Ghost is a 1990 American romantic fantasy film directed by Jerry Zucker from a screenplay by Bruce Joel Rubin, and starring Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore, Whoopi Goldberg, Tony Goldwyn, Vincent Schiavelli, and Rick Aviles. The plot centers on Sam Wheat (Swayze), a murdered banker, whose ghost sets out to save his girlfriend, Molly Jensen (Moore), from the person who killed him – through the help of the psychic Oda Mae Brown (Goldberg).

Ghost was theatrically released on July 13, 1990, to commercial success, grossing $505 million against a budget of $22–23 million and emerging as the highest-grossing film of 1990 and at the time of its release, was the third-highest-grossing film of all time. The film received positive reviews from critics, with particular praise going towards the score and performances of the cast. Ghost earned five nominations at the 63rd Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Original Score, Best Film Editing, and winning Best Supporting Actress for Goldberg and Best Original Screenplay for Rubin.

Plot

Sam Wheat, a banker, and his girlfriend Molly Jensen, an artist, move into an apartment in Manhattan with the help of Sam s friend and co-worker Carl Bruner. Sam confides in Carl about his discovery of high balances in obscure accounts. He investigates the matter himself, declining Carl s offer of assistance. That night, Sam and Molly are attacked by a mugger who kills Sam in a scuffle before stealing his wallet. Sam sees Molly crying over his body and discovers he is now a ghost, invisible and seemingly unable to interact with the mortal world.

Molly is distraught in the days after Sam s death, as Sam remains close to her. Carl suggests she take a walk with him; Sam, unable to follow through the locked door, stays behind. Moments later, the mugger enters the apartment in search of something. When Molly returns, Sam scares their cat into attacking the thug, who flees. He follows the mugger to his Brooklyn apartment, learning that the man, Willie Lopez, was sent by an unknown party.

After leaving Willie s residence, Sam happens upon the parlor of psychic Oda Mae Brown, a charlatan pretending to commune with spirits of the dead who is shocked to discover her true psychic gift when she hears Sam speaking. Sam persuades her to warn Molly that she is in danger. To allay Molly s skepticism, Oda Mae relays information that only Sam could know. Molly later gives Willie s address to Carl, who volunteers to investigate. She then goes to the police, who have no file for Willie but show her Oda Mae s lengthy one as a forger and con artist.

Sam follows Carl and learns he and Willie are working together. Carl is laundering money for drug dealers and had Willie rob Sam to obtain his book of passwords. After getting the book himself from the apartment, Carl transfers the money into a single account under the fictitious name Rita Miller .

Determined to protect Molly, Sam learns from a violent but troubled poltergeist haunting the subway system how to channel emotion in order to move solid objects. He enlists Oda Mae to help him thwart Carl by impersonating Rita Miller and withdrawing the laundered money totaling $4 million, which she reluctantly donates to some nuns at Sam s insistence. As Carl searches for the money, Sam reveals his presence by typing his name on the computer keyboard. Carl goes to Molly, who reveals she spotted Oda Mae closing an account at the bank.

Carl and Willie go to Oda Mae s but Sam warns her and her sisters to take shelter. When Willie arrives, Sam causes him to flee into the street in a fit of panic before being struck and killed by oncoming cars. Shadowy demons emerge from the darkness to drag Willie s ghost down to Hell.

Sam and Oda Mae return to the apartment and, by levitating a penny into Molly s hand, he convinces Molly that Oda Mae is telling the truth about him. Oda Mae allows Sam to possess her body so he and Molly can share a slow dance. Carl breaks into the apartment, but Sam is too exhausted from the possession to fight him. The women take the fire escape to a loft under construction, but Carl catches Oda Mae and holds her at gunpoint, demanding the check.

Sam recovers and pushes Carl off her, prompting Carl to take Molly hostage and plead with Sam for the check. Sam disarms him, attacking him again. Carl tries to escape through a window and tosses a suspended hook at Sam, but the hook swings back, shattering the window and causing it to slide down, fatally impaling Carl with a glass shard. The shadowy demons who came for Willie return to claim Carl s ghost, dragging him to Hell.

Sam asks if the women are all right. Molly is able to hear him and a heavenly light shines in the room, illuminating Sam s presence. Realizing his task is now completed and it is time for him to go, he and Molly share a tearful goodbye and one last kiss, finally having closure between them. Sam thanks Oda Mae for her help before walking into the light and onward to Heaven.

Cast

• Patrick Swayze as Sam Wheat
• Demi Moore as Molly Jensen
• Whoopi Goldberg as Oda Mae Brown
• Tony Goldwyn as Carl Bruner
• Rick Aviles as Willie Lopez
• Vincent Schiavelli as Subway Ghost
• Gail Boggs as Oda Mae s Sister, Louise
• Armelia McQueen as Oda Mae s Sister, Clara
• Phil Leeds as Emergency Room Ghost
• Augie Blunt as Orlando
• Stephen Root as Police Sgt
• Bruce Jarchow as Lyle Ferguson

Production

Background and filming

Ghost was the first film Jerry Zucker directed on his own, as well as his first dramatic film. He had previously been part of the Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker directing team, known for their parody films. Zucker stated that his decision to direct Ghost was not made to distance himself from comedies or to mark a new chapter in his career, but was merely “just looking for a good film to direct.

Harrison Ford, Michael J. Fox, Paul Hogan, Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, Kevin Kline, Alec Baldwin and Tom Cruise were considered for the role of Sam Wheat. Bruce Willis turned down the role of Sam Wheat as he did not understand the script and later called himself a knucklehead for turning it down. Michelle Pfeiffer, Molly Ringwald, Meg Ryan, Julia Roberts and Nicole Kidman were considered for the role of Molly Jensen. Tina Turner and Oprah Winfrey auditioned for the role of Oda Mae Brown. According to Goldberg, the producers initially were not interested in casting her as Oda Mae and that Swayze advocated for her to be cast.

Zucker credited arguments from radio host Dennis Prager with deciding to lighten Rubin s original script with a moral message.

Rubin noted that he wanted to tell a ghost story from the ghost s perspective : “One day, I was watching a production of Hamlet, which begins with the ghost of Hamlet s father saying, ‘Revenge my death,’” he recalled. “I thought, ‘Wow, let s transpose that into the 20th century; it d be an interesting story.’ And the idea hit me.”

Filming for Ghost began shooting in July 1989. Many of the interior scenes were shot at Paramount in Los Angeles. The interior of Sam and Molly s loft is a reproduction of the home and studio of artist Michele Oka Doner, built from plans she provided because she declined to allow filming in her loft. It was reconstructed in an unused loft nearby in her Soho neighborhood and featured many of the same details as the actual loft, such as radiators around columns, open stairs and a house-shaped enclosure for the refrigerator. The exterior scenes were shot in New York City, particularly in Bedford–Stuyvesant, Soho, and Wall Street, for about five weeks. The film features about 100 special effects shots. Demi Moore s famous boy cut in the movie was designed by Manhattan hair stylist John Sahag.

Music

The music for Ghost was written by veteran French composer Maurice Jarre, whose work was nominated for the 1990 Academy Award for Best Original Score (won by John Barry for Dances with Wolves). The soundtrack also featured the 1955 song Unchained Melody , composed by Alex North with lyrics by Hy Zaret. In Ghost, the song appears both in instrumental and vocal form, the latter being the version recorded by Bobby Hatfield of The Righteous Brothers in 1965.

The soundtrack album was issued worldwide on Milan Records, but licensed to Varèse Sarabande in North America. It was reissued with two extra tracks in 1995, and later as part of Milan s Silver Screen Edition series with the extra tracks and an interview with Maurice Jarre.

Release

Releases and sales

The film became an unexpected box-office success, grossing $505.7 million on a budget of between $22–23 million. It was the highest-grossing film of 1990. Box Office Mojo estimates that the film sold over 51.46 million tickets in the US. It spent eight consecutive weeks at number one at the UK box office and became the highest-grossing film of all-time in the UK surpassing E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial with a gross of £23.3 million. That record would last for three years before getting surpassed by Jurassic Park in 1993. It also spent six consecutive weeks atop the Australian box office. It was also the highest-grossing film in Indonesia at the time with a gross of $3.6 million and the highest-grossing foreign film in the Philippines.

The film was released on video and LaserDisc in the United States on March 21, 1991 and sold a record 646,000 videos for rental, breaking the record set by Die Hard 2, and a record 66,040 LaserDiscs. The rentals generated a gross of $40 million for Paramount. The video went on sale in the fall and generated sales of $25 million.

Critical response

Ghost has an approval rating of 75% based on 75 professional reviews on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 6.9/10. Its critical consensus reads, Ghost offers viewers a poignant romance while blending elements of comedy, horror, and mystery, all adding up to one of the more enduringly watchable hits of its era. Metacritic (which uses a weighted average) assigned Ghost a score of 52 out of 100 based on 17 critics, indicating mixed or average reviews . Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of A on an A+ to F scale.

Roger Ebert gave Ghost two-and-a-half out of four stars in his review for the Chicago Sun-Times, regarding the film as no worse an offender than most ghost movies, I suppose. It assumes that even after death we devote most of our attention to unfinished business here on Earth, and that danger to a loved one is more important to a ghost than the infinity it now inhabits. He was also critical of the film s obligatory action climax , the ridiculous visitation from the demons of hell , the slow study of the Molly character, and the single best scene in which Sam overtakes Oda Mae s body to caress Molly: In strict logic, this should involve us seeing Goldberg kissing Moore, but of course the movie compromises and shows us Swayze holding her – too bad, because the logical version would actually have been more spiritual and moving.

David Ansen of Newsweek, despite finding the ending too sentimental, praised the film as a zippy pastiche that somehow manages to seem fresh even though it s built entirely out of borrowed parts. Variety magazine called the film an odd creation – at times nearly smothering in arty somberness, at others veering into good, wacky fun. Goldberg received considerable praise for her performance. In a review for The New York Times, Janet Maslin comments Ms. Goldberg plays the character s amazement, irritation and great gift for back talk to the hilt. This is one of those rare occasions on which the uncategorizable Ms. Goldberg has found a film role that really suits her, and she makes the most of it. Even some writers who gave negative reviews of Ghost extended praise to Goldberg s work in the film.

Accolades

Award	Category	Nominee(s)	Result
Academy Awards	Best Picture	Lisa Weinstein	Nominated
	Best Supporting Actress	Whoopi Goldberg	Won
	Best Screenplay – Written Directly for the Screen	Bruce Joel Rubin	Won
	Best Film Editing	Walter Murch	Nominated
	Best Original Score	Maurice Jarre	Nominated
American Cinema Editors Awards	Best Edited Feature Film	Walter Murch	Nominated
American Comedy Awards	Funniest Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture	Whoopi Goldberg	Won
American Society of Cinematographers Awards	Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Theatrical Releases	Adam Greenberg	Nominated
ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards	Top Box Office Films	Maurice Jarre	Won
British Academy Film Awards	Best Actress in a Supporting Role	Whoopi Goldberg	Won
	Best Original Screenplay	Bruce Joel Rubin	Nominated
	Best Make Up Artist	Ben Nye Jr.	Nominated
	Best Special Visual Effects	Bruce Nicholson, John T. Van Vliet, Richard Edlund and Laura Buff	Nominated
Dallas–Fort Worth Film Critics Association Awards	Best Supporting Actress	Whoopi Goldberg	Won
Golden Globe Awards	Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy		Nominated
	Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy	Patrick Swayze	Nominated
	Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy	Demi Moore	Nominated
	Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture	Whoopi Goldberg	Won
Golden Reel Awards	Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing – Dialogue and ADR for Feature Film	Lee Haxall	Nominated
Golden Screen Awards			Won
Hugo Awards	Best Dramatic Presentation	Jerry Zucker and Bruce Joel Rubin	Nominated
Japan Academy Film Prize	Outstanding Foreign Language Film		Nominated
Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards	Best Supporting Actress	Whoopi Goldberg	Won
Mainichi Film Awards	Best Foreign Language Film (Readers Choice Award)	Jerry Zucker	Won
NAACP Image Awards	Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture	Whoopi Goldberg	Won
Nikkan Sports Film Awards	Best Foreign Film		Won
People s Choice Awards	Favorite Dramatic Motion Picture		Won
Sant Jordi Awards	Best Foreign Film	Jerry Zucker	Won
Satellite Awards	Best Classic DVD		Nominated
Saturn Awards	Best Fantasy Film		Won
	Best Actor	Patrick Swayze	Nominated
	Best Actress	Demi Moore	Won
	Best Supporting Actor	Tony Goldwyn	Nominated
	Best Supporting Actress	Whoopi Goldberg	Won
	Best Director	Jerry Zucker	Nominated
	Best Writing	Bruce Joel Rubin	Nominated
	Best Music	Maurice Jarre	Nominated
	Best Special Effects	Bruce Nicholson, John T. Van Vliet, Richard Edlund and Laura Buff	Nominated
TV Land Awards	Favorite Character from the Other Side	Whoopi Goldberg	Nominated
Writers Guild of America Awards	Best Screenplay – Written Directly for the Screen	Bruce Joel Rubin	Nominated
Young Artist Awards	Most Entertaining Family Youth Motion Picture – Comedy/Horror		Won

Legacy

The pottery wheel scene became widely known, and has been cited as one of the most iconic moments of 90s cinema. It has also frequently been parodied, such as in The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (of which Jerry Zucker served as an executive producer; it was directed by his brother David Zucker), the short British animated film Wallace and Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death and US TV series Two and a Half Men.

The film inspired a musical stage version, Ghost: The Musical. The show had its world premiere in Manchester, UK, in March 2011 before transferring to London from June 2011 and having its premiere on July 19, 2011. On November 13, 2010, Paramount and Shochiku released a Japanese remake of Ghost, titled Ghost: In Your Arms Again (ゴースト もういちど抱きしめたい, Gōsuto Mouichido Dakishimetai). The remake stars Nanako Matsushima, South Korean actor Song Seung-heon, and veteran actress Kirin Kiki. In this film, the ghost is a woman, played by Matsushima.

Year	1990
ReleaseDate	1990-07-13
RuntimeMins	127
RuntimeStr	2h 7min
Plot	After a young man is murdered, his spirit stays behind to warn his lover of impending danger, with the help of a reluctant psychic.
Awards	Won 2 Oscars, 18 wins & 23 nominations total
Directors	Jerry Zucker
Writers	Bruce Joel Rubin
Stars	Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore, Whoopi Goldberg
Produced by	Steven-Charles Jaffe, Howard W. Koch, Bruce Joel Rubin, Lisa Weinstein
Music by	Maurice Jarre
Cinematography by	Adam Greenberg
Film Editing by	Walter Murch
Casting By	Janet Hirshenson, Jane Jenkins
Production Design by	Jane Musky
Art Direction by	Mark W. Mansbridge
Set Decoration by	Joe D. Mitchell
Costume Design by	Ruth Morley
Makeup Department	Marietta Carter-Narcisse, Ben Nye III, Kyle Sweet, Dione Taylor, Julia L. Walker
Production Management	Dirk Petersmann, Michael Tadross
Second Unit Director or Assistant Director	John Hockridge, Steven-Charles Jaffe, George Parra, Mark Radcliffe, Joseph Ray, Dodi Lee Rubenstein, Charlie Picerni
Art Department	Richard T. Allen, Leslie Bloom, Dennis Bradford, Oscar Flores, Horst Grandt, Bill Kauhane Hoyt, Gary Kudroff, Michael Lessa, Robert Lindsey, David J. Negron, Larry Phillips, Thomas Saccio, Stan Tropp, Butch West, Steven Braund, Randy L. Childs, Paul Ecker, Nelson Handel, Kelly Lepkowsky, Brick Mason, Robert Misetich, Michael Saccio, D.A. Zingelewicz
Sound Department	Bob Baron, Christopher E. Bennett, Clayton Collins, Don Coufal, Greg Curda, Ken Dufva, David Lee Fein, Laura Graham, Lee Haxall, Gary Holland, Michael Magill, Steve Maslow, Kathy McCart, Chuck Michael, Walter Murch, E. Jeane Putnam, Gary Ritchie, Bill Rojas, Jeanine Schaack, Leslie Shatz, Mary Ann Skweres, Renee Tondelli, Jennifer L. Ware, Jeff Wexler, Douglas Greenfield, Michael Herbick
Special Effects by	Eugene Crum, Donald Frazee, Logan Frazee, Terry D. Frazee, Michael Meinardus, Donald Myers, Robert DeVine, Michael Meier, Mike Smithson
Visual Effects by	Jon Alexander, William L. Arance, Gordon Baker, Randall Balsmeyer, Kathleen Beeler, Jennifer C. Bell, Jil-Sheree Bergin, Beverly Bernacki, Tom Bertino, Beth Block, Barbara Brennan, Marty Brenneis, Laura Buff, Charlie Canfield, Don Canfield, Marsha Gray Carrington, Lanny Cermak, Doug Chiang, Donald Clark, Charlie Clavadetscher, Michael Cooper, Tom Cranham, Peter Crosman, Ron Diggory, Mark A.Z. Dippé, Jeff Doran, Loring Doyle, Richard Edlund, Harrison Ellenshaw, Susan Fritz-Monahan, George Gambetta, John Gazdik, Brian Gernand, Michael Gleason, Ned Gorman, Joanne Hafner, Rebecca Heskes, Robert Hill, Sandy Houston, Lincoln Hu, Peg Hunter, Nancy Jencks, Mike Jittlov, Keith Johnson, Ed Jones, David Karpman, Katherine Kean, Steven Kosakura, Jennifer Hall Lee, Liz Lord, Rob Maine, Greg Maloney, Roberto McGrath, Virgil Mirano, Craig Mohagen, Terry Molatore, Jack Mongovan, Jim Morris, Ed Moyer, Ellen Mueller, Bill Neil, Lori J. Nelson, Bruce Nicholson, January Nordman, Sarah Pasanen, Alan Peterson, Lorne Peterson, Stephen L. Price, Carolyn Ensle Rendu, Pat Repola, Stuart Robertson, Martin Rosenberg, Scott Ross, Susan Ross, Thomas Rosseter, Jim Rygiel, Nina Salerno, Christine Sellin, Kenneth Smith, Thomas J. Smith, Ellen Somers, Anthony Stacchi, Howard Stein, Eric Swenson, Joseph Thomas, Sean Turner, John T. Van Vliet, Robert Wait, Garry Waller, Judith Weaver, Byron Werner, David S. Williams Jr., Susan Adele Colletta, Philip Crescenzo, Christopher Duddy, Mimi Everett, Jenny Fulle, Jack Gallagher, Don Lee, David Nakabayashi, Jeff Nicholson, Kendall Nishimine, Larry Weiss, David Wiezer
Stunts	Sandy Berumen, Bob K. Cummings, Gary Davis, Shane Dixon, Andy Duppin, Ramiro González, Allan Graf, Peter Hock, William James, Kym Washington Longino, Harry Madsen, Gary McLarty, Gene McLaughlin, Charlie Picerni, James Thompson, Jeff Ward
Camera and Electrical Department	Gavin Alcott, Mike Benson, Charles John Bukey, Deven Chierighino, Billy Clevenger, John W. DeBlau, Cary Fisher, Dennis Gamiello, Donald L. Hartley, Harold Hathaway, Jono Kouzouyan, Peter Sorel, Lorna Wiley, Elizabeth Ziegler, Ken Fisher, Raymond Fortune, Robert Gray, Randy Jonsson, Eric Leigh, Sal Martorano, Michael Orefice, Lance Shepherd
Animation Department	Jeff Howard, Candace Lewis, Martine Tomczyk
Casting Department	Sylvia Fay, Jan McGill
Costume and Wardrobe Department	Kendall Errair, Eric Harrison, Dawn J. Jackson, Mark Peterson
Editorial Department	Elisa Cohen, Meredith Gold, Agnes Grandits, Tom Shaffer, John Watson
Location Management	Eric Klosterman, Charles Zalben, Lauri Pitkus, Grant Harper Reid
Music Department	Robert Fernandez, Maurice Jarre, Shawn Murphy, John Beal, Michael Boddicker, Tom Boyd, Emmanuel Chamboredon, Maurice Jarre, Malcolm McNab, Patrick Russ, Lonnie Sill, James Thatcher
Script and Continuity Department	Faye Brenner
Transportation Department	William Hogue, Gene R. Johnson, Richard Curry
Additional Crew	Laurie Abdo, Sheila Barnes, Beth Brown, Blaine Converse, Diane Edquist, Marie Elder, Marty Elfalan, Wayne Fitzgerald, Pam Halstead, Patti Hawn, Dianna Incorvaia, Terry Ladin, Brigid Lundt, Alvin Mears, Teresa Ann Miller, Ron Mitchell, Susan Montgomery, Justin Moritt, John Moy, Allison Procacci, Winston Quitasol, Michael Risoli, Lee Simchon, Carlos H. Sánchez, Laura Tateishi, Matthew T. Weiner, Judy Whelchel, Alex Daniels, Greg Ferris, Steven Kunes, Aaron Sadovsky, Scott Schaffer, Nicholas Wolfert
Thanks	Lindsay Doran
Genres	Drama, Fantasy, Romance
Companies	Paramount Pictures, Howard W. Koch Productions
Countries	USA
Languages	English
ContentRating	PG-13
ImDbRating	7.1
ImDbRatingVotes	219539
MetacriticRating	52
Keywords	love,death,pottery,stabbed with glass,supernatural drama