Psychomagnotheric Slime (also known as Mood Slime and Psycho-Reactive Slime) is a powerful psycho-reactive plasm in Ghostbusters II and Ghostbusters: The Video Game that responds to human emotional states, both positive and negative, from which its reactions depends.[1][2] Its main characteristic is an ability to open portals for ghosts to enter our realm, and it can also animate objects.
Canonicity[]
Psychomagnotheric Slime in the Primary Canon is developed from Ghostbusters II and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. In Ghostbusters: The Video Game (Realistic Versions), a Secondary Canon, Ghostbusters (1984) and Ghostbusters II pre-date the game, Ghostbusters: Afterlife conflicts with the game. Psychomagnotheric Slime (prime) appears in the IDW Comic Series, a Secondary Canon, which follows Ghostbusters (1984) and Ghostbusters II, also includes some elements from Ghostbusters: The Video Game (Realistic Versions) and Ghostbusters: The Video Game (Stylized Versions); as well as being canon to Tobin's Spirit Guide (Insight Editions).
History[]
Primary Canon History[]
Ghostbusters II[]
In 1989, some Psychomagnotheric Slime seeped through a crack in a sidewalk near Dana's apartment on East 77th Street. The wheels of Dana's baby carriage made contact with it. The carriage was animated and rolled away on its on, swerving to avoid people and cars. It stopped on First Avenue to avoid being hit by a bus. Ray was volunteered to be lowered down a hole in First Avenue where he sighted the River of Slime. He took a sample with his Slime Scooper but the slime in the river reacted, formed tentacles, and reached for him. During the Ghostbusters' trial, the jar of Psychomagnotheric Slime collected by Ray absorbed the negative emotions from Judge Stephen Wexler when he threatened to find Peter Venkman in contempt and when he read the verdict then went into a rant about using capital punishment on them if he could. The energy generated was illustrated by the tenacity of the bubbling until the slime spilled out of the jar and exploded, then the ghosts of the Scoleri Brothers manifested.
Ray Stantz and Egon Spengler collected more Psychomagnotheric ectoplasm throughout the city, including a set of stairs of the Church of St. Paul the Apostle at 8-10 Columbus Avenue and from the phone of a phone booth on West 59th Street across from the 910 9th Avenue side of Coliseum Park Apartments. Ray and Egon conducted many tests on it to see how it reacted to different behavior. The tests included shouting, and insulting its weak electro-chemical bonds; as well as talking and singing to it, saying supportive nurturing things, and (in Egon's case, to the shock of the others) sleeping with it. Psychomagnotheric slime also had kinetic properties; it caused a toaster to dance (or a bathtub to eat a baby as seen in Dana's bathroom). They also explored an equally strong positive reaction and discovered it enjoyed the music of Jackie Wilson. One day, the Ghostbusters were gathered around a table on the second floor of the Firehouse. Egon took a sample of the Psychomagnotheric ectoplasm in tupperware out of the microwave. Ray explained to Peter and Winston that they were experimenting with the ectoplasm they found in the Van Horne subway tunnel. Peter jokingly asked if he should get spoons. Egon told him not to bother and cued Ray to demonstrate their discovery. Ray angrily shouted at the ectoplasm and insulted it, calling it a "worthless piece of slime" and "ignorant, disgusting blob." The Psychomagnotheric ectoplasm bubbled in reaction to Ray's shouting. Egon joined in called it "nothing but an unstable, short-chain molecule." Ray called it a "foul, obnoxious muck." Egon derided its weak electrochemical bond! Winston and Peter looked at each other. Winston stopped Ray mid-insult. Egon flashed his hands to stop. Peter asked them if this is what they did with their spare time. Ray pointed out it was an incredible breakthrough, the discovery of a psychoreactive substance. He explained it reacted to human emotional states. Peter nicknamed it "Mood slime." Egon turned away in disbelief. Peter admired it. It bubbled. Winston got that it feed on bad vibes. Ray confirmed it was like a cop in a doughnut factory. Egon revealed they were also running tests to generate equally strong positive reaction. Peter inquired what kind of tests they performed. Ray carefully told them. Peter got to the point and wanted to know they were not sleeping with it. There was an awkward silence and sense of uneasiness from Ray and Egon. Peter and Winston teased them. Winston remarked it was always the quiet ones. Peter called Ray a hound.
Egon suggested a demonstration of the kinetic test. He took a toaster from the kitchen counter and stated it was an ordinary household one. Peter quipped he was taking him for his word on that. Ray placed some of the ectoplasm into the toaster with a spoon. Egon placed the toaster on the billiards table. Ray explained the ectoplasm responded to music so they tried easy listening, middle-of-the-road type stuff like Paul Young and "Dust In The Wind." Peter joked it worked for him. Egon revealed it loved Jackie Wilson and played "(Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher and Higher." Peter kept joking and asked them if this was what they did at night when he was not around the Firehouse. He joked he thought the toaster sounded exactly like Jackie. Egon told him to just watch. Peter asked if it could do Emmylou Harris. The toaster hopped up. Peter realized it danced, too. The toaster moved around like it was dancing. The guys smiled. Ray played along. The toaster ejected toast. Egon caught them. The music was turned off. Peter hugged the toaster and happily declared it was his number one Christmas boutique gift item. Winston was suspicious it would eat someone's hand the minute someone got mad. Peter stated they would put a warning label on it for liability reasons then recoiled in pain. Egon quickly took the toaster away. It was just a prank. Peter gestured like he poked Egon's eyes and relished how easily they fell for it. Ray screamed as they tussled playfully.
The slime concentrated in New York beneath the streets was under the control of a powerful spirit, Vigo, who used it to boost his own power, form a shell of slime over the museum, and even used the slime to try to abduct Oscar. One night, some of the slime made its way into Dana's pipes poured into her bathtub. Her back was to the tub and she had not noticed the ectoplasm. Dana unbuttoned and took off her shirt then picked Oscar up. She turned around and was horrified by the mass of Psychomagnotheric ectoplasm. It tried to move towards Oscar but the tub kept it immobile for the most part. She screamed and ran out the bathroom. It tried to follow them but could not. The tub winced. By the time Egon and Ray showed up, there was only some residue around the bathtub. As the slime was building up in under the city it fed and grew in the old pneumatic transit lines due to the hostility and general negative emotions of the average New Yorker. Ray, Egon, and Winston discovered that direct contact with it had the effect of filling a person with the negative emotions that it stored. They went to Armand's Restaurant to tell Peter and Dana about it then they got a two minute meeting with Mayor Lenny. Mayor Lenny chose to do nothing about it initially.
After Dana went into the museum in search of Oscar, the doors sealed shut behind her. Psychomagnotheric slime flowed down and covered the doorway and the entire museum then hardened into a protective and nearly impenetrable shell. As the new year approached, the slime rose up to the surface and flowed everywhere created mass manifestations all over the city. The Ghostbusters fired all four proton streams on full neutronas at the slime shell around the Manhattan Museum of Art but made no dent. The Ghostbusters used positively charged Psychomagnotheric Slime loaded in two Slime Blowers to animate the Statue of Liberty and marched back to the museum. The positive charge of the Statue was enough and she smashed through the shell into the museum's skylight. The Ghostbusters rappelled inside. Janosz was hosed by Ray and Winston. Ray assured Dana he was not dead and the positively charged slime would have him feeling like a million bucks when he regained consciousness. Vigo was weakened by the singing going on outside to celebrate the new year. The positivity was enough to neutralize the slime. In a last ditch effort, Vigo possessed Ray. Winston hosed him down. Vigo was ejected back into painting. Winston shifting to sliming Vigo's giant floating head form in conjunction with Peter and Egon blasting him with Proton Streams. As soon as Vigo was defeated by the Ghostbusters, the slime shell disintegrated and shot up into the sky. Ray and Janosz woke up in high spirits. Ray, in particular, kept telling everyone he loved them.
After Ghostbusters II[]
Nearly all of the Psychomagnotheric Slime disappeared after Vigo was defeated. The level of supernatural activity took a steep decline as well.[3] Ray kept the last of the slime in a jar. At some point, it crystallized into several shards.
Ghostbusters: Back in Town[]
In 2023, Phoebe Spengler went to Ray's Occult Books and told Ray about a ghost attacked the family in the Firehouse the night before and described it was "every animal ever thrown into a sewer rolled into a pile of snot." Ray asked if the slime was neon pink to her confusion. She replied it was green and glowing then presented a jar of it. Ray admitted he was afraid history would repeat itself. Phoebe inquired what he meant. Ray told her about the Psychomagnotheric Slime, Vigo, how they used positively charged slime to animate the Statue of Liberty and smash a giant slime shell around the Manhattan Museum of Art. Phoebe presumed they defeated Vigo and saved the world. Ray credited the inner goodness of humanity coming together in song instead of himself and the other Ghostbusters. Phoebe found that implausible. Ray retorted they were in the business of implausible.
Phoebe asked what happened to the slime after Vigo was taken out. Ray revealed it all disappeared along with all the supernatural activity with it. He revealed a jar of the last of the Psychomagnotheric Slime, in crystalline form, and recalled the city had been quiet for decades. Phoebe speculated it came back as a green super slime. Ray found it unlikely. Phoebe countered it was any more unlikely than an ambulatory, battle-ready Statue of Liberty. Ray conceded. Phoebe asked hypothetically where one would look first if one was curious if both slime strains were related. Ray revealed the original steam started in the abandoned Beach pneumatic transit system tunnels under First Avenue but added the slime flowed all over the city. He stressed he was not suggested she go into the sewers.
Ray believed the Ghostbsuters could use Psychomagnotheric Slime against Malveaux. He introduced a Psychomagnotheric slime crystal into a jar of the Green Super Slime given to him by Phoebe. Phoebe used a P.K.E. Meter and confirmed there were no readings and the slime was completely neutralized. Trevor Spengler presumed they just had to shoot about ten thousand gallons of the pink slime into the sewers. Ray revealed his jar of crystals was all that was left. Phoebe had an idea on how to effectively weaponize the crystals. She informed everyone her theory was the particle streams would pass through the affixed crystal, altering the protons and give them the power to fight Madame Malveaux and her slime. Trevor suggested a test before the big battle. Gary Grooberson saw a cockroach and blasted it with success. Callie Spengler told him it was just a regular one. A wave of Green Super Slime filled with Cockroach Acolytes flooded into the Firehouse. The Ghostbusters parted the waves of slime with their modified throwers. They ended up in Times Square, but the crystals were burned out. Phoebe had one last crystal in a bottle. She had Trevor trap Malveaux with the Remote Trap Vehicle. She threw the crystal in. The modified trap cone was a success and Malveaux was trapped.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire[]
In the summer of 2024, Phoebe went to Ray's Occult Books and delivered a jar of Psychomagnotheric Slime requested by Ray. She took it down to the basement. Slime Blowers and Psychomagnotheric Slime was researched by the Ghostbusters Engineer Corps. Ruth Myers sprayed a subject with the slime in the shooting range.
Secondary Canon History[]
The Real Ghostbusters[]
After the battle with Vigo the Carpathian, the Ghostbusters collected the Psycho-Reactive slime.[4][5] Experiments proved it responded to a person's thoughts and emotions.[6] It could also grant a person limited ghostly powers such as flight.[7][8] Egon never could understand how it worked completely, though.
The next year, the Ghostbusters utilized the last of the slime in order to rescue Janine Melnitz and Louis Tully on Janine's birthday from Poso. They recruited Poso's former associate Shifter to aid them. However, Shifter stated he could only smuggle one of the Ghostbusters into Ghost Town, Poso's base of operations. Peter Venkman was volunteered and covered in the slime, currently in a yellow hue. After the rescue mission was a success, it became apparent the slime grew fond of Peter.[9] When Peter lost his temper, the slime changed its hue to red and skipped away with him in tow. They didn't get it off until Peter calmed down.[10]
Ghostbusters: The Video Game[]
The origin of the Mood Slime is tied to a juvenile Sloar, held in Shandor Island, beneath the Hudson River. Before his death, Ivo Shandor and his Cult of Gozer had somehow lured the young Sloar from its home hell dimension and imprisoned it in our world within a Ghostworld pocket at the heart of Shandor's island mansion. Fueled by hatred, bile and anger the creature produced a steady stream of Black Slime. Ivo Shandor, through experimentation and using equipment decades ahead of it's time, converted the Black Slime into what became known as the Mood Slime,[11] which was then possibly pumped directly into New York's sewers and abandoned tunnels,[12] possibly as a means to help Gozer's crossing over. This act was later used by Vigo to his own advantage.
By 1991, Egon has further refined the substance into a more useful tool. Using his knowledge of spores, molds and fungus, Egon had developed an energetic, self replicating growth medium that can in theory provide an endless supply of positively charged slime and allowed for the Mark II Slime Blower to consist of only a small reservoir that can be attached to the standard Proton Pack. This is referred to as the Plasm Distribution System.
The primary reason for developing this medium is as a counter agent for the caustic Black Slime, a super-saturated negatively charged form of Ectoplasm that can create portals across the 4th and 5th dimensions into the Ghostworld. As a side effect, the pigment of the slime has changed from it's original pink into a dark green and although most of it's "emotive", "portal-opening" and "animating" properties have been reduced, care still needs to be taken while using the slime around loud punk, heavy metal and hip-hop music.
IDW Comics+Insight Editions[]
Over the course of the 20th century, the good will generated by amusement parks on Coney Island were absorbed by a pool of Psychomagnotheric Slime below in the sewers.[13] During the Ghostbusters' trial in 1989, a Officer Mallory decided to keep some of the confiscated Psychomagnotheric Slime for himself as a way to save money on ooze refills for his son's pirate reptile toys. Winston Zeddemore noticed him and his partner looking at the slime outside the court room. Winston tried to warn them the slime was dangerous but they snapped at him. The slime and negative emotions gave way to the manifestation of Mama Scoleri. Winston went outside to Ecto-1, found a Trap, and captured her. While Lou Kamaka modeled during a photo shoot, the photographer's rant triggered a nearby cache of Psychomagnotheric Slime. Lou punched the ghost.[14] The Ghostbusters concluded Psychomagnotheric Slime was the byproduct of the high amount of P.K.E. always present in a metropolitan area like New York City. They made a supposition that positivity from tourism and the victories of professional sports teams are what kept the city's negatively charged Psychomagnotheric Slime at bay over time.[15]
Years later, for a trip across the United States of America, the Ghostbusters took along several equipment including Slime Blowers. While in New Orleans, Peter doused an angry mob in positively charged pink slime so the Ghostbusters could move onto meet with their client. Peter later used a Slime Blower set on Slime Tether mode to neutralize the Phantom Big Rig. A year later, Egon attempted to neutralize Yellow Slime covering Janine Melnitz but the positively charged pink slime dissolved on contact and had no effect whosoever. During Halloween blasted a section of the Ghost Fire Wall around Central Park with positively charged pink slime. The slime successfully dissipated enough of the wall for the Ghostbusters to venture forward into the park. Ray was later tasked with dissipating the rest of the wall. The positively charged pink slime was also used for a Miniature Slime Blower Egon used against a projection of Santa Muerte.
After Tiamat trapped Dana in her apartment, she observed one of the brick wall obstructions seething with Psychomagnotheric Slime. Dana refused to wilt and kicked the brick wall away and tried to escape. The positively charged slime proved effective on liberating the Hart Island Ghosts from Vigo's control. After Winston Zeddemore sprayed them, they immediately swarmed Vigo. During an investigation at the St. Augustine Lighthouse on August 29, a liter of positively-charged Psychomagnotheric slime was brought along. The Ghostbusters later discovered a cursed statue at the nearby St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park. After the statue was neutralized in positively-charged Psychomagnotheric Slime, they were able to trap the Ghost Alligators. P.K.E. levels stabilized and the benign resident ghosts returned to their standard manifestations. On September 14, the Ghostbusters used negatively charged Psychomagnotheric Slime on Hedylogos. Hedylogos suffered visible pain, which disrupted its influence and weakened its P.K.E. reading significantly, which allowed them to trap it.
Michelangelo was curious about the Miniature Slime Blower so Peter explained it was concentrated good vibes to counter the negative energy of a direct possession.[16] Michelangelo was able to weaken Chi-You's possession of Winston with a stream of slime from a Slime Blower. Leonardo then zapped Winston with a modified Arm Mounted Proton Pack and fully exorcised Chi-You.
An even more compact mobile device was invented, the Slime Spritzer. They were utilized in the Louvre Museum. However, after the slime made contact with the Animated Louvre Art, the David, the Venus de Milo, the Mona Lisa and the Code of Hammurabi, the priceless works of art disintegrated. After the Ghostbusters secured the Rauoskinna, Peter sprayed positively charged Psychomagnotheric Slime on the cover in order to sever its connection with the ghost of Gottskalk Nikulausson. The use of positively charged Psychomagnotheric Slime in a highly negative environment has a caustic effect on corporeal entities. Ray was able to verify this by using his Slime Blower while the Ghostbusters were stuck in Hell. He slimed several of Hell's Demons. They screeched in pain as the slime melted parts of skin off their wings and bodies. Studies with Jenny Moran confirmed Corporeal Class 4 manifestations tend to be the most affected by exposure to Psychomagnotheric Slime. When exposed to enough of it, the ghost will revert to a more typical ghost form and thus, become easier to shoot and trap.[17] The Coney Island pool gave the ghost of recently deceased Jonas Schultz the power to return Luna Park as it was before a fire burned it down in 1944. Egon and Ray tried to neutralize the slime with negative emotions. Egon urinated into the pool and Ray used a Proton Grenade. They underestimated the reaction to the assault and the slime flowed to the surface, raining down all over Coney's communities. The mostly neutralized slime animated some playground equipment and it ran off.[18] A week later, the EPA decided to fine the Ghostbusters for willingly introducing a toxic element to a residential area as well as the Paranormal Contracts Oversight Commission for not being able to keep them in check.
Nearly all of the Ghostbusters 101 Cadets were duly deputized and taken to three points in Manhattan as part of the multi-part plan to capture the Bronx Spook and separate the two merged dimensions. Ray Stantz oversaw the team at Washington Square Arch, Erin Gilbert oversaw another, and Patty Tolan oversaw the last outside Central Park. They instructed the cadets to use their maps and Ecto Goggles the locate the Ley Lines then use their equipment to neutralize them with positively charged Psychomagnotheric Slime recently harvested from Coney Island. It worked and ambient psychokinetic energy levels dropped. With the ghost's power source cut off, it was pulled from between dimensions with the Ultimate Mobile Trap and captured. Ray and Raphael were at an impasse with trying to liberate the latter's body from a possessing Gjenganger. Raphael bemoaned being stuck in Ray's body forever. Ray told him he was so negative then got an idea. He instructed Raphael to use his Slime Spritzer and spray both his and Raphael's body at the same time. Ray gambled the slime would interact with Raphael the same way it would with a possessor since he was so angry. It worked and Raphael was ejected from Ray's body back into his own.
A field team of Ghostbusters from various dimensions went to Central Park of 00-D in search of the Headless Horseman. During the battle, Ray asked Erin Gilbert to widen her Proton Stream there threw out his vial of Psychomagnotheric Slime at it. The vial exploded and the ectoplasm spilled all over the Horseman and its horse. The "skin" began to peel off the horse as the slime reacted and the Horseman was thrown off. Samuel Hazer called out to Peter Venkman of Dimension 68-R but the Horseman was still in possession of him and lunged. A canister of Psychomagnotheric Slime inside the vehicle form of Ectotron. It was discovered during the fight with Kremzeek at the Grosbeak Generating Station. Winston suggested using it but Ray decided to keep it in reserve. Winston implored the others to think of a solution for saving the possessed Ectotron and stated he wasn't blowing anyone up. Peter eventually pointed to the canister of Psychomagnotheric Slime that Ectotron gave Ray earlier. Egon pointed out a small canister of it wouldn't be effective applied topically to the surface of such a large metal form. Ray countered they got the Statue of Liberty moving with it. Winston pointed out they used gallons of the ectoplasm for that. Egon believed they had to disperse it inside Ectotron. Peter voted himself out of trying to find his gas cap. Ray suggested force feeding it. Winston pointed out he was 20 feet tall. Egon noted they had one Trap left and it wasn't enough to force spectral expulsion. Peter elected to use the ectoplasm and yelled at Optimus to try to get Ectotron on his back. Megatron lifted Ectotron's right foot to stomp and stated there was no "try," was only success or failure, and the rest was meaningless struggle. Optimus caught Ectotron's foot and flipped him. Optimus disagreed and believed struggling was how success was learned. Peter was amused pop psychology made it into space. Ray instructed Optimus to hold Ectotron down. Optimus suggested he hurry as Ectotron seemed stronger. Ray joked he was fighting for two then climbed atop Ectotron's chest and poured the Psychomagnotheric Slime down his mouth. Megatron was ejected in a stream of Energon. Ectotron noted he shouldn't be physically capable of vomiting so he was not all right. Egon checked his P.K.E. Meter and alerted everyone of Megatron's re-manifestation.
Tertiary Canon History[]
Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed[]
Sometime before 1920, John Horace Tobin was traveling by horse and carriage to a case but discovered mid-travel there were no horses and the carriage was actually animated by Psychomagnotheric slime. Despite the circumstances, Tobin arrived at his destination.[19]
Data from Ghostbusters: The Video Game[]
According to Tobin's Spirit Guide[]
- Category: None
- Abilities: Melee Attack, Black Slime Spit, Black Slime Coating
Tobin's Summary:[]
The standard response by most people to paranormal entities is often fright. I've seen some reactions to ectoplasm that run counter to this standard expectation. Some people, in fact, react angrily or become elated while others grow morose. I've isolated such incidents and can conclude that the ectoplasm residue in these cases is a subclass that seems to resonate and reciprocate human emotions.
Egon's Notes:[]
Mood slime. With our recent breakthroughs in psychomagnatheric ectoplasm technology, we can align the valences of the substance to elicit a finely tuned range of emotions upon contact with a human target.
Ray's Tips:[]
Don't get it on you...unless you're in a good mood.
Supplemental Data[]
The art page can be found in Shandor's Island, during the "Through the Good Slimes..." section. It is hidden inside a locker in the room Peter is being held in.
Characteristics[]
- Comes in various hues from blue, green, yellow and pink. The Ghostbusters managed to re-work a pink strain into a more useful, but less powerful, positively-charged version. They later adopted a green strain a few years later.
- Could be charged by positive or negative energy, which drastically changes its behavior.
- Able to animate inanimate objects, like toasters, fur coats and even the Statue of Liberty. These objects could behave either hostile or benign, depending on the charge it receives.
- Negatively-charged mood slime can be used to create rifts for ghosts to cross dimensions or to boost and extend their own power or even as a weapon itself, as demonstrated by Vigo.
- In Ghostbusters II, when Egon Spengler and Ray Stanz scanned 1st Avenue where Dana Barrett's carriage was taken by the pink slime, it registered 1,118 on the P.K.E. Meter and 2.5 GeV on the Giga Meter.[20][21]
- In its positive state, mood slime can drive out a Possessor Ghost as well as greatly weaken or even harm a powerful entity.
Weapon[]
The Psychomagnotheric Slime is a viscous, psychoreactive plasm with explosive supernormal potential.
Positively charged Psychomagnotheric Slime was used as a means to stop negatively charged objects, people, and ghosts as it neutralizes the negative energy and makes whatever it gets on to be inert. It was used in the Slime Blower in Ghostbusters II and in the updated Proton Pack in both versions of Ghostbusters: The Video Game.
No matter the charge, positive or negative, it can animate inanimate objects as large as monuments or as small as toasters, stores and amplifies emotional energy and reflect it back at the physical environment, affects disposition with proximity or contact, and can facilitate possession or exorcism. Under Vigo's influence, negatively charged slime could even become aggressive enough to attack a person (as seen when Ray took a sample of it from the River of Slime).
Trivia[]
Ghostbusters II Trivia[]
- There are three spellings of this type of ectoplasm.
- The subtitles for Ghostbusters II, included in the Double Feature Gift Set, spell it as "Psychomagnotheric."
- The February 27, 1989 script draft of Ghostbusters II spells it as "Psychomagnetheric" on Page 86.
- The Tobin's Spirit Guide entry in Ghostbusters: The Video Game (Stylized Version) spells it as "Psychomagnatheric."
- Harold Ramis' original concept of the slime was "bad vibes could collect under large population centers and New York was experiencing this kind of seismic level of paranormal activity because the city was about to blow" and his idea was "the people of New York had to be nice to each other because the city could not stand anymore bad vibes." Ramis admitted he had several ways to dramatize the latter.[22]
- In early drafts of Ghostbusters II, Oscar's baby carriage did not go over any Psychomagnotheric Slime. Instead, it vibrated as if it was shaken by an unseen hand.
- In the August 5, 1988 draft:
- The term "psychmagnetic" precedes "psychomagnotheric" and it is explained it represents a new energy composed of P.K.E. antiparticles.[23][24][25]
- On page 85, Egon explains negative human emotions generate measurable amounts of psychomagnetic energy. Ray elaborates about 65 GeVs per person.
- Several songs are studied find something to combat the negative forces - "Cumbaya," "All You Need Is Love," "Give Peace a Chance," "It's a Small World," - but they choose the 1970 Ray Stevens hit, "Everything is Beautiful" as the primary song to use.[26]
- In the September 29, 1988 draft:
- On page 57, Ray likens the slime to a baby on mother's milk. Peter ponders the implications and estimates there are at least two million miserable assholes in the five boroughs with bad vibes.
- In the movie, Ray likens the slime to a cop in a doughnut factory. Peter's two million line is used when the Ghostbusters meet with the Mayor later on in Chapter 19: Scaring the Straights
- On page 58, Egon calculates in magnetheric terms, there is enough energy to light Cincinnati until the year 2035. Ray informs them the energy would turn New York into applesauce.
- On page 59, Lane Walker, a precursor to Dana, takes off her robe in her bathroom. The slime coalesces into a large frog-like creature. She starts to step into the tub and sees the creature. She plugs in a hairdryer, turns it on, and drops it in the tub, electrocuting the creature then she flees.
- On page 80, a public fountain at 59th and Fifth spouts slime. St. Mark's Playhouse is host to an All Night New Year's Eve 3-D Horror Show. Moviegoers mistake the ghosts for being part of the movie and applaud.
- On page 81, a drain pipe drips Psychomagnotheric slime into the Hudson River near the Cunard Line docks.
- On page 100, only Winston fires at the slime shell in vain.
- On page 108, Jason Locke transforms into a monstrous creature 12 feet tall with pterodactyl wings, clawed tentacles, and long fangs. The Ghostbusters hose him with pink slime. Jason dissolves into a smoking harmless puddle. Vigo screams as the painting melts.
- On page 57, Ray likens the slime to a baby on mother's milk. Peter ponders the implications and estimates there are at least two million miserable assholes in the five boroughs with bad vibes.
- In the November 27, 1988 and February 27, 1989 drafts:
- On page 66, only Ray yells at the Psychomagnotheric Slime. Ray and Egon sing "Cumbaya" to the slime. Egon plays the guitar.
- On page 67, Ray likens it to giving someone a live hand grenade. After Winston realizes it feeds on bad vibes, Ray confirms it would be like a goat on garbage.
- In the February draft, on page 80, Ray takes the tupperware of slime out of the microwave and he and Egon awkwardly react to Peter's question about them sleeping with it.
- In the February draft on page 81, Egon notes they are investigating practical applications and thinks the slime could be a useful tool against certain types of manifestations. Ray reveals they have a prototype for a pressure-forced, neutronically metered, fully portable delivery system and sums it up as a "slime-blower." Peter sarcastically asks him to keep it under 150 pounds.
- On page 68, Dana turns on the tap water and doesn't notice it switch to slime. She turns off the faucet without looking in the tub and squirts in bubble bath. As she lowers Oscar, the tub starts to close around him like a big mouth.
- On page 69, the tub convulses and vomits buckets of slime.
- On page 100, a drain pipe drips Psychomagnotheric slime into the Hudson River near the Cunard Line docks. In the Central Park Zoo, a zookeeper hoses a concrete floor and slime starts coming out the hose. A public fountain at 59th and 5th spouts slime. The zookeeper later sees a pterodactyl. It screams at him and flies off.
- On page 109, the Fire Captain tells the Ghostbusters the crews have been trying to cut the slime shell for three hours.
- On page 110, the Ghostbusters ask everyone to sing Cumbaya. They only open a dime-sized hole.
- The negative emotions materializing as slime was a late addition to the movie.[27]
- Blair Adhesives made 13,000 gallons of the slime for the second movie.[28]
- The origins and colors of the river of slime were not set in stone. At ILM, Dennis Muren and effects art director Harley Jessup created a color animatic on 35mm film. It was unknown if the river should be green like Slimer or blue or something else. In New York, Chuck Gaspar came up with color ideas for Reitman to choose from. Tim Lawrence was additionally assigned to helping come up with a formula for the slime used in the miniature sets. Bill George designed a plexiglass trough to use for releasing slime downward from its holding talk.[29] Ralph Miller came up with a variety of mixtures that involved methylcellulose, syrups, oils, and colors. Muren and Jessup continued to refine. Alan Peterson had to calculate flow and volume for the slime's delivery system so an even bigger mess wouldn't result. Eventually, the slime formula was narrowed down to a mixture of methocel combined with mica dust and topped with a layer of mineral oil. The river was rigged with injectors, air bladders, and plexiglass baffles to bring life it. In the end, a large holding tank was kept about 15 feet in the air. The track led to the tilted river bed. The river was one foot wide and ten feet long. The released slime would flow into another holding talk where it would be pumped back into the overhead tank. A four man team led by Miller used four rented portable cement mixers for several days to create enough slime.[30][31]
- Back in 1984, Egon and Ray had a theory that human emotions could affect the physical environment.[32]
- For the scenes where Vigo's painting is replaced with a floating head hovering in a columned corridor coated with slime, Wilhelm von Homburg was filmed in front of a bluescreen and then matted over a miniature version of the slimed corridor built by the ILM model shop. The slime corridor was a forced perspective set. Both columns and bricks along the sides had to be built in a forced perspective, and they were all sculpted out of foam, light was shined in from beyond the columns, and slime was pumped out of the columns. After each take, the slime had to be cleaned up and reset.[33][34]
- For the courtroom scene, the bottom of the slime jar was cut out and a plexiglass tube was fed into it from under the table. To push the slime up the jar, the crew filled an air piston with additional slime. An air feed created the bubbles. The jar itself sat on a piece of foam rubber that was inlaid into the top of the table. Two motors below the table shook the jar. Lights under the table were reflected upward to add to the tension of the scene. A big red flash was set off when the slime exploded.[35]
- Dana's bathroom attack scene was shot on set at Burbank Studios in Los Angeles but the actual slime in the tub was filmed at ILM.
- The Slime in the Bathtub went through several concepts. While trying to figure out what would kidnap Oscar from Peter's apartment, the concept of the tub came up.[36] Initially, the tub was going to turn into a porcelain version of Audrey II from "Little Shop of Horrors." Then it would turn into the beginning of an endless road then a bubble bath monster. Dana Barrett would put bubble bath in the tub and turn her back. The bubble bath would rise up to tower over Dana and the eyes of a dark shape within it open up. The lensing effect used would make all the bubbles look like eyes, too. Dana would panic and throw a hairdryer into the tub. The electricity would disperse the bubbles then the two eyes would crumble into cinders and disappear down the drain. Ultimately, it became just slime that fills the tub and the slime rises up, prompting Dana to run. Ivan Reitman decided the slime should turn into a creature inside the tub.[37]
- A tub was made out of white silicone to look like it was porcelain and so it could bend. The tub creature was made out of dielectric gel - a Dow Corning breast implant material - reinforced with china silk and spandex. The slime creature would be operated like a hand puppet. Tom Floutz put his arm up through the bottom of the tub and operate the creature. The slime was dumped on the creature. Floutz had to endure and let the slime pour down on him, too. A maw-shaped piece of fiberglass was placed inside the puppet and attached to a vacuum tub in order to simulate a mouth. The tub and slime creature were filmed against a bluescreen. There wasn't enough of a pay off so John Van Vliet of Available Light did a cel animation of an animated tongue for the last shot for about 25 frames.[38][39][40][41]
- For the scene were Egon, Ray, and Winston emerge from the river of slime outside the Manhattan Museum of Art, it was shot in New York out on the street at 2 am in freezing weather, around 10 degrees. The actors were dumped with buckets and buckets of slime then filed for hours on end with no heaters. The actors had to emerge from a manhole where smoke was pushed up. It was a tight squeeze due to the proximity of phone conduit. None of the actors complained out loud. Ernie Hudson did at one point ask Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis what they were thinking when they wrote the scene.[42]
- A full scale replica of part of the Manhattan Museum of Art was constructed inside a sound stage in Burbank Studios. In order to have the slime ooze from the mortar joints, above the doors, and all over the exterior, Chuck Gaspar and crew cut slits in the walls, over the doors, and so on then attached hoses connected to tanks that held 8000 gallons of slime. 40 people were needed to operate the tank, hoses, and valves. Another tank caught the run off and it was pumped back into the other tank. A week and a half was spent to rig this set.[43][44][45]
- The wall of slime that enveloped the Manhattan Museum of Art was filmed twice.[46] In the first take, the slime was too thin and not wide enough. A thicker slime mixture was employed for the successful second take but five cameras were struck with slime during filming.[47]
- Colossal Pictures did a shot involving the Psychomagnotheric Slime rising through 40 feet of New York sediment-through layers of broken pipes, antiques, and the like then bubble through the cracks of a sidewalk. A set was built upside down and the slime was poured down then the crew flipped the shot. It ran for 20 seconds.[48]
- A sculpture was made of the slime shell scripted to envelop the museum. The sculpture was made of clay, then a plaster mold was done and it was vacuformed in clear plastic. A piece of plexiglass was placed on the back of the vacuform shape. It was mounted in a large metal frame and crew placed tubes, injectors, and bubble makers inside. The crew filled it with water and injected diamond dust, a fine metal powder. The slime shell was shot at high speed with bubbles going in to create water currents. During each take, cameraman Marty Rosenberg would cue people to inject different colors into the tank. Two complete takes were done before the colors mixed together and the tank had to be drained and refilled.[49]
- Ray likens the slime shell around the Manhattan Museum of Art to a Jell-O mold.
- In the deleted scene Jack Buys It, Jack gets sucked into the slime shell around the Manhattan Museum of Art.
- The Slime Blower's gun was a device with a spinner that sent out slime driven by compressed air. The tanks on the pack were empty. In reality, the blowers were attached to external tanks, 4-5 feet in height, that supplied the slime.[50]
- For the breakaway of the slime shell, the crew hit the inside of the plug and inflated an innertube with air to make the plug expand. The polymer shattered. The black plug would blend in with the black background and was invisible to the camera. The inverted footage of the shattered shell was then added over a model of the museum then both were combined with a matte painting of the surrounding area.[51][52]
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire Trivia[]
- There was an effect shot of the jar of Psychomagnotheric Slime in the basement that was not used in the movie.[53]
Ghostbusters: The Video Game Trivia[]
- In the February 11, 2008 draft revision of Ghostbusters: The Video Game:
- Egon references the discovery of the River of Slime while he explains what the Plasm Distribution System is. He also stated the base culture for the slime the blower uses was developed from materials they discovered in the River of Slime.[54]
- The only working pump in the Slime Lab contains an overabundance of Psychomagnotheric Slime.[55]
- Peter remembers the slime shell around the Manhattan Museum of Art and animated the Statue of Liberty during the climax of Ghostbusters II.[56]
- The pink slime does make an appearance in the "Realistic Versions" of the game in Multi-Player Modes, where it can be picked up as a power-up, and used to coat ghosts with positively charged slime in order to make them fight with regular ghosts.
- The Stylized Version has a cameo of the pink slime in the Shandor Island level, along with blue slime, red slime, and yellow slime.
IDW Comics Trivia[]
- The slime appears on the Second Printing cover of Ghostbusters Issue #2.
- The slime appears on Cover B of Ghostbusters Issue #9 in the background.
- On page 19 of Ghostbusters Issue #14, a bucket of Psychomagnotheric Slime is near the board.
- On page 3 of Ghostbusters Issue #16, a jar of Psychomagnotheric Slime, like it was stored in Ghostbusters II, is on the table near the Christmas Tree. Later in the issue, it is spilled over.
- On the Ghostbusters: Get Real Issue #2 Regular Cover, Ray is holding a jar of Psychomagnotheric Slime as seen in Ghostbusters II.
- In Ghostbusters International #2, Special Agent Melanie Ortiz' spectral incident report mentions the use of negatively charged Psychomagnotheric Slime - a first in the comics.
- On page 13 of Ghostbusters International #5, Ray mentions the Mood slime is self-replicating. This was first brought up in Ghostbusters: The Video Game, Realistic Versions when Egon and Ray teach Rookie about the Plasm Distribution System.
- In the Class Notes section of Ghostbusters 101 #3, Yellow Ectoplasm is revealed to be a mild form of Psychomagnotheric Ectoplasm.[57] Purple Ectoplasm is theorized to be a more potent strain of Psychomagnotheric Ectoplasm.[58]
- On the Subscription Cover of Ghostbusters 101 #5, near the vehicles is some Psychomagnotheric Slime.
- On Cover A of Ghostbusters Answer The Call Issue #3, one of the books on the shelf is "NYC Slime" which alludes to Psychomagnotheric Slime.
- The Psychomagnotheric Slime is mentioned in Lou Kamaka's bio on the 29th Crossing Over Virtual Trading Card, released on May 29, 2018.[59]
- On Cover B of Ghostbusters Crossing Over Issue #4, Psychomagnotheric Slime is flowing from the roof.
- On page 14 of Transformers/Ghostbusters Issue #4, the imagery of the Psychomagnotheric ectoplasm in the canister resembles the TGRI canister from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise.
Ghostbusters: Rise of the Ghost Lord Trivia[]
- In Ghostbusters: Rise of the Ghost Lord, during the Sewers Exorcism mission, the sight of the sewer chamber loosely resembles the river of Psychomagnotheric Slime in Ghostbusters II.
See Also[]
- Vigo - The ghost that used Mood Slime as his main source of power.
- Imprisoned Juvenile Sloar - The creature that produced Black Slime, from which the Mood Slime was derived in Ghostbusters: The Video Game, Realistic Versions.
- Black Slime - The original ectoplasmic slime from which the Mood Slime was created in Ghostbusters: The Video Game, Realistic Versions.
- Ethan Kaine - A ghost who also used Mood Slime as a source of power in IDW Comics.
- Jonas Schultz - A ghost who also used Mood Slime as a source of power in IDW Comics.
- Yellow Slime
- Purple Slime
- Green Super Slime
Appearances[]
Primary Canon Appearances[]
- Ghostbusters II
- Chapter 01: Start
- Chapter 07: Vigo Commands
- Painting dimension only.
- Chapter 08: Down the Shaft
- Chapter 09: Great Blackout of 1989
- Chapter 10: Their Day in Court
- Chapter 11: The Scoleri Brothers
- Chapter 12: Two in the Box
- Chapter 13: Mood Slime
- Chapter 14: A Tub Full of Slime
- Chapter 16: Vigo 101
- Mentioned by Ray Stantz and Peter Venkman.
- Chapter 18: In the Tunnel
- Chapter 19: Scaring the Straights
- Chapter 20: Kidnapping Oscar
- Chapter 21: Tenth Level of Hell
- Chapter 22: No Dent
- Chapter 23: The Statue of Liberty
- Chapter 24: A Harbor Chick
- Chapter 25: Breaking and Entering
- Chapter 27: The Fifth Ghostbuster
- Chapter 28: World is Safe Again
- Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
- Dark Horse Comics
Expanded Universe
- Ghostbusters II
- Deleted Scenes
- Ladies and Gentlemen of the Audience
- He Had Me by the Throat
- Alluded to by Ray Stantz.
- Kumbaya
- Peter's Concern
- Can You Get Into That Museum
- Jack Buys It
- Deleted Scenes
Secondary Canon Appearances[]
- The Real Ghostbusters
- Ghostbusters: The Video Game
- IDW Comics
- Ongoing Series
- Volume 1
- Ghostbusters Issue #10
- Ghostbusters Issue #12
- "Who Killed Laura Parr?" Part Four
- Volume 2
- Volume 1
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Ghostbusters
- Ghostbusters Get Real
- Ongoing Series
- Volume 3
- Ghostbusters International #1
- Haunted America Case File only
- Ghostbusters International #2
- Haunted America Case File only
- Ghostbusters International #5
- Ghostbusters International #6
- Mentioned in What Came Before Page! [61]
- Ghostbusters International #7
- Haunted America Case File only
- Ghostbusters International #9
- Ghostbusters International #10
- Ghostbusters International #11
- Ghostbusters International #1
- Volume 3
- Ghostbusters Annual 2017
- Where Winston Was
- Ghostbusters 101
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/Ghostbusters Volume 2
- Ghostbusters Annual 2018
- Ghostbusters Crossing Over
- Ghostbusters IDW 20/20
- Down the Basement Stairs (Dimension 50-S version only)
- 35th Anniversary: Ghostbusters
- Transformers/Ghostbusters
- Ongoing Series
- Insight Editions
Tertiary Canon Appearances[]
- IDW Comics
- Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed
References[]
- ↑ Ray Stantz (1999). Ghostbusters II, Chapter 19: Scaring the Straights (1989) (DVD ts. 1:07:31-1:07:32). Columbia Pictures. Ray Stantz says: "It's psychomagnotheric plasm."
- ↑ Ray Stantz (1999). Ghostbusters II, Chapter 13: Mood Slime (1989) (DVD ts. 39:52-39:56). Columbia Pictures. Ray Stantz says: "A psychoreactive substance. Whatever this stuff is, it responds to human emotional states."
- ↑ Ray Stantz (2024). Dark Horse Comics- "Ghostbusters: Back in Town Issue #2" (2024) (Comic p.12). Ray Stantz says: "It disappeared, taking all the supernatural activity with it. This is all that's left."
- ↑ Egon Spengler (2009).The Real Ghostbusters- "Partners in Slime " (1989) (DVD ts. 10:32-10:38, 10:42-10:45, 10:49-10:54). Time Life Entertainment. Egon says: "I collected it last year after we battled Vigo the Carpathian."
- ↑ Egon Spengler (2009). The Real Ghostbusters - "Partners in Slime" (1989) (DVD ts. 10:39-10:40). Time Life Entertainment. Egon says: "It's Psycho-Reactive Slime."
- ↑ Ray Stantz (2009). The Real Ghostbusters - "Partners in Slime" (1989) (DVD ts. 10:40-10:42). Time Life Entertainment. Ray says: "It responds to your thoughts and emotions."
- ↑ Egon Spengler (2009). The Real Ghostbusters - "Partners in Slime" (1989) (DVD ts. 10:43-10:48). Time Life Entertainment. Egon says: "It should give you limited ghostly powers and help you pass off as the real thing."
- ↑ Egon Spengler (2009). The Real Ghostbusters - "Partners in Slime" (1989) (DVD ts. 10:51-10:53). Time Life Entertainment. Egon says: "It can even fly."
- ↑ Egon Spengler (2009). The Real Ghostbusters - "Partners in Slime" (1989) (DVD ts. 24:17-24:21). Time Life Entertainment. Egon says: "Being Psycho-Reactive, the slime has apparently grown quite fond of you."
- ↑ Egon Spengler (2009). The Real Ghostbusters - "Partners in Slime" (1989) (DVD ts. 24:57-25:00). Time Life Entertainment. Egon says: "Unfortunately not until Peter does."
- ↑ GBTVGReferenceMoodSlimeRV02.jpg
- ↑ GBTVGReferenceMoodSlimeRV01.jpg
- ↑ Ray Stantz (2017). IDW Comics- "Ghostbusters 101 #1" (2017) (Comic p.3). Ray Stantz says: "Amusement parks around here must've built up a lot of good will over the last century, and this mood slime just sopped up all those good vibes."
- ↑ TomWaltz Tweet 5/29/18Virtual Trading Card reads: "LOU KAMAKA came to New York from the state of Hawaii, and found occasional work modeling. On one particular shoot, the photographer went off on a rant near a cache of mood slime and caused a spectral event. Lou punched the ghost, and that's the kind of thing people remember."
- ↑ Narrator (2016). Insight Editions- "Tobin's Spirit Guide" (2016) (Book p.64). Paragraph reads: "A veritable river of the stuff had built up over the years in one of New York's many abandoned subway tunnels, a byproduct of the high amount of spectral energy ever present in the metropolitan area. (It is our supposition that only the positivity brought in through the tourist trade and professional sporting victories has kept Manhattan from being consumed and destroyed in a flood of burning ectoplasm)."
- ↑ Peter Venkman (2015). IDW Comics- "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/Ghostbusters Issue #4" (2015) (Comic p.16). Peter says: "That was Mood Slime. Concentrated good vibes. We use it to counter the negative energy of a direct possession."
- ↑ Ghostbusters 101 Class Notes (2017). IDW Comics- "Ghostbusters 101 #2" (2017) (Comic What Came Before page). Comic p.24 reads: "Corporeal Class 4 manifestations are more susceptible to the effects of psychomagnetheric ectoplasm, which will revert them to a more typically ghost like state, and allow for standard zap and trap capture."
- ↑ Walter Peck (2017). IDW Comics- "Ghostbusters 101 #1" (2017) (Comic p.8). Walter Peck says: "The playground equipment ran away."
- ↑ Tobin; Tobin Page #2 (2023). Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed – Ghost Realm (2023) (PS4/PS5/PC/Xbox One/Xbox Series X/Nintendo Switch). Illfonic. Tobin says: "This passage reminds me of yet another exhilarating case. Psychomagnotheric slime, or 'mood slime,' as I called it, can alter the mood of both people and affected objects. Well, you can imagine my surprise when, traveling by horse and carriage. I look out the window to discover the horses have taken off on a tear and the bloody carriage is driving itself! Still got me where I needed to go."
- ↑ Ray Stantz (1999). Ghostbusters II, Chapter 5: Investigating Oscar (1989) (DVD ts. 20:39-20:41). Columbia Pictures. Ray Stantz says: "I've got 1-1-1-8 on the PKE!"
- ↑ Egon Spengler (1999). Ghostbusters II, Chapter 5: Investigating Oscar (1989) (DVD ts. 20:42-20:43). Columbia Pictures. Egon Spengler says: "2.5 GEVs on the Giga Meter."
- ↑ MoreWhatnot.com Lost Harold Ramis Interview 1/27/12
- ↑ Aykroyd, Dan & Ramis, Harold (1988). Ghostbusters II (August 5, 1988 Draft) (Script p. 18). "Egon Spengler says: "Ray and I have been working on a radical new theory. We know that PKE, psychokinetic energy, is the unifying force on the so-called etheric plane."
- ↑ Aykroyd, Dan & Ramis, Harold (1988). Ghostbusters II (August 5, 1988 Draft) (Script p. 19). "Egon Spengler says: "Even though we traditionally think of energy traveling in waves, we know from quantum mechanics that energy is actually composed of particles' and we also know that every particle has an antiparticle."
- ↑ Aykroyd, Dan & Ramis, Harold (1988). Ghostbusters II (August 5, 1988 Draft) (Script p. 19). "Egon Spengler says: "We've discovered a new energy composed of PKE antiparticles. I call it the "psychomagnetic force" and I've been able to detect it everywhere I've looked."
- ↑ Aykroyd, Dan & Ramis, Harold (1988). Ghostbusters II (August 5, 1988 Draft) (Script p. 87). Ray Stantz says: "My colleagues and I identified several songs that seem to have a calming or mediating effect on intense human emotions. We studied "Cumbaya," "All You Need Is Love," "Give Peace a Chance," and "It's a Small World" but based on the results of our last computer run we selected the 1970 Ray Stevens hit, "Everything is Beautiful.""
- ↑ MoreWhatnot.com Lost Harold Ramis Interview 1/27/12 Harold Ramis says: "My original concept was bad vibes could collect under large population centers and New York was experiencing this kind of seismic level of paranormal activity because the city was about to blow, there was so much bad will. So, rather than see it materialize as slime, which was kind of a late add to that process, my idea was, there's a line in the movie where the Mayor says, "What am supposed to do, go on television and tell everyone they've gotta be nice to each other?" And that was exactly my idea, the people of New York had to be nice to each other because the city could not stand anymore bad vibes. And I had several ways to dramatize that that I thought were funny."
- ↑ Discovery YouTube "Mike lives his lifelong dream of getting slimed! | Dirty Jobs | Discovery" 6:42-6:43 3/10/2023 Scott Hegar says: "13,000 gallons.'"
- ↑ Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 9-10. Cinefex, USA. Tim Lawrence says: "Bill George made a plexiglass trough for us and then I assigned Ralph Miller to whip up a variety of mixtures involving methylcellulose, syrups, oils and colors until we had enough different things for Harley and Dennis to look at and narrow the focus for us. Alan Peterson calculated flow and volume for the delivery system we knew would be required and also determined what the weights at various loads would be. That was important in the construction of the scaffolding that would eventually support the dump tank and the model river trough. After we developed the first incarnation of the river in a reduced scale--including multiple densities of slime, contrasting colors, some solids moving along its bed and a few shadow projections from below--Ivan approved it and the model shop went to a larger scale with a very wonderful miniature of the Van Horne station. At this point I went on to other projects, but the river went through two subsequent changes in concept before it finally wound up in the film."
- ↑ Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 10. Cinefex, USA. Harley Jessup says: "What we ended up with was a mixture of methocel combined with mica dust topped with a layer of mineral oil. Inside the river we had injectors and air bladders to bubble slime up and make it swirl around. We also had plexiglass baffles that we puppeteered to create different flows and currents and make it appear like something was alive beneath the surface. The mineral oil was important because it gave the river a greater sense of depth and mystery by creating very strange mercury-like shapes that raced downstream. It looked wonderful, but it was difficult to shoot. We needed a lot of puppeteers working from awkward positions because of all the water pipes, lights and other fixtures on the set. Marty Rosenberg and John Fante headed up the crew and guided the complex physical setup."
- ↑ Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 10. Cinefex, USA. Line reads: "The river set was designed to work as a gravity flow system. A large holding tank was placed some fifteen feet up in the air. A track fed the slime down into the miniature river bed, which was tilted slightly to keep the flow going. The main river was one foot wide and ten feet long and featured a curve towards one end. At the lowest end of the trough was another holding tank to catch all the slime that flowed down from above. A large pump would then be used to direct the stuff back up to the upper holding tank so it could be recirculated. Several takes were possible before the colors in the slime became so homogenized that the whole set had to be emptied and then refilled with fresh slime. And a lot of fresh slime was needed. To prepare adequate amounts, four portable cement mixers were rented and a team of four under Ralph Miller worked several days just mixing up enough slime to the proper consistency to fill the large overhead holding tank."
- ↑ Egon Spengler (1999). Ghostbusters II, Chapter 1: Start (1989) (DVD ts. 05:41-05:47). Columbia Pictures. Egon Spengler says: "I'm trying to determine whether human emotions actually affect the physical environment. It's a theory Ray and I had when we were still Ghostbusters."
- ↑ Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 9. Cinefex, USA. Line reads: "To make the image work, actor Wilhelm von Homburg was filmed in front of a bluescreen and then matted over a miniature of the corridor built by the ILM model shop."
- ↑ Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 9. Cinefex, USA. Bill George says: "The slime corridor was a forced perspective set that was pretty straightforward. Both columns and bricks along the sides had to be built in forced perspective, and they were all sculpted out of foam. There were arches between the columns and beyond those we had light coming in. The only unusual aspect was that the producers wanted slime oozing out of the columns, which meant that we had a major cleanup after each take. It was really no big deal--just a big mess."
- ↑ Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 11. Cinefex, USA. Chuck Gaspar says: "The bottom of the jar was cut out, and we had a plexiglass tube that fed into the glass from below the table. To drive the slime upward, we filled an air piston with additional slime. We also had an air feed to create the bubbles. The jar was sitting on a piece of foam rubber that was inlaid into the top of the table and we had two little motors below to make it shake. Then to create a sense that the slime was coming alive, we had lights under the table that reflected upward. As the slime slowly rose up, we increased the light. For the shot when the Scoleri brothers actually emerge from the slime, we put a big red flash behind the jar and set it off at the correct moment."
- ↑ Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 29. Cinefex, USA. Dennis Muren says: "We also thought that maybe it could be something inside Peter's bedroom that would come to life. That notion eventually evolved into the tub creature and the idea of having the tub move around."
- ↑ Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 22-23. Cinefex, USA. Tim Lawrence says: "Many different ideas were discussed for the tub monster. It went from being somewhere where the tub turns into a porcelain version of Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors to the tub becoming the beginning of a long road that goes down forever. Perhaps the most cartoonish gag was one involving a bubble bath monster. In that incarnation, Dana put bubble bath into the tub and then turned away. While she has her back turned, the mountain of bubbles get impossibly high behind her and then--when it is up over her shoulder--a dark shape comes up inside it and these eyes open up. With all the bubbles, the lensing effect makes it look like there are hundreds of eyes around this dark shape. When Dana turns back around, the creature opens a big maw and scares her. She drops an electric hair dryer into the tub and there's a big electronic snap. All the bubbles go pop, and what's left is a tiny little creature with two great big eyes that crumbles into cinders and goes down the drain. Ultimately, Ivan decided that the slime itself should turn into a creature inside the tub."
- ↑ Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 21 footnote. Cinefex, USA. Line reads: "Creature crew members Marc Thorpe and Wim Van Thillo prepare for a scene with the tub monster that threatens Dana and her baby as they are about to bathe. The slime creature – fashioned from dielectric gel – was hand-puppeteered from below the half-scale silicone tub and enhanced with cel animation provided by Animation Light."
- ↑ Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 23. Cinefex, USA. Dennis Muren says: "We made a tub out of white silicone which looked pretty much like real porcelain when it was all slimed up. It also bent well. Then we made the creature itself out of dielectric gel--a Dow Corning breast implant material. The gel is transparent and tends to be somewhat flimsy, so we reinforced it with china silk and spandex. Since this was designed to work as a hand puppet, Tom Floutz was able to put his arm up through the bottom of the tub from below and operate the creature. Then we dumped slime down over the puppet, and poor Tom had to stay down below the tub while all this gunk dripped down on him."
- ↑ Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 23. Cinefex, USA. Line reads: "To give the creature a mouth, a maw-shaped piece of fiberglass was placed inside the puppet and attached to a vacuum tube. At the right moment, the vacuum was triggered to suck the outer material down into the maw shape and thereby form the mouth."
- ↑ Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 23. Cinefex, USA. Dennis Muren says: "Initially, the scene called for the tub to fill with slime, the slime to come to life and lift up, and then Dana would run out of the room. But that was not enough of a payoff, because we had four or five shots in the sequence and the last one was not that much different than the previous ones. Ivan asked what we could do to make a creature come out of this slime. So we went back and had our slime creature come out again and had the tub move around some more, but that still was not quite enough. Then Ivan came up with an idea. 'Why not have it stick out its tongue on the last shot?' That was really what it needed. Each succeeding shot gave you more than the last, and the final one topped them all. Since we were really too busy to handle anything more at the time, John Van Vliet of Available Light did an animated tongue that comes out in the last shot for about twenty-five frames ."
- ↑ Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 28. Cinefex, USA. Ernie Hudson says: "We shot that scene in New York out on the street at two in the morning. I don't know how cold it was, but it couldn't have been more than ten degrees--and with the wind whipping around, we were all freezing. And we were drenched. They poured buckets and buckets of sticky, watery slime over us--over our heads, over everywhere because Ivan wanted it even in our eyes. He wanted us to look like we had been swimming in slime. Then we had to pull off our jumpsuits--which weren't really warm enough for a New York winter to begin with--and stand there in our underwear. I don't think I've ever been so cold in my life. We shot for hours and we couldn't go into the trailers because they were too far away. So we had to sit outside between takes without the luxury of heaters. Danny was there and Harold was there and they weren't complaining, so I figured I shouldn't either. But things did get a little nuts, and at one point I had to ask them: "Wait a minute. You guys wrote this scene? What the hell were you doing? Didn't you think you were going to have to do this stuff?""
- ↑ Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 33. Cinefex, USA. Chuck Gaspar says: "Ivan wanted the slime to really ooze out of the mortar joints, from above the doors and all over the building exterior. So we cut slits in the walls over the doors and so on, and then attached hoses to the slits and controlled them with valves. The hoses were connected to eleven dump tanks that held a total of eight thousand gallons of slime. There were so many hoses that we needed forty people to operate them all. In front of the set we had another tank to catch the run-off, which later we pumped back out with a vacuum truck. All together, it took about a week-and-a-half to rig the set."
- ↑ Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 33. Cinefex, USA. Line reads: "For dramatic closeups, a full-scale replica of part of the museum was constructed inside a soundstage at the Burbank Studios."
- ↑ Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 33-34. Cinefex, USA. Line reads: "The slime wall had to be filmed twice. The first time the slime was too thin and the set was not quite wide enough for the effect Reitman wanted. For the second take, the set was extended and Gaspar ordered a thicker mixture. The retake was much more successful, though some of the hoses squirted out so far that slime actually struck one of the five cameras recording the event."
- ↑ Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 33. Cinefex, USA. Line reads: "The slime wall had to be filmed twice. The first time the slime was too thin and the set was not quite wide enough for the effect Reitman wanted. For the second take, the set was extended and Gaspar ordered a thicker mixture."
- ↑ Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 34. Cinefex, USA. Line reads: "The retake was much more successful, though some of the hoses squirted out so far that slime actually struck one of the five cameras recording the event."'
- ↑ Wallace, Daniel (2015). Ghostbusters The Ultimate Visual History, p. 177. Insight Editions, San Rafael CA USA, ISBN 9781608875108. Ned Gorman says: "In the opening you were going to see slime rising through forty feet of New York sediment-through layers of broken pipes and antiques and stuff-and then bubble through the cracks of the sidewalk. I think it was Colossal Pictures that did this shot, and it ran about twenty seconds. They basically built the set upside down and poured the slime in, and then flipped the shot."
- ↑ Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 34. Cinefex, USA. Bill George says: "To create the slime shell, we first did a sculpture out of clay, made a plaster mold and had it vacuformed in clear plastic. Then we put a piece of plexiglass on the back of the vacuform shape, which effectively made it a clear tank shaped like the slime shell. We mounted this in a large metal frame and placed tubes, injectors and bubble makers inside. Next, we filled the whole thing with water and injected diamond dust--a fine metal powder we first used on Innerspace. The slime shell was shot high-speed with bubbles going in it to create water currents. During each take, cameraman Marty Rosenberg would cue different people to inject different colors into the tank. We could do two complete takes before the colors mixed together so much that we had to drain the tank and refill it again. The tubes with different colored dyes in them were placed all over the inside, so we were able to inject colors selectively. The effect looked pretty neat, and it gave the slime shell the look of life and purpose that was needed."
- ↑ Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 37. Cinefex, USA. Dan Aykroyd says: "The slimeblowers were three times as heavy and four times as bulky as the original packs. I think it took three or four guys to get us into them every time. These slimeblowers are going to every mother's nightmare if they ever go to the toy market, believe me--they were built to spew slime all over the walls. They were fun, though--and a beautiful practical effect. The only thing that worked on ours were the guns. The tanks were empty. The gun was actually a practical device with a spinner in it that sent the slime out, and it was driven by a lot of compressed air. Off camera were the real tanks that fed our lines. These tanks were huge--four or five feet high--and contained slime and air. So every time we blew slime on screen, we actually attached to these huge external tanks."
- ↑ Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 45. Cinefex, USA. Bill George says: "To create the destruction of the slime shell at the end, we first did a sculpture of the full slime shell and then made a black urethane casting. Over this black slime shell we painted on a brittle polymer that was pinkish in color. Once that was done, we hung the shell upside-down in front of a black backdrop. The black shell casting effectively served as a support plug inside the brittle polymer. The plug was flexible, but the polymer was not. So when it was time for the slime to break away, we hit the inside of the plug and simultaneously inflated an innertube with air to make the plug expand. This caused the brittle polymer to shatter and fall away. When the polymer shattered, the black plug underneath blended in with the black background and was therefore invisible to the camera. The shattered shell was added over a model we built of the museum and both were later combined with a matte painting of the surrounding area."
- ↑ Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 45 footnote. Cinefex, USA. For the scenes of the slime shell shattering and flying up into the heavens, a brittle polymer shape was suspended upside down and shattered in front of a black backdrop. The inverted footage was then composited over a miniature of the museum – which itself was incorporated into a matte painting of the surrounding area. Modelmakers Brian Gernand and Bill George dress the museum grounds prior to stage photography."
- ↑ Ghostbusters Fans Doug McCarthy reply 4/2/2024 Doug McCarthy writes: "Also a great effect of the pink mood slime in Ray’s basement did not make it in . Was SO looking forward to seeing that."
- ↑ Dille, Flint & Platten, John Z. (2009). Ghostbusters: The Video Game (Draft Revision February 11, 2008) (Script p. 109). Egon Spengler says: "It uses a base culture of ectoplasm developed from materials we discovered under the City a few years ago."
- ↑ Dille, Flint & Platten, John Z. (2009). Ghostbusters: The Video Game (Draft Revision February 11, 2008) (Script p. 210). Line reads: "Of all the tanks of slime, there is an overabundance of pink slime that is attached to the only working pumps that pump it into the pipes. This is where the pink slime from Ghostbusters 2 originates from."
- ↑ Dille, Flint & Platten, John Z. (2009). Ghostbusters: The Video Game (Draft Revision February 11, 2008) (Script p. 210). Peter Venkman says: "You remember when the museum turned into a giant Jell-o mold and the Statue of Liberty went meandering through downtown?"
- ↑ Ghostbusters 101 Class Notes (2017). IDW Comics- "Ghostbusters 101 #3" (2017) (Comic p.24). Ghostbusters 101 Class Notes reads: "While nowhere as potent as the pink stuff, yellow ectoplasm does cause some mild psychotropic effects, but they aren't 1:1."
- ↑ Ghostbusters 101 Class Notes (2017). IDW Comics- "Ghostbusters 101 #3" (2017) (Comic p.24). Ghostbusters 101 Class Notes reads: "Seen during an encounter with class-7 entity Tiamat, we were unable to get a sample. Our working theory is that it was a more potent strain of psychomagnetheric ectoplasm."
- ↑ TomWaltz Tweet 5/29/18
- ↑ Kylie Griffin (2014). IDW Comics- "Ghostbusters Volume 2 Issue #14" (2014) (Comic p.11). Kylie says: "The last time she saw Dr. Venkman, there was a powerful psychoemotional discharge involved. You know - the Pink Slime?"
- ↑ What Came Before! Page (2016). IDW Comics- "Ghostbusters International #6" (2016) (Comic What Came Before! page). Narrator says: "Still, they sprayed mood slime on some of the most priceless artwork known to man. That stains, y'know."
- ↑ What Came Before page (2017). IDW Comics- "Ghostbusters 101 #1" (2017) (Comic What Came Before page). Line reads: "Living slime that was fed and empowered by emotions."
- ↑ Ghostbusters 101 Class Notes (2017). IDW Comics- "Ghostbusters 101 #1" (2017) (Comic p.24). Line reads: "Please see our case file on Vigo the Carpathian for a good example -- the short version is that this particular Class 4 formed a symbiotic relationship with a cache of psychomagnetheric ectoplasm and gained enough power to rival a Class 7. (NOTE: Psychomagnetheric ectoplasm is better known around the office as mood slime - a gooey receptacle for negative and positive emotions with occasional useful applications. As is the case with many things in life, you should not touch without supervision."
- ↑ What Came Before Page (2017). IDW Comics- "Ghostbusters 101 #2" (2017) (Comic What Came Before page). What Came Before page reads: "While stopping a nostalgic ghost from recreating the long-destroyed Luna Park, the Ghostbusters managed to drench a residential section of Coney Island in (mostly inert) mood slime."
- ↑ Kylie Griffin (2017). IDW Comics- "Ghostbusters 101 #5" (2017) (Comic p.20). Kylie Griffin says: "Yep. Positively charged Psychomagnetheric ectoplasm."
- ↑ Narrator (2016). Insight Editions- "Tobin's Spirit Guide" (2016) (Book p.18). Paragraph reads: "Many years later, the Ghostbusters found themselves in the courtroom of the then veteran Judge Wexler on a public nuisance charge (the use of public utility access to investigate a river of psychomagnotheric ectoplasm)."
- ↑ Narrator (2016). Insight Editions- "Tobin's Spirit Guide" (2016) (Book p.55). Paragraph reads: "We have found that the most efficient way to separate a Grundel (or any possessing entity) from its host is to douse the host with positively charged psychomagnotheric slime."
- ↑ Narrator (2016). Insight Editions- "Tobin's Spirit Guide" (2016) (Book p.59). Paragraph reads: "Kestrel proved extremely resistant to our usual method of counteracting a possessing entity (i.e., physical application of positively charged psychomagnotheric ectoplasm to the host body)."
- ↑ Narrator (2016). Insight Editions- "Tobin's Spirit Guide" (2016) (Book p.64). Paragraph reads: "Our encounter with Vigo coincided with the discovery of psychomagnotheric ectoplasm, also known as "mood slime." This psychokinetic substance has the ability to absorb and amplify both positive and negative emotions."
- ↑ Narrator (2016). Insight Editions- "Tobin's Spirit Guide" (2016) (Book p.77). Paragraph reads: "Application of positively charged psychomagnotheric slime had no effect on Dumazu's ersatz body."
- ↑ Narrator (2016). Insight Editions- "Tobin's Spirit Guide" (2016) (Book p.94). Paragraph reads: "I was also in the midst of a sensitive series of experiments involving the reaction of our stores of emotionally charged ectoplasm to various psychotropic pharmaceutical compounds and wasn't sure I could spare the time required to sift through such an enormous amount of information."
- ↑ Text box; at any point of game, interact with the chess set (2022). Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed – Firehouse (2022) (PS4/PS5/PC/Xbox One/Xbox Series X). Illfonic. Text box reads: "Egon and Ray figured out how to channel psychomagnotheric slime into a potent tool, using it to transform inanimate objects into fully-functioning allies. Among them? Lady Liberty herself!"