I have returned!
It's been so long since I've contributed to this site and it feels good to be back. Many films and and news have dropped in my absence. Enough is enough though, as we all know I have a burning (no pun intended) passion for the characters and world that Ghost Rider inhabits. He's my second all time favorite superhero behind that of who else? Spider-Man (who looks great in Civil War I might add). Admist trying to finish different projects I've been working on, I've been working on also fleshing out my idea for a Ghost Rider reboot for almost a year now. I won't work on a script for it until I'm confident it's where I want it. But, I'm here to share with you guys the five ways I believe it's in the right direction and why it'd be one of the better ways to reignite this franchise.
5: Ultimates Origin
Let's face it, the previous origin film we've gotten from Ghost Rider in film wasn't very good. It was nice that they stuck to the classic Johnny Blaze origin but, the execution of it was poor and the emotion just wasn't there. This is where I think the ultimates origin would work best. The Ultimates origin sees Johnny Blaze and Roxanne Simpson brutally murdered in a satanic ritual performed by Michael Blackthorne (the Ultimates version of Vengeance), Johnny makes a deal with Mephisto and becomes his bounty hunter in return for Roxanne to have a second chance at life and to exact revenge on Blackthorne. I think this is an origin with strong emotional potential, especially if executed right. This is the basis of what the film would be about. Johnny seeking revenge for taking away his and Roxanne's lives. The villain? Ebenezer Laughton/Scarecrow. Motivations? The psychological damage caused by his mother to him, the broken home he grew up in makes him believe that it's best to save potential children by making sure they aren't born and preventing them to go through what he had to endure.
4: Johnny's Character Arc
Another problem that plauged both Ghost Rider and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance is that the characters weren't particularly fleshed out, developed or really all that interesting. But here, we'll just look at Johnny's arc in the film. His background is still from the Quentin Carnival but he leaves after his father dies, becomes a mechanic and lives with Roxanne. When we meet him, he's well into his relationship with her. Through a series of flashbacks during the film we flesh out his relationship with Roxanne (think Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind or Blue Valentine, also in terms of the emotional punch I'm going for) and her mother, Mona, who serves as a surrogate mother to Johnny. The first part of his arc happens when he makes the deal with the demon Mephisto, this is a decision made on emotion, naivty and impulse rather than on logic. Which is what makes Johnny Blaze so relatable in the first place, is his naivty and his impulsive decision making. The second act we get his training (which he spends 20 years doing) and his manhunt for Laughton, who by this point is in RavenCroft Institute (fair to use it since Spider-Man is part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe now). The second act has more Ghost Rider than Johnny Blaze. We know who's in control based on body language. This act we also get inside of Laughton's head some more.
Throughout the second act we see that Zarathos has corrupted Johnny over the years, making Ghost Rider more violent than we've seen before, making it more Zarathos than Johnny in control. By the end of the second act we get a fight in a cemetry in the dowpouring rain where Ghost Rider finally encouters Scarecrow that ends with Scarecrow using his own pitchfork to kill himself after being brutally beaten by Ghost Rider and being given the penance stare in order to make the pain go away. The transformation (figuratively, not literally) happens once Ghost Rider recognizes the cemetry he's in, we've been in the cemetry before earlier in the film with Roxanne, he finds Mona's grave. He remembers the promise she made him give that he'll protect Roxanne and keep her happy, something he's failed in doing. Here is where Johnny, in a sense, becomes human again (figuratively) and has regained focus on why he made the decision but also, what he must ulitimately do to keep the promise. The film ultimately ends with Ghost Rider destroying Scarecrow, Ghost Rider taking Roxanne home and ultimately saying goodbye to her and the Quentin Carnival. Realizing that in order for him to keep this promise, he's got to let her and ultimately the life he knew go.
3: Villains we understand
I know what you're thinking: "Why can't we have villains like The Joker who are evil for the sake of being evil?" Well, listen here chump. This version of Mephisto isn't like the versions we've seen of him in the previous films. This version of Mephisto (like in the comics) has had a fued with Zarathos, which is hinted at and uses Zarathos as a way to corrupt Johnny (in an attempt to get his soul) after Johnny inadvertenly screwing Mephisto out of his soul by having Mephisto give Roxanne a second chance at life (think of her as his Guardian Angel in a sense). What does Roxanne have anything to do with things? Well in the second twist of the film, this new life of hers is as if Johnny never existed in her life. But, what keeps Johnny protected is that he still has those memories of them which keeps her alive and ultimately keeps her safe.
Mephisto tricks humans into these contracts to gain their souls out of being insecure and trying to show Satan that he's (Mephisto) is better than him. This is a villain we can understand because at some point or another, we've been insecure and it brought out a darker, more jackass-ish version of ourselves. Scarecrow on the other hand, by what I explained earlier, is gone psycologically. Especially once Mephisto ressurects him (same powers as the comics). We don't agree with his thinking, nor with his tactics but, we get why he is the way he is. To me, understanding evil is better than being left in the dark. It's ultimately more interesting.
2: Tone
Think the 90's Ghost Rider comics in terms of what I'm going for in tone. Yes, this is tonally more in line with the Netflix shows rather than the Marvel films but, be honest. Do you honestly think Ghost Rider would work best episodically? I just can't picture it. Now, this isn't gonna be like Batman V Superman where the tone never lets up. This being Marvel, absolutely there will be moments of lightness and levity to allow the audience to breathe and for it to be easier to get attached to these characters. I'm thinking about as much, if slightly less jokes than there were in Winter Soldier. I say that just to give you guys a rough idea of what's in my head. A lot of the levity will come from the flashbacks.
1: Emotion
This is why I've always believed that Ghost Rider is a greatly underappreciated character. It's because everyone belives him to be style over substance. This is a character that not only has a deep mythology but also has interesting, deep characters and realtionships and at the core is a dark and emotional story. That CAN be translated to film, but he needs to be given respect in order for it to happen. The emotional arc Johnny has in the film, the relationships he has with others and the tension in the film is all based in a real emotion. When Ghost Rider is exacting vengeance on those who spilled innocent blood, it's out from an emotional place which makes his brutal (Hard PG-13, not R) tactics all the more painful to watch, yet we root for him. I think a lot of superhero films (both Marvel and DC) lack the emotional punch. Some of them do have it (Captain America: The Winter Soldier, X-Men, X-Men: Days of Future Past just to name a couple) but there aren't enough of them. Hell, there was a depth and real emotion hidden in Deadpool which was an incredibly fun and faithful adaptation. The emotional potential is there in this version of Ghost Rider I've been slowly working on, the potential has always been there but the filmmakers have somehow overlooked it.
The main motivation behind this is to prove to others and to myself that this character CAN work. There is much more to the film than what I've told you but, I wanted to give you guys a basic (but in depth enough) rundown on the potential of this character and the version of the story that's hard at work. Some things I did leave out is how the character gets his chain, etc.
P.S: My preferred casting choices for Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider and for Mephisto are still Jake Gyllenhaal and Ralph Fienes. Hope you guys enjoyed this article and as always, be respectful to me and to each other.