Another day, another rant (and in too much physical pain to do something else).
Each ghostbuster is essential to the team.
They all each represent something that, if taken out, would lead the group to perish (I’m thinking the Gozer and the Vigo battles).
Across every films, he is the one that keeps the team alive (he buys the firehouse, continues the job on the second film…). He is the one who keeps holding on to wonder and compassion no matter how strange or dark things get. Yes, he is the one who chooses the “face of the Destructor” at the end of the first film, and look who it is : the stay puft marshmallow. He is gentleness, he is kindness. Even when faced with annihilation, he reaches for innocence, for something soft and sweet.
While others might see a haunting as a threat or a nuisance, Ray sees it completely differently, for him it’s a bridge : a last chance for peace, for forgiveness, for letting go. He literally opens a shop where he can help people to find closure. He is the one bringing back the team together, again and again.
Second. Winston is the soul.
Winston arrives a few weeks after the others have founded the Ghostbusters. But, my gosh, it’s when he gets there that they become the Ghostbusters.
He doesn’t need to see to believe, but he also doesn’t let belief cloud his sense of right and wrong. He asks the big questions : about God and the apocalypse with Ray, about life after death, about the cost of saving the world. He doesn’t need any scientific degree, he has the trust and belief in his team. And that’s more than enough for him.
At the beginning of the first film he says he would believe in anything as long as “there’s a steady paycheck in it.”. But in the end, he still stays. In the second film he still is with Ray at the birthday party and after that, Winston is the one who keeps the legacy alive.
Third. Peter is the arms.
He’s the handshake, the door-kick, the arm thrown around a friend’s shoulders. He’s the first to face down a ghost with nothing but a wild grin and a witty remark. And it would be easy to think of him only as Peter Venkman the chatter, the comical one.
But he is so much more. His arms keeping reaching outward throughout the first two films : and it’s to push, to pull, to provoke, but most of all : to protect.
Peter is the arms that catch his friends when they fall : the one who lifts them back up, even if he pretends he doesn’t care. He may roll his eyes at sentiment, but he’s the one who acts, who steps in, who gets his hands dirty when it counts.
Fourth. And we might think last but no. Egon. The brain.
Yes, everyone knows, Egon is the brain of the Ghostbusters, it’s not a big surprise. He is the “mad scientist”, the creator of the devices. We all are aware of it. But it’s more about how he uses his brain as his secret silent language to care and love.
Every plan he makes, every tool he builds, is for the sake of those he loves. He keeps the dangers at bay not just because he’s able, but because he can’t bear the thought of losing the people who matter most (let’s not enter the whole Afterlife discussion because I don’t even want to imagine how it felt like to care so much for everyone inside this massive haunted house).
Lastly, because she is the Ghostbusters too and without her there would be nothing : Janine. She is the ears.
The one who listens, truly listens, in a world too loud with chaos.
She’s the first point of contact for every desperate client, the doorstep between the public and the boys. Janine hears it all and stays. She could quit, she keeps repeating it in the first film : but she doesn’t. Because she adores them.
She is more than a secretary: she is a member of the team and a confidant. Her listening is active, fierce, protective of them. She is the ear that links everyone together.
Because, in the end, to answer the question : who you gonna call ? Not just the ghostbusters. But Janine Melnitz too.
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