Ok I know I will get flamed for this but it’s something that’s bothered me since a kid when watching Ghostbusters. That is, why does Venkman act all obstructive and like a bit of a dick when Peck first visits? Let’s not forget, intially Peck just wanted to asses and look around their equipment, which is of course his job and if you were in his shoes you can see why he might be worried about a bunch of discredited scientists setting up a lab in the middle of Manhattan. Hell, he even tried to be pleasant about it.
Peck only gets the court order after Peter refuses to allow him to inspect, which was the only option left for him. I’m not trying to say the man didn’t act like an ass when he did get the order but surely this could have been avoided if Venkman had co-operated. as Peck reminds us, Venkman had his chance. I’m sure Peter even looks a little bit guilty at this point.
Peter doesn’t do well with “authority” figures not to mention the fact that Peck intentionally keeps calling him Mr Venkman and mocking his credibility after Peter tells him he’s Dr Venkman.
Of course the real reason is the movie needed conflict.
Peck was an asshole, and Venkman could see that. He probably enjoyed pissing him off, and knew that it would make more work for Peck if he had to get a court order to inspect the Ghostbusters premises. Venkman didn’t want anyone just waltzing in and snooping around, possibly stealing secrets of the “indispensable defense science of the next decade.”
Agreed. The conflict with Peck is one of the only non-ghost conflicts in the film. They don’t only bust ghosts, they defeat dickless environmental office workers! :walterpeck:
I don’t think it could be said any better than the way The Stiff put it. I must fully agree. Sure, Venkman could have been more welcoming to Peck and MAYBE that would have helped, but I SEVERELY doubt it. Peck came across as a little bit of a condescending @$$ the entire time. Plus, sure Venkman was being a bit difficult, but not so much so that any sensible human being would have felt the need to get as aggravated as Peck did. So, as much as Venkman didn’t have to be quite so difficult with him, I really don’t think there was much of any way the situation could have gone any differently, or for the better at all.
Peck had already decided in his mind that the Ghostbusters were frauds before he even gave them a chance. He’d have just looked for any excuse, no matter how flimsy, to try to shut them down.
you can tell he was put off after he kept calling hime Mr. Venkman when a doctor tells you hes a doctor he wants to be called DOCTOR, not to mention peck had nothing but hear say about what was going on. The better question is how in the hell did he get a court order to shut down the grid with out a investigation into the day to day at gb headquarters to know if they were possibly causing harm to the environment, thats the more interesting question, guess he had connections down town, we may never know…
Uh. EPA agents can request to be shown your premises, if they are denied and they reasonably believe you could be violating regulatory laws they can get a Court Order. That’s all it takes.
right from the get-go, Venkman gave Peck a slimy handshake and put it on his suit. Venkman was a bit inconsiderate to begin with but that’s just his character.
I think Peter’s outburst at Peck’s threat to bring back a court order was a little un-Venkman like. We’d all lose our cool around a dick like Peck but Peter could handle a schmuck like Peck easily. His outburst just didn’t fit Pete’s character. I’d see him playing it cool the whole way through, cracking jokes and enraging Peck all the more.
I know the film needed that conflict hence Venkman’s reaction; but in terms of everday normal life - would it be appropriate to have reacted the way Venkman did? Just strikes me the whole situation could have been handled better. Peck came in with suspicions and left with resolutions. I would argue Peter caused this.
Venkman’s provocation of a government official lays in the same place as mouthing off to a cop or making eye contact with Ron Daniels. It just isn’t smart.
Though, as it was mentioned before, Venkman’s reaction was probably for the sake of a movie and plot
Well, as I said earlier, I definitely agree that Venkman could have handled the situation better. However, since we are talking about putting things in the perspective of every day normal life, Venkman was just goofing on the guy a little. Peck was being a d*ck pretty much right from the start, outwardly disrespecting the Ghostbusters and Venkman’s status by continuing to very pointedly refer to him as “Mr. Venkman.”
But, even so, I wouldn’t say anything Venkman did at first to be all that bad, just a little on the goofy side. Any normal person would typically have found him mildly annoying, but had insisted on seeing the containment unit anyway. Peck, instead has an unneccesarily angry reaction and threatens Venkman and the Ghostbusters. I think it was fairly obvious that Peck had made up his mind already and would have tried to make up whatever trumped up, false claims he could to try to get the Ghostbusters shut down even if Venkman had cooperated.
It also could have been decided “off camera” if you will that any GB should try and keep the EPA away should anything come up. The rest of the guys didnt seem too concerned with what happened when peter mentions they just got a visit from the EPA.
Furthure more, i would think there would have been some sort of back-up for the containment unit grid should something happen. Why would they bet all their chips on one main power?
Actually, although never mentioned, i assume they would have fixed the main power grid-shut off “problem” by the second movie, as the black-out they caused probably would have erupted the containment unit again
The cartoon certainly presented some ideas in that area. In “KIllerwatt” they had a backup generator sitting nearby, and when Killerwatt took that away they rigged up a bicycle to generate power from being pedalled. On a couple of other occassions (“The Revenge of Murray The Mantis”, “Cry Uncle”) when the main power was switched off the grid only went offline long enough for the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man to escape before backup power came online.
Of course, if you’re going to be a Movie Purist, you could also assume that the Ghostbusters were shut down immediatly after GB1, and didn’t need to rebuild the ECU or put any ghosts into it. There was no ECU to go offline during the GB2 blackout.
:walterpeck: