Ghostbusters Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Ghostbusters Wiki


Note that this article covers the 2016 movie versions of the Proton Pack. The Proton Box (a Proton Pack on a cart) is covered here. The 1984/1989 version can be found here, and the Real Ghostbusters/Extreme Ghostbusters one can be found here.

The Proton Pack was a ghost capture tool invented by Jillian Holtzmann as seen in the 2016 movie.

History[]

Primary Canon[]

Note that the pre-Proton Pack prototype "Proton Box" is covered on its respective article.

Mark I[]

After the Proton Box test on the subway tracks near Seward Street Subway Station, and its subsequent destruction by subway train; Holtzmann concluded that the they needed the next version to be portable and more powerful than the Proton Box.[1] Holtzmann went to work building a new device she called a "Proton Pack", while Abby and Erin put together the headquarters and organized the business. Holtzmann added a booster using microfabricated radio-frequency quadrupoles designed to speed up particles before entering the DLA device. She also made it portable and wearable for maximum flexibility.[2] Holtzmann and Abby introduced Erin and Patty to the new device, first explaining it briefly at Holtzmann's lab table, then they went outside to test it. Abby, along with the other three, performed the test in the alley on the back side of Zhu's Authentic Hong Kong Food. Erin proclaimed it was an exciting moment and told Holtzmann she was beyond impressed. Patty asked Abby if she was comfortable wearing the pack. Abby admitted it was a lot heavier than she expected and she was pretty sure it was compacting her spinal column.[3] Holtzmann instructed her to plant her feet firm and bend her knees to compensate for the extra kickback.[4][5] Abby turned the pack on and liked the "purr." Holtzmann directed her to the practice target. It was a generic ghost cutout with a bulls eye drawn on its chest. She told Abby to put her thumb on the red trigger button.[6] Abby fired and blew up the target but the kickback took her across the ground. Abby really quickly found it too powerful and found herself in the air with the proton beam from the proton wand holding her off the ground. Erin and Patty were naturally alarmed. Patty surmised she wasn't bending her knees enough. Holtzmann called her impression of a deflating balloon marvelous and noted they had to wait until the pack ran out of power before Abby could get down. Abby exclaimed it was corkscrewing her. Holtzmann promised to make adjustments. Abby compared it to fighting an alligator.

By the time of the call for the Stonebrook Theatre case, Holtzmann had all four packs ready. All four Ghostbusters put on the Proton Packs across the street from the theatre then they walked in, showing the packs in public for the first time. The Proton Packs were used for the first time against a mannequin possessed by Mayhem. It chased Patty Tolan into the Wardrobe Room where the other three were. After Mayhem broke through the door, all four Ghostbusters blasted the mannequin which blew up and exposed Mayhem. They chased it, firing at it with the Proton Packs through the halls until it flew up through the ceiling. Mayhem emerged through the concert stage as the Beasts Of Mayhem performed. The Ghostbusters fired away at it but failed to get a clear shot. The ghost perched itself on top of Patty, making it an easy target. The other three Ghostbusters wrangled the ghost. After it flew away, Patty joined in. Holtzmann remembered a fatal weakness of the pack's Proton Streams and warned Erin to never let their beams get entangled or there would be a counter reaction in which their beams would shoot back into their bodies, and each atom would implode.[7][8] Holtzmann opened the Trap, and completed a successful capture of a ghost using the Proton Packs and a Trap. The Mark I packs were used one more time after Erin released Mayhem at Martin Heiss's request. Unfortunately, Holtzmann and Patty could not fire for fear of hitting Martin and it all happened too quickly to get a shot off.

Mark II[]

A Mark II Proton Pack was first shown off by Holtzmann during the celebration of the Mayhem capture, right before Martin showed up. In one breath, she rapidly told them she installed some newly printed circuit boards, rebuilt the superconducting magnets, improved beam accuracy by adding a plasma shield to the RF discharge chamber, added a cryocooler to reduce helium boil-off, and a Faraday cage to attenuate RF noise and avoid quenching. Erin and Abby were impressed. Later, when the Ghostbusters figured out that Ley Lines were being used to bring ghosts in their world, and that the Ley Lines crossed under The Mercado Hotel which they identified Rowan North on The Mercado website, they geared up and went there. The packs were worn, but not used.

Later, Abby was possessed by Rowan, and attacked the equipment on the wall with a pipe, damaging Holtzmann and Abby's packs. Later, after Rowan had possessed Kevin; Abby, Patty, Holtzmann went to Times Square. Obstacles, including three hot dog carts, were in the way so they got out of Ecto-1 with their Proton Packs on. A ghost stole their car, forcing them to going on foot. They then ran into Ghost Balloons which they popped with the Proton Packs. Erin showed up and defeated the last balloon with a Swiss Army Knife. She also had a pack on. They then entered the Times Square battle using both the proton sidearms and their Proton Packs. The Proton Packs were used when Rowan was in a simple blue ghost form in The Mercado lobby.

Later, Erin distracted Rowan by firing a bill board near his face, setting it on fire for a few seconds. The four Ghostbusters went back to the Portal and fired their Proton Packs, crossing the streams trying to cause a reverse reaction. The Packs didn't have enough power. However, they used the Proton Packs to blast the two silver canister reactors on top of the Ecto-1 to cause the effect they wanted. Rowan was too strong to be sucked into the reversed portal, so all four Ghostbusters shot his crotch, which caused him to lose his grip. Erin entered in The Divide and shot Rowan's hand to get him to release Abby.

Secondary Canon[]

IDW Comics[]

Planning for the likelihood they would be weakened from exiting the Nightmare-Scape, the Ghostbusters had Kevin Beckman suit up with his own pack and wait at the Empire State Building. Once the Ghostbusters and Kruger reappeared, Kevin fired and wrangled Kruger then trapped him.

Parts[]

  • Part names taken from schematic posted on March 3, 2016 on Kenneth P. Higgins Institute of Science Paranormal Studies Lab (Web Site).
    • Hydrogen Ionization Chamber & Proton Injector
    • Miniaturized Superconducting Proton Synchrotron (MSPS)
    • Spectral RF Feedback Parameter (SRFP) Display
    • CPU And Control Electronics
    • Radioisotope Check Source
    • ZrNO Resistance Thermometer
    • RF Amplifier
    • Power Cell
    • Cryogen Reservoir With Convection Shield
    • Radiation Shielded Posterior Interface (RSPI) With High Visibility Straps
    • Crycooler Pulse Tube
    • Faraday Cage
    • High Voltage RF Feed
    • Shielded Passive Steering Beam Conduit
    • Plasma Ignition Chamber
    • Plasma Beam Tuning Cavity

Design & Use[]

The Proton Pack generates a beam of positively charged ions (or proton streams) to counter a ghosts' negatively charged energy. The stream temporarily subdues ghosts by weakening their ectoplasmic bonds.[9][10]

Proton Box[]

After the test with the Proton Box, it was determined that the follow-up device needed to be more mobile. The other issue with the Proton Box was that even though it was able to hold a ghost in place, it lacked the power to be able to do so at a comfortable distance, being roughly two feet from the device.

Mark I[]

The "Mark I" introduced the ability of portability, a device that can be worn on the back of the user. It was able to be worn by a person thanks to two straps and a belt. The device was a improvement over the Proton Box usability as well. Overall, the power of Proton Stream was increased, and the Proton Wand had a increase in range because of the addition of microfabricated radio-frequency quadrupoles to speed up the particles which then enter the DLA device.[11]

  • All Ghostbusters Mark I Proton Packs had at-least one accent sticker.
    • Abby has a white on diamond shape "poison symbol" on back of pack
    • Erin has a black with top half white and bottom half red background on diamond shape "spontaneously combustible symbol" on back of pack
    • Jillian has a red heart shaped "heart symbol" on back of pack
    • Patty also has a yellow on black background on circle shape "ionizing radiation symbol" on back of pack
  • It was shown on the bottom of Jillian's pack, straps that held the Trap before use.

Mark II[]

The "Mark II" was a upgrade of the previous "Mark I" version Proton Pack. Overall, the upgraded packs had been perfected so that the equipment wasn't as raw, covering over wiring and making the equipment quieter and also improved beam accuracy. Jillian notes that among the technical improvements that the equipment had newly printed circuit boards, newly rebuilt superconducting magnets. She also noted improved beam by adding a plasma shield to the RF discharge chamber. She as well had added a cryocooler to reduce helium boil-off and a Faraday cage to reduce RF noise and keep the equipment from going out due to environmental interference with hardware.[12]

When the Proton Pack is used, protons are produced from hydrogen plasma in the ionization chamber and injected by high voltage electrodes into a miniaturized superconducting proton synchrotron (MSPS). The MSPS, outfitted with liquid helium-cooled magnets, accelerates the protons, which are then fed to the thrower by a shielded beam-steering conduit. The Faraday cage attenuates RF noise and provides physical protection to avoid quenches while the cryocooler counteracts helium boil-off from the cryogen reservoir to increase operational time. The particle thrower contains beam-position monitoring components and active-steering electronics. The plasma beam halo can be tuned using the embedded quadropoles but the plasma discharge from the output beam's passage through the air causes strong discharge and defocusing which in turn makes operation of the thrower more difficult the more it is tuned from its standard setting.[13]

  • All Ghostbusters Mark II Proton Packs had at-least one accent sticker.
    • Abby has a "high-level sealed-source ionizing radiation symbol" on back of pack
    • Abby also has a red "ionizing radiation trefoil symbol" on side of pack
    • Erin has a "danger of death symbol" on back of pack
    • Jillian has a "heart symbol" in middle of a "international ionizing radiation trefoil symbol" on back of pack
    • Patty has a "biological hazard symbol" on back of pack
    • Patty also has a "poison symbol" on side of pack
  • After Rowan possessed Abby, she hit the three Proton Packs with a pipe repeatedly, damaging all three. Jillian then repaired them as quickly as she could, and it is visible that one of the things utilized was duck-tape.
  • Both the Ghost Chipper and the Proton Glove were strapped to the underside of the packs, much like the Trap was in the Mark I version.

Behind the Scenes[]

In the "Busting Ghosts with Science" featurette, James Maxwell is featured. He is a Senior Fellow Post Doctorate Physicist at the MIT Laboratory for Nuclear Science and consulted on the movie's equipment. He would read what the writers came up with and pitch his own suggestions. In this featurette, Maxwell talks about the Proton Pack. He talks about how the original version had a cyclotron which had two electrodes and the particle starts in the middle then spirals outward gaining speed. For the new pack, a synchrotron was used. It can vary the magnetic field in a ring. For the synchrotron to work, it would then need superconducting magnets that are compact. To keep the magnets cold, there has to be a cryogen system and liquid helium.[14]

By the time property master Kirk Corwin was brought on board, a lot of concept work on the Proton Packs was already done under the guidance of Jefferson Sage of the art department. The emphasis was to re-imagine the packs and construct lighter versions. They spoke with Proton Pack prop building fans and went to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and met with scientists to get their perspective. Corwin's team did rough mockups that showed how the characters would kluge objects together from the lab which also allowing the crew to see the inner workings of the Proton Packs. Feig and Sage liked that idea and building started. The first prototypes were too heavy. The first pack was 18 pounds. It was reduced down to 12.5 pounds. Inspired by behind the scenes of "Gone with the Wind," Corwin's team designed special seats for the Ghostbusters that had a ridge for the pack to take the strain off their backs. That way, they could rest between takes and wouldn't have to take off the pack then have it put back on. [15] [16] [17] [18]

Trivia[]

  • The "microfabricated radio-frequency quadrupoles" is instead referred to as "microfabricated dielectric laser accelerators" in the Ghostbuster's Handbook.[19]
  • On June 30, 2015, Paul Feig posted a photo of the Proton Pack. [20]
  • On July 4, 2015, Paul Feig provided photos and measurements of a Particle Thrower. [21]
  • On July 5, 2015, Paul Feig provided a photo and measurements of the Proton Pack. [22]
  • On July 6, 2015, Paul Feig posted a photo of a Proton Pack with parts labeled. [23]
  • On September 3, 2016, Annis Naeem posted one of the final versions of the Proton Pack titled Generation 3 version 04-09 from May 13, 2015. [24]
  • On September 3, 2016, Annis Naeem posted one of the first sketches for the Particle Thrower. [25]
  • On September 4, 2016, Annis Naeem posted a concept for the rear of the Particle Thrower [26]
  • On September 4, 2016, Annis Naeem posted one of the final versions of the Proton Pack titled Generation 3 version 04-08 from May 13, 2015 [27]
  • On September 6, 2016, Annis Naeem posted a design concept of the Proton Pack and an extremely early version of the Proton Pack titled Phase 1 version 36. [28] [29]
  • On September 6, 2016, Annis Naeem posted the first sketch of the Particle Thrower done on April 2, 2015. [30]
  • On September 9, 2016, Annis Naeem posted an early Particle Thrower design and a sketch for what became the Particle Thrower. [31] [32]
  • The schematic from the Kenneth P Higgins viral site instructs users to "Aim at spectral entities only. Plasma Stream Convergence not recommended." Plasma Stream Convergence is a nod to crossing the streams.
  • During filming, Kristen Wiig was observed using her Proton Pack as a rocket pack, pointing the wand down, firing, and propelling herself into the air. [33]
  • Inspired by an anecdote from "Gone with the Wind," Kirk Corwin created special seats for the Ghostbusters. There is a ridge on the seat for the pack to take the strain off their backs between filming and save time from re-fitting packs on the actresses. [34]
  • A 'goop system' was made for the throwers. It made hot magma sludge drips off the throwers. The effects team put it through Houdini. It comes out red hot then goes to a dark hue. [35]
  • In addition to the Proton Streams, the effects team decided to threat its glow as an illuminated vapor coming from the beam. They generated a fluid simulation of gas coming off the beam and lit it according to the scene. [36]
  • The Times Square battle scenes were filmed twice. It was first filmed with the stunt women on wire rigs. A couple days later, the scene was filmed with the actresses. The prop packs were replaced in post by the visual team.[37]
  • Near the 1:47:08 mark, Holtzmann's pack monitor reads "1984," a nod to the first movie.
  • The Proton Pack was part of an April Fools Day 2016 prank where Sony announced Egon and Holtzmann built packs to be sold to the public.
  • The Total Film #248 subscriber cover features the Proton Pack schematic.
  • On page 136 of the revised edition of Ghosts From Our Past: Both Literally & Figuratively: The Study of the Paranormal, it is stated the Proton Pack's polarity can be reversed to deal with cases of positively charged ectoplasm.[38]
  • On page 136 of the revised edition of Ghosts From Our Past: Both Literally & Figuratively: The Study of the Paranormal, it is stated the Proton Pack is capable of "permanent dispatch" of entities if it is switched to a higher setting but a lower beam current setting is standard to avoid property damage and the like.[39]
  • On page 137 of the revised edition of Ghosts From Our Past: Both Literally & Figuratively: The Study of the Paranormal, Holtzmann hints the Proton Pack is powered by a battery with a half-life longer than or equal to americium-25.[40]
  • On page 48 of Ghostbusters Annual 2017, in panel 9, the heart modified "international ionizing radiation trefoil symbol" from the back of Holtzmann's pack can be seen on the locker.
  • On page 51 of Ghostbusters Annual 2017, on page 51, the Proton Pack is included in the advertisement.
  • On page 3 of Ghostbusters 101 #2, in panel 1, the "high-level sealed-source ionizing radiation symbol" on back of Abby's pack and the "biological hazard symbol" on the back of Patty's pack can be seen.
  • On page 4 of Ghostbusters 101 #2, in panel 1, the red "ionizing radiation trefoil symbol" can be seen on the side of Abby's pack can be seen.
  • On page 4 of Ghostbusters 101 #2, in panel 2, the heart modified "international ionizing radiation trefoil symbol" on the back of Holtzmann's pack can be seen.
  • On page 4 of Ghostbusters 101 #2, in panel 3, the red "ionizing radiation trefoil symbol" can be seen on the side of Abby's pack and the "poison symbol" on the side of Patty's pack can bee seen.
  • On pages 7, 8, and 19 of Ghostbusters 101 #3, in panel 1, the heart modified "international ionizing radiation trefoil symbol" on the back of Holtzmann's pack.
  • On page 19 of Ghostbusters 101 #3, Ray Stantz takes note the Faraday Cage and the more compact design.
    • In panel 1, the green numbers (408346 and 4332) on Holtzmann's pack are from the prop Proton Pack photographed and posted online by Paul Feig on June 30, 2015.
  • On page 17 of Ghostbusters 101 #5, in panel 3, the heart modified "international ionizing radiation trefoil symbol" on the back of Holtzmann's pack and the the "biological hazard symbol" on the back of Patty's pack can be seen.
  • On page 17 of Ghostbusters 101 #6, in panels 1 and 2, the red "ionizing radiation trefoil symbol" can be seen on the side of Abby's pack.
  • On page 38 of Ghostbusters Annual 2018, in panel 1, both the "biological hazard symbol" and "poison symbol" can be seen on the back and side, respectively, of Patty's pack.
  • On page 11 of Ghostbusters Crossing Over #3, in panel 2, the heart modified "international ionizing radiation trefoil symbol" can be seen on the back of Holtzmann's pack.
  • On page 13 of Ghostbusters Crossing Over #3, in panel 1, the heart modified "international ionizing radiation trefoil symbol" can be seen on the back of Holtzmann's pack.
  • On Page 13 of Ghostbusters Crossing Over #5, in panel 1, the heart modified "international ionizing radiation trefoil symbol" can be seen on the back of Holtzmann's pack.
  • On Page 14 of Ghostbusters Crossing Over #5, in panel 2, the "danger of death symbol" can be seen on the back of Erin's pack.
  • On page 9 of Ghostbusters Crossing Over Issue #8, in panel 2, the red ionizing radiation hazard symbol on Abby's Proton Pack can be seen.
  • On the front cover of the Ghostbusters Crossing Over TPB, Holtzmann is wearing her Proton Pack.
  • The Proton Pack appears on all three covers of Ghostbusters 35th Anniversary: Answer The Call Ghostbusters.
  • On August 1, 2023, a new gear shell was added in Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed for the Proton Pack and Particle Thrower based on the version seen in the 2016 Movie.

Appearances[]

Primary Canon[]

Secondary Canon[]


References[]

  1. Jillian Holtzmann (2016). Ghostbusters (2016 Movie) Extended Edition; Chapter 6 (2016) (Blu-Ray ts. 00:42:41-00:42:43). Sony Pictures. Jillian Holtzmann says: "We need more juice. We need to be more mobile."
  2. Jillian Holtzmann (2016). Ghostbusters (2016 Movie) Extended Edition; Chapter 7 (2016) (Blu-Ray ts. 00:47:49-00:47:59). Sony Pictures. Jillian Holtzmann says: "I added a booster using microfabricated radio-frequency quadrupoles to speed up particles before entering the DLA device, portable, wearable for maximum flexibility."
  3. Abby Yates (2016). Ghostbusters (2016 Movie) Extended Edition; Chapter 7 (2016) (Blu-Ray ts. 00:48:17-00:48:21). Sony Pictures. Abby Yates says: "It's a lot heavier than I expected, and I'm pretty sure it's compacting my spinal column, but..."
  4. Jillian Holtzmann (2016). Ghostbusters (2016 Movie) Extended Edition; Chapter 7 (2016) (Blu-Ray ts. 00:48:22-00:48:23). Sony Pictures. Jillian Holtzmann says: "So you're gonna want to plant your feet firm."
  5. Jillian Holtzmann (2016). Ghostbusters (2016 Movie) Extended Edition; Chapter 7 (2016) (Blu-Ray ts. 00:48:24-00:48:26). Sony Pictures. Jillian Holtzmann says: "Bend your knees to compensate for the extra kickback."
  6. Jillian Holtzmann (2016). Ghostbusters (2016 Movie) Extended Edition; Chapter 7 (2016) (Blu-Ray ts. 00:48:37-00:48:40). Sony Pictures. Jillian Holtzmann says: "Just put your thumb on that red trigger button there."
  7. Jillian Holtzmann (2016). Ghostbusters (2016 Movie) Extended Edition; Chapter 9 (2016) (Blu-Ray ts. 1:02:51-1:02:54). Sony Pictures. Jillian Holtzmann says: "Erin, I forgot to tell you, don't let your beam get entangled with my beam."
  8. Jillian Holtzmann (2016). Ghostbusters (2016 Movie) Extended Edition; Chapter 9 (2016) (Blu-Ray ts. 1:02:56-1:03:02). Sony Pictures. Jillian Holtzmann says: "It's too much power. It would cause a counter reaction. The beam would shoot back into your body, and each atom will implode."
  9. Shaffer, Andrew (2016). Ghosts From Our Past: Both Literally & Figuratively: The Study of the Paranormal, p. 136. Three Rivers Press, New York NY USA, ISBN 9781101906002.Line reads: "The proton pack (Figure 9.6) generates a beam of positively charged ions (or "proton stream") to counter ghosts' negatively charged energy."
  10. Shaffer, Andrew (2016). Ghosts From Our Past: Both Literally & Figuratively: The Study of the Paranormal, p. 136. Three Rivers Press, New York NY USA, ISBN 9781101906002.Line reads: "At lower proton beam strength, the proton stream temporarily subdues ghosts by weakening their ectoplasmic bonds."
  11. Jillian Holtzmann (2016). Ghostbusters (2016 Movie) Extended Edition; Chapter 7 (2016) (Blu-Ray ts. 00:47:49-00:47:59). Sony Pictures. Jillian Holtzmann says: "I added a booster using microfabricated radio-frequency quadrupoles to speed up particles before entering the DLA device, portable, wearable for maximum flexibility."
  12. Jillian Holtzmann (2016). Ghostbusters (2016 Movie) Extended Edition; Chapter 10 (2016) (Blu-Ray ts. 1:06:09-1:06:25). Sony Pictures. Jillian Holtzmann says: "I got some newly printed circuit boards, and I rebuilt the superconducting magnets. I improved beam accuracy by adding a plasma shield to the RF discharge chamber. I have cryocooler to reduce helium boil-off, and to top it all off, we got a freakin' Faraday cage to attenuate RF noise and avoid quenching."
  13. Shaffer, Andrew (2016). Ghosts From Our Past: Both Literally & Figuratively: The Study of the Paranormal, p. 137. Three Rivers Press, New York NY USA, ISBN 9781101906002.
  14. Paranormal Studies Lab "Busting Ghosts with Science" 00:30-01:15 3/3/16 James Maxwell says: "The cyclotron you have two electrodes and your particle starts in the middle and spirals outward gaining speed so I think, well, this is now, we're gonna use a synchrotron which are no longer spirals. You actually can vary the magnetic field in a ring. Well, in order to have a synchrotron, there probably has to be superconducting because you're going to be using very high magnetic fields and have to be compact, so you need a superconducting magnetic field which means you probably have to have cryogens. So you need a source of liquid helium to keep my magnets cold. Let's put like a cryo cooler in there to get some active cooling. Particle accelerators are real. Superconducting magnets are real. The big leaps of faith are actually doing it in the space that's allowed. It's been really fun to look at the cool ideas the writers come up with and me to say 'That's a really cool idea. How about you do this?' And this would be a little better."
  15. PC Magazine "Reimagining Ghostbusters, and Proton Packs, for 2016" 7/11/16 Kirk Corwin says: "Jefferson and our director, Paul Feig, decided to keep the feel of the original iconic props but reimagine them for our film bearing in mind the different, lighter materials that are available now for construction."
  16. PC Magazine "Reimagining Ghostbusters, and Proton Packs, for 2016" 7/11/16 Kirk Corwin says: "We contacted proton pack aficionados who had spent a lot of time thinking about those seen in the original two movies. We also visited NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and met with scientists to get their perspective. Then we presented Feig and Sage with rough mockups showing how the characters would kluge objects together from the Lab, allowing us to see the inner workings of the proton packs. They liked that idea and so we set about building them."
  17. PC Magazine "Reimagining Ghostbusters, and Proton Packs, for 2016" 7/11/16 Kirk Corwin says: "Heft was always a problem as the actors needed to be very active while wearing them," Corwin confirmed."
  18. PC Magazine "Reimagining Ghostbusters, and Proton Packs, for 2016" 7/11/16 Kirk Corwin says: "We made the proton pack cage out of aluminum and tested it ruthlessly. I wore every iteration around the props truck for hours at a time to do due diligence. We got the first pack down to 18 pounds—I've heard unconfirmed reports that the original movie packs weighed in at 35 lbs or more—and kept refining it, literally disassembling it to its components, carefully measuring, weighing, and examining everything to see if we could replace with a lighter material. We were like medieval scholars in an alchemy lab. Finally we got it to 12.5 pounds a pack."
  19. Pendergrass, Daphne (June 2016). "Ghostbuster's Handbook", p. 39. Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division, New York NY USA, ISBN 1481474863. Narrator says: "Holtzmann then boosted the proton stream's power and increased the range of the proton wand by using microfabricated dielectric laser accelerators to speed up the particles before they enter the DLA device."
  20. paulfeig Tweet 6/30/15
  21. paulfeig Tweet 7/4/15
  22. paulfeig Tweet 7/5/15
  23. paulfeig Tweet 7/6/15
  24. Annis Naeem instagram 9/3/16
  25. Annis Naeem instagram 9/3/16
  26. Annis Naeem instagram 9/4/16
  27. Annis Naeem instagram 9/4/16
  28. Annis Naeem instagram post #1 9/6/16
  29. Annis Naeem instagram post #2 9/6/16
  30. Annis Naeem instagram 9/6/16
  31. Annis Naeem instagram post #1 9/9/16
  32. Annis Naeem instagram post #2 9/9/16
  33. IGN "What we learned on the set of the Ghostbusters Reboot" (page 1) 4/28/16 Line reads: "There are multiple weapon types being used throughout the scene, including Kristen Wiig using some apparent tennis skills with her proton wand to bat away some ghosts -- who are then yanked backward on a wire with force -- and then using her proton pack as a rocket pack, pointing the wand down, firing, and propelling herself into the air."
  34. PC Magazine "Reimagining Ghostbusters, and Proton Packs, for 2016" 7/11/16 Kirk Corwin says: "I'd read that on Gone with the Wind, the crew had created planks for Vivien Leigh, and the other characters in huge crinolines, to lie on while resting, because their hooped costumes wouldn't allow them to sit on regular chairs. So we designed special seats for Ghostbusters that had a ridge for the pack to take the strain off their backs."
  35. fxguide "Who you gonna call? Call Illoura, MPC, SPI, & Zero VFX" 8/10/16 Line reads: ""One of our guys built a 'goop system' in just a couple of hours to make hot magma sludge drips down the melted bin," Nederhorst relates. This was not actually a planned addition to the shot as the artists just thought it would look great. When Nederhorst saw it, he immediately loved it, but insisted that they go further, as the film was a comedy and subtly was not the order of the day. "One of our Houdini guys just did that, and I saw it and said - that's cool, do it a lot more, now go overboard, go nuts- this is a comedy, - so he added a lot more and made it red hot when it hits and drip to dark goop when it was done," explains Nederhorst. "And that is now one of my favorite shots in our entire body of work for the film. It's super cool."."
  36. fxguide "Who you gonna call? Call Illoura, MPC, SPI, & Zero VFX" 8/10/16 Line reads: "An example is that in the 1984 proton stream there is a strong red/orange glow within the core of the beam. For our effect we opted for treating the glow as illuminated vapor coming from the beam. We generated a fluid simulation of gas coming off of the beam and lit it to the scene. This gave us some very interesting motion and texture as the proton stream whips around the rooms. It gave the proton stream a more physically and photographically motivated look, while at the same time staying true to the original film."
  37. fxguide "Who you gonna call? Call Illoura, MPC, SPI, & Zero VFX" 8/10/16 Line reads: "The scenes were filmed twice, once with stunt women standing in for our heroes battling stuntmen on wire rigs and then filming was repeated again a couple of days later with the hero actresses. To make things even more complex, even then the portable 'positron colliders' or proton packs were just stand in prop packs on the day for safety reasons. All the proton packs were tracked to the actresses and added later in post."
  38. Shaffer, Andrew (2016). Ghosts From Our Past: Both Literally & Figuratively: The Study of the Paranormal, p. 136. Three Rivers Press, New York NY USA, ISBN 9781101906002.Line reads: "In cases of positively charged ectoplasm, polarity can be reversed."
  39. Shaffer, Andrew (2016). Ghosts From Our Past: Both Literally & Figuratively: The Study of the Paranormal, p. 136. Three Rivers Press, New York NY USA, ISBN 9781101906002.Line reads: "Permanent dispatch of entities is possible at higher settings, although the proton stream's effects upon spectral energy vary greatly depending upon the ghost's class."
  40. Shaffer, Andrew (2016). Ghosts From Our Past: Both Literally & Figuratively: The Study of the Paranormal, p. 137. Three Rivers Press, New York NY USA, ISBN 9781101906002.Line reads: "Alas, due to regulatory concerns, I probably shouldn't mention how the proton pack is powered... but let's just say that the battery has a half-life longer than americium-25. Or equal to americium-25. You know what? Let's just forget I said anything about americium-25."

Gallery[]

Primary Canon Images[]

From Film and Trailers[]

Deleted Scene "The Big Test"[]

Deleted Scene "The Breakup"[]

Deleted Scene "Where Are You?"[]

Behind the Scenes and Interviews[]

Designs and Illustrations[]

Secondary Canon Images[]

Tertiary Canon Images[]

Advertisement