Ghost is a 1990 American supernatural romance film directed by Jerry Zucker, written by Bruce Joel Rubin, and starring Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore, Whoopi Goldberg, Tony Goldwyn, Vincent Schiavelli, and Rick Aviles.

[5] It focuses on Sam Wheat (Swayze), a murdered banker, whose ghost sets out to save his girlfriend, Molly Jensen (Moore), from the person who killed him – through the help of the psychic Oda Mae Brown (Goldberg).

One night, the couple are attacked on the street by a mugger, and though Sam appears to chase him away, he returns to a devastated Molly cradling his bloodied corpse and realizes he has died.

Sam later encounters Oda Mae Brown, a charlatan psychic medium, but he realizes she can hear him and demands she help him warn Molly.

Carl needs the passwords to launder $4 million in drug money through an account held by the fictional "Rita Miller" for his criminal employers.

He breaks into Molly's apartment, takes the book, and later attempts to seduce her until an enraged Sam inadvertently knocks over a picture frame.

Sam returns to the subway and convinces the violent ghost to teach him to focus his emotions and reliably interact with the physical world.

[17][16] Zucker credited arguments from radio host Dennis Prager with deciding to "lighten" Rubin's original script with a moral message.

Originally it was meant to show Patrick Swayze kissing Demi Moore before walking up a mylar platform toward a bluescreen with grips in the shot.

VFX supervisor Richard Edlund didn't think the audience would buy it, and used Quantel’s “Harry” video-compositing system to combine the workprint with Swayze with elements that had been shot on an Oxberry animation stand and things like an endoscope of Christmas tinsel.

[25] The music for Ghost was written by veteran French composer Maurice Jarre, whose work was nominated for the 1990 Academy Award for Best Original Score (won by John Barry for Dances with Wolves).

In Ghost, the song appears both in instrumental and vocal form, the latter being the version recorded by Bobby Hatfield of The Righteous Brothers in 1965.

Its critical consensus reads, "Ghost offers viewers a poignant romance while blending elements of comedy, horror, and mystery, all adding up to one of the more enduringly watchable hits of its era.

It assumes that even after death we devote most of our attention to unfinished business here on Earth, and that danger to a loved one is more important to a ghost than the infinity it now inhabits."

He was also critical of the film's "obligatory action climax", the "ridiculous visitation from the demons of hell", the "slow study" of the Molly character, and the "single best scene" in which Sam overtakes Oda Mae's body to caress Molly: "In strict logic, this should involve us seeing Goldberg kissing Moore, but of course the movie compromises and shows us Swayze holding her - too bad, because the logical version would actually have been more spiritual and moving.

"[54] David Ansen of Newsweek, despite finding the ending too sentimental, praised the film as "a zippy pastiche that somehow manages to seem fresh even though it's built entirely out of borrowed parts.

"[55] Variety magazine called the film "an odd creation – at times nearly smothering in arty somberness, at others veering into good, wacky fun.

In a review for The New York Times, Janet Maslin comments "Ms. Goldberg plays the character's amazement, irritation and great gift for back talk to the hilt.

[79] The remake stars Nanako Matsushima, South Korean actor Song Seung-heon, and veteran actress Kirin Kiki.

On January 17, 2023, it was revealed by Vanity Fair that Channing Tatum and his company, Free Association, acquired the rights to the film from Paramount.

[81] The 2023 BET+ original film The Reading pays tribute with an Easter egg, naming a minor character Oda M. Brown.