Containment Unit
The ghost-storage grid under the firehouse whose shutdown in 1984 set Gozer's arrival in motion.
The containment unit is the ecto-containment system in the basement of the Ghostbusters' firehouse, where every ghost caught in a trap is deposited for permanent storage. It first appears in the 1984 film: after catching the gluttonous ghost at the Sedgewick Hotel, the team empties the trap into the unit, and Egon Spengler soon warns that it is approaching capacity as paranormal activity surges across New York City. It is the one piece of equipment that keeps returning as a plot engine, from the original film through Ghostbusters: Afterlife and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire.
Background
In Ghostbusters (1984), Environmental Protection Agency inspector Walter Peck demands to inspect the unit and is refused by Peter Venkman. He returns with police and city workers, has the Ghostbusters arrested and, ignoring their warnings, orders the unit switched off. The resulting explosion frees every captured ghost and sends spiritual energy surging into Ivo Shandor's building at 550 Central Park West, which is the signal Zuul and Vinz Clortho have been waiting for.
In Extreme Ghostbusters, Egon is the only Ghostbuster left at the firehouse, still monitoring the containment unit. Afterlife ends with Winston Zeddemore returning the restored Ecto-1 to the firehouse while, in the basement, a light on the old containment system starts flashing red. In Frozen Empire the unit is nearly full again; a cold wave from the cursed brass orb damages it, and the demigod Garraka later breaches it to free the ghosts inside.
Ray Stantz, with Janine Melnitz and the other veterans, reconfigures the unit to act as a giant ghost trap, which is what finally defeats Garraka.
More in Equipment & Supernatural Forces
Elsewhere in Ghostbusters
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