Ghost (1990)

After being killed during a botched mugging, a man's love for his partner enables him to remain on earth as a ghost.

Director:

Jerry Zucker

Writer:

Bruce Joel Rubin

Stars:

Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore, Tony Goldwyn

Won 2 Oscars. Another 15 wins & 24 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Patrick Swayze	...	Sam Wheat
Demi Moore	...	Molly Jensen
Tony Goldwyn	...	Carl Bruner
Stanley Lawrence	...	Elevator Man
Christopher J. Keene	...	Elevator Man
Susan Breslau	...	Susan
Martina Deignan	...	Rose (as Martina Degnan)
Rick Kleber	...	Mover (as Richard Kleber)
Macka Foley	...	Mover
Rick Aviles	...	Willie Lopez
Phil Leeds	...	Emergency Room Ghost
John Hugh	...	Surgeon
Sam Tsoutsouvas	...	Minister
Sharon Breslau	...	Cemetery Ghost (as Sharon Breslau Cornell)
Vincent Schiavelli	...	Subway Ghost

Storyline

Sam and Molly are a very happy couple and deeply in love. Walking back to their new apartment after a night out at the theatre, they encounter a thief in a dark alley, and Sam is murdered. He finds himself trapped as a ghost and realises that his death was no accident. He must warn Molly about the danger that she is in. But as a ghost he can not be seen or heard by the living, and so he tries to communicate with Molly through Oda Mae Brown, a psychic who didn't even realise that her powers were real.

---

Plot Keywords:

ghost | bank | love | death | escape | 

---

Taglines:

Before Sam was murdered he told Molly he'd love and protect her forever.

---

Genres:

Drama | Fantasy | Mystery | Romance | Thriller

---

Certificate:

PG-13

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

13 July 1990 (USA)

Also Known As:

Duh

Filming Locations:

Spring Street Towers - 650 S. Spring Street, Downtown, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$22,000,000 (estimated)

Gross:

$217,631,306 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

127 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Sondra Rubin:  Writer Bruce Joel Rubin's mother plays the nun who faints over the size of the check that Oda Mae endorses.

---

Goofs

When the Subway Ghost kicks the cigarette vending machine in anger, you can clearly see that the rows of cigarettes were rigged to go straight down and out the chute, which would not occur simply because the glass was broken. Also, there were also many more packs of cigarettes on the ground than could have come out of the machine, and were obviously pre-placed.

---

Quotes

[When handing the check to the nuns]
Sam: Hand her the check.
Oda Mae Brown: I will!

---

Crazy Credits

The opening credits are half transparent like a ghost.

---

Connections

Referenced in Your Life in 65 (2006)

---

Soundtracks

"UNCHAINED MELODY"
Written by Alex North and Hy Zaret

User Reviews

Forever a classic

Certain movies will just always be hard to write a review for. You can give your opinion and say what you enjoyed or didn't enjoy but I find myself hesitating in certain aspects just because a classic must be left some space to be a classic. Ghost as far as I'm concerned will forever be a romantic classic. It's sheer brilliance is it's twists, it is incredibly, deeply, romantic and at the same time terrifying, and has an underlying story that is never fully explored. It's got action, mystery, horror, and at the heart is the pure, simplistic romance of it all.

The story is about an investment banker played by Patrick Swayze and his girlfriend, played by Demi Moore. Sam and Molly are deeply in love, planning for the future and happier in their lives than ever before. Until Sam discovers laundered money in investment accounts. He is robbed and subsequently murdered for his password to the computer in order to empty the laundered money from the accounts. But Sam doesn't go the other side. He is kept on earth in spirit form because of his unfinished business both with Molly and to discover his murderer. He must learn the ropes of being a ghost and nobody else can hear him until he runs into a so called psychic who scams people into believing she can contact their dearly departed. However it turns out, Oda Mae Brown played in her academy award winning role by Whoopie Goldberg can actually hear Sam. Together the unlikely team must help each other uncover the horrible murder plot and save Molly.

Swayze and Moore make an incredible couple..hot on screen. Their careers have perhaps slipped since then one might say but this was them at their best. Swayze was indeed at the top of his game coming out of Dirty Dancing and Roadhouse and Moore was young and a new hot commodity which made them undeniably perfect together. Their roles fit them perfectly. Whoopie Goldberg was hilarious and believable as Oda Mae and her character was such an integral part of the film. Tony Goldwyn plays a great villain as the betrayer of the film. In a short time director Jerry Zucker establishes a best friendship between Goldwyn and Swayze, a deeply loving relationship between Swayze and Moore, and a plot line that goes far beneath the movie. Obviously Goldwyn's character is being used by a much higher up criminal to launder money although we never see him. Is he being blackmailed? Paid off? Something held over his head? Maybe he's not the bad guy but rather forced to commit these acts? It's a big job because we also know Willie Lopez played by Rick Aviles is involved in this as well. And deeper than that we have the theology in the film. The light brings good people to the afterlife and the dark shadowy beings torture the evil.

This film is one of a few that is endlessly watchable meaning you can sit down any time and watch it through over and over and over again which is exactly what makes it a classic. It has it's holes, it has to with a plot like that. And it has it's disturbing moments, a gratituous death scene, a make out scene which although features Swayze and Moore is actually Demi and Whoopi...you have to see it to understand it. Also if Sam Wheat must learn how to physically touch things in his ghost form...how does he sit, walk, etc before he learns that? And his first experience with walking through a door happens days after his death. I'm sure sometime between then and that point he would have had to have walked through something. Perhaps those are minor points but they are things that will come up especially if you have seen it as many times as I have.

The film is a must see and if you haven't seen it, go watch it right now!! Because it's one of those staples of films that everyone must know about. Ghost is amazing!! 9/10

Happy Anniversary to my beautiful Sam...we watched Ghost together last night.