Ghost is a 1990 American supernatural romance movie directed by Jerry Zucker and written by Bruce Joel Rubin. It stars Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore, Whoopi Goldberg, and Tony Goldwyn. The story follows Sam Wheat (Swayze), a banker who is murdered and becomes a ghost. He tries to save his girlfriend, Molly Jensen (Moore), from the person who killed him (Goldwyn), with the help of a psychic named Oda Mae Brown (Goldberg).

The movie was released in theaters on July 13, 1990, by Paramount Pictures. It was very successful, earning $505 million worldwide, which is much more than its budget of $22–23 million. At the time, it was the highest-grossing film of 1990 and the third-highest-grossing film ever made. It became a surprise success, performing better than many popular action movies released that summer. The film was also very popular on home video, becoming the most rented movie in the United States in 1991. Critics had mixed opinions about the film, but they praised the music and the actors' performances.

Ghost received five Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Original Score, Best Film Editing, and Best Original Screenplay. It won two awards: Best Supporting Actress for Whoopi Goldberg and Best Original Screenplay for Bruce Joel Rubin.

Plot

Banker Sam Wheat and his artist girlfriend Molly Jensen move into a Tribeca loft with the help of Sam's best friend and co-worker Carl Bruner. One night, the couple is attacked on the street by a mugger. Although Sam seems to chase the mugger away, he later returns to find Molly holding his bloodied body, realizing he has died. A bright beam of light shines down on Sam, but he stays with Molly, and the light disappears. As a ghost, Sam remains by Molly's side. He cannot touch or move objects in the physical world, and other ghosts he meets are not helpful. Later, the mugger breaks into Molly's apartment, but Sam scares the cat, which scratches the mugger's face, driving him away.

While trying to find the mugger, Sam is attacked by a ghost on a subway train who can move physical objects. Sam follows the mugger to his apartment and learns the man's name is Willie Lopez. Willie intentionally targeted Sam. Sam later meets Oda Mae Brown, a fraudulent psychic medium, but he discovers she can hear him. He asks her to help warn Molly that she is in danger. Though hesitant, Oda Mae agrees.

Despite knowing Sam and Molly's relationship, Oda Mae struggles to convince Molly that the afterlife is real. However, Molly believes Sam when he tells Oda Mae to say "ditto," a phrase Sam used whenever Molly said she loved him. Molly tells the police and Carl about Willie Lopez, but the police ignore her story and reveal Oda Mae's history of fraud, leaving Molly upset.

Meanwhile, Sam follows Carl and discovers that Carl hired Willie to steal Sam's book of bank passwords. Carl needed the passwords to launder $4 million in drug money through an account linked to a fictional person named "Rita Miller" for his criminal employers. Carl breaks into Molly's apartment, steals the book, and later tries to seduce Molly. Sam accidentally knocks over a picture frame, angering him. Sam returns to the subway and persuades the hostile ghost to teach him how to control his emotions and interact with the physical world.

Sam visits Oda Mae, who has become popular among ghosts trying to contact the living. He convinces her to pretend to be Rita Miller to withdraw the drug money, which she reluctantly donates to charity. Molly sees the transaction at the bank. As Carl panics over the missing money, Sam uses his abilities to torment him. Carl visits Molly to discuss the haunting, and she accidentally reveals that Oda Mae withdrew the money. While Molly is upstairs, Sam attacks Carl, threatening to harm Molly if the money is not returned that night.

Carl and Willie go to confront Oda Mae, but Sam warns her to hide. He then scares Willie, causing him to run into the street and be hit by a car. Shadowy figures appear and drag Willie's screaming ghost away.

Oda Mae and Sam return to Molly's apartment, where Sam floats a penny to prove he is truly present. After Molly calls the police, Oda Mae allows Sam to possess her so he can dance with Molly. However, the possession weakens Sam, and he cannot help when Carl breaks into the apartment. Carl takes Oda Mae and Molly hostage and demands the drug money, but Sam recovers in time to attack him. In a panic, Carl swings a suspended metal hook toward Sam and tries to escape through a window. The hook swings back, shattering the window and impaling Carl, killing him. Shadowy figures appear and drag Carl's ghost away.

As Sam checks on Molly and Oda Mae, the beam of light returns, allowing them both to see and hear him. Sam thanks Oda Mae for her help and shares a kiss with Molly, telling her he loves her. She responds, "Ditto," and Sam walks into the light.

Cast

• Patrick Swayze plays Sam Wheat, a banker who is murdered and, as a ghost, tries hard to warn Molly about a danger that is about to happen.
• Demi Moore plays Molly Jensen, Sam's girlfriend and an artist, who feels very sad and mourns him after his death.
• Whoopi Goldberg plays Oda Mae Brown, a medium who at first cannot talk to the dead but can hear Sam and decides to help him save Molly.
• Tony Goldwyn plays Carl Bruner, a dishonest banker who seems to be Sam's friend but is later found out to have caused his death.
• Rick Aviles plays Willie Lopez, Carl's helper.
• Vincent Schiavelli plays Subway Ghost.
• Armelia McQueen plays Clara Brown, Oda Mae's sister.
• Gail Boggs plays Louise Brown, Oda Mae's sister.
• Phil Leeds plays Emergency Room Ghost.
• Augie Blunt plays Orlando.
• Stephen Root plays Police Sergeant.
• Bruce Jarchow plays Lyle Ferguson.

Production

Jerry Zucker directed the movie Ghost for the first time on his own. This was also his first serious film. Before this, he worked with a team called Zucker, Abrahams, and Zucker, who made comedy films that imitated other movies. Zucker said he chose to direct Ghost because he wanted to make a good film, not to move away from comedy or start a new part of his career. The film was first offered to Frank Oz and Miloš Forman, but both turned it down. Oz left because the budget didn’t match his vision, and Forman was not chosen by Paramount, the studio, because they disagreed with his ideas. When the screenwriter, Bruce Joel Rubin, learned that Zucker would direct the film and wanted to change his script, he was worried. He feared Zucker might make the story too funny. However, after meeting Zucker and seeing how thoughtful he was, Rubin agreed to work with him.

Many actors were considered for the role of Sam Wheat, including Harrison Ford, Michael J. Fox, Paul Hogan, Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, Kevin Kline, Alec Baldwin, and Tom Cruise. Bruce Willis refused the role because he didn’t understand the script. Later, he called himself a "fool" for turning it down and said he wished he had worked with Patrick Swayze again. Michael J. Fox also thought the film wouldn’t work and later regretted refusing the role. Zucker did not want to consider Swayze at first, but Rubin convinced him by showing how Swayze talked about his late father in an interview. After Swayze auditioned, Zucker changed his mind. For the role of Molly Jensen, Michelle Pfeiffer, Molly Ringwald, Meg Ryan, Julia Roberts, and Nicole Kidman were considered before Demi Moore was chosen. Tina Turner, Patti LaBelle, and Oprah Winfrey were either considered or tried out for the role of Oda Mae Brown. Zucker and Rubin were not interested in casting Whoopi Goldberg at first, but Swayze supported her and she was chosen.

Zucker said that ideas from a radio host named Dennis Prager helped him add a moral message to the script. Rubin explained that he wanted to tell a ghost story from the ghost’s perspective. He said he got the idea after watching a play about Hamlet, where a ghost asks for revenge. He thought, "What if I made a story like that but in the 20th century?"

Filming for Ghost started in July 1989. Many scenes inside the characters’ home were shot at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles. The inside of Sam and Molly’s loft was built to look like the home of artist Michele Oka Doner, who did not allow filming in her actual home. Instead, the set was built nearby in her neighborhood and included details like radiators around columns and open stairs. The apartment scenes were filmed at 102 Prince Street in Lower Manhattan. Exterior scenes were shot in New York City, especially in areas like Bedford–Stuyvesant, Soho, and Wall Street, for about five weeks. The film used about 100 special effects shots. Demi Moore’s famous "boy cut" hairstyle was created by a hair stylist named John Sahag. A magazine called Us Weekly said Moore was the only woman since Audrey Hepburn who could wear such a style and still look feminine.

The final scene used digital video effects. Originally, the plan was to show Patrick Swayze kissing Demi Moore and then walking up a mylar platform toward a bluescreen with crew members in the shot. However, the special effects supervisor, Richard Edlund, thought the audience would not believe it. Instead, he used a system called "Harry" to combine the footage with other elements, such as scenes shot on an animation stand and images of Christmas tinsel.

The music for Ghost was written by French composer Maurice Jarre. His work was nominated for an Academy Award in 1990 for Best Original Score, though the award went to John Barry for Dances with Wolves. The soundtrack also included the 1955 song "Unchained Melody," written by Alex North with lyrics by Hy Zaret. In the film, the song appears both as an instrumental and in a vocal version recorded by Bobby Hatfield of The Righteous Brothers in 1965.

The soundtrack album was released worldwide by Milan Records but was also sold in North America by Varèse Sarabande. It was reissued in 1995 with two extra tracks and later included in Milan’s Silver Screen Edition series with additional tracks and an interview with Maurice Jarre. Both AllMusic and Filmtracks gave the soundtrack album a rating of three out of five stars.

Release

The movie Ghost was originally planned to be released on July 27, 1990, but its release date was moved two weeks earlier to July 13, 1990. The film became a very successful movie, making $505.7 million with a budget of $22–23 million. It debuted in second place behind Die Hard 2 during its first weekend, but then became the top movie at the box office during its second weekend. For two months, the film regularly held the number 1 and number 2 spots at the box office. It remained in the top five until November 1990.

It was the most successful movie of 1990. Box Office Mojo estimates that the film sold over 51.46 million tickets in the United States. In the UK, the film spent eight weeks in a row at number one and became the highest-grossing movie of all time, surpassing E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial with a total of £23.3 million. This record lasted three years until Jurassic Park surpassed it in 1993. The film also spent six weeks in a row at number one in Australia. At the time, it was the highest-grossing movie in Indonesia, making $3.6 million, and the highest-grossing foreign film in the Philippines. At the time, Demi Moore, who starred in Ghost, and Bruce Willis, who starred in Die Hard 2, had movies that occupied the number 1 and number 2 spots at the box office. This achievement was not repeated by any couples until Deadpool & Wolverine and It Ends with Us in 2024.

Ghost was released on VHS and LaserDisc in the United States on March 21, 1991. It set a record with 646,000 VHS rentals, breaking the record previously held by Die Hard 2, and sold 66,040 LaserDiscs. It was the top video rental of 1991 in the United States and earned $40 million for Paramount. When the video was sold in the fall, it generated $25 million in sales.

The film was released on DVD in 2001, Blu-ray in 2008, and Ultra HD Blu-ray in 2024.

Reception

Most reviews for the movie Ghost were mixed. Critics did not strongly dislike it, but the film was the most popular movie in the United States in 1990 and became one of the most successful films ever made.

Upon its release, Ghost received mixed reviews from critics. According to the review website Rotten Tomatoes, 76% of professional reviews approved of the film, with an average score of 6.9 out of 10. The site’s summary states that Ghost combines romance, comedy, horror, and mystery into a memorable film. Metacritic, which calculates scores based on weighted averages, gave Ghost a score of 52 out of 100, indicating that reviews were mixed or average. Audiences who saw the film in theaters gave it an average grade of "A" on a scale from "A+" to "F."

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave Ghost two-and-a-half stars out of four. He said the film is similar to other ghost movies and focuses on unfinished business after death. He criticized the action climax, the scene with demons, and the portrayal of the character Molly. However, he praised the scene where Sam touches Molly, even though it was not shown logically.

David Ansen of Newsweek said the film’s ending was too sentimental but called it a fresh mix of borrowed ideas. Variety magazine described the film as sometimes serious and sometimes fun. The actress Whoopi Goldberg received praise for her performance. Janet Maslin of The New York Times said Goldberg played the character’s emotions and humor very well. Even critics who disliked the film praised her acting.

In 2002, Ghost was ranked #19 on AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Passions list.

Legacy

The pottery wheel scene became very famous and is called "one of the most iconic moments of '90s cinema." It has also been copied in other movies and shows, such as The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (Jerry Zucker helped produce it; David Zucker directed it), the British animated film Wallace and Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death, and the US TV show Two and a Half Men.

The film inspired a musical stage version called Ghost: The Musical. The show first performed in Manchester, UK, in March 2011. It then moved to London, where it premiered on July 19, 2011. In November 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 features actors Nanako Matsushima, Song Seung-heon, and Kirin Kiki. In this version, the ghost is a woman played by Matsushima.

On January 17, 2023, Vanity Fair reported that Channing Tatum and his company, Free Association, bought the rights to the film from Paramount. Tatum announced plans to produce and star in a new version of the film, with him playing the role originally played by Patrick Swayze.

The 2023 BET+ original film The Reading includes a tribute by naming a minor character Oda M. Brown.