In the overhead shot when the Marshmallow Man is first hit with proton beams, he's not wearing his red tie. Billy Bryan, who was wearing the suit, recounts that when he was about to attach the tie, effects artist Joe Viskocil was busy adding flash bulbs and spark generators to the Mr. Stay Puft's bib. Bryan didn't want to mess it up, and forgot to attach the tie.
Winston's name tags say "Zeddemore." The credits spell his name as "Winston Zeddmore."
When Dana gets out of the cab, her groceries include a green leafy vegetable with a large white stem. When she gets to the hall, it has become completely green lettuce. It changes to celery while she is talking to Louis. When she sets it on the counter it is still celery, In the next shot the item on the counter is lettuce. After the eggs start frying on the counter top it changes to lettuce and celery, each pointing in opposite directions. When Venkman is checking out the apartment, they both point the same direction.
When the gang is about to enter Dana's building, a red-haired extra is visible in two different crowds that are supposed to be facing each other.
(at around 24 mins) When Peter goes to Dana's apartment for the first time, the piano cover goes from being closed, to open, to closed, to open again.
Dr. Peter Venkman claims that he has doctorates in psychology and parapsychology. Later, he says that he sedated Dana Barrett/Zuul with Thorazine. Doctors of psychology and parapsychology are not MD's, so they can't prescribe or administer drugs, especially a controlled substance like Thorazine.
While someone as immoral as Venkman would, regardless of his credentials. administer such a drug, Venkman had no means by which to get the drug being that he cannot write prescriptions.
While someone as immoral as Venkman would, regardless of his credentials. administer such a drug, Venkman had no means by which to get the drug being that he cannot write prescriptions.
The ghost busters would not be authorized to have blue lights in their car . Blue lights on cars in the state of NY are restricted to volunteer fire fighters , and their immediate family members.
When Walter Peck is explaining to the mayor why the EPA was investigating the Ghostbusters, he states that the Ghostbusters were defrauding people by putting on "some laser light show". Fraud would be investigated by the District Attorney's office (or some other law enforcement agency) as opposed to the EPA.
In the opening scene in the library, the librarian passes the card catalog. The cards start flying out. When they float down, it is apparent that they have no print on them and are completely blank.
When the Ghostbusters are climbing the stairs in Dana's building, the staircase is square with a large central opening and ornate railings. And there is an upward looking shot that shows this square stairway continuing up to the top of the building. But when they reach the 22nd floor, the staircase is now a narrow rectangular one with plain iron railings.
Ray quotes a Bible verse, which he says is Revelation 7:12. It's actually Revelation 6:12. Ray also forgets some words, while Winston adds extra words. But Ray and Winston were trying to remember the verse (as Ray says he "remembers" the verse) so they may not remember all of it.
When Venkman is explaining that Gozer will take the form of whatever they think of, he uses J. Edgar Hoover as an example. The fact that he used J. Edgar Hoover as an example would mean that he had to think of him, if only for a second. Gozer should've assumed the form of J. Edgar Hoover. However, it is possible that Ray understood what Gozer meant at the same moment Venkman did and that he thought of Mr. Stay-Puft before Venkman thought of J. Edgar Hoover.
Venkman says that Gozer was worshiped by the Hittites, Babylonians, and Sumerians in 6000 BC. The Sumerians first came into history around 4000 BC, the two Babylonian Empires lasted from 1900 to 1600 BC and 626 to 539 BC, and the Hittite empire lasted 1600 to 717 BC. However, 4000 BC is the earliest *known* date regarding the Sumerians, they could have been around much earlier. The other groups existed in the same general region and grew out of earlier cultures, so a set of Gozer cults could have existed in 6000 BC in the cultures that the Hittites and Babylonians came from. (A simpler explanation is that Venkman has no idea of what he's talking about.)
Venkman tells Egon he has Dana "whacked up with 300cc" of Thorazine, a relaxant and anti-psychotic. It's more common to describe dosage by weight, not volume, so he likely meant 300 mg, which as a single dose is exceedingly high even for severely disturbed patients. Given the vague nature of demonic possession, a dose that high could have been necessary.
When Winston and Ray are in the car talking about the Bible verse, Winston is in the driver's seat. When they pull up to the HQ after the explosion, Ray gets out of the driver's seat. They may have stopped and switched seats between the scenes.
A heavy object used to destroy Dana's apartment wall clearly flies as the wall explodes.
When Mr. Stay-Puft walks through Columbus Circle, his body overlaps a street light in the foreground, even though he should be far behind it.
(at around 39 mins) One shot of the Ectomobile during the first montage is flipped; the logo faces the opposite direction.
(at around 52 mins) Dana's chair is dragged into the kitchen. After the door has shut, the track used to drag the chair along is visible on the floor.
When the Ghostbusters are about to enter the building and the ground begins to break apart, the pieces of ground are not all solid. What appears to be a brown sheet billows out as one piece slopes down.
When Louis runs toward the Tavern on the Green he says, "I'm going to bring this up at the next tenant's meeting. There's not supposed to be any pets in the building," without moving his mouth.
When the Ghostbusters vehicle is pulling out of their HQ to head to their first call, the editors speed up the film to make the car look like it is speeding off.. On the street, one block behind, you can see a person walking across the street and he speeds up super fast as the car appears to speed off.
When Peter and Raymond enter the library, things we hear aren't what they are actually saying by their mouth movement.
When Dana/Zuul levitates as Venkman is counting to three, part of the device used to lift her up is visible under her middle back area.
When the Ghostbusters are hit by Gozer's finger lightning, the stunt cable used to pull the Ghostbusters through the air visibly moves out of frame in the upper left.
When the Marshmallow Man is walking down the street (seen from the Ghost Busters' perspective, before the tiny hydrant explodes) the cables used to maneuver the character's face are visible by his right foot.
As the camera pans down on the rooftop when the gargoyles come alive, the sound stage floor briefly appears at the bottom left corner [Widescreen version only]
When Venkman vaults over his office partition to meet Dana, a crew member's legs are moving behind the file cabinets to the left.
The Ectomobile is first seen on Columbus Avenue passing West 89th Street, then moments later in another part of town, then back on Columbus Avenue and turning onto West 88th Street, coming to a stop outside a townhouse which is actually 420 East 78th Street.
After the grid is shut down by Peck, he then has all four of the Ghostbusters arrested. For some reason, Janine is still free as a bird when she herself was there during this incident. On the other hand, Winston and Ray weren't there, yet they were arrested, even though Peck had never met them until that point.
In the elevator scene at the hotel, Venkman says the proton packs are nuclear accelerators. It is never explained where and how they got the material to power the packs, such as plutonium and uranium.
Dana Barrett's musical partner (possible boyfriend) asks her, "who is he (Dr. Venkman)"? By this time, the Ghostbusters had run numerous commercials, been interviewed on television, and shown on countless magazine covers, and he didn't recognize him? Even someone who did not own a television and had never read any magazines would have recognized him.
Ray declares that the phenomena they are witnessing may be as important as "the Tunguska blast of 1909." It actually occurred on June 30, 1908.
Near the beginning of the film, Venkman conducts an experiment in which he says he is using Negative Reinforcement. Two test subjects guess the symbol on the back of the card. Venkman administers electric shock for wrong answers, and gives praise for correct answers. Psychologically and Scientifically speaking, Negative Reinforcement is the subtraction of a variable in order to reinforce/increase the frequency of a desired behavior. Venkman is actually engaging in Positive Punishment, the addition of a variable or stimulus (electric shock) to decrease the frequency of a behavior (wrong answers). In Behavioral Psychology, Negative and Positive refer to the addition or subtraction of a variable in order to enhance or discourage a given behavior.
In the meeting with the Mayor, Winston tells him he's 'only been working with the company for a couple of weeks'. If fact, thanks to Peter being seen arranging a date with Dana for a few days after Winston's first day, he's actually only been working for them for less than a week at that point.
After the containment unit is shut down, Peck says that the Ghostbusters are 'in criminal violation of the Environmental Protection Act', which does not exist. He could mean the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), Clean Water Act (CWA), Clean Air Act (CAA), or one of several other federal environmental policies. Also, it is normal for a state agency representative to deal with any potential violations before requesting assistance from the EPA.
Winston tells the Mayor that he has been with the company for a few weeks. However, he was hired the same day that Venkman met Dana after her rehearsal. He arranged to meet her on Thursday evening, with no indication that it was not the Thursday of that very week. Therefore, Winston could only have been with them for less than a week.