Aside from Dana Barrett’s apartment-building troubles, Slimer forms the Ghostbusters’ first job. The team is called to the Sedgewick Hotel, where a green, gluttonous ghost has been haunting the upper floors and frightening hotel guests and staff.
The Ghostbusters capture the apparition with their proton packs and ghost trap, but the encounter is chaotic: Slimer blasts Peter Venkman with slime and escapes through the hotel. The scene is the first major demonstration of the team’s equipment in action and helps establish the business as a real, if dangerous, paranormal service.
A common technicality is that the original 1984 film does not clearly call the apparition “Slimer” on-screen. The name became firmly associated with the character through the animated series, merchandise, and later Ghostbusters media. The ghost is also sometimes described simply as the Sedgewick Hotel ghost. Dana’s haunting, meanwhile, is tied to the supernatural events surrounding the Temple of Gozer rather than being the team’s first paid capture.