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Everything in Ghostbusters: Afterlife is canon. The film manages to answer a few questions that have plagued Ghostbusters fans for decades or it at least tries to. It also introduces new ideas conceptually as well as updates some old favorites including the Proton Pack and ghosts themselves.
There will be spoilers ahead for this movie and everything in the current Ghostbusters franchise.
6 Mods To Equipment
Some of the classic gear from the series receive an upgrade in Ghostbusters: Afterlife. The P.K.E. Meter is one of the first items revealed to have been modded. It has a zapper at the end of it. However, its application is never tested until the end of the movie when Podcast is fighting off the mini Stay-Puft Marshmallow Men.
The Ecto-1 received two big upgrades. The first is the sidecar which allows someone to shoot at enemies while a fellow comrade is driving. This looks like a mod straight out of a video game. Moving on, the Ecto-1 got a trap door which allows a Ghost Trap on wheels, also new, to be lowered onto the streets below.
5 Containment Fields And Mega Traps
The Ghost Trap on wheels was not the only upgrade the item received in the sequel, as Egon also made a spider web of interconnecting Ghost Traps. This was done to seemingly catch Gozer more easily. Why fight with one Ghost Trap when dozens are around?
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It’s a question of quantity over quality. This mega Ghost Trap failed the first two instances but the third time proved to be the charm. On a similar note, Egon also found a new application for Proton Packs. He used four of them as automatic suppressors of the living dead rising from the pits of the Somerville mine.
4 The Gatekeeper And The Keymaker Roles
In 1984’s Ghostbusters, Dana and Louis are targeted by the Gatekeeper and the Keymaker. These are the two stone dog-like demons that come to life and possess Dana and Louis. It is said that they must unite to bring back the iconic villain Gozer to the world of the living. This formula felt off in the original film.
It was a bit odd that these demons went from statues to dogs to humans to dogs again, and then when they died, the humans remained. Ghostbusters: Afterlife answers that question in a roundabout way. The Gatekeeper and Keymaster must consummate their relationship. Only humans can do that which is why that transformation from dog to human is needed. That text can be found in the original film, but it’s more obvious in Ghostbusters: Afterlife.
3 Shandor’s Origins
Shandor is only mentioned by name in the first film. It never felt like a name that was ever important besides the fact that he constructed the high-rise apartment in New York City to summon Gozer. Ghostbusters: Afterlife shows that Shandor came from Somerville. It’s a good callback for a sequel.
Shandor used the local mine to harvest a special ore to build his tower as a proper summoning alter. It was a contingency plan in case the temple in the mine was not enough. The movie also showed Shandor off on camera. His time on screen was very short-lived but his overall presence in Ghostbusters: Afterlife did answer a few lingering questions from the original film.
2 How Ghosts Work
The Ghostbusters films proved the existence of ghosts in their universe. That is all they did though. They never got into why ghosts could come back from the dead. Do all humans turn into ghosts? Is there a heaven? Is there a hell? Those questions are never addressed in the original films and they aren’t fully answered in Ghostbusters: Afterlife either. However, one piece of the puzzle was solved thanks to Egon. Not all ghosts are evil. Egon was able to stick around and guide his family with no ill will.
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Egon was also able to materialize in the last scene to help his fellow Ghostbusters out one last time. After he gets a hug from his daughter, he disappears. This plays into the real-life theory on why ghosts may stick around. Egon made sure he had unfinished business before dying. Once Gozer was caught and he reunited with his daughter, that business was seemingly taken care of.
1 Winston’s Fortune
Some of the biggest additions to the franchise’s lore made by Ghostbusters: Afterlife were updates on the original quartet. Egon went off to study Gozer. Ray continued to helm his bookstore on the occult. Peter went off and presumably married Dana. He also became a professor of advertising which fit his character nicely. Winston had the biggest turnaround going from a fourth-tier Ghostbuster to the richest Ghostbuster.
Winston’s enterprise was established as sort of a backup plan in case anything bad went down again. If ghosts did return, he had the money to fund future Ghostbuster-related projects. That’s exactly what the final end-credits scene seemed to be hinting at. What isn’t known is if this sequel will be another film, TV show, or animated event. Rest assured, the Ghostbusters will return.
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