Ghostbusters II (Chapter 09): Great Blackout of 1989

Great Blackout of 1989 is the ninth chapter on the DVD of Ghostbusters II. This chapter has Ray knock out the power to New York City.

Cast[]

Equipment[]

Slime Scooper

Environmental[]

Locations[]

Plot[]

Ray reeled the Slime Scooper back in. The River of Slime stirred. Tentacles and claws formed. They reached for Ray. Ray became nervous and called out to Peter and Egon. Ray panicked and kicked at the appendages. He finally yelled out for help. Everyone went over to the hole. The winch started up and began to pull Ray up. As Ray was pulled up, he inadvertently kicked a pipe as he panicked. The pipe was dislodged, fell, and crashed into a power line. First Avenue went dark, followed by all of New York City. Horns honked in the darkness.

Dana Barrett checked on Oscar in his bedroom. She had a lit candle and softly told him to go back to sleep. She heard a knock on her front door. She asked who it was. Janosz answered. Dana griped silently. She greeted Janosz and slightly opened her door. She noted his visit was a surprise. Janosz revealed he happened to be in the neighborhood, and I decided to stop by her apartment to check on her after the blackout happened. Dana stated they were fine and thanked him. Janosz asked how Oscar was. She replied he was okay. Janosz peeked in and vocalized. Dana informed him he was sleeping. Janosz covered his mouth with a hand in embarrassment. She told him it was okay. He asked her if she needed anything or wanted him to come in. She politely declined. Janosz reiterated he was just checking and quoted the "don't let the bedbugs bite" part of the old nursery rhyme. She wished him good night then closed the door and applied the various locks. Light beams projected out of Janosz's eyes and he walked down the hall.

Trivia[]

Ghostbusters II Trivia[]

In the August 5, 1988 draft of Ghostbusters II, on page 29, the confrontation with the First Cop and Con Edison Supervisor takes place. They are simply arresting for lying about who they are.
In the September 29, 1988 draft:
- On page 28, Ray is hauled up but they stop after the First Cop returns with a Con Edison Supervisor and talks to Peter. They don't fall for his phone lines story and Peter suggests a gas leak. They slap handcuffs on Peter and Egon. Suddenly there is a bright flash from down the hole then there is a blackout. Ray utters a "sorry" in the darkness.
  - In the movie, it is shown how Ray causes a blackout. No one is placed in handcuffs. Ray's 'sorry' is omitted.
- On page 29, Lane Walker lights candles in her apartment and listens to news on a transistor radio. She gets a phone call from Jason Locke. He asks her if she needs anything and wants him to come in. She tells him 'No, everything's fine' than after she is staring into candlelight, alone and afraid.
  - In the movie, Dana tells Janosz "No, thank you." Dana staring into candlelight is omitted.
- On page 30, Jason is lying on his bed looking at a photo of Lane and Mikey.
  - In the movie, Janosz walks down the hall with his eyes projecting a bright light.
In the November 27, 1988 draft and February 27, 1989 draft:
- On page 34, a grotesque arm with long skeletal fingers reaches up out of the slime for him. Ray jerks his legs up. More arms surface. Ray asks to be hauled back up.
- On page 35, Ray is hauled up but they stop after the First Cop returns with a Con Edison Supervisor and talks to Peter. They don't fall for his phone lines story and Peter meekly suggests a gas leak.
- On page 36, after Ray causes the blackout, he utters a "sorry" in the darkness.
- On page 37, Janosz checks on Dana and asks her if she needs anything and wants him to come in. She tells him 'No, everything's fine' than after she locks her door, Dana stands there staring into candlelight, alone and afraid. Jansoz walks off with lights projected from his eyes.
The Van Horne station was a combination of a partial set on Stage 16 at Burbank Studios and matte paintings.^[1]^[2]
The digging scenes on First Avenue were filmed on a similar street in Los Angeles at the intersection of East 8th Street & South Los Angeles Street.
For the filming the slime tendrils, Mark Siegel was under the 30 foot tank puppeteering rods that went up through the tank to the tendrils.^[3]
The blackout scene was shot on a set. First, Peter MacNicol was filmed walking down a dimly lit walkway. As he walked, MacNicol moved his head side to side. To create the look of real light being illuminated, another pass was filmed. In it, Michael Chapman held a 2K at MacNicol's height then walked down the hall, panning the light from side to side. After a few takes done fast and slow, the scenes were edited together and both Chapman and the light were matted out. Pat Meyers helped defined the light beams by placing shards and particulate matter so it looked like real beams. Meyers lined up the beams so they tracked from MacNicol's eyebrows to the puddles of light on the walls.^[4]
In his opening remark in Chapter 10: Their Day in Court, Louis Tully mentions the blackout caused by Ray.
In the deleted scene Ladies and Gentlemen of the Audience, Louis mentions the blackout caused by Ray in the Chapter 9: Great Blackout of 1989.

IDW Comics Trivia[]

In Ghostbusters Volume 2 #1:
- On Page 10, one of the cops from the First Avenue is present.
In Ghostbusters Volume 2 #10:
- On Page 9, on the pole by Winston is a No Bozo sticker.
In Ghostbusters Annual 2015:
- On Page 3, the construction gear exactly worn by the Ghostbusters is part of what Peter, Ray, and Egon wore in Ghostbusters II when they dug up First Avenue. Peter had an orange vest with two white vertical lines and helmet with the No Bozo sticker on the side. Ray had an orange vest and helmet with a mounted search light. Egon had an orange vest with two vertical lines and helmet with a black label on the front.
In Ghostbusters International #4:
- On Page 16, in panel 4, the poster on the right is 'No Bozos' from Peter's construction helmet.
In Ghostbusters Annual 2018:
- On Page 3, Peter, Ray, and Egon are in their construction outfits.
In Ghostbusters IDW 20/20:
- On Page 20, the SOS Ghostbusters trigger a city-wide blackout, like the original team did in Ghostbusters II.
In Ghostbusters 35th Anniversary: Ghostbusters:
- On Page 5, panel 2, the No Bozo sticker from Peter's construction helmet is on the black device right of the slime jar.
In Transformers/Ghostbusters: Ghosts of Cybertron Issue #4:
- On Page 15, Peter alludes to the power outage Ray caused.

References[]

↑ Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 9. Cinefex, USA. Line reads: "For shots of Ray being lowered into the station, and later scenes with the Ghostbusters on the set, Welch built only a small section of the setting--a curved background wall, steps leading down into the station and a partial platform. This set piece was subsequently combined with matte paintings of the rest of the station rendered by Ysei Uesugi and with a miniature representing the river of slime. Like many other concepts in the picture, the look of the slime river took a while to develop. Dennis Muren and effects art director Harley Jessup were intimately involved in the process."
↑ Spook Central Filming Locations "California"
↑ TCU Collectibles facebook "Mark Siegel (Creature Shop, Ghostbusters/Ghostbusters 2) Interview" 1:26:38-1:26:58 9/14/2020 Mark Siegel says: "I did some puppeteering work on the slime river. Remember being under this big-I don't know-it must have been a 20, 30 foot long tank of pink slime with rods up through the bottom of the slime with little slime tentacles on rods and things, puppeteering like that."
↑ Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 10. Cinefex, USA. Mark Vargo says: "First we shot the scene with Peter MacNicol walking down the dimly lit hallway. As he did so, he moved his head from side to side. Then to create the look of real light illuminating patches on the walls, we turned off all the lights on the set and did another pass. Michael Chapman held a 2K at roughly MacNicol's head height and walked down the darkened hallway, panning the light from one side to the other. We did a couple of takes like that--fast and slow--and then we did a couple more where we held the light on the right side of the wall and walked along and then did the same on the left side, just in case we had to pick up little pieces. With the lights turned out, you could not see Michael Chapman, and any evidence of the 2K light itself we just garbage-matted out later. All we were interested in were the puddles of light on the wall. Lining up the patches was achieved by editorially sliding the selected light passes to roughly correspond with Janosz' action. This aspect of the shot was less difficult than one might imagine because interactive light elements were next turned over to the animation department where the actual beams could be created. "Pat Myers on the motion control animation camera did a tremendous job defining the beams. He put in shards and a little bit of particulate matter so that they looked like real beams, and he lined the beams up so they tracked from MacNicol's eyebrows to the puddles of light on the walls."

Gallery[]

Selected Screengrabs[]

Behind the Scenes Images[]

Storyboard of Final Version[]


Previous Chapter	Next Chapter
Chapter 08: Down the Shaft	Chapter 10: Their Day in Court

[1] Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 9. Cinefex, USA. Line reads: "For shots of Ray being lowered into the station, and later scenes with the Ghostbusters on the set, Welch built only a small section of the setting--a curved background wall, steps leading down into the station and a partial platform. This set piece was subsequently combined with matte paintings of the rest of the station rendered by Ysei Uesugi and with a miniature representing the river of slime. Like many other concepts in the picture, the look of the slime river took a while to develop. Dennis Muren and effects art director Harley Jessup were intimately involved in the process."

[2] Spook Central Filming Locations "California"

[3] TCU Collectibles facebook "Mark Siegel (Creature Shop, Ghostbusters/Ghostbusters 2) Interview" 1:26:38-1:26:58 9/14/2020 Mark Siegel says: "I did some puppeteering work on the slime river. Remember being under this big-I don't know-it must have been a 20, 30 foot long tank of pink slime with rods up through the bottom of the slime with little slime tentacles on rods and things, puppeteering like that."

[4] Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 10. Cinefex, USA. Mark Vargo says: "First we shot the scene with Peter MacNicol walking down the dimly lit hallway. As he did so, he moved his head from side to side. Then to create the look of real light illuminating patches on the walls, we turned off all the lights on the set and did another pass. Michael Chapman held a 2K at roughly MacNicol's head height and walked down the darkened hallway, panning the light from one side to the other. We did a couple of takes like that--fast and slow--and then we did a couple more where we held the light on the right side of the wall and walked along and then did the same on the left side, just in case we had to pick up little pieces. With the lights turned out, you could not see Michael Chapman, and any evidence of the 2K light itself we just garbage-matted out later. All we were interested in were the puddles of light on the wall. Lining up the patches was achieved by editorially sliding the selected light passes to roughly correspond with Janosz' action. This aspect of the shot was less difficult than one might imagine because interactive light elements were next turned over to the animation department where the actual beams could be created. "Pat Myers on the motion control animation camera did a tremendous job defining the beams. He put in shards and a little bit of particulate matter so that they looked like real beams, and he lined the beams up so they tracked from MacNicol's eyebrows to the puddles of light on the walls."

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

Ghostbusters Wiki