Headscratchers / Casper

All Villains Go to Heaven?

• Carrigan passes on because obviously, she has no unfinished business, but what bugs me is that she disappears in divine light. The divine light in ghost-type movies often means the character is going to heaven. But Carrigan is a villain and did mostly evil things and died trying to kill someone. Wouldn't it be more appropriate if she burst into flames?
  • Probably because showing a villain Dragged Off to Hell is a little too much for a PG-rated movie, especially one like this.
    • Either that or maybe she went to Heaven to be judged before eventually being sent to Hell.
    • I don't think it was divine light, but just probably what happens to all ghosts when they cross over.
  • If it had been divine light it would probably have been a lot less "aggressive", and more like the light that shines over Casper when he is visited by Kat's mom, which is warm and comforting. I don´t think those lights were meant to be heavenly- more like whatever automatic supernatural mechanism takes place when a ghost is forcibly taken to the next world due to their simply having no more business on Earth.
  • Lucifer means "Bringer of Light". I don't know if it was intentional, but it would fit.
  • There are different religions and beliefs in the afterlife. Some believe in reincarnation, some in other options than hell like limbo and purgatory, and some like Jehovah's Witness that there's no hell and bad people just cease to exist. Carrigan's passing might very well be one of such. To properly answer this headscratcher we would have to know which afterlife applies to the Casper universe.
  • Light Is Not Good anyone? Carrigan seemed very unwilling to move on and the process looked like it wasn't pleasant for her, so we have no confirmation she went to heaven.
    • There is absolutely no indication that she goes out "in divine light". If anything, divine light is what we see in Kat's mom later on. The light beams and explosion are probably just what happens when a ghost is forced to cross over regardless of whether it was a good or bad person.

Casper's Unfinished Business

• What the heck is Casper's unfinished business? He says in the film that he became a ghost so that his father wouldn't be lonely, but this makes no sense given the plot...
  • His original unfinished business was just that. Making sure his dad wasn't alone even in death. However, according to Kat's mom, whatever god looking after the dead was what granted him temporary life in exchange for sacrificing his chance to be alive. So odds are he was a special exception in that rule since he wasn't hurting anyone and all he wanted was friends, living or dead.
    • Casper's resurrection being "temporary" also brings up another question. Why is God (presumably, what with the whole "angel" thing) bound to Cinderella logic?
    • It has less to do with "Cinderella logic" and more with not messing too much with the way of the universe/life and death. Casper did Kat a huge favor by surrendering his one chance to come back to life permanently, so Kat's mother comes to reward him by making him a living boy. But she is not God and she cannot just change the fact that Casper died a long time ago when he was meant to, and that he is supposed to move on to the next world once his unfinished business is dealt with. This means making him a living boy permanently would go against Casper's predetermined course, as well as alter the greater scheme of things. Whether the decision to reward Casper was God's or Kat's mother's is left unexplained; it could be that she merely asked for and got permission to grant him that wish on the condition that it was temporary and had as little impact on Casper's designed course as possible.
    • But the whole thing that Casper's being rewarded for is going against the natural order and allowing Dr. Harvey to be brought back to life.
    • Maybe not. Dr. Harvey's death wouldn't have happened but for the actions of the Ghostly Trio. Therefore, it could be argued that Dr. Harvey's death was against the natural order, and by bringing him back to life, Casper was restoring the balance.
    • Alternatively, Dr. Harvey could be brought back to life because he had been dead only for minutes, and had not been discovered by the authorities during that time. He still had a life to step back into, with a family, a job, bank accounts, and other possessions, and means of identification (a driver's license, Social Security card, birth certificate, and records). Casper has none of these things. He has been dead for decades, as has his entire family. If he were to come back to life in 1995, it would be as a child with no identification papers, no school or medical records, no family connections or anyone who can look after him, and no place in the world of the living. As much as we might like Dr. Harvey to take custody of a resurrected Casper — and Dr. Harvey might be amenable to this himself — it is unlikely that the authorities would allow that. After all, although Dr. Harvey's unusual career path and itinerant lifestyle are not enough for the authorities to take away his rights as Kat's biological father (unless the other parent is suing for custody, involuntary termination of parental rights is VERY difficult and generally requires the state to prove serious failings such as abandonment, neglect, or abuse — none of which applies here), they would certainly think twice before placing an unrelated child with him.
  • His unfinished business was his entire life. Dying at such a young age, he never had the chance to live, and thus he remains earthbound until he experiences enough to allow him to pass on. Given that his uncles have given him the Harry Potter treatment, it's not likely he'll be leaving any time soon.
  • I agree with the above. Taking into consideration the repeating plot of the source material(Casper is lonely - meets someone he wants to befriend - they are afraid of him - he helps them - he is surrounded by new friend(s)) it seems his unfinished business could be just that: finding friends (obviously one isn't enough or the friendship with Kat would have solved the problem)
  • I thought that most of what kept Casper earthbound by the time the movie takes place is that he's pretty much lost his whole memory of his living self. In fact, it's possible that he began losing it while his father was still alive.

Why Didn't Casper's Father Become a Ghost?

• Why didn't Casper's father become a ghost? Unless the afterlife screwed him by making his Unfinished Business completing the machine, causing him to cross over before he could use it to bring Casper back to life, it makes very little sense considering how obsessed he was?
  • The worst possibility is that he did become a ghost, but forgot who he was and ended up leaving the manor and his son behind.
    • No. His dad did finish the machine, hence why it saved Dr. Harvey. His real unfinished business which he completed in his lifetime, was being able to spend time with his son, even though his son is a ghost. Since he did both, he was able to cross over.
    • But since Casper's dad did complete the Lazarus machine, why didn't Casper just use it so he could be alive and live a fulfilled life with his dad?
    • Casper would have needed a living human accomplice to work the machine, what with ghosts having limited corporeal abilities and all, not to mention someone needing to pull the levers while Casper is inside the machine. We don't know the exact timeline of events, just that Casper's father was talking about resurrecting his son in public before the machine was complete. So for all we know, Casper's father could have finished building it and then been carted off to the asylum the very next day before he and Casper had an opportunity to use it. And with the implication that the longer a ghost is dead the more they forget about their life and that being around objects and people that they had an emotional connection to while alive can essentially trigger a ghost's memories, it's very likely that Casper simply quickly forgot about the machine once his father was no longer in the house to remind him. It was only being back among the things he'd prized when he was alive that triggered the memory again.
  • His dad ended up committed to an asylum, so maybe Casper didn't know where he'd gone and was waiting for his father to come back for permission to use it. His father then died in the asylum and Casper gradually forgot.
    • Much like in [[Film-Live Action Beetlejuice]], ghosts are also normally bound to their locations of death: Casper in the mansion, his dad in whatever asylum he was sent to.
    • Maybe because the father was in an asylum, he is a ghost but doesn't know where Casper is.
  • When Amelia appears, she says Casper's father is proud of him. So he did pass on and isn't a ghost. And if you think about it, his father did complete the machine and got to spend time with his son as a ghost. So he's thinking of two things as he dies: a) Casper finds another human to help him operate the machine and so he'll have a second chance at life, b) he'll join Casper anyway and they'll be Together in Death. In that event, he didn't think of Casper not crossing over.

But He *Can* Scare People

• Why is Casper given crap by other ghosts for ostensibly failing to scare people, when every single person he encounters is scared shitless the moment they see him?
  • Mostly Rule of Funny, however many of the ghosts throughout the franchise revel in scaring the living. Casper on the other hand doesn't like to scare people even though he can be good at it with little effort.
  • Casper's Haunted Christmas explains this by establishing that it doesn't count when it's not on purpose.

Why Not Use the Red Stuff?

• Apart from sequel bait, why didn't they just take the other flasks of red stuff, most seemed to be quarter to under full, and pour them into one to bring Casper to life? or better yet, take it to a Biochemist or someone who deals with chemical comp? So they know what's in it and maybe make more? and also to point out the obvious reason they might not, they don't have to tell anybody what it's for, just what's in it. "Found it in an old case in the basement" excuse.
  • Because a bio-chemist would be less inclined to personally save Casper as opposed to taking the formula and banking on it. Think about it. They would essentially be revealing the questions and answers to life's biggest questions to some random scientist. That there is life after death and more importantly that death can be reversed. You don't just give that kind of knowledge away. Even if they just asked a chemist to analyze the ingredients, they aren't scientists. It's not easy to create chemical formulas on your own, let alone one that can turn a supernatural being into flesh and blood again.
    • Firstly, a chemist is a scientist who specializes in chemistry. Secondly, some scientists are interested in resurrecting the dead even in real life. Furthermore, with technological advances in chemical analysis, it would not be that difficult for modern scientists to reverse engineer the formula. Admittedly, the very concept of resurrection is a controversial topic as it could be seen by some as "playing God".

Who Understands This Gag? Somebody Else.

• The "Who you gonna call? Somebody else." scene made little sense to me for the reasons of A) the news report later on Dr. Harvey acted like they didn't know ghosts exist. But, if the Ghostbusters do, then that means the attack on New York did, so why do they still have disbelief? And, reason B) If the attack on New York in Ghostbusters happened in this universe- that means Ray has gone up against Gozer, a literal god. So how would he be scared off by three prankster ghosts?
  • One possibility: that's actually Dan Ackroyd dressed as Ray Stanz rather than Stanz himself, hired more to try and intimidate the ghosts into leaving rather than because he's a legitimate Ghostbuster.
  • Another possibility: the Ghostbusters gag is simply a fourth wall joke. It's a moment where the movie looks straight at the audience, acknowledges the appropriateness of a Ghostbusters reference in a family film about ghosts, then moves on as though it hadn't happened. Just as Roger Rabbit looking into the camera does not mean that our universe is the same as his, neither does a reference to the Ghostbusters mean that these two movies are in the same universe.
  • Ray's cameo is nothing but a joke, and should not be treated as more than that. With that said, do not forget that in the Ghostbusters universe, the second movie shows us that even after the massive and very public display of supernatural forces during the Gozer incident, the majority of people ended up disbelieving the whole thing.
  • While it indeed should be seen as simply a joke (later Dr. Harvey does a better job at trapping the Ghostly Trio using a regular vacuum cleaner) perhaps Ray would've had a better chance if he brought all the members of the Ghostbusters along instead of trying to do it alone.
  • Perhaps the Ghostbusters have stretched a bit too thin dealing with multiple ghost problems when they got a call to bust the Ghostly Trio.

Catching Your Literal Death

• Do we know exactly what killed Casper? It was because of sledding at night and he "got sick and his dad got sad". I know about Catch Your Death of Cold, but a common cold can't kill you. The Other Wiki says it was pneumonia, but isn't pneumonia a lung infection and how do they know it was pneumonia? Or did Casper just say "sick" because he doesn't know the word for hypothermia?
  • He was twelve when he died, almost a teenager. He may not remember the disease that killed him, but he most likely heard of hypothermia.
  • Pneumonia can occur if one contracts a severe form of hypothermia, especially in young children and elderly adults, and especially since it's at least heavily implied that Casper lived and died at some point in the 19th century before antibiotics were really a thing. What probably happened is that Casper contracted hypothermia by playing in the snow for too long and it then developed into pneumonia which is what eventually killed him. And yes, to a young boy, especially one who originally lived in (it's implied) at least a century prior, it's very likely that he wouldn't have understood what was happening to him other than he just "got sick", which is probably how the situation was phrased to him by his father/any doctor that attempted to treat him. After all, a dying 12-year-old boy with increasing loss of mental functions and who in life obviously just wanted to play all day isn't exactly going to be thinking scientifically about his diagnosis.

How did the Ghostly Trio know who Dr. Harvey was?

• When the Ghostly Trio are attacking Dr. Harvey, Fatso says the man's full name without them having been introduced. How would they know him — Amelia?
  • Through the TV, most likely. Casper is seen watching TV which is how he finds out about Dr. Harvey and orchestrates things so he pays a visit. One should assume the Ghostly Trio also watches TV sometimes and they have seen something about Dr. Harvey before. Alternatively, Dr. Harvey might be well known among regular ghosts that go out and do the usual ghostly things (Casper however stays home most of the time since he's made to do chores by his uncles).
  • Or perhaps quite simply, the ghosts checked his wallet for an ID or something without him ever noticing before revealing themselves to him.

---