When it comes to combating ghosts, one has a variety of options. You could perform a séance to try and appease the spirit, you could perform an exorcism to banish it, you could use salt to deter it (even going so far as to burn the bones of the deceased to force the spirit into whatever realm lies beyond), or you can simply bust them with a proton pack.
This high tech gadget is described by Dr. Peter Venkman as an “unlicensed nuclear accelerator” and acts as the primary tool the team uses to catch their spiritual adversaries. It consists of a neutrino wand connected to a larger backpack style device that powers the tool.
While the pack has proven to be destructive when striking against physical matter (one shudders to think what would happen if a person got hit by a stream), the pack doesn’t actually harm the ghost. Instead, it uses the energy to drain the ghost of its PKE (psycho-kinetic energy) and then holds the ghost, almost like it were in a lasso, allowing the Ghostbusters to use their portable traps to contain the ghost until they bring it back to the firehouse, where it is placed in a larger containment unit.
Not surprisingly, the packs themselves have evolved over the years. In the movie, the packs have one firing mode. It gets the job done and manages to prove vital when battling the Sumerian god, Gozer.
The packs aren’t quite as effective against the Ghostbusters’ next major foe, Vigo the Carpathian. Luckily, the team had designed “slime blowers” that would weaken the spirit, allowing the packs to finish the job.
These two weapons were fused in the recent Ghostbusters video game. However, the team took it up more than a notch, adding in two more weapon modes for added versatility.
Each weapon mode has two firing options. There’s the primary stream that we are all familiar with; this is coupled with what is known as a “boson dart” a massive burst of energy that is capable of doing a great amount of damage.
The second mode is the slime blower. This is used to weaken or exorcise spirits, or negate potent forms of psychomagnotheric slime that sometimes emerges when dealing with ghosts. The slime blower also comes with a tether option that is capable of moving heavy objects by connecting a string of slime to two objects. The slime then contracts, pulling one or both of the items in a certain direction.
The third weapon mode includes a stasis stream. While it has nothing to do with cold, the end result is similar to freezing the ghosts in place. This weapon mode also has a shotgun feature, which fires a spray of dark matter bolts.
The fourth and final mode is described as a “meson collider”. It is very precise and also provides a “locking” mechanism so that beams are attracted to whatever the bolt hits. This also has a rapid-fire function, making it similar to a machine gun in a lot of respects.
While the pack started off with just one mode, leaving the team little options when it didn’t work, new features were added that made it a force to be reckoned with. It may be rather heavy, but it has proven to be a valuable tool in the battle against the paranormal.
Sources
Ghostbusters, 1984. Directed by Ivan Reitman. Written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis
Ghostbusters II, 1989. Directed by Ivan Reitman. Written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis
Ghostbusters: The Video Game. 2009. Written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis