Ghostbusters in Stranger Things: the Winston argument, Dustin's trap and the 1984 Ghostbusters
References · Season 2 · Halloween 1984
Here you'll find out why the group's gear is homemade, then the Winston argument, line by line, side by side with the film's Winston. After that: Dustin's trap on its way to the AV room, the callbacks up to July 4, 1985, the approval sought from Ivan Reitman and the 2017 trailers.
For Halloween 1984, the Hawkins party dresses up as the Ghostbusters, but nobody wants to be Winston. Lucas turns the role down, and Dustin's homemade trap ends up hiding a creature.
The essentials
- The episode: Season 2, episode 2, October 31, 1984
- The costumes: Will as Egon, Dustin as Stantz, Mike and Lucas as Venkman
- The refused role: Winston, turned down by Lucas: “I specifically didn't agree to Winston.”
- The trap: Dustin's, where he hides the creature he found in his trash can
- The film: Released in the United States on June 8, 1984, and in France on December 12, 1984
- The approval: from Ivan Reitman and Dan Aykroyd, according to Matt Duffer
- The promotion: Super Bowl teaser on February 5, 2017, then a new trailer in July 2017
Contents
Halloween 1984: homemade ghostbusters
On October 31, 1984, four boys set off for middle school dressed as ghostbusters. Will is Egon, Dustin is Stantz, and Mike and Lucas have both picked Venkman. Ghostbusters opened in the United States on June 8, 1984, less than five months earlier. In France, it would not open until December 12, 1984, according to Wikipedia.
In 1984, none of this gear can be bought ready-made. According to Inverse, no toy authorized by the film's rights holders exists yet: the cartoon arrives in 1986, and the toy proton pack in 1987, modeled on the cartoon rather than the film. The same article mentions only a mail-order sewing pattern for the jumpsuits. The Halloween costume guide explains how to recreate these outfits.
At school, the surprise is complete: they are the only ones in costume. A student calls out the film's famous question, and the answer comes right back: “The nerds!” The morning photo, Max in a Michael Myers mask, and the evening trick-or-treating are covered in the article on episode 2 of season 2.
Beige jumpsuit with no-ghost patches, a big black pack on the back and a black blaster in hand, photographed on an adult. The group's packs in 1984, on the other hand, were homemade.
In the shopGhostbusters costume season 2 child and adult120,90 €See the product
The Winston argument, line by line
Outside the school, Mike Wheeler discovers that Lucas is wearing the Venkman outfit too. Mike: “Why are you Venkman?” Lucas: “Because I'm Venkman.” Lucas asks why there can't be two Venkmans. Mike answers that there is only one “in real life,” and that the plan goes back months: “We planned this months ago.” He recites the lineup: himself as Venkman, Dustin as Stantz, Will as Egon, Lucas as Winston. Lucas: “I specifically didn't agree to Winston.” Mike insists he did. Will, according to the wiki's gallery, doubts that Lucas agreed.
Then comes this line: “No one wants to be Winston, man.” Mike asks what is wrong with Winston. Lucas runs through the list: “He joined the team super late, he's not funny, and he's not even a scientist!” Mike defends him: “Yeah, but he's still cool.” Lucas turns the argument around: “If he's cool, then you be Winston.” Mike answers that he can't, and stammers when Lucas asks him why.
Lucas finishes the sentence for him, mimicking him: “Because you're not black?” Mike: “I didn't say that!” Lucas: “You thought it.” Mike repeats that he didn't say it, then another question cuts the argument short: “Why is no one else wearing costumes?” Winston's name never comes up again in the chapter. Outside the fiction, the actor who plays Lucas spoke at a convention in 2022 about racism from some fans: the profile of Caleb McLaughlin goes into it.
Two of Lucas's three complaints match the film: the late arrival and the lack of a science degree. In the film, Winston answers a want ad, and Ray Stantz hires him on the spot. According to Wikipedia, the first script made him a former Air Force major, a demolitions expert, on the team from the start; he was rewritten as “an outsider and a late addition,” the only member of the team without an advanced degree. As soon as the film came out, in June 1984, critic Gene Siskel faulted it for that late arrival. Ernie Hudson, who plays Winston, went through five auditions; by his account, he took the part for half his usual fee, then, the night before shooting, received a script in which his role had shrunk, because, director Ivan Reitman told him, the studio wanted to expand Bill Murray's. Dan Aykroyd, the film's co-writer, says the role was written for Eddie Murphy, the star of Beverly Hills Cop; Reitman denies it. In 2014, Hudson summed it up: “I love the character […] but I felt the guy was just kind of there.”
Dustin's trap, from the hallway to the AV room
At first, the trap is there to impress Max, according to the wiki. After class, Dustin Henderson and Lucas walk up to her, saying they are worried about the school bullies. Max asks if that is why they are wearing proton packs. Dustin admits they don't work, then shows off his “handy-dandy little trap”: it opens, it closes. “Voilà!” Max is unimpressed. Dustin carries on: “No? Okay.”
That evening, on his way home, Dustin hears a noise in the trash can. According to the wiki, he draws his costume's blaster before lifting the lid. In the next chapter, still dressed as Ray Stantz, he sneaks the creature into the house, hidden in the trap. The trap starts moving in front of his mother, Claudia. Dustin improvises: “I rigged the trap with, uh, a motor to make it look like I caught a ghost.” Then: “Just like the movie.” There is no motor: it is the creature moving. In his bedroom, Dustin scolds it for not being able to stay still for one minute, then kicks his turtle Yertle out of its terrarium: “Temporary eviction, buddy.”
On November 1, Dustin arrives late to Mr. Clarke's class. According to the wiki, the creature, which he named d'Artagnan the night before, is rattling around in the trap. At the end of the day, Dustin wants to show his discovery to the teacher: “This is the reason I was late for class.” Mr. Clarke is first taken with the object itself: “Pretty neat. These doors function?” Dustin: “Well, yeah, obviously. But it's not about the trap. It's what's inside.” Mike bursts in, stops him and calls it a “stupid prank.” That whole day is covered in the third chapter of season 2.
Without Max, the group locks itself in the AV room. Will has recognized the creature's sound, and Mike concludes that it comes from the Upside Down. It shrieks inside the trap; Lucas urges Dustin to open it, according to the wiki. Before their eyes, the creature sprouts two legs. Mike wants to attack it, Dustin stops him, and Max, who has picked the lock, opens the door just as the creature bolts. What comes next, from the shed skins to the pack, is in Dart's story.
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October 31, after class The demonstration
Dustin shows Max a trap that opens and closes.
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October 31, evening The lid
Blaster in hand, Dustin finds the creature in the trash can.
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October 31, later The fake motor
The trap moves in front of Claudia, and Dustin makes up a motor.
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November 1, in class Late for class
The creature rattles around in the trap during class.
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November 1, end of the day “What's inside”
Mike stops Dustin from opening the trap in front of the teacher.
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November 1, AV room The escape
Out of the trap, the creature grows two legs and runs off.
Lucas in brick form, the one who urges Dustin to open the trap: green and beige camo headband, burgundy jacket over a light blue T-shirt, a slingshot at his side.
In the shopBuildable big-head figure Lucas Sinclair19,90 €See the product
The callbacks, from 1984 to the summer of 1985
Before and after Halloween. The wiki points out two details. In the first chapter of season 2, Joyce sews a Ghostbusters patch onto Will's jumpsuit at work. And throughout the season, Will and Dustin carry Ghostbusters lunch boxes to school.
In Dustin's bedroom. A Ghostbusters fan club certificate, the “Certificate of Anti-Paranormal Proficiency,” hangs near the terrarium, and a second Ghostbusters certificate near the desk, according to the wiki. That is the terrarium Dustin finds with its glass shattered and a shed skin inside, in the fourth chapter of season 2.
At the supermarket, in 1985. On the night of July 4, 1985, at Bradley's Big Buy, Lucas and Will walk down the cereal aisle past a box of Ghostbusters cereal featuring the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, according to the wiki. The scene is in the seventh chapter of season 3, “The Bite.”
Reitman and Aykroyd's approval, then the trailers
On October 25, 2017, Gizmodo picked up an interview the Duffers gave to Entertainment Weekly: before dressing the group up as ghostbusters, they had to ask for permission. Matt Duffer: “We got to talk to Ivan Reitman on the phone because he and Dan Aykroyd had to approve it.” According to him, Reitman found it flattering and read the scripts. The two men were delighted to be associated with the show, he says, and they sent them Ghostbusters toys at the end of the shoot. Matt Duffer adds that the film is one of his five most worn-out VHS tapes.
The teaser that aired during the Super Bowl, on February 5, 2017, already showed the kids as Ghostbusters; it is described in the article on the season 2 release. In July 2017, at San Diego Comic-Con, a new trailer showed them in costume again. On July 25, Inverse spotted a trap patched up with duct tape in it. Gizmodo, for its part, notes that this same trailer showed the kids busy opening something they seem to have caught in one of their homemade traps.
3 cm pin: Dustin in a pink and white cap, purple jacket and orange bag, next to a green creature with a head of red petals and a blue collar, in a later form than the one in the trap.
In the shopDustin and Dart pin13,90 €See the product
Frequently asked questions
What costumes does the party wear for Halloween 1984?
They go as the Ghostbusters, from the movie. Will is Egon, Dustin is Stantz, and Mike and Lucas are both Venkman. It is October 31, 1984, in “Trick or Treat, Freak,” the second chapter of season 2.
Why does Lucas refuse to be Winston?
He says Winston joined the team very late, isn't funny, and isn't even a scientist. When Mike cannot say why he wouldn't play him himself, Lucas fires back, “Because you're not black?” then “You thought it.”
What does Dustin hide in his ghost trap?
The creature he found in his trash can on Halloween night, which he names d'Artagnan, Dart for short. He sneaks it into the house in the trap, puts it in his turtle's terrarium, then takes it to school in the trap the next day.
Does Dustin's trap have a motor?
No. When the trap moves in front of his mother, Dustin claims he rigged it with a motor, “just like the movie.” It is the creature moving inside.
Did Ivan Reitman and Dan Aykroyd agree to the show borrowing from Ghostbusters?
Yes. According to Matt Duffer, Ivan Reitman and Dan Aykroyd gave their approval. Reitman read the scripts and found the borrowing flattering.
Was Finn Wolfhard in Ghostbusters?
Not in the 1984 film, but in its sequels: the actor behind Mike plays Trevor, Egon Spengler's grandson, in Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021), then in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024). The details are in the profile of Finn Wolfhard.
When did Ghostbusters come out?
On June 8, 1984, in the United States, less than five months before the show's Halloween. In France, on December 12, 1984.
Why are the group's proton packs homemade?
Because in 1984 no toy authorized by the film's rights holders is on sale, according to Inverse. The cartoon arrives in 1986, and the toy proton pack in 1987.
