The latest Ghostbusters: Afterlife trailer is charged with nostalgia with the presence of the original team in different ways, and there’s one very special appearance right at the end – but who is it? In 1984, the world met a very special team of parapsychologists who caught ghosts all over New York City in the movie Ghostbusters, written by and starring Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis and directed by Ivan Reitman. The movie made way for a franchise with a total of three movies, the third one being a reboot with an all-female team, and it's now getting a new movie that follows the continuity of the first two movies.
Set 30 years after the events of Ghostbusters II, this new adventure, titled Ghostbusters: Afterlife, follows Callie (Carrie Coon) and her children Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and Phoebe (McKenna Grace), who after being evicted from their home move to a farm inherited from Callie’s late father (who’s now confirmed to be none other than Ramis’ Egon Spengler), located in Summerville Oklahoma. When the town experiences a series of unexplained earthquakes, Trevor and Phoebe discover their family’s link to the original Ghostbusters team and decide to continue their legacy by taking care of whatever is messing with Summerville, with the help of some of the old Ghostbusters’ equipment and Mr. Grooberson (Paul Rudd), a local seismologist.
The links Ghostbusters: Afterlife will have to the original movie and team had been teased for a while, with the original cast returning in a cameo appearance, but the new trailer made these links a lot clearer and even provided a small taste of the presence of one of the original members. Throughout the trailer, the voices of the original team are heard and archive footage of their work back in the 1980s is shown as Phoebe and Trevor discover their family’s legacy, but right at the end is the first, actual glimpse at one of the original Ghostbusters – and it’s none other than Dan Aykroyd’s Ray Stantz.
Ray is an expert on paranormal history and metallurgy who worked as a parapsychology professor at Columbia University alongside Peter Venkman (Bill Murray) and Egon Spengler. After being fired following their first encounter with a ghost at the New York Public Library, they created the paranormal investigation and elimination service “Ghostbusters”. However, in Ghostbusters II, the business declined and Ray (along with Winston, played by Ernie Hudson) became an entertainer for parties and ran his own bookstore, called Ray’s Occult Books. Although his face is not seen in the Ghostbusters: Afterlife trailer, viewers can know it’s him before he even speaks as he’s shown in his bookstore, which also gives viewers an idea of what he has been up to since the events of Ghostbusters II.
Sony is playing its nostalgia cards with Ghostbusters: Afterlife, especially with that brief appearance at the end of the latest trailer, and while that’s not bad, as the original team has a special place in the hearts of fans and they would certainly love to see them again after all these years, the movie shouldn’t rely that much on nostalgia. Of course, this might just be part of the marketing game, and the story will be able to stand by itself without having to use the original team to tell Phoebe and Trevor’s journey.
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July 27, 2021 at 11:52PM
