Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire - Domestic Final Trailer Review / Breakdown

On March 1, 2024, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire received one "Final Trailer" for the domestic United States region. I've already done reviews/breakdowns of the previous trailers, so let's do it one last time. BE FOREWARNED: THERE MAY BE SOME MINOR PLOT SPOILERS IF YOU KEEP READING, as I will take some educated guesses about things based on what little we know so far.

If you are completely out of the loop, all of the major players in this saga are Paul Rudd (Gary Grooberson), Carrie Coon (Callie Spengler), Mckenna Grace (Phoebe Spengler), Finn Wolfhard (Trevor Spengler), Celeste O'Connor (Lucky Domingo), Logan Kim (Podcast), Bill Murray (Peter Venkman), Dan Aykroyd (Ray Stantz), Ernie Hudson (Winston Zeddemore), Annie Potts (Janine Melnitz), William Atherton (Walter Peck), James Acaster (Lars Pinfield), Patton Oswalt (Dr. Hubert Wartzki), Kumail Nanjiani (Nadeem Razmaadi), and Emily Alyn Lind (unknown). I'll skip the plot synopsis, but I will inform you that in the U.S., the film has been rated PG-13 for supernatural action/violence, language and suggestive references. Now, here is the trailer embed.


The minute-long trailer opens with the Death Chill creeping down the street towards the firehouse. Then we see the old-timey firemen, while Hubert intones, "For the first time in New York history, a room-full of people froze to death in July." I would assume that the scene with the firemen is a flashback to the story he's telling.


A Sam Raimi-esque "flying through the streets" shot shows the Death Chill hurdling down the street towards the firehouse. Ray tells Nadeem that "it's an unimaginable evil with the power to kill by fear itself".


A few shots we've seen before, such as the gang in their parkas atop the firehouse, and Garraka's sexy back, with a new shot of Garraka's misty form in the hidden pantry room sandwiched between. Again, Gary wonders, "Like literally scared to death?"


A bit of new footage shows Lars searching around on the upper floor of the firehouse. We don't know (from this trailer) what he finds, as the trailer then cuts to the shot of the firehouse front doors being blown off their hinges.


The "Sony" name comes up, followed by the Columbia Pictures 100th Anniversary logo. The skyline is shown, followed by a shot of Lucky and Trevor on the firehouse roof, filmed from behind. It's so hard to believe this is all green-screen filmed in the UK because it actually looks like on-location footage.


Ray is heard saying, "...now it's headed straight for us." Up pops the text "EVERY GHOST THEY'VE EVER CAUGHT" in the freakin' largest font imaginable. This must be serious.


The wall behind the containment unit is breaking loose. Holy shit! It IS serious. Gary is in the basement with Phoebe. He asks, "Is something trying to get out?" She remarks, "Many things." The iconic lights switch from green to red, indicating a reversal of the usual procedure.


Meanwhile, Lucky is lurking around the red-lit Paranormal Research Center. A new ghost - possibly the true form of The Possessor - peeks out from a wall.


More text appears: "WILL BE UNLEASHED". This completes the sentence with the previous text, so the statement is, "Every Ghost They've Ever Caught Will Be Unleashed". Well, if Afterlife was too much of a retread, this doesn't bode well for Frozen Empire. I'll give the film the benefit of the doubt.


A pink beam of energy is seen shooting straight up into the heavens, while other ghostly pink beams of light fly around the city. We hear more from Ray, "It's commanding an army of the undead." All of the Ray dialog sounds stitched together - possibly from different scenes - especially the word "undead".


Phoebe's in the basement covered in some flickering lights. Garraka makes his grand entrance in the firehouse garage bay. A bit of new footage as Nadeem is sitting at the table where the guys had their "magnificent feast" in the original film. He proclaims, "I think we're all going to die." Way to bring up morale, Nadeem. Oh, look. The Star Castle arcade game is there in the background. It amuses me that Sony had to track down one and spend money to buy it just so the firehouse could look the same as it did 40 years ago; as if the guys and Starbucks wouldn't have changed things around since 1984.


Trevor makes sure the pole still works, while Gary take a hard turn in the Ecto-1 (from the opening Sewer Dragon chase) while shouting out, "Hold on to your ass". I hope he doesn't suffer the same fate as Ray Arnold in Jurassic Park.


More shots we've seen before, such as the overhead shot of the firehouse with surrounding grey clouds, and the cabbie looking upwards while the wind blows his cap off. Then it's back to the Sewer Dragon chase. A manhole cover flies off, nearly hitting the Ecto-1. Said Dragon flies towards the car while Callie screams. Unlike Kylie, she IS a screamer.


Hubert tells us that "this could bring about the end of humankind". I guess it's good that he didn't say "mankind" as someone would get offended by that. Our girl Lucky is firing at Garraka, while an unrelated shot of Gary standing at the landing of the stairs in the firehouse looking shocked is shown.


Cut back to the Lucky and Garraka scene, where the big bad is seen emitting ice from his hands and frosty mist from his mouth. As we've seen before, he freezes the proton streams, and Lucky as well.


Now we're at the New York Public Library, where Ray is looking at the lion statue outside. Said statue, presumably having been possessed by The Possessor, snaps at Ray. A quick montage of unrelated shots follows. Janine slamming down on the "We Got One" button. Not to be confused with the Staples "Easy Button". I should point out that the writing on the yellow sticky pad says "Class 5 Vapour", which is the British spelling of "Vapor". None of the American characters would use that spelling, and the film takes place in New York City. So, unless Lars wrote that note, we've found our first film flub.


Phoebe is in extreme pain inside the "orb testing chamber" in the Paranormal Research Center.


Garraka's big meaty claws.


Gary looking at Garraka in the firehouse garage bay, and Garraka looking back. Could Callie have competition for Gary's affections? I mean, Garraka is blowing him a frosty kiss. Oh, wait. That's just his Death Chill Breath (trademark pending). My bad.


The Spenglers (and Gary) fire back, with Phoebe holding the wand and the others steadying it for her.


Cue the title.


The Mini Pufts appear playing sadistically with an old mechanical pencil sharpener. One waves "Hi" to Pheobe and Podcast.


She remarks, "Disgusting". He's wearing an outfit bought from Mr. Furley's estate sale.


The trailer ends with "EXCLUSIVELY IN THEATERS, MARCH 22" and all of the usual logos and ratings underneath.


Generally, I am really excited to see Frozen Empire. The one word that I don't think anyone could use to describe the film is "boring". If I had any reservations, it's the re-use of entities from the original film in both Afterlife and Frozen Empire. For all the crap I give Ghostbusters II, it didn't bring back Gozer, Terror Dogs, Stay Puft, the Library Ghost, or Ivo Shandor. Aside from Slimer, who was the "face of Ghostbusters" at that point, Ghostbusters II brought all new entities to the table. Yet, every entity I just listed appears in one or both of these new films. With the warning of "Every Ghost They've Ever Caught Will Be Unleashed", it's possible that more may come back. At least, unlike Afterlife, we do have new entities in the form of Garraka, Pukey, and the Possessor; plus whatever else Sony hasn't spoiled yet :-)

VIP BONUS FEATURE - The full 73-image set of screenshots.

SUPER BONUS FEATURE - The high-quality download of the Final Trailer.

One of the benefits to having access to Sony's press site is that I can download the high-quality version of things, instead of the crappy re-compressed version that gets strewn across the internet. I have uploaded to the Internet Archive the 1920x1080 MOV 1.0GB file of the domestic final trailer. (If you enjoy that the Internet Archive allows me to freely upload large video files like this for you to freely download, please donate to them.) The file contains these specs:

• Video: APCH 1920x1080 24fps 127810kbps [V: Core Media Video (prores hq, yuv422p10le, 1920x1080, 127810 kb/s)]
• Audio: PCM 48000Hz stereo 2304kbps [A: Core Media Audio (pcm_s24le, 48000 Hz, 2 channels, s24, 2304 kb/s)]

That is all. I'll see some of you at the NYC premiere on March 14th. An attendee report and a spoiler-free review will follow a few days later.