- Directors: Mark Neveldine, Brian Taylor
- Writers: Scott M. Gimple, Seth Hoffman
- Stars: Nicolas Cage, Ciarán Hinds, Idris Elba
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 36 Minutes
- Link: https://amzn.to/2SzzvGF
Synopsis
In Eastern Europe, someone races their motorcycle through the winding streets to an ominous-looking castle. It’s… not who you expect. His name is Moreau. “The Devil himself wants this child,” he explains to the head priest. “The Rider must take the child to the sanctuary.” Suddenly, they are attacked by soldiers. Nadya and the child break out in a car and make a run for it with the Carrigan and Moreau in pursuit. Credits roll, and we get a recap of the first film— with a few changes.
Johnny Blaze wakes up just as Moreau comes into where he’s been hiding. Moreau knows who he is. If Johnny can return the boy, Moreau’s church will lift his curse.
Meanwhile, Nadya and the child are being followed. Just as the bad guys close in on them, Ghost Rider arrives. He poses for the camera a bit before killing them with his glowing chains. Carrigan and the boy get away, leaving Nadya and a seriously wounded Johnny behind.
Carrigan phones Roarke, and says he wants more money. Roarke is not happy to hear about the flaming skeleton who attacked them last night. Roarke “uploads” a kind of “firewall” into the boy, named Danny, to keep the Ghost Rider from finding him. Nadya explains that she made a deal with the devil to save her life.
Ghost Rider attacks the bad guys, who are really well armed. We get to see how any vehicle he drives becomes a Hell-thing. He wipes out most of the thugs and then goes after Nadya until Danny orders him to stop… and he does.
Roarke finds Carrigan’s body and changes him into something not-quite human. He has the power of “Decay.”
Johnny, Danny, Moreau, and Nadya arrive at the holy place and the monks try to remove Johnny’s curse. Moreau explains about a spirit of justice who was driven insane, he became the spirit of vengeance. That’s what lives inside Johnny. Johnny goes into a room where the Rider is drawn out. It worked— Johnny is free!
Of course, that’s the point where Methodius, the head priest, turns against them, planning to kill Danny. The monks take Danny outside and plan to behead him, but suddenly, Decay attacks and kills all of the monks.
Moreau explains that this is all prophecy. Roarke is going to completely replace and become Danny, not just possess him. He needs a perfect vessel, and Danny is it. Danny and Roarke get up on a stage in an amphitheater for the ritual. Moreau and Johnny rush in, guns erm— blazing, and start their rescue.
Decay comes in and kills Moreau while Johnny fights Roarke. Before long, Johnny is surrounded by villains, but then Danny walks in. Danny calls Roarke father, and then he makes the same deal with Johnny, returning his power to him. The sun comes up, which now only makes Ghost Rider more powerful. He pursues Roarke and Danny on his motorcycle, in broad daylight.
Ghost Rider and Decay fight on the hood of Nadya’s car as she pursues Roarke down the highway. Not surprisingly, he beats them both. Johnny feels the angel within him, and uses that power to heal Danny, who was killed in the battle.
Commentary
This had a lower budget and a lot less CGI, but what was there was a noticeable improvement over the original. The redesigned, slightly burnt skull looked a lot better than the cartoony one in the previous film.
Nicolas Cage went from funny-weird in the first film to psychotic-Nic-Cage weird in this one. He also had a southern accent in the first one that got conveniently forgotten here. He does crazy well, but here it just looked like his character was on drugs.
Idris Elba’s French accent is hard to understand here, and it was probably unnecessary.
I’d watch Ciaran Hinds read the phonebook, but he’s no Peter Fonda. He’s much better at playing an evil businessman or scientist than the devil himself.
It sounds like this is inferior to the first in every way, but it’s not. It really is a very good comic book movie, feeling much more like a “typical” Ghost Rider story than the previous one.