Containment Unit

"May I please see the storage facility?"

The Containment Unit (known as the Storage Facility or Protection Grid in the first film) is a large machine in the basement. It is a large laser confinement grid that holds and restrains all the vapors and entities that the Ghostbusters trap.

History

Created in: 1984

Founded by: Dr. Stantz and Dr. Spengler

Ghostbusters

Walter Peck visited the Firehouse because he was concerned about dangerous and potentially harmful waste that the storage facility might be producing. When he failed to convince Dr. Venkman to show him the storage facility, he came back with a search warrant. After instructing a Con Edison Man to turn off the containment grid, the system blew up, releasing all of the captured ghosts back into the city.

Ghostbusters: The Video Game

Egon recently added a viewer to the unit, something that fascinates Slimer. At the beginning of the Thanksgiving holiday in 1991, the Rookie accidentally shot it and released the Sloth Ghost. Egon adds he was fine-tuning the interspatial gasket in the afternoon and gets to work on fixing the unit.

Secondary Canon History

Animated Canon

The animated series shows that the machine transports the ghost to a strange dimension where they are free to roam around. The dimension seems to vary at times from a brightly colored realm with card tables to a dark realm of destruction. The animated version was also notably larger than the movie version, due to Egon's decision right after the Gozer encounter to build a much bigger one. Though improved from the film version, the animated version still has its faults.

Video Games

In the earlier Activision Ghostbuster video games for many platforms, a portable containment grid could be purchased for use on the Ecto-1 vehicle, eliminating the need to return to HQ to empty traps.

The containment grid also appears in the arcade game and the ending cutscenes of the PlayStation game

Legion Mini Series

The Containment Unit, six months after the Gozer incident, resembles the version seen in The Real Ghostbusters.

Stylized Versions

The unit is unchanged from its film appearance in the Stylized Version. The Player can dump a fresh trap into the Containment Unit after each level by interacting with the lever on the right side of the screen.

IDW Comics

Stuck in the Old West era, Peter Venkman made his own Containment Unit, as close as he could jury rig, to hold the ghosts suddenly appearing. The last known entities deposited in it were The Rudely Mallard Gang.

A new group of Poltergeists possess a unique energy signature different from a standard entity. This development allows these entities to escape the Containment Unit. During the breach, the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man also escapes. After Egon jury-rigs a zombie radar to track the Zombies, he decides to move it downstairs into the basement and connect it to the grid's generator for more power.

By March of the following year, a biometric security measure was added to the Containment Unit and could only be accessed by senior staff. Over a year later, Janine's security clearance to the unit was a determining factor in her remaining a member of the New Ghostbusters team.

Technical Specs

There seems to be a limit to the amount of ghosts that can be contained in the Mark l containment version, as evidenced by Egon's statement that the facility was getting crowded. However the limit is unknown, since Peter was not at liberty to disclose the number. The storage facility works in much the same way as a ghost trap works, in that it is tuned to the same ionization rate of the ghosts.

The storage facility is a concept that Dr. Stantz and Dr. Spengler theorized when they gathered data during a close contact; under the provision that the ionization rate for all ghosts remained constant.

In the Realistic Version of the 2009 video game, the Containment Unit is shown to have incorporated some visual elements from the cartoon version.

Operation Instructions

Open the door.
Unlock the system.
Insert a full trap.
Release the trap.
Close the door.
lock the system.
Set the entry grid.
Neutralize the field.
Pull lever and when the light is green, the trap is clean.

Trivia

The Containment Unit was originally set up in a deserted Sunoco gas station in northern New Jersey taken over and converted by the Ghostbusters. ^[1]
In the August 5, 1983 and October 7, 1983 (Also referred to as "Final Shooting Script") drafts of the Ghostbusters script, there is a camera inside the Containment Unit which allowed the Ghostbusters to monitor incarcerated spirits via closed-circuit television. It was described as "a bleak repository for souls of many species. Strange lights, mists and spectral shapes waft about aimlessly. Human-like figures lean against the walls in despairing convict poses. Others flit and hand on the ceiling. It is a sad and frightening limbo and a most unholy makeshift asylum." Even Venkman declared that it was "too depressing" to watch the goings-on inside. ^[2] ^[3]
The video monitor was deleted from the first movie because there wasn't any time left for another major effects sequence and there was concern the audience would feel sorry for the ghosts. ^[4] Compositing large numbers of predominantly white, transparent entities on top of one of another would ultimately have resulted in a totally washed out image without any real sense of definition. ^[5]
In Ghostbusters: The Supernatural Spectacular, when Winston is first introduced to the Containment Unit, he peers through the view slit. One ghost "drifts to the viewport and stares back, like a grouper in an aquarium." The Unit is also described to have three slots or airlocks of different sizes for each of the custom traps that Ray Stantz put together. It is noted the type of trap Stantz uses to demonstrate with to Winston is a Mark II. ^[6] ^[7]
In Ghostbusters: The Video Game (Realistic Versions), at the start of Welcome to the Hotel Sedgewick, the seventh message on the Firehouse answering machine is prank call substituting the refrigerator for the Containment Unit. ^[8]

References

↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 102. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "In Dan Aykroyd's first script, the spectral storage facility was not at the firehouse itself, but rather in a deserted Sunoco gas station in northern New Jersey, taken over by the Ghostbusters and surreptitiously converted into a holding cell for wayward spirits."
↑ Aykroyd, Dan & Ramis, Harold (1983). Ghostbusters (First Draft August 5, 1983) (Script p. 68). Paragraph reads: "The video camera sweeps back and forth like bank surveillance depicting the interior of the storage facility, a bleak repository for souls of many species. Strange lights, mists, and spectral shapes waft about aimlessly. Human-like figures lean against the walls in despairing convict poses. Others flit and hang on the ceiling. It is a sad and frightening limbo and a most unholy makeshift asylum."
↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 104. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "We zoom in on the monitor and get our first real look inside the storage facility. It is a bleak repository for souls of many species. Strange lights, mists, and spectral shapes waft about aimlessly. Human-like figures lean against the walls in despairing convict poses. Others flit and hang on the ceiling. It is a sad and frightening limbo and a most unholy makeshift asylum."
↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 104 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Michael Gross recounts: "And we started to think the audience might feel the same way. Again, we didn't want the audience to feel sorry for the ghosts. Another consideration was that this would have been a major effects sequence, requiring the generation of hundreds of supernatural creatures. We just didn't have enough time left, so the shot had to go."
↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 139. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Devising a means of achieving it, however, proved most troublesome -- primarily because compositing large numbers of predominantly white, transparent entities on top of one of another would ultimately have resulted in a totally washed out image without any real sense of definition. In the end, the shot was never attempted == primarily because of time and budget considerations."
↑ Mueller, Richard (August 1985). "Ghostbusters: The Supernatural Spectacular," pp. 140. Tor Books, New York NY USA, ISBN 0812585984. Paragraph reads: Winston Zeddemore was absolutely fascinated as he stood peering through the view slit. It's a damned prison, he thought. A prison for ghosts. Inside, the various multicolored spirits, wisps of color and light, swirled about aimlessly or slouched in despair against the walls. Occasionally one would drift up to the viewport and stare back, like a grouper in an aquarium."
↑ Mueller, Richard (August 1985). "Ghostbusters: The Supernatural Spectacular," pp. 140-141. Tor Books, New York NY USA, ISBN 0812585984. Paragraph reads: He slid the smoking box into a slot on the wall of the storage facility. There were three, like airlocks of different sizes, for the custom traps Ray had put together. This one was a Mark II."
↑ Male Caller; At start of Welcome to the Hotel Sedgewick, Firehouse 2nd Floor Answering Machine Message 7 of 7 (2009). Ghostbusters: The Video Game (Realistic Versions) - Firehouse (2009) (PC/PS3/Xbox 360). Terminal Reality. Male Caller says: "Hello? Is this Ghostbusters? Is your Containment Unit running? Well, you better catch it. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Hurry!"

Appearances

Secondary Canon Appearances

88MPH Studios
- Legion 1
IDW Comics
- "The Other Side 2"
  - Ray calls Purgatory a karmic Containment Unit
- "The Other Side 3"
  - Janine refers to it when helping Fred find Traps
- "The Other Side 4"
  - Egon mentions it after Lucky's Demon is trapped
- "Displaced Aggression 1"
- "Ghostbusters: Infestation 2"
- Ongoing Series
  - Volume One
    - Issue #3
  - Volume Two
    - Issue #1
      - Mentioned by Walter Peck on page 12
  - Ghostbusters: Total Containment

Gallery

Overall

Primary Canon

Secondary Canon

Non Canon

[1] Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 102. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "In Dan Aykroyd's first script, the spectral storage facility was not at the firehouse itself, but rather in a deserted Sunoco gas station in northern New Jersey, taken over by the Ghostbusters and surreptitiously converted into a holding cell for wayward spirits."

[2] Aykroyd, Dan & Ramis, Harold (1983). Ghostbusters (First Draft August 5, 1983) (Script p. 68). Paragraph reads: "The video camera sweeps back and forth like bank surveillance depicting the interior of the storage facility, a bleak repository for souls of many species. Strange lights, mists, and spectral shapes waft about aimlessly. Human-like figures lean against the walls in despairing convict poses. Others flit and hang on the ceiling. It is a sad and frightening limbo and a most unholy makeshift asylum."

[3] Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 104. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "We zoom in on the monitor and get our first real look inside the storage facility. It is a bleak repository for souls of many species. Strange lights, mists, and spectral shapes waft about aimlessly. Human-like figures lean against the walls in despairing convict poses. Others flit and hang on the ceiling. It is a sad and frightening limbo and a most unholy makeshift asylum."

[4] Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 104 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Michael Gross recounts: "And we started to think the audience might feel the same way. Again, we didn't want the audience to feel sorry for the ghosts. Another consideration was that this would have been a major effects sequence, requiring the generation of hundreds of supernatural creatures. We just didn't have enough time left, so the shot had to go."

[5] Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 139. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Devising a means of achieving it, however, proved most troublesome -- primarily because compositing large numbers of predominantly white, transparent entities on top of one of another would ultimately have resulted in a totally washed out image without any real sense of definition. In the end, the shot was never attempted == primarily because of time and budget considerations."

[6] Mueller, Richard (August 1985). "Ghostbusters: The Supernatural Spectacular," pp. 140. Tor Books, New York NY USA, ISBN 0812585984. Paragraph reads: Winston Zeddemore was absolutely fascinated as he stood peering through the view slit. It's a damned prison, he thought. A prison for ghosts. Inside, the various multicolored spirits, wisps of color and light, swirled about aimlessly or slouched in despair against the walls. Occasionally one would drift up to the viewport and stare back, like a grouper in an aquarium."

[7] Mueller, Richard (August 1985). "Ghostbusters: The Supernatural Spectacular," pp. 140-141. Tor Books, New York NY USA, ISBN 0812585984. Paragraph reads: He slid the smoking box into a slot on the wall of the storage facility. There were three, like airlocks of different sizes, for the custom traps Ray had put together. This one was a Mark II."

[8] Male Caller; At start of Welcome to the Hotel Sedgewick, Firehouse 2nd Floor Answering Machine Message 7 of 7 (2009). Ghostbusters: The Video Game (Realistic Versions) - Firehouse (2009) (PC/PS3/Xbox 360). Terminal Reality. Male Caller says: "Hello? Is this Ghostbusters? Is your Containment Unit running? Well, you better catch it. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Hurry!"

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