[RichardLess]

This is something that’s always sort of bugged me. Well not bugged me, but intrigued me.
Now we all know Ghostbusters is primarily a comedy but that doesn’t mean we can’t find the mythology of the ghosts and lore fascinating.

There’s a detail on GB2 that maybe some of you have noticed. When Oscar is placed in front of the Vigo painting on some sort of make shift alter there’s a rather fascinating stone tablet with all sorts of carvings and glyphs.

Now the filmmaker side of me thinks, ok, the audience gets it. It’s just some sort of tablet that conveys mystic imagery to the audience so they understand this is a ritual. That’s all you need. Economical storytelling. In and out.

But the GB fan in me wants to know…where did that come from? Was it with the Vigo painting? Was it at another museum that Janosz had to steal? Did Janosz make it? Does it have anything to do with Vigo being trapped in the painting…like some sort of ancient Ghostbusters trap? What do the glyphs mean?

I always thought GB2 might’ve made a mistake not showing Janosz discovering or opening the crate that Vigo is in. They maybe should’ve had a scene where He’s receiving a delivery of sort of stuff from all over the world for the new art exhibit and maybe the delivery guy is in some weird trance. Janosz is all “hey this last piece isn’t on the manifest or inventory!” But the delivery guy ignores him. And then he delivery guy, still in a trance, walks out into traffic and is hit by a car. Something like that? Anyways later on we see Janosz prying open the Vigo painting. And inside is the painting and the stone tablet. And maybe Janosz notices some odd pink slime at the bottom of the crate?

I sort of want to write out of the scene as an exercise. If you’ll indulge me. (This was done just quickly so don’t mind any mistakes)

******************
Ext Manhattan Museum of Art Midday

Janosz Poha stands impatiently in front of The Manhattan Museum of Art. Workers and assistants busily offload crates and boxes of varying sizes from a large delivery truck. Janosz watches in horror as burly blue collar delivery men haphazardly bump and bang each item. He winces and cringes at every bump. A 350 pound thick necked man with grease stains on his shirt drops a small box. We hear something inside break. Burly man shrugs, wipes his nose with his hand and picks it up the box

Janosz: Careful! dat could be zee Vermeer mirror!

Another worker shouts to the thick neck burly man

Worker: You hear that Bruce? Vermeer mirror! Looks like another 7 years bad luck.

Bruce(the thick neck man). Eh. Add it to my tab

They both laugh

Janosz buries his head in his hands in horror.

The workers offload the items and work their way up the steps to the museum entrance. Janosz is left alone as New York commuters yell & honk their car horns at the inconvenience of the delivery trucks tying up the busy thoroughfare. Drivers shout various epithets in a way only New Yorkers could

Janosz turns to make his way back to the museum when a hand suddenly grabs him from behind!

Janosz jumps and let’s out a rather feminine squeal

Janosz: Oh my!

In front of him is a delivery worker with a rather large and old looking crate on a dolly. This worker is different than the rest. Something in his eyes tells us this man is not right. He wears a name tag identifying him as Leroy

In an almost robotic monotone voice yet in a thick Brooklyn accent Leroy speaks

Leroy: This is shall be the final item. It was overlooked in the back of the transportation vehicle. Many Apologies.

Janosz: What is dis? Did zey send me a surprise! Oh I love surprises!

Leroy just stares at Janosz blankly.

Janosz: Riight. Well I’ll just have the big man take it in. I’ll give it a quick look and zee if they labeled it.

Janosz turns his back to Leroy. He examines the crates and looks for identification marker of any kind

Janosz(Soto): Oh zat Randolph he knows Janosz loves his surprises! I wonder vhat it could be?

As Janosz talks to himself, Leroy starts to walk backwards towards the busy New York intersection in a very odd peculiar way.

Janosz(still facing us and not noticing what’s happening behind him): Oh Leroy you’ve made my day. You don’t mind if I call you Leroy?

Leroy continues to move backwards inching his way towards oncoming traffic.
Just then then Bruce and his fellow delivery works emerge from the museum. Bruce sees Leroy and shouts

Bruce: Ho! Leroy! Moonwalk on your own time!

Janosz is still smiling ear to ear over his surprise crate. He’s ecstatic.

With Janosz facing us we see Leroy go just out of focus. Janosz starts to hum and sing a happy foreign tune in celebration as he lovingly caresses his new prized crate. Then we hear, but don’t see, cars crashing and horns honking. Janosz pays no attention and assumes it’s just the New York commuters being themselves

Janosz: Leroy, wheel dis in please. I think dis is going to be something special, don’t you? Leroy?

Janosz turns around

Janosz: Leroy?

He sees the chaos and horror

Janosz: Oh my!

******************

Anyways, something like that. Then later a scene of him opening the crate and discovering the painting and tablet.

[Alex Newborn]

Okay, just because it's how I'm wired, I am compelled to point out that Alter is a verb meaning "to change or modify". The noun which refers to "an elevated platform for religious ceremonies or purposes" is a homophone with a different spelling: Altar.


With that out of the way, I've never given much thought to where that altar came from in-universe. Great question.


The first thing that popped to mind is the deleted concept of Janosz painting symbols on Oscar's body with paint from the portrait of Vigo. I think it's even in the NOW comics adaptation, but it came from the shooting script.

From the November 1988 draft (cut and pasted from the online copy on SpookCentral's website):

INT. MUSEUM RESTORATION STUDIO - ACTUAL NIGHT
The baby is magically suspended in mid-air in front of the Vigo painting. Dana watches helplessly as Janosz picks up a brush and touches it to the canvas.

INT. MUSEUM - PAINTING — NIGHT
Vigo watches from his two-dimensional confinement as fresh paint weeps from the canvas onto the brush.

INT. MUSEUM - BABY - NIGHT
He coos and gurgles, oblivious to the danger as Janosz starts carefully painting mystical symbols on its little arms and legs, identical to the symbols seen in the painting.


[Later, after the bad guy is defeated and immediately following Ray feeling groovy from the mood slime, Venkman comments on these symbols on Oscar.]

VENKMAN
Hey, sailor. I think the tattoos are a little much, don't you?


When I looked this up just now to refresh my memory, the part that I thought was interesting was that as originally envisioned, Oscar was intended to be hovering with no visible support for this entire scene while Janosz paints the symbols.

So the addition of the stone pedestal or altar might simply have come about to increase safety for Will and Hank Deutschendorf, and/or to reduce the number of on-set practical effects being utilized.

I can easily see them back then on-set, rationalizing that there was no need to explain the altar's origin, saying something like, "Ehh. Let the viewer decide where it came from."

And now you have.

Alex

[CitizenBuster]

Janosz states Vigo is a powerful magician. I just figured he could conjure up whatever he needs, when he needs it.

[RichardLess]

Okay, just because it's how I'm wired, I am compelled to point out that Alter is a verb meaning "to change or modify". The noun which refers to "an elevated platform for religious ceremonies or purposes" is a homophone with a different spelling: Altar.


With that out of the way, I've never given much thought to where that altar came from in-universe. Great question.


The first thing that popped to mind is the deleted concept of Janosz painting symbols on Oscar's body with paint from the portrait of Vigo. I think it's even in the NOW comics adaptation, but it came from the shooting script.

From the November 1988 draft (cut and pasted from the online copy on SpookCentral's website):

INT. MUSEUM RESTORATION STUDIO - ACTUAL NIGHT
The baby is magically suspended in mid-air in front of the Vigo painting. Dana watches helplessly as Janosz picks up a brush and touches it to the canvas.

INT. MUSEUM - PAINTING — NIGHT
Vigo watches from his two-dimensional confinement as fresh paint weeps from the canvas onto the brush.

INT. MUSEUM - BABY - NIGHT
He coos and gurgles, oblivious to the danger as Janosz starts carefully painting mystical symbols on its little arms and legs, identical to the symbols seen in the painting.


[Later, after the bad guy is defeated and immediately following Ray feeling groovy from the mood slime, Venkman comments on these symbols on Oscar.]

VENKMAN
Hey, sailor. I think the tattoos are a little much, don't you?


When I looked this up just now to refresh my memory, the part that I thought was interesting was that as originally envisioned, Oscar was intended to be hovering with no visible support for this entire scene while Janosz paints the symbols.

So the addition of the stone pedestal or altar might simply have come about to increase safety for Will and Hank Deutschendorf, and/or to reduce the number of on-set practical effects being utilized.

I can easily see them back then on-set, rationalizing that there was no need to explain the altar's origin, saying something like, "Ehh. Let the viewer decide where it came from."

And now you have.

Alex

Ha. Kudos on the Altar correction. My English teacher is rolling over in her grave.

What did you think of the scene I wrote? Be honest. Does it suck? Ok? Any good?

Yeah I was originally going to mention that bit in the script how drawing pentagrams on Oscar but then I got caught up with writing that scene and it just slipped my mind.

[GuyX]

This is something that’s always sort of bugged me. Well not bugged me, but intrigued me.
Now we all know Ghostbusters is primarily a comedy but that doesn’t mean we can’t find the mythology of the ghosts and lore fascinating.

There’s a detail on GB2 that maybe some of you have noticed. When Oscar is placed in front of the Vigo painting on some sort of make shift alter there’s a rather fascinating stone tablet with all sorts of carvings and glyphs.

Now the filmmaker side of me thinks, ok, the audience gets it. It’s just some sort of tablet that conveys mystic imagery to the audience so they understand this is a ritual. That’s all you need. Economical storytelling. In and out.

But the GB fan in me wants to know…where did that come from? Was it with the Vigo painting? Was it at another museum that Janosz had to steal? Did Janosz make it? Does it have anything to do with Vigo being trapped in the painting…like some sort of ancient Ghostbusters trap? What do the glyphs mean?

I always thought GB2 might’ve made a mistake not showing Janosz discovering or opening the crate that Vigo is in. They maybe should’ve had a scene where He’s receiving a delivery of sort of stuff from all over the world for the new art exhibit and maybe the delivery guy is in some weird trance. Janosz is all “hey this last piece isn’t on the manifest or inventory!” But the delivery guy ignores him. And then he delivery guy, still in a trance, walks out into traffic and is hit by a car. Something like that? Anyways later on we see Janosz prying open the Vigo painting. And inside is the painting and the stone tablet. And maybe Janosz notices some odd pink slime at the bottom of the crate?

I sort of want to write out of the scene as an exercise. If you’ll indulge me. (This was done just quickly so don’t mind any mistakes)

******************
Ext Manhattan Museum of Art Midday

Janosz Poha stands impatiently in front of The Manhattan Museum of Art. Workers and assistants busily offload crates and boxes of varying sizes from a large delivery truck. Janosz watches in horror as burly blue collar delivery men haphazardly bump and bang each item. He winces and cringes at every bump. A 350 pound thick necked man with grease stains on his shirt drops a small box. We hear something inside break. Burly man shrugs, wipes his nose with his hand and picks it up the box

Janosz: Careful! dat could be zee Vermeer mirror!

Another worker shouts to the thick neck burly man

Worker: You hear that Bruce? Vermeer mirror! Looks like another 7 years bad luck.

Bruce(the thick neck man). Eh. Add it to my tab

They both laugh

Janosz buries his head in his hands in horror.

The workers offload the items and work their way up the steps to the museum entrance. Janosz is left alone as New York commuters yell & honk their car horns at the inconvenience of the delivery trucks tying up the busy thoroughfare. Drivers shout various epithets in a way only New Yorkers could

Janosz turns to make his way back to the museum when a hand suddenly grabs him from behind!

Janosz jumps and let’s out a rather feminine squeal

Janosz: Oh my!

In front of him is a delivery worker with a rather large and old looking crate on a dolly. This worker is different than the rest. Something in his eyes tells us this man is not right. He wears a name tag identifying him as Leroy

In an almost robotic monotone voice yet in a thick Brooklyn accent Leroy speaks

Leroy: This is shall be the final item. It was overlooked in the back of the transportation vehicle. Many Apologies.

Janosz: What is dis? Did zey send me a surprise! Oh I love surprises!

Leroy just stares at Janosz blankly.

Janosz: Riight. Well I’ll just have the big man take it in. I’ll give it a quick look and zee if they labeled it.

Janosz turns his back to Leroy. He examines the crates and looks for identification marker of any kind

Janosz(Soto): Oh zat Randolph he knows Janosz loves his surprises! I wonder vhat it could be?

As Janosz talks to himself, Leroy starts to walk backwards towards the busy New York intersection in a very odd peculiar way.

Janosz(still facing us and not noticing what’s happening behind him): Oh Leroy you’ve made my day. You don’t mind if I call you Leroy?

Leroy continues to move backwards inching his way towards oncoming traffic.
Just then then Bruce and his fellow delivery works emerge from the museum. Bruce sees Leroy and shouts

Bruce: Ho! Leroy! Moonwalk on your own time!

Janosz is still smiling ear to ear over his surprise crate. He’s ecstatic.

With Janosz facing us we see Leroy go just out of focus. Janosz starts to hum and sing a happy foreign tune in celebration as he lovingly caresses his new prized crate. Then we hear, but don’t see, cars crashing and horns honking. Janosz pays no attention and assumes it’s just the New York commuters being themselves

Janosz: Leroy, wheel dis in please. I think dis is going to be something special, don’t you? Leroy?

Janosz turns around

Janosz: Leroy?

He sees the chaos and horror

Janosz: Oh my!

******************

Anyways, something like that. Then later a scene of him opening the crate and discovering the painting and tablet.

I always love it when ppl can get me to think about Ghostbusters in a new or different way. I don’t think I ever thought about that altar/tablet before. To be honest it took me a minute to even realize what u were referencing.

I think I asked u this b4 but are u a writer or is it hobby?I thought the new scene was really good!! I can picture it. I can even hear the music. U even nailed the humor & included the New Yorkers being miserable & rude. The juxtaposition of Janos being in his own world happy as a pig in u kno what about the surprise while something horrible is happening behind him is very GB style. Good stuff Rich. The best sign of a good writer is leaving them wanting more & when ur scene ended I wanted to see where you’d take it next.

Where would this scene fit into the movie? In place of Dana’s opening? Would this be our intro to Janos? It would have to be since when we see him he’s already placing Vigo under the arch.

I might be confusing u with someone else on here but I think u wrote out a scene for a version of GB3 right? & was also pretty cool.

[mrmichaelt]

The only thing I can recall that could be related to the altar was from:

*In the September 29, 1988 draft, on page 106, Jason Locke (the precursor to Janosz/Vigo) paints symbols on Mikey (precursor to Oscar) that are identical to ones seen in the Vigo painting. Jason uses paint from the canvas.

*In the November 27, 1988 draft, on page 116, Oscar hovers in mid-air in front of the Vigo painting while it weeps onto Janosz's brush which he then uses to paint mystical symbols on Oscar.

On William Forsche's video, there was 1 or 2 storyboards that depict the symbols being painted on the baby.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 9624592044

I always assumed the altar and symbols were part of Vigo's arsenal of black magic. As a failsafe of being killed by his subjects (he had to have been aware he would be overthrown eventually), he conducted a ritual that in death his spirit would be anchored to his painting. So fast forward to his plot to take over Oscar's body, it sorta makes sense he would need the altar present because he's essentially transferring from one to another and anchoring his spirit in Oscar. I would guess the altar was in storage with the painting and it was unpacked, too, as Janosz prepared the Romantic exhibit he mentioned.

Was always curious if Oscar was going to be painted but then Mr. Deutschendorf put the kibosh on that idea.

[RichardLess]

I always love it when ppl can get me to think about Ghostbusters in a new or different way. I don’t think I ever thought about that altar/tablet before. To be honest it took me a minute to even realize what u were referencing.

I think I asked u this b4 but are u a writer or is it hobby?I thought the new scene was really good!! I can picture it. I can even hear the music. U even nailed the humor & included the New Yorkers being miserable & rude. The juxtaposition of Janos being in his own world happy as a pig in u kno what about the surprise while something horrible is happening behind him is very GB style. Good stuff Rich. The best sign of a good writer is leaving them wanting more & when ur scene ended I wanted to see where you’d take it next.

Where would this scene fit into the movie? In place of Dana’s opening? Would this be our intro to Janos? It would have to be since when we see him he’s already placing Vigo under the arch.

I might be confusing u with someone else on here but I think u wrote out a scene for a version of GB3 right? & was also pretty cool.

Thanks Guy. That’s very kind of you to say. Writing is a passion of mine for sure but no I don’t really make a living that way.

As for where the scene would fit into the movie? Good question. I would say after the World of the Psychic scene? Before the Rays Occult scene? I thought it might have to be the opening scene because of the slime but I’ve always wondered about the slime.

Does Vigo create the slime? Or is the slime a psychomagnatheric substance that exists even if Vigo isn’t around and Vigo just used the slime out of convenience? In other words there’s a reason Vigo shows up in New York in 1989. He knew it was a cesspool of negative human emotions just waiting to pop and he saw an advantage to make his prophecy come to fruition. That might be an interesting topic of conversation. I think mood slime exists as its own thing separate from Vigo but Vigo knows how to use it and bend it to his will.

So I think you can show the slime bubbling up, Dana’s carriage runs over it etc and then we get Bday Busters, Dana visiting Egon, World of the Psychic then my new scene followed by Janosz telling people where to install Vigo.

If it follows world of the psychic it gets into a call and response editing pattern. Milt makes his prediction and in the next scene we are introduced to the instrument of that prediction and get a little spookiness and a little comedy.

Wait I guess that wouldn’t work. We can’t go from Janosz getting his delivery & someone dying to Janosz ordering where the painting is put. We’d need to see him opening it & that would require a major restructuring. Hmm Ok. So here’s how I’d do it.

First scene is Baby carriage run away, Bday Ghostbusters, Janosz getting delivery, Dana meeting Egon, world of the psychic, Janosz opening crate and discovering Vigo painting which flows in putting under the arch way, convo with Dana, Vigo head pops out, Rays occult, Baby examination. Bingo. I think that works. You need that “My Dana Barret?” And cut to inside Dana’s apartment. You also need to be reintroduced to Venkman right AFTER Dana & Egon talk about him. I’ve put way too much thought into this lol

Regardless of that, what do you think about the slime? Do we get the slime without Vigo? Is it tied directly to Mew York & it was Vigo’s dark magic that brought him to the most negative place on earth in 1989?

[mrmichaelt]

Regardless of that, what do you think about the slime? Do we get the slime without Vigo? Is it tied directly to Mew York & it was Vigo’s dark magic that brought him to the most negative place on earth in 1989?

I also think the psychomagnotheric ectoplasm is a separate occurrence from Vigo. Like in the larger cities around the world, there are caches of this strain of ectoplasm. A supernatural byproduct of the accumulated emotions of the city's citizens as they explain to the mayor in GB2. Sidebar, I'd be curious if all the caches are negatively charged or are there ones that are positively charged like those places declared the happiest cities in the world. IDW explored it a little with a positive cache under Coney Island. I would think not just New York, maybe places like LA, London, Tokyo, Berlin (which could account for that case Egon and Ray briefly mention), Paris, etc.

As for Vigo. I think it was happenstance his painting ended up in New York. Nothing to do with being drawn to the negatively charged psychomagnotheric ectoplasm river. My theory is his painting was sealed up and so his spirit was kept in a dormant, neutral state. Maybe even his former subjects were on to his dark magic and whatever was used to seal up the painting was enchanted to neutralize Vigo. But through whatever means, i.e. Vigo's castle was excavated in the late 1980's and the Manhattan Museum of Art acquired a lot of artifacts recovered from the castle including the sealed painting and the altar of the planned Romantic exhibit. There were some notions Janosz was Carpathian in ethnicity so maybe he knew of and kept tabs on the excavation and really wanted to use the artifacts for the exhibit i.e. got a little nostalgic about his ancestor's country. And upon the museum crew removing the painting from what was used to seal it, the ambient psychomagnotheric energy allowed Vigo's anchored spirit to manifest (i.e. think of the slime as the jumper pack and the painting as the dead car). Sensing the slime's power, Vigo co-opted it, formed something a para-symbiotic bond with it - as it drew more power from negative emotions he got stronger - and charged his power off it thus a lot more powerful than a standard Class 4 then got to work with his plans to instigate his rebirth in a living human form. But like he did in Carpathia, Vigo underestimated the people of NYC being able to defeat him and with the positive psychomagnotheric energy they generated on New Year's Eve he was severely weakened by the very same bond with the slime that he got supercharged on. Irony.

[RichardLess]

Regardless of that, what do you think about the slime? Do we get the slime without Vigo? Is it tied directly to Mew York & it was Vigo’s dark magic that brought him to the most negative place on earth in 1989?

I also think the psychomagnotheric ectoplasm is a separate occurrence from Vigo. Like in the larger cities around the world, there are caches of this strain of ectoplasm. A supernatural byproduct of the accumulated emotions of the city's citizens as they explain to the mayor in GB2. Sidebar, I'd be curious if all the caches are negatively charged or are there ones that are positively charged like those places declared the happiest cities in the world. IDW explored it a little with a positive cache under Coney Island. I would think not just New York, maybe places like LA, London, Tokyo, Berlin (which could account for that case Egon and Ray briefly mention), Paris, etc.

As for Vigo. I think it was happenstance his painting ended up in New York. Nothing to do with being drawn to the negatively charged psychomagnotheric ectoplasm river. My theory is his painting was sealed up and so his spirit was kept in a dormant, neutral state. Maybe even his former subjects were on to his dark magic and whatever was used to seal up the painting was enchanted to neutralize Vigo. But through whatever means, i.e. Vigo's castle was excavated in the late 1980's and the Manhattan Museum of Art acquired a lot of artifacts recovered from the castle including the sealed painting and the altar of the planned Romantic exhibit. There were some notions Janosz was Carpathian in ethnicity so maybe he knew of and kept tabs on the excavation and really wanted to use the artifacts for the exhibit i.e. got a little nostalgic about his ancestor's country. And upon the museum crew removing the painting from what was used to seal it, the ambient psychomagnotheric energy allowed Vigo's anchored spirit to manifest (i.e. think of the slime as the jumper pack and the painting as the dead car). Sensing the slime's power, Vigo co-opted it, formed something a para-symbiotic bond with it - as it drew more power from negative emotions he got stronger - and charged his power off it thus a lot more powerful than a standard Class 4 then got to work with his plans to instigate his rebirth in a living human form. But like he did in Carpathia, Vigo underestimated the people of NYC being able to defeat him and with the positive psychomagnotheric energy they generated on New Year's Eve he was severely weakened by the very same bond with the slime that he got supercharged on. Irony.

I guess since we are analyzing this to death, let me ask…

What do you think about the whole New Years/Christmas season aspect of the negative slime starting to really get going?

Do you think there’s something about the changing of the year(alignment of planets or something) that Vigo needed for bringing about the season of evil? Because it seems the worst time for the Slime would be during the holiday season in NYC. Sure people stress out and some shoppers get a little nuts but it’s probably the worst time of year for slime build up. Ultimately that’s part of Vigo’s downfall.

If you think about it Vigo really should’ve waited until the dog days of summer. Or an election(which is referenced but I’m guessing it’d be in November of the following year). Sometime where people are at their worst and angriest. Or maybe that’s the point Ivan, Dan and Harold were trying to make. Christmas and New Years can be when we are at our worst and our best and Vigo underestimated the human spirit.

If I had to guess I’d say there was something important about the changing of the year to Vigo’s process. It happens right at midnight after all.

One of the missed opportunities of the movie, something that was explored in previous drafts, is New Yorkers having to act nice to one another to avoid the slimes effects. There’s a couple moments of New Yorkers being jerks in the finished film but I think the movie could’ve amped that up a little. Really make us feel that New York is a cesspool of negative energy. I really lament the loss of the attempted murder scene with the rich couple. Probably my favourite moment in those early scripts.

[mrmichaelt]

What do you think about the whole New Years/Christmas season aspect of the negative slime starting to really get going?

Do you think there’s something about the changing of the year(alignment of planets or something) that Vigo needed for bringing about the season of evil? Because it seems the worst time for the Slime would be during the holiday season in NYC. Sure people stress out and some shoppers get a little nuts but it’s probably the worst time of year for slime build up. Ultimately that’s part of Vigo’s downfall.

Yeah, I did wonder if there was a new year/alignment of the planets requirement for the aspect of rebirth. Perhaps.

If you think about it Vigo really should’ve waited until the dog days of summer. Or an election(which is referenced but I’m guessing it’d be in November of the following year). Sometime where people are at their worst and angriest. Or maybe that’s the point Ivan, Dan and Harold were trying to make. Christmas and New Years can be when we are at our worst and our best and Vigo underestimated the human spirit.

"Christmas and New Years can be when we are at our worst and our best and Vigo underestimated the human spirit." Yeah, that's how I'd sum it up. The more negative aspects of the holidays did come up in the first Gremlins like with Kate for example. I'd bet Vigo was banking on that sort of stuff.

One of the missed opportunities of the movie, something that was explored in previous drafts, is New Yorkers having to act nice to one another to avoid the slimes effects. There’s a couple moments of New Yorkers being jerks in the finished film but I think the movie could’ve amped that up a little. Really make us feel that New York is a cesspool of negative energy. I really lament the loss of the attempted murder scene with the rich couple. Probably my favourite moment in those early scripts.

Agreed! Hella dark, but would have liked that one in there. The hockey one, too, lol. Probably would have affecting the pacing but maybe right before Vigo is knocked back into the painting, a montage of the people of NYC, then culminating in Vigo wincing then being forced into the painting, Peter catching Oscar, etc.

[TheManEatingToaster]

I think the stone was already in the museum, didn't they mention that there was a Vigo exhibit or something like that? What if there were more paintings like Jason Reitman said in an interview once.

[ghoulishfright]

I wonder if the idea of painting symbols on Oscar was informed by this similar scene from Conan the Barbarian. Ivan Reitman worked with Arnold the following year on Kindergarten Cop, so perhaps he was looking at Conan. Plus, "Vigo the Carpathian" looks and sounds very like a Howardian character, which other people have picked up on.