Story
The film opens with young Johnny Blaze (Matt Long) and his father Barton Blaze (Brett Cullen) jumping motorbikes through burning hoops at carnivals. To save his father from dying of lung cancer, Johnny signs his soul over to the devil, Mephistopheles (Peter Fonda), but Mephistopheles cheats Johnny when he causes Barton’s death in stunt that goes wrong. As a result, Johnny runs away leaving behind both his carnival life and adolescent sweetheart Roxanne Simpson (Raquel Alessi).
Years later, a much older Johnny Blaze (Nicholas Cage) is a superstar motorbike rider, cheating death at every corner. Roxanne (Eva Mendes), now a successful news reporter, turns up at one of Johnny’s performances asking for an interview which leads to a renewal of their relationship.
Four anti-heroes, called the Hidden, come to earth to recover a contract containing a list of a thousand souls promised to the devil. The Hidden are Blackheart (Wes Bentley), son of Mephistopheles, and three fallen angels. However, Blackheart has greater plans to take over the world. In an effort to stop his son, Mephistopheles gives Johnny the powers of the fabled Ghost Rider. These powers enable Johnny to transform into a fiery skull-faced supernatural bike-riding vigilante by night and return to his mortal self during daylight hours.
In exchange for hunting down and destroying Blackheart and his cohorts, Mephistopheles offers to give Johnny his soul back. With the help of the Caretaker (Sam Elliott), Ghost Rider tracks down and defeats each of the Hidden, but must face a final showdown.
Themes
Selling one’s soul to the devil; self-destructive behaviour
Violence
Ghost Rider contains superhero style violence, which is both intense and brutal. For example:
Sexual references
There are some sexual references in this movie, including In one scene Blackheart kidnaps Roxanne, and infers with gesture and body language to Johnny that if he’s late Roxanne may be sexually molested.
Alcohol, drugs and other substances
There is some use of substances in this movie, including:
- Johnny’s father smokes cigarettes and coughs.
- Johnny’s father is seen asleep in a chair with a half-empty bottle of bourbon and a packet of cigarettes on a table beside him.
- Men sit around a table smoking cigarettes and drinking bottles of beer.
- Roxanne sits alone in a restaurant and seems to have consumed an entire bottle of red wine by herself. She appears somewhat drunk, a little unstable, and with slurred speech asks the waiter if he thinks she is pretty.
- The Caretaker chews tobacco and spits out tobacco juice.
Nudity and sexual activity
There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:
- In several scenes, women wear tight-fitting clothing with plunging necklines and cleavage.
- Johnny and Roxanne kiss passionately several times.
Product placement
The ‘Easy Rider’ Harley Davidson motorbike is displayed prominently in this movie.
Coarse language
This movie contains some mild coarse language.
Ideas to discuss with your children
Ghost Rider is a supernatural, action film with superheros, and targets adolescents and younger adult males. The special effects are impressive and the film contains some quite witty humour, but some of the scary images and violence could disturb younger children.
The film portrays the message that good will triumph over evil and that living in fear is a very negative way to live your life. You might like to discuss with your children some of the values presented in the movie such as turning life’s negatives into positives, self-sacrifice, love, loyalty, friendship and endurance through adversity.
You could also discuss the consequences of Johnny’s behaviour, such as the way he rides his motorbike recklessly to impress his girlfriend, and how this kind of behaviour could have lead to serious consequences for himself and those he loves. You could also discuss the real-life consequences of drinking alcohol to drown one's sorrows. You might also like to talk with older adolescents about the concept of selling your soul and whether this is OK if you do it for the right reasons.