In the short, strange history of comic book superfans, the number one spot is taken and there are no realistic contenders. As long as Nicolas Cage is alive, he’s earned the right to call himself the biggest comics nerd who’s ever lived. Even once Cage no longer walks this Earth, it will take the work of decades and tens of millions of dollars to dethrone him.
Cage renamed himself after Marvel’s Luke Cage, in order to set himself apart from his famous uncle; he named one of his sons Kal-El, after Superman’s Kryptonian name; his comics collection was worth millions at one point, including a copy of Action Comics #1; he’s the only actor to date who’s played both Superman and (a version of) Spider-Man.
Most crucially, Cage played Johnny Blaze in not one but two live-action adaptations of Ghost Rider, which have attained a bleak reputation over time. Both movies were box-office successes and have surprisingly great casts (Eva Mendes, Peter Fonda, Sam Elliott, Idris Elba, Christopher Lambert, the late Anthony Head), but critics and fans alike have spent the last 15 years tearing them down. The word that keeps seeming to come up in reviews is “lifeless.”
As you may be aware, however, there is a significant difference between a simple bad movie and a bad movie with Nicolas Cage in it. Even in the depths of his flop era, when he was taking any job he could find to pay his back taxes, Cage has never once given less than 100%. At his worst, he’s a meme; at his best, he’s a legend.
That’s what gives the Ghost Rider movies what power they have, and they’re now streaming for free on Tubi. With the news that Marvel’s going to take a second swing at Johnny Blaze with Ryan Gosling, now is as good a time as any to check Cage’s Ghost Rider out for yourself.
In 1986, Johnny Blaze is a young motorcycle stunt driver who makes a deal with the demon Mephisto to cure his father’s cancer. The next day, his father dies in a totally unrelated bike crash.
Two decades later, Johnny (Cage) has become a legend in his field, but is still on the hook to Mephisto. That debt finally comes due when the demon’s son Blackheart (Wes Bentley, Yellowstone) comes to Earth in search of a lost contract, with which Blackheart may be able to overthrow his father. Mephisto transforms Johnny into the Ghost Rider, an avatar of vengeance with a flaming skull for a head, to sic him on Blackheart.
What’s interesting about both Ghost Rider movies is that they’re surprisingly faithful to the comics, particularly by comparison to many other contemporary adaptations. Blade, for example, was a near-total reinvention of the character from first principles (have you ever seen Blade in his Tomb of Dracula era?), while Ang Lee’s Hulk was a mixture of new material with a couple of different comic continuities.
Ghost Rider does change a few things, such as Johnny selling his soul to save his father rather than his mentor Crash Simpson, but it’s much more recognizable as an adaptation of the comics than its pre-MCU brethren. The sequel is where it flies off the rails in that traditional Hollywood way, with Danny Ketch introduced as a kid rather than Johnny’s long-lost brother.
On its own merits, however, it’s easy to see why Ghost Rider didn’t land for so many people. Its villains look like an unconvincing metal band rather than an assembly of fallen angels, and the 2007-era CGI has aged poorly. The Ghost Rider himself often looks like a rotating skull GIF you’d have placed on your Geocities page in 1998. There are movies from 10 years prior made for 1% as much money that look better than Ghost Rider.
Still, you’re mostly here for Cage, who does his absolute damnedest (some pun intended) whenever the script calls for him to look like he’s burning from the inside out. There are some truly great all-time Cage Faces in Ghost Rider; on a scale from 1 to 10 where 10 is Face/Off, Ghost Rider is a solid 7. That has to count for something.
Further, Ghost Rider isn’t a traditionally bad movie so much as one that was made maybe five years too soon. If it had relied more heavily on practical effects, or just been a full-length animated film, Ghost Rider would likely be remembered more fondly.
Spirit of Vengeance, which is significantly cheaper and has worse villains, doesn’t have those excuses. Still, if your idea of a solid evening is watching Nicolas Cage try real hard to make his eyes bug out of his skull, you could do a lot worse than the Ghost Rider movies.
Ghost Rider and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance are now streaming on Tubi.