The Legend of the Ghost Rider

[JosephDQuinn]

My first edit of 2024! THE LEGEND OF THE GHOST RIDER is a trimmed down version of the 2007 Ghost Rider in the style of a Marvel Special Presentation like Werewolf-by-Night.

I've trimmed much of the over the top Nic Cage silliness and have tightened the overall pacing by focusing on the actual Ghost Rider and demon elements of the story; completely removing a subplot involving detectives and cutting the love story/ romantic elements down to a bare minimum. In this edit, after a brief backstory to open the film, Johnny Blaze is contacted by Mephistopheles to hunt down a few demons who've escaped from Hell, and he makes pretty quick work of them.

I worked off of the extended cut Blu-Ray, which runs 123 minutes (compared to the theatrical cut at 105 mins) including credits.

My edit, The Legend of The Ghost Rider, runs just 72 minutes total! The end credits start after 63 minutes, but I've included a mid-credits scene repurposed from earlier in the movie (with an added easter egg for another Marvel property).

It took a long time and a lot of revisiting to get a cut I'm happy with. The next phase of editing will be a full recolor and adding an old, grainy and worn filmic look to the picture. I want to capture the feel of an old western!

As far as music goes, I've replaced Superstar by the Carpenters with another of their songs, Rainy Days and Mondays. I stuck with the Carpenters because, for pacing purposes, I kept the line where Johnny Blaze says "you're stepping on Karen" - referring to Karen Carpenter. Also Rainy Days and Mondays is a great song and I even used it again in the end credits! Otherwise I've not done much with the music. I've thought about adding some more Johnny Cash, but it's almost too on the nose.

I'll share more details as I continue working on it!

 

[ArtisDead]

 

[ArtisDead]

 

[JosephDQuinn]

Here is a look at the first 5 minutes! If you're familiar with the original cut, you'll notice how drastically different this is.

I'd still like to do some color grading to give it a more western feel. I've added a slight film grain and bumped up the brightness a bit in one of the flashbacks.

One of the changes I'm quite fond of is

Reveal message: Music Change

replacing Superstar by The Carpenter's with Rainy Days and Mondays, also by the Carpenters. I kept the line "You're stepping on Karen." So I had to use another Karen Carpenter track. Rainy Days and Mondays has the perfect level of melodrama without being as flat out ridiculous as Superstar, and the harmonica adds to the neo-western flair.

 

[WhatTheActualMark]

Here is a look at the first 5 minutes! If you're familiar with the original cut, you'll notice how drastically different this is.

I'd still like to do some color grading to give it a more western feel. I've added a slight film grain and bumped up the brightness a bit in one of the flashbacks.

There is an alternate dialogue for the beginning. It goes like this: "But how could he have known that there was someone worse than the devil coming to collect?"
If you want to add it to your fanedit, you can certainly try.

 

[JosephDQuinn]

There is an alternate dialogue for the beginning. It goes like this: "But how could he have known that there was someone worse than the devil coming to collect?"

I actually did see that while I was editing and I played with using it. I've opted to keep the shorter version "The thing about legends is sometimes they're true" because it ties into the title a little bit better, and ultimately the villain isn't all that worse than the devil.

That said, I may swap it out down the line!

 

[bionicbob]

Here is a look at the first 5 minutes! If you're familiar with the original cut, you'll notice how drastically different this is.

I'd still like to do some color grading to give it a more western feel. I've added a slight film grain and bumped up the brightness a bit in one of the flashbacks.

Perfect! Absolutely P E R F E C T !

 

[maven48]

Awesome. The explosion of fire after the intro would be the perfect place for a title card.

 

[JosephDQuinn]

It's officially listed! Thank you to everyone who helped along the way!

 

[JosephDQuinn]

Coming back to this thread two months later to announce that I made some very minor additional changes after receiving some great feedback!

Thank you to everyone who has watched and reviewed this edit. So far the reviews have been fairly positive, and I've really enjoyed talking to many of you who have viewed it already about some of the finer details.

I wanted to share some specific details I didn't mention above, including a spoiler for my mid credits scene.

- One way I was able to condense the story was by trimming much of the backstory with the young Johnny Blaze and his sick father. In my edit, we meet Nic Cage's older Blaze and Eva Mendes' Roxanne first. There is a brief flash to the younger Roxanne when the present day version is introduced, where in her first line she directly refers to herself as "an old friend." Cage's big smile at seeing her and the ensuing dialog that directly references their past history then do everything necessary to establish their relationship.

Reveal message: The origin of the Ghost Rider

Then, when Cage's Blaze is knocked unconscious during his big stunt, we get a flashback that reveals his deal with the devil, which directly explains how he survives the crash we just witnessed.

I found breaking the backstory into flashbacks, as opposed to presenting everything chronologically, was the best way to give context to what we're seeing in the present without losing any momentum in the main story. The original movie has over 18 minutes of backstory with young Johnny before we see Cage. In my edit, we're introduced to Cage's Blaze at the 2 minute mark.

- Another way I condensed the story was by removing a huge amount of subplot and combing story elements to speed up the sequence of events. Gone is the story detail that Barton Blaze always wanted to jump a helicopter and adult Johnny doing just that before racing out of the stadium to ask Roxanne on a date. Also, unsurprisingly, completely removed is Roxanne being stood up on their date, her later investigation into the incident at the train yard, her interaction with the detectives and the detectives subplot entirely. Johnny doesn't get arrested in this edit.

Where in the original movie the present day story takes place over the course of about 4-5 days, in my edit the whole thing happens in only two nights!

In just the first night

Reveal message: Description of approximately 50% of the movie

Blaze survives a terrible crash after wiping out during a stunt, rides his tour bus back to the city, goes home and tries to unwind before being summoned by Mephisto, turns into the Ghost Rider for the first time, fights and defeats TWO fallen angels from Hell, and then rides to a cemetery outside of the city and passes out in front of the caretaker at sunrise the next day.

I inserted the rest of the necessary backstory as a second flashback after Blaze passes out. Here is where we get to see the deeper relationship he had with Roxanne. We get hints of it when she's introduced earlier in this edit, which I feel is enough context for the story at that point, but now we see how serious they really were. Having this detail fresh in mind makes Johnny rushing from the caretaker to find Roxanne feel more justified than if the flashback were removed (which was something I had done in an early cut).

- I made many cuts throughout to remove some of the sillier elements. A police officer flying off his bike as the Rider blows past at 666 MPH. The caretaker spitting. The whole jailhouse scene. The Rider throwing a helicopter. A gecko being burnt to a crisp. Poor line deliveries like Blackheart telling one of his demon goons to "slow him down" and the guy nervously questioning the command, as well as other terribly acted lines in the climax ("My name is Leeeeeeeegion...").

The credit's roll after 64 minutes! However, I repurposed a scene I cut from earlier in the movie as a mid credits scene.

Reveal message: Details of the Mid Credits Scene

As the film ends with Johnny Blaze telling Mephisto that he will "own this curse" and use it against him to do good, I decided to include the scene where the Ghost Rider stops a mugging and uses the penance stare on a random street criminal. This scene, which features a young Rebel Wilson, originally took place in the middle of the movie, on the first night Blaze transformed into the Rider, and really wasn't necessary for the plot.

I like having it after the credits because it follows up on Blaze's final dialog with Mephisto where, after defeating all of the fallen angels, he vows to protect people "where ever innocent blood is spilt." Until this point, he's only used the power of the Rider to fight demons. Now, he seemingly uses the power as a vigilante to save people.

Of course, a mid-credits scene in a Marvel movie would be nothing without some kind of easter eggs. So, I edited the penance stare sequence on the street thug and added....

Reveal message: Spoiler-ception

Andrew Garfield's Peter Parker crying over his Uncle Ben from The Amazing Spider-Man! In TASM, there was an unresolved plot thread where Peter Parker was searching for his uncle's killer. Ghost Rider has found him! It worked out perfectly that in this penance stare sequence there happens to be a close up of a gun firing twice, and TASM's Uncle Ben was shot exactly twice. I trimmed the whole sequence a bit and then overlayed a shot of Ben Parker lying dead for just a few seconds. It's a very subtle easter egg and not many people have caught it, but I'm very proud of how it turned out!

Thanks again to everyone who's given it a watch already! I love talking about this movie.