Egon Spengler
Egon Spengler, PhD is a fictional character from the Ghostbusters franchise. He appears in the films Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters II, and Ghostbusters: Afterlife, in the animated television series The Real Ghostbusters and Extreme Ghostbusters, and in the video games Ghostbusters: The Video Game and Ghostbusters Beeline. Egon was portrayed by Harold Ramis in the films and voiced by him in Ghostbusters: The Video Game and Lego Dimensions, and voiced by Maurice LaMarche in the cartoon series. He is a member of the Ghostbusters and one of the three doctors of parapsychology, along with Dr. Peter Venkman and Dr. Ray Stantz.
Creation and conception
The character's name, Egon Spengler, is an amalgamation of the name Egon Donsbach, who was a Hungarian refugee classmate of Ramis' at Senn High School, and the name of German polymath Oswald Spengler.Christopher Walken, John Lithgow, Christopher Lloyd, and Jeff Goldblum were all considered for the role of Egon Spengler, before Ramis, who had gotten close to the character while writing him, felt compelled to play it himself.
Maurice LaMarche stated that when he auditioned for the part of Egon in The Real Ghostbusters, he was asked not to do an impression of Ramis, which he ignored because impressions were one of his strengths as a performer, and there was no other way he could imagine properly portraying the character other than to follow Ramis' example. He got the part anyway and said in an interview that he did two different takes: one in which he impersonated Ramis, the other in which he tried a more "Woody Allen"–like approach that did not suit the character's physicality.
Character
Egon Spengler is a tall, lanky, laconic, bespectacled, handsome member of the team responsible for the main theoretical framework for their paranormal/quantum studies, having earned over a dozen advanced degrees including parapsychology and nuclear engineering from New York University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, respectively. He is socially awkward, as demonstrated by his stiff interactions with the Ghostbusters' secretary Janine Melnitz, and his reliance on Peter Venkman as a spokesperson for the group.Egon is the most serious and rigid member of the team. Of his hobbies, Egon states that he collects "spores, molds, and fungus", and claims that, as a child, the only toy he ever had was "part of a Slinky", which he straightened out. As implied in the first movie, Egon apparently is a junk food junkie, due to his affection for sweets and snack crackers. In the second film it is revealed that he and Ray like takeout foods like pizza, Asian, Greek, and Mexican cuisine; in the first film, there is also a scene where Egon dines on Chinese takeout with Peter and Ray, during which he eats egg rolls while he finishes building the proton packs. Despite being a stereotypical timid professor-like figure, Egon is prone to violent reactions when pushed too far temperamentally, as demonstrated by his attempt to assault Walter Peck.
After Egon dies, the haunting in his farmhouse reveals that, like Ray, he was a skilled automotive mechanic, able to repair the Ecto-1's engine with his grandson Trevor as a poltergeist.
Appearances
Film
''Ghostbusters'' (1984)
Egon was very interested in paranormal phenomena, even while working with Ray Stantz and Peter Venkman at Columbia University. He and Ray Stantz studied paranormal literature in their spare time, and Egon personally follows John Horace Tobin's works including Tobin's Spirit Guide, and were interested in theories of reincarnation. It is mentioned in the film's novelization that Egon's mother is alive, and he calls her after finding a payphone to inform his termination of his employment at Columbia University, while Peter and Ray discussing plans for the Ghostbusters business, explaining his absence on this scene.Egon was usually the first to interview case subjects, adding to their mantra, "we're ready to believe you." Examples were Dana Barrett from her Zuul encounter and her carriage phenomenon with Oscar. Even people Peter called "schizo" always went to either Egon or Ray to describe their paranormal experiences, no matter how far-fetched their stories were. For his part, Venkman once took back everything negative he said about Egon, rewarding the fellow scientist with his favorite candy bar. Egon's only weakness is evidently junk food, as he is seen, on occasion, snacking on candies, crackers, egg rolls, and Twinkies.
When house-hunting for their headquarters, Egon was against Peter leasing the firehouse at North Moore Street due to its conditions and location, but Ray was attached to the building due to his fondness for its brass fireman's pole and the fact it was a place they could afford with their then-pitiful budgets. In time they renovated the building to suit their needs after their business took off.
With Ray's assistance, Egon developed the technology behind the P.K.E. Meter, the Proton Pack, the Trap, the Aura Analyzer, the para-goggles, and the storage facility. He spent a lot of time focusing on the stability of the storage facility and was concerned about the possibilities of a P.K.E. surge of dangerous proportions. Egon was particularly critical of Walter Peck's actions, and his attitude that the Ghostbusters were responsible for the explosion of the containment unit that occurred when Peck ordered a utility worker to shut the unit down. After their encounter with Stay Puft, Egon suggested an atypical solution when he recommended blasting Gozer's dimensional portal while crossing the proton streams to reverse the particle flow and send Gozer back to its dimension; he was also aware of the inherent risks involved in crossing the streams.
Egon once tried to drill a hole in his own head, which he says "would have worked" if Peter had not stopped him.
''Ghostbusters II'' (1989)
Due to the large amount of collateral damage New York City suffered from the battle with Gozer, the Ghostbusters were sued by nearly every county and city agency in New York. Additionally a judicial restraining order was enacted which barred the Ghostbusters from performing services as paranormal investigators and eliminators, effectively putting them out of business. Five years after the events of the first film Egon returned to teaching at Manhattan College, working at its Institute for Advanced Theoretical Research and was conducting experiments on human emotions, during which he invented the Giga Meter, a device similar to the PKE Meter designed to detect and measure energy in gigaelectron volts. A negative test involved keeping a couple with marriage problems locked in a room for hours and gradually raising the temperature. A positive test involved a girl in a room with dozens of stuffed animals and a puppy.He was the first person Dana Barrett contacted when her baby carriage took off by itself. Egon recommended bringing in Ray, and they both performed a physical exam on Dana's son Oscar. Egon, along with Peter and Ray were later arrested after digging a large hole under First Avenue as part of their paranormal investigations to help Dana. At trial they were found guilty by judge Stephen Wexler of willful destruction of public property, fraud, violating their judicial restraining order, and malicious mischief. While angrily insulting the trio, judge Stephen Wexler inadvertently released the ghosts of the Scoleri Brothers, two murderers he sentenced to death by the electric chair. In the ensuing chaos judge Wexler dismisses the charges against the Ghostbusters and rescinds their judicial restraining order, allowing Egon, Ray, and Peter to capture the released ghosts and effectively putting the Ghostbusters back in business.
Egon had a dry sense of humor which he would use to bewilder Peter, and smirked at his friend's cluelessness as to what the word "epididymis" meant.
Egon primarily worked with Ray, conducting research on the pink slime. Eventually they developed "slime blowers", consisting of large metal tanks and handheld nozzles that fire positively charged substance. Still very scientifically minded, Egon here seemed to have loosened up a little bit, letting his sense of humor show and even giving Dana a smile and Peter, a knowing smile. It is implied by Peter that two years prior to the film's events, the team had used their proton packs. Not limited to John H. Tobin's books, Egon and Ray rely on the latter's resources at Ray's Occult Books, and through Leon Zundinger's article in Magicians, Martyrs and Madmen found information about Vigo the Carpathian.
''Ghostbusters'' (2016)
Although the 2016 Ghostbusters film is a reboot, the film's marketing confirms that a version of Egon Spengler does exist in the film's fictional universe. According to a tie-in video to the film, Kate McKinnon's character Dr. Jillian Holtzmann and Harold Ramis' character Dr. Egon Spengler created the film's proton packs. The paragraph accompanying the video read:
Engineers at Sony Corporation developed the 2016 Proton Pack™ in collaboration with nuclear engineer and munitions expert Dr. Jillian Holtzmann. Sony President and CEO Kazuo Hirai commented "The perfection of the Proton Pack™, long a dream of the world’s greatest engineers since first pioneered by Dr. Egon Spengler of Columbia University, is an example of Sony’s relentless pursuit of innovation. It absolutely delivers the wow factor that is so important to our company mission".
Additionally, in the film itself, a bronze bust of Harold Ramis as the film's version of Spengler is seen just as Erin Gilbert leaves her office. During the credits of Ghostbusters, the words "For Harold Ramis" are seen.
''Ghostbusters: Afterlife'' (2021)
Ghostbusters: Afterlife, which serves as a direct sequel to the original Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II, opens with a portrayal of Spengler's death. In the film, it is retroactively established by Jason Reitman and Gil Kenan, that Egon fathered his daughter Callie around 1982 with someone before the events of the first film. Even Peter and Ray are unaware of her, though Janine does know. However, he became estranged from his family, and Callie grew resentful of her father and blames his life as a scientist for his abandoning her. Despite the Ghostbusters successfully closing the "Manhattan Crossrip of '84", at some point after the "Vigo Incident of '89", Egon had discovered prophecies written by the Cult of Gozer's prophets saying Gozer would return in 2021, but his insistence that the Ghostbusters prepare for this strained their relationship, and preparing for the events of the prophecies is the reason for his distance with his daughter, who he intended to protect.Ten years after the Manhattan Crossrip, Egon stole equipment and the Ecto-1 and moved to Summerville, Oklahoma, where Ivo Shandor had mined the selenium used to build the Shandor Apartments building in New York City. Shandor had built another gateway for Gozer in his mine, and Egon spent years preparing to stop Gozer's eventual return, building automated energy cannons with the components of the proton packs and PKE meter to barricade the portal with crossed streams, as well as setting a ghost trap field with an array of 198 traps for Gozer on his property. He earned the nickname "Dirt Farmer" from Summerville's residents for not growing anything on his land, and for his eccentricity. At some point before the Ghostbusters disbanded, he added a scissor seat on the right side of the Ecto-1 with Ray and added a taser configuration on the team's PKE meters for defense against the spectral entities they hunt; he uses the taser against Gozer's minions after he settled in Summerville, an innovation which even frighted Zuul. He is revealed to be a collector of strange artifacts, like a death whistle from the Aztec culture similar to the ones first discovered by archaeologist Francisco Rivas Castro in 1999, some witch bottles hanged on his dead trees, and Sentinel figurines from Shandor's Gozerian Temple, and still eating junk food. He remained in contact with Janine and had called Ray once, again trying to warn him about Gozer. Due to his advancing age, Egon's health had declined and he struggled with a life-threatening cardiovascular disease.
In June 2021, Egon captured one of Gozer's minions, which Gozer needed to successfully manifest on Earth, and used the creature in an attempt to lure Gozer into the trap field. When the ambush failed because the traps' capacitors malfunctioned, Gozer sent the other minion to attack Egon, who suffered a fatal cardiac arrest and died before Gozer could learn its trapped minion's whereabouts.
Egon's death results in Callie and her two children, Trevor and Phoebe, moving from Chicago to Summerville to take possession of his house and belongings. Because of knowing that their grandfather left their mother and them never had acquainted with him as well as not knowing his past as a Ghostbuster, the children thinks Egon was a ne'er-do-well. Though unseen by his family as a poltergeist, Egon's presence guides Phoebe into continuing with his plan to defeat Gozer, and she eventually stages an ambush after forming her own Ghostbusters team. In the process, Egon establishes a familial bond with Phoebe which he was unable to do with Callie when he was alive, as Phoebe takes after him. In turn, Phoebe is affectionate to her ghostly grandfather, respecting Egon as a fellow scientist and chess player, and feeling hurt when her mother expresses contempt for Egon. He also guides Callie to realize that, even if he was not present, he had always kept an eye on her life. When Ray, Peter and Winston arrive to aid the family in stopping Gozer, Egon materializes as a fully formed Class 4 Full Torso Apparition beside Phoebe to help them one last time. He embraces his family and acknowledges his colleagues before fading away to the afterlife.
Outside of archived audio clips, Egon has no speaking lines throughout the film and his face was obscured in present-day shots until his return as a ghost. The likeness of Harold Ramis was recreated digitally for key shots in conjunction with body doubles. In the beginning of the credits at the end of the film, the words "For Harold" are seen once again.