So the Ecto-1 Gunners Seat implies a lot, and we haven't talked about it

Ghostbusters Discussion General Ghostbusters Discussion
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The Ecto-1 gunners seat is canon being introduced in Afterlife.

At some point between 1989 and 2021 a gunners seat was installed in the Ecto-1.

It’s impossible to have been installed by Egon while he was in Summerville because there wouldn’t have been any point. Him being the only Ghostbuster there (or the only Ghostbuster left, going by Ray’s phone explanation to Phoebe).

That means there was a whole period of intense Ghostbusting in New York after 1989 that required the Ecto-1 to have it.

GBTVG obviously doesn’t have it in 1991 (canonicity is disputed for GBTVG). And Grooberson says in Afterlife (2021) that “there hasn’t been a Ghost sighting in 30 years”.

Taking his words loosely means that that gunners seat was used by the Ghostbusters in NYC up to about 1995 (taking the time frame generously).

That opens up a whole can of worms doesn’t it? Also with Ray saying “hauntings got thin”.

I mean it seems inconsequential to read too much into dialogue but the installation of an entire gunners seat mechanism in that Cadillac isn’t trivial.

Edit: and the RTV

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It’s possible Egon made it in Summerville. He was hoping they’d change their mind and go help him.

I don’t know if it implies a rise in ghost activity…maybe they just needed to chase ghosts that flew away.

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Probably added out of necessity. They made all those new equipment in GB2 in reaction to the psychomagnotheric energy. Made those tripods to exorcise the levitating items. Yeah, I’m thinking they had to hoof it once chasing a free roamer in the early 90s and decided a gunner seat would save them some grief. And the RTV, too, most likely.

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I know the gunner seat is mentioned in the Spengler Journal that came with the HasLab proton pack and while I know that isn’t 100% canon, it’s the best we got so far. If I remember correctly, he added it in Summerville in anticipation of the others joining him. I’d cite the exact page, but I need to dig that thing out from storage.

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Page 20 I think. Egon thought about the roof first before the version we see on screen.

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I don’t know. It seems like a lot of trouble to add something when he was alone. Also the wear and tear on it isn’t really consistent with it never having been used (even once). It’s not like Egon was going to sit in that chair waiting for a ghost to show up in Summerville and activating the mechanism to bust it when he could have just stepped outside with his pack.

Also I don’t believe Egon captured any ghost in Summerville (apart from the terror dog at the beginning of Afterlife), atleast none that are mentioned anywhere.

It doesn’t make sense to me logically that he would have built it in Summerville

Janine also says about the copper in the firehouse: “Stripped by vagrants in the 90’s”. So sometime in the 90’s operations ended there. Maybe somewhere between 1992-1995 going by all available dialogue?

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Something like that, yeah. Plus in Afterlife, Ray tells Phoebe “some actor bought up most of Tribeca.” IRL, that actor was Robert DeNiro in the 90s starting in early 1991 when he bought a parking lot that became the sight of the Greenwich Hotel.

Another clue was in Ghostbusters: Afterlife: The Art and Making of the Movie. On page 23, Jason Reitman says, “If you had been born in the early 2000s, you probably don’t even know about them, or maybe you’ve just heard briefly about it.”

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Yeah, I’m just thinking in terms of (far) future media that might be made. Possibly something animated where the OG’s are shown in the early 90’s?

If the Egon’s journal doesn’t mention he built it in Summerville but just shows his idea for it it may be consistent with the Journal too, it having been built earlier. Mine are in storage somewhere so I can’t look it up.

Also don’t forget Ray’s Ghostbusting motorcycle in Frozen Empire. The plate says 1985 but whether that indicates it was used in 1985 or like the Ecto-1, was an old vehicle that was repurposed sometime after 1989 I have no idea.

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Yeah, animation, comic book, or a book could fill in that gap.

I also think it was added back in NYC.

Yeah, the motorcycle is a question. Ray may have simply owned a regular Harley motorcycle back then and affectionately getting it a vanity plate but when the Proton Pack and thrower were added is an open question of back then or did the Engineer Corps add that in present times for him. Funny enough, in the IDW comics, which for all intent and purpose set in the 90s, they had a Ecto motorcycle.

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I think, at least in my head canon, the Ecto-C, the first of Egon’s pack modifications, and AT LEAST the thrower for the gunner chair were developed at the same time. Why? The front grip on them all have the same shotgun grip

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Good point, zeta but then Egon seemingly assembling a pack with a shotgun grip in Summerville. Hmm, unless there was a plan to revamp all the throwers with shotgun grips and that was originally one of the throwers he took with him to Summerville.

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According to what Ray tells Phoebe, Egon took his pack and thrower, some isotopes (probably what he used to build the equipment in the cave), and all the traps. So, the pack in Summerville was his original pack from NYC, not something he was assembling, but modifying… he just never finished it before he was killed. If you recall, during the Gozer fight, Phoebe was able to hold off against Gozer’s attack solo, so I’m assuming Egon was modifying his pack to dish out more power than the stock ones the surviving OGBs’ packs were putting out. Granted, that last bit is all fan fiction until something official comes out, but I’m just going by what was on screen.

If I had to hazard a guess, the shotgun grip was something he started using in place of the standard grip either for convivence, comfort, or cost effectiveness for a repair as it was probably done during the post-GB2 “lean years”.

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Well, if Egon was modifying something like the output of particles or acceleration, I suppose that would explain why he took out the CRT Emitters (they produce a stream of electrons). But how can you anticipate the power of a god? We saw that directly hit with that pack’s stream was ineffectual as a 1/2 powered Gozer was able to manipulate that stream and toss Lucky. Phoebe was in a losing battle vs. Gozer’s lightning as she was being pushed back and would have eventually been overwhelmed if not for Egon’s intervention followed by Peter, Ray, and Winston blasting Gozer, too. But Phoebe seemed to discover the real way to soup it up in FE by brass plating. Though some more adjustments probably would be needed or that half-life would be shortened exponentially with continued use in it current state.

Perhaps. Scientists do tinker.

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I mean we are trying to do Ghost Corps and Sony’s work aren’t we? If we are being honest?

The reality is (pretty obviously), that in 2019 Kirsten Franson got the assignment to design a proton pack for Egon when he was in hiding in Summerville, a worn out pack that survived 30 years. She added bits (which, as a side note, I love) that updated it to 2021 in terms of concept design (i.e. what we’ve learned in 30 years of art and concept design for movies), with the added element of the 30 year wear and tear.

It’s almost like the Afterlife Spengler pack is as if a modern, more evolved, concept artist fleshed the 1984 look of the proton pack (the neon yellow sleeve accentuating the purpose of the multi color ribbon cable (visual balance to the thrower), the copper wires kind of filling out the empty base of the Clippard, etc.) It’s like a modern concept artist going back to 1983 and being asked to “finish” what Stephen Dane started. (PS: I don’t even know if neon yellow PET cable sleeves existed in 1984).

The wooden shotgun grip (which I’m personally not a huge fan of) was to illustrate the wear and tear. The black, functional, finger grooved molded front grip obviously fell off and Egon made do with whatever he had around. Some wooden thing that was slapped on. The rear grip taped together to last some while longer.

That Summerville Spengler pack (cables, shotgun grip, etc) was unique to Summerville. They were not on the OG Ghostbusters pack when they showed up in Summerville in Afterlife in 2021. The shotgun grip is unique to Summerville. I.e. devised in Summerville by Egon. It should have no business on Ray’s motorcycle in NYC (whenever it was used). Unless Egon built the motorcycle with wooden grip in Summerville (with the shotgun grip) just for himself and Ray transported it from Summerville to NYC in 2022, which makes NO sense at all.

And this comes back to my criticisms of FE. In FE more packs have the wooden front grip (the motorcycle for example). As if the wooden grip is a thought out, functional improvement to the original eronomic grip (which it obviously wasn’t, it was a thrown together fix out of necessity in Summerville.)

In FE I believe the production designers (in this case I believe Ben Hall, the prop department chief, not a concept artist) may have just looked at the wooden front grip introduced in Afterlife and said: “that’s a thing now, slap it on the motorcycle”.

And we are tyring to retcon it and make sense of the desicions taken in production.

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