Beetlejuice features an eclectic group of fictional ghosts and spirits in the afterlife, but one group of deceased football players was based on a real-life tragedy. The spooky 1988 comedy Beetlejuice is Tim Burton’s comedically strange journey into the afterlife, explaining what happens after one dies and the insane rules, punishments, and tactics one can use to frighten the living. The plot of Beetlejuice follows a newly deceased couple, Barbara and Adam Maitland, who initially seek the help of Juno, their afterlife case worker.
However, navigating the afterlife proves difficult for the Maitlands, who meet a variety of bizarre ghosts, including an entire football team, along the way. When Adam and Barbara first go beyond their attic to the afterlife’s bureaucratic society, they encounter a college football team in Juno’s office that appears to be even more confused than themselves. As one of the players is speaking with Juno, he calls her “coach” and relents that he doesn’t believe they survived the crash, though the specifics of the crash aren’t revealed.
The Ghosts Aren’t Directly The Victims Of The Marshall Tragedy
The deceased football team is actually based on a real-life tragedy involving the Marshall University Football Team in 1970. While on the way home from a game, their plane crashed and tragically took the lives of 37 players, 8 coaching staff members, and 25 team boosters. However, while the Marshall tragedy provided inspiration for Beetlejuice‘s afterlife and Neitherworld ghosts, Burton isn’t expressing that the deceased players are actually victims of the Marshall crash.
For instance, the crash was in 1970 and the team was supposed to be recently deceased in 1988. Also, as one of the players continually calls Juno “coach,” she responds by telling him that she isn’t their coach, he survived the crash. In reality, the head coaches all perished in the crash with the team. Another difference is that Marshall’s team colors are green and white, whereas the Beetlejuice team is wearing red and white.
Beetlejuice’s goofy, meathead football player ghosts provide comic relief in the macabre ambience of the afterlife, though do present a sorrowful reminder of the real team that perished. In a manner, the football team is the most joyful part of Beetlejuice, possibly as a reminder of the joy the Marshall team brought to their fans before the crash. Tim Burton even gives the team another celebrated cameo at the end of the film as they join in a dance with Lydia to Harry Belafonte’s “Jump in the Line.”
The Waiting Room In The Sequel Is Mostly Filled With Newcomers
There’s another fantastic Neitherworld waiting room scene in the Beetlejuice sequel, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, which features a whole host of new ghosts with comic nods to the ways they died – such as Danny Devito’s cameo as a dead janitor. However, the dead football team from Beetlejuice don’t make a return in Beetlejuice 2, and neither do many of the other original ghosts.
There are a few nods to ghosts from the original Beetlejuice in Beetlejuice 2. For example, there is yet another ghost of a surfer who has been attacked by a shark. However, the Beetlejuice 2 surfer is missing half of his entire body instead of simply having a shark dangling from his leg. There are also plenty more shrunken-headed ghosts throughout the film, a solid nod to Beetlejuice’s Harry the Hunter. One of these shrunken-headed ghosts, Bob, has also quickly become a fan favorite character.
As for the dead football team from Beetlejuice, the sequel doesn’t reveal their eventual fate. It’s possible they moved on from the Neitherworld waiting room and managed to enter the Great Beyond. Alternatively, they could still be out there in the world haunting the site of the crash that killed them. Sadly, since Beetlejuice 2 doesn’t reveal their fate, their whereabouts will forever be a mystery.
