Dan Aykroyd has spent more than four decades accumulating stories with Bill Murray, but one of their more chaotic Ghostbusters memories involved two police motorcycles, a closed Central Park and an hour with the lights and sirens running.
Aykroyd shared the story in a belated birthday tribute to Murray, who turned 76 on Sept. 21. Looking back on their years together, the 74-year-old actor said he and Murray once “appropriated” two fully equipped police motorcycles from the Ghostbusters II motor pool and chased each other through Central Park.
“No consequences. After all, we were Ghostbusters,” Aykroyd joked in the post, which included throwback photographs of the longtime friends and co-stars. SYFY Wire reports that the motorcycles were production vehicles and that the ride happened while the sequel was filming in New York.
Aykroyd and Murray had shared the motorcycle story years earlier, although their new account reveals that the bikes came from the Ghostbusters II motor pool and that the ride lasted about an hour. In the earlier version, Aykroyd also recalled that they pulled over pedestrians along the way.
Aykroyd Says They Took the Bikes From the Movie’s Motor Pool
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“So many adventures over the years,” Aykroyd wrote before recalling the night. He said he and Murray took the fully equipped motorcycles from the movie’s motor pool and headed into Central Park, which was closed at the time.
The pair spent roughly an hour pursuing one another around the park with the emergency lights and sirens turned on. Aykroyd described the motorcycles as vehicles from the Ghostbusters II production rather than active-duty NYPD motorcycles, despite some coverage describing the episode as the pair having “stolen” police bikes.
Aykroyd’s account does not describe any citation, arrest or disciplinary response when the two returned. His version ends with the joke that there were “no consequences” because they were Ghostbusters.
They Previously Said They Were Pulling Over Pedestrians
Aykroyd, Murray and Ernie Hudson reunited on The Tonight Show in November 2021 while promoting Ghostbusters: Afterlife. During the conversation, Aykroyd recalled having police motorcycles available during a New York shoot and deciding with Murray to take them into Central Park.
That version included one detail Aykroyd left out of his new Instagram caption. He said they rode around with the lights and sirens running while “pulling over pedestrians.” Murray joked that they were effectively helping out.
Entertainment.ie documented the exchange at the time, reporting that Murray and Aykroyd described riding the motorcycles through Central Park and stopping pedestrians along the way.
Aykroyd’s new account identifies the joyride as a Ghostbusters II incident for the first time, adding that the motorcycles came from the movie’s motor pool and that he and Murray spent about an hour racing through Central Park.
Ghostbusters II Began Filming in New York in 1988
The production timeline places Murray and Aykroyd in New York during the making of the sequel. The AFI Catalog says principal photography was scheduled to begin in New York City on Nov. 28, 1988, with production moving to Los Angeles after approximately two weeks of exterior filming.
Production notes cited by AFI identify the old New York Custom House among the locations used for the sequel, while Hook & Ladder Company 8 in Tribeca again provided the exterior of the Ghostbusters’ headquarters. Filming continued in New York and Los Angeles before production concluded in March 1989.
The production history does not independently establish what happened during the motorcycle ride. The account comes from Aykroyd, with Murray participating when the pair discussed an earlier version of the story publicly in 2021.
The Story Came From Aykroyd’s Birthday Tribute to the ‘Murricane’
The motorcycle story appeared as part of Aykroyd’s belated birthday message rather than promotion for a new Ghostbusters installment. He called Murray the “Murricane” and “the greatest comedy leading man of our time” alongside two photographs of the longtime collaborators.
Aykroyd was a member of the original Saturday Night Live cast in 1975, while Murray joined during the show’s second season. Their most enduring collaboration arrived with 1984’s Ghostbusters, which Aykroyd co-wrote with Harold Ramis. Murray played Peter Venkman, Aykroyd played Ray Stantz, Ramis played Egon Spengler and Ernie Hudson joined them as Winston Zeddemore.
E! News reports that Aykroyd recently recalled Murray visiting his Los Angeles home when filming on the original movie was only about halfway finished. According to Aykroyd, Murray predicted they were making what would become “one of the biggest comedies of all time.”
The original film became a franchise, and Murray and Aykroyd returned for Ghostbusters II in 1989. Decades later, they reprised their original roles alongside Hudson in 2021’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife and again in 2024’s Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire.