Ghostbusters Movie Scripts

Movie Scripts for Ghostbusters.

List of Scripts[]

Note that the information here is copied from Spook Central website.

Ghost Smashers- January 20, 1983 (Only one to be entirely written by Dan Aykroyd)
Ghostbusters- June 6, 1983
Ghostbusters- July 6, 1983
Ghostbusters- August 5, 1983 (pdf at Spook Central)
Ghostbusters- September 30, 1983 (pdf at Spook Central)
Ghostbusters- October 7, 1983 (pdf at Spook Central)
Ghostbusters- June 15, 1984 ("Combined Continuity & Master Subtitle/Spotting List")

Similarities and Differences[]

January 20, 1983 Draft[]

See Ghost Smashers page.

June 6, 1983 Draft[]

The graffiti on the Paranomal Studies Laboratory door read, "Venkman sucks cock in Hell!" as a reference to "The Exorcist." Ivan Reitman decided to take the high road and the message was changed in the movie.^[1]
Peter, Ray, and Egon were tossed out of a small New England college and then go to New York. It was realized there was something vital to the story taking place in New York. The opening sequence was set in a nice, converted farmhouse where a family was bothered by incessant knocking they couldn't trace. The theme of mundanity in supernatural phenomena was preserved when the scene was rewritten to take place in the New York City Public Library.^[2]
The opening sequence takes place in a nice, converted farmhouse where this family has been bothered by incessant knocking that they're unable to trace. So the Ghostbusters are in there climbing all over the house, knocking out walls and ripping up floorboards in their nicely remodeled kitchen. And at the end of the scene, all they're able to tell them is, "Well, you've got a knocking." "We know we've got a knocking! What's causing it!" "We'll have to get back with you on that."^[3]
Peter Venkman's love interest was an interdimensional woman posing as a beautiful woman. During a date at a fashionable restaurant, the alien's unfamiliarity with human etiquette became apparent. She tries to take off her blouse after she observed women removing their wraps.^[4]
Louis first appeared as a fellow refugee of the creature which was to become Peter Venkman's interdimensional love interest. With a diet cola commercial, one creature turns into a beautiful woman while the other turns into a heavy-set man. Louis would have been similar to John Candy's Johnny LaRue character from SCTV.^[5]^[6]
Zuul feels sorry for a horse in a bridle and harness and kissed it. They head to the Times Square Motor Hotel.^[7]
Rather than making an aerial passage uptown, the ghosts descend into an all but deserted subway station. As a transit cop chats amiably with a female cashier, the subway turnstiles begin spinning unaccountably. Investigating, the officer discovers a huddled mass of ghosts and vapors hovering directly over the tracks. When a speeding express train passes by, the spirits hitch a collective ride uptown -- taking over the cars en masse and sending everyone from motormen to muggers fleeing before them.^[8]
Egon pinpointed a small community in northern New Jersey as the likely epicenter of major psychic activity, due to its central proximity to three nuclear power plants and a number of chemical waste storage areas.
Gozer was to have taken the form of a "a swirling psychic maelstrom topped by a disembodied aphid's head of monstrous proportions" over New Jersey. The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man would have melted away to reveal this form.^[9]^[10]

Trivia[]

On the bottom left side of Cover B of Ghostbusters Year One Issue #1, there is a Second Dan Black Belt in Karate. From the September 30, 1983 draft to the final shooting script for Ghostbusters and on page 136 of Ghostbusters: The Supernatural Spectacular, Winston's resume listed him as a black belt in karate.
On Cover B of Ghostbusters Year One Issue #1, Winston's middle name Ramsey appears on the file. Ramsey was the original name of the character in early drafts of the first movie. The middle name was revealed in Volume 2 Issue #13, page 9, but the wedding priest.
On Cover B of Ghostbusters Year One Issue #2, under the P.K.E. Meter is a passage "from a vantage...Librarian as the –" which is from the start of the August 5, 1983, September 30, 1983, and October 7, 1983 drafts of the first movie. The full passage is, "A single eerie musical note signals the presence of something strange looking down on the Librarian from a vantage point high above the room. It follows the Librarian as she pushes her cart around the corner."

External Link[]

Spook Central has script for date August 5, 1983, September 30, 1983, and October 7, 1983 in the "Ghostbusters Scripts section"

References[]

↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 18 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "In the first Aykroyd-Ramis collaboration, the graffiti read: 'Venkman sucks cock in Hell!' -- an amusing reference to one of the shocker lines from The Exorcist. An occasional R-rated expletive -- strictly for humorous effect -- was also to be found in the early Ghostbusters drafts. In the end, however, Ivan Reitman opted to take the high road with regard to language and taste."
↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 36 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Harold Ramis says: "In our first draft, the Ghostbusters were tossed out of a small New England college and then go to New York. But we realized that there was something very vital about being in the city, so we began thinking maybe we should start the film there. That's when we came up with the idea of using the New York Public Library for our opening sequence."
↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 36 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Harold Ramis says: "Prior to that, it had been set in a nice, converted farmhouse where this family has been bothered by incessant knocking that they're unable to trace. So we're in there climbing all over the house knocking out walls and ripping up floorboards in their nicely remodeled kitchen. And at the end of the scene, all we're able to tell them is, 'Well, you've got a knocking.' 'We know we've got a knocking! What's causing it!' 'We'll have to get back wit you on that.' It was a little cruel -- and not very dynamic -- but it sort of touched on the mundanity of some supernatural phenomena."
↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 126 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Eventually cut from the script was a restaurant sequence which appeared in the June and July drafts. In both, Venkman takes Dana -- an interdimensional alien masquerading as a beautiful woman in the first draft, and a beautiful woman possessed by an interdimensional alien in the second -- to a fashionable restaurant. Her unfamiliarity with the finer points of human etiquette becomes apparent when, upon arrival, she observes several ladies removing their wraps and proceeds to follow their example by taking off her blouse."
↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 44 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "The character makes his first appearance in the June draft as a fellow refuge of the creature which was to become Venkman's interdimensional love interest. With a diet cola television commercial for inspiration, one creature transforms itself into a beautiful woman, while the other transforms into a heavy-set man."
↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 44 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Joe Medjuck says "At first, Louis was a much different character than the one you see in the film. He was similar to the Johnny LaRue character that John did on SCTV."
↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 124 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "The exchange between Louis and the horse harkens back to a deleted scene from the June and July drafts in which Venkman and the alien Zuul -- masquerading as human in Dana's body -- leave the restaurant and encounter several carriage horses. Noticing the bridles and harnesses, Zuul inquires if they are prisoners. Uncertain of her reaction, Venkman responds promptly: "No, no. They're volunteers. This is considered a good job for a horse." "They look so sad," Zuul laments, and then kisses one of the beasts with enough genuine emotion to elicit a worried look from the carriage driver. In the June draft, Venkman pulls her away and segues -- ever so smoothly -- into an invitation which leads to his surprise wakeup the next morning: "You know, I was just thinking. No trip to this dimension would be complete without a visit to the Times Square Motor Hotel."
↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 145 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "The flying fish-like ghost which flits out of the subway entrance was a mere reminder of a much more elaborate introduction to the montage conceived by Ramis and Aykroyd in their first collaboration. In that draft, rather than making an aerial passage uptown, the ghosts descend into an all but deserted subway station. As a transit cop chats amiably with a female customer, the subway turnstiles begin spinning unaccountably. Investigating, the officer discovers a huddled mass of ghosts and vapors hovering directly over the tracks. When a speeding express train passes by, the spirits hitch a collective ride uptown -- taking over the cars en masse and sending everyone from motormen to muggers fleeing before them."
↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 197 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "The Stay-Puft confrontation came considerably later in the first Aykroyd-Ramis collaboration, but even in that draft, the Ghostbusters were to regroup in New Jersey for a final battle with the Gozer in its most terrifying form - a swirling psychic maelstrom topped by a disembodied aphid's head of monstrous proportions."
↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 155. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Although it was always the intent to have Gozer appear first in quasi-human form and then transmutate into a giant walking ad for Stay-Puft marshmallows, early plans were to have the melting marshmallow man reconfigure itself yet again into a third, even larger and more horrific manifestation. Three advanced Gozer concepts by Berni Wrightson and one by Robert Kline."

Gallery[]

Drafts[]

Comics[]

[1] Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 18 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "In the first Aykroyd-Ramis collaboration, the graffiti read: 'Venkman sucks cock in Hell!' -- an amusing reference to one of the shocker lines from The Exorcist. An occasional R-rated expletive -- strictly for humorous effect -- was also to be found in the early Ghostbusters drafts. In the end, however, Ivan Reitman opted to take the high road with regard to language and taste."

[2] Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 36 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Harold Ramis says: "In our first draft, the Ghostbusters were tossed out of a small New England college and then go to New York. But we realized that there was something very vital about being in the city, so we began thinking maybe we should start the film there. That's when we came up with the idea of using the New York Public Library for our opening sequence."

[3] Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 36 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Harold Ramis says: "Prior to that, it had been set in a nice, converted farmhouse where this family has been bothered by incessant knocking that they're unable to trace. So we're in there climbing all over the house knocking out walls and ripping up floorboards in their nicely remodeled kitchen. And at the end of the scene, all we're able to tell them is, 'Well, you've got a knocking.' 'We know we've got a knocking! What's causing it!' 'We'll have to get back wit you on that.' It was a little cruel -- and not very dynamic -- but it sort of touched on the mundanity of some supernatural phenomena."

[4] Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 126 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Eventually cut from the script was a restaurant sequence which appeared in the June and July drafts. In both, Venkman takes Dana -- an interdimensional alien masquerading as a beautiful woman in the first draft, and a beautiful woman possessed by an interdimensional alien in the second -- to a fashionable restaurant. Her unfamiliarity with the finer points of human etiquette becomes apparent when, upon arrival, she observes several ladies removing their wraps and proceeds to follow their example by taking off her blouse."

[5] Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 44 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "The character makes his first appearance in the June draft as a fellow refuge of the creature which was to become Venkman's interdimensional love interest. With a diet cola television commercial for inspiration, one creature transforms itself into a beautiful woman, while the other transforms into a heavy-set man."

[6] Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 44 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Joe Medjuck says "At first, Louis was a much different character than the one you see in the film. He was similar to the Johnny LaRue character that John did on SCTV."

[7] Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 124 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "The exchange between Louis and the horse harkens back to a deleted scene from the June and July drafts in which Venkman and the alien Zuul -- masquerading as human in Dana's body -- leave the restaurant and encounter several carriage horses. Noticing the bridles and harnesses, Zuul inquires if they are prisoners. Uncertain of her reaction, Venkman responds promptly: "No, no. They're volunteers. This is considered a good job for a horse." "They look so sad," Zuul laments, and then kisses one of the beasts with enough genuine emotion to elicit a worried look from the carriage driver. In the June draft, Venkman pulls her away and segues -- ever so smoothly -- into an invitation which leads to his surprise wakeup the next morning: "You know, I was just thinking. No trip to this dimension would be complete without a visit to the Times Square Motor Hotel."

[8] Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 145 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "The flying fish-like ghost which flits out of the subway entrance was a mere reminder of a much more elaborate introduction to the montage conceived by Ramis and Aykroyd in their first collaboration. In that draft, rather than making an aerial passage uptown, the ghosts descend into an all but deserted subway station. As a transit cop chats amiably with a female customer, the subway turnstiles begin spinning unaccountably. Investigating, the officer discovers a huddled mass of ghosts and vapors hovering directly over the tracks. When a speeding express train passes by, the spirits hitch a collective ride uptown -- taking over the cars en masse and sending everyone from motormen to muggers fleeing before them."

[9] Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 197 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "The Stay-Puft confrontation came considerably later in the first Aykroyd-Ramis collaboration, but even in that draft, the Ghostbusters were to regroup in New Jersey for a final battle with the Gozer in its most terrifying form - a swirling psychic maelstrom topped by a disembodied aphid's head of monstrous proportions."

[10] Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 155. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Although it was always the intent to have Gozer appear first in quasi-human form and then transmutate into a giant walking ad for Stay-Puft marshmallows, early plans were to have the melting marshmallow man reconfigure itself yet again into a third, even larger and more horrific manifestation. Three advanced Gozer concepts by Berni Wrightson and one by Robert Kline."

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Ghostbusters Wiki

Ghostbusters Movie Scripts

Contents

List of Scripts[]

Similarities and Differences[]

January 20, 1983 Draft[]

June 6, 1983 Draft[]

July 6, 1983 Draft[]

August 5, 1983 Draft[]

September 30, 1983 Draft[]

October 7, 1983 Draft[]

Trivia[]

See Also[]

External Link[]

References[]

Gallery[]

Drafts[]

Comics[]

Fan Feed