Ghostbusters

Revealing mistake: There's a scene where Dana's building is falling apart and stones and stuff are falling to the street below. One of the huge boulders bounces off a wooden police barricade in the bottom left hand corner of the screen, and then off a person. (01:29:14)

Revealing mistake: Towards the end, when the ground is shaking and breaking up, a police car falls halfway into a hole in the road. When the smoke clears a little you can clearly see two white poles, one on either side of the back left wheel, holding the car in place. (01:21:04)

Revealing mistake: In the ballroom scene, when Slimer is flying around the chandelier, he disappears for a few frames when he reaches the far side. [This animation is mentioned in the DVD commentary. The film makers were generally unhappy with the entire animation and the fact that the representation of the apparition did not resemble those previous and that the movement was very unconvincing.] (00:35:05)

Revealing mistake: In the earthquake scene where the road is cracked, you can see the cloth on the side of one of the cracks flapping in the wind. (01:20:35)

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: I think I see it, but I am not sure I follow; why can't a cloth flap in the wind during an earthquake?

Sammo

Revealing mistake: In almost all the aerial shots of Dana's apartment block, the traffic on the ground is stationary (NB - this is explained in the SFX documentary on the Special Edition DVD/video - matte paintings were used for those shots)

Revealing mistake: When the police car falls into the hole, if you watch the ground that's rising up in front of it, when it finally comes to a stop, you can see how light it is because it bounces, and you can tell that the pieces of the pavement are moved by hydraulics. (01:20:45)

Revealing mistake: Near the end of the film when the Ghostbusters take cover in a small corner and come up with the "cross the streams" plan, look closely at Peter's proton pack, you can see that it is a foam "stunt" pack as there is a small sticking out part that keeps squashing against the wall behind him. (01:32:25)

Revealing mistake: When the eggs are popping out onto the counter in Dana's apartment, if you look closely you can see the the levers in the egg carton flipping each one out. (00:19:30)

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: Can you really, though? I looked even in slo-mo and I don't see any egregious use of 'levers'. At most, I sorta see something when the last one pops up, noticeable because it seems to go down after performing the task.

Sammo

Revealing mistake: When the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man is walking through the city, in several shots you can see outlines of people and buildings through the marshmallow man, who was added in optically. (01:32:05)

Ghostbusters mistake picture

Revealing mistake: During the "montage" there is a reversed shot of the guys driving their "ghost-mobile" - you can notice it because the Ghostbusters logo is reversed. (00:39:35)

cinecena

Ghostbusters mistake picture

Revealing mistake: A shot from above Dana Barret's apartment, from just above a statue looking down on the road below: The statue in the foreground is partially transparent. We can see the double yellow line on the street go straight through one of the statue's upper fangs, and one of the white lane dividers going through the statue's lower jaw. Viewed on Bluray disc. (00:16:50)

Revealing mistake: When the ghosts are released from the storage unit, there's a shot of the light beam followed by a wide panoramic view of New York where the ghost lights depart as strings and orbs of energy. If you look at the Empire State Building, you can see that the first orb supposedly passes behind it, but its outline can be in fact seen through it. (01:09:05)

Sammo

Revealing mistake: After Louis runs out of the building crying "There's a bear in my apartment!", the monster exits the place and knocks down the doorman, but doesn't cast a shadow until it steps on the pavement. (00:54:55)

Sacha

Revealing mistake: As Dana's apartment crumbles apart to present the temple of Gozer, there is a tight shot of a gargoyle falling off an exterior corner. Carefully lined up with features on the gargoyle's face - but still readily visible - are the black strings that pull the gargoyle face off its mount.

Watchful

Revealing mistake: When the guys are looking down at Stay Puft, as he is about to crush the church, Stay Puft approaches Dana's apartment and you can see a support structure to the right of Stay Puft's right leg. (01:32:00)

Revealing mistake: Tully just ran away from the apartment building screaming. The doorman repeats to an incoming couple "A bear, in his apartment..." The husband pulls his wife back without for a single moment glancing at the direction the beast (or its growl) come from; he stares constantly at the foreground. (00:54:00)

Sammo

Revealing mistake: In the shot that follows the one with the fake cover of The Atlantic, a bespectacled Asian man walks across the street, in front of the Ghostbusters, looking prolongedly straight at the camera. (00:40:20)

Sammo

Revealing mistake: During the montage of the Ghostbusters starting the business, there's a shot (the one immediately following the Larry King cameo), where the trio are running down a street. Many people are staring at the camera; it may seem fine since the Ghostbusters are running towards the camera, and they are celebrities so it could be argued that the people are looking at them, not at the camera. Look at the guys to the left though; they are looking past them at the camera and one of them even quickly fixes his hair. (00:40:05)

Sammo

Revealing mistake: In the montage showing the Ghostbusters' rise to success, the body of the USA Today article has nothing to do at all with them, and in fact it is a copy/paste real life article that talks about Geoffrey Faux, economist. A faux article, the prop guy must have had a laugh with that. (00:39:30)

Sammo

Revealing mistake: When Egon tries to shoot Slimer, the wall is charred on the dark section, but the beam is shown hitting the white stucco, which bears no trace of its passage. (00:36:20)

Sammo

Revealing mistake: There's a scene where Dana's building is falling apart and stones and stuff are falling to the street below. One of the huge boulders bounces off a wooden police barricade in the bottom left hand corner of the screen, and then off a person. (01:29:14)

More mistakes in Ghostbusters

Ray Stantz: Everything was fine with our system until the power grid was shut off by dickless here.
Walter Peck: They caused an explosion!
Mayor: Is this true?
Peter Venkman: Yes, it's true. This man has no dick.

More quotes from Ghostbusters

Trivia: The brief dream-scene in which Ray appears to receive oral sex from an attractive female spirit was originally part of a much larger sequence, but it was removed for both time and ratings reasons.

More trivia for Ghostbusters

Question: I heard that Ron Jeremy had a walk on part in this film, does anyone know in which scene he is in?

Answer: Ron Jeremy can be seen in the crowd outside the firehouse right after the containment unit is shut off.

More questions & answers from Ghostbusters

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.