Ghost Rider (Ghost Rider Film Series)

Ghost Rider is a superhero from Marvel Universe from the Marvel comics who appeared as the titular main protagonist of the 2007 live-action film Ghost Rider and its 2012 sequel Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance.
He was portrayed/voiced by Nicolas Cage, who also played Sean Archer in Face/Off, Grug Crood in The Croods, Big Daddy in Kick-Ass, Ben Gates in the National Treasure films, Balthazar Blake in The Sorcerer's Apprentice, a fictionalized version of himself in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, and voiced Spider-Man Noir in the Spider-Verse trilogy. In the Japanese dub, he was voiced by Akio Otsuka.
==Role In The Films==
===Ghost Rider===
As a teenager, Johnny Blaze works with his father as a stunt motorcycle rider and he has a crush on Roxanne Simpson, who he wants to flee away with. When he discovers his father's lung cancer, Johnny feels ashamed for his plans of leaving, but the very night a stranger proposes him to sell his very soul, in exchange of Barton's health. Skeptical, Johnny accepts, and the next morning Barton is healed from cancer and gives him his favorite motorcycle and blessing and lets him go away with his beloved Roxanne. Just a moment before he actually flees, Johnny assists to Barton's death in an incident during the show. Being tricked by Mephistopheles, he realizes he'll never be free of his curse and leaves everything behind, Roxanne included.
Years later, Johnny (Nicolas Cage) has become a stunt rider known for his dynamic stunts and for his uncanny ability to walk away from life-threatening crashes. His manager and best friend Mack (Donal Logue) speculates that Johnny must have a guardian angel protecting him. Johnny, however, speculates that it could be "something else". Later on, his next by that time, Johnny is driven straight to the station on his "first ride" where he transforms fully into the Ghost Rider and a fight ensues. In the process, Johnny acquires a heavy chain, which he uses to kill Gressil while the others escape. While searching for the quarry, Ghost Rider hears a woman (Rebel Wilson) being mugged. He stops the mugger and uses his knife (Which is a switchblade according to the flame-like images in Ghost Rider's eyes.) on him, the Penance Stare; a power by which a person is subjected to all the pain they have ever caused others. As the mugger ends up in a catatonic state, worse than death, which is implied to be the "burning" of his soul.
The next day, Johnny wakes up in a cemetery chapel, where he meets a man called the Caretaker (Sam Elliott), who seems to know all the history of the Ghost Rider. When he arrives home, Johnny finds Roxanne and reveals himself as the Devil's bounty hunter. She leaves in anger and disbelief at his tale. As Roxanne leaves, the police arrive and take Johnny into custody for his connection to the damage done to the city and the deaths caused by Blackheart.
He is put in a holding cell with some other prisoners, who mock Johnny and beat him before he assumes his Ghost Rider form, knocking the prisoners down before taking one of their jackets and leaving, after recognizing the only one who made no attempt to harm him as "innocent", to hunt down Blackheart. That night, Roxanne recognizes Johnny, while he (as the Ghost Rider) is fighting Abigor, in full view of the city and a large police force. Johnny destroys Abigor, faces the police, and then leaves. Observing the scene after obtaining the location of the contract, Blackheart realizes that Roxanne is Johnny's weakness.
Johnny goes for advice to the Caretaker, who tells him of Johnny's predecessor, Carter Slade, a Texas Ranger who was a man of honor before his greed placed him before the gallows for his misdeeds. Slade then made a deal with Mephistopheles to break free; in return, Slade became the Ghost Rider who hid the contract of San Venganza. The Caretaker then warns Johnny to stay away from those whom Blackheart and the fallen angels can use against him. Unfortunately, Blackheart already plans to use Roxanne and is in search of her. He finds her at Johnny's apartment, reading some books pertaining to demonic lore in the effort to understand Johnny's actions. Blackheart kills Mack and stuns Roxanne, before Johnny arrives and is assaulted by Blackheart. Transforming into the Ghost Rider, Johnny attempts to use the Penance Stare on his enemy, but Blackheart is impervious to it because he has no (human) soul to burn. Blackheart then threatens to kill Roxanne, using her life as the means of exchange for the Contract of San Venganza. Johnny thence goes to the caretaker, asking to have this contract.
The Caretaker tells Johnny that San Venganza will be "Hell on Earth" if Blackheart claims the contract, and admonishes Johnny to think before he acts. Johnny, however, convinces the Caretaker that he has a plan by which to overcome their enemy. The Caretaker then reveals that he is Carter Slade, still alive because of his own power as a Ghost Rider, and offers to show Johnny the way to San Venganza. They ride together into the desert – Carter Slade on a skeletal, flaming phantom horse, Johnny Blaze on his skeletally decorated, flaming motorcycle – leaving a destructive trail of fire in their wake. Some distance from the town, they stop. Slade gives Johnny his shotgun (a sawn-off Winchester Model 1887/1901) and tells him to "use the shadows" before riding away and dying of his own depletion of strength.
Having killed Wallow, the last of Blackheart's three demons, Johnny gives the contract to Blackheart but becomes the Ghost Rider as he does, hoping to pummel his foe into submission. Blackheart shrugs off the attack and manages to subdue Ghost Rider as the sun rises. With Johnny rendered powerless, Blackheart uses the contract to absorb the 1,000 souls into his body, taking the name "Legion". Johnny attempts in vain to lure his enemy into the shadowed area of the church until Roxanne grabs his discarded shotgun, shooting Legion several times before tossing the gun to Johnny. Holding the weapon in the shadows, Johnny transforms the shotgun into a Ghost Rider weapon and blasts Legion apart with hellfire. The souls of San Venganza restore the demon quickly, whereupon Johnny uses the Penance Stare to destroy him. Legion's thousand corrupt souls are seared and he falls, comatose and blind. Ghost Rider then tosses Blackheart's comatose body aside, and reverts to his normal form. He is at first ashamed of his monstrous appearance before Roxanne, until she shows him that she is not afraid of what Johnny has become.
Mephistopheles appears and gives Johnny his soul, offering to take back the curse of the Ghost Rider. Johnny refuses, saying that he will use his power against Mephistopheles, and against all harm that comes to the innocent. Infuriated of being robbed of the power, Mephistopheles vows to make Johnny pay, to which Johnny in response recites his favorite saying: "You can't live in fear". Mephistopheles then disappears, taking Blackheart's body with him. Johnny and Roxanne share some parting words at the tree on which Johnny carved "J&R FOREVER" at the beginning of the film. Roxanne then tells Johnny that he got his second chance before sharing a final kiss with him. Johnny then rides away on his motorcycle, now a legend in his own right.
===Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance===
Johnny Blaze has been hiding for five years in eastern Europe and is confronted by Moreau. Moreau makes Johnny a deal, if Johnny uses the Rider to rescue the boy, Moreau and his group of monks, led by Methodius, will remove the demon from Johnny's body. Johnny changes into the Ghost Rider and rescues the boy from Carrigan.
Danny and Johnny bond over their demonic natures. Johnny, Nadya, and Moreau take Danny to Methodius and the monks fulfil their promise. They remove the Ghost Rider from Johnny after telling him the demon's background. The demon's name is Zarathos and he was an angel, a Spirit of Justice sent to protect man. But he was taken to hell, corrupted and his mission of protecting the innocent, turned into punishing the guilty and he turned into the devil's Spirit of Vengeance. But the monks rid Johnny of the Rider, then they decided that Danny is dangerous and because he was born with his power they can not remove it, so they decide to kill the boy. But Blackout shows up, kills the monks and captures Danny.
Johnny, Moreau, and Nadya go to stop Roarke, Blackout kills Moreua, Johnny is about to be killed as well, but Danny realizing that he has all of Roarke's powers, puts the power of Zarathos back into Johnny.
Once again as the Rider, Johnny kills Blackout and a road chase occurs with the Rider chasing Roarke and the boy. Ghost Rider crashes Roarke's car and sends him back to hell and Danny is killed in the crash. But Johnny can feel the angelic part of Zarathos' presence and his hands glows with blue fire as the angel resurrects the boy. With Roarke beaten, Johnny rides into the night not as the demonic Spirit of Vengeance, but as the angelic Spirit of Justice.
== Quotes ==
==Character Traits==
Johnny Blaze is a good person cursed with a sense of guilt for the death of his father and is angry for having been tricked by Mephistopheles. He tries the most dangerous stunts, wanting to prove to himself that he's actually doing all the stunts himself, and not Mephisto or the Rider preventing him from dying before he fulfills his contract.
Johnny is a skillful stunt driver, the best on field, and he acts as a daredevil in everything in his life. He has a sort of addiction to candies, which he consumes in enormous quantities.
==Equipment==
* Hellcycle: Motorcycle which can be transformed by hellfire whenever he becomes Ghost Rider.
* Ghost Rider's Hellfire Chain: Utilizing an length piece of chain he found upon his first time as Ghost Rider. Ghost Rider's chain has become a mystic weapon capable of transforming into a wide variety of different weapons.
** Mental Commands: The chain obeys the mental commands of Ghost Rider. When inactive it will link to itself in a loop so that it can be worn as an accoutrement to Ghost Rider's clothing. When Ghost Rider wills it to do so it separates to form a multipurpose weapon.
** Variable Length: The chain is capable of mystically extending to greater lengths, it's upper limits are unknown.
** Lasso: With the chain gripped at one end, the other can be used to ensnare a target in a manner similar to a lasso.
** Hellfire: In addition, he can apply hellfire to it to use it to disintegrate his enemies.
*Shotgun: Formerly a shotgun given to him by Carter Slade before his final battle with Blackheart.
**Hellfire: Johnny can apply hellfire to it for extra "hellfirepower", as seen when he shoots Blackheart that blast's him into peace's before putting himself back together.
==Powers and Abilities==
Ghost Rider is the supernatural combination between human host and experienced motorcyclist Johnny Blaze and the demonic Zarathos. As Ghost Rider, Johnny Blaze possesses a variety of supernatural powers.
===Powers===
==== Demonic Powers ====
Demonic Transformation: Johnny Blaze possesses the supernatural ability to transform into Ghost Rider at will. Originally, he would automatically transform at night or in the presence of evil. However, he has begun to gain control over his transformations and can transform through an act of will or when innocent blood is spilled. The power of Ghost Rider depends on who is in control over Ghost Rider (Johnny and the spirit inhabit the same body, but while transformed Ghost Rider is in control, Johnny Blaze only influences it's decisions to an extent as he takes the "back seat" except when he sees Roxanne, he effectively calm down. So in a way, it may be the type of psychological condition like with the Hulk whenever he sees Betty). Carter Slade has stated Ghost Rider is powerful, however, it is unknown how powerful. Nonetheless, Johnny Blaze, as Ghost Rider, is one of the strongest and most powerful beings on the planet, while Ghost Rider, is for all intents and purposes described as boundless in power to the extent where Ghost Rider was able to defeat Blackheart as Legion in battle; Ghost Rider is one of the most powerful beings in the Marvel Universe.
* Superhuman Strength: Ghost Rider possesses formidable superhuman strength sufficient to lift up to 25 tons or maybe more. He can lift a grown man off the ground and hurl him into the air all with one hand. His strength is matched only by the greatest of demons; in this form, Ghost Rider was able to beat all of Blackheart's minions and Blackheart as Legion.
* Superhuman Stamina: The mystical energy that empowers Ghost Rider prevents his muscles from producing fatigue toxins during physical activities, granting him limitless stamina.
* Superhuman Dexterity: In Ghost Rider form, Johnny's mastery over his chain is in beyond human capability.
* Superhuman Speed: Ghost Rider can move at erratic speeds that no mortal can achieve; allowing him to cover short distances either instantaneously or in mere seconds.
* Superhuman Durability: In human form, Johnny is the same like any human being and is subject to the same vulnerabilities, as shown when Slade had to stitch him up. However, Johnny Blaze, while as Ghost Rider, is highly resistant to the point of being basically immune to all types of bodily damage as he has taken blows from beings such as Blackheart with no sign of pain or discomfort. Ghost Rider is capable of withstanding great impact forces, temperature and pressure extremes, powerful energy blasts, explosions, and falls from great heights without sustaining injury. As his bodily tissues have been transformed, leaving only a skeleton, most projectiles such as bullets simply pass through him, bounce off his bones or burn away due to the level of hellfire emitted from him. Ghost Rider's body is for all intents immune to physical injury, as he is evidently not able to feel pain and is able to survive with no apparent discomfort no matter how severe the injury.
* Regenerative Healing Factor: Despite his invulnerability to conventional forms of injury, if his being is ever damaged, the magical energies imbuing him allows Ghost Rider to instantly regenerate any and all damage done without any discomfort or any evident pain. However, this is not extended to Johnny in his human form but with time, it could.
* Hellfire Manipulation: Ghost Rider possesses the ability to generate, control, and project mystical fire, or "hellfire" at will. Hellfire is an emphyreal and supernatural flame that burns the soul of a person and can be used to burn their physical body. He can utilize this fire in various ways, including projecting it from his eyes, hands, mouth, or even channel it from his body into his weapons like his shotgun, form walls of hellfire, and even transform a regular motorcycle into an tricked out one completely out of hellfire. He can also unleash the hellfire in omni-directional attacks that are incredibly powerful. From what was seen in the trailer for the sequel, after being unloaded on by an attacker with an automatic weapon, he spit back out every round like a machine gun completely in hellfire. Also near the end of the trailer, the boy ask what happens if he has to pee in that form and Johnny stated that "it's awesome" and then it cuts to the scene where he is pissing hellfire, not urine, out but it comes out like a flamethrower.
* Mystical Chain Projection: Ghost Rider wields a chain that is capable of growing in length, cutting through almost anything, and encasing it in hellfire or use it like a fan.
* Penance Stare: Ghost Rider's most powerful weapon stated by Slade, Ghost Rider possesses the supernatural ability to cause any individual who stares into his eyes to see and feel every bit of pain they have ever inflicted on anyone in their entire lifetime. After exposure to the Penance State, in the first movie the individual eyes are replaced with burn-out pupils, while in the second he has his body completely incinerated.
*Vehicle Transformation: In Spirit of Vengeance, Johnny explains whatever he "rides" will change with him. This is shown as the Ghost Rider used a mining machine against Carrigan's men, and later a military truck to chase Roarke and crash into his followers.
==== Angelic Powers ====
After defeating Mephistopheles and sending him back to Hell, Johnny was freed from his influence. This allowed him to feel the presence of the angel Zarathos within him. His angelic abilities are characterized by holy blue flame instead of regular fire. His angelic flames are much brighter than his demonic flames. Johnny possesses the same strength and power while in his angelic form as he did in his demonic form. It is possible that his abilities have grown stronger now that Zarathos' grace and union with Heaven and God have been restored.
* Angelic Fire Manipulation: Johnny Blaze finds himself able to channel the angelic energies within the spirit of Zarathos and it manifest itself with blue and white that are also are much brighter than his demonic flames, representing his merging with the Spirit of Justice. Ghost Rider's holy angelic flames is in contrast to when he was first cursed with the demonic energies of the Spirit of Vengeance.
**Resurrection: With this ability, Johnny was able to put Danny's soul back into his body and revived him just by touching his cheek.
=== Abilities ===
* Expert Stunt Rider: Johnny is an expert stunt rider.
* Skilled Combatant: Although he's had no proper training, he is also a formidable hand-to-hand combatant and has become quite adept at using his powers in combat situations.
== Weaknesses ==
* Limitations: Although Ghost Rider is incredibly powerful, he does have his limits; for example, he is unable to match God in terms of "raw power" and his connection to Hell had greatly diminished his physical and supernatural attributes.
* Soulless Entities: Ghost Rider's penance stare does not have any effect on other supernatural entities; who have no souls to burn; which was demonstrated during his first confrontation against Blackheart.
=== Former Weaknesses ===
After Daniel Ketch rebonded the Ghost Rider Course back to Johnny, Zarathos' connection to Hell was severed and his angelic grace was restored, many of Ghost Rider's weaknesses no longer affected him.
* Hell's Dominance: The Ghost Rider was easily controlled by both Mephisto and his son; this was shown when Mephisto commanded Johnny to hunt down Blackheart and Danny Controlled the Ghost Rider to a degree, when he stops the demon from hurting him or his mother, thus forcing Johnny back into human form.
** Limited Strength: Although Ghost Rider was incredibly strong, he had his limits before Zarathos' grace was restored, He was unable to match Blackheart and Mephistopheles in terms of physical strength.
* Sunlight: As the Ghost Rider, Johnny could only transform at night, When Ghost Rider was exposed to direct sunlight he would transform back into his human form. This was before Danny Ketch rebonded Johnny to Spirit of Vengeance.
** Lack of Control: Unlike Carter Slade, Ghost Rider was incapable of transforming into his fiery skeletal form at will; due to the fact that has been trying to suppress Zarathos. But Mephisto's defeat had restored the Zarathos angelic grace, allowing Johnny to be in full control.
==Trivia==
* Cage read the first issue of Ghost Rider when he was 8 years old.
* He hid his Ghost Rider tattoo during filming.
* To prevent the films being needlessly bleak, he improvised funny dialogue in takes. Most of them ended up in the final movies.
* Cage was an uncredited writer for the first film.
* Nicolas Cage's computer generated skull was made from a three dimensional x-ray taken of his actual skull.
* The jellybeans that Johnny eats are all yellow and red, the color of fire.
* Nicolas Cage came up with the idea that Johnny Blaze would eat jelly beans because if Johnny made a deal with the Devil, he would do things that are safe and childlike instead of drinking Jack Daniels.
* Nicolas Cage and the filmmakers liked a funny Internet video where a chimpanzee was using martial arts with his master. The filmmakers got the rights to it for the scene where Johnny Blaze is watching on his Sony television.
* For Johnny Blaze's transformation sequence, it was envisioned to be painful. Nicolas Cage told Mark Steven Johnson that it was painful for Johnny but feels good for the Ghost Rider. Cage lost his voice during filming of the first transformation scene.
* The scene where Johnny Blaze uses his motorcycle to catch up to and flirt with Roxanne is inspired by Rod Jones, a motorcycle stunt rider.
* Cage worked out 3 hours a day for his role. He lost ten to fifteen pounds.
* Matt Long (young Johnny Blaze’s actor) wore a prosthetic nose for the first film to better resemble Nicolas Cage. He sat down and talked for 2 and a half hours with Cage to get his mannerisms.
* Johnny Blaze's first transformation scene was originally going to be set in a street with cop cars trying to chase him.
* The moment where Johnny Blaze uses a fireball at his candle-holder was controversial on set because Marvel was shooting Fantastic Four at the same time, which also had Johnny Storm using a fireball. Marvel didn't want to repeat themselves and Nicolas Cage said he doesn't care about Fantastic Four and that he cares about Ghost Rider. After Fantastic Four was a hit, the filmmakers kept the scene and nobody made comparisons to Johnny Storm.
* The shot where Ghost Rider jumps out a skyscraper on his motorcycle was shot purely for the trailer. It was never intended to be in the movie. The filmmakers made a different shot and they decided to put the shot made for the trailer into the film because Kevin Mack used an effective slow motion shot.
* When the filmmakers started shooting, they put red highlights in the hair of Nicolas Cage which was considered controversial. The filmmakers eventually made his hair all black.
* The filmmakers originally wanted Johnny Blaze's bike having a personality and shot footage of it but they thought it would be too silly for the film. The only remaining piece is where it blinks at Johnny by the lake.
* Nicolas Cage believed that the kiss between Johnny and Roxanne would happen at the end of the first movie by the tree but the filmmakers wanted the kiss to happen just before Mephisto's final appearance. The filmmakers used both parts.
* Johnny Blaze originally didn't have a mantra by his last meeting with Mephisto in the first movie. Nicolas Cage called Gary Foster's phone in the Vancouver hotel room that he faxed a mantra he and Mark Steven Johnson wrote.
* When Ghost Rider gets his powers taken away, the filmmakers wanted it to treat it more like an exorcism. They described it as an extra action scene that isn't really an action scene. They shot Nicolas Cage in a 360-degree set as well as in green screen.
* For the voices from Ghost Rider's Penance Stare in Spirit of Vengeance, there is a male version and a female version. Grace Perry provided for the female version and Weston Cage provided for the male version.
* Nicolas Cage inspired his line "I don't save people" by Dracula's "I don't drink wine". Cage would later play Dracula in Renfield.
* The filmmakers described the demon inside Johnny Blaze as a metaphor for drug addiction.
* The idea of Ghost Rider in the daylight was a sort of controversial idea early in the development process.
* Cage based Ghost Rider’s performance off of his two pet cobras.
* It was planned that Ghost Rider would appear in Deadpool & Wolverine, Collider asked Shaen Levy and Ryan Reynolds if they considered bringing Nicolas Cage back to play the character in the film, they replied that they talked to Cage but it didn't happen.
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