The Ghost Rider Duology is a series of two films starring Nicolas Cage in the eponymous role. Released by Sony Pictures in 2007 and 2012.
The movies in the duology are, in order:
- Ghost Rider (2007)
- Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2012)
Spirits of Vengeance ended up underperforming, leading to the rights going back to Marvel Studios after Sony's purchase of the property exceeded the film's profits.
These films provide examples of:
- Actionized Sequel: Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance has a lot more action scenes than the first, and they're all longer and more destructive. For quick comparison, The Rider's bodycount in the first movie is four demons, while in the sequel his human bodycount numbers is in the dozens.
- Actor Allusion:
- Mephisto (played by Peter Fonda) calls Johnny's ride a "nice bike" while eyeing it up and down. The Ghost Rider's motorcycle in this film is a tweaked version of the exact same model Fonda's character rode in the seminal classic Easy Rider.
- Johnny touches Danny's hair, trying to comfort him, and plays it off by saying there was a bee there and he was afraid it was going to sting his face.
- Methodius, played by Christopher Lambert, when getting ready to fight with a sword, spins the blade in a rather familiar fashion.
- Adaptational Badass: Blackout in the comics is just a dude who can suck out the light of environments, and he isn't at all that much of a challenge to the Ghost Rider, but his movie self nearly kills the Rider.
- The Rider himself is sort of zig-zagged. He's far more direct, actually fighting (and killing) humans rather than just avoiding them, and has several more blatantly cool and showy powers, but displays a lot less cleverness and combat savvy. The Penance Stare has also gone from something that almost instantly paralyzes its target and swiftly burns their soul out to... just staring at them while being really scary, which seems to do... something... ... eventually.
- Adaptational Heroism: Zarathos is shown as more of a benign being in this movie compared to his more asshole-ish comic self.
- Adaptational Wimp: Roarke, implied to be Mephisto going by a different name, is a Non-Action Big Bad, in contrast to the Physical God he is in the comics. This could be the result of having possess a human body made him vulnerable.
- Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames:
- Carrigan is never called Blackout, the name of his character in the comics. The name Ghost Rider is only spoken once (otherwise, it's "the Rider").
- True to the CinemaSins "roll credits at the title drop" gag, Blaze declaring himself as the Ghost Rider is the last line in the film.
- Composite Character:
- Ghost Rider is Johnny Blaze, but the different appearance of Ghost Rider (Chain wrapped around the torso, and the spikey jacket) is the comic book costume of Danny Ketch (Ghost Rider II). Originally, the chain was exclusive to Danny, who had the spike-bearing costume. When Johnny was brought back for the new comics, he inherited the look. Johnny originally wore stylized black leathers with a high collar and that was it. Also, Johnny's version of Ghost Rider fired blasts of flames while Danny had the Penance Stare. This version has both powers, though the Penance Stare is given more importance by the plot.
- Barton Blaze became the reason why there was a deal with Mephisto, not Johnny's adoptive father, Crash Simpson. (Although there was a mention of Roxanne Simpson's father, who, ironically, didn't approve of her relationship with Blaze.)
- Zarathos appears to be combined with Zadkiel, since it's revealed that he's a fallen angel and his flame is blue.
- Combined with Decomposite Character and Adaptational Name Change: In the comics, Johnny and Danny's mother is Naomi Kale, and Danny was adopted by Francis Ketch. In the movie, Danny's mother is Nadya Ketch.
- Mythology Gag:
- When Carrigan uses his powers, he causes all light in the nearby environment to black out from the victim's perspective, in the comics, this was his actual power, hence his name being Blackout. Also Danny as in Danny Ketch, the second Ghost Rider in the comics.
- Ghost Rider turns blue at the end, like the Danny Ketch Ghost Rider.
- Retcon: The second film is kind of a soft-reboot, only using the first film's events in vague broad strokes.
- Unrelated in the Adaptation: Daniel Ketch isn't Johnny's brother, like he was in the comics.
