The Ending Of Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance Explained

The 2011 Marvel film Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance featured beloved Internet meme and actor Nicolas Cage reprising his role as the fiery biker anti-hero Johnny Blaze. Having sold his soul to the devil, Mephistopheles, to save his father from cancer, at night Blaze becomes the Ghost Rider, a vengeful spirit who feeds off of evil and consumes the souls of sinners. Complete with a fiery skull and leather motorcycle jacket, Cage embodies one of the cooler — and scarier — superheroes in the Marvel canon.

Released in 2007, the first film ended with Blaze vowing to use his powers to aid the innocent and to fight Mephistopheles. In Spirit of Vengeance however, the character is in hiding, as he struggles with the darkness of the demon inside him. The Ghost Rider soon returns, though, when an alcoholic monk named Moreau (Idris Elba) seeks his aid in protecting a mother and her son from the forces of the devil, and Blaze discovers Mephistopheles has rather big plans for the child.

Johnny Blaze learns that the boy, Danny, is the son of Mephistopheles, as his dying mother had made a deal with him in exchange for her life. If the devil captures Danny, he'd become a direct vessel and give him extraordinary power in our world. Moreau reveals to Blaze that the Ghost Rider was originally a Spirit of Justice named Zarathos, but he was broken by being captured and tortured in Hell. The monk restores Blaze's humanity at last, only for Danny to be taken back by Mephistopheles' minions. As the forces of good fight to save the child in the climactic final scenes, Moreau is killed and Danny must give Blaze the Rider's powers again before dying himself. The Ghost Rider stops the Devil and sends him back to hell before reviving Danny and returning him to his mother. No longer the Spirit of Vengeance but the Spirit of Justice, Blaze races off, the flames on his body now blue. 

Spirit of Vengeance would mark the last cinematic outing for Cage as the Ghost Rider. After disappointing at the box office, he publicly claimed to be finished with the character (via Collider). The flaming-skulled avenger (small A) would finally make his MCU appearance in Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 4, this time played by Gabriel Luna, which led to a Ghost Rider spinoff series on HULU that was ultimately canceled before airing. A different Ghost Rider could be heading our way in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness.