Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

Ghostbusters:
Frozen Empire

Directed By

Gil Kenan

Produced By

Ivan Reitman
Jason Reitman
Jason Blumenfeld

Written By

Gil Kenan
Jason Reitman

Based On

Ghostbusters
by Dan Aykroyd
Harold Ramis

Starring

Paul Rudd
Carrie Coon
Finn Wolfhard
Mckenna Grace
Kumail Nanjiani
Patton Oswalt
Celeste O'Connor
Logan Kim
Bill Murray
Dan Aykroyd
Ernie Hudson
Annie Potts

Music By

Dario Marianelli

Cinematography

Eric Steelberg

Editing By

Nathan Orloff
Shane Reid

Produced By

Ghost Corps
Right of Way Films

Distributed By

Columbia Pictures

Release Date

March 22, 2024

Runtime

115 minutes

Country

United States

Language

English

Budget

$100 million

Gross

$201,856,657

Preceded by

Ghostbusters: Afterlife

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is a 2024 American supernatural comedy film.^[1]^[2] It is the sequel to Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021) and the fifth film in the Ghostbusters franchise.

Plot[]

Three years after the events in Summerville, Oklahoma, Callie Spengler, her boyfriend Gary Grooberson, her children Trevor and Phoebe, and close friends Lucky Domingo and Podcast, relocate to New York City to aid Winston Zeddemore and Ray Stantz in reestablishing the Ghostbusters. After capturing a ghost in Hell's Kitchen, the group face threats of closure by Walter Peck, a longtime opponent of the Ghostbusters, who has since become the city's new mayor. To appease him, Callie benches Phoebe from further fieldwork until she is a legal adult. Upset at this, Phoebe attempts to control her emotions by playing chess in a nearby park, where she encounters and befriends the ghost of another chess prodigy named Melody, who died alongside her family in a stray fire.

Meanwhile, Ray and Podcast begin collecting various cursed objects for examination and are visited by Nadeem Razmaadi. He sells them a strange brass orb with ritual markings that was in his late grandmother's possession what Ray suspects is an apotropaic trap. A test of its PKE levels causes it to unleash a psionic pulse, which damages the ecto-containment unit – dangerously near capacity – at the Ghostbusters' firehouse headquarters. Winston later takes the orb for further examination at his privately owned paranormal research center run by his associate, Dr. Lars Pinfield. Using an experimental extraction device which is aimed at harnessing spiritual energy, Pinfield finds he cannot extract anything from the orb. To learn more, he joins Trevor and Lucky to see Nadeem, who reveals the orb was hidden by his grandmother within a brass-lined chamber. Peter Venkman, brought in to help, discovers Nadeem has latent pyrokinetic powers but is oblivious about them.

Meanwhile, Ray, accompanied by Phoebe and Podcast, visits Dr. Hubert Wartzki, a research librarian at the New York Public Library, for background on the orb. Wartzki reveals the orb was built by a quartet of sorcerers called the Firemasters to imprison Garraka, a demonic god who sought to conquer the world with an army of ghosts, feeding on negative emotions to lower temperatures to absolute zero. They learn Nadeem's grandmother was a descendant of the Firemasters, who prevented Garraka from escaping the orb accidentally in July 1904 in a mock ritual conducted by gentlemen's club members of the Manhattan Adventurers' Society, whom Garraka froze to death. The orb's confinement by her was due to Garraka being vulnerable to copper alloys combined with fire and lacking his devilry horns as power source.

When the trio attempt to stop a ghost from stealing an audio recording of the club's ritual, Peck exploits Phoebe's involvement to shut down the Ghostbusters. After an argument with Gary and her mom, Phoebe runs away from home, whereupon she takes Melody to Winston's research center and uses his extraction equipment to project herself as a ghost for two minutes so that the pair can physically interact with each other. However, Melody reveals she had been secretly working with Garraka, offering to free him in exchange for passage to the afterlife. Forcing Phoebe to recite the ritual chant, Garraka escapes, locates his horns, and freezes the city. Realizing he seeks to free the ghosts in the containment unit, the Ghostbusters gather to defend their headquarters, aided by Nadeem, who dons his grandmother's brass armor and attempts to master his powers.

Despite their best efforts, Garraka overpowers them and breaches the containment unit. Phoebe, seeking to fight back, reconfigures her proton pack with copper alloys available around the firehouse to strengthen it, whereupon Melody, betrayed by Garraka, makes amends by helping Nadeem utilize his powers to weaken Garraka's. Ray finally entraps the god by utilizing the ruptured containment unit. Melody reconciles with Phoebe before departing for the afterlife to reunite with her family. As the city thaws, the Ghostbusters are hailed as heroes, with Peck forced to support the team and reinstate Phoebe. The Ghostbusters, delighted with this, then begin a pursuit of the escaped ghosts across New York City.