated series of the same name.

Looked. We both really enjoyed it. The director managed to pull off a rather complicated thing: how to cross the generations of boomers and zoomers, that is, the eighties with modern times. At the same time, the production style is nostalgic and such a very “warm tube” one: Jason managed to transfer the charm and humor of the first “Ghostbusters” very clearly, while, of course, the special effects over the past thirty-five years have stepped forward a lot, so all these gozers , keykeepers, gatekeepers and munchers are also coolly drawn.

The main character here, of course, is Phoebe: a very smart and at the same time incredibly lonely girl, with whom her father did not find mutual understanding at all, her mother also does not understand her, she has practically no friends and she is saved by science, which she is very fond of. Mckenna Grace played her perfectly: Phoebe is very touching and at the same time incredibly purposeful. I remember this young actress from the film “Gifted” – the film itself is weak, but McKenna is absolutely wonderful there. (She also played in the film “Tonya against everyone”.)

Finn Wolfhard – Mike from Stranger Things – played Trevor, Phoebe’s older brother. He is responsible for Trevor’s romantic line with Lucky, and he, of course, takes an active part in countering the sinister forces of darkness that crawled out of the old Ivo Shandor mine. Not a bad role, but to be honest, nothing special. I liked Celeste O’Connor in the role of Lucky much more: the actress is charming and charismatic.

The podcast performed by Logan Kim is generally brilliant, one of the best characters in the picture. He was responsible for the humorous line, and his boy was very, very funny, and there, purely scripted, his dialogues with Phoebe are written very well, and it is played just fine.

Paul Rudd, as a school teacher, did not pull a blanket over himself, did not particularly comic, played rather restrainedly, but the image turned out to be pretty, I liked it.

Well, Carrie Coon as a desperate, but not quite desperate single mother Kelly is also good. I remember this actress from the role of Gloria Burgle in the third season of “Fargo”, but there that the season itself was already quite unsuccessful, that the character in Carrie’s script was completely ridiculous. And here the heroine is interesting, and well played.

A separate joy – all sorts of greetings, quotes and Easter eggs from the old film, here it’s all woven into the picture with great art.

In general, well, it’s just great: they carefully preserved the spirit of the old film, and told a new interesting story, and played it cool, and for Murray, Aykroyd, Weaver and Potts at the end of the film (it’s easy to guess about their appearance by the cast of the picture) – for this a big thank you very much!

I should also note that the movie went very well for me, a fan of the first film, and for my son, who did not watch the first film, so he did not read all these citations and references, nevertheless he also really liked it. So the new film is to a certain extent self-sufficient and it is quite possible to watch it for those who have not seen the original picture.

A great family movie, this is our final verdict with Bagel the Cat.

PS But, of course, as usual, I warn you about the high expectations syndrome.

PPS “Ivan Reitman, director of the original Ghostbusters duology, burst into tears of joy after watching the new sequel, which was directed by his son Jason Reitman. The director of the film Ghostbusters: Descendants told about this in an interview with Empire.

“My father hardly left the house because of the coronavirus,” says Reitman. – But he passed the test, put on a mask and went to the Sony studio to watch the film with the studio management. And then he cried and said: “I am incredibly proud that I am your father.” One of the best moments of my life”” (from here).

Ghostbusters: Descendants / Ghostbusters: Afterlife review

Director: Jason Reitman Cast: Carrie Coon, Paul Rudd, Finn Wolfhard, Mckenna Grace, Logan Kim, Celeste O’Connor, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts, Sigourney Weaver, JK Simmons, Bokeem Woodbine

Budget: $74 million, Global gross: $197 million
Fantastic comedy, USA-Canada, 2021, 124 min.

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