Film / Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

All spoilers for Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters II, and Ghostbusters: Afterlife will be left unmarked.

It'll send a chill down your spine.

“Your world will shatter — bones and ice. My empire will rise.”

— Garraka

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is a 2024 sci-fi/horror/comedy film, the fourth film in the main Ghostbusters film continuity, and the sequel to Ghostbusters: Afterlife. It is once more written by Jason Reitman and Gil Kenan (Monster House), with Kenan taking Reitman’s place as director. It stars Mckenna Grace, Finn Wolfhard, Carrie Coon, Paul Rudd, Celeste O'Connor, Logan Kim, Kumail Nanjiani, Patton Oswalt, Emily Alyn Lind, James Acaster, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts, William Atherton, and Bill Murray. It is notably the first film in the franchise to not involve original director/producer Ivan Reitman in any capacity, following his passing in 2022.

Since the events of Afterlife, Gary, Callie, Trevor and Phoebe have moved into the New York Firehouse and become the official Ghostbusters team, while Winston has opened the Paranormal Research Centre to study the ghosts they bust, and Ray is using his bookstore as a hub for collecting occult texts and finding haunted objects. When one such object turns out to be the ancient cage for an incredibly powerful, malevolent spirit, it will take both generations of Ghostbusters to prevent New York from being overrun by armies of ghosts and plunged into a new ice age.

Previews: Teaser, North American Trailer, International Trailer

---

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire includes examples of the following:

Tropes # to D

• 10-Minute Retirement: In the interim since Afterlife, Peter has retired from Ghostbusting while Ray has been forcibly benched and reassigned to an advisory role by Winston due to his age and health. Once the Death Chill Crisis begins, however, both surviving founding Ghostbusters quickly and without hesitation get back in the saddle.
• Actor Allusion:
  • Nadeem's apartment has a picture on the wall that looks like something out of the Kama Sutra - Kumail Nanjiani actually appeared in History of the World Part II as the author of the Kama Sutra.
  • Dr. Hubert Wartzki refers to "New York's Gilded Age". Carrie Coon is one of the stars of The Gilded Age.
  • Peter Venkman asks Nadeem if he's ever experienced deja vu, much like another Bill Murray character, Phil Connors, did in Groundhog Day.
• Adventurer's Club: The Manhattan Adventurers Society. They appear at the beginning of the film and are victims of the Death Chill around the turn of the century.
• Aesop Amnesia: Peck is still going after the Ghostbusters despite all the trouble it caused for him and New York 40 years ago. It once again blows up in his face by the end of this film. Peter even lampshades it.
  Peter: Peck, you clown! You're never gonna get it, are you?
• All for Nothing:
  • Peck spends the entire film trying to shut down the Ghostbusters again. However, he's ultimately left humiliated and forced to back down after they defeat the Big Bad and everyone in New York praises the Ghostbusters as heroes. Likewise, he's also forced to leave Phoebe alone after she was praised as a hero by the masses. Adding insult to injury, Winston outsmarts him by twisting Peck's sarcastic first words as an endorsement for the Ghostbusters in front of the news reporters, and Peck realizes he can't take those words back without looking really bad in the press, meaning that he'll be remembered as the Ghostbusters' biggest supporter in history instead of the man who finally brought them down. Which Peck really hates.
  • 40 years of busting ultimately amounts to nothing once Garraka breaks the Containment Unit open. Every single ghost ever caught by both generations of Ghostbusters are now loose again and the new team now has to start all over from scratch (beginning with Slimer and the Sewer Dragon).
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: The third act is largely about the Ghostbusters defending the Firehouse from Garraka and his various minions.
• The Alleged Car: Ecto-1, following on from Afterlife.
• Ancient Order of Protectors: The Fire Masters, the ancient order that originally captured the Big Bad. Nadeem is one of their last descendants.
• And the Adventure Continues: After defeating the Big Bad and showing up the Obstructive Bureaucrat, the Ghostbusters are being celebrated as heroes on the streets by the people of New York when Slimer and the Sewer Dragon go flying by. Gary, Callie, Trevor and Phoebe immediately load up Ecto-1 and go tearing off after them. Roll credits.
• Animate Inanimate Object: The Possessor ghost can do this to anything it wants. Vacuums, televisions, statues, cars, and even weapons systems like a proton pack. Lars says it's probably the most dangerous ghost in the Paranormal Research Center.
• Art Evolution:
  • Slimer and the Library Ghost. While their designs from the original film have been preserved (and in the case of Slimer's design, restored after the Real Ghostbusters-influenced redesign from the second film), their character models have also obviously been recreated and updated for high-definition and the digital era.
  • Following its dilapidated state during Afterlife, the Ecto-1 has not only been refurbished, but had its classic design tweaked for this film. The updates are mostly cosmetic (ex. red stripes on the front hood), but with new technological gear mounted on the roof (specifically the flying Trap Drone).
• Artifact of Doom: The rune-covered brass orb which contains Garraka, a phantom god who can control other ghosts and summon the Death Chill.
• Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Ghosts who "finish their business" and move on do this. What that entails is up for debate between Melody and Phoebe. Phoebe thinks they join with the "fabric of the universe".
• Asshole Victim: The Manhattan Adventurers Society in the Distant Prologue, lampshaded in being rich colonialists that steal other cultures' treasures.
• Astral Projection: Phoebe uses one of the Ghostbusters' new pieces of equipment to briefly become a ghost. Unfortunately, this means Garraka can now control her, and by extension her physical body.
• Avengers Assemble: As with the climax of Afterlife, the original team must join forces with their successors along with a barely pyrokinetic Nadeem and a repentant Melody to stop the Death Chill and save New York. However, the team-up dynamic is different this time around. Both teams now know each other and the Spenglers and Grooberson have become more experienced. More, this time it's only the surviving members of the original team (as Egon's spirit has passed on) and with Janine now suiting up.
• Back in the Saddle: Phoebe (who's been benched) teases the retired Ray into some Ghostbusters field work.
  • More broadly, the OG Ghostbusters suit up for the film's climax. Including Janine.
• Badass Family: The main team of Ghostbusters at the start of the film (Callie, Grooberson, Phoebe and Trevor) are both a family and a team of scientist adventurers who hunt ghosts for a living.
• Bait-and-Switch Character Intro: Nadeen is dangled as a bad guy trying to get the orb activated. In reality, he's not only just trying to make a little money, he ends up being a hero.
• Batman Cold Open: After the Distant Prologue, the film opens with the team busting a ghost during a high-speed chase, establishing that Gary, Callie, Trevor and Phoebe are the new Ghostbusters.
• Beam-O-War: The final battle has one of these between Phoebe and Garraka. Phoebe loses. Temporarily.
• Beard of Evil: Walter Peck.
• Benched Hero: Phoebe is stood down from the Ghostbusters when Peck threatens to make a (valid?) fuss over the team employing a minor in a dangerous role. After she helped the Ghostbusters defeat the Big Bad and saved New York, she was reinstated back to the team.
• Big Good: Winston Zeddemore has become this as the financier and overall boss of the whole Ghostbusting operation, which now consists of the Ghostbusters team, the Paranormal Research Centre, and Ray's work at the bookshop. At the end, he forced Peck to back down and convince him to support the Ghostbusters.
• Blatant Lies:
  • While pursuing the Sewer Dragon, Phoebe ignores her mother's orders to remain in the Ecto-1 and deploys the gunner's chair. Callie yells at Phoebe to get back in the car, but Phoebe "conveniently" can't hear her mother over the sound of the Proton Pack and says as much.
  • Walter Peck scoffs at the Gozer Incident, stating that original team claimed to have saved the world, yet there were no eyewitnesses. This coming from the guy who helped precipitate said crisis, who was there at ground zero when Gozer-as-Stay-Puft stepped on a church (let alone ascended 550 Central Park West whilst aflame), and who literally got about a metric ton worth of (melted) evidence dropped on him.
• Bookends: The film begins and ends with the Ghostbusters in pursuit of the Sewer Dragon.
• Both Sides Have a Point: Phoebe's status as a minor does make it understandable that her Mother and sort-of Stepfather want her to go and be a normal teenager for a while. However given that in Ghostbusters: Afterlife they spent a lot of their time possessed while she, her brother and their friends did most of the actual Ghostbusting she does kind of have a point that this is her calling and they joined the family business mostly by chance.
• The Bus Came Back: Slimer (who was absent in the previous film) and Walter Peck, the Library Administrator, and the Library Ghost (all three absent in the films since the original) make their comeback in the main trailer.
• Call-Back:
  • As in Afterlife, the Spenglers arrive at a place that's locked up (in this case, the Firehouse), and Callie calls for Phoebe to pick the lock so they can get in.
  • Like in the previous film, Phoebe meets a ghost by playing chess with it. Egon in the previous film, Melody in this one.
  • Phoebe meets Ray after returning a jar of mood slime, and a researcher can be seen testing a slime thrower in one scene.
  • Posters outside the library advertise a concert performance by "Cellist Dana Barrett". They are visible before the Possessor animates one of the lion statues.
  • The way that Garakka menacingly asks the unfortunate tabocconist he freezes and shatters "Are you the the Fire Master?" is strikingly similar to how the Zuul-possessed Dana asks Peter "Are you The Keymaster?"
  • Once again, Peck gets called "dickless".
  • Transferring a ghost from a Trap to the containment unit still works as it does in the first film, down to, "The light is green, the Trap is clean." Sets up a Meaningful Echo later on, when Garraka is trapped by the repurposed containment unit.
  Janine: When the light is green...
  Winston: ...the whole world is clean.
  • The "Statue of Liberty debacle of 1989" is mentioned as being one of the Ghostbusters' most destructive missions, after the Action Prologue which also caused damage throughout Lower Manhattan.
  • Janine's look in this film is a blend between her looks from the first two films (short red hair and colorful glasses).
  • Trevor gets slimed in a way similar to Venkman in the original film. It's even Slimer himself doing the sliming!
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • Some attention is given to the firepoles used in the Firehouse. A segment is melted down and laced in Phoebe's proton pack since the ancient mystics used brass to contain spirits like Garraka.
  • Attention is called to Melody's matchbook early on. She strikes the match that lets Nadeem bombard Garraka with fire when his lighter runs out.
  • As in the first film, attention is again paid to how the containment unit works. And just like in the first film, the containment unit gets breached. This time, however, its being empty allows it to be repurposed as a giant sized Trap.
  • The Paranormal Research Center has developed a device to extract spirits from haunted objects. Phoebe later uses it to briefly become a ghost by pulling her own spirit from her body.
• Chekhov's Skill: Arguably one 40 years in the making as the opening scene of the original 1984 film had Venkman performing experiments to study the effect of negative reinforcement on psychic powers. While interviewing Nadeem due to a spiked PKE reading, Venkman starting throwing items at the test subject's face, pissing him off. This later proved to be intentional as the act resulted in the flame of a nearly Bunsen burner shifting in direction and intensity, revealing Nadeem's latent abilities as a Fire Master.
• Cosmic Keystone: The Ghostbusters' Firehouse has become this, after being central to a number of big paranormal events over the course of decades.
  Janine: We didn't just buy the Firehouse for nostalgia.
  Winston: This building is the finger in the dam. It's the fortification between everything we do and don't understand. We have to protect it.
  • The Distant Prologue suggests that the Firehouse is a bit of a lightning rod for paranormal situations, as a group of firemen in 1904 from the very same Firehouse witness a paranormal event at the beginning of the film.
• Cruel Mercy: At the end of the film, Winston decides to give Mayor Peck cover when his condemning statement of the Ghostbusters was going against the positive feedback from the masses and the press, stating that Peck was not only congratulating the Ghostbusters but was 100% supporting them from the start. While Mayor Peck is certainly saved from press scrutiny and plummeting approval ratings, he has to live with the fact that his reputation is now tied to the success and popularity of the Ghostbusters. He can no longer go after them.
• Cute Ghost Girl: Melody.
• Destructive Savior: The revived Ghostbuster team still causes some collateral damage in trying to capture ghosts. It seems the only thing keeping them afloat is Winston's sponsorship.
• Did Not Get the Girl: Depending how you view the relationship between Phoebe and Melody the ending could be seen as this with the latter moving on to the afterlife. Although not without a Reunion Vow to meet up on the other side later.
• Distant Prologue: The film opens in the year 1904, with New York firefighters arriving to the headquarters of the Manhattan Adventurers Society, and finding a room full of its members frozen to death by the Death Chill.
• Double-Meaning Title: The title refers to both Garraka creating a new empire that's frozen and to New York (a.k.a. the Empire State) being frozen.
• Dude, Not Funny!: After multiple jokes about his grandmother having a secret sex dungeon, Nadeem very seriously asks the Ghostbusters to stop making sex jokes about his recently deceased family member.

Tropes E to J

• Earn Your Happy Ending: Melody accidentally set the fire that killed her family and herself. She works with Garraka in order to cross over and see them again, believing it is the only way. In the end, she strikes a match and provides Nadeem with fire to fight Garraka. She uses the same matchbook that killed her family to save Phoebe's family (and the world); reversing her greatest mistake and finally forgiving herself.
• Easter Egg: Once again the late Ivan Reitman's first film Cannibal Girls is referenced. This time as a VHS Gary found lying around the house that he proposes the family watch for movie night.
• Ectoplasm: Trevor spots some dripping from the ceiling over his bed. It turns out Slimer has been hiding out in the firehouse attic. When Trevor discovers him, he promptly gets slimed... twice.
• Epigraph: The film opens with the text of Robert Frost's poem Fire and Ice.
  But if it had to perish twice,
  I think I know enough of hate
  To say that for destruction ice
  Is also great
  And would suffice.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Two movies in, and there is still no hint of Podcast's real name. It's even listed on his uniform instead of his surname like the others.
• Evil Is Petty: Even 40 years after the Gozer Incident, Walter Peck still hates the Ghostbusters just as much as the day he walked into Peter Venkman's office. He wastes no time dressing down the Spenglers and Grooberson (the former especially as they're Egon's descendants) after the Sewer Dragon incident and spends the rest of the film trying to shut the team down again. However, he fails at the end.
• Failed a Spot Check: Peck's fatal mistake in the final scene. He's intent on using the citywide damage from the Garraka Crisis to finally shut down the Ghostbusters and arrest them all. He's so fixated on this goal that it doesn't immediately register with him that New Yorkers and the Press are overwhelmingly rallying in favor of the Ghostbusters. By the time Peck finally realizes public opinion's not on his side and tries to back off, it's too late (as Winston is able to twist Peck's words of condemnation into words of political endorsement and support).
  • Also, after Garraka killed the tobacconist (thinking it was the latest Fire Master since the store shares its name with the title), he entered Nadeem's grandmother's hidden room to reclaim his horns. While there, he passed a picture of Nadeem and his grandmother, not piecing together that's what the latest Fire Masters look like.
• Forbidden Zone: Downplayed, but the New York Public Library is this for Ray (and presumably Peter and the late Egon too). Thanks to the Library Ghost incident back in the first film, Ray's now banned and isn't allowed within 50 feet of the building.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus:
  • Posters outside the New York Public Library advertise a cello concerto to be performed by none other than Dana Barrett.
  • While it's not explicitly pointed out in the film, Adam Savage's BTS tour reveals there's a subtle Continuity Nod with the Firehouse's ground floor. If you're paying close attention, you'll notice there are large patches in the central floor and ceiling (and their coloring doesn't match the rest of the Firehouse design). These patches, of course, correspond with the location of the basement and are the repairs made after the damage caused by the exploding Containment Unit in the original film.
  • One of the Hot Beverage Thermal Mugs from Ghostbusters II can be seen on a shelf in the Firehouse Kitchen.
• Fright Deathtrap: The Death Chill. As Ray describes in the trailer, it harnesses the power to kill by fear alone, complete with a graphic description of its effects. Gary summarizes it as being able to scare people to death.
• Gambit Roulette: Garraka's plan to escape his orb relies on a lot of assumptions about Phoebe's behavior in response to the various events. Melody is recruited specifically to lure a distraught Phoebe into using a device she has only just learned about to temporarily become a ghost so Garraka can possess her.
• Gadgeteer Genius:
  • Phoebe, just like her grandfather.
  • Lars Pinfield of the Paranormal Research Center. He also resembles Egon's appearance in The Real Ghostbusters.
• Gentleman Adventurer: The Manhattan Adventurers Society styled itself as this, though in reality they were just rich colonialists stealing the treasures of other cultures.
• Gilligan Cut: Two fantastic examples with Phoebe.
  • Phoebe is having an argument with Callie:
    Callie: Choose your next words very carefully.
    [cut to later:]
    Gary: I didn't think she even knew those words.
  • And later, with the Mayor of New York, after Phoebe has destroyed a public landmark:
    Mayor: Let me ask you, Miss Spengler, are you going to behave? Or do I need to have you arrested?
    [cut to Phoebe in handcuffs in a police interrogation room]
    Gary: Well. We really thought you were gonna choose "behave".
• Go Back to the Source:
  • After spending the previous film in the American Midwest (barring a handful of scenes), Frozen Empire returns the setting to New York City.
  • Ray returns to the New York Public Library — the site of the original team's fateful first encounter with the supernatural and the catalyst for all that followed across the preceding three movies. He also once again finds himself facing down (and screaming at) the Library Ghost. Finally, the Library Administrator, who called the original trio to investigate at the beginning of the first film, tries to tell Ray that he's not allowed within 50 feet of the building.
• Good Stepfather: Gary. Even though he and Callie aren't married, he's very much stepped into the parental role for Trevor and Phoebe, and is determined to be as caring and supportive of the kids as he can. Notably, Phoebe unconsciously calls him "Dad" in the final scene.
• Harmless Freezing: Being frozen by Garraka's power is only shown to be harmful when the victim is either shattered or only partially frozen. Lars gets his hand frozen over by the orb containing him and is shown for the next few scenes with his arm in a sling and hand wrapped up, though he appears fine later. The entire team sans Nadeem gets frozen at the climax, but once Nadeem fights back with his fire powers, their freezing is undone and they're immediately ready to keep fighting back. Though considering he was about to rip a frozen Phoebe spirit out of her body, one can certainly read it as him making sure that his victims can't escape him via their soul leaving for the other side.
• Heel–Face Turn: Melody is initially working with Garraka in order to see her family again but eventually turns on him out of loyalty to Phoebe.
• Heroic Lineage: Nadeem, last of the Fire Masters, whose ancestors trapped Garraka in the first place and whose grandmother was responsible for the brass orb's safekeeping. Oh, and they're pyrokinetics.
• Hidden Purpose Test: Zigzagged when Peter interviews Nadeem with the help of the colander device. At first, Peter is simply working through a standard protocol of questions (albeit some rather bizarre ones) and using the device to analyze Nadeem for possession. When Peter notices the Bunsen burner in the lab seems to be reacting to Nadeem's agitation, however, he begins throwing pens at Nadeem to test his theory.
• History Repeats Itself:
  • Once more the Containment Unit gets broken open and all its ghosts are released. Last time it was Peck and this time it's Garraka... though Ol' Dickless is still indirectly involved this time around.
  • A standard sized Trap is insufficient to contain a being of Garraka's power, just as Gozer couldn't be contained by a single Trap in Afterlife. This time, however, rather than use dozens of Traps, the firehouse's containment unit is repurposed into a supersized Trap.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • By succeeding in cracking open the Firehouse's ghost containment unit, Garraka allows Ray and the rest of the OG Ghostbusters to Reverse the Polarity and turn it into a heavy-duty trap.
  • Downplayed, but both Nadeem and Ray during the final battle. Nadeem's lighter runs dry (as he'd used up all the fluid practicing), depriving him of an ignition for his abilities and leaving the team at Garraka's mercy. If this were the old days, Ray (a prolific smoker during the original films), could easily toss Nadeem his own lighter and they'd be back in business. Unfortunately, as Ray laments, he quit smoking after Ghostbusters II (and thus hasn't carried a lighter on his person for the better part of 30 years). Oops.
  • When Peck turns up at the firehouse after the climax, it's made very clear that his intention is to use the damage caused to the city by Garraka as an excuse to shut the Ghostbusters down. However, he quickly realizes that this move is going to backfire due to the general public's gratitude towards the Ghostbusters saving the world again and stops short of doing so, and seeing an opportunity, Winston then twists Peck's words of condemnation into an official public endorsement and support from the Mayor's Office.
• Hollywood Law: Peck has Phoebe arrested for slander. Criminal libel hasn't been an arrestable offense in New York for over 200 years.
• Horrifying the Horror: The second the sphere containing Garraka is brought to Winston's Aquarium (repurposed as ghost prison); every last one of the usually rowdy ghost inmates banging against their cells immediately quiet down. Even the mini Stay-Puft kids, fragments of Gozer the Sumarian God of Destruction itself, are frightened into submissive attention by the rage and sheer power of the horror trapped within it.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: Peter has kept a secret bottle of booze hidden on the Firehouse's ground floor. He breaks it out when he arrives before the final battle, jokingly offering sips of "[liquid] courage" to the surviving OG Ghostbusters.
• The Intern: Name-checked as a way to keep the Afterlife supporting characters in the mix. Podcast is interning with Ray at the bookstore, while Lucky is interning at the PRC.
• Internal Homage: When Garraka breaks open the containment unit the shots of energy blasting through the firehouse roof and the released ghosts flying around the New York City skyline are lifted almost directly from the equivalent scene in Ghostbusters (1984), when Peck orders the containment unit shut off.
• "It" Is Dehumanizing: Melody is offended when Podcast calls her "it."
• It's Personal: Walter Peck's still carrying a grudge against the Ghostbusters, and that grudge has now been transferred to the new generation.
• Jerkass Has a Point: While Peck is an asshole with a petty grudge, he's not wrong about the legal and ethical issues of the Ghostbusters employing a minor.
  • Callie and Gary forbid Phoebe from using the extendable gunner seat while driving fast in New York traffic, and it's shown why when Phoebe ends up inches away from being crushed to death by a SUV.
• Joker Immunity: All of the Mini-Pufts got killed off after Gozer was sealed away in Afterlife, but Frozen Empire reveals that not only have some survived but seemed to have begun multiplying. Given that Gozer is the only reason why Stay-Puft is associated with the supernatural, they shouldn't be active and still mischievously evil to begin with. But since the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man is such an iconic figure in the franchise, it's perhaps not surprising to see their Unexplained Recovery.

Tropes K to Y

• Karma Houdini: Walter Peck's career survived the events of the first film, despite his role in the Gozer Incident, and he's now the Mayor of New York City.
• Lampshade Hanging: Nadeem points out in an interview scene that he has a pasta colander on his head. Also doubles as a Call-Back.
• Leaking Can of Evil: While Garraka is sealed within the orb, he's still capable of exerting his influence on other spirits and when aggravated can extend a freezing chill far and wide throughout Manhattan.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  • At one point, Janine says that the Ghostbusters didn't buy back the firehouse "simply for nostalgia" - this could be read as a reference to how a lot of the more negative reviews of Afterlife criticised it for being overeliant on call-backs to the original film, also making it a case of Take That, Critics!.
  • Near the end of the film, one random New Yorker calls Peck "dickless", something that Peck's actor William Atherton says has happened to him many times since the first movie.
  • News footage chronicling the Ghostbusters' popularity back in the Eighties includes real toy commercials from the period, as well as clips from the Ray Parker Jr. music video.
• Leitmotif: Like Rob Simonsen on Afterlife, new composer Dario Marianelli reprises Elmer Bernstein's classic themes from the original film.
• Living Statue: The Possessor ghost turns one of the New York Public Library's iconic lions into one to attack Ray, Phoebe, and Podcast.
• Mad Scientist Laboratory: The Paranormal Research Centre has shades of this — appropriate, given they're studying ghosts.
• Memetic Mutation: Implied in-universe example following the climax when New Yorkers rally in the defense of the Ghostbusters after Mayor Peck tries to shut them down. Peck again gets called "Dickless" (albeit by a random New Yorker than any of the Ghostbusters), suggesting Ray's insult from the original film has become public knowledge in the forty years since the Gozer Incident.
• Mid-Season Upgrade: Winston's new team of engineers provide updated versions of the teams equipment after Peck has the Firehouse condemned and materials confiscated. In the climax Phoebe reasons out a possible weakness of Garraka and laces a proton pack cyclotron with brass, giving the stream a uniquely green glow with fire coming out the back.
• The Mole: It turns out that Melody is working with the movie's Big Bad in order to move on to the afterlife. She does pull a Heel–Face Turn at the end to redeem herself.
• Monumental Damage: The Possessor ghost animates one of the New York Public Library's iconic lions, which Phoebe then destroys with a proton pack.
• Morton's Fork: Following Garraka's defeat, Peck's prepared to use the crisis as an excuse to arrest the Ghostbusters and shut down them down once and for all...until New Yorkers at large start rallying for the team. Seeing an opportunity, Winston then twists Peck's words of condemnation into an official public endorsement and support from the Mayor's Office. To his dismay, Peck quickly realizes he's now trapped in a no-win situation. If Peck tries to arrest the Ghostbusters and shut them down now, the ensuing public backlash against his Administration will be catastrophic; it could very well end up costing him the Mayoralty. But if Peck doesn't arrest the Ghostbusters, then the continued future and political fortunes of his Mayoralty from hereon out will force him to publicly support and champion the very people he hates and despises more than anyone else in the world. Peck ultimately and grudgingly chooses Option #2.
• Mr. Exposition: Dr. Hubert Wartzki (Patton Oswalt), who appears in a single scene to explain the history of Garraka and the Fire Masters.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Photos from Empire Magazine show the Ghost Traps are now moored on the side of the Proton Packs rather than hanging from the utility belts (much like they were in The Real Ghostbusters). The same photos also show Janine has suited up as a Ghostbuster, which likewise happened in the series and toyline. Slimer is now living at (and haunting) the Firehouse, much like his animated counterpart — although, granted, he had by implication already moved in during Ghostbusters II (though this was admittedly more evident and implied in the deleted Louis v. Slimer subplot). The icicles bursting from the ground are reminiscent of the pop-up gravestones from Ghostbusters: The Video Game's cemetery sequence.
  • Ecto-1 now has a roof-mounted drone Ghost Trap. Ghostbusters: The Video Game also featured a Ghost Trap on the roof of Ecto-1, albeit one permanently attached to the car.
  • Trevor's first clue that Slimer is hiding out in the firehouse attic is when he notices slime dripping from the ceiling above his bed. The Kenner Firehouse toy included a grated section of the roof and upper floor, which allowed slime to be poured over action figures placed underneath.
    • The Trevor v. Slimer subplot also evokes the similar deleted subplot from Ghostbusters II when Louis Tully likewise kept trying and failing to capture Slimer.
  • Ironically, this is NOT the first time the ghostbusters had to fight things shaped like lions. Granted the first case were topiaries but the point still stands.
• Neglectful Precursors: Possibly. It seems that Nadeem's grandmother did nothing to inform her grandson (or anyone else) that she was keeping the potential world-ending orb in her pantry cabinet. However, Ray also suggests the possibility that she tried to tell him and he just wasn't paying attention, which Nadeem admits was just as likely.
• Never Trust a Trailer: The official teaser trailer makes it look as though Lucky Domingo will die in this movie as she is seen seemingly freezing to death. In actuality, she survives her first encounter with Garakka, although she does nearly get killed by Garakka along with many of the other Ghostbusters in the final battle.
• No Endor Holocaust: Despite Garakka instant-freezing all of New York with extreme sub-zero temperatures in the middle of a very hot summer where people would be dressing lightly, along with countless deadly ice spikes erupting everywhere, apparently no one was killed in the several hours it took to undo it, (possibly justified, see Harmless Freezing).
• No-Sell: Garakka is immune to normal proton streams, freezing them solid. It takes Phoebe brass plating her cyclotron to produce something that works against him.
• Not Now, Kiddo: Going into the climax, Lucky tries to warn everyone that the Proton Streams had no effect on Garraka when she tussled with him. But with the chaos of the impending siege of the Firehouse, nobody except for Phoebe pays her warnings any heed until it's too late.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: Walter Peck, now the Mayor of New York City, is still determined to shut down the Ghostbusters.
• Oddly Small Organization: Janine mentions that Winston has a team of engineers working on new gear and further ghost studies. Beyond the introductory scene which has a few other people in the background, this "team" appears to be just Lars Pinfield with Lucky as an intern.
• Official Couple: Callie and Grooberson have officially gotten together in the interim since Afterlife.
• Oh, Crap!: Trevor when the Possessor ghost inhabits a proton pack and points the neutrona wand in his face. "Oh, shit!"
• Only Known by Their Nickname: The real names of Podcast and Lucky are not revealed in this film either.
• Parental Sexuality Squick:
  • Phoebe really doesn't like remembering that her mom and Gary had sex when they were possessed in the previous movie.
  • Lucky and Trevor joke that Nadeem's grandmother's secret holding space for Garakka's orb is a sex dungeon. As they discover more layers (chains, cuffs, soundproofing) it only gets worse. Nadeem asks them to stop hypothesizing about his grandmother's sex life.
• Perma-Stubble: Grooberson has trimmed his beard down to stubble in the interim since Afterlife.
• Playing with Fire: Nadeem, like his ancestors, has pyrokinetic powers. In the third act, they even extend to controlling proton streams.
• Please Subscribe to Our Channel: Ray has to be reminded by Podcast to tell their viewers to like and subscribe to their web series, Repossessed.
• Precision F-Strike: Winston when Peter shows up at the Firehouse late in the film, but announces his arrival by trolling everybody. Trevor gets one when staring down the barrel of a neutrona wand, when the Possessor ghost possesses a proton pack and points it in his face. "Oh, shit!"
• Precursor Heroes: When recounting the legend of Garraka, it's said that Fire Masters were roaming spirit trappers that forged the sphere with copper and brass to contain him. Phoebe comments that it sounds awfully similar to what the Ghostbusters do. Further parallels are drawn when Nadeem's power over fire is shown to work equally well on proton streams, and his use of fire to lasso Garraka works exactly like them.
• Rank Up: Villainous example. In the interim since the original film, Walter Peck has gone from an EPA bureaucrat to the current Mayor of NYC.
• Readings Are Off the Scale: When Ray uses the PKE meter to inspect the brass orb, the readings go crazy... and then the PKE meter explodes. Later, when Lars tries to use the de-possession machine to extract the ghost inside, it kills the power to the whole PRC building.
• Recovered Addict: Downplayed example with Ray. Given how Ray was a prolific smoker in the classic films (more so the first one before Executive Meddling kicked in with Ghostbusters II), it's revealed that Ray finally quit smoking for good in the 1990s. Peter: "Proud of you then, proud of you now." Doubles as Heartwarming.
• Redemption Equals Death: Zigzagged as Melody was a ghost to begin with but her Heel–Face Turn at the end does allow her to move on to the afterlife instead of hanging around on earth.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: The Possessor imbues anything it animates with a red glow. When it possesses Ecto-1 at the end of the movie, it makes the car's headlights look like red glowing eyes.
• Reluctant Retiree: Frozen Empire opens with Ray in this position (with a touch of Kicked Upstairs) within the new Ghostbusters organization. While Ray wants to keep suiting up and busting ghosts, he's older and slower, so Winston has instead moved him into an advisory and research role based out of Ray's Occult Bookshop. Obviously, it doesn't stick.
• Reunion Vow: Melody helps the Ghostbusters defeat Garraka in the Final Battle, thus completing her unfinished business on Earth. As she starts to become part of the grand fabric of the universe, she and Phoebe say goodbye to each other, with Melody saying they'll say each other again when Phoebe becomes part of the grand fabric.
• Revisiting the Roots: This features the Firehouse, Janine Melnitz and Slimer's Team Pet status, which were only touched upon in Ghostbusters: Afterlife and Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed.
• Rhyming Title: The french translation of the film's name is SOS Fantômes: La Menace de glace.
• Sealed Evil in a Can:
  • Garraka is trapped in an ancient brass orb and is using what few powers he can exert to try and escape. The orb itself was sealed in a specially built room whose brass walls could suppress Garraka's powers even further, most notably by muffling his voice and ability to command ghosts.
  • The containment unit in the Firehouse has been filling up with so many captured ghosts since the events of the first film, it's reaching maximum capacity and is fit to bursting. While Winston managed to have a new, state-of-the-art containment unit at his new research center up and running, transferring all of the ghosts from the old unit to the new could take years. When Garraka regains his horns (and thus the rest of his strength), he is able to breach the old unit remotely, swarming New York with spectral phenomena. Ironically, they manage to imprison him in the now-empty containment unit.
• Sequel Non-Entity:
  • Despite her cameo in Afterlife, Dana Barrett doesn't return for this installment. According to Director Gil Kenan, they didn't approach Sigourney Weaver as they felt there was no story for Dana in Frozen Empire's narrative (on top of the film already having more than enough characters). This makes Frozen Empire (as of its release) the only one of the core four films where Dana doesn't appear (and likewise the only film of the original cinematic canon and the 2016 reboot where Weaver doesn't appear). That being said, Dana is still subtly acknowledged during the New York Library sequence (vis-à-vis posters advertising an upcoming concert performance by Cellist Dana Barrett).
    • Similarly, Louis Tully's status as this during Afterlife continues here. In that same interview, Kenan stated they had no plans to use Louis at all (and even if they had, Rick Moranis has previously declined to come out of retirement and return to the franchise for the 2016 reboot or Afterlife).
  • Similarly, with Walter Peck now the current Mayor of NYC, Lenny Clotch's post-Ghostbusters II fate is left unrevealed and unmentioned (something that was previously unnecessary to address in Afterlife given the film left NYC and took place in the American Southwest). Since Lenny was pursuing a run as New York's Governor during the first sequel, it's possible he was able to ride the successful resolution of the Vigo Crisis to a higher office. Alternately, the electoral run failed and he left politics or remained NYC's Mayor until his term of office expired. Regardless, the real life reason for Lenny's absence, of course, is because his actor David Margulies died in 2016. It's unknown if in-universe Lenny is still alive or if he has passed away since his last appearance.
• Shout-Out:
  • The idea of ghosts moving on once they have completed their unfinished business was also used in the Casper movie. Dan Aykroyd had a cameo in character as Ray Stanz failing to bust the Ghostly Trio at the start of the movie.
  • Nadeem finally masters manipulating fire by extending two fingers from both hands, which is actually a firebending technique. Unfortunately he can't just make his own fire, which would make it accurate to the movie version.
• Sins of Our Fathers: Peck's expanded his longstanding grudge against the Ghostbusters to include the new generation (and especially to Callie, Trevor, and Phoebe for being Egon's descendants).
• Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer: Emily Alyn Lind is the only major member of the cast to be conspicuously absent from all marketing materials. This is because she plays Cute Ghost Girl Melody, who died in a tenement fire and becomes friends with Phoebe while secretly working with Garraka.
• Slave to PR: This is how Winston outmaneuvers Peck after the climax when he tries to arrest them all. Winston deftly twists Peck's sarcasm and condemnation of the team into a confident endorsement in full view of the New York press and public. With New Yorkers overwhelmingly supporting the team thanks to the resolution of the Death Chill Crisis, Peck's political instincts quickly kick in. To his dismay, Peck realizes he has to play along and continue publicly supporting the team from hereon out, or risk an overwhelming public backlash that could tank his Mayoralty.
• The Smart Guy: Dr. Lars Pinfield, a parabiologist and seemingly the most senior scientist at the Paranormal Research Centre. As per James Acaster (the actor who plays him), Lars is in the film to fulfill much of the same functions that Egon Spengler did in the original films.
• Smug Snake: Walter Peck is still this forty years later.
• Sneaking Out at Night: After getting in trouble for disobeying her parents and the Mayor, Phoebe sneaks out of the Firehouse to hang out with her friend Melody.
• Snow Means Death: In the trailer, once the snow hits New York, a voice over confirms that people have frozen to death.
• So Last Season: Garraka predates anything the Ghostbusters have faced before, such that the proton streams have no effect on him. Since the ancient Fire Masters used copper and brass to contain Garraka thousands of years ago, Phoebe reasons that lacing the cyclotron in the proton packs with copper might give them a new quality that can actually harm them. Janine informs her that, unfortunately, the copper had been stripped from the building in the 90s by vagrants, so Phoebe decides to employ brass from one of the (lesser used?) fireman poles instead.
• So Proud of You: Peter supported Ray's decision to finally quit smoking in the 1990s and remains proud of his old friend to this day.
• Spikes of Doom: When Garraka is freed, a sudden winter storm falls on New York, causing spears of ice to erupt everywhere from the sea to beaches and throughout the city.
• The Stinger: Having gotten loose from the Firehouse in all the chaos of the climax, the Mini-Pufts resurface by hijacking a Stay-Puft Marshmallow shipping truck from a hapless driver at a gas station.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • Downplayed, but Afterlife showed that while Egon was tinkering with the equipment to take advantage of new post-Ghostbusters II technologies or toys (ex. the RAV Trap), he lacked the financial means to incorporate extensive upgrades. However, with the now-wealthy Winston funding the reborn team, as well as the recovery of everything Egon took with him, the trailers shows the classic Ghostbusting arsenal now being ungraded with modern advances. The RAV Trap has been upgraded into a flying drone, and the Ghostbusters now have an advanced research lab to better study the ghosts they trap.
  • After shoving ghosts into the Firehouse's Containment Unit for forty years, the Ghostbusters are here confronted with the danger of their Storage Facility getting full and losing stability (Janine observes that nobody was thinking this far ahead back in the eighties).
  • With the original team having gone out of business by the early 1990s, the Firehouse was for all intents abandoned. Unsurprisingly, vagrants easily broke in and stripped the building of anything valuable like copper wiring (thus accounting for its dilapidated state by the time Winston brought the Ecto-1 home in the Afterlife post-credits Stinger). This briefly comes back to haunt everyone when Phoebe has her Copper Weakness idea, only for Janine to inform her of the theft thus forcing them to melt down one of the Firehouse's brass poles as an alternative.
    • Perhaps unsurprisingly, one of these vagrants decided to move on in and essentially claimed squatter's rights. That vagrant, of course and perhaps unsurprisingly, is Slimer (or alternately he stuck around after the events of Ghostbusters II.
  • When Peck realizes that Phoebe is a minor and also isn't even getting paid, he threatens to have the Ghostbusters arrested on charges of child endangerment and violation of child labor laws. As a consequence, Phoebe is stood down from the team.
  • Downplayed, but the posters outside the New York Library reveal Dana has resumed her Cellist career in the interim since Ghostbusters II. The first sequel, after all, had established Dana's sabbatical was only so she could take care of the then-infant Oscar. With Oscar having long since grown up, obviously Dana's resumed her career.
    • Speaking of the Library, after the debacle of the original team's investigation in the first film, Ray has been banned by the Library Administrator and isn't allowed within 50 feet of the building. Presumably this ban also extends to Peter (and to Egon while he was still alive).
• Symbolism: During the final battle, there are two parallel moments where both the OG team and the next generation work to physically support one another to save the day: even after Nadeem's fire melts her and her equipment so she can blast Garraka, Phoebe can't maintain the blast from her upgraded proton pack by herself—so Trevor, Callie, Gary, and Lucky rush in to help hold her up and steady her aim. Meanwhile, it takes Ray, Winston, Peter, and Janine to pull down the containment unit's lever, allowing it to trap Garraka. This underscores both the theme that no one can go it alone, it takes everyone working together to win, and the fact both teams are True Companions and a Family of Choice (literally, in the case of the Spenglers and Gary).
• Tailor-Made Prison: The orb containing Garraka is kept in a room lined with brass that's also constructed to be anechoic so the influence of his voice can't reach any other spirits.
• Taught by Experience: Implied with Winston. After all the political headaches the original team ran into during the first two films, Winston's able to use the lessons of those experiences (and presumably his subsequent corporate PR experience) to deftly outmaneuver Peck following the climax. He uses the court of public opinion to exploit Peck's political weakness and protect the team from any further political persecution.
• The Team Benefactor: As part of his Big Good upgrade, Winston has taken on the role of funding the new team and its paranormal research through his post-Ghostbusters II corporate and financial resources.
• Technobabble: Ray starts into this at the end of the movie when he's modifying the now-breached original containment unit to act as an oversized ghost trap for Garraka. Peter stops it short.
  Venkman: Just do it! We all trust you!
• Time Skip: The Distant Prologue which takes place in 1904 before jumping to current day 120 years later and it's been three years since Afterlife.
• Took a Level in Badass: After being helpless victims in Afterlife, Callie and Grooberson are now fully-fledged Ghostbusters. Janine also suits up for the first time in the film canon.
  Grooberson: We're the Ghostbusters. And can I tell you something else?
  Callie: What?
  Grooberson: [beat] Bustin' makes me feel good.
• Took the Wife's Name: At least discussed; at one point Grooberson observes that he has no objection to becoming part of the Spengler family instead of Callie taking his name, explicitly telling Phoebe that nobody wants to be a Grooberson.
• Tough Love: Part of Gary's character development as a sort of stepfather to the Spengler kids is learning when to put his foot down with Phoebe when she goes out of line and not just leaving such responsibility solely to Callie.
• Trash the Set: For the second time in the film series, the Firehouse gets wrecked (this time by Garraka's siege and the second destruction of the Containment Unit).
• Unfinished Business: Discussed by Melody and Phoebe. Phoebe explains it's believed the main way for ghosts to reach their next stage of existence is by completing their unfinished business. Melody notes she has no idea what that would be for her which is why she's still trapped as a ghost. Using her last match from the book which killed her family to save the Ghostbusters frees her.
• The Unreveal:
  • Downplayed example, but the revelation that Ray finally quit smoking in the 1990s. It's left unclear what Ray's motivation was (be it financial, his health, a combination of the two, or other factors).
  • It's left unrevealed why Nadeem's grandmother chose not tell her grandson or anyone else about the Orb. Either she had her own reasons, or alternately (as Ray and Nadeem both speculate) she did try to tell him and Nadeem was simply not paying attention.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Nadeem Razmaadi (Kumail Nanjiani) finds an old brass orb among his late grandmother's possessions and sells it to Ray, unaware that it is an Artifact of Doom.
• Waistcoat of Style: Walter Peck's still favoring one as part of his wardrobe even 40 years later.
• Waxing Lyrical: Grooberson starts reciting the lyrics to the Ghostbusters theme as he has a conversation with Callie to motivate them to not give up. Callie's facial expression makes clear she's not amused, but he gets through to her.
• Weather Dissonance: The trailer opens on New York in summer (a later voiceover confirms it's July), just as a mysterious ice storm hits.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: It's not clear what happens to the Possessor after Slimer eats the pizza it's possessing. Was it destroyed, or just carried away so it could do no more harm?
• What the Hell, Hero?: Winston chews out Phoebe and Ray after the incident at the library. Phoebe because she destroyed one of the iconic lion statues and is supposed to be benched from Ghostbusters work, and Ray because he endangered Phoebe and Podcast's lives.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Invoked verbatim by Janine when Peter arrives at the Firehouse late in the film.

---

For Ivan