Welcome to another edition of Predicting the Plot wherein I try my best to guess how an upcoming movie is going to play out from start to finish with as many details as I can possibly give, based entirely on the previews and lead-up material I've seen.
I might be dead wrong. I may get some things right. In any way, I encourage you to give your predictions just the same in the comments below.
For this edition, I'll be tackling my fan theory of what we're in store for with the third true installment in the Ghostbusters franchise, Ghostbusters: Afterlife
NOTE: It's important to state that this is not what I would do for the film, but what I think they've done in making the movie. I likely would have gone with some entirely different plot points, if not a wholly different film in general. — In fact, if you want to know my pitch for Ghostbusters III from the very first post published on this website, click here for that story.
This movie doesn't strike me as the type that will start with something too big like an action sequence to "make sure the audience is sold from the start." Instead, I think we're diving right into the family dynamics to establish the new characters, as that will be important. It's their journey we're following and we don't know them.
Who are they? Well, based on the trailers, it seems Egon had a kid at some point before the first film with someone he was estranged enough from that she never factored into the two movies. I say this because Carrie Coon is 40 years old (born in 1981) and if she were to have been born after Ghostbusters II, that's an 8 year difference at least. For her to be 32 and for Finn Wolfhard to be 18, she'd have to be pregnant at 14, which isn't a plot point I'd imagine they'd want to get into.
Sooooo let's just say they write it off as either he had a kid he didn't know about until later on, or that they never mentioned his daughter in the other movies because he was divorced. The plot won't focus much on this at all. It'll be pushed aside as just "he had a kid in some fashion, so let's move on." I don't think it'll be a situation where her mother is Janine as I haven't seen any of these characters referred to as having the surname Melnitz. Nor Spengler, for that matter. But let's brush past the potential deadbeat dad aspect and move on.
Egon's daughter, Callie, grew up largely without his presence in her life. She had a son (Trevor, Finn Wolfhard) and a daughter (Phoebe, McKenna Grace). As they say in the trailers, they're broke at the start of the story and they have to move into this old farmhouse that was left to them by Egon, who dies at the start of the movie or just prior to it and has gifted this to them in his will. Maybe the will acts as a driving force of the plot in other ways, like hinting at the secrets he was looking into and such. Maybe it's just a means for them to go there in particular.
Trevoris a troubled, but good kid. He's one of those "I need to rebel because I'm angry about my parents, but I'll watch out for my little sister and I'm actually responsible" types of adolescents who we can recognize as a handful at the start of the movie without not being able to root for him later on. Phoebe fits into the socially awkward genius trope. Clearly, she takes after her grandfather, who collects spores, molds and fungus. Moving to a new school and all has its own challenges. Finn's all "this town suuuuucks" and Phoebe's only able to connect with maybe the kid called Podcast and her teacher, Mr. Grooberson (Paul Rudd).
Callie and Mr. Grooberson have the "romantic" subplot. IE, if anyone is going to shack up in the movie, it's either those two, or Trevor gets a girlfriend (Lucky), but it's probably not a huge focal point. They'll just be the Keymaster and Gatekeeper to Gozer.
Toward the start of the movie, when they are looking at the new house, someone unknowingly sets off a chain of events that will lead to the ghost outbreak. Throughout the film, an abandoned mine shaft (Shandor Mining Co) is the source of all this ghostly activity. It was created by Ivo Shandor as another place to summon ghosts and worship Gozer. Egon moved there to study it and try to make sure nothing ever happened like the incident in 1984 ever again.
The original Ghostbusters had seen split up and figured there was nothing else going on. As Mr. Grooberson says in the trailer, there hasn't been a ghost sighting in 30 years. What do you do as exterminators of a pest that doesn't have any clientele? The second film shows them down on their luck already not being popular enough for stupid birthday parties and the like, so they couldn't possibly have kept the business going for another 30 years even after the Statue of Liberty incident. Nobody's popularity is indefinite.
I'm assuming/hoping Dana and Peter settled down. I'd love for "Oscar Venkman" to be confirmed in some fashion and maybe show up in the sequel to this, if there is one (and I assume if it's perceived well, there will be a follow-up). Ray seems to have a shop of some kind and seems bitter, so maybe he's just sole old tech junkie nutjob type who babbles nonsense to most people. Winston's an average Joe, so he just did average Joe things.
After Trevor restores the Ecto-1, they get the equipment up and running, and Phoebe works with Mr. Grooberson on deciphering what's going on with the earthquakes in town. they start trying to bring down the ghosts like Muncher. That is, until the dogs come out to play.
Then, basically, we get the end of Ghostbusters I once more. Gozer is back, has the Keymaster/Grooberson and Gatekeeper/Callie as minions, and it's up to our rag tag group of heroes to save the day. I don't think we're going to see the original team suit up to fight with them, but if we're lucky, that happens. If that does happen, I think they all die in the process to save the kids.
At the end, all is well. Gozer's done forever and we have our new team (Trevor, Phoebe, Lucky, Podcast, maybe some others, with Callie and Mr. Grooberson supervising them as, you know, adults) in case anything happens in the future, which is implied to be a possibility after we see Muncher interacting with Slimer to pop the audience.
That's what I'm expecting to happen, but what do you think?
Give your predictions and thoughts on my guesses in the comments below!
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