Jason and Ivan Reitman reveal their favorite Ghostbusters: Afterlife Easter eggs

If you’ve seen Ghostbusters: Afterlife or read any of the reviews—like ours, for instance—then you know the new movie is a veritable eye spy of in-jokes and references to the first two supernatural films. And who can blame director Jason Reitman, really? People love the movies his dad, Ivan, directed—including him.

It’s something we asked both Reitmans about when we talked to them about the new movie. Specifically, we asked the pair about their favorite deep dive Easter eggs in Ghostbusters: Afterlife, since there are just so many.

As Jason Reitman tells us in the video above, his favorite is a deep cut indeed. “There’s a great line in the original where Egon says, ‘I once had half a Slinky, but I straightened it.’” We had a straightened Slinky on Phoebe’s night table in Chicago at the beginning of the movie.”

Jason Reitman says the Slinky is emblematic of the fact that, “the movie was made by all Ghostbusters fans. The whole cast, the whole crew, everyone was sneaking in Easter eggs. I’m still finding Easter eggs in the movie that I didn’t know about.”

Ivan Reitman’s favorite reference was a little more obvious. His was, “a
larger, more profound one, which was just to see the stars from the original film show up and start to act in the form and in the tone of what they did back in ‘84,” saying “ When Bill Murray started his very first scene, I said, ‘Oh my God, I haven’t seen that in such a long time.’ I was so happy to experience it again.”

Fans can join the Reitmans in that joy as Ghostbusters: Afterlife hits theaters this weekend. If you want to read more about the movie, you can check out our review right here.