Ghostbusters recap: the story so far

No. 01 · 1984 · Film

Ghostbusters recap

Columbia University parapsychologists Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz and Egon Spengler are thrown out of the university and start a ghost removal business in an old firehouse, with Janine Melnitz on reception. Their first job, catching a slimy green ghost at a hotel, makes them famous, and they hire Winston Zeddemore as business booms. Their client Dana Barrett finds a demon in her fridge saying "Zuul", and Peter pursues her. Egon warns that the city's spiritual energy is building toward something huge. Dana is possessed by Zuul, the Gatekeeper, and her neighbour Louis by Vinz Clortho, the Keymaster. Walter Peck of the Environmental Protection Agency shuts down the containment grid, releasing every ghost they have caught, and the Ghostbusters are arrested. Their building turns out to be a giant antenna designed to summon the god Gozer.

How Ghostbusters ends

The mayor frees the Ghostbusters, and they climb Dana's building to face Gozer, who tells them to choose the form of the destroyer. Ray thinks of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, and a giant one stomps through the city. The team crosses the streams of their proton packs at the gate, destroying Gozer and blowing up the Marshmallow Man. Dana and Louis are freed, and the crowd cheers as the team drives off.

Post-credits scenes

No. There is no post-credits scene.

No. 02 · 1986 · Series · optional

The Real Ghostbusters recap

This animated series continues the adventures of Peter, Ray, Egon and Winston after the first film, with Janine running the office and Slimer, the green ghost from the hotel, now living in the firehouse as a mischievous pet. Episodes are mostly standalone: the team traps ghosts, demons and monsters around New York and the world, from bogeymen and ancient gods to creatures from the works of H. P. Lovecraft, often with Peter cracking jokes, Ray explaining the lore and Egon inventing new gear. An EPA inspector, Walter Peck, returns in some episodes. From the fourth season the show was retitled Slimer! and the Real Ghostbusters, adding shorter comic segments starring Slimer, and Louis Tully joins the cast as the team's accountant. Later seasons tie in to Ghostbusters II.

How The Real Ghostbusters ends

The series has no single finale: it ran from 1986 to 1991, ending with more standalone ghost-busting episodes rather than a closing story. Its events sit loosely alongside the films, and Extreme Ghostbusters (1997) later continued the idea with Egon training a new team.

No. 03 · 1989 · Film

Ghostbusters II recap

Five years after Gozer, the Ghostbusters have been sued out of business. Ray runs an occult bookshop and does children's parties with Winston, Egon does research, and Peter hosts a cheap psychic TV show. Dana, now divorced with a baby son, Oscar, works restoring paintings at a museum, where a portrait of Vigo the Carpathian, a 16th-century tyrant, is being hung. Oscar's pram rolls off by itself, and the team finds a river of pink slime under the city that reacts to emotion, swelling with New Yorkers' bad moods. Vigo takes control of Dana's boss, Janosz, and orders him to bring him a child so he can be reborn. The team is committed to a psychiatric ward after a run-in with the mayor's aide while the slime rises.

How Ghostbusters II ends

On New Year's Eve, ghosts overrun the city and the museum is sealed under a shell of slime with Dana and Oscar inside. Released by the mayor, the Ghostbusters fill the Statue of Liberty with positive slime and walk it through the streets, and the crowd singing "Auld Lang Syne" weakens the shell. They defeat Vigo, whose painting changes into a portrait of the four of them.

Post-credits scenes

No. There is no post-credits scene.

No. 04 · 2016 · Film

Ghostbusters recap

Physicist Erin Gilbert is about to get tenure at Columbia when a book on ghosts she once wrote with her friend Abby Yates resurfaces online. Erin goes to Abby, who now works with the engineer Jillian Holtzmann, and the three see a real ghost in a historic mansion. Erin is fired, and they set up a ghost-hunting business above a Chinese restaurant, hiring a handsome, clueless receptionist, Kevin. Patty Tolan, a subway worker who knows the city's history, joins after seeing a ghost on the tracks. The ghosts are being raised by Rowan North, a bullied hotel janitor who plants devices along ley lines to open a portal and bring on an apocalypse. The mayor's office publicly calls the Ghostbusters frauds while privately relying on them.

How Ghostbusters ends

Rowan possesses Kevin, opens the portal in Times Square and unleashes an army of ghosts. The Ghostbusters fight through them, and Rowan takes the form of a giant version of their logo ghost. They close the portal by overloading it, and Erin dives in to save Abby. The city secretly funds the team, and they move into a firehouse.

Post-credits scenes

Yes. In a mid-credits scene, Kevin dances with dancers and frozen police officers. After the credits, Patty listens to an audio recording of a voice saying "Zuul" and asks the team if they know what it means.

No. 05 · 2021 · Film

Ghostbusters: Afterlife recap

Single mother Callie, broke and evicted, moves with her children Trevor and Phoebe to the dilapidated farm in Summerville, Oklahoma, left to her by the father who abandoned her: Egon Spengler, who has just died. Phoebe, a brilliant, socially awkward scientist like her grandfather, finds his equipment, and a ghost helps her. With her summer school teacher Gary Grooberson and her friend Podcast, she learns the town sits on a mine built by the cult leader Ivo Shandor as a temple to Gozer. Trevor gets the Ecto-1 running with his crush Lucky. The kids catch a ghost in town, and Phoebe calls Ray Stantz, who tells her Egon left everyone to stop an apocalypse. Gary and Callie are possessed by the Keymaster and the Gatekeeper, and Gozer returns.

How Ghostbusters: Afterlife ends

The kids lure Gozer into Egon's traps, which fail, until Ray, Peter and Winston arrive in their old gear. Together with the ghost of Egon, who helps them, they trap Gozer, and Egon makes peace with Callie before fading away. Callie, Trevor and Phoebe now have a place in the Ghostbusters family.

Post-credits scenes

Yes. In a mid-credits scene, Peter and Dana test each other with Zener cards. After the credits, Winston talks about how he made his fortune and holds on to the firehouse, and a red light on the old containment unit starts to flash.

No. 06 · 2024 · Film

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire recap

The Spenglers now live in the New York firehouse and work as Ghostbusters with Gary, while Winston funds a secret research lab. After an expensive chase, Mayor Walter Peck benches 15-year-old Phoebe. Ray buys a brass orb from Nadeem Razmaadi, a man who has no idea of its power: it holds Garraka, an ancient god of death who can freeze everything with fear. Phoebe befriends Melody, a ghost who died in a fire and who is manipulating her for Garraka. Nadeem turns out to be the last of the Firemasters, a line meant to keep Garraka imprisoned. Melody tricks Phoebe into separating her spirit from her body, and Garraka escapes the orb and frees the trapped ghosts.

How Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire ends

Garraka freezes the city and holds the Ghostbusters in place with fear, while Nadeem finds his fire power and Ray, Peter, Winston and the Spenglers fight. Phoebe, back in her body, takes on Garraka with a brass-plated proton pack, and Melody makes amends by helping Nadeem use his fire to weaken him. Ray turns the containment unit into a stronger trap, and Garraka is caught. Melody passes on to rejoin her family, Peck is forced to reinstate Phoebe, and the team sets out to recapture the ghosts that escaped, including Slimer.

Post-credits scenes

Yes. In a credits scene, a trucker gets out of his Stay Puft truck to use a vending machine, and the Mini-Pufts steal the truck, setting up more mischief for them.