document_title: Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures

question_text: pacman and the ghostly adventures pac man's parents

question_tokens: pacman and the ghostly adventures pac man 's parents

text: Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures

text: Plot[edit]

text: The series takes place on and around the planet Pac-World as well as its Nether-World, where time passes at an Earth-like rate of 24 hours a day and 365 days a year, also having a 7-day week.[6] Pac-Man[7] and his best friends[8] Spiral and Cylindria attend Maze High School (sometimes called Maze Prep School[9]), a high school/boarding school located within the city of Pacopolis.[10] They help to protect citizens from the threat of Ghosts after the seal that locked up the Netherworld was accidentally opened by Pac at the time he was avoiding the school bully Skeebo. Ghosts are able to possess Pac-Worlder bodies although only for a time limit of a few minutes unless aided by Dr. Buttocks technology.[11] Victims of possession usually are apparent by a red-eyed glow although this too can be prevented with Buttocks technology.[12]

text: Pac-Man also has four friendly ghosts that surrendered and vowed to help him along his voyage (in exchange for being restored to the living world). Pac-Man vows to stop Betrayus and the ghosts (or any other bad guy) from taking over Pac-World while searching for his long-lost parents. He has the unique ability to eat ghosts and destroy the ectoplasm that makes up most of their bodies. Only their eyeballs survive, which he spits out. They reform their bodies using a regeneration chamber.[8] The ghosts continually attack the city to locate the Repository, a storage chamber for the corporeal bodies of the ghosts which would allow them to live again if they possessed them.[13] It is kept hidden to deny them this freedom and only President Spheros and Pac-Man are aware of its location. The ghosts also attack the Tree of Life to prevent Pac-Man from gaining powers to fight them. Without the power-berries, Pac-Man is not able to fly, breathe in the Netherworld, or enjoy the taste of ghosts.

text: Characters[edit]

text: Main characters[edit]

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Pac-Man[14] (voiced by Erin Mathews[15]) is the title character of the series. He is described by some as the last of the yellow Pac-People on Pac-World. His name is shortened to Pac,[14] which is given different suffixes as nicknames: Pacster to Spiral, Pac-ums[16] or Pacsie[17] to Pinky, and sometimes he is called Packy.[citation needed] He is also called The Pac-Man or The Pac. Pac-Man's father Zac helped in the war against Commander Betrayus. Pac is a teenager[18] between 3'5"-4'0" tall[19] that just found out that it's his destiny to defeat the Ghosts and send Betrayus back to the Netherworld permanently. He feels lonely because he's the only Yellow One in Pac-World and he misses his parents very badly and is determined to find them no matter what, but sometimes gets too carried away when doing so since this would lead him to bigger problems or would usually leave him less time with his friends. He's guilt-ridden because he unleashed the ghost by accident. However, the president and his friends tell Pac to get over his guilt and protect Pac-World from evil. He can eat ghosts just like the legendary Yellow Ones did back in ancient times and also has a giant appetite that may sometimes lead to trouble since he can eat anything, even things that aren't food. With the power of the berries (which are similar to Power Pellets) from the Tree of Life, he gains helpful abilities like withstanding the Netherworld's environment with the Power Berry, being able to fly upon eating the Flying Berry, breathe ice with the Minty Ice Berry, breathe fire with the Minty Fiery Berry, become cybernetic with a drill and magnet upon eating the Titanium Berry, gain a chameleon-like body upon eating the Chameleon Berry, etc. Pac-Man is also the strongest and fastest Pac alive. With the help of his friends, Sir Cumference and the Ghost Gang (Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde), he's ready for action. Pac vows to stop Betrayus and the ghosts. Pac-Man has had a temporary truce with Betrayus like when it came to the Ghosteroid, the Pointy Heads, and when the ghosts go missing.
Cylindria (voiced by Andrea Libman[15]) is a pink Pac-Girl with glasses who is over 3'5" tall, over 4'0" including hair.[19] She is a teenager[18] who celebrates her birthday in the second season.[20] She is tomboyish and the brains of the team, often aiding her friends Pac and Spiral. She also has trouble trusting ghosts.[citation needed] Pinky, who has a crush on Pac, views her as a rival, thinking Cyli also has a crush on him, although she gets highly annoyed or shown to be jealous almost every time Pinky openly flirts with Pac,[21][22] another time Cyli said Pac was cute after eating a power berry that made him smart and changed his mannerisms[23] she even told Pac she loves him at the same time as Pinky,[24] hinting that she might have a crush on Pac. Pinky mocks her nickname, calling her Silly instead.[25]
Spiralton[26] (voiced by Sam Vincent[15]) is a big red teen[18] Pac-Boy over 4'5" tall (and over 5'0" including hair[19]) and Pac's best friend and roommate who is nicknamed "Spiral." He and Pac share similar crazy personalities. Spiral loves to blow things up and he's interested in the history of Pac-World. He and Inky have the same observant-brainy trait, but Spiral isn't as serious. He refers to Pac as "Pacster".
The Ghost Gang is a group of four ghosts from the original arcade game. Though they live in the Netherworld and are ruled by Lord Betrayus, they pretend to be dumb and useless to Betrayus as they are actually good-natured spirits and secretly help Pac-Man in hopes that they can be redeemed enough to live again.

Blinky (voiced by Ian James Corlett[15]) is a red ghost and the oldest of the Ghost Gang Family. He's the default leader of the group, which differs greatly from his 1980s scaredy-cat counterpart. Also, he's crafty and can't always be trusted. He might act mean, but he deeply cares about his friends; however, he might only be helping the Pacs because he likes to stay on the winning team. In the episode "The Pac Be with You," it is revealed that he's a Pac-Fu master and has presumably fought against Master Goo alongside other Pac-Fu masters during the ghost wars. Pac dubs his World of Odd counterpart who resembles Cowardly Lion as Uncle Ghost.
Inky (voiced by Lee Tockar[15]) is a blue ghost and the second oldest in the Ghost Gang Family. He and Blinky are close pals, though they fight sometimes. Although he is the smartest and most sarcastic of the four, he is easily distracted and lacks focus most of the time, with Blinky saying that Inky can "get lost in a thought". He has a habit of snorting when he laughs sometimes and can multiply.[27] Even though he helps the Ghost Gang undermine Betrayus' schemes, he has differed with Pinky on prioritizing Pac's interests over their own.[28] Pac dubs his World of Odd counterpart who resembles the Tin Woodman as Papa Ghost.
Pinky (voiced by Ashleigh Ball[15]) is a pink ghost, the only female and the second youngest in the Ghost Gang Family. She is described as "a bad, but not really bad guy"[29] She has a crush[30] on Pac-Man (like in Pac-Man World 2) and is aggressive towards him. She has a rivalry with Cylindria because they got off on the wrong foot and she thinks Cyli might also have a crush on Pac-Man and doesn't know that they're just friends though Cyli is able to hide hers better. Despite the gang's fear of Betrayus, Pinky is often the sole member of the gang who is willing to go out of her way to help Pac in the more risky situations. She is also the first to side with Pac even when the odds are more in Betrayus' favor. In the episode "Stand By Your Pac-Man," she revealed that she can transform into a pink cyclops ghost and she assumed this form in three other episodes in the second season. She often argues with her brothers, but loves them nonetheless. She has expressed a desire to get her original body back from the repository, but prioritizes Pac-Man's interests instead.[31] Pac dubs his World of Odd counterpart who resembles Dorothy Gale as Mama Ghost.
Clyde (voiced by Brian Drummond[15]) is an orange ghost whose middle name is Filbert.[32] He is the largest and the youngest in the family. He's the most caring member of the group, and although he often seems like a dim-witted ditz, he often comes up with pearls of great wisdom. Clyde has a soft side for soft and sweet things like Fuzbitz. Blinky gets annoyed with this. Clyde and Pac-Man also share the same characteristics when it comes to eating. Clyde is the peacekeeper of the Ghost Gang as well as the moral compass in helping Pac and his friends, although he is not above clanging heads together when necessary as Inky and Blinky have discovered. He can also speak nine languages, including monster and he can split into two halves just for fun or whenever he's unhappy. Pac dubs his World of Odd counterpart who resembles The Scarecrow of Oz as Baby Ghost.

Lord Betrayus Sneakerus Spheros[33] (voiced by Sam Vincent[15]) is the Lord of the Ghosts and the Netherworld who also serves as one of the two main antagonists of the series. He is also President Spheros' younger brother and the son of Rotunda even when he was still a Pac-Person. He really hates his older brother. Back when he was a commander, Betrayus once led a massive revolt against Pac-World in a plot to take over Pac-World. During this revolt and despite the fact that he had Ghosts serving him and the fact that he was well-armed, he was defeated. As punishment for his crimes, he was unusually stripped of his corporeal form (his body) and then he was banished to the Netherworld. Since then, he has been waiting and plotting for the day when he can gain steal the Tree of Life and obtain the Repository so that he can regain his corporal form. He is the most powerful fire ghost with his fiery claw hands. Unlike the other ghosts, he's white with red eyes. Betrayus makes all his Ghosts and Monsters of the Netherworld do all the hard work while he watches the action from his TV. He has vowed to defeat Pac while plotting to steal the Power Berries and has been shown to make a temporary truce with Pac-Man when it came to the threat of the Ghosteroid, the threat of the Pointy Heads, and whenever his ghosts go missing.

tag: ul

text: Pac-Worlders[edit]

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President Stratos Spheros (voiced by Sam Vincent[15]) is the President of Pac-World, a son of Rotunda, and the older brother of Betrayus. He is over 4'5" tall.[19] He wants Pac-Man and his friends to behave and stop his evil brother. He's easily annoyed with his security and staff constantly messing up and jumping on him for protection. He is a good friend to Pac-Man's parents and also really hates his younger brother.
Sir Cumference (voiced by Ian James Corlett) is a goofy scientist who has personally met Pac's father and mother. He is over 4'5" tall.[19] Sir Cumference has crazy inventions that has helped Pac-Man and his friends on occasion. Sir C is in charge of the repository and knows the Tree of Life. He has a rivalry with Dr. Buttocks and is also a friend of Pac's parents. He is also a detective.[34]
Skeebo (voiced by Matt Hill[15]) is a blue pompous and foolish jock and school bully that often picks on Pac-Man for fun. He is called Skeebs by Spiral and Pacster, and Skeeby by Cyli and Mr. Skeebo by his teacher. He used to[when?] be Cylindria's steady boyfriend until he was too scared to save her from a Cyclops Ghost and chose to break up with her when Spiral confronted him about his cowardice.[35] Pac ends up saving Cyli, and Skeebo is often jealous of Pac saving the day. He hates the color yellow, but ironically, he is blonde. He once had his mouth removed. What he lacks in people skills, he makes up for with a very beautiful tenor singing voice that makes Pac-People start crying in sadness and attracts all kinds of birds.
Spheria Suprema (voiced by Ashleigh Ball) is an orange Pac-Person who happens to be Pac-Man's aunt. She is the Pac-Pong champ where she had once defeated Betrayus sometime before he led his revolt against Pac-World and is admired by Cyli. She has a Pac-Dog named Uggles.
Ms. Globular (voiced by Erin Mathews[15]) is one of Pac-Man's teachers. She has a Pac-Dog named Foofie.
Mr. Strictler (voiced by Mark Oliver) is a light-blue driver's ed teacher and authority figure with a stubborn personality who only appears in "Driver's Pac." He is Sherry's father. Mr. Strictler would often fail the least worthy of his students with his own daughter being one of them. When it came to Pac-Man, Mr. Strictler started writing down Pac-Man's driving violations up to the point where he was unknowingly dragged into Pac-Man's mission in the Netherworld to stop Dr. Buttocks from using a drill to bring Pacopolis into the Netherworld. Afterwards, Spheria finally forced him to be nice and reasonable. While he doesn't give Pac his license, Mr. Strictler allows him to take the test again. He also made cameo appearances in "Cave Pac-Man", "Cosmic Contest", and "Santa Pac".
Mr. Dome (voiced by Lee Tockar) is the gym teacher who taught Pac-Man and some students to be athletic in Phys Ed.
Sherry "Braces" Strictler (voiced by Tabitha St. Germain) is Pac-Man's classmate and the daughter of Mr. Strictler. She is a pink Pac-Girl like Cylindria, but with a different hairstyle. She was nameless in the first 14 episodes of the show. Her nickname was first revealed in "Driver's Pac" on a driver's card as Braces. But in "Peace without Slime", her real name is revealed to be Sherry.
O'Drool is the Secretary of Security who first appeared in "Betrayus Turns Up the Heat." He is quite mean and blames Sir C for the cause of the heat which was actually made by Dr. Buttocks. After Dr. Buttocks' plot was thwarted by Pac-Man, O'Drool was fired by President Spheros for his arrogance and was taken away by the security. He later made cameo appearances in "Invasion of the Pointy Heads" and a few other episodes in the second season.
Kingpin Obtuse (voiced by Lee Tockar) is a dark-green crime lord of Pac-World's criminal underworld. He was paid by Lord Betrayus where he tricked Skeebo into stealing Pac-Man's Super Power Berries. In "Peace Without Slime" and "The Ghost Behind the Throne," he was assigned by Betrayus yet again to be Pacopolis's "Puppet Governor" as their attempt to take over Pac-World as a result.
Rotunda (voiced by Tabitha St. Germain) is a trigger-happy Elder who is the mother of both Stratos and Betrayus. Rotunda idolizes Pac-Man and decides to become his grandmother, much to the dismay of her two sons. Betrayus possessed her and used her body to him from being found out and had the President hypnotized into a Kindergartener Lunatic which would work out to his attempt to get the repository with original body. This backfired when they took the wrong direction to the repository area by the disillusioned Stratos. When Rotunda was back to herself, she strictly sends Betrayus back to his current home in the Netherworld. Betrayus ends up doing what his mother says. Rotunda also made a cameo appearance in "Cosmic Contest".
Zac is Pac's father. He was a skilled war operative. During Betrayus's revolt, he went missing and was presumed dead along with his wife Sunny, that led Pac to be orphaned (as the public thought). But later after Pac (who is known as Pacopolis's protector, "Pac-Man") beaten Apex twice, the evil pointy-head lord reveals he met Zac and is still alive with his wife on the pointy-head planet. Some Pac-Worlders think he died during the revolt, but Pac-Man and his friends (including Sir C) know he is still alive.
Sunny is Pac's mother. During the revolt of Betrayus, she disappeared and was presumed dead along with her husband, that led Pac to be orphaned (such as public thought). She appears in the episode "Pac to the Future" and also "Happy Holidays and a Merry Berry Day" with her husband.
The Pacinator (voiced by Ian James Corlett impersonating Arnold Schwarzenegger[36]) is a villainous Pac-Person that was responsible for freezing and killing most of the Yellow Ones. He is one of the two secondary antagonists of the series. He made his first appearance in "Stand By Your Pac-Man" as well as making a cameo appearance in "Shadow of the Were-Pac" as a party guest. Pac-Man gets personal with him because of what he did with the other Yellow Ones. The Pacinator was hired to do this by a villain he thinks is more dangerous than Betrayus. It was presumed that he was hired by Apex.
Do-Ug (voiced by Gabe Khouth) is a Neander-Pac kid who first appeared in "Cave Pac-Man." One of Dr. Buttocks' plots ended up thawing Do-Ug from the ice that he was frozen in. He has a crush on Cylindria and is revealed to be an orphan. Due to Spiral's idiotic and careless antics, Do-Ug was hunted by several scientists. Luckily Pac and his friends managed to take him back to his home and timeline where the Pac-a-Chini was stolen. When they found the tribe's village, they tried to ask Do-ug to get it back. However, Do-ug admits that he is only a simple cave boy with no role in the tribe as such he is unable to do anything. After Pac-Man fought off a pack of Pacasaurs using his fire berry, the tribe decides to give the trio back the Pac-a-Chini. Before leaving, Pac-Man gives Do-ug the gift of fire and declares him "Keeper of the Flame", thus giving Do-ug a role within the tribe and becomes the first Neander-Pac to wield fire. The group then bids farewell to Do-ug before heading back to their own time. He also made cameo costume appearances in "The Shadow of the Were-Pac".
Danny Vaincori (voiced by Kyle Rideout) is a movie director who first appears in "Pac-Mania." He plans to create a TV show about Pac and his friends using look-alikes of them, but goes too far and made Pac and his friends look like fools and later he gets really annoyed when Pac accidentally ruins his movie sets when he mistakens a cyclops ghost prop for a real cyclops ghost. He was later possessed as part of Betrayus's plan to use his TV show as a cover-up to sneak into Pac-World and steal the Tree of Life using costumes and props as disguises (not counting the look-alikes of Pac and his friends).
Elliptika "Elli" (voiced by Kazumi Evans) is a light pink Pac-Worlder who visits Pacopolis from PacTokyo. She is the niece of President Spheros and Betrayus and the grandniece of Rotunda who makes her debut in "New Girl in Town". In the same episode, she said she remembers Pac's parents and where he might be able to find them. Elli and Pac share a mutual relationship, which nearly came to an end when she was possessed by Mavis and Pinky.
Moondog is a black-haired lavender Pac-Worlder who is Cylindria's father. He is a hippie and a gypsy who owns the family bus as a current home for them.
Starchild is a blonde Pac-Worlder who is Cylindria's mother. Like her husband Moondog, she is a hippie and a gypsy, and she still lives in the family bus after her husband gave the family treehouse to a horde of squirrels.
Grannie (voiced by Tabitha St. Germain) is a healthy elderly pink Pac-Worlder who is Starchild's mother and Cylindria's grandmother, like Cylindria's parents, she is a hippie and a gypsy, and still lives in her son-in-law's family bus. She is usually seen with a family album, but it's quite possible that she's a bit unaware that she is embarrassing her granddaughter in front of Pac-Man and Spiral.
Santa Pac (voiced by Richard Newman) is Pac-World's version of Santa Claus who has skilled magic and fighting abilities and first appears in "Santa Pac". Betrayus kidnaps him to stop Berry Day from coming but this attempt fails. Pac-Man later rescues him and restores the holiday.

text: Ghosts[edit]

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Butt-ler (voiced by Brian Drummond) is Betrayus' servant and butler. He is a purple Ghost with a butt-shaped head who wears a bowler hat and speaks with a British accent. During the Pac-War, he was known as Corporal Heineyhead and worked as a spy for Betrayus. He hates his twin brother, Dr. Buttocks, even when he's pleasing his master.
Dr. A.H. Buttocks[37] (voiced by Brian Drummond) is the Netherworld's greatest mad scientist and Butt-ler's twin brother who also has a butt-shaped head, but is light blue, has a cybernetic right hand, wears glasses and speaks with a German accent. He specializes in monster experimentation in hopes of achieving Pac-World domination. He sometimes suspects that the Ghost Gang are working with Pac-Man, but has had no luck convincing Betrayus of this since he usually blames him or his brother for his failures and sometimes tortures him for fun. He wants all of the workers to get out of his way. He sometimes hates his twin brother and has a rivalry with Sir Cumference.
Glooky is a green Ghost with a squint in his left eye. He is a friend of Blinky.
Mavis is an orange female Ghost.
Specter (voiced by Brendan Ryan Barrett) is a ghost spy who works for Betrayus ordered to get the repository and is a lot stronger and smarter than the other ghosts since he was the first to never get eaten by Pac. Dr. Buttocks has shown some jealousy to him. He easily outsmarts Pac by possessing Uggles and other Pac people, including his friends, Spiral and Cylindria. He was actually revealed to be a traitor and wanted to rule both Pac-World and the Netherworld but got ended up exposed as a liar and a traitorous outlaw thanks to a trick done by Pac-Man, Cylindria, Spiral, the Ghost Gang (who used a slug named Larry), and a silent partner in Dr. Buttocks (who built the fake repository). Betrayus ends up having Specter placed in the deepest bowels of the Netherworld. He made a surprising appearance in "New Girl in Town" as a host for a contest. It could be possible he is doing this as both community service and a punishment for his attempt to rule Pac-World and the Netherworld. His third appearance is in "Santa Pac" where he tries to cheer up Betrayus, but fails.
Fred is a white ghost that was used as a flag due to the lack of white clothes.
Master Goo (voiced by Vincent Tong) is a calm but cocky Ninja Ghost who is a Master of Pac-Fu (the Pac-World version of kung fu). During Betrayus's deadly revolt, he discovered the dark side of Pac-Fu but was defeated by the Good Pac-Fu Masters. Years later, he became a Martial Arts Coach for Betrayus's Ghost Forces. He seems to be even stronger than Specter. With help from Blinky, Pac-Man managed to use the Pac-Fu skills he learned to defeat Master Goo after they failed to defeat him during their first encounter.
Captain Banshee is a ghost pirate who first appears in "Cap'n Banshee and his Interstellar Buccaneers". He doesn't seem to live in the Netherworld and always sails in the sky and in space. He has a little green Pac-Dragon that behaves like a parrot.
Cyclops Ghosts (voiced by Lee Tockar) are heavyset Ghosts with one eye and three horns. These ghosts are a bit like thugs.

Ogle (voiced by Brian Drummond) is a Cyclops Ghost who works as a chef at his restaurant. In "No Body Knows," it is revealed that Ogle used to be a Pac-Person. He cooked the food for his friends, the Ghost Gang, Betrayus, Butt-ler, and Dr. Buttocks.

Fire Ghosts are orange Ghosts who can emit fire from their body. Pac-Man can only eat them if he has ice powers.
Ice Ghosts are blue Ghosts who can emit ice from their body. They first appeared in "A Berry Scary Night."
Tentacle Ghosts (voiced by Lee Tockar) are 4-eyed purple-black Ghosts who look similar to an octopus.
Guardian Ghosts are large Ghosts who guard the Netherworld. They seem to wear metal masks, have glowing cyan-blue eyes, and usually carry a staff.
Aqua Ghosts are light blue Ghosts with fins on their head. They first appeared in the episode "Heebo-Skeebo."
Drill-Bit Ghosts are Ghosts that have drill bits on their heads. They are always frightened.
Alien Ghosts are Ghosts that live on the Ghosteroid.
Ghosteroid is an asteroid ghost that Dr. Buttocks once brought near Pac-World. It proved to be much of a threat so Betrayus sends the Ghost Gang to help Pac-Man get rid of it. More of them later appeared in "Cosmic Contest" and "Cap'n Banshee and his Interstellar Buccaneers."
Ghost Sharks are ghostly sharks that reside in the waters of PacLantis and guard the Berry of Youth. They first appeared in "PacLantis" where one Ghost Shark ate the Berry of Youth and was revived as a Pac-Fish after they fought against Pac and his friends, the Ghost Gang, and Betrayus, Butt-ler, and Buttocks. More Ghost Sharks also appeared in "Cosmic Contest" and "Cap'n Banshee and his Interstellar Buccaneers".
Virus Ghosts are digital ghosts that have the power to infect or control electronic devices and can travel through computer networks.

text: Pointy Heads[edit]

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Apex (voiced by Colin Murdock) - one of the two main antagonists of the series. Apex is an evil strange mysterious overlord who used a ruse to come in peace to Pac-World so that he can take over it and he might have been the one who hired the Pacinator to help him. He has a habit of cracking jokes. During his ruse, he demonstrated abilities that outdid Pac-Man. When Apex's motives have been revealed, Pac-Man ends up fighting Apex and defeats him with his bad singing. Before retreating from Pac-World, Apex jokes that he's Pac-Man's father Zac and reveals that he had met him at some point, but won't tell how. In "Invasion of the Pointy Heads," Apex returns and strikes a deal with Betrayus to take over Pac-World. He eventually turned against Betrayus in order to further his goals and revealed that he was using him all this time. Apex and his fleet were repelled when Betrayus and his Ghosts allowed themselves to be eaten by Pac-Man since the Pointy-heads can't stand belched eyeballs. Before Apex joins in the retreat, he hints that he has Pac-Man's parents in his planet. In "Cosmic Contest", he and Tip participate in a race against Pac-Man, Spiral, Betrayus, and Buttocks.
Professor Pointybrains (voiced by Brian Drummond) is a scientist who assists Apex and seems to be just as smart as Sir Cumference and Dr. Buttocks.
Tip (voiced by Gabe Khouth) is a strong minion who first appears in "Cosmic Contest". He became both friends and rivals with Pac-Man during the race.

text: Robots[edit]

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Grinder is a lab assistant Sir Cumference made for himself. Sometimes, he and Sir Cumference hate each other and he's usually bothered by Fuzbitz.
Grindette is Grinder's wife who first appeared in "The Bride of Grinder." After Grinder's failed attempt to make her, Buttocks controlled her with a mind control chip in order to have her search for the repository and the Tree of Life, but she was able to overcome it and remove the chip. Afterwards, she and Grinder became a couple.
Grinder-Tron is a giant robot made by Dr. Buttocks that resembles an evil version of Grinder. It's the first boss in the video game Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2.
Mega-Grinder is a giant robot build by Pac-Man (under the effect of a Brain Berry) which resembles Grinder. It is used to fight Grinder-Tron.
Computer Bug is a small antivirus bug that helps Pac-Man rid the computer systems of the evil virus ghosts.
Pac-Topus is a giant mechanical octopus that only appears in "Ride the Wild Pac-Topus". It was originally an amusement park ride until it was brought to life by Dr. Buttocks's mind controlling chip, but proves uncontrollable. It is the second boss in Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2, having somehow came back to life and has escaped to Paclantis.
Cyber-Mouse is a giant digital mouse-like creature that Pac-Man, Pinky, and Clyde encounter in the computer network.
Cyber-Fluffy is a digital vision of Fluffy that Pac-Man, Pinky, and Clyde encounter in the computer network after they defeat the Cyber-Mouse.

text: Other characters[edit]

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Madame Ghoulasha (voiced by Kathleen Barr) is a warty Nether-witch from the Netherworld who first appeared in "Jinxed". She has a crush on Betrayus and offered to put a jinx on Pac-Man in exchange for him marrying her, but he refused and Buttocks ends up as her groom. She also made cameo appearances in "Shadow of the Were-Pac" and "Pac's Very Scary Halloween".
Count Pacula (voiced by Samuel Vincent) is a villainous vam-pac from the Netherworld with an appearance that resembles a Pac-Person. Count Pacula can only be summoned when two moons turn blue every 100 Halloweens. He first appears in "A Berry Scary Night" where he tries to hypnotize the Pac-Worlders into finding Pac-Man under Betrayus's orders, but he also begins hypnotizing some of the ghosts as well since he is on neither side. Count Pacula has a weakness to the Garlic Berry. In "Pac's Very Scary Halloween", he is Dr. Pacenstein's neighbor but doesn't enjoy being near him. He later helps Cyli and Spiral return Pac's brain to his body after Dr. Pacenstein transfers his brain inside it. His and Pac's brain were briefly transferred and were later switched back. Like the version that was seen in the 80s' Pac-Man cartoon, Count Pacula is a spoof of Count Dracula.
Jean (voiced by Nicole Oliver) is a vile genie who first appeared in "Meanie Genie." Dr. Buttocks found her bottle and tricked Pac-Man into finding it and releasing her. After granting Pac-Man three wishes that ends up putting the ghosts on Pac-World yet keeping them from re-entering the Netherworld, she traps Pac-Man in her bottle just before she and the ghosts proceed to wreak havoc. After Sir Cumference frees Pac-Man, he fights Jean using a Wizard Berry and traps her back in her bottle (as well as undoing what she has done to the city and sending the ghosts back to the Netherworld). Pac-Man and Sir Cumference then place Jean's bottle into a rocket and launched it into space. Unbeknownst to Pac-Man and Sir Cumference, the rocket containing Jean's bottle is found by a Pointy Head spaceship.
Overlords of the Outer Regions are a group of strange and unknown celestial beings that take the form of a burst of light and first appeared in "Cosmic Contest." They were frustrated and annoyed with the Pac-People, Ghosts, and Pointy Heads fighting each other and disturbing them and decide to settle things by having two of each race against each other in which the winners can stay but the other two teams will be banished to a world of nothingness that will be far far away from their homeworlds. Because the contest ended in a tie, no one is banished by the Overlords. Before leaving, the Overlords did warn them that if they cause a ruckus again they will annihilate them all, but also leaving without helping anyone return to their homes. Before the race started, the Overlords quietly said that if Pac-Man were to reach his full potential, he could challenge even them.
Mooby is an ancient giant flying Pac-Cow that lives up in the sky in Pac-World.
The Easter Pac-Peep (voiced by Ashleigh Ball) is a humanoid marshmallow chicken made of marshmallow and the owner of Easter Egg Island who first appears in "Easter Egg Island". She became hostile and bad-tempered due to Betrayus' past pranks and has kidnapped his ghosts. Pac-Man and his friends helped Betrayus rescue them and talk some sense into the chicken, turning her kind and good-hearted again by showing the family album of Cylindria with a picture of Cylindria and her family holding an Easter basket. She's a parody of the Easter Bunny, though the only difference is that she's a hen instead of a rabbit.
Dentures of Doom (voiced by Paul Dobson) are a set of living dentures originally owned by an ancient mummy wizard who accidentally brings it to life and turns it evil. As a result, it was locked away due to its dangerous power. Many years later Pac-Man and his friends find it and it possesses Pac-Man and Buttocks in order to return to their owner. But before it can do so, Pac-Man and Grinder get in the way and return them to normal.
Mummy Wizard (voiced by Paul Dobson) is a strange humanoid wizard with a mummy-like appearance. After bringing his dentures to life and turning them evil, he was separated from them. Many years later, he and his dentures trying to reunite but Pac-Man and Grinder interfere and turn them back to normal before giving them back, this led the wizard into becoming a good wizard. He made cameo appearances in "Pac's Very Scary Halloween".
Round Deer are flying reindeer that pull Santa Pac's sled and have special fighting abilities.

Rounddolf is the leading round deer with a glowing nose. He's a spoof of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

Dr. Pacenstein is the talking brain in the glass and lives in Transylpacia Castle which is next to Count Pacula's castle (although he and Count Pacula don't get along well). He was originally a Pac-Person and a quack scientist until being shunned by the villagers and sacrificed his body for experiments. He made a deal with Betrayus and lured Pac-Man and his friends to his castle to transfer his brain inside Pac's body and Pac's brain into his jar. Dr. Pacentstein double-crosses Betrayus and begins wreaking havoc until being defeated by Pac-Man (in Count Pacula's body). After Pac's brain is returned to his body, Dr. Pacenstein's brain ends up in a slug's body. He is a spoof of Victor Frankenstein.

Eeghost is a silent white ghost in a hood. He is Dr. Pacenstein's sidekick. Eeghost is a spoof of Igor.
Limbs are Dr. Pacenstein's hands and feet who appear to have been given minds of their own after Dr. Pacenstein sacrificed his body. They usually annoy him.

text: Monsters[edit]

text:
Fluffy (voiced by Kyle Hebert) is a giant poodle. Although it may sound sweet, when you anger it, it will turn into a very mean monster. This "Poodle" has three heads like a Cerberus. When they are actually nice, the middle one has a soft side and sends get well cards to his victims. Pinky is usually the one to bribe Fluffy when Pac-Man needs to pass by.
Fuzbitz (voiced by Lee Tockar) is Sir Cumference's pet monster. He has a similar appetite to Pac. When angry, he turns into a more ferocious version of himself. Despite this ability, Betrayus and Dr. Buttocks thought he was useless back when Fuzbitz lived in the Netherworld. He now lives with Sir Cumference in his lab after proving that he was too much for Pac-man and his friends to handle. He sometimes annoys Grinder.
Gargoyles are large, heavy-set blue monsters with three eyes and small wings.
Slugs are used by Betrayus to spy on Pac-World. Some have names.[38]
Pac-Dragons are one-eyed red dragons that live in the Netherworld.
Stalkers is a black medium-sized monster with 2 legs, a long eel-like body, and multi-eyed face full of sharp teeth. Despite its ferocious appearance, its actually quite wimpy.
Venus Dragon Flytraps are large carnivorous plants that are indigenous to the Netherworld.
Monobats are a race of one-eyed bats.
Stone Temple Guardians are giant statues that serve as the guardians of a slime-filled temple.
Pacosaurus refers to a type of ancient dinosaur which originally roamed Pac-World, appearing in "Jurassic Pac" and "Cave Pac-Man".
Were-Pac Flea is a Netherworld flea made by Dr. Buttocks. It was given the ability to turn Pac-People, Ghosts or Pac-Wolves into Were-Pacs (the Pac-People version of werewolves). The effects will wear off when it leaves its host. It only appears in "The Shadow of the Were-Pac" where it tries to turn all the Pac-People into Were-Pacs including Pac-Man and his friends.
Space Worm is a giant worm that lives in space and has the ability to send victims to other dimensions. Pac-Man's first encounter with it caused him to be transported to the future, which is then revealed to be a dream. It made a cameo appearance in "Cap'n Banshee and his Interstellar Buccaneers". Buttocks later tried to use its powers to his advantage and sends Pac-Man to an alternate dimension of Pac-World, but it proves to be too powerful. Pac-Man later returns from the alternate dimension and repels it from Pac-World.
Hugefoot is a monster with an enormous foot. It is revealed to be a female and falls in love with Pac-Man.
Chocolate Bunnies appear in "Easter Egg Island" and they are scientists and travelers who are turned into those Chocolate-flavoured beasts and are controlled by the Easter Pac-Peep. Cyli and her family (and Betrayus) are later turned into chocolate bunnies while finding Betrayus's ghosts but are eventually returned to normal by Pac-Man, except for Betrayus.
Were-Pacs are Pac-Worlds versions of werewolves who appear in "The Shadow of the Were-Pac" (who are actually Pac-People turned into Were-Pacs by the Were-Pac Flea) and "Pac's Very Scary Halloween".
Pac-Mammoths are creatures who originally roamed Pac-World like the Pacosaurus. A Pac-Mammoth made a cameo appearance in "Pac's Very Scary Halloween" while they mostly appeared in the video game Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2.

text: Episodes[edit]

text:
Season
Episodes
Original airdates

First aired
Last aired

1
26
June 15, 2013
November 9, 2013

2
13
June 9, 2014 (2014-06-09)
December 2, 2014

3
13
May 18, 2015 (2015-05-18)
May 29, 2015 (2015-05-29)

tag: table

text: Crew[edit]

text:
Avi Arad - Developer & Executive Producer
Sean Catherine Derek - Story Editor
David Earl - Storyboard Artist
Tetsuya Ishii - Lead Character Designer
Terry Klassen - Voice Director (ep. 3-)
Masashi Kobayashi - Line Producer
Tatsuro Maruyama - Art Director
Masafumi Mima - Sound Director
Tom Ruegger - Developer, Writer
Paul Rugg - Developer, Writer
Kris Zimmerman - Voice Director (ep. 1-2)

text: DVD releases[edit]

text: Australian releases[edit]

text: There have been two DVD releases in Australia. These were released in Australia on October 2, 2013.[citation needed] The current releases in Australia are:

text:
Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures: The Adventure Begins, the first DVD release containing the first 6 episodes
Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures: Pac to the Future, which contains another 6 episodes.

tag: ol

text: North American releases[edit]

text: On January 7, 2014,[39] in North America, there were four DVD releases. The Adventure Begins DVD only contains the first episode, whereas the other three DVDs contain four episodes each:

text:
Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures: Pac is Back (initially exclusive to Walmart[citation needed] then distributed June 24 on Amazon[40]) includes the first four episodes[citation needed]
Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures: All You Can Eat[41] contains the four following episodes[citation needed]
Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures: Let The Games Begin (exclusive to Target) contains the four episodes that follow after
Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures: Ghost Patrol was released in North America on March 18, 2014.[42]
Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures: A Berry Scary Night was released in North America on September 16, 2014.[citation needed]

text: Redbox exclusives[edit]

text: Two additional DVDs each with three episodes, were released exclusively to Redbox:[citation needed]

text:
Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures: Indiana Pac and the Temple of Slime[citation needed]
Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures: Mission Impacable![citation needed]

text: Another DVD titled Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures: Pac To The Future was released exclusively to Redbox Canada.

text: Other[edit]

text:
Jurassic Pac was released on June 2, 2015.[43]
Movie 4-Pac was released 9 December 2014
Collection was released 4 November 2014[44]
8-Pac was released 3 November 2015

text: Video games[edit]

text: Several video games based on the show have been developed. An endless runner for iOS and Android titled Pac-Man Dash! was released in July 2013. This is also hosted for free in Canada[45] on the CHRGD website.[46] In 2017 "Bandai Namco Entertainment" decided to discontinue Pac-Man Dash! & remove it permanently from the Apple Store & Android Market

text: A 3D platformer with the same name as the TV series was released for Wii U, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Windows PC in late 2013, accompanied by a 2D platformer for the Nintendo 3DS shortly after. A sequel was released in October 2014. Characters from the show have also appeared in the compilation release for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Windows PC, titled Pac-Man Museum.

text: Release[edit]

text: Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures debuted on June 15, 2013, on Disney XD USA and March 17, 2014, on Disney XD Canada. It moved over to Family Chrgd on October 9, 2015. In the Philippines, it aired on Disney Channel on March 3 and ended on October 30, 2014, to give way for the special programming of "Monstober". It returned to air on March 2, 2015.


document_title: A Quiet Place (film)

question_text: who plays the son in a quiet place

question_tokens: who plays the son in a quiet place

root

text: A Quiet Place (film)

text: Plot[edit]

text: Over three months in 2020, most of Earth's human population has been wiped out by sightless creatures with hypersensitive hearing and a seemingly impenetrable armored shell that attack anything that makes noise. The Abbott family — husband Lee, wife Evelyn, congenitally deaf daughter Regan, and sons Marcus and Beau — silently scavenge for supplies in a deserted town. Though skilled in American Sign Language, the family must nonetheless be vigilant lest they make accidental noise. Four-year-old Beau is drawn to a battery-operated space shuttle toy, but his father takes it away. Regan returns the toy to Beau, who unbeknownst to her has also taken the batteries his father removed. Beau activates the shuttle when the family is walking home through the woods, near a bridge. Its noise makes him an instant target for a nearby creature, and he is swiftly killed.

tag: p

text: A year later, Regan still struggles with guilt over her brother's death, Evelyn is in the final stages of pregnancy, and Lee is fruitlessly trying to make radio contact with the outside world. Lee attempts to upgrade Regan's cochlear implant to apparently restore her hearing, but the device fails. Later, Lee takes Marcus to a nearby river to teach him to fish while Regan visits Beau's grave. Lee explains to Marcus that they will always be safe from the creatures so long as louder sounds mask their audible movements. Alone at the house, Evelyn goes into labor. While making her way to their specially modified soundproof basement, she steps on a large nail. In pain, she accidentally drops a glass picture frame and alerts a nearby creature. Evelyn flips a switch that changes the exterior house lights to red as a danger signal to the others, and struggles to remain silent during her contractions.

text: Arriving at the farm and seeing the lights, Lee instructs Marcus to set off fireworks as a diversion. He finds Evelyn hiding in the bathroom with their newborn son. The baby starts crying, attracting a creature, and they narrowly avoid another attack on the way to the basement. Lee leaves to find the other children, after promising Evelyn he will protect them. Evelyn falls asleep but wakes to discover that the basement is flooded with water from a broken pipe and that a creature is stalking her.

text: Regan hurries back to the farm. She and Marcus take refuge atop a grain silo, lighting a fire to alert their father to their whereabouts. However, they run out of lighter fluid and the fire dies down, causing Lee to assume that they aren't there. A hatch door gives way and Marcus falls into the silo. He sinks into the corn and nearly suffocates, but Regan jumps in and saves him. They avoid further danger by clinging to the fallen silo door and survive a subsequent creature attack by hiding under it. Regan's repaired cochlear implant reacts to the proximity of the creature by emitting a piercingly-loud high-frequency sound that drives the creature away. The children escape from the silo and reunite with Lee.

text: The creature returns and Lee attacks it with a ranger's axe called a Pulaski, while Marcus and Regan hide in a pickup truck. Lee is wounded and Marcus shouts, attracting the creature to the truck. Lee uses sign language to tell Regan and Marcus that he loves them before sacrificing himself by yelling to draw the creature away from his children. Regan and Marcus roll the truck down a hill to escape and reunite with Evelyn and the baby at the farmhouse.

text: Regan, who was not allowed in the basement previously, sees her father's notes on the creatures and on his experimentation with several different implants. When the creature returns to invade the basement, Regan places the boosted implant on a nearby microphone, magnifying the feedback to ward off the creature. Painfully disoriented, the creature exposes the flesh beneath its armored head, and Evelyn shoots the creature in the head with a shotgun, killing it and destroying its head. The family views a CCTV monitor, showing two creatures attracted by the noise of the shotgun blast approaching the house. With their newly acquired knowledge of the creatures' weakness, the members of the family arm themselves and prepare to fight back.

text: Cast[edit]

text:
Emily Blunt as Evelyn Abbott, wife of Lee, and the mother to their three children, Regan, Marcus, and Beau. She is a doctor and is pregnant with their fourth child at the start of the film. Krasinski describes her character as wanting to ensure that their children "be fully-formed, fully-thinking people."[6]
John Krasinski, as Lee Abbott, an engineer, husband of Evelyn, and the father of Regan, Marcus, and Beau. Krasinski described his character as a survivalist who focuses on getting his family through each day.[6]
Millicent Simmonds as Regan Abbott, Lee and Evelyn's deaf daughter, and Marcus and Beau's sister. Krasinski said he sought a deaf actress, "... for many reasons, I didn't want a non-deaf actress pretending to be deaf. Most importantly though, because a deaf actress would help my knowledge and my understanding of the situations tenfold. I wanted someone who lives it and who could teach me about it on set."[6]
Noah Jupe as Marcus Abbott, the oldest son of Lee and Evelyn, and Regan and Beau’s brother. Krasinski noticed Jupe in the 2016 miniseries The Night Manager and later saw an early screening of the 2017 film Suburbicon to evaluate Jupe's performance.[6]
Cade Woodward as Beau Abbott, the younger son of Lee and Evelyn.

text: Production[edit]

text: Development and writing[edit]

text: A Quiet Place is a production of Sunday Night and Platinum Dunes;[7] it was produced on a budget of $17 million.[8] Krasinski wrote the screenplay with story co-writers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods. Beck and Woods grew up together in the US state of Iowa, and had watched numerous silent films in college. By 2013, they began working on the story that would lead to the film. They used their experience growing up close to farmland as the basis, including a grain silo setting as a place considered dangerous in their upbringing. They initiated their approach with a 15-page proof of concept.[9] Initially, the writers had considered developing the film into a Cloverfield installment, but after pitching their ideas to the studio collectively, all of those involved decided to keep the film its own entity.[10]

text: In January 2016, Beck and Woods began writing A Quiet Place in earnest.[11] Krasinski read their spec script the following July.[12] The concept of parents protecting their children appealed to him, especially as his second child with actress Emily Blunt had just been born.[6] Blunt encouraged him to direct the film.[12] By March 2017, Paramount had bought Beck and Woods's spec script. The studio hired Krasinski to rewrite the script and direct the film, which was his third directorial credit and his first for a major studio.[13] Krasinski cited cinematic influences including Alien (1979), No Country for Old Men (2007), and In the Bedroom (2001) when writing a new draft.[14] Initially, Blunt didn’t want to be cast in the film but after reading it on the plane, she immediately told her husband “I need to do it,”.[12] He agreed, and they were both cast in the starring roles of the film.[13]

text: Filming[edit]

text: Production took place from May to November 2017 in Dutchess and Ulster counties in upstate New York. Filmmakers spent their budget locally, including a purchase of 20 tons of corn, which they hired local farmers to grow. Some filming took place on a soundstage in the town of Pawling in Dutchess County, as well as on-location in the county's city of Beacon.[15] Filming also took place on the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail in New Paltz of Ulster County, using the Springtown Truss Bridge.[16] Outside Dutchess and Ulster counties, filming took place on Main Street in Little Falls in Herkimer County, New York.[17]

text: Sound and music[edit]

text: During filming, the crew avoided making noise so diegetic synchronized sounds (e.g., the sound of rolling dice on a game board) could be recorded; the sounds were amplified in post-production. A traditional musical score was also added, which Krasinski justified in wanting audiences to remain familiar with watching a mainstream film, and not feel like part of a "silence experiment."[18]

text: Supervising sound editors Erik Aadahl and Ethan Van der Ryn worked on A Quiet Place. For scenes from the perspective of the deaf daughter, sound was removed to put greater focus on the visual. They also advised on organizing shots to reflect the creatures' perspective, like showing them notice a sound, then showing what was causing the sound. Composer Marco Beltrami provided the sound editors music to work with in a way that would not interfere with the sound design throughout the film.[19]

text: In the film, creatures are blind and communicate through clicking sounds. Aadahl and Van der Ryn said they were inspired by animal echolocation, such as that employed by bats. The sound of feedback, normally avoided by sound editors, was woven into the story at a loudness level that would not bother audiences too much.[20]

text: Use of sign language[edit]

text: Since the characters communicate in American Sign Language to avoid making sound, filmmakers hired deaf mentor Douglas Ridloff to teach ASL to the actors and to be available to make corrections. The filmmakers also hired an ASL interpreter for deaf actress Simmonds, so that spoken and signed language could be interpreted back and forth on set.[21] Simmonds, who grew up with ASL, helped teach her fellow actors to sign.[22] She said of the need to practice ASL, "In the movie, we've been signing together for years and years. So it should look fluent."[23] She observed that the way the others used their sign language reflected their characters' motivations; the father had short and brief signs that showed his survival mentality, while the mother had more expressive signs as part of her wanting her children to experience more than survival.[24] Krasinski said Simmonds's character was "a little bit of the warrior princess, the black sheep in the family," and that she used "signing that's very defiant, it's very teenage defiant."[25]

text: Simmonds said that for a scene in which her character fights with her father in sign language, she suggested for the daughter to rebel rather than cower as in the script. She also said that at the end of the film, the script originally had the father sign to his daughter "I love you," but she suggested for him to follow with "I've always loved you" to make up for their arguing earlier in the film.[26]

text: The producers Andrew Form and Bradley Fuller said they initially planned not to provide on-screen subtitles for sign-language dialogue with "context clues," but realized that for the scene in which the deaf daughter and her hearing father argue about the modified hearing aid, subtitles were necessary. The producers subsequently added subtitles for all sign-language dialogue in the film. Producer Brad Fuller said, "And I think once you put one subtitle in, you subtitle the whole movie. You don't take liberties like, 'Oh they probably know what I love you is, but we don't subtitle it.' It's just gonna live everywhere and that's the world we live by."[27]

text: Creature design[edit]

text: Production designer Jeffrey Beecroft headed the creature design, and special effects supervisor Scott Farrar created the creatures. The director wanted the creatures to look like they had evolved to no longer need eyes, and to be "somewhat humanoid" in nature. Farrar said the initial creature design showed them with rhinoceros-like horns out of their faces, later redesigned. Vanity Fair reported, "The team immediately set about pulling references; prehistoric fish, black snakes, and bats, particularly their movement patterns. Inspiration was also drawn from bog people: cadavers that have been mummified in peat, turning the skin black and giving it a sagging, leathery look."[28]

text: Marketing[edit]

text: Paramount Pictures released the first trailer for A Quiet Place in November 2017.[29] It aired a 30-second commercial for the film during the US football playoff Super Bowl LII on February 4, 2018.[30] Of the seven trailers that aired during the playoff, A Quiet Place and Red Sparrow were shown during the pregame and had the lowest views and social conversations. A Quiet Place had 149,000 views on YouTube, 275,000 videos on Facebook, and 2,900 social conversations.[31][32] On February 12, 2018, Krasinski appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show to present the full trailer for A Quiet Place.[33]

text: Release[edit]

text: A Quiet Place premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival as the opening-night film on March 9, 2018.[34] It was selected from 2,458 submissions,[35] and earned "raves" from critics, according to IndieWire.[36] Following its premiere, the film experienced social media growth to under 52 million views across multiple platforms, outpacing Get Out (2017), which had 46.9 million views.[8]

text: Box office forecast[edit]

text: The Tracking Board reported on March 14, "The stellar reviews out of SXSW, coupled with the fact that there isn't anything like it in the marketplace, should help it stand out among its bigger-budget competition."[37] Deadline Hollywood said on March 15 that the film was projected to gross around $20 million in its opening weekend.[8] Variety reported on March 27 that the film "is tracking to open between" $16 million and $30 million,[38] which reached a basement of low-$20 million by the week of its release.[39]

text: BoxOffice initially estimated on February 9, 2018 that A Quiet Place would gross $17 million in its opening weekend, and that it would gross a total of $60 million in the United States.[40] By March 30, it increased its estimate to an opening weekend gross of $27.5 million and a US total gross of $85 million.[41] The magazine said the film's trailer was well-received online and that it appeared frequently in previews for Star Wars: The Last Jedi. BoxOffice wrote, "The horror genre has also shown a knack for over-performing against expectations at the box office in recent years, setting this release up for potential success." It added that A Quiet Place would have to compete against another horror film, Truth or Dare, which would be released the following weekend.[40] The magazine's staff drew "very favorable" comparisons between A Quiet Place and the 2016 films 10 Cloverfield Lane and Don't Breathe.[42]

text: Theatrical run[edit]

text: A Quiet Place was first commercially released in theaters in the first week of April 2018 in multiple territories, including North America.[43] As of May 28, 2018[update], A Quiet Place has grossed $180.8 million in the United States and Canada, and $131.7 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $312.5 million.[3]

text: Paramount Pictures released the film in 3,508 theaters in the United States and Canada on April 6, 2018, alongside Blockers, Chappaquiddick, and The Miracle Season.[44] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported filmgoers gave it an 81% overall positive score and a 63% "definite recommend."[45] The film made $19 million on its first day (including $4.3 million from Thursday night previews at 2,750 theaters), increasing weekend projections to $47 million. Unlike most horror films, which are front-loaded on Friday and suffer drops the rest of the weekend, A Quiet Place made $19.1 million on Saturday. It went on to debut to $50.2 million, topping the box office and marking the biggest opening for a Paramount film since Star Trek Beyond in July 2016.[45] To that point, it was second biggest domestic debut of 2018, behind Black Panther.[46]

text: The film made $32.9 million in its second weekend, dropping 34% (better than the 50+% that horror films normally see) and finishing second at the box office, behind newcomer Rampage ($35.7 million).[47] The hold represented the second-best-ever second weekend for a scary movie behind It.[48] The film regained the top spot the following week, grossing $20.9 million (a 36% drop),[49] but dropped back down to second place the following weekend behind newcomer Avengers: Infinity War with $10.7 million.[50]

text: Through its first two weeks of international release, the film had made $51.7 million, with its top markets being the United Kingdom ($9.2 million), Mexico ($5.1 million), Australia ($4.6 million), Brazil ($3.9 million), Indonesia ($3.4 million) and Taiwan ($1.9 million). It also debuted to $2.2 million in Russia, the biggest-ever opening for a Paramount horror film in the country.[51] In its third weekend overseas, it dip only 37% for a $15 million from 57 markets.[52] In its fourth weekend in international markets, it grossed $6.6 million.[52] As of May 20, 2018, the film's largest markets were United Kingdom ($16.3 million), Australia ($9.3 million), Mexico ($7.5 million) and Brazil ($6.9 million).[53][54] The film was released in China on May 18 and made $17.7 million from 8,731 screens in its opening weekend.[55]

text: Reception[edit]

text: Critical response[edit]

text: On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 95% based on 264 reviews, and an average rating of 8.2/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "A Quiet Place artfully plays on elemental fears with a ruthlessly intelligent creature feature that's as original as it is scary—and establishes director John Krasinski as a rising talent."[56] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 82 out of 100, based on 55 critics, indicating "universal acclaim."[57]

text: Writing for Rolling Stone, Peter Travers gave the film 3.5 out of 4 stars, saying, "The question Krasinski tackles is what defines a family and what's needed to preserve it? 'Who are we,' asks Mom, 'if we can't protect our children?' The answers are worked out with satisfying complexity and genuine feeling, proving indeed that home is where family is. This new horror classic will fry your nerves to a frazzle."[58] The Hollywood Reporter's John DeFore described the film as "a terrifying thriller with a surprisingly warm heart" and said, "You might have to go back to Jeff Nichols' 2011 Take Shelter to find a film that has used the fantastic this well to convey the combination of fear and responsibility a good parent feels."[59]

text: Variety's Owen Gleiberman said, "A Quiet Place is a tautly original genre-bending exercise, technically sleek and accomplished, with some vivid, scary moments, though it's a little too in love with the stoned logic of its own premise."[7] Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune gave the film 2.5 out of 4 stars and said, "My favorite moment, an encounter between Regan and one of the monsters in a cornfield, plays with sound and image and tension, creatively. Other bits are more shameless...I don’t know if I’d call A Quiet Place enjoyable; it’s more grueling than cathartic."[60]

text: Horror author Stephen King praised the film in a post on Twitter, "A QUIET PLACE is an extraordinary piece of work. Terrific acting, but the main thing is the SILENCE, and how it makes the camera's eye open wide in a way few movies manage."[61]

text: Nick Allen of RogerEbert.com called A Quiet Place "Krasinski's breakthrough as a triple-threat entertainer, but it's been a long time coming...By no accident, he's tackled the horror genre while relying on the unique strength that can be seen throughout his acting work, and one that has made him relatable as an everyman across TV and film—expressive silence."[62]

text: Commentary and themes[edit]

text: Speaking of the political and social commentary the film encouraged, Krasinski said, "The best compliment you can get on any movie is that it starts a conversation. The fact that people are leaving and talking about anything is really fun—but certainly about deep stuff like that, is awesome."[63] Krasinski, who did not grow up with horror films, said that prior films of the genre such as Don't Breathe (2016) and Get Out (2017) that had societal commentary were part of his research. In addition to considering his film a metaphor for parenthood, he compared the premise to US politics in 2018, "I think in our political situation, that's what's going on now: You can close your eyes and stick your head in the sand, or you can try to participate in whatever's going on." He cited Jaws (1975) as an influence, with how the protagonist police officer moved from New York to an island to avoid frightening situations, and was forced to encounter one in his new location with shark attacks.[64]

text: Matthew Monagle of Film School Rejects said A Quiet Place seemed to be "the early frontrunner for the sparsely intellectual horror movie of the year," like previous films The Babadook (2014) and The Witch (2015). Monagle said Krasinski, who had directed two previous films, was "making an unusual pivot into a genre typically reserved for newcomers," and considered it to be part of a movement toward horror films layered "in storytelling, [with] character beats not typically found in a horror movie."[65] Tatiana Tenreyro, writing for Bustle, said while A Quiet Place was not a silent film, "It is the first of its kind within the modern horror genre for how little spoken dialogue it actually has." She said the rare moments of spoken dialogue "give depth to this horror movie, showing how the narrative defies the genre’s traditional films even further."[66]

text: Bishop Robert Barron was surprised by strikingly religious themes in the film. He likened the family's primitive, agrarian life of silence to monasticism, and commends their self-giving love. Barron noted the pervasive pro-life themes, especially in the choices of the parents, as Mrs. Abbott risks everything to give birth to a child, and her husband lays down his own life so that the children can live: what Barron sees as the ultimate expression of parental love.[67] Sonny Bunch of the Washington Post also commented and expanded on a pro-life message.[68]

text: Krasinski, who had recently become a new father, said in a conference interview "I was already in a state of terror about whether or not I was a good enough father," and added that the meaning of parenthood had been elevated for him by imagining being a father in a nightmare world, struggling to simply keep his children alive.[69] Jonathan Hetterly, writing in Shrinktank, see the film's whole premise as a commentary on modern American paranoid parenting, saying that Krasinski "viewed the premise as a metaphor for a parent's worst fears."[70]

text: Krasinski himself has told CBS News “The scares were secondary to how powerful this could be as an allegory or metaphor for parenthood. For me, this is all about parenthood.”

text: Sequel[edit]

text: In April 2018, Paramount chairman and CEO Jim Gianopulos said a sequel to the film was "in the works".[71] Screenwriters Woods and Beck had previously stated that they already begun thinking of ideas and set pieces for a possible second film.[72]


document_title: Northern Ireland peace process

question_text: where did the ira declare a cease fire in 1994

text: Northern Ireland peace process

text: Timeline[edit]

text: Towards a ceasefire[edit]

text: In 1994, talks between the leaders of the two main Irish nationalist parties in Northern Ireland, John Hume of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), and Gerry Adams of Sinn Féin (SF), continued. These talks led to a series of joint statements on how the violence might be brought to an end. The talks had been going on since the late 1980s and had secured the backing of the Irish Government through an intermediary, Father Alec Reid.

text: In November it was revealed that the British government had also been in talks with the Provisional IRA, although they had long denied it.

text: On Wednesday 15 December 1993, the Joint Declaration on Peace (more commonly known as the Downing Street Declaration) was issued by John Major, then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and Albert Reynolds, then Taoiseach (Prime Minister of the Republic of Ireland), on behalf of the British and Irish governments. This included statements that:

text:
The British government had no "selfish strategic or economic" interest in Northern Ireland. This statement would lead, eventually, to the repeal of the Government of Ireland Act 1920.[2]
The British government would uphold the right of the people of Northern Ireland to decide between the Union with Great Britain or a united Ireland.
The people of the island of Ireland, North and South, had the exclusive right to solve the issues between North and South by mutual consent.[3][4][5]
The Irish government would try to address unionist fears of a united Ireland by amending the Irish Constitution according to the principle of consent. This would lead, eventually, to the modification of the Articles 2 and 3.
A united Ireland could only be brought about by peaceful means.
Peace must involve a permanent end to the use of, or support for, paramilitary violence.

text: Ian Paisley of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) opposed the Declaration, James Molyneaux of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) argued that it was not a "sell-out" of unionists, and Gerry Adams of Sinn Féin requested dialogue with the governments and clarification of the Declaration.

text: Towards negotiations[edit]

text: On 6 April 1994 the Provisional IRA announced a three-day "temporary cessation of hostilities" to run from Wednesday 6 April – Friday 8 April 1994.

text: Five months later, on Wednesday 31 August 1994, the Provisional IRA announced a "cessation of military operations" from midnight. Albert Reynolds, the Irish Taoiseach, said that he accepted the IRA statement as implying a permanent ceasefire. Many unionists were sceptical. UUP leader James Molyneaux, in a rare slip, declared "This (the ceasefire) is the worst thing that has ever happened to us."[6]

text: In the following period there were disputes about the permanence of the ceasefire, whether parties linked to paramilitaries should be included in talks, and the rate of "normalisation" in Northern Ireland. Loyalist bombings and shootings, and punishment beatings from both sides, continued.

text: This is an abbreviated list of events of significance in the lead-up to all-party negotiations:

text:
13 October 1994 The Combined Loyalist Military Command, representing the Ulster Volunteer Force, Ulster Defence Association and Red Hand Commandos announce a loyalist paramilitary ceasefire.
Friday 15 December 1994: Albert Reynolds resigned as Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland following the collapse of his Fianna Fáil/Labour coalition. He was succeeded by John Bruton, heading a "Rainbow Coalition" of Fine Gael, Labour and Democratic Left.
Wednesday 22 February 1995: Framework Documents published:

A New Framework For Agreement, which dealt with North/South institutions, and
A Framework for Accountable Government in Northern Ireland, which proposed a single-chamber 90-member Assembly, to be elected by proportional representation and which was put directly to the electorate in 1997 by Conservative Party candidates standing in Northern Ireland at the general election.
The proposals were not welcomed by unionists and the DUP described it as a "one-way street to Dublin" and a "joint government programme for Irish unity".

Sunday 13 August 1995: Gerry Adams, Sinn Féin President, addressed a demonstration at Belfast City Hall. A member of the crowd called out to Adams to, "bring back the IRA". In reply Adams said: "They haven't gone away, you know".
Friday 8 September 1995: David Trimble was elected leader of the UUP, replacing James Molyneaux.
Friday 24 November 1995: a referendum in the Republic of Ireland to change the constitution to allow divorce was narrowly approved, with 50.2% in favour. Divorce had long been available north of the border. The ban in the Republic was sometimes cited by (mainly Protestant) unionists as evidence of excessive influence by the Catholic Church in the Republic which would (in the event of a United Ireland) represent a threat to the religious liberty of non-Catholics.
Tuesday 28 November 1995: a joint communiqué by the British and Irish Governments outlined a "'twin-track' process to make progress in parallel on the decommissioning issue and on all-party negotiations". Preparatory talks were to lead to all-party negotiations beginning by the end of February 1996. US Senator George Mitchell was to lead an international body to provide an independent assessment of the decommissioning issue.
Thursday 30 November 1995: Bill Clinton, then President of the United States, visited Northern Ireland, and spoke in favour of the "peace process" to a huge rally at Belfast's City Hall. He called terrorists "yesterday's men".
Wednesday 20 December 1995: blaming the Provisional IRA for recent killings of drug dealers, the Irish government decided not to give permanent release to a further ten republican prisoners.
Wednesday 24 January 1996: Dated 22 January, the report of the International Body on arms decommissioning (also known as the Mitchell Report) set out the six "Mitchell Principles" under which parties could enter into all-party talks, and suggested a number of confidence-building measures, including an "elective process". The main conclusion was that decommissioning of paramilitary arms should take place during (rather than before or after) all-party talks, in a "twin-track" process. The report was welcomed by the Irish government and the main opposition parties in Britain and the Republic, as well as the Social Democratic and Labour Party and the Alliance Party. It was accepted as a way forward by Sinn Féin and the Ulster Democratic Party (UDP), who both had paramilitary links. The moderate unionist party, the UUP, expressed reservations, and the more hardline DUP rejected it outright.
Monday 29 January 1996: "Twin-track" talks began with the SDLP, the Progressive Unionist Party, and the UDP. The UUP declined the invitation.
Friday 9 February 1996: one hour after a statement ending their ceasefire, the Provisional IRA detonated a large lorry bomb near South Quay DLR station in the London Docklands, killing two people, injuring 40, and causing £150 million worth of damage. The IRA ceasefire had lasted 17 months and 9 days. The IRA statement said that the ceasefire was ended because "the British government acted in bad faith with Mr Major and the unionist leaders squandering this unprecedented opportunity to resolve the conflict" by refusing to allow Sinn Féin into the talks until the IRA decommissioned its arms. Albert Reynolds, while not supporting the bombing, concurred with the IRA analysis. As Major's Government had lost its majority in Parliament and was depending on unionist votes to stay in power, it was widely accused of pro-unionist bias as a result. On the other hand, on the day of the bombing, Major had been preparing to meet with Sinn Féin representatives at Downing Street for the first time.

text: Towards another ceasefire[edit]

text:
Friday 16 February 1996: There was a large peace rally at City Hall, Belfast, and a number of smaller rallies at venues across Northern Ireland.
Wednesday 28 February 1996: After a summit in London, the British and Irish prime ministers set a date (10 June 1996) for the start of all-party talks, and stated that participants would have to agree to abide by the six Mitchell Principles and that there would be preparatory 'proximity talks'.
Monday 4 March 1996: Proximity talks were launched at Stormont. The Ulster Unionist Party and the Democratic Unionist Party refused to join, and Sinn Féin were again refused entry, ostensibly because of IRA violence.
Thursday 21 March 1996: Elections to determine who would take part in all-party negotiations were announced. The elections would be to a Forum of 110 delegates, with 90 elected directly and 20 'top-up' seats from the ten parties polling the most votes.
Thursday 18 April 1996: The Northern Ireland (Entry to Negotiations) Act was passed at Westminster. 30 parties and individuals were to take part in the election.
Monday 20 May 1996: Gerry Adams, President of Sinn Féin, said that SF was prepared to accept the six Mitchell Principles, if the other parties agreed to them.
Thursday 30 May 1996: In the Forum Elections, with a 65% turnout, the UUP won 30 seats, the SDLP 21, the DUP 24, Sinn Féin 17, the Alliance Party 7, the United Kingdom Unionist Party 3, the Progressive Unionist Party 2, the Ulster Democratic Party 2, the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition 2, and Labour 2 seats.
Tuesday 4 June 1996: The Northern Ireland Office invited nine political parties to attend initial talks at Stormont. Again, Sinn Féin were not invited to the talks. Mary Robinson, then President of the Republic of Ireland, began the first official state visit to Britain by an Irish head of state.
Friday 7 June 1996: IRA members killed Jerry McCabe, a Detective in the Garda Síochána (the Irish police service), during a post office robbery in Adare, County Limerick, in the Republic.
Monday 10 June 1996: All-party negotiations (the 'Stormont talks') began in Stormont. Sinn Féin were again refused entry.
Friday 14 June 1996: The Northern Ireland Forum met for the first time in Belfast. Sinn Féin declined to take part due to their policy of not taking seats in either the Westminster parliament or a regional "partitionist" Northern Ireland parliament (latter policy changed in 1998).
Saturday 15 June 1996: The IRA exploded a bomb in Manchester, which destroyed a large part of the city centre and injured 212 people. Niall Donovan (28), a Catholic man, was stabbed to death near Dungannon, County Tyrone by the loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF).
Thursday 20 June 1996: A IRA bomb factory was found by Gardaí in the Republic. In response the Irish government ended all contacts with Sinn Féin.
Sunday 7 July 1996: As part of the ongoing Drumcree conflict, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) prevented a march by Portadown Orangemen from returning from Drumcree Church via the mainly nationalist Garvaghy Road. This decision was followed by widespread protest in the unionist community, and by rioting in unionist areas.
Thursday 11 July 1996: Hugh Annesley, then Chief Constable of the RUC, reversed his decision and ordered his officers to allow the Orange march to pass along the Garvaghy Road in Portadown. No music was played as the parade passed the disputed area. This was followed by nationalist protests, and riots in republican areas.
Saturday 13 July 1996: A republican car-bomb attack on a hotel in Enniskillen injured 17. The Continuity Irish Republican Army later claimed responsibility. The SDLP announced that it would withdraw from the Northern Ireland Forum.
Monday 15 July 1996: A committee to review parades in Northern Ireland (the Independent Review of Parades and Marches) was announced.
Thursday 30 January 1997: The Report of the Independent Review of Parades and Marches (The North Report) recommended setting up an independent commission to review contentious parades. Most nationalists welcomed the review but unionists attacked it as an erosion of the right to freedom of assembly. A period of "further consultation" was announced.
Wednesday 5 March 1997: Stormont Talks adjourned until 3 June, to allow the parties to contest the forthcoming general election.
Sunday 27 April 1997: In Portadown Robert Hamill, a Catholic, was severely beaten in a sectarian attack by a gang of loyalists. Hamill later died from his injuries.
Thursday 1 May 1997: A general election was held across the UK. The Labour Party won a majority and formed a government for the first time since 1974. In Northern Ireland, Sinn Féin had increased its share of the vote to 16%, becoming the third largest party in the region, and winning two seats: Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness were their new MPs. The Ulster Unionist Party won 10 seats, the Social Democratic and Labour Party 3, the Democratic Unionist Party 2, and the United Kingdom Unionist Party 1.
Friday 16 May 1997: Tony Blair, the new British Prime Minister, endorsed the Framework Documents, the Mitchell Report on decommissioning, and the criteria for inclusion in all-party talks. He stated that he valued Northern Ireland's place in the United Kingdom, and suggested that the Republic of Ireland should amend Articles 2 and 3 of its constitution, and indicated that officials would meet Sinn Féin to clarify certain issues.
Wednesday 21 May 1997: In local government Elections the UUP remained the largest unionist party, and the SDLP the largest nationalist party, though they lost control of Belfast and Derry city councils respectively.
Sunday 1 June 1997: Gregory Taylor, an off-duty RUC constable, died following a beating he received from a loyalist mob. It was later disclosed that Taylor had used his mobile phone to try to summon help from the local police station but no car was available to come to his aid.
Tuesday 3 June 1997: The talks resumed at Stormont. The Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) and the Continuity Irish Republican Army (CIRA) were both proscribed.
Friday 6 June 1997: There was a general election in the Republic of Ireland. The ruling coalition government of Fine Gael, Labour and Democratic Left was defeated by a coalition of Fianna Fáil, Progressive Democrats, and independent members. Sinn Féin won its first seat in the Dáil Éireann, since it had ended its policy of abstentionism in 1986.
Wednesday 25 June 1997: The British and Irish governments gave the IRA 5 weeks to call an unequivocal ceasefire. 6 weeks later Sinn Féin would be allowed into the talks (due to resume on 15 September).
Sunday 6 July 1997: The Orange Order parade at Drumcree was again permitted to go ahead, after a large operation by the RUC and British Army. This was followed by violent protests in nationalist areas.
Saturday 12 July 1997: After an earlier decision by the Orange Order to reroute seven of their marches, the Twelfth parades across Northern Ireland passed off peacefully.
Wednesday 16 July 1997: The DUP and the UKUP left the Stormont talks in protest at what they claimed was a lack of clarification by the British government on decommissioning.
Friday 18 July 1997: John Hume and Gerry Adams issued a joint statement. Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness called on the IRA to renew its ceasefire.
Saturday 19 July 1997: The IRA announced the renewal of its 1994 ceasefire as of 12.00pm on 20 July 1997.

text: Towards agreement[edit]

text:
Tuesday 26 August 1997: The British and Irish governments jointly signed an agreement to set up an Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD). U2 held a concert at Botanic Gardens, in Belfast, with an audience of around 40,000.
Friday 29 August 1997: The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Marjorie Mowlam, accepted the IRA ceasefire as genuine and invited Sinn Féin into the multi-party talks at Stormont.
Tuesday 9 September 1997: Representatives of Sinn Féin entered Stormont to sign a pledge that the party would abide by the Mitchell Principles.
Thursday 11 September 1997: The IRA said that they "would have problems with sections of the Mitchell Principles", but that what Sinn Féin decided to do "was a matter for them".
Monday 15 September 1997: Multi-Party Talks resumed. The Ulster Unionist Party, the Progressive Unionist Party, and the Ulster Democratic Party instead attended a special meeting at the UUP headquarters, and re-entered the talks on Wednesday.
Wednesday 24 September 1997: Procedures were agreed at the Multi-party Talks, decommissioning of paramilitary weapons was sidestepped, and the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning was formally launched.
Tuesday 7 October 1997: Substantive talks began at Stormont.
Friday 17 October 1997: The Parades Commission was announced. Its membership and powers attracted criticism from unionists.
Thursday 6 November 1997: Around 12 members of Sinn Féin resigned in protest at the acceptance of the Mitchell Principles.
Sunday 9 November 1997: During a radio interview on the tenth anniversary of the Enniskillen bomb which killed 11 people on 8 November 1987, Gerry Adams said he was "deeply sorry about what happened".
Saturday 27 December 1997: Inside the Maze Prison, members of the Irish National Liberation Army shot and killed Billy Wright, the Loyalist Volunteer Force leader.
Friday 23 January 1998: The Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF), a cover name for the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), reinstated their ceasefire. This was taken as an admission that they had been responsible for the murders of several Catholics.
Monday 26 January 1998: The talks moved to Lancaster House in London. The UDP were barred from the talks, following UFF/UDA involvement in three more murders. The governments stated that the UDP could re-enter the talks if the UFF maintained its renewed ceasefire.
Thursday 29 January 1998: Tony Blair, the British Prime Minister, announced a new inquiry into "Bloody Sunday" in Derry on 30 January 1972. This inquiry became known as the Saville Inquiry. The previous inquiry was widely regarded as a whitewash.
Friday 20 February 1998: The British and Irish governments announced a 17-day exclusion of Sinn Féin from the talks because of IRA involvement in two killings in Belfast on 9 and 10 February 1998. Sinn Féin organised street protests over their exclusion.
Monday 23 March 1998: Sinn Féin agreed to rejoin the talks, following the expiry of their exclusion a fortnight before, on 9 March.
Wednesday 25 March 1998: The Chairman of the talks, Senator George Mitchell, set a two-week deadline for an agreement.
Friday 3 April 1998: The Bloody Sunday Inquiry, chaired by Lord Saville, an English Law Lord, opened.
Thursday 9 April 1998: Talks continued past the midnight deadline. Jeffrey Donaldson, who had been a member of the Ulster Unionist Party talks team walked out, causing speculation about a split in the party.
Good Friday, 10 April 1998: At 5.36pm (over 17 hours after the deadline) George Mitchell stated: "I am pleased to announce that the two governments and the political parties in Northern Ireland have reached agreement". It emerged later that President Clinton of the USA had made a number of telephone calls to party leaders to encourage them to reach this agreement.
Saturday 15 August 1998 Omagh bombing by the Real IRA resulted in 29 deaths and hundreds of injuries. It was the single worst incident in Northern Ireland during the conflict.

text: The agreement, known as the Good Friday Agreement, included a devolved, inclusive government, prisoner release, troop reductions, targets for paramilitary decommissioning, provisions for polls on Irish reunification, and civil rights measures and "parity of esteem" for the two communities in Northern Ireland.

text: The referendum campaign[edit]

text: The agreement was to be approved by a referendum in Northern Ireland, and a separate referendum was to be held in the Republic to approve the necessary change to Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution. The people of the Republic overwhelmingly endorsed the agreement, but the campaign in Northern Ireland was more controversial, and the result less predictable. The referenda were held on the same day, 22 May 1998.

text: The pro-agreement campaign framed the question as progress versus stalemate, as a struggle between intolerant bigots with no solutions on the one hand, and moderates with a constructive way forward on the other. The agreement was promoted to the nationalist community as delivering civil rights, inclusive government, recognition of their Irishness, and a peaceful route to Irish reunification. To the unionist community, it was presented as bringing an end to the troubles, a guaranteed end to paramilitaries and their weapons, and a guarantee of the Union for the foreseeable future. There was a massive government-funded campaign for the "Yes" vote, with large posters posted across Northern Ireland. One such poster featured five handwritten "pledges" by Prime Minister Tony Blair in an attempt to obtain the unionist "Yes" vote – this is despite the fact that none of the wording from these "pledges" was actually contained within the agreement that was being put to the electorate. These "pledges" were:

text:
No change to the status of Northern Ireland without the express consent of the people
The power to take decisions to be returned from London to Northern Ireland, with accountable North-South co-operation
Fairness and equality for all
Those who use or threaten violence to be excluded from the government of Northern Ireland
Prisoners to be kept in prison unless violence is given up for good

text: On the republican side, the "No" campaign seemed to concentrate on the purity of the republican ideal of complete and absolute independence from Britain. In this view any compromise, however temporary, on the goal of Irish unity (or the right to pursue the armed struggle) was depicted as a betrayal of those who had fought and died for Ireland. Decommissioning of weapons and an end to paramilitary activity was portrayed as surrender to the British. The principle of consent was represented as a unionist veto, as it meant political progress would be almost impossible without unionist participation. It was pointed out that the agreement accepted partition. The state and its institutions would remain hostile to the republican community, claimed the critics. Despite these misgivings, the vast majority of republicans voted yes, with only some tiny unrepresentative parties (such as Republican Sinn Féin) on the nationalist side advocating a No vote.

text: On the unionist side, the "No" campaign was much stronger and stressed what were represented as concessions to republicanism and terrorism, particularly the release of convicted paramilitaries from prison (often those who had killed friends and relatives of unionist politicians and were serving "life" sentences), the presence of "terrorists" (by which they meant Sinn Féin) in government, the lack of guarantees on decommissioning, the perceived one-way nature of the process in moving towards a united Ireland, the lack of trust in all those who would be implementing the agreement, the erosion of British identity, the destruction of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, the vague language of the agreement, and the rushed nature in which the agreement was written.

text: It was widely expected that the nationalist community would endorse the agreement. As the vote approached, unionist opinion appeared divided into those who supported the agreement, those who opposed the agreement on principle, and those who welcomed agreement, but still had major misgivings about aspects like prisoner release and the role of paramilitaries and parties associated with them (particularly Sinn Féin). The fear among the Agreement's supporters was that there would not be a majority (or only a slim majority) of the unionist community in favour of the agreement, and that its credibility would be thereby undermined.

text: The votes[edit]

text: In the Republic of Ireland, the results of the vote to change the constitution in line with the agreement were:

text:
Nineteenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland referendum[7]

Choice
Votes
%

 Yes
1,442,583
94.39

No
85,748
5.61

Valid votes
1,528,331
98.90

Invalid or blank votes
17,064
1.10

Total votes
1,545,395
100.00

Registered voters and turnout
2,747,088
56.26

text: In Northern Ireland, the results of the vote on the agreement were:

text:
Northern Ireland Good Friday Agreement referendum, 1998

Choice
Votes
%

 Yes
676,966
71.1

No
274,979
28.9

Invalid or blank votes
1,738
0.18

Total votes
953,683
100.00

text: There is no official breakdown of how the nationalist and unionist communities voted, but CAIN, the Conflict Archive on the Internet, estimated that the overwhelming majority (up to 97%) of members of the largely Catholic nationalist community in Northern Ireland voted 'Yes'. Their estimate of the largely Protestant unionist community's support for the agreement was between 51 and 53 per cent.

text: Complicating matters for the calculation was the turnout, with a substantial increase over elections in many traditionally unionist areas, whilst the turnout was close to that for elections in staunch nationalist areas. Approximately 147,000 more people voted in the referendum than in the subsequent Assembly elections, though it is estimated that there was also some deliberate abstentions by hardline republican voters.

text: The referendum was calculated centrally so it is not clear what the geographic spread of voting was, but an exit poll found that out of all eighteen constituencies, only Ian Paisley's North Antrim stronghold voted against the Agreement.

text: The pro-agreement result was greeted at the time with relief by supporters of the agreement. However, the scale of sceptical and anti-agreement sentiment in the unionist community, their continued misgivings over aspects of the agreement, and differing expectations from the Agreement on the part of the two communities were to cause difficulties in the following years.

text: Implementation[edit]

text:
The Northern Ireland Assembly made a good start. However, it was suspended several times mainly because of unionist anger at the IRA's refusal to decommission their weapons "transparently". Elections carried on nonetheless and voting polarised towards the more radical parties – the DUP and Sinn Féin. In 2004, negotiations were held to attempt to re-establish the Assembly and the Executive. These negotiations failed but the governments believed they were very close to a deal and published their proposed deal as the Comprehensive Agreement.
Although the Royal Ulster Constabulary was renamed as the Police Service of Northern Ireland on 4 November 2001, Sinn Féin, the second-largest party, did not declare its acceptance of the Police Service of Northern Ireland until 28 January 2007 as part of the St Andrews Agreement. A 2005 survey [1] indicates that 83% of the Northern Ireland population have "some", "a lot", or "total" confidence in the police's ability to provide a day-to-day policing service.
No IRA weapons were decommissioned until October 2001, and the final consignment to be "put beyond use" was announced on 26 September 2005. There has also been allegations of IRA involvement in espionage at the Stormont Assembly (which prompted the UUP to collapse the Assembly), in training the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerillas, in several high-profile murders, and allegations of major robberies such as that of approximately £1 million of goods from a wholesaler and in excess of £26 million in the Northern Bank robbery.

text: Endgame[edit]

text: In January 2005, Robert McCartney was murdered after a pub brawl by IRA members. After a high-profile campaign by his sisters and fiancée, the IRA admitted its members were responsible and offered to meet them. The McCartney sisters turned down their offer, but the episode badly damaged the standing of the IRA in Belfast.[citation needed]

text: In April 2005, Gerry Adams called for the IRA to lay down its weapons. It agreed [2] on 28 July 2005 calling for its volunteers to use "exclusively peaceful means". It would not disband, but simply use peaceful means to achieve its aims.

text:
Apart from some worn pistols from the Loyalist Volunteer Force, no other loyalist paramilitary group has decommissioned any of their weapons, and all have been involved in several murders, including major feuds, both internal and with other loyalist groups. Most Unionists maintain that the loyalist refusal is less of a stumbling block to the restoration of the assembly because, unlike the Provisional Irish Republican Army, parties with formal links to loyalist paramilitary groups do not have significant elected representation within the Assembly, despite their high levels of support. Throughout their existence, loyalist paramilitaries have been described by some (including Taoiseach Albert Reynolds) as "reactionary", i.e., that they respond to the attacks of republican groups, and some commentators claim that if there were no violent republican activity, loyalist violence would cease to exist. Others contend that these claims of solely "reactionary" loyalist attacks are hard to square with the emergence of militant loyalism in the civil rights era (i.e., when the IRA was dormant), and their preference for attacks on Catholics with no paramilitary connections, rather than attacking the more dangerous members of republican organisations. In the event that full transparent decommissioning by republican paramilitaries is completed, then it is widely expected by political commentators that loyalist paramilitary organisations would be put under heavy pressure to follow suit.
While killings and bombings have been almost eliminated, "lower level" violence and crime, including "punishment" beatings, extortion and drug dealing continue, particularly in loyalist areas. Paramilitary organisations are still perceived to have considerable control in some areas, particularly the less affluent. Details of the perceived current level of activity by paramilitary organisations were published in a 2005 report by the Independent Monitoring Commission [3].

text: On 28 July 2005, the IRA announced the end of its campaign, and promised complete decommissioning of all its weapons, to be witnessed by clergymen from Catholic and Protestant churches. The statement read:

text: The IICD confirmed in its final report of September 2005 that the IRA had decommissioned all of its weapons.

text: The definitive end of The Troubles and thus of the Peace Process came in 2007.[citation needed] Following the St Andrews Agreement of October 2006, and March 2007 elections, the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Féin formed a government in May 2007. In July 2007, the British Army formally ended Operation Banner, their mission in Northern Ireland which began 38 years earlier, in 1969.

text: On 8 December 2007, while visiting President Bush in the White House with the Northern Ireland First Minister Ian Paisley, Martin McGuinness, the Deputy First Minister, said to the press "Up until the 26 March this year, Ian Paisley and I never had a conversation about anything – not even about the weather – and now we have worked very closely together over the last seven months and there's been no angry words between us. ... This shows we are set for a new course."[8][9]

text: Consultative Group on the Past[edit]

text: The Consultative Group on the Past was an independent group established to consult across the community in Northern Ireland on the best way to deal with the legacy of the Troubles.

text: The Group stated its terms of reference as:

text: To consult across the community on how Northern Ireland society can best approach the legacy of the events of the past 40 years; and to make recommendations, as appropriate, on any steps that might be taken to support Northern Ireland society in building a shared future that is not overshadowed by the events of the past.

text: The Group was co-chaired by the Most Rev. Dr. Robin Eames (Lord Eames), the former Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh, and Denis Bradley, and published its report in January 2009.[10]

text: Whilst the group met MI5 and the UVF, the Provisional IRA refused to meet with the group.[11]

text: The Group published its recommendations on 28 January 2009 in a 190-page report, containing more than 30 recommendations, expected to cost in total £300m.[12] The report recommended the setting up of a 5-year Legacy Commission, a Reconciliation Forum to aid the existing commission for victims and survivors, and a new historical case review body. The report concluded the Legacy Commission should make proposals on how "a line might be drawn", but omitted proposals for an amnesty. Additionally, it was proposed that no new Public Inquiries be held, and an annual Day of Reflection and Reconciliation and a shared memorial to the conflict.[12] A controversial proposal to pay the relatives of all victims killed in the Troubles, including the families of paramilitary members, £12,000, as a "recognition payment", caused disruption to the report's launch by protesters.[12] This estimated cost of this part of the proposal was £40m.[10]