Comments on: The Ghostbusters Are Horrible People

By: Adam Bestler

Adam Bestler — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 16:34:50 +0000

Oh, don’t you realize? It was a catch-22. Gozer, in his/her destruct or form came to lay waste to the world, wipe out humanity, and rebuild the world as it saw fit. Crossing the streams was their only way to end the apocalypse. It was an all or nothing situation, and they made the right choice. Would you rather die in an instant? Painlessly, and unaware? Or would you rather have a giant man made of marshmallow crush you under his foot like some fucking insect? I rest my case.

And Egon was smart enough to realize the dangers behind his equipment. Indeed, he simply described the worst-case scenario if one were to use the proton packs irresponsibly. That was enough to get his point across. After all, the Ghostbusters aren’t stupid. After hearing Egon describe the repercussions of a total proton reversal, do you really think Ray, or Peter, or even Winston would dare fire their proton stream irresponsibly? No.

By: B.Lily

B.Lily — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 22:24:20 +0000

When using the term “Earth” to describe the planet it is a proper noun and, thus, should be capitalized. So capitalize that E mo-fo!

Just spreading the word for Earth-Mama. Dig that funky chick . . .

By: Matthew Belinkie

Matthew Belinkie — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 05:33:15 +0000

@Vigo – I don’t think Venkman’s line proves anything. He’s an egomaniac – of course he only cares about himself and the woman he wants to sleep with.

And if Stay Puft is Gozer, then I’m not impressed. I still say that even before they crossed the streams, Stay Puft was well on his way to being reduced to goo.

By: Vigo

Vigo — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 21:23:09 +0000

I have to respond to this since I know way too much about Ghostbusters and can set this straight.

Crossing the streams only endangers the people in the immediate area of the proton packs. You forget Peter’s line at the end when he says “Cross the streams? You’re going to endanger us, you’re going to endanger this nice lady who paid us in advance before she became a dog”. Therefore it’s clearly just the people on the rooftop that would get hurt.

But then we find out crossing the streams doesn’t actually do anything other than send extra energy in the direction they’re shooting it. From a clip I’ve seen of the game, I hear Ray just say it “stings like the dickens”.

Oh and as for your Stay Puft comment – Stay Puft IS Gozer! It’s the same being, not something else that can be easily defeated – as in “Gozer the Traveller – he’ll come in one of the pre-chosen forms”. The pre-chosen form this time was of a cute marshmallow man mascot.

By: Lash Lightning

Lash Lightning — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:27:33 +0000

You know how when they were testing for first atomic bomb, there was a betting pool as what was going to happen? And one of the options, half-jokingly added, was that it was going to cause a continuing chain of exploding atoms, destroying the whole world? I think that’s what the whole “crossing the streams”-thing is.
The worst case scenario, not the most likely scenario, and Egon, what with not being able to truly test the proton packs from day-one, is too worried to try it out. Obviously, he was wrong about it destroying the World.

By: Captain Jack Spareribs

Captain Jack Spareribs — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 15:01:00 +0000

When this movie first came out, I was a kid. This ending creeped me out. Because Venkman (who was the comic relief) got a bit frustrated and at a loss for words during this dire time (save for the Marshmellow Man/Sailor line). Anywho…

I always thought the Ghostbusters THEMSELVES would just zap out of existence. Not the whole city.

By: Gab

Gab — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 14:01:53 +0000

For the record, I don’t think there *is* a right or wrong answer when it comes to “what Egon meant”- it’s about how you interpret it. I imagine the characters within the movie itself had different ways of interpreting what Egon said. One may have assumed he meant just they themselves would die in the explosion (thereby leaving the rest of the world to deal with Stay Puft), another may have thought he meant NYC (which would probably still leave Gozer capable of doing bad things), and the last could have interpreted it as the whole world (which is just what Gozer wants). What Egon meant isn’t really the issue, it’s the fact that these guys took it upon themselves to decide for the rest of humanity (and every other living entity on the planet) what would happen (because if they’re the last line of defense and they die, even if they’re the only ones that do, it would leave everything and everyone else vulnerable), and they picked the risky path with a fraction of a percentage of positive outcome. Risking a blast as big as 75xKrakatoa? Are you *kidding* me? If you’re going to take a risk *that* big, you had better be *damn* sure there is absolutely no *other* option apart from death to all those at risk of dying in that potential blast.

By: Foamy Squirrel

Foamy Squirrel — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 07:20:13 +0000

Just a quick note – apparently the line was originally not “exploding at the speed of light” (which makes no sense at all) but something along the lines of “instantaneously transported to another dimension” (I forget the exact phrasing as it’s some years since I read the alternate version). This would make more sense – by shooting the temple with the crossed streams they are intending to “reverse the polarity” (or somesuch pseudoscience) and send it back to where it came from (probably along with themselves). Why anyone (even Egon) would want molecules to explode at the speed of light is beyond me.

While the “exploding” line is canonical in that it’s the one that actually appeared in the movie, it lends weight to the theory that Egon was “dumbing it down” for Venkmann.

By: stokes

stokes — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 04:44:41 +0000

Excuse me, 75 simultaneous Krakatoae. The larger figure was from an earlier draft of the comment where I assumed a less flattering weight.

Oh, and in case anyone wants to claim that Egon was referring only to the molecules in Venkman’s body specifically, and not the whole team plus their equipment? First of all, come on. Second, that would still yield more than three thousand megatons, more than enough to wipe New York City off the face of the earth.

By: stokes

stokes — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 04:28:33 +0000

You know what, let’s just ignore the “all life as you know it” part for a minute and focus on the second half of the quote: “every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light.”

That’s an interesting phrase, isn’t it? Not too many things can move at the speed of light… that’s kind of the point, right? So what this is telling us is that crossing the streams converts your entire mass – every molecule! – into energy. The simplest way for that to happen is in a matter-antimatter reaction, and didn’t Egon say something about “total protonic reversal,” almost as if the matter involved was being “reversed” into antimatter? So here’s what happens when the ghostbusters cross the streams (assuming they don’t luck into that “slim chance” of survival):

1) they are converted into antimatter

2) they come into contact with the roof below them and the surrounding air

3) BOOM!

A single pound of antimatter has the same destructive potential as 19 megatons of TNT. The biggest H-Bomb test of all time was somewhere between 50 and 100 megatons. The Krakatoa blast was 200 megatons. The “Ghostbusters incident,” as we’ll call it, was… well let’s see, we’ve got four ghostbusters (two of them on the chunky side), plus their clothes and those heavy backpacks… call it eight hundred pounds of antimatter, which translates to roughly fifteen thousand megatons of TNT.

The ash from one Krakatoa lowered the global temperature by two degrees… here we are dealing with eighty-five simultaneous Krakatoae. I don’t know if an antimatter blast of this magnitude would create a dust cloud similar to a volcanic eruption, but I hope you’ll excuse me if I don’t want to find out.

Would it destroy all life? Probably not. The meteor blast that took out the dinosaurs is estimated to have been larger by several orders of magnitude. But New York City? Is gone. New York State is probably gone. Things are not looking good for New Jersey. And any part of the Eastern Seabord that is not destroyed outright will be devestated by tsunamis.

So even if we accept the idea that “all life as you know it” just means “your life” – which I still don’t agree with at all – crossing the streams remains an ASTONISHINGLY bad idea in any non-apocalyptic situation.