Venkman screwed up... my theory

Ghostbusters Discussion General Ghostbusters Discussion
1

Maybe this has been covered before but I remember when I set out to build my pack… I was going to have seperate switches on the pack and on the gun. Because I remember watching the first movie and Venkman switches Ray’s pack on from the left side.

But now that I think about it I can’t remember any other time in either movie where they activate the pack seperately. So my theory was that Murray was supposed to switch on the thrower, but couldn’t reach it in the cramped elevator so he just went for the side.

Make sense?

2

Not sure m8, but there are a lot of inconsistencies between the two movies, even. In the hotel scene, Ray pushes the footpedal once to open it, and pushes again to close it however when they’re in the courtroom in GB2, Egon pushes the footpedal to open the trap and lets off to close it IIRC. Not sure about your theory though, but after Ray gets out of the elevator, he toggles the switches on the gun a few times. Now, imo that wouldn’t have been written into the script if the gun was planned to be activated in the elevator. Also, it was Egon who switched him on. :smiley:

3

The proton packs are supposed to be switched on before they turn on the thrower. They just were not shown doing so most of the time. I mean you really don’t see them switch the guns on too many times either you just see them shoot.

They were shown switching on both seperatly in the cartoon a few times too.

4

Ok. I’m glad someone else brought all of this up, because it has been weighing on my mind for some time.

Me and a friend of mine are building proton packs and light kits. He already has the pack lights finished, now it’s off to the gun. Well, due to inconsistencies(?) in the films, there are some logistical problems on assigning which switches do what.

In GB1, the pack is switched on by Egon somewhere in the power cell region. Ok, toss that one out completely, as it was probably the only area the actor could reach in a cramped elevator. So, let’s assume the gun turns the thing on. Well, a few scenes later, Stantz turns the pack on with the switch to the lower right of the handle (X sign). Venkman also does that at the end: “Heat 'em up.”

Flash forward to GB2, courtroom scene. They put on their proton packs (Do, Ray, Egon) Venkman and Egon both turn on the pack with the Activate switch (lower left). Yeah, I’m ■■■■ for slowing all these scenes down, but I want to get it right.

The easiest thing for me to do would be to assign a different switch based on whether I am creating a GB1 or GB2 pack, and say to hell with it. That’s what I’m leaning toward.

But, I’m with you guys on the pack being on, then the gun being turned on. Because at the end of GB1, right BEFORE Venkman utters “Heat 'em up,” there is a split second shot of them from behind, and the pack lights are on. WHAAAA?!?

P.S. When Ray gets out of the elevator at the Sedgewick, he is extending the barrel (tube) at the end. This is done with the green switch. [Thanks to Thiago for telling me about that one!]

~5B

5

From what I can tell, it looks to me like Egon could’ve flipped a switch or pressed a button on the lower right hand side of the cyclotron to engage the pack, and later to arm and activate the thrower, have a separate switch on the thrower itself. From what I can tell, there are/were no controls on the power pack at all. Am I right on that?

Also, at the end of GBI, it looked to me like they twisted the foregrip of the thrower to extend the clear tube. Or am I missing something?

6

You’re right. There’s no knob in that area. There’s a crank knob higher up, but not there.

And, yes. They do twist the gun grips at the end for the tubes to extend, but I think that was just for effect. (I used to think the same thing when I watched the movie eons ago. Like a pump-action shotgun.) And, perpetuating that theory, Norm’s gun plans do indeed call for a switch to be placed just behind the forward grip.

But…still, I go back to the shot of Ray walking out of the elevator. Slow it down, and you can see him toggle the green switch extending the tube. That’s enough for me to include that feature on any guns I make from here forward.

~5B

7

here is what i did:

red turns on pack lights

blue turns on wand lights

green turns on the grill light AND must be flipped in order to ‘fire’

image

granted its not “movie accurate” but its a logical sequence, no?

8

I suppose, if you wanted to utilise all the buttons. That would work. But what about when you add sounds (if you plan to, that is.)

9

i dont think i am, but dont hyperdyne’s and exoray’s intergrated light and sound kits all work off the same switches???

10

That switch (or whatever it is) is found on the screen used packs. There is a pic of it here:

http://www.gbprops.com/image.php?url=/reference/10/1/27.jpg

Although, I’ve also heard that the green “lever” thing (the one between the trigger box and gun body) had something to do with the barrel extension as well (or perhaps instead of). There is a pick of it there:

http://www.gbprops.com/image.php?url=/reference/10/1/14.jpg

11

Mmmm…probably. But I don’t have major moolah to spend on all of that to find out. And I don’t know anyone who has one in their possession. Hyperdyne has some old vids on their site, of the individual components at work, but none of the entire ensemble.

But what I was getting at, is if you have three different switches to turn “it” on, you can only really assign one to do the sound, otherwise you have three instances of the power-on sound.

Maybe someone who has Hyperdyne’s kit on their pack will speak up. I’m interested to know! :slight_smile:

~5B

Edit: Master Taran, thanks for the pics. That’s wild. Venkman’s proton gun plans totally omit that forward switch. I wonder why? What I had planned on doing is making the forward switch a “release” lever, and the back (green) switch the one that extends it. Kind of like a safety switch, where the forward one would move slightly and “catch” the tube when it was moved back into position.

12

A GB from Texas we met up with at Gencon, Phil, had the sound kit. He activated it by using the top “intesify” push button on the trigger box. Once to turn on the pack start up sound, once more to play power down, hold to play shooting sound and then hit mulitiple times quickly to play the theme song, incidental music etc.

13

Sounds cool to me… I’d like to see that in action…

14

Pardon my ignorance… but what front button are we talking about in this image?

I see the two toggle switches to the right of the graph bar… and the green coloured extension switch for the barrel… but I don’t see anything that’s obviously a working switch behind the front grip… unless it’s the angular piece with the wire running into the gun beneath it.

As for in the film, I always interpretted it as the main power switch being suggestively switched on by Egon in the Power Cell/Ion Arm cluster… and that the activation switch on the gun was for the gun alone… I don’t think it would make much sense to have that whole scene and then just shift the Pack’s ‘On’ button to the gun… especially if in scenes where we see the gun ‘on’ switch pressed, and the Cyc and Cell lights are already activated.

15

i was kinda wondering the same thing but thought i would sound stupid if i asked

16

I don’t know, maybe someone should ask him. Anyway, that’s not the only thing he omits in that section of the gun. You can’t really see in this particular pic, but in some of the pics you can see a slight “gap” in the handle (as if two pieces of pipe were joined together with a smaller piece, with a gap left between the two larger pieces). The switch box thing sits over this gap. Stefan’s plans include both the gap & the switch box thing.

Here is a clearer pic detailing this “gap” (only good pic I could find; it’s a fairly obscured detail):

It’s the one with the wire beneath it. I think it sort of vaguely resembles the left gun ear in its overall shape.

17

From my understanding of how things work here one has to also take into account that in 1984 audience were not as savvy as they are today and most people didn’t nit pick these kinds of details the way we do now. Chalk that up to the video revolution and advances in freeze frame technology.

Now that considered, take things back to the actors. Actors have to work. Most of the stuff, like the little nuances in their performances, Egon flipping a non existing switch or Louis sniffing Egon’s arm in front of the containment, unit were just improved on the spot because the actor needed to act. It was a visual cue for the audience to see that something is happening and was necessary to make the gag of them recoiling from the pack work. There was no other intention beyond that.

The same goes for the barrel twist. The original intent of the barrel twist, from my understanding, was for the comfort of the actors when holding the wands. and again at the end it just looks good to have some kind of motion to go along with all the 'make ‘em hard’ line. A visual cue for the audience.

The actual mechanism that was used for extending the barrel looked like and worked just like this…

And to wrap this up, I will conclude that most people are reading way more into all of this than anybody on set ever intended. The simplest answer is usually the right one. So guys, though I appreciate your enthusiasm, try not to get carried away with the wild speculations.

18

In the hotel scene when Egon tells Peter to shorten his stream does it mean for him to shorten his barrel?

I hope this isn’t a dumb question, I’ve just always wondered.

19

The round dial on top of the wand beside the grill vents is supposed to be the stream adjustment knob. The length of the barrel has nothing to do with the length of the stream.

20

oh… Do they mention that at any other point of the movie? I can’t recall any other time.