Ghostbusters II 1999 DVD Back Cover Image Source Revealed

When Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment (Sony) first released Ghostbusters II onto DVD in 1999 (buy it here), there was an unusual image on the back cover showing police surrounding a dockside warehouse while the Statue of Liberty comes ashore. After 20+ years, the source of that image has finally been found! Read on to find out more...

What's unusual about this image is that it's clearly NOT from Ghostbusters II. Let's take a better look at it, thanks to this large scan of the Swedish DVD artwork, on which the building is less covered.


At the time, Ghostheads thought that the image originated on the DVD cover of The Siege, the 1998 film starring Denzel Washington, Annette Bening, and Bruce Willis. The DVD cover reuses artwork from the movie poster, which at first glance doesn't appear to be the same image, until you look at the police cars and officers.


Well, the police are all the same, but the warehouse is no longer there. In fact, if you look carefully, you'll see that The Siege image is not the original because there are remnants of the warehouse that 20th Century Fox removed from the photo.

So, if The Siege poster isn't the original image source, and we know that the Ghostbusters II DVD back cover isn't the original, either, then where did that image come from? This question would go unanswered for over 20 years.

Like most things, the answer would reveal itself when I'm even not thinking about it, much less looking for it. I just purchased Sony's recently released Last Action Hero (1993) 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack (also available in Steelbook packaging). One of the new bonus features on the 4K disc is the film's Theatrical Teaser Trailer (mislabeled as the "Theatrical Trailer"). (The Blu-ray disc is the same one released back in 2010, which is movie only, though the Ghostbusters 2009 Blu-ray trailer can be found among the "Previews" on it.) Let's take 90 seconds to watch the teaser trailer.


Would you look at that! The "Sidmark Shipping" warehouse, AND the police that surround it as Jack Slater (Arnold Schwarzenegger) pulls up in his truck, are an EXACT match for the warehouse and police in the Ghostbusters II DVD image and The Siege poster!


This scene was filmed specifically for the teaser trailer, as it does not appear in the film itself. Of course, Arnold himself was inserted after the fact via green-screen, but the rest of the footage, including his truck driving through the scene and up to the camera, appears to be legit. In other words, this scene doesn't appear to be stock footage from an even earlier production. I think we can safely say that the Last Action Hero teaser trailer is the original source for the image that was used on the Ghostbusters II 1999 DVD back cover and The Siege movie poster/DVD cover.