Proton pack
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Proton Pack is a fictional piece of nuclear accelerative machinery created by the Ghostbusters and serves as their primary tool in the 1984 film of the same name for the purpose of "busting" ghosts. It has a hand-held gun section ("Proton Gun" or particle thrower) connected to a backpack-sized particle accelerator.
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[edit] In the Ghostbusters universe
The proton pack functions by "concentrating positively charged protons (some accounts say positrons), using them to attack negatively charged ectoplasmic entities"; this is, it should be noted, technobabble. In practical terms, the proton gun fires a stream of energy that allows a wielder to snare a ghost, holding it in place so it can be positioned above a trap for capture. Dr. Egon Spengler designed the pack, and he and Dr. Ray Stantz built it. A cut scene from Ghostbusters showed Egon plugging the pack into a wall outlet to recharge it, only to have the plug melt.
Since the proton pack is fictional, any specific details as to its precise mode of operation must necessarily be speculative; however, the Ghostbusters' dialogue indicates a definite similarity to a cyclotron, producing a high-powered stream of charged particles which interact destructively with the ectoplasm of the ghost. The packs are very difficult to control for an inexperienced user; the firing process apparently creates direct or skew recoil in the firing stick. The streams are quite destructive to physical objects and can cause extensive property damage.
According to Dr. Spengler's calculations, each pack's energy cell has a half-life of five thousand years. Knobs on the main stock of the Proton Pack can perform various functions to customize the proton stream, including adjustments for stream intensity, length, and degrees of polarization. The maximum power setting for the Proton Packs was mentioned by Egon Spengler as being "500,000 megahertz." It was occasionally spoken in several episodes of the cartoon that the Proton Packs had a self-destruct mechanism capable of affecting at least a half-mile radius. The cartoon also made proton packs less efficient with power cells, allowing them to run out of energy when appropriate for dramatic tension.
Dr. Venkman refers to the Proton Packs in one scene as "unlicensed nuclear accelerators", but a cut scene from the script states that there is no nuclear material involved, but rather a static discharge.
[edit] Crossing the Streams
Crossing the streams was initially discouraged, as it was believed that "total protonic reversal" would occur; this effect would have catastrophic results, namely "the end of all life as we know it, and every molecule in one's body exploding at the speed of light." Crossing the streams is quite dangerous and the presumed effects of such a maneuver were hypothesized by Egon to be "bad". However, in a desperate effort to stop the powerful Gozer the Gozerian, the Ghostbusters performed a simultaneous 4-fold crossing directed into the portal, causing total protonic reversal in their dimension and "brackish" areas, but not affecting the molecular structure of our dimension. When the Ghostbusters crossed their four streams, they aimed directly into the inter-dimensional portal, which then exploded every molecule of Gozer (including his psychic influence) and forced it back through the dimension window from where it entered. This is also true with the fabric of the portal itself, as it collapsed and exploded when Gozer was destroyed.
| The proton pack is not a toy. |
[edit] As props in the real world
Proton packs were created by the prop department of Columbia Pictures. They are made of molded fiberglass shells on aluminium backplates (or "motherboards") bolted to military surplus A.L.I.C.E. frames. The proton packs have a lightbar with 15 blue scrolling lights in a box on the left-hand side and 4 red lights in the circular "cyclotron" portion of the bottom of the proton pack that light up in rotation. The surfaces of the proton packs are adorned with various sizes and colors of tubing, pneumatic fittings and valves, PVC pipe sections, metal rods, and ribbon cable.
Some changes were made to the packs in Ghostbusters II to differentiate them from the packs used in the original movie. The easiest way to tell is if the crank knob at the top of the pack is gray, it is a Ghostbusters pack, but if it is black, it is Ghostbusters II.
Many movie prop replica communities have sprung up regarding proton pack research and contain various methods and plans for constructing a replica proton pack, including:
Early script descriptions of the proton pack stated each pack had two neutrona wands, strapped to the wrists, rather than one, held like a gun.
Toy proton packs were formerly available in toyshops.
[edit] In other fiction
A weapon strongly resembling the proton pack appears in the computer game Half-Life, where it is called the Gluon gun, it is also sometimes called quantum de-stablizer. The gun's object identifier is weapon_egon, but this name is never visible to the player. This would appear to be a reference to the character Egon Spengler, who created the device in the movie.
In Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft there is a weapon known as Egan's Blaster used to have a special effect against ghosts and other undead in the game. Again, it is a likely homage to Egon Spengler and the Ghostbusters universe.
[edit] Bibliography
- Justis, G. Quantum Physics and Proton Pack Operations. 2004. <www.gbdetroit.com>.
[edit] External links
| Ghostbusters | |
|---|---|
| Movies: | Ghostbusters | Ghostbusters II |
| Television: | The Real Ghostbusters | Extreme Ghostbusters |
| Video Games: | Ghostbusters (Activision) | Ghostbusters (Sega) | Ghostbusters II |
| Technology: | Proton pack | Ectomobile | Ghostbusters equipment |
| Characters: | Peter Venkman | Egon Spengler | Ray Stantz | Winston Zeddemore | Janine Melnitz | Ivo Shandor |
| Ghosts: | Slimer | Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man | Vigo the Carpathian |
| Misc: | Ghostbusters: Legion | Ghostbusters: The Return | Ghostbusters (role-playing game) | Filmation's Ghostbusters |
