Ghostbusters has been a major part of pop culture ever since the first film came out in 1984. From their simple but unforgettable logo to dozens of great lines across the films, not to mention the cartoons, video games, and comics, the Ghostbusters continue to be a part of everyday life nearly forty years since they first showed up in theaters.
And with Ghostbusters: Afterlife, the series may have a new and long life ahead of it. Sadly, one of the original Ghostbusters, Harold Ramis, passed away in 2014 but his legacy, both as the co-writer of the first two films and as Egon, will live on. And while the story of Egon has come to an end, there is much about him that even many die-hard fans may not know about.
10 Egon Had A Different Childhood From The Other Ghostbusters
While Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, and Winston Zeddemore are all from New York, the novelization of Ghostbusters revealed that Egon Spengler was born in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. Even from an early age, Egon was highly intelligent and showed an interest in the sciences. While it is well known that Egon straightened out a slinky as a child, he also used his brother's Lionel train set to build a compact explosive.
Along with his interest in engineering and explosives, the movie's novelization revealed that Egon read all he could on the paranormal, including books like "The Mysteries of Latent Abnormality," "Astral Projections as an Untapped Power Source," and "The Necronomicon."
9 Egon Conducted A Lot Of Weird Experiments
By high school, Egon's skills had grown, leading to some problems for the young scientist. By simply observing his fellow students, Egon was able to determine how many new cases of venereal diseases there would be in Ohio that year. Because of this, as well as his standoffish demeanor, Egon didn't have many friends.
Egon also managed to hypnotize a hamster by using radio waves and built a sonic gun that could make soda cans explode from a hundred yards away. After moving to New York. Egon tried to turn a jungle gym into an anti-gravity device, but this experiment failed, causing every building in Brooklyn to lose power.
8 Without Egon, Peter Would Never Have Graduated
Egon met Peter Venkman during their freshman year at Columbia University. Peter had signed up for a Women's Studies class as a way to meet women, and Egon has been mistakenly assigned to the class. Still, the two men became friends, which was very good for Peter.
While Peter was smart enough to breeze through high school and get into Columbia, he found the university's classes to be more difficult. Luckily, Egon was there to help Peter through his courses, ensuring that Venkman would not only graduate but also be hired by the school as a professor.
7 Egon Was The Most Studied Of The Ghostbusters
While all four of the original Ghostbusters are college graduates with doctorates, Egon was far more educated than the others. Not only did Egon get a doctorate in parapsychology from Columbia, but he also received a doctorate in physics from M.I.T.
Egon also studied abroad during his undergraduate years, researching gjenganger and draugr myths in Sweden. It was during his time in Sweden that Egon first began working on what would become the P.K.E. meter. He was also a licensed coroner, which suggests that he also graduated from a medical school and is certified in forensic pathology.
6 Egon Was The Main Inventor Of The Team
With the help of Ray Stantz, Egon perfected the P.K.E. meter and also created the proton packs and ghost traps that the Ghostbusters depended on for their work. Egon singlehandedly came up with and built the ecto containment unit that stores all the spirits that the Ghostbusters capture.
It was Egon's experiments with the slime in Ghostbusters II that led to the creation of the slime guns that were used to bring the Statue of Liberty to life and gave the Ghostbusters what they needed to defeat Vigo the Carpathian.
5 Egon Kept A Rooftop Fungus Farm
As every Ghostbusters fan knows, Egon collected spores, molds, and fungus. What many fans don't know is that Egon kept a separate apartment from the firehouse where he had a rooftop fungus farm. It was Egon's belief that mankind would soon move to a diet of spores, molds, and fungus, though it does not appear that he ever made the switch himself. Egon was well known for his love of junk food and the shocking amount of fish he would eat on a regular basis.
4 Egon Almost never Slept
It may have been because of all the sugary junk food, or it may have just been the way his mind worked, but Egon did not sleep often. According to the 2009 Ghostbusters video game, Egon only slept for fourteen minutes a day, although the movies suggest he may sleep more than that from time to time. Whatever the case may be, Egon needed very little sleep to keep moving but did appear to rely on snack foods, most notably Twinkies, to stay alert and energized.
3 Egon Was A Believer In "Soulless Science"
According to the West End Ghostbusters role-playing game, Egon practiced what he called "soulless science," which meant that above all else, the search for knowledge is what mattered. To Egon, the physical or mental wellbeing of others was secondary to the advancement of science. This is demonstrated multiple times in the movies, most notably in Ghostbusters when Egon asks Louis Tully for a sample of his brain tissue, which would be a dangerous procedure, and in Ghostbusters II when he is running a psychology experiment on a family on the brink of divorce.
2 Egon Was The Last Ghostbuster Added To The Script
When Dan Aykroyd initially came up with Ghostbusters, which he originally called Ghost Smashers, he envisioned it as a movie for himself and John Belushi to star in as Ray Stantz and Peter Venkman. As Aykroyd wrote the first draft, he added in a character named Ramsey for Eddie Murphy to play. Ramsey would be renamed Winston Zeddemore and end up being played by Ernie Hudson.
It wasn't until Harold Ramis was brought in to help Aykroyd rewrite Ghostbusters that the character of Egon was added to the story. Ramis came up with the name by combining Egon Donsbach, who was a friend from high school, with the philosopher Oswald Spengler.
1 Egon Was Almost Played By Another Famous Movie Scientist
While Harold Ramis came up with Egon Spengler and would end up playing the role, he was not originally going to be in the movie. Director Ivan Reitman considered a number of actors for Egon, including Christopher Lloyd, who would instead go on to play another famous movie scientist, Dr. Emmett L. Brown in Back to the Future.
Reitman also considered casting Christopher Walken, John Lithgow, and Jeff Goldblum as Egon before Ramis, who came to love the character the more he wrote him, finally decided to play the role himself.
0 Comments