When Paul Feig's all-female Ghostbusters reboot hits next year, we'll finally find out whether it was a movie worth making or the most unnecessary reboot of all time. Hardcore fans are still leaning toward the latter, but here's a little something that old-schoolers should appreciate.
Since the reboot was announced, fans have been wondering just how much the movie would change. The original is such a classic that nearly everything about it has become iconic. The old fire station. The Ecto-1 vehicle. The containment unit. The 'Busters coverall jumpsuits. Their peculiar names. Slimer. Gozer.
There may be no more identifiable item from Ghostbusters than the proton pack. The backpack device carried by Venkman, Stantz, Spengler and Zeddmore that sent out a stream of energy used to snare a ghost. They also happened to be extremely powerful, capable of inflicting serious damage on any environment, like a ballroom, for instance. And every good Ghostbuster knows you never, ever cross the streams.
This morning, Paul Feig tweeted out an image of the new proton pack from the Ghostbusters reboot. This is the pack that will be used by Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones.
#whatyougonnashoot pic.twitter.com/sGsYSgS1Io
— Paul Feig (@paulfeig) June 30, 2015
It's pretty similar to the look of the original. Clearly this is one area where Feig and his crew weren't interested in departing from the source material too much. Here's what the 1984 proton pack looked like, along with the new one for comparison.
The new one looks less refined, a bit more rough-and-dirty, and maybe a little smaller. It's got a couple of LED screens, which are a nice touch, and based on the tiny symbol on the left, it looks like it's still powered by nuclear energy. The pipes give it some steampunk overtones. The proton packs always had a slapped-together, made-in-a-garage appearance, and that looks to be the case in the new version.
Diehards don't have to like the details, but you should appreciate that at least they stuck to the familiar silhouette. They could have gone in a completely different direction.
Earlier in the day, Feig also tweeted out a look at what the new jumpsuits look like. Just like the proton packs, the jumpsuits are similar to the originals with a few new details.
Ghostbusters arrives on the big screen on July 22, 2016.
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