The Ghostbusters’ Ectomobile Was Going to Be Completely Different

Summary

• The Ectomobile in Ghostbusters was almost completely different, starting out as a black, sinister-looking vehicle that could dematerialize.
• Dan Aykroyd was asked to rewrite the Ghostbusters script to focus more on characters and realism, scaling down the wild ideas for a darker film.
• The Ectomobile, also known as ECTO-1, became a key character in the Ghostbusters franchise, representing the heroes and the tone of each movie.

Say what you want about the newer Ghostbusters movies, but forty years after it was released, the original 1984 film is an all-time classic that is still part of our pop culture. When it came out, Ghostbusters was the biggest movie of the year, making $220 million in 1984. There were several reasons for the success, from the writing, the humor, the action, the practical effects, the direction of Ivan Reitman, and, of course, the chemistry between Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Hudson. Nothing was cooler than the car, that bizarre-looking 1959 Cadillac ambulance painted white, the Ghostbusters logo plastered on the side, lit up with lights everywhere, and a siren so recognizable that to hear it today takes you back to another time. It was the perfect quirky car for a quirky movie, but it was almost completely different, from its color to the shocking things it could do.

The Ectomobile Was Vastly Different in Dan Aykroyd's First 'Ghostbusters' Script

Ghostbusters was written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, but the first draft was Aykroyd's alone. It was bigger and crazier, a darker movie that threw in every wild idea Aykroyd could think of, including multiple dimensions. And it was called Ghost Smashers. In the book Making Ghostbusters by Don Shay, director Ivan Reitman said of the script:

"For one thing, it was set in the future... and it took place on a number of different planets or dimensional planes. And it was all action. There was very little character work in it."

The Ectomobile still existed in this first take, but it looked different and was capable of doing things a normal car couldn't. For one, instead of being painted that bright white that seems to pop off the screen, Aykroyd revealed in the Ghostbusters Ecto 1 Featurette: Resurrecting the Classic Car that, "The car originally was black, with all kinds of really black electronic brush boxes on it and, you know, deep purple lights and everything." This arguably gave the car a more sinister look instead of something fun. This was no ordinary car either because, as a way to avoid the police, it could dematerialize and reform elsewhere.

Dan Aykroyd Was Forced To Rewrite 'Ghostbusters' and Change Everything

Before Aykroyd was even finished with the initial draft, he was asked to stop. Reitman said in Making Ghostbusters:

"The Ghostbusters were catching ghosts on the very first page – and doing it on every single page after that – without respite, just one sort of supernatural phenomenon after another. By the tenth page, I was exhausted. By the fortieth or fiftieth page – however many there were – I was counting the budget in hundreds of millions of dollars."

Harold Ramis, who had already written comedy masterpieces National Lampoon's Animal House, Meatballs, Caddyshack, and Stripes, was brought in to help Aykroyd rewrite Ghostbusters, scaling it down, making it more realistic, and focusing on the characters. The Ectomobile, affectionately known as ECTO-1, went from being a car with supernatural capabilities to just a normal car. It initially stayed black, however, until it was discovered that with so many scenes of the car taking place at night, black wouldn't look good on camera. It was then changed to white, which Aykroyd admits was the right decision, because it made the ECTO-1 look a bit like a clown car "and we did have some great clowns in the picture."

The Ectomobile Is Its Own Character in the 'Ghostbusters' Franchise

The decision to turn the Ghostbusters Ectomobile from a black and scary-looking vehicle that could dematerialize into a white, sillier-looking, and less threatening car was one of the wisest revisions made. It gives it a look you'll never forget, which was needed more than ever in the 1980s, when every hero seemed to have their cool car, from The Dukes of Hazzard, to Back to the Future, to Batman.

The ECTO-1 is its own character and sets the tone for every movie in the franchise. The first time it appears in Ghostbusters, it's a beat-up, black ambulance that barely runs. When Ray (Aykroyd) gets out of it and says, "Everybody can relax, I found the car," it's a memorable, funny moment, and one that also symbolizes our heroes. They're at the beginning and going to need a lot of work to get where they're headed, and this old car is the best they can do. When we see it fixed up, the passion put into it shows the passion the Ghostbusters have for their job. By making it a normal car that can't dematerialize, it keeps the film grounded and the odds against them.

How we see ECTO-1 in every Ghostbusters sequel represents the message of that film. The first time it's seen in Ghostbusters 2, it's old and dirty, the hubcaps gone, with smoke pouring out the back. It can barely move anymore, which represents the Ghostbusters, who are now forgotten and doing birthday parties for kids. In 2016, female-led Ghostbusters: Answer the Call, we're in a world where the original characters never existed. To show that, the Ectomobile is no longer a 1959 Cadillac ambulance but one from 1975. It's similar but not the same, just like the movie. When the Ectomobile is found covered up in a garage in Ghostbusters: Afterlife, it's as dead as the Ghostbusters business, but when our new heroes fix it and use it for their own adventures, it represents return and is a bridge from the past to the future. And it doesn't even have to dematerialize once.

Ghostbusters is available to stream on Hulu.

WATCH ON HULU