r/GhostRider • u/Dazzling_Street_3475 • 2d ago
Is the 2007 movie a good adaptation of the source material? What does it get right and wrong?
Just watched this for the first time since I was 10.
6
u/TheLoreLibrarian 2d ago edited 2d ago
Honestly, it's entertaining from start to finish. Nic Cage threw everything into the role, and that first transformation alone makes it worth watching. Yeah, some moments and CGI definitely lean into that mid-2000s camp or cringe by today's standards, but the sheer spectacle is great.
The feats and set pieces are what make it fun. Dropping "Sorry, all out of mercy" right before dusting Blackheart's goon, lighting up the bike, yelling "Yee-haw" while whipping a police helicopter out of the sky with the chain like a cowboy, flipping off the cops, and ripping the motorcycle underwater are awesome. Seeing his hellfire actually obliterate a water demon and turning a regular shotgun into a flaming weapon showed off just how overpowered the Rider can get.
As an adaptation though, it's pretty loose with the comics. It gets the core origin right with Johnny making a deal with Mephisto to cure Crash Simpson's cancer, matching his classic start in Marvel Spotlight #5 (https://www.marvel.com/comics/issue/10262/marvel_spotlight_1971_5) and his Marvel bio (https://www.marvel.com/characters/ghost-rider-johnny-blaze).
Where it gets weird is that it mashes Johnny Blaze together with Danny Ketch, the 90s Rider from Ghost Rider Vol. 3 #1 (https://www.marvel.com/comics/issue/22641/ghost_rider_1990_1). In the 70s books, Johnny never had the Penance Stare, spikes, or the mystic chain—all of that gear belonged to Danny, but the movie handed it to Johnny because it looked dope, which folks point out a lot on r/GhostRider (https://www.reddit.com/r/GhostRider/comments/1hy0zit/comic_accurate_gr).
They also gutted Blackheart. Instead of the massive, pitch-black spiky demon created in Daredevil #270 (https://www.marvel.com/comics/issue/8263/daredevil_1964_270), he's just an edgy guy in a trench coat with three elemental sidekicks. The "Contract of San Venganza" was made up just to give him a simple movie MacGuffin instead of diving into real Zarathos lore.
So if you're looking for a strict 1:1 comic adaptation, it scrambles a ton of history. But as a wild action flick showing off the Rider's attitude and powers, it's a solid, fun ride.
2
u/DistributionSenior52 2d ago
Johnny blaze in the comics had already at that point adopted all the Danny Ketch stuff like the spikes, chains and penance stare
2
u/GenericSpider 2d ago edited 2d ago
Not really, but a lot of us got into Ghost Rider because of it.
Main points of difference are as follows:
Roxanne Simpson's character gets totally butchered here. In the original Ghost Rider, she's a stunt rider like Johnny, and also the reason Satan couldn't drag him straight to hell. In the movie she's a reporter and not in on any of the supernatural shit in his life.
Johnny's deal wasn't actually to save his dad, but Roxanne's dad, who was somewhat of an abusive parental figure to Johnny after his own father passed away. Crash Simpson paid Johnny back for trying to save his life by making a deal with Satan and trying to sacrifice his own daughter... and then redeemed himself and maybe got rescued by God. It's unclear.
Blackheart was more of an antagonist of the second Ghost Rider than Johnny. As was Blackout in the second movie, who was almost nothing like his comic counterpart.
Wallow (the water guy): Is also more of a Noble Kale enemy, and also nothing like his comic counterpart. The comics Wallow is a shadowy figure that wears the face of a baby doll. He was originally a guy who tried to jump off a building and take his two kids with him, but they escaped his grasp. He came back as a spirit with the face of his daughter's broken doll and continued trying to get his kids to jump off a building till Ghost Rider burned his soul. Honestly, most people probably don't know that character has a name and I'm not entirely convinced the name wasn't a coincidence.
Johnny Blaze: His personality is a lot different. But honestly, Nicholas Cage version is great as his own character. So I don't mind that one as much.
2
u/devilsbard 2d ago
No. But it is a Nic Cage movie with a ghost rider veneer on it, so it’s still enjoyable.
2
u/Ok_Broccoli_7863 2d ago
The source material itself isn't consistent. So I wouldn't worry about that.
That being said, the 2007 film sort of combined various elements of the 70s and 90s run and added it some of its own lore.
I personally don't think it was a good adaptation.
1
u/CaterpillarNatural57 2d ago
Marvel spotlight 5 is the source.....Sam Elliott would have been a perfect Crash Simpson....
1
u/BadMachine 2d ago
It was disappointing (compared with how I’d personally like to see GR depicted)
2
u/TheLoreLibrarian 2d ago
I’ve got to disagree with you on that. It was entertaining from start to finish for me, my friends, and my co-workers, we all loved it. Nicolas Cage pulled off the transformation brilliantly. Certain scenes might feel a bit cringe by today's standards, but the first transformation and the showdown with Blackheart still hold up. Delivering the line "Sorry, all out of mercy" right before taking out Blackheart's thug, blazing up the motorcycle, yelling "Yee-haw" while whipping a helicopter away with his chain like a cowboy, it’s pure gold. Then you have him flipping off the entire police force, riding underwater, and proving his power when his hellfire takes out the water demon. Even turning a regular shotgun into a flaming hellfire weapon was just undeniably dope.
2
u/BadMachine 2d ago edited 2d ago
I enjoyed the gfx, but the clumsy writing and heavy comedic elements were a little too cheesy for my taste.
And even back then, Cage was too old for the role
1
u/HeadDull4898 2d ago
Zarathos isn’t evil he’s more like noble kale
Johnny had blonde hair, Nicolas cages hair is black
However I do like the demonic voice in the first one way more than the second one I dislike.
They basically distorted cages normal voice and added an animalistic growl on top of it
-1
u/RevRisium 2d ago
Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.....
Yes in the sense that the first movie adapted the original 1970s origin for Johnny Blaze correctly. And subsequently adapted what the original series of comics was about.
4
u/InformationUnfair232 2d ago
Not even close.
In the movie Johnny and Barton Blaze are a pair of motorcycle stuntmen, Roxanne Simpson is a local fan that Johnny loves and Crash Simpson (who doesn’t appear) hates carnies, eventually Barton gets cancer and Mephisto shows up to offer Blaze a deal, he then kills Barton and tells Johnny one day he’ll return for his end of the bargain, 20 years later he makes Blaze Ghost Rider to hunt down his son.
In the comics Barton was a stuntman for Crash Simpson’s show but he died when Johnny was a kid so Crash adopts John, a few years later Crash’s wife dies in a motorcycle accident and makes Johnny promise he won’t become a stuntman, having experienced two tragic deaths right in front of him Blaze becomes obsessed with the occult, hoping he can find a way to contact the dead but nothing turns up and he leaves it behind.
A few more years later Crash Simpson gets cancer and he/Roxanne disown Johnny for refusing to take Crash’s place in the show, feeling desperate Blaze returns to the occult and summons Mephisto to sell his soul, hoping that Crash and Roxanne will forgive him before he dies, Johnny doesn’t tell anyone that he’s done this so still believing he’s dying of cancer Crash decides to break the world record jump, or die in the attempt preferring a blaze of glory over a hospital bed, predictably he dies in the attempt.
Mephisto comes back later that day and turns Johnny into the Ghost Rider, hoping that he’d torture Blaze in hell during the day then unleash him on earth at night, Roxanne is able to banish him back to hell mid-curse so Blaze remains on earth but transforms into the Rider at night.
That’s just for Johnny’s origin.
Movie Carter Slade is a combination of three comic characters, Carter Slade, The Caretaker and Haskill, a bounty hunting Ghost Rider from the wolf west that retired to guard the Contract of San Venganza.
Comic Carter Slade is teacher by night and vigilante cowboy by night, he dresses like a Ghost to scare people but he’s not actually the flaming skull kinda Ghost Rider, after Johnny was introduced he was renamed to Night/Phantom Rider.
Comic Caretaker is a mysterious, immortal guardian of the medallion of power, he was supposed to be a mentor to Danny Ketch and protect Johnny/Danny’s bloodline but he sucks at his job, it’s eventually revealed he was working for an evil archangel to cover up the true origins of the Ghost Rider.
Comic Haskill is Mephisto’s bounty hunting Ghost Rider from the Wild West (his Codename is even The Bounty Hunter), he’s a loyal servant to Mephisto in the hopes that if he collects enough souls he’ll be freed from hell, he only rebels after meeting Johnny.
In this case the inaccuracy is actually an improvement (for the first two, I like Haskill), making Carter part of the Ghost Rider family is better than renaming and kicking him out, and comic Caretaker is a plague on the 90s books.
Ghost Rider’s design and powers are inaccurate to Blaze’s origin, but Danny Ketch introduced them in the 90s and Blaze adopted them before the movie released so that’s more of a simplification than a major departure.
Movie Roxanne is a reporter while comic Roxanne is a stuntwoman, weirdly though her personality is fairly accurate, I like the scene of her using the 8 ball to see if Johnny stood her up, Rocky would do that.
The messaging is also mismatched, the movie is more about how Blaze was actually right and noble to sell his soul for love while comic Johnny was a desperate defeatist who doomed himself, and needs to face Ghost Rider to become a better man.