Ghost Rider

An old legend in the West tells the story of  the Ghost Rider, who is said to come once every   generation. They're a damned soul cursed to ride  the Earth collecting the devil's deals. Many years   ago, a Ghost Rider named Carter Slade was sent to  the village of San Venganza to fetch a contract   worth one thousand evil souls, but this contract  was so powerful that he couldn't allow Mephisto   to have it so Carter rode away with it and outran  the devil himself. One hundred fifty years later,   in 1986, Johny Blaze and his father Barton  work together as stunt motorcycle riders,   although Barton is angry with Johny because he  keeps getting distracted by his girlfriend Roxanne   sitting in the audience, which could cost him his  life during a show. Barton's health is clearly   deteriorating more every day, but he refuses to  quit smoking no matter how many times Johny throws   his cigarettes away. One afternoon, Roxanne comes  to talk to Johny to share some devastating news:   her father is sending her away to live with her  mother. Johny can't stand the idea of losing   her and asks her to run away together, Roxanne  enthusiastically agrees and they plan to do it   the next day. Later in the evening while Barton  is asleep, Johny finds a letter in the trash from   a hospital explaining that Barton's cancer is  spreading. Johny can't believe his dad has been   hiding something like this and begins to think he  may not be able to run away with Roxanne anymore   since leaving Barton like this would be cruel.  His thoughts are suddenly interrupted by Mephisto,   who offers Johny a deal: he will cure Barton's  cancer in exchange for the boy's soul. Johny   doesn't believe him but still checks the contract  out of curiosity, causing him to accidentally cut   his finger with the paper. The drop of blood that  falls on it is enough for Mephisto to consider   the deal sealed and before Johny can ask what he  means, he passes out and wakes up the next morning   on his bed. Just as Mephisto promised, Barton's  cancer is gone now. He's so excited about this   turn of events that he's already planning a new  show that could possibly include jumping over a   helicopter and wants Johny to join him, but Johny  is getting ready to run away with Roxanne. Now   that his dad is better he doesn't need him anymore  and Johny wants more in life than stupid stunts;   such words hurt Barton but he doesn't want  Roxanne's dad to send the cops after them   either, so he allows Johny to take his most  beloved bike. When Johny is about to leave,   he hears some commotion coming from a tent and  runs back to find out his father died during   the show after Mephisto paid him a quick visit.  Afraid of what the contract has gotten him into,   Johny rides away considering ending things for  himself, but Mephisto stops him because he needs   him alive, he also promises to come back in the  future when he needs him. Before disappearing,   he touches Johny and lights a flame inside him as  he asks him to leave everything he loves behind.   Afraid of what this may mean, Johny takes his bike  and drives by Roxanne waiting for him but leaves   her without offering an explanation. Twenty-one  years later in 2007, adult Johny is a famous stunt   rider known for how he's survived every single  fall. When his stunts do fail is because he keeps   thinking about Mephisto and the contract, but he  tries to convince himself he isn't afraid. Johny   never gives interviews but he's on good terms  with his traveling crew, especially his best   friend Mack, who is worried about Johny wanting to  clear the length of a football field in cars with   one jump on the anniversary of Barton's accident.  There's also the fact Johny's obsessed with weird   religious books that Mack thinks may be messing  with his mind, but Johny dismisses his worries,   explaining he's waiting for a sign. Meanwhile  Mephisto's son Blackheart appears on Earth and   approaches a biker bar to kill every human inside.  Once everyone is dead, the Hidden show up; they're   three fallen angels bonded with the elements.  There's Gressil with earth-based powers, Abigor   with air-based powers, and Wallow with water-based  powers. Blackheart wants them to help him find the   San Venganza contract to harness its tremendous  power and take over the world and the Hidden   agree. Before they can get moving though, Mephisto  shows up outside to remind Blackheart it isn't his   time yet, but Blackheart doesn't care. Mephisto  can't hurt him on Earth because he's never fallen,   although the Ghost Rider can. However Blackheart  isn't scared of Mephisto's creation and dares to   send the man after him, although he's clearly  jealous over the fact his dad gave such power   to a human instead of him. The next day, Johny is  getting ready for the show and ignoring reporters   as usual, but he makes an exception when he  discovers an adult Roxanne has come to interview   him as well. Instead of answering her questions  though, Johny keeps making his own because he   wants to know what she's been up to all these  years. The interview is cut short since it's   going nowhere and Roxanne leaves no matter how  much her cameraman wants to stay because she never   liked watching Johny jump. Speaking of Johny,  he considers seeing Roxanne the sign he's been   waiting for and decides to go through his dad's  old idea of jumping over a bunch of helicopters   instead of cars. By replacing the dark thoughts  with Roxanne, Johny's jump is a total success,   but instead of stopping to celebrate, Johny just  keeps going and drives out of the building to   catch up to Roxanne's van on the road. Since she  refuses to pull over or even talk to him, Johny   speeds up ahead and blocks the road to make the  van stop. This makes Roxanne furious, but Johny   points out that if Roxanne really didn't want  anything to do with him she would've turned down   the interview before kissing her. Roxanne pushes  him away but also sees his point and accepts to   get dinner together later. Night falls and Roxanne  is waiting at the restaurant, worried about the   lack of messages from Johny, who is already pretty  late. He's still at his apartment, delayed because   he's noticed his hands are getting quite red and  hot. There's also a mysterious voice calling his   name, and when he goes outside he finds Mephisto,  who wants Johny to stop Blackheart since that's   part of the contract. Obviously Johny refuses and  gets on his bike ready to go on his date, but the   magic behind the contract kicks in and the bike  suddenly gets covered in flames as it takes Johny   away at an insane speed, melting objects as they  pass. Meanwhile Blackheart and the Hidden arrive   at the local train station where there used to be  a cemetery; rumors say the San Venganza contract   was buried there. The station caretaker explains  the graves were moved to a church graveyard and   tries to kick the group out, which gets him killed  by Blackheart. Back to Johny, the bike takes him   all the way to a warehouse in the train station,  where he finally loses all control and the magic   transforms him into a firey skeleton known as  Ghost Rider. Blackheart finds him and doesn't   take him seriously enough to attack him at  full power, so he sends Gressil after him   before leaving. Johny is more powerful than he  looks and easily frees himself from Blackheart's   attack before jumping on Gressil, killing him in  a second with his special flame chain. Afterward,   Johny uses his new powers to transform his bike  into something more powerful and rides away until   he finds a teenager being robbed. Johny stops  the attack and after the girl safely runs away,   he grabs the thief and uses his Penance Stare on  him, a power that causes mortals to feel all the   pain they have caused others, searing their soul.  The thief has caused so much damage to others in   his life that he can't take judgment and dies.  Then Johny keeps on riding until he makes it to   the local graveyard just in time for the sun to  rise, meaning he goes back to normal the moment   he reaches his father's grave, unaware that Carter  Slade's also buried nearby. There, he's found by   the Caretaker, who takes Johny to his little shack  when he passes out. A few hours later, Johny wakes   up with a headache, but Caretaker makes sure to  remind him everything that happened last night   was real and it will happen again, so Johny needs  to come to terms with the fact being Ghost Rider   is part of his life now. Caretaker offers his  help and Johny accepts after some hesitation,   thus Caretaker takes care of Johny's wounds  while telling him about the town of San Venganza,   where all the citizens' souls were trapped forever  after killing each other over greed. Meanwhile   Roxanne is covering the disaster at the train  station for the news, interviewing the teenager   that almost got robbed but not believing her when  she describes a skeleton in flames. After the   interview is done, Roxanne is approached by Johny  trying to apologize, but she doesn't accept it,   pointing out this is the second time he's hurt  her and that maybe her father had been right,   he's just a phase. While the cops found a bike  license plate under all the rubble, Johny returns   home and while using tips from his religious  texts, he begins practicing to control his powers.   His training is interrupted by Roxanne, who is  leaving town soon and wants to apologize for the   hurtful things she said only to end up kissing  him. Worried about the whole Ghost Rider deal,   Johny pushes her away because he doesn't want  to put her in danger. This enrages Roxanne,   who is tired of Johny's mixed messages and forces  him to confess what's going on. Obviously she   doesn't believe him and she gets even angrier when  he asks her to leave because the sun is setting,   so she's out of the door with her heart broken  and assuming Johny is just making up excuses to   get rid of her. As soon as Roxanne is gone, the  cops show up to arrest Johny because the license   plate they found was from his bike. At the police  station, the detectives try to pull off the good   cop/bad cop trick on Johny and even threaten his  career, but since Johny doesn't fall for it, he's   put in a cell until he's ready to confess. This  cell is full of inmates eager to beat up a famous   person but as soon as they come closer, night  finally falls and Johny becomes Ghost Rider again,   easily knocking out all the prisoners with one  single hit except for a teenage boy with a pure   soul. After stealing another prisoner's jacket,  Johny burns the cell bars and escapes on his bike,   ignoring the cops that try to stop him by driving  on water. Meanwhile Blackheart is visiting the   priest that supposedly protects the location  of the San Venganza contract, but the priest   refuses to talk and gets killed. Blackheart can  also sense that Ghost Rider is coming after them,   so he sends Abigor to stop him; this causes  Johny to chase the demon all over the city   while the cops chase him in return. When Abigor  climbs up a very tall building, Johny does the   same on his bike; this is seen by Roxanne from  her hotel room and helps her start believing the   story. On the top of the building, Johny uses  his chain to catch the police helicopter and   throws it away before turning to Abigor, but the  same trick doesn't work on him because you can't   grab something made of air. Fortunately Johny is a  quick thinker and uses the chain to create a small   firey hurricane that absorbs Abigor and kills him  anyway. Afterward, he lands his bike in the middle   of the streets and notices Roxanne in the curious  crowd but he can't approach her because the police   get in the way. Their bullets can't hurt Johny  so after pushing them back with a wall of fire,   he rides safely away. By the time the sun rises,  Johny makes it to the graveyard and asks Caretaker   for help. After explaining the whole story  behind Carter Slade and the stolen contract,   Caretaker reminds Johny that Blackheart would  do anything to get him, including hurting his   loved ones, so Johny rushes back to the city to  check on Roxanne. In the meantime, the police are   still trying to find Johny and ask Roxanne for her  help since she's close to him, but she pretends to   know nothing. Afterward, Roxanne goes to Johny's  apartment only to find Mack, who is trying to find   out what's going on with his best friend. Roxanne  doesn't want to tell such an unbelievable story,   but she does accept to look over the religious  texts for clues with him. When night falls,   Blackheart and Wallow visit Caretaker and beat him  up, trying to get him to confess the location of   the contract, but since Caretaker doesn't break,  Blackheart decides he'll need to go after Johny.   Moments later, he shows up at the apartment too  and after killing Mack, he turns to Roxanne to   find a way to use her against Johny. Speaking of  Johny, he finally shows up then and starts a fight   against Blackheart, but his Penance Stare doesn't  work on him because Blackheart doesn't have a   soul. Blackheart takes advantage of this moment  to push Johny away and undo his transformation,   then he kidnaps Roxanne while telling Johny that  he'll have to bring the San Venganza contract if   he wants to see her again. Moments later, Johny is  back at the graveyard and convinces Caretaker to   give him the contract, which had been hiding in  his shovel all along. Since Johny made his deal   out of love and not greed, Caretaker trusts he  can end this and offers his help as he reveals the   Carter Slade grave is fake. It turns out Caretaker  is the real Carter and he still has his Ghost   Rider powers, so he calls his horse and rides  together with Johny to guide him to San Venganza.   Unfortunately Caretaker can't stay because this  is the last time he could transform, but he does   give Johny a shotgun before leaving. The first  opponent that Johny encounters is Wallow, who   tries to drown him in his swamp, but water can't  hurt Johny and he uses his flames to evaporate the   demon. Next, Johny goes after Blackheart, making  him drop Roxanne before pretending to hand him   the contract. This is just a trick that triggers  another fight, but since the sun is coming out,   Johny loses his powers and can't stop Blackheart  from grabbing the contract and absorbing the   power of all the souls, transforming him into  Legion. Johny still refuses to give up and shoots   Legion with his shotgun, but the bullets don't  hurt him and Legion grabs Johny by the neck,   ready to kill. Luckily he's saved by Roxanne, who  retrieves the shotgun and blows up Legion's head,   making him drop Johny. While Legion takes a  moment to regenerate, Johny takes the shotgun from   Roxanne and manages to transform it the same way  he did with his bike by putting it in the shadows,   because the problem is sunlight itself and  not just the time of the day. A shot from   this powered weapon blows up Legion, and  while he goes through regeneration again,   Johny watches the souls reforming the demon's  body, which gives him an idea. By stepping into   the shadows, he manages to transform into Ghost  Rider and this time, he can use his Penance Stare   because now Legion has thousands of souls to  be judged. By burning all the corrupt souls,   Legion dies as well. With their enemy defeated,  Roxanne comes closer and touches the flaming face,   proving she isn't afraid of Johny before kissing  him. On their way out, they come across Mephisto,   who congratulates Johny on a job well done  and asks for the Ghost Rider power back.   However Johny refuses to return it because he  doesn't want it to fall in the wrong hands,   so he'll keep it to protect the innocent.  Unfortunately this also means Johny can't   have a normal life again, so after Mephisto  is gone, he says goodbye to Roxanne,   who is very understanding since this is what Johny  has always been. The couple shares one last kiss   before Johny rides his bike into the sunset  to start a new life as the only Ghost Rider.