Ghostbusters (1984)
In 1984, Dana lived in the same building as her neighbor Louis Tully off Central Park West. After returning home from grocery shopping one evening, she witnessed a supernatural event: the eggs in her carton began frying themselves on the kitchen counter, and upon opening her refrigerator she glimpsed an otherworldly pyramid-shaped temple filled with a Terror Dog that roared "Zuul!" at her. She slammed the door and fled.
Two days later she walked into the Ghostbusters' firehouse without an appointment and became their first real client. She was skeptical about the paranormal but was convinced enough by what she had seen to seek professional help. Peter Venkman, who developed an immediate romantic interest in her, led her intake interview while Egon Spengler confirmed via the Aura Video-Analyzer that she was telling the truth. Ray Stantz proposed checking the building's structural history, and Egon noted the name "Zuul" for research in Tobin's Spirit Guide.
The Ghostbusters' investigation revealed that Zuul was a demigod minion of Gozer worshiped by the Hittites and Sumerians around 6000 B.C. Before Dana could act on this knowledge, she was seized by Terror Dog claws that burst through her furniture and dragged her into possession by Zuul the Gatekeeper. The possessed Dana sought out Vinz Clortho the Keymaster, then occupying her neighbor Louis, and the two performed the ritual atop the rooftop temple to summon Gozer into the world. Both Dana and Louis transformed into Terror Dog forms at the climax of the ritual. After the Ghostbusters defeated Gozer by crossing the streams and reversing the particle flow, Dana was freed from Zuul's possession with no memory of events during her possession. Peter Venkman helped pull her from the charred Terror Dog remains, and the two kissed amid the crowd below.
Between the Films
After the Gozer incident, Dana and Peter's relationship deteriorated, apparently due in part to Peter's difficulty with commitment. The two eventually lost touch. Dana married someone else and had a son named Oscar. That marriage ended when her husband accepted an orchestra position in London. Dana took a position at the Manhattan Museum of Art in the restoration department, where she worked under chief restorer Dr. Janosz Poha and hired a nanny named Maria for Oscar.
Ghostbusters II
By late 1989, Dana was living at 325 East 77th Street. Events turned supernatural again when an unseen force of Psychomagnotheric Slime caused Oscar's baby carriage to roll away through traffic on its own, stopping just before a bus could strike it. Shaken and unwilling to involve Peter, she sought out Egon Spengler at Columbia University's Institute for Advanced Theoretical Research, where he was studying the effect of human emotions on the physical environment. Egon and Ray began a quiet investigation.
Peter learned of the case and renewed his pursuit of Dana, eventually convincing her to go to dinner with him at Armand's Restaurant, where they rekindled their relationship. In the meantime, Vigo the Carpathian, whose portrait had arrived at the museum from storage, had tasked Dr. Janosz Poha with kidnapping Oscar to serve as a vessel for Vigo's reincarnation. Slime from a river running beneath the city made two attempts to take Oscar: once by animating Dana's bathtub, which drove her to stay at Peter's apartment, and ultimately by having Janosz spirit Oscar away from the window ledge while Louis and Janine Melnitz babysat.
Dana recognized Janosz and went straight to the museum, where she retrieved Oscar from an altar only to be restrained by Vigo's power. The Ghostbusters arrived aboard the Statue of Liberty at midnight on New Year's Eve, doused the museum in positively charged slime, and defeated Vigo. Dana and Oscar escaped safely. Dana later attended a ceremony on Liberty Island honoring the Ghostbusters.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife and Beyond
At some point between the events of Ghostbusters II and the 2021 film, Dana and Peter married, though she kept her maiden name. By June 2021 the two were living together in upstate New York, where Dana appeared briefly subjecting Peter to an Electro-Shock Generator test of his claimed psychic abilities, a playful reversal of his old ESP card experiments.
Dana Barrett's name appeared on a concert advertisement on the steps of the New York Public Library during the events of Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024), advertising a performance of Edward Elgar's Cello Concerto in E minor by the Five Boroughs Symphony Orchestra. A supplemental source, Egon's Journal published with the Hasbro HasLab Plasma Series Spengler's Proton Pack, notes that Peter and Dana were married at Tavern on the Green with Winston Zeddemore officiating as Justice of the Peace after the Sedgewick Hotel declined them. Dana splits her time between the New York Philharmonic and the Manhattan Museum of Art.
IDW Comics
In the IDW ongoing series (a secondary canon following the events of the first two films), Dana and Louis Tully retained mild aggressive tendencies and a taste for rare meat for several weeks after the Gozer incident. Dana was later interviewed by journalist Rebecca Morales for a book about the Ghostbusters. After the Vigo incident, Dana and Oscar moved to a new apartment at 76 East 85th Street and Dana returned to the orchestra. Peter's inability to shield Dana and Oscar from paparazzi attention eventually led to another breakup.
During the Tiamat storyline, Dana was attacked and briefly possessed by a female Terror Bird after an encounter with the entity Tiamat. Rather than contact Peter, she reached out to Janine Melnitz and was subsequently visited by Special Agent Melanie Ortiz and Kylie Griffin. Egon and Kylie extracted the Terror Bird from Dana and safely trapped it. After the Tiamat incident was resolved, Dana had Ray double-check her apartment for residual psychokinetic energy before returning to her regular life.
In the IDW Deviations alternate timeline, Dana was only halfway restored after the streams were not crossed, leaving her with Zuul's lower Terror Dog body until the timeline was corrected.
In the 88MPH Comics series (set six months after the Gozer incident), Dana was promoted to first cello and tried to share the news with Peter over dinner, but his constant interruptions for Ghostbusters calls caused her to storm out. The arc resolved with Peter recognizing his mistake.
Personality
Dana is portrayed as grounded, intelligent, and self-sufficient. She is skeptical by nature, filing her own tax returns and pushing back on anyone who underestimates her. Her observation that Peter seemed "more like a game show host" than a scientist is one of the more quoted exchanges in the franchise, delivered with dry precision. She maintains a clear sense of where the line is between professional warmth and personal tolerance, as demonstrated by her patient but firm deflections of both Louis Tully's and Janosz Poha's advances. Her relationships with Peter are marked by genuine affection tempered by frustration with his immaturity and poor follow-through, yet she consistently gives him more credit than he gives himself.
Quotes
"You don't really act like a scientist... you're more like a game show host."
Casting and Design
Sigourney Weaver, born October 8, 1949 in New York, was cast as Dana Barrett for Ghostbusters (1984). Weaver auditioned for the role by acting like a dog, and took cello lessons in preparation for the part. The role as written originally described Dana as a model; Weaver suggested it would be more interesting if the character were a musician, specifically a cellist. According to Harold Ramis, Weaver's suggestions grew and strengthened the character considerably.
The script's description of Dana originated from Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis's first collaborative draft, in which the love-interest character was actually an alien fugitive from another dimension who had taken human form after watching a Diet Coke commercial. In one version of that draft, Peter woke to find her transformed into a warthog. Aykroyd and Ramis recognized that the romance was funny but not very romantic and eventually settled on making the love interest a client of the Ghostbusters.
A wide range of actresses auditioned for the role of Dana Barrett, including Denise Crosby and Daryl Hannah (brief clips of their auditions appear in the documentary Cleanin' Up The Town: Remembering Ghostbusters), as well as Julia Roberts, Kelly McGillis, Kelly LeBrock, Ronnie Carol, Merete Van Kamp, Anna Jemison, Joanna Pacula, Cynthia Sikes, Kathryn Harrold, and Melanie Mayron. Donna Dixon was offered the role and declined, citing her wish to establish a strong foundation for her marriage with Dan Aykroyd. Dana's wardrobe was designed by costume designer Theoni Aldredge.
Two of the most memorable touches in the possessed Dana scenes came directly from Sigourney Weaver: she suggested both the "game show host" line (replacing the scripted "used car salesman") and the distinctive wild hair for the possession sequence, which she described as looking electrified and unlike anything Dana would logically style. For the Zuul costume, Aldredge and Suzy Benzinger initially chose lavender; Bill Murray suggested orange, and the final dress took inspiration from Flashdance. Dana's rooftop appearance after Gozer's defeat was originally unplanned in terms of wardrobe, and Weaver was simply given a robe for that location shoot. When the crew filmed the charred Terror Dog sequence in which Dana is freed, Weaver was sealed inside the prop statue to create genuine urgency; Ivan Reitman slowed the sequence's apparent pace in editing by repeating angles.
The scene at Armand's Restaurant, featuring only Dana and Peter, was the last scene Weaver filmed for Ghostbusters II, and it was deleted from the final cut. During pre-production on the sequel, Columbia Pictures initially sought to limit Weaver's compensation; she threatened litigation. At one point the character was dropped entirely in favor of a new love interest named Lane Walker, a contemporary fashion boutique sales associate, and Bill Murray participated in scene reads with actresses auditioning for that role. Julia Roberts was among those who auditioned for Lane Walker. Dana eventually returned as the primary romantic lead in the final production drafts, with Weaver receiving a flat fee of $1 million for the film.
According to the official production biography from the Ghostbusters UK press kit, Weaver described the project: "The script has the basic elements in it -- great heart and great humor, and our director, Ivan Reitman, is a real craftsman."
Dana Barrett is a central figure in GBFans.com discussions about the Ghostbusters films, particularly in threads covering Sigourney Weaver's performance, the development history of the original script, and the evolution of the love-interest character across drafts. As a primarily narrative character rather than a source of props or wearable equipment, she is not a typical subject for replica or prop-building projects, though Zuul-possessed Dana's costume has been recreated by cosplayers in the community.
References
- Ghostbusters (1984), Columbia Pictures
- Ghostbusters II (1989), Columbia Pictures
- Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021), Columbia Pictures / Sony Pictures
- Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024), Columbia Pictures / Sony Pictures
- IDW Comics, Ghostbusters ongoing series (Volumes 1-3), IDW Publishing
- 88MPH Studios, Ghostbusters: Legion comics series
- Egon's Journal, supplement to the Hasbro HasLab Plasma Series Spengler's Proton Pack
- Spook Central, "Ghostbusters Press Kit: Biographies" (UK, 1984)
- Spook Central, "Ghostbusters Press Kit: Production Information" (UK, 1984)
