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Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (Chapter 06)

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Chapter 06 introduces the Paranormal Research Center.

Cast[]

Listed as they appear in film.

Entities[]

Equipment[]

Items[]

Vehicles[]

Environmental[]

Places/Locations[]

Plot[]

Ecto-1 took the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge to Staten Island.

Winston Zeddemore explained the building used to be the Triborough Aquarium but had since became a squatter's paradise and rave venue. He swiped a card to open a set of doors and welcomed the team to the Paranormal Research Center. He spoke of its mandate to think about the future, answering the questions ghostbusting poses. He handed cards to each of them then listed off having a parabotanist, and paramusicologist on staff. Lucky tested a Compact Thrower in the shooting range. She sliced the target in half and was happy to see Trevor standing outside the range. They hugged. Winston re-introduced hired Lars, the resident parabiologist. Gary recognized a Sony Walkman Sport and grabbed it but it munched at his fingers. Lars took it away and revealed it was possessed by an evil Spin Doctors CD. He pointed out a Haunted Grandfather Clock haunted by the ghost of a grandfather. Gary laughed.

Lars demonstrated the Ionic Separator with the Haunted Discman. The device extracted the ghost from the haunted object and sent it into another chamber where it was wrangled in Proton Streams and pulled into a Trap. Phoebe Spengler inquired if they tested it on living possession yet. Lars replied they were still tweaking. He deposited the ghost into the new Containment Unit. Winston presented it to the team. Ray remarked it could spin the equivalent of 50 million cubic hectares of plasmic confinement, a space equal to the American West. He and Gary did a riff on "Home, Home on the Range". When Callie Spengler asked how long it would take to transfer all the ghosts in the Containment Unit to the new version at the center, Lucky estimated it would take three to seven years if they went Trap by Trap in regular shifts. Ray handed the plastic bag holding the Orb of Garraka to Lucky and wished her luck on extracting whatever was in it.

Phoebe looked at an enclosure but saw nothing. Once she turned to ask Winston what it was, Bonesy appeared. Winston revealed they were studying ghosts, too. Callie asked why the ghosts never escaped. Phoebe noted the barrier of proton fields. Winston confirmed Proton Fields worked on the same technology as Proton Packs and kept the ghosts on display in their enclosures. Gary and Callie looked at one of the ghosts being studied, Pukey. They found it cute and waved. It vomited a stream of ectoplasm towards them. Ray instantly recognized Possessor and called it the most threatening pest in the facility, a "spry little weasel" that could inhabit any inanimate object it wanted. Possessor jumped from a table centerpiece, into the ceiling light, a plate, a lamp, a folding chair, a TV stand, the vintage Sony television set, a Hoover vacuum cleaner, cup, candy dish, and a pair of scissors. It then launched the scissors towards Trevor Spengler and hit the glass pane. Ray laughed.

On the drive back, Gary was jazzed about what they saw but paused when he noticed Phoebe was despondent. Gary reversed into the Firehouse with Callie and Trevor directing him. That night, on the second floor, Gary felt bad and pretended to have trouble putting his Proton Pack back together. Phoebe played along and plugged a component back in. There was a call. Gary paused. Phoebe told him it was okay to go.

Trivia[]

  • The bridge shot was filmed by the second unit on the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge.
  • At one point, the name was going to be the Paranormal Discovery Center.[Note 1] The name was accidentally used in the initial digital release's special features section.
  • The red camp shirt Phoebe wears in Frozen Empire, during the introduction of Lars and the Paranormal Research Center, has circular patterns on them inspired by the side of the Proton Pack.[1]
  • For filming, the exterior of the Paranormal Research Center was the Lyons Pool on Staten Island.[2][3]
  • Winston explains the building was once the Triborough Aquarium then a squatter's paradise and rave venue.
  • The Paranormal Research Center set was at Winnersh Film Studios in Wokingham, United Kingdom.[4]
  • The design of interior of the Paranormal Research Center was inspired by an Art Deco aquarium that operated in the 1930s in Baltimore.[5]
  • The fish wall sculptures on the corridor walls were inspired by the Berlin Zoo.[6]
  • The blue tile on the walls are not real glazed ceramic tile. In reality, they are just plaster with layers of paint.[7]
  • The horn bought for narwhal hanging in hallway was 1 meter too long so set decoration had to jam the horn into the narwhal's nose.[8]
  • As a homage to Danny Glicker, friend and costume designer on Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Alexis Forte put "Glicker" on the parabotanist's name patch.[Note 2]
  • The haunted plant at the parabotanist's station was hooked up to several wires to give the idea that the scientist was studying to see to what extent is the plant haunted: just a leaf or down to the chlorophyll and cells.[9]
  • As a shout out to Sam Moulsdale, a graphic designer on Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, Alexis Forte put "Moulsdale" on the name patch of the paramusicologist for helping out the costume department.[Note 3]
  • The haunted cello at the paramusicologist's station was hooked up to suggest the scientist was monitoring sounds like modern day ghost hunters using heart monitors and similar medical devices.[10]
  • The paramusicologist uses a Panasonic Toughbook CF-29 laptop.
  • Prop modeller Ellen Gould made the Compact Thrower props. The wiring was done by Douglas Hedges. The external cable was initially yellow then changed to black.[11]
  • The body is a left hand version of the Particle Thrower.[12]
  • Trevor mentions Lucky is an intern at the Ghostbusters Engineering Corps.
  • The parts used to make the Compact Thrower were mostly from a $30 kit bought off of eBay.[13]
  • Around the 31:19 mark, among the shot of the possessed items donated by Ray is a Sony PlayStation Portable. Ghostbusters: The Video Game was released on the system.
  • The improved Proton Pack model used at the end of the movie can be seen in the background near Lars's station.
  • As demonstrated in the March 21, 2024 episode of Tested's set visit, senior SFX technician demonstrated the operation of the haunted Sony Discman Player props with a Futaba T16IZ digital transmitter.
  • The more aggressive of the two haunted Sony Discman Players had a servo receiver battery that also drove a leg at the bottom that acted like a ratchet and allowed it to hop around.[14]
  • Gary recalls having owned the same model of Sony Discman player.
  • Lars reveals the Sony Discman is possessed by an evil Spin Doctors CD.
  • The Ionic Separator was vaguely inspired by the basic logic of the teleportation device in "The Fly".[15]
  • The new Containment Unit was originally straight along one wall but it was deemed boring and filling up too much wall. Eve Stewart and Gil Kenan decided to give it the L-design.[16]
  • Winston mentions Egon Spengler.
  • For the Puft Terrarium, Eve Stewart looked up what lab animals were kept in and bought a spinning disc tower from a cake store .[17]
  • The Ionic Separator was painted yellow as a contrast to the color of the ghosts that appear in them in the movie.[18]
  • The Ionic Separator took about a month to complete.[19]
  • Lucky estimates if they remove the ghosts Trap by Trap from the original to the new Containment Unit in regular shifts, it would take three to seven years.
  • Ray bids Lucky good luck in removing whatever is in the orb, later revealed to be Garraka.
  • Pukey was inspired by Jason Reitman's love of pugs.[20]
  • There was some back and forth with leaving in and removing Pukey from the movie.[21]
  • Armorer Doug McCarthy made the Pukey set puppet.[22] He hand carved it from a closed cell white foam and it was used for the actors to perform to and with during filming.[23]
  • The ectoplasm made for Pukey was referred to as Ecto Puke. The colors were yellow with a little bit of green.[24][25]
  • Doug McCarthy made and shot all the Ecto Puke for Pukey.[26]
  • Over 24,000 pints of Pukey's ectoplasm was made for practical on-set use and testing.[27]
  • A compressed air slime system was rigged to emit the ectoplasm from the on-set puppet's mouth. For each scene, it would shoot 28 pints.[28]
  • Some of Pukey's scenes were cut or unused.[29]
  • Gil Kenan specifically brought the haunted dolls to set.[30]
  • At some point during production, Bonesy was swapped into the movie in Phosphor's place. An on set puppet was made by SFX senior technician Doug McCarthy and it was scanned by the VFX team.[31][32]
  • Winston notes the Proton Fields are the same technology as the Proton Packs.
  • The overhead shot at the 34:40 mark was the intersection of Church and Worth Streets. The buildings in the lower corner are 220 Church Street and 33 Thomas Street.[33]
  • The Firehouse second floor set was at Winnersh Studios in the United Kingdom.[34]

Notes[]

  1. ↑ In an email exchange between Paul Rudoff of the Spook Central website and Eric Reich of Ghost Corps on May 8, 2024, Reich revealed, "They are going to correct on digital, and hopefully in time for physical. At one point it was called the Paranormal Discovery Center which is how the mistake occurred."
  2. ↑ In an email correspondence with Alexis Forte on September 7, 2025, Forte revealed the name patch of the parabotanist was "Glicker," after Danny Glicker, who was the costume designer on Ghostbusters: Afterlife, and the designer for most of Jason Reitman's movies. Forte was Glicker's assistant costume designer for many years and became very close friends so the name patch was her homage to him.
  3. ↑ In an email correspondence with Alexis Forte on September 7, 2025, Forte revealed the name patch of the paramusicologist was "Moulsdale," after Sam Moulsdale, who was a graphic designer on Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire and helped out the costume department a lot.

References[]

  1. ↑ Countdown City Geeks YouTube "Alexis Forte Interview - Ghostbusters Frozen Empire Costume Designer" 22:50-23:27 3/29/2024 Alexis Forte says: "And so I wanted to do another little nod to her wearing something else that's like a little symbol so the little circular pattern that she has are the circles on the side of the Proton Pack when it's a circle, half-circle, semi-circle so I work with the graphic designer. We put the circles on a little line and create a pattern that was mix matched and getting options of it silkscreened onto linens and printed onto cottons and all that is so time consuming for a little easter egg someone may or may not notice."
  2. ↑ Spook Central "Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire Production Notes" 3/22/2024 Eve Stewart says: "We knew we had to have an exterior for this aquarium in New York, so we found a big, round building on Staten Island that we could use as the exterior. That, in turn, informed the very aqueous shapes and corridors and arches we have designed inside. And it seemed natural to have empty fish tanks for the ghosts to live in."
  3. ↑ Adam Savage's Tested YouTube "Adam Savage Tours The Ghostbusters Research Lab Set!" 00:36-00:48 3/26/2024 Eve Stewart says: "Well, we saw a really brilliant exterior on Staten Island/ A round building which Gil and I, well mainly Gil, fell in love with and then I really bought into so I just imagined what the inside looked like."
  4. ↑ horacestunts instagram 4/6/2024 Kevin Mangold writes: "Research Lab Winnersh Film Studios, Wokingham, UK."
  5. ↑ Spook Central "Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire Production Notes" 3/22/2024 Eve Stewart says: "We wanted to set it in an abandoned aquarium. I did a lot of research and found an amazing deco aquarium that had existed in Baltimore in the 1930s -- that gave me the inspiration for all the tiles and the shapes."
  6. ↑ Adam Savage's Tested YouTube "Adam Savage Tours The Ghostbusters Research Lab Set!" 00:53-1:12 3/26/2024 Eve Stewart says: "This tile, I did loads of research on abandoned aquariums and I found an amazing one from the 30's in Baltimore and they had these incredible glazed tiles and then so I embraced that completely and then after that I was looking at other aquariums and I found these in Berlin Zoo."
  7. ↑ Adam Savage's Tested YouTube "Adam Savage Tours The Ghostbusters Research Lab Set!" 1:38-1:59 3/26/2024 Eve Stewart says: "These ones are real process and what's been amazing because obviously you're on a budget and tile and the plasterers again together with the painters are just genius. The ones I work with so these look like really really well glazed ceramic tiles but they're not. They're just plaster with layers of paint but now you must look up because there's a really exciting graffitied narwhal."
  8. ↑ Adam Savage's Tested YouTube "Adam Savage Tours The Ghostbusters Research Lab Set!" 2:05-2:13 3/26/2024 Eve Stewart says: "This is from one of those and but to fit in the curved corridor was a meter too long so poor narwhal, we just had to shove it in his nose."
  9. ↑ Adam Savage's Tested YouTube "Adam Savage Tours The Ghostbusters Research Lab Set!" 3:18-3:33 3/26/2024 Eve Stewart says: "Yeah, so we've attached all these wires to different liquids to find out with the osmosis that the plant's doing and the chlorophyll and moving through its cells. What's happening-is it every cell is possessed or is it a whole leaf? I'm trying to work that out."
  10. ↑ Adam Savage's Tested YouTube "Adam Savage Tours The Ghostbusters Research Lab Set!" 3:41-3:59 3/26/2024 Eve Stewart says: "If you look up what happens when real ghost hunters are on the trail of a ghost, they definitely listen to sound, and sound vibrations and waves of wound so we were trying to think how to express this with a cello and then I just thought the heart monitor."
  11. ↑ Ellen Gould instagram 4/5/2024 Ellen Gould says: "Aaaaand I give you... The wrist Neutronas (/wrist blaster/wrist rifle) I assembled for #ghostbustersfrozenempire! Featuring myself and @the_propmakers_journal_ as enthusiastic models (NB photos were taken before the external cable was changed from yellow to black) Wiring by the incomparable @doughedgescollectedwork."
  12. ↑ Your Geek Fix YouTube 12:04-12:10 5/24/2024 Ben Hall says: "The body is a left hand version of the proton wand."
  13. ↑ Your Geek Fix YouTube 16:28-16:54 5/24/2024 Ben Hall says: "A kit off eBay with red and white arms, standard because we figured that everything they build, they'd be building it off stuff they could get now so we weren't doing anything fancy so we got those there's standard motors, there's standard arms -- like I said we bought kits and I think they were about a $30 kit for a frame kit."
  14. ↑ Adam Savage's Tested "The "Possessed" Props of Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire!" 2:37-3:07 3/21/2024 Mark Bullimore says: "So just to show you, I've taken the interior panel off so there's a servo receiver battery. The servo is driving two actions so you get the little leg at the bottom and that's got a little one way sort of ratchet so it'll move forwards. It can or I can get it as I've got it at the moment so it jumps."
  15. ↑ Gil Kenan (2024). Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire- Commentary (2024) (Blu-ray ts. 31:45-31:55). Sony Pictures. Gil Kenan says: "Vaguely inspired by the-- the basic logic of the teleportation device in The Fly."
  16. ↑ Adam Savage's Tested YouTube "Adam Savage Tours The Ghostbusters Research Lab Set!" 4:34-5:00 3/26/2024 Eve Stewart says: "Because we did have it and it was much straighter on the wall and it didn't look great. It looked a bit boring and it was filling up too much wall and suddenly with Gil, we came in and I went 'what if we just chop it in half?' and he went 'turn it around the corner' and suddenly it all came to life. We were running outside and finding bits of pipe and handles and I think the joy of it is it became a kind of collaborative event trying to create something that worked."
  17. ↑ Adam Savage's Tested YouTube "Adam Savage Tours The Ghostbusters Research Lab Set!" 5:55-6:26 3/26/2024 Eve Stewart says: "This is a--it's a containment unit where all the Mini-Pufts who've kind of gone off their heads are stored now and what I did is this is, I looked at a laboratory-keeping creatures, that's terrible-but I looked at those and often you get these kind of turning discs so we found one of these in a cake store. Found this and then like we've done loads of illustrations where the Mini-Pufts have gone completely bananas and then sort of reenacting medieval torture on each other with lab equipment."
  18. ↑ Adam Savage's Tested YouTube "Adam Savage Tours The Ghostbusters Research Lab Set!" 8:13-8:17 3/26/2024 Eve Stewart says: "Often the ghosts are kind of bluey so I just thought the yellow's a real good contrast."
  19. ↑ Adam Savage's Tested YouTube "Adam Savage Tours The Ghostbusters Research Lab Set!" 8:37-8:54 3/26/2024 Eve Stewart says: "We probably went like probably about a month and then we did some adaptation but I think we were both of the mind of this-the right shapes from quite early on and we've got loads of original sketches from me and him in a big book."
  20. ↑ Gil Kenan (2024). Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire- Commentary (2024) (Blu-ray ts. 35:19-35:26). Sony Pictures. Gil Kenan says: "It was done as a, uh, note of affection between me to my cowriter, Jason Reitman, who loves pugs."
  21. ↑ Sony Pictures Imageworks – VFX "Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire | SIGGRAPH 2024 Production Session" 8:49-8:52 10/2/2024 Jason Greenblum says: "He was in the movie, then out of the movie, back in due to popular demand."
  22. ↑ Ghostbusters Fans Doug McCarthy reply 12/18/2023 Doug McCarthy says: "I made Pukey ( an on set puppet for the actors to react to) for the film amongst lots of other things can't tell you anything about him though until it's public."
  23. ↑ Ghostbusters Fans Doug McCarthy reply 3/8/2024 Doug McCarthy says: "The Pukey on set puppet I hand carved from a closed cell white foam . He was used for the actors to perform to and with."
  24. ↑ Adam Savage's Tested YouTube "Adam Savage Gets SLIMED on the Ghostbusters Set!" 2:34-2:40 3/5/2024 Doug McCarthy says: "We've made another one called Ecto Puke. Yes, Pukey."
  25. ↑ Adam Savage's Tested YouTube "Adam Savage Gets SLIMED on the Ghostbusters Set!" 2:43-2:49 3/5/2024 Doug McCarthy says: "It's a lot of yellow. Bright yellow with a bit of green in it just to give this luminescent horribleness."
  26. ↑ Ghostbusters Fans PukieDoug post #2 2/23/2024 PukieDoug says: "I made and shot all the Ecto puke for Pukey , was a lot of fun but messy work."
  27. ↑ Yes Have Some YouTube "Making Slime On Set - Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire" 00:14 3/8/2024 Factoid reads: "Over 2,400 pints of Pukey's slime were made for practical on-set use and testing."
  28. ↑ Yes Have Some YouTube "Making Slime On Set - Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire" 1:44 3/8/2024 Factoid reads: "The compressed air system was rigged to shoot 28 pints of slime for each Pukey scene."
  29. ↑ Ghostbusters Fans Doug McCarthy post #1 3/26/2024 Doug McCarthy says: "There were some other shots done of Pukey that diddnt make the Final Cut."
  30. ↑ Den of Geek YouTube "How Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire Director Gil Kenan Got Bill Murray to Return AGAIN | Talking Strange" 13:07-13:28 3/24/2024 Gil Kenan says: "The haunted dolls that are interacted with in this film are all dolls that I personally brought to set to be able to put on screen because I, too, come from the same dark corner of the world that you and Dan do which is that we are open to wonder."
  31. ↑ Ghostbusters Fans Doug McCarthy post #1 3/26/2024 Doug McCarthy says: "Strange how they Left phosphor’s tank in this video as he was cut from the film and Bonesy put in his place."
  32. ↑ Ghostbusters Fans Doug McCarthy post #2 3/26/2024 Doug McCarthy says: "No that is Bonesy, they released a toy of him early on, wasn't in the script we had. Phosphor was VERY different and had his own scene later on . So am hoping he may be in the deleted scenes. I made the on set puppet which was filmed on and he was scanned by Vis FX but maybe they did not rendor him. Who knows. There were some changes after and during the script writer and SAG strikes . So very hard to know . I finished on Firehouse at the end of June last year ."
  33. ↑ Spook Central Patreon "Ghostbusters Frozen Empire Overhead Shot Identified" 7/1/2025
  34. ↑ whitelock_design_limited 4/21/2024 Luke Whitelock writes: "Secondly this set was built at Winnersh studios and my ground floor set was based at Shinfield which was a 10 minute drive away so I couldn't oversee both sets and another Art Director (Tom Weaving) came on board to take over and oversee the finishes."

Gallery[]

Selected Screengrabs[]

Images were grabbed from the Blu-ray by Paul Rudoff. Black bars have been removed, which leaves all images at a 2.40:1 aspect ratio.

Behind The Scenes Images[]

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