Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer is a 2007 film directed by Tim Story and the sequel to Fantastic Four (2005).
The sequel had the wedding of Reed and Sue being canceled by the arrival of more urgent matters: the arrival of the Silver Surfer (Doug Jones for the motion capture, Laurence Fishburne for the voice), the "herald" for the planet-consuming being Galactus, who in this movie is a giant planet-eating cloud. Loosely based on the Ultimate Marvel Ultimate Galactus Trilogy written by Warren Ellis.
On the eve of Reed and Susan's marriage, a series of anomalies begin emerging across the globe, resulting in strange climactic shifts (such as snow in Egypt). While initially downplayed, eventually the US government reaches out to Reed in order to explain the sighting of a strange, silver, comet-like object in the vicinity of the events. Although doing his best to preoccupy himself with his wedding, Reed can't help but examine it closer, which leads him to the startling realization that the end of the world could be imminent.
Plans for a sequel never got off the ground. The franchise was rebooted in 2015 with Fantastic Four (2015), directed by Josh Trank. Due to the financial and critical failure of that film, it too will be rebooted into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, to be released November 8 2024.
Has a Character Sheet with characters from both movies.
IT'S TROPERIN' TIME!
- Actionized Sequel: The second film focuses more on action compared to the first film. The bigger budget could be a major reason.
- Adaptational Abomination: While Galactus was already a Cosmic Entity in the comics, the movie pushes the cosmic aspect even further, making him seem like pure energy, as opposed to the Physical God he was in the comics.
- Adaptational Name Change: Doomstadt, the capital of Latveria in the comics, is changed to Hassenstadt. It was likely changed because Doom was merely a wealthy businessman who was born in Latveria instead of its leader.
- All There in the Stinger: Doctor Doom being sent to Latveria is the Stinger of the previous film.
- All Your Powers Combined: Johnny becomes able to absorb the other's powers due to exposure from the Silver Surfer. After being a screw up due to his unstable form for most of the movie, he uses it to his advantage at the end during the final battle, absorbing the powers of the entire team so that he can take on Doctor Doom after the villain stole the Surfer's board and powers.
- And the Adventure Continues: At the end, the wedding is interrupted yet again by a catastrophe in Venice, Italy, prompting Reed and Susan to hurry along the ceremony so the team can respond.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Ben is initially incredulous when Johnny claims to have seen a "Silver Surfer", despite the fact that most of the people in the room have superpowers and his body has been transformed into pure rock!
- In a meta example, the whole reason Galactus was changed to a planet sized cloud thing is because the creators thought people would find his humanoid form from the comics too silly/far fetched. Why they thought a planet sized cloud would be less far fetched is a mystery.
- Artistic License – Geography: Near the end, General Hager brings the captured Surfer to a US military base in Siberia, without even implying the Russians are co-operating with them on with this.
- As Himself: Stan Lee trying to enter Reed and Sue's wedding. This is the first Marvel property movie that he has appeared as himself.
- As You Know: General Hager says this when giving Reed exposition about the unusual occurrences around the world.
- Avoid the Dreaded G Rating: Surprisingly averted. The director actually stated that he didn't want to pepper the film because he was happy with its PG rating. It helps that the FF's adventures and tone have almost always been rather family-friendly.
- Badass Boast: Reed, and it was taken almost word-for-word from the Warren Ellis comic book:General Hager: Let me make it clear for you and your band of freaks here; I'm the quarterback. You're on my team. Got it? But I guess you never played football in high school, did you, Richards?
Reed: No, you're right. I didn't. I stayed in and studied like a good little nerd. And fifteen years later, I'm one of the greatest minds of the 21st century; I'm engaged to the hottest girl on the planet; and the big jock who played quarterback in high school? He's standing in front of me asking for my help. And I say he's not gonna get a damn thing, unless he does exactly what I tell him, and starts treating me and my friends with a little respect.
[Beat]
General Hager: ...Give him what he wants. - Big Bad Ensemble: Doom and Galactus.
- Bouquet Toss: Johnny shoots it in midair when it looked like Frankie would catch it.Johnny: Sorry, reflex.
- Brick Joke: Johnny jokes that Silver Surfer must have saved Sue from the missile because he thinks she's cute. When being interrogated, Silver Surfer explained he did it because Sue reminds him of his love interest back on his home world, indicating Sue somewhat resembles her.
- Captain Obvious: When Reed caught sight of Sue with Johnny's powers.Sue: I'M ON FIRE!
Reed: You're on fire!
Sue: YOU THINK?! - Chase Scene: A flying chase scene between Silver Surfer and Johnny.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: After Victor steals the Surfer's board, it changes from silver to black.
- Cool Car: The Fantasticar.Johnny: [sees the Dodge logo on the front] Hemi?
Reed: Of course! - Curb-Stomp Battle: Super-powered Johnny versus Doctor Doom. Doctor Doom acquires the Surfboard of the Silver Surfer- which allows him to fire stupidly powerful energy blasts- and to combat that, Johnny grabs the powers of the entire team to take him down. Doom never even gets a single shot off.
- Deadly Force Field: Sue threatens Dr. Doom by informing him she has the ability to create a force field inside of someone and then expand it until the person explodes (an ability well within the range of her comic counterpart).
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Captain Frankie Raye is very cold to Johnny at first, but warms up to him through the movie.
- Died in Your Arms Tonight: During the climax, Susan is killed by the board-enhanced Doom's spear penetrating her force field. Reed cradles her as she passes on but before leaving to fight Galactus, the Silver Surfer shares some of his power with her and brings her back to life.
- Disney Death: Sue is wounded by the now cosmic-powered Doom while she is protecting the weakened Surfer. She succumbs to her wound after Doom is defeated, but with his own powers restored the Surfer quickly heals her.
- Eldritch Abomination: Galactus (called Gah Lak Tus here) the Planet Eater who is a gigantic nebulous cloud of destruction in this adaptation.
- Enemy Mine: The titular band of heroes team up with Dr. Doom to get the Silver Surfer. To absolutely no one's surprise, Doom ends up betraying them.
- Even the Guys Want Him: Johnny to Reed after his speech to Hager.Sue: [to Reed] I am so hot for you right now...
Johnny: Me too! - Even the Girls Want Her: When Sue is exposed nude to townspeople after all her clothes were burnt off by touching Johnny, one of the civilians smiling and eagerly taking pictures of her is a woman.
- Every Helicopter Is a Huey: As the team are flown over the Thames in a pair of Hueys. Since the US military long since phased out the Huey and the British military never used them at all, it's anyone's guess where on Earth they even got the things unless they raided an air museum.
- Expy: General Hager from was originally supposed to be Nick Fury, but this had to be changed at the last minute due to
rights issues (Fox owns film rights to the FF, while Marvel Studios has rights to Fury). It's especially obvious since one of Hager's conversations with Mr. Fantastic is taken almost word-for-word from a conversation between Mr. Fantastic and Nick Fury in Ultimate Extinction. - Fantastic Racism: After Silver Surfer is brought down by the F4 and stripped of his powers (his board confiscated) and detained under tight restraints, the US Army's officials announce they plan to enact brutal methods of interrogation on him that were deemed a violation of human rights by the United Nations. They assert that Surfer isn't human, so those guidelines won't apply to him, despite how Surfer looks very human.
- Fakeout Escape: There's a sequence (imported from the original comics) where Sue turns invisible when government officials come to check on her, then runs out the doorway during their confusion.
- The Fatalist: Silver Surfer has become one as a result of his enslaved position to Galactus being forced to find occupied planets full of living organisms for the cosmic entity to literally consume. However, in the end Sue is able to convince him that he always had the choice to rebel against Galactus.
- Faustian Rebellion: The Silver Surfer somehow has enough power to defeat Galactus with a Heroic Sacrifice, even though Galactus gave him his power. And The Stinger reveals he didn't even die.
- Flaming Emblem: At the end, the team forms the "4" logo out of the exhaust from their jets with Johnny putting the finishing touches on it.
- Frictionless Reentry: When the Silver Surfer drops him from space, a Friction Burn is just what the Human Torch needs, as it would allow him to fly. Ironically, he fails to catch fire until he is well into the troposphere.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: General Hager while shooting at Dr. Doom gets parts of himself blasted away by Doom. His resultant state after he dies is hard to describe in words.
- Heroic Sacrifice/Death Equals Redemption: The Silver Surfer defeats Galactus by flying straight into its core and discharging all the power contained in his board to implode the world-eating storm, not only destroying the maelstrom but also freeing himself from enslavement as Galactus's herald. The Stinger reveals that he was not destroyed.
- Homoerotic Subtext: After he confronts an egotistical military guy, Sue seductively tells Reed "I'm so hot for you right now." Johnny comes up behind Reed, gives him a hug, and remarks "Me too!" Reed laughs it off.
- Hypocritical Humor: Reed told Johnny to not have exotic dancers at his bachelor party, but as he saw them, he started talking to them.
- I Did What I Had to Do: When being chastised by Sue for serving Galactus, Silver Surfer defends that his actions which have doomed hundreds of planets filled with life to keep his master satisfied did preserve his own homeworld and his love interest who is there.
- I Will Show You X!: When Johnny and Ben discuss Ben's sex life.Johnny: I've been wondering. How do you and Alicia... (clicks his tongue in lieu of finishing the sentence)
Ben: That's none of your business!
Johnny: Okay, okay! I'm just concerned, that's all. I hate to wake up one morning and find out she was killed in a rockslide!
Ben: I'll show you a rockslide! - Incredibly Lame Pun: When Doom-in-the-Surfer-board whips up a tornado for the Fantastic Four.Doom: Let's all go... FOR A SPIN!
- Idiot Ball: General Hager. It's one thing when the military does not trust superheroes. It is another thing when that same general agrees to work with the guy who is not only WORSE than what you believe, but also took all of the Fantastic Four to defeat him in the previous film. Nice judgement, Hager.
- Intangibility: Silver Surfer can do this due to his manipulation of molecules. During his introductory chase scene he phases through buildings, cars, the Human Torch, and even his own board. He can even do it to Sue's force fields.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Whilst it doesn't last long, Johnny accidentally switching powers with Ben and becoming the Thing after all the crap he puts Ben through. Ben clearly enjoyed it.
- Literally Shattered Lives: How General Hager meets his demise, thanks to Doom using the Silver Surfer's board to enhance his powers, allowing him to petrify and shatter the general.
- Look Ma, No Plane!: The Human Torch flies next to the plane in which the rest of the Fantastic Four is flying, annoying the Thing. He doesn't fly coach!
- Kinder and Cleaner: The first film had some mild to moderate profanity, while it is dialed down for the sake of a PG rating, a rarity for a major live-action superhero film.
- Mistaken for Gay: There is a deleted scene where Johnny Storm was photographed by paparazzi while holding a bouquet and kneeling in front of Ben Grimm.
- Mythology Gag: Has its own page.
- Negative Space Wedgie: A cosmic phenomenon inexplicably destroying planets eight days after the Silver Surfer's arrival is investigated by Dr. Richards and the "anomaly" as Richards calls it is revealed as a giant planet-eating space cloud.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Prior to the trip to London, Johnny's power-swapping is played for laughs (with him accidentally triggering it by touching Susan and then Ben deliberately stealing his powers to be temporarily reunited with his human form). However, during the effort to prevent the London Eye from falling, Johnny accidentally makes contact with Reed while Reed himself is in the middle of holding up the wheel, causing them to swap powers at the worst possible time. Johnny becomes useless as he can't properly use Reed's stretching power to assist and luckily Reed is able to think quick enough to use Johnny's flames to weld the wheel back to the base. Reed switches back after the event and is very cross with Johnny's reckless involvement.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Had it not been for Dr. Doom throwing his spear at Silver Surfer and then Sue shielding the Surfer with herself taking the spear herself, Silver Surfer would have allowed Galactus to consume the Earth and move on to find another occupied planet.
- Not His Sled: Frankie Raye in a film involving Galactus? Surely she will become his herald Nova... or not. She remains as a normal human throughout the movie.
- Not Quite Back to Normal: Doom is healed of his metallic scars on his skin after the Silver Surfer lands an energy blast on him. Even so, his electricity powers from the first movie is retained.
- The Notable Numeral: 4. Written on the sky, in case you missed in on their chests.
- Oh, Crap!:
- The 4's reaction to Victor reappearing before them in the flesh.
- The Thing says this word-for-word as he gets his rocky skin back.
- Personal Arcade: A Hydro Thunder sit-down game appears in the Baxter Building, but no indication which of the team actually plays it.
- Physical Attribute Swap: As a result of his interaction with the Silver Surfer, Johnny ends up being able to trade superpowers with his teammates. When he does so with Ben, he turns into a Rock Monster while Ben returns to his original human form.
- Plot Hole: Why the Silver Surfer didn't just make the Heroic Sacrifice and kill Galactus earlier is a mystery. You could say he was too scared, but that casts him in a very bad light, as he could have saved billions of lives if he weren't such a chicken.
- Recycled Soundtrack: "Fantastic Proposal," the music John Ottman wrote for the final scene of the first film (not counting The Stinger), is tracked into the scene where Reed and Sue finally get married in Japan in the sequel (Ottman's original piece can be heard on the soundtrack album).
- Sacrificial Planet: After the Surfer inadvertently interrupts Richard and Sue's wedding and nearly causes a helicopter crash, Richard discovers energy signatures in the cosmos matching the Surfer that correlate to destroyed planets.
- Scenery Censor: When Susan's clothing is burnt from her body and she ends naked on the floor, only the strategically placed leg of a reporter preserves her modesty.
- Sea Sinkhole: Silver Surfer creates several seemingly bottomless holes on various locations around the Earth to prepare it for Galactus, with one of the holes in the middle of the river. The water ends up completely draining from the river, leaving it dry.
- Serkis Folk: The Silver Surfer is made from motion capture.
- Shout-Out: The Thing calls the bear Smokey and Boo-Boo.
- Skip to the End: Played humorously in the end when Sue and Reed's marriage is interrupted yet again.
- Snow Means Cold: Subverted when the Surfer's passage causes snow to fall on the Great Sphinx outside Giza, Egypt... without a corresponding drop in temperature.
- Starring Special Effects: The Silver Surfer is a CGI character and a major part of the film.
- The Stinger: The Silver Surfer wakes up in space.
- Taking the Bullet: Sue takes the spear that Doom aimed at Norrin Radd (the Surfer). Sue's act of compassion convinces Norrin to stop Galactus from devouring Earth.
- Too Dumb to Live:
- The General repeatedly trusts Doom over Richards, even giving him access to study the Surfer's board. Likely due to their mutual dislike of Richards. He even has the audacity to appear surprised when Victor inevitably screws everyone over and steals the board for himself!
- Victor also qualifies. He becomes so engrossed with stealing the Surfer's board (beacon) that even when Galactus arrives to the point you can hear and see it in the sky, Doom is adamant to keep the board for himself fending off Reed's warning to return the board or else they'll all die. Doom was very much willing to get eaten just to play with a stolen toy for a few more minutes.
- Unseen Evil: Gah Lak Tus is a prominent presence in the film who isn't physically seen.
- We Can Rule Together: Doom makes offers to help the Silver Surfer take over the world. It gets turned down, but at least in the following struggle Doom's body ends up restored.
- Weddings in Japan: This is where Reed and Sue get married in the end.
- Wedding Smashers: The Silver Surfer arrives during Sue and Reed's wedding.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Dr. Doom falls into the ocean near the end of the sequel, and is never seen again. Did he drown? Did he make it back to shore? We don't know. Another sequel would have likely answered that question (Julian McMahon accepted a three-film deal at the time).
- With Catlike Tread: The 4 decide that the only way to get the Silver Surfer's board back from Dr. Doom is to use The Human Torch's new "powers" to combine all their abilities to allow him to fly, but also be as strong as The Thing, and be invisible so he can sneak up on Doom. It works perfectly and he gets to within 2 feet of Doom. But rather than just knock him out, he has to say "To quote a friend, it's clobbering time." thus blowing the cover and starting a drawn-out battle...all while the Earth is about to be destroyed. Albeit in fairness to Johnny Storm, Doom had just killed his sister.
- "With Our Swords" Scene: Johnny has been power-swapping with the other three members for most of the film, and in the climax, he takes on all four of their powers to fight the Dr. Doom.
- Worst Wedding Ever: Sue's reaction upon the Silver Surfer causing a disaster on her wedding.
- You Remind Me of X: The Silver Surfer tells Sue she reminds him of the one he loves, although Shalla-Bal is not named.Silver Surfer: My service spares my world, and the one I love.
Sue: Why did you try to protect me?
Silver Surfer: Because you remind me of her.
