WhenGhostbusterscame out in 1984,it was the biggest movie of the year in a year filled with big movies. TheIvan Reitmanfilm turned its actors into huge stars, but like any movie that makes a ton of money at the box office, Hollywood needed a sequel. Five years later, in 1989, we got one withGhostbusters II, and while it hadthe impossible task of trying to be just as good as the instant classicthat came before,it’s still a fine movie. It worked by bringing back its four leads (Bill Murray,Dan Aykroyd,Harold Ramis, andErnie Hudson), along with the compelling supporting characters played bySigourney WeaverandRick Moranis. That first movie got people’s attention by being something we’d never seen before, butGhostbusters IIstill had a few surprises up its sleeve by going bigger. If the first movie had the Stay Puft marshmallow man terrorizing New York City, well, thenGhostbusters IIwas going to have the Statue of Liberty saving it. Lady Liberty is involved in the finale, but in the alternate ending, things would’ve gone differently.
Ghostbusters 2 (1989)
Ghostbusters II is the first sequel to the 1984 film starring Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, and Harold Ramis. The sequel follows the Ghostbusters as they investigate a river of ectoplasm and battle against a living painting of Vigo the Carpathia. Sigourney Weaver returns for the sequel alongside Rick Moranis and Annie Potts.
The Ghostbusters Face Off Against Vigo the Carpathian
InGhostbusters,our heroes went to war against a Gozer the Gozerian. With countless ghosts released and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man doing some hefty damage, New York City is left a bit of a wreck. The Ghostbusters go from heroes to despised old news, and are forced to stop operations after a lawsuit. After saving New York City, this is the thank you they get?! With the emergence of a new big bad,the Ghostbusters return once more, this time to battle Vigo the Carpathian(Wilhelm von Homburg, withMax von Sydowas his voice). As the Ghostbusters quickly find out, it’s going to take everything New York City’s got to beat this one.
Vigo the Carpathian is an evil man from hundreds of years agowho lives on inside of a painting. The Ghostbusters encounter him when his human servant abducts Dana’s (Weaver) baby to be the new vessel for Vigo to live through. There is also a slime under the city linked to Vigo, a mass of pink stuff that’s not only gross but dangerous, asit physically responds to loud noises and emotion, while also feeding on our negative thoughts. If the slime reacts to negative emotions, how will it respond to the positive?
Ivan Reitman Hated the Original Ending to ‘Ghostbusters II’
Ghostbusters IIhas a thrilling ending which, in a way, copies the original, but comes at it from a different perspective. With a several stories high wall of slime protecting Vigo inside the art museum his painting resides in,the Ghostbusters need a way to break through and save Dana’s son. What’s big enough in Manhattan to do that? Only one lady is up for the job, so the Ghostbusters enlist her help. They go to Liberty Island and climb up inside the Statue of Liberty, coating the inside with the pink goo.Playing the uplifting “Higher and Higher” by Howard Huntsberry over loudspeakers allows the Statue of Liberty to break free from her concrete restraints and walkthrough the water to the streets of New York City. There, her power grows as the gathering residents begin to cheer. Lady Liberty takes her torch to the slime wall, smashing it, allowing the Ghostbusters to get inside and save Dana’s child and defeat Vigo the Carpathian.
It’s About Time the Ghostbusters Franchise Leans Into Horror
Bustin' is even better when the ghosts are scary.
That’s a wild ending, and one that was completely reshot. While it’s not known exactly everything the original ending entailed, it didn’t focus as much on how much of a threat Vigo is or the power of the slime. In a 1994 interview with theLos Angeles Times, director Ivan Reitman talked about howthe audience hated the ending ofGhostbusters IIat an early test screening. He added that the ending “just died a horrible death. We went out and shot 25 minutes in four days to replace everything that happened from that moment on.”
An Unpublished Comic Book Shows ‘Ghostbusters II’s First Finale
The original ending forGhostbusters IIwould have been a love fest for our heroes, with the gang, along with Dana, honored on Liberty Island in a celebration, under a banner that reads “THANK YOU GHOSTBUSTERS”, where they’re given the key to the city by the mayor. That would have been a nice full-circle moment after all the grief they were put through by the city, but it also would have been a little long and unnecessary. The ending we get has the Ghostbusters walking out of the museum, only to be greeted by hundreds of cheering New Yorkers. We can see they are loved, and the Ghostbusters look overjoyed.That’s all we need.
The original ending would have been more than that celebration though, and while the footage has never leaked,we know what happened thanks to unpublished images from the film’s comic adaptation. The Art of the Real Ghostbustersreleased the images on Instagram, writing, “the actual ending to theGhostbusters IIadaptation (which was based on a deleted scene from the film) has been known about for several years” and “Columbia made sure the ending was pulled from the comic.”
In this ending, the Ghostbusters celebrate with the crowd before finding a beaten-up Lady Liberty lying on her side. When the mayor walks up, they hand him the bill, reminding him that they never got paid the last time.When he refuses to pay, they say they’ll leave the Statue of Liberty in the street, which gets the man to relent. The next scene shows Lady Liberty back home on Liberty Island (exactly how she got there we don’t know), before showing the gang at their victory rally. They speak to each other about what the Statue of Liberty and what America means to them, but when they get to Winston, he reminds them that his people came to America in slave ships. They all then tell their story about how their family came to America.Peter Venkman goes last, joking as alwaysthat he’s a little bit of everything because the women in his family slept around. When Dana tells him that’s a terrible thing to say, Peter looks up at the Statue of Liberty and says, “So what? It’s a free country. Thanks, Lib.”
It’s a heartwarming, patriotic ending, but it can’t top hundreds of New Yorkers cheering. That’s where the real celebration is at, with them, and not just with each other.
