Introduction
What do "Ghostbusters," "Indiana Jones," and "Requiem for a Dream" have in common? In each of these films, a refrigerator plays a memorable role, sometimes comic, sometimes terrifying. An everyday object found in almost every home, the fridge has become a perfect canvas for screenwriters. Here are some of its most striking appearances on screen.
"Ghostbusters" (1984): The Fridge That Hides a Temple
In "Ghostbusters," cellist Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver) opens her refrigerator door and finds, instead of her groceries, a blazing temple guarded by a creature growling a single word: "Zuul." The fridge becomes a gateway to another realm, a perfect example of the most ordinary household appliance turned into a supernatural threat. The scene left such a mark that in 2017 palaeontologists named a fossil dinosaur "Zuul crurivastator" after the film's demon.
"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" (2008): Surviving a Nuclear Blast
In this film, Indiana Jones escapes a nuclear test by taking shelter inside a lead-lined refrigerator, which is hurled hundreds of metres before he climbs out unharmed. The scene became so famous, and so mocked for its implausibility, that it inspired a phrase: "nuking the fridge." It is used to describe the moment a franchise tips into the absurd and loses its credibility, much like "jumping the shark" on television.
"Requiem for a Dream" (2000): The Nightmare Refrigerator
In Darren Aronofsky's drama, Sara Goldfarb (Ellen Burstyn), hooked on amphetamine-based diet pills, is slowly haunted by her own refrigerator. Under the influence of the pills, the appliance seems to growl, come alive, and lurch towards her with a gaping mouth. The fridge, a symbol of hunger and addiction, delivers one of the most distressing hallucinations in cinema.
What These Scenes Tell Us
A gateway to the supernatural in Ghostbusters, an improbable survival gadget in Indiana Jones, a projection of our anxieties in Aronofsky's work: the refrigerator lends itself to every kind of staging. Perhaps it is because it stands in almost every kitchen that it becomes such a convenient mirror for our fears and cravings.
If the topic amuses you, keep reading with the fridge in dreams and what it symbolises, the refrigerator in contemporary art, unusual artistic refrigerators, or modern kitchens that hide the fridge perfectly.
Sources: the Wikipedia entries for Ghostbusters, Nuking the fridge, and Requiem for a Dream detail these scenes.