The movie opens with the voice of the Caretaker (Sam Elliot) relating
the legend of the Ghost Rider - a damned soul condemned to walk the
earth and obey the Devil's orders. A Ghost Rider had been sent to
collect a parchment known as the Contract of San Venganza, which holds
the power of 1000 evil souls. The Ghost Rider knew that this Contract
was pure evil, so he betrayed his heritage and outran the Devil himself.
Scene
shifts to a carnival, where the father-sun stunt duo of Barton &
Johnny Blaze are performing on ramps for the crowd. After the show,
Barton chastises Johnny for showing off and being extra reckless
because his girlfriend Roxanne was in the crowd.
Later that day,
Roxanne and Johnny meet and Roxanne tells Johnny that her father is
sending her away. Johnny decides to pack up and they will run away
together.
Johnny goes back to find his father asleep, holding a
piece of paper. It is a report from a doctor, and the news is not good-
Barton Blaze has cancer and it appears to be terminal. Crushed, Johnny
goes out to work on his motorcycle.
A strange man in black
(Peter Fonda) approaches Johnny and asks if Johnny will perhaps one day
ride for him. The man mentions Barton's illness, and offers to help.
Johnny asks what he could give in return, and the man says "Your soul."
Johnny, thinking the man crazy or sarcastic, responds "OK." The man in
black offers Johnny a contract, and Johnny cuts himself when opening
it. The man in black accepts this blood drop as an appropriate
signature.
Johnny wakes up in bed with Barton energetic and
cheerful. Barton confesses to Johnny that he had been sick, but now
feels "heathly as a horse." Johnny is stunned. Barton attempts a new
stunt at the show (jumping through a ring of fire), but he comes up
short and crashes. Johnny tearfully watches his father die while the
man in black laughs ominously.
Johnny sees Roxanne at the
hilltop, but does not join her and rides off into the distance. The man
in black approaches Johnny, promising that one day he will come for
Johnny's services when needed.
Fast-forward about 10 years and
the adult Johnny Blaze (Nicholas Cage) is attempting a new stunt at a
sold-out stadium. Johnny clears the targets on the field, but comes up
short on the landing, wrecking his bike and sending him crashing into a
wall. Johnny's pit crew, led by his best friend Mack (Donal Logue) rush
to his side and find Johnny dazed but uninjured. The crowd roars with
cheers as Johnny gets back up.
Later, Johnny and his crew are on
the road. Mack is perplexed, believing that there is no way Johnny
should have survived that crash. Mack suggests taht maybe Johnny has a
guardian angel, and Johnny mildly suggests that "Maybe it's something
else." Mack and the crew watch a TV advertisement for Johnny's next
stunt, taking place in his old hometown. Johnny will be attempting to
clear an entire football field (300 Feet), jumping over 50 cars in the
process.
Meanwhile, another strange figure in black (Wes
Bentley) arrives at a Hell's Angels club out in the desert. He proceeds
to kill nearly all of the members with a single touch.
Mack and
Johnny arrive at Johnny's apartment, where Mack tries to talk Johnny
out of doing this new stunt because it seems too risky. Mack is worried
because Johnny is becoming increasingly reckless while delving into
strange interests (Johnny's apartment has a lot of strange books about
the occult). onn responds that he is merely looking for "a sign and a
second chance."
Back at the Hell's Angels bar, this figure in
black is introduced as Blackheart. He is approached by 3 elemental
spirits; Gressil (earth), Wallow (water) and Abigor (wind) and recruits
their help in finding the Contract of San Venganza. The spirits agree
even though they are afraid of another spirit named Mephistopheles (a
name that angers Blackheart).
Johnny is getting ready for his
new stunt when he is approached by a reporter for an interview. To his
shock, it is his old girlfriend Roxanne (Eva Mendes). Johnny is so
stunned by her arrival that he cannot answer any of her interview
questions. Roxanne breaks off the interview and leaves before Johnny
begins his jump.
Mack joins Johnny on the ramp, feeling relieved
now that Johnny has agreed to take the cars out of the jump. Johnny
then reveals that he thought of something else to put in, and the
stadium roof opens to allow 6 BlackHawk helicopters enter. Mack is
angry about this change and demands to know what prompted such an idea.
Johnny explains that his father Barton thought it would be cool.
Johnny
sets up his bike, mind obviously still focused on Roxanne. Without
warning, he throttles up and heads down the ramp! After a few tense
seconds, Johnny makes it across with a perfect landing. Johnny waves to
the crowd and then speeds off.
Roxanne and her news van are
riding down the expressway when they are confronted by Johnny. Johnny
pulls a few stunts to get the van to stop so he can talk to Roxanne.
Roxanne relents, telling Johnny to meet her in the restaurant of her
hotel later that evening. A group of motorists angry at the stop of
traffic storm over to see what is happening, but when they find out
that Johnny Blaze is on the freeway they swarm around asking for
autographs.
Blackheart and his gang confront Mephistopheles, the
man in black who made the contract with Johnny. Mephistopheles warns
them about trying to take the contract of San Venganza, and threatens
them with the Ghost Rider. Blackheart is unafraid. It is revealed
through this conversation that Blackheart is Mephistopheles' son.
Johnny
is preparing for his date with Roxanne when he notices his hands
glowing bright red. He washes them only to observe steam rising off his
palms. Johnny goes out into the alley to find a brand-new motorcycle
revved up and waiting for him. Mephistopheles appears, revealing that
he has decided to invoke Johnny's services. Mephistopheles explains
that he has been keeping Johnny alive all this time so that this day
could come. Mephistopheles compels Johnny to get on the new bike and
sends him off after Blackheart, offering to return Johnny's soul if he
is successful.
Johnny's new bike sets off at such a speed that it burns a trail of fire and destruction through the town.
Blackheart
and his gang arrive at a train yard where they are confronted by the
night watchman. Blackheart is curious, stating that this land was once
a cemetery. The watchman explains that the graves were moved by St.
Michael's Church, and Blackheart kills him.
Johnny arrives and
dismounts the bike, thrashing in pain. Fire erupts from his feet and
hands, as Johnny roars with a mixture of pain and evil desire. Finally
his head bursts into flame, revealing a skeletal skull. Johnny Blaze
has become the new Ghost Rider.
Blackheart confronts the Ghost
Rider and sends in his elementals to fight. Ghost Rider grabs some
chains off a nearby wall to use as weapons but ist stopped when Gressil
drives a truck into the building. Ghost Rider erupts from behind the
truck, lighting one of his chains on fire and ensnaring Gressil.
Gressil screams in pain as he is turned to stone and dissolves.
Ghost
Rider whistles and his motorcycle appears. He touches the gas cap and
the motorcycle transforms into a firey skull-and-chain entity, much
like the Ghost Rider himself. He rides through town and spots a young
woman being mugged. He grabs the mugger (who stabs him, but the knife
merely melts off in Ghost Rider's body). Ghost Rider commands the
mugger to "Look into my eyes." The mugger screams in horror as his
memories of past crimes come back to haunt him. When this torture is
finished, Ghost Rider tosses the mugger aside.
Ghost Rider ends
his drive through town on the outskirts, obviously growing weaker by
the oncoming morning. He arrives in a cemetary and slowly but painfully
changes back into Johnny Blaze. Johnny collapses at the headstone of
his father, Barton.
Roxanne, angry at Johnny for standing her
up, reports on the chaos in town. The police find a license plate
during the investigation that belongs to one of Johnny Blaze's bikes.
Johnny
is found by the Caretaker, who offers help. Johnny is skeptical at
first, but relents. The Caretaker explains that the Ghost Rider is
essentially "the Devil's bounty hunter," who must hunt down anyone
escaping from hell. Furthermore, the Ghost Rider only appears at night
or in the presence of evil. Johnny remembers what he did to the mugger,
and the caretaker explains that that was the Ghost Rider's greatest
weapon - the Penance Stare. It makes anyone who feels it experience the
pain of every sin they have caused.
The Caretaker explains the
story of the last Ghost Rider, and the town of San Venganza's souls. He
also reveals that the spirits following Blackheart are The Hidden-
fallen angels cast out of Heaven. Johnny leaves to take care of some
business, which the Caretaker advises against (Blackheart and The
Hidden cannot come onto sacred ground such as the cemetery, so Johnny
would be safer staying there).
Johnny looks at the devastation
caused by last night's events. He meets Roxanne, who is very mad at
him. Johnny goes back to his apartment and does some research about
"fire elements," and is able to display a minor degree of control over
his new powers. Roxanne arrives and asks him what has been going on
with Johnny. Johnny decides to be honest with her, but Roxanne does not
accept his story (selling the soul to the devil and becoming a bounty
hunter), thinking he is either lying to keep her away or has gone
insane.
Johnny walks outside and the police bring him in,
thinking him responsible for the murders last night. Johnny denies any
involvement, and the police throw him in a holding cell. The inmates
recognize Johnny, and decide to attack him out of revenge for never
seeing him fail in his stunt shows. One young inmate stands up for
Johnny but he is knocked aside. The remaining inmates jump on Johnny,
who effortlessly transforms into Ghost Rider and defeats them all.
Ghost
Rider steals the lead thug's jacket and gloves, making small spikes
emerge from the metal detailing. Ghost Rider proceeds to burn through
the cell bars and leaves. He hesitates for a minute in confronting the
young inmate who stood up for him, then proclaims the young man to be
"Innocent" and walks off.
Blackheart is seen at St. Michael's
Church, asking the minister about the Contract of San Venganza. The
minister denies any knowledge, so Blackheart kills him. Upon learning
that Ghost Rider is active again, Blackheart sends Abigor to deal with
him.
Ghost Rider reclaims his motorcycle and escapes from police
custody. The cops quickly give pursuit, eventually trapping him in a
dead-end alley. Ghost Rider merely tilts his motorcycle and proceeds to
ride straight up the building! Roxanne, in a building across the block,
is packing to leave when she looks out and sees the strange display.
Ghost
Rider confronts Abigor on the rooftop, but they are ambushed by a
police helicopter. Ghost Rider uses his chains to throw the copter away
from the roof so they do not interfere. Ghost Rider then attempts to
catch Abigor just like he did with Gressil, but Abigor uses his wind
powers to escape. This gives Ghost Rider an idea: he ignites a chain
and spins it, causing a cyclone that pulls in Abigor. After a few
minutes of resistance, the Wind Spirit is destroyed.
The police
attempt to apprehend Ghost Rider as he comes down from the roof. Ghost
Rider attempts to resist, until he spots Roxanne in the crowd. The
flames on Ghost Rider's head grow fainter as he approaches Roxanne. The
police see this as an advantage and open fire with their weapons. Ghost
Rider conjures a wall of flame and escapes, retreating to the cemetery.
The
Caretaker finishes the story of the Contract of San Venganza by telling
Johnny about the previous Ghost Rider - a former Texas Ranger named
Carter Slade. Slade became corrupt and made a deal with Mephistopheles
to save his life. When Carter Slade saw what was happening at San
Venganza, he took the Contract and hid it. The Caretaker puts forth the
theory that Carter was buried with it.
Roxanne returns to
Johnny's apartment where she meets Mack. Mack talks bout how Johnny has
had weird interests recently and Roxanne begins to fip through some of
Johnny's books. She is now convinced that what Johnny told her was
true. Blackheart suddenly appears and kills Mack.
Johnny returns
to find Mack dead and Blackheart holding Roxanne captive. He transforms
into Ghost Rider and attempts to use the Penance Stare on Blackheart.
He merely laughs, explaining that the Penance Stare will not work on
him because he has no soul. Blackheat agrees to free Roxanne if Johnny
brings him the Contract at the ruins of San Venganza by morning.
Johnny
returns to the cemetery, vowing to dig up the entire place if need be.
The Caretaker shatters his shovel, revealing a rolled-up parchment in
the handle. It is the contract. Johnny decides to take it and have a
final fight with Blackheart. The Caretaker relents, thinking that
Johnny's circumstances make him unpredictable and he just might have an
advantage.
The Caretaker whistles, summoning a mysterious horse
from the shadows. He climbs on and bursts into flames. The Caretaker
reveals that HE is Carter Slade, the previous Ghost Rider. Both Riders
head out to San Venganza.
Carter escorts Johnny to San Venganza,
but then collapses. Carter explains that the trip has exhausted the
last of his Ghost Rider powers. Carter gives Johnny a shotgun and then
rides off into the sunset, ready to face eternity for his actions.
Johnny
is riding into San Venganza when he is ambushed by Wallow, the last
surviving Hidden. Wallow pulls Johnny underwater, trying to drown him.
Johnny counters by transforming into Ghost Rider and superheating the
water, evaporating Wallow.
Blackheart appears with Roxanne in
custody. He lets Roxanne go as Johnny hands over the contract. Before
Blackheart can take the Contract, Johnny transforms into Ghost Rider
and attacks. Blackheart manages to fight off Ghost Rider's attacks and
reads the Contract, commanding the spirits within the town to join with
him. The spirits emerge and unite with Blackheart, who then proclaims
"My name is Legion; for we are many."
Roxanne attacks Legion
with Carter Slade's shotgun. It wounds him but does little to slow his
advance. Johnny catches the shotgun and infuses it with his Ghost Rider
powers, turning it into a hell-fire weapon. The blast disintegrates
Legion, but he effortlessly begins to reform.
Johnny realizes
that Legion now has all thousand souls from San Venganza trapped within
him, and has made himself vulnerable to Ghost Rider's greatest weapon.
He transforms into Ghost Rider one last time and traps Legion long
enough to use the Penance Stare. Legion screams in agony as the sins of
one thousand souls pass through his body. Legion reverts to Blackheart
and dies, the Penance Stare having succeeded once again.
Mephistopheles
arrives and congratulates Johnny on his success. He offers to take back
the Ghost Rider powers, but Johnny refuses. He decides to keep the
powers and use them against Mephistopheles' evil. He is angry but he
cannot take back the power by force, and vows to make Johnny pay.
Johnny and Roxanne share an emotional farewell as Johnny vows to head out and go wherever the road takes him.
Ghost Rider Movie Goofs from imdb.com
Factual errors: During one of the stunts
a character is knocked out hitting the fence. The crew immediately
remove his helmet. You should *never* remove the helmet of an
unconscious biker unless there are problems with their airway.
Revealing mistakes: In the long
shot of the rain in the desert (which later turns to falling fire) the
rain is quite pronounced and heavy, yet the splashes in the puddles are
only from a light drizzle.
Continuity: Before the big jump
Johnny drinks out of a coffee pot, spilling coffee on the front of his
jacket. In the next shot there is no coffee on the jacket.
Continuity: After getting his
shoulder sewn up, Johnny goes home and looks in a mirror. When he turns
there is no wound that is stitched up.
Continuity: When Johnny Blaze first
meets the caretaker he has a knife wound that he got from the street
punk he confronts as Ghost Rider. Later in the film Ghost Rider is
riddled with bullets and yet when he becomes Johnny Blaze again he has
no injuries.
Continuity: In the beginning of the movie, the young Johnny Blaze has brown eyes. Later on, the older Johnny Blaze has blue eyes.
Incorrectly regarded as goofs:
During his first night as Ghost Rider, Blaze whistles for his bike to
come and get him. A neat trick considering he has no lips or a tongue.
However, the same lack of lips and tongue does not hinder his ability
to speak. One can simply assume the same power that lets him speak lets
him whistle.
Revealing mistakes: After Ghost
Rider gets the leather jacket with the spikes on the shoulder you can
see his chain pass through one of the spikes in scenes where he wraps
his chain around himself, revealing the CGI effect.
Factual errors: When Ghost Rider is
walking towards Roxanne after riding down the skyscraper she is clearly
in the line of fire from the cops behind her. They are later seen
shooting freely without hitting her.
Factual errors: When Johnny's
helmet visor smashes during the stunt in the beginning of the movie the
sound effects make it sound like the visor is made of glass. Helmet
visors are made of plastic.
Plot holes: When Ghost Rider takes
Blackheart's souls, images of the previous kills he made are seen in
the fire. However these kills would be credited to Blackheart's own
soul, which is in hell (revealed the first time Ghost Rider tries to
punish Blackheart earlier in the film). The souls Ghost Rider is taking
are those of the villagers, and so the images that Blackheart would see
in Ghost Rider's eyes would be their kills, not his.
Continuity: When the birds-eye
camera moves through the city, and at several other points in the
movie, the cars are on the opposite sides of the road. While the movie
is set in America, the film was shot in Melbourne, Australia.
Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers):
In the end, when Blaze/Rider burns the souls of Blackheart, while they
show what Blackheart’s seen, and you can hear what he says, in the
middle of all chaos he says "Oh My God".
Continuity: When Johnny Blaze falls
while trying to land he slides up and hits his back against a wall. In
the next shot he is seen lying on his back several feet away with
obvious drag marks made by his helmet when some crew member dragged him
away from the wall.
Continuity: When Johnny and Mack
are talking after Mack turns off the chimp video, Johnny has his
martini glass of jellybeans. The shot over Mack's shoulder shows the
top layer of jellybeans is almost all yellow, most notably the beans
nearest to Johnny. In the reverse shot (as Johnny's speaking and the
shot switches to a low shot near the arm of the chair) there are red
jellybeans that should be visible in the other shot, but are not. This
could be due to the glass turning though.
Continuity: When Blaze Sr. is
crashing, in the rear view you see him clear the launch ramp and start
to fall to the side and off of his bike, both still well within the
flaming hoop. When Johnny rushes in and sees the aftermath the hoop is
severely warped at the top and a piece of it can be seen at the side of
the ramp. The bike is seen further down the ramp from Blaze Sr. and
couldn't possibly have done that kind of damage.
Revealing mistakes: After young
Johnny Blaze takes off down the road leaving his girlfriend behind, it
is raining quite hard and his hair is wet, but there is no rain hitting
him in the face as he drives.
Factual errors: Six Blackhawk
helicopters cannot fit into a 300 ft span. Each one has a wingspan
(rotors) of 54 feet. Allowing for absolutely zero space in between
their rotors, that would total 324 ft. However, an actual
goalpost-to-goalpost jump would be 360 ft, so they would narrowly fit.
Continuity: When Johnny is cut by
the punk purse snatcher's knife and has to be sewn up by the Caretaker,
his leather jacket never shows any place where the knife enters.
Continuity: When Blaze steps on his
bike and says "Let's ride", he turns into Ghost Rider, and you can see
his skeletal hands on fire (no gloves). In the very next shot, as Blaze
and Slade are riding through the desert, Blaze suddenly has gloves on.
Factual errors: When the stadium
roof opened up to let the helicopters land, it opened immediately.
There is no stadium retractable roof that opens that fast.
Anachronisms: The motorcycle young
Johnny Blaze is working on when he meets the Devil is an Evolution
Sportster, introduced in 1986. That particular engine configuration was
made between 1991 and 2003.
Factual errors: When Blaze gets
arrested, the Captain shows him a Deputy Sheriff badge but calls the
other cop and officer. Police Officers and Deputy Sheriff's badges are
totally different. Also the cars said Police on the light bar, but said
Sheriff on the side of the car. It is not possible to be both.
Factual errors: Blaze's "Touchdown
Jump" is repeatedly referred to as a "300 foot jump". As a "goalpost to
goalpost" jump, it would have been 360 feet.
Revealing mistakes: When Blackheart
Pushes Johnny to the ground when he is in his room, you can see the
"wood" bend and give in where he fell, obviously showing the rubber
"wood" prop.
Continuity: On the interstate scene
where Johnny stops his bike in front of the news van, he gets off his
bike and leaves it parked in front of the van. However, he doesn't have
a chance to move his bike before the van starts to drive off. Did the
van run over his bike?
Continuity: When Blackheart is
walking up to the bar and the shot pans to the Angel Killer looking at
him you can see several people also out on the porch. When Blackheart
kills the biker no one attempted to stop him or alert the others. He
also walks in unhindered.
