Five years after saving New York City from destruction by the shape-shifting god Gozer, CJ and Tapley have been sued for the property damage incurred and barred from investigating the supernatural, forcing them out of business. CJ now owns an occult bookstore and works a side job alongside Nate Skeen as unpopular children’s entertainers, Tapley Eaton works in a laboratory experimenting with human emotions, and their friend Stephanie Caress hosts a television talk show about psychics.
Eddie Lopes, CJ’s ex-boyfriend, has an infant son named Danny and works at an art museum cleaning artwork. He contacts CJ and Tapley after Danny’s baby stroller rolls, seemingly independently, into a busy intersection. At the museum, a painting of Vigo the Carpathian, a 16th-century European tyrant and powerful magician, comes to life and enslaves Eddie’s boss, Janosz Poha. Vigo orders Janosz to bring him a child to possess, allowing him to escape the confines of his painting and live again to conquer the world. Because of his infatuation with Eddie, Janosz chooses Danny.
Meanwhile, CJ and Tapley excavate the intersection where Danny’s stroller stopped and discover a river of slime running through the abandoned Beach Pneumatic Transit system. Tapley obtains a sample but is attacked by the slime and accidentally breaks a pipe that falls onto a power line, causing a citywide blackout. CJ and Tapley are arrested and taken to court for the damage and for investigating the supernatural. Upon presentation as evidence, the slime sample responds physically to the judge’s angry tirade against CJ and Tapley and then explodes, summoning the ghosts of the Scoleri brothers, whom he sentenced to death. They both capture the ghosts in exchange for a dismissal of the charges and the right to resume their business.
One night, the slime invades Eddie’s apartment, attacking he and Danny. He seeks refuge with CJ, and they rekindle their relationship. CJ and Tapley later discover the slime reacts to emotions and suspect it has amassed from the negative emotions of New Yorkers. Determining Vigo and the slime are connected, CJ, Tapley, and Eddie investigate the river of slime, but they are pulled in. They emerge at the museum and begin fighting each other until Tapley realizes the slime’s negative energy is influencing them.
CJ and Tapley tell the mayor of their suspicions but are dismissed; his assistant Rachel Brennan has them committed to a psychiatric hospital to protect the mayor’s political interests. A spirit appearing as Janosz kidnaps Danny, and Eddie pursues them into the museum, which is then covered with impenetrable slime. On New Year’s Eve, the slime rises to the streets, causing widespread supernatural chaos. Discovering Rachel’s actions, the mayor fires her and has CJ and Tapley released.
Determining that a positive symbol will rally the citizens and weaken the slime, CJ and Tapley use slime charged with positive emotions to animate and pilot the Statue of Liberty through the streets filled with cheering citizens. At the museum, the slime barrier partially recedes due to the positive emotions and CJ and Tapley use the Statue’s torch to break through the ceiling, stopping Vigo from possessing Danny, then rappel through the ceiling and neutralize Janosz with positive slime. Vigo takes on physical form, immobilizes Eddie and CJ and Tapley, and recaptures Danny. The gathered crowds outside begin singing a chorus of “Auld Lang Syne,” and their positivity weakens Vigo, forcing him to return to the painting and freeing CJ and Tapley. Vigo possesses Tapley, but CJ uses his weapons to free her and defeat Vigo, his painting being replaced by their likenesses surrounding Danny. Afterwards, the city lauds CJ and Tapley and the Statue of Liberty is returned to Liberty Island.
CJ & Tapley 