Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance is a 2012 American supernatural superhero horror film based on the Marvel Comics antihero Ghost Rider. It is the sequel to the 2007 film Ghost Rider and stars Nicolas Cage as Johnny Blaze the Ghost Rider.

Tropes used in Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance include:

Johnny: This power that we have comes from a dark place, but it's not who we are. And we can use it to help people.

  • Big Bad: Roarke.
    • Non-Action Big Bad: Roarke is unable to use The Devil's powers without burning out his body, so in a fight he's pretty much just a dude in a suit. He at least seems to be a decent getaway driver, though.
  • Bloodless Carnage: People are turned to ash and set on fire. But, as you can guess from its PG-13 rating, there's no blood and gore. Though there is one very quick aerial shot in which a mook is cut in half by the Ghost Rider's chain and you see that his upper half plops on the ground, with what appears to be a puddle of blood.
    • A few mooks are also taken down with gunfire with no signs of blood.
  • Body Snatcher: Roarke's plan for Danny.
  • Brought Down to Normal/He's Back: Who else?
  • The Cameo: Anthony Head and Christopher Lambert both show up as priests of Moreau's order.
  • Canon Immigrant: Moreau.
  • 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").
  • Continuity Nod: While in a restaurant, Johnny drinks water straight out of a pitcher.
  • Creator Cameo: Directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor.
  • Darker and Edgier
  • Decoy Protagonist: Moreau shows up in the first scene and has an extended action sequence before we ever get a glimpse of Ghost Rider or even the title. Additionally, the opening sequence is set up with the possibility that Moreau died, but we quickly learn he survived.
  • Demonic Possession
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?:
    • Carrigan, a puny human, manages to K.O. Ghost Rider during their first encounter, a feat that high-level demons couldn't manage in the first film.
    • Also, more literally near the end, where a de-powered Johnny punches s Satan/Roarke right in the face.
  • The Dragon: Carrigan.
  • Half-Human Hybrid: Danny
  • Hot Mom: Nadya. Dear God, Nadya.
  • Jerkass: Carrigan, Even before getting turned into Blackout.
  • Knight Templar: The Rider is depicted as having become much more merciless in this film, to the point where Blaze suggests that it would use the Penance Stare on someone simply for illegally downloading an mp3. This explains why Blaze abandoned his original plan from the end of the first movie to use the Rider's powers for good, and is hiding out in a warehouse in Eastern Europe.
  • Large Ham: Nicolas Cage seems to have forgotten to take his anti-crazy pills because he's friggin' insane in this.

It's scraping at the door! IT'S SCRAPPIN' AT DA DAAAAAAAWWWWWW!!

  • Mood Whiplash: Moreau showing up at Johnny's hideout of self-imposed exile, dramatically declaring that his (Moreau's) brothers are dead and so should he be, but for the grace of God... and then a quick flashback to him hanging upside down from a tree.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Blackout was about two seconds away from killing Ghost Rider. And then he made the fatal mistake of looking into his eyes.
    • Roarke explaining to Danny that they have the same powers.
  • Ominous Latin Chanting: Roarke's minions actually chant when they perform The Rite.
  • Power Degeneration: The more Roarke uses his powers, the more burned out his host body becomes. This actually drives the plot.
  • Precision F-Strike: Johnny Blaze was the "Worst fuckin deal" Roarke ever made.
  • Rewrite: While keeping in continuity with the first film for the most part, Mephisto is retconned out in favor of the less ostentatiously named Roarke.
    • To be fair, Moreau does say that "The Devil goes by many names." The real change is that Mephisto was manifesting in the real world himself before, but now can only act through an agent. This one happens to be named Roarke.
    • There's also a retcon in terms of the circumstances about Johnny's father's death. Rather than dying in a motorcycle stunt, it's implied that he dies of some disease. Also, there's a change is that Johnny wanted to keep his father alive rather than let him die naturally.
  • Retcon: It's kind of a soft-reboot, a la The Incredible Hulk.
  • Universal Driver's License: The Rider can drive anything, and convert it to a hell-born mechanical nightmare while doing so.
  • Walking Wasteland: Carrigan is brought back from the dead by Roarke as Blackout, with the ability to decay anything he touches.
  • What Could Have Been - The creators behind Drive Angry originally presented a treatment of Ghost Rider 2 which would have been a true sequel to the original film instead of the reboot it turned out to be. It was deemed too violent but in any case it is insane. See here.