What is Love?: Ghost Rider

In the days of the American Old east, Mephistopheles sent a bounty hunter of the damned, called a Ghost Rider, to retrieve a contract for a thousand corrupt souls from the town of San Venganza. The Rider refused to give the contract — and therefore, the souls — to Mephistopheles; instead, he outran Mephistopheles and hid himself and the contract.

A century and a half later, a seventeen-year-old stunt motorcycle rider Johnny Blaze (Matt Long/Nicolas Cage) discovers that his father is dying of lung cancer. Mephistopheles (Peter Fonda) approaches him with a promise to rid his father of his cancer once and for all if Johnny gave his soul as payment. Johnny inadvertently signs the contract when a spike located on its central bar breaks his skin and causes his blood to fall onto the parchment. The next morning, his father's cancer is gone; but later that same day, he dies mid-stunt in a horrific bike crash. Johnny accuses Mephistopheles regarding his father's death; Mephistopheles informs Johnny that he now owns the boy's soul, as agreed. Johnny then abandons his girlfriend, Roxanne Simpson (Raquel Alessi/Eva Mendes).

Years later, Johnny has become a stunt rider known for his dynamic stunts and for his uncanny ability to walk away from life-threatening crashes. His manager and best friend Mack (Donal Logue) speculates that Johnny must have a guardian angel protecting him. Johnny, however, speculates that it could be "something else". Later, on his next stunt, he meets Roxanne again, now a journalist, and they renew their relationship.

Near the same time, Blackheart (Wes Bentley), son of Mephistopheles, comes to Earth to find the lost contract and use its power to bring about Hell on Earth and by doing so overpower his father. He calls forth the fallen angel trio known as the Hidden, Wallow (Daniel Frederiksen), Gressil (Laurence Breuls) and Abigor (Mathew Wilkinson), to act as his allies. To stop his son, Mephistopheles goes to Johnny and forces him to become the fiery Ghost Rider, promising to free his soul if he hunts and defeats Blackheart and the Hidden; thus turning Johnny into his personal bounty hunter. Meanwhile, Blackheart and his team have gone to an old train station, learning that the old graveyard, and the contract that was hidden there, have been moved. By that time, Johnny is driven straight to the station on his "first ride" where he transforms fully into the Ghost Rider and a fight ensues. In the process, Johnny acquires a heavy chain, which he uses to kill Gressil while the others escape. While searching for the quarry, Ghost Rider hears a woman (Rebel Wilson) being mugged. He stops the mugger and uses his most powerful weapon on him, the Penance Stare; a power by which a person is subjected to all the pain they have ever caused others. As the mugger ends up in a catatonic state, worse than death, which is implied to be the "burning" of his soul.[citation needed]

The next day, Johnny wakes up in a cemetery chapel, where he meets a man called the Caretaker (Sam Elliott), who seems to know all the history of the Ghost Rider. When he arrives home, Johnny finds Roxanne and reveals himself as the Devil's bounty hunter. She leaves in anger and disbelief at his tale. As Roxanne leaves, the police arrive and take Johnny into custody for his connection to the damage done to the city and the deaths caused by Blackheart. He is put in a holding cell with some other prisoners, who mock Johnny and beat him before he assumes his Ghost Rider form, knocking the prisoners down before taking one of their jackets and leaving, after recognizing the only one who made no attempt to harm him as "innocent", to hunt down Blackheart. That night, Roxanne recognizes Johnny, while he (as the Ghost Rider) is fighting Abigor, in full view of the city and a large police force. Johnny destroys Abigor, faces the police, and then leaves. Observing the scene after obtaining the location of the contract, Blackheart realizes that Roxanne is Johnny's weakness.

Johnny goes for advice to the Caretaker, who tells him of Johnny's predecessor, Carter Slade, a Texas Ranger who was a man of honor before his greed placed him before the gallows for his misdeeds. Slade then made a deal with Mephistopheles to break free; in return, Slade became the Ghost Rider who hid the contract of San Venganza. The Caretaker then warns Johnny to stay away from those whom Blackheart and the fallen angels can use against him. Unfortunately, Blackheart already plans to use Roxanne and is in search of her. He finds her at Johnny's apartment, reading some books pertaining to demonic lore in the effort to understand Johnny's actions. Blackheart kills Mack and stuns Roxanne, before Johnny arrives and is assaulted by Blackheart. Transforming into the Ghost Rider, Johnny attempts to use the Penance Stare on his enemy, but Blackheart is impervious to it because he has no (human) soul to burn. Blackheart then threatens to kill Roxanne, using her life as the means of exchange for the Contract of San Venganza. Johnny thence goes to the caretaker, asking to have this contract.

The Caretaker tells Johnny that San Venganza will be "Hell on Earth" if Blackheart claims the contract, and admonishes Johnny to think before he acts. Johnny, however, convinces the Caretaker that he has a plan by which to overcome their enemy. The Caretaker then reveals that he is Carter Slade, still alive because of his own power as a Ghost Rider, and offers to show Johnny the way to San Venganza. They ride together into the desert – Carter Slade on a skeletal, flaming phantom horse, Johnny Blaze on his skeletally decorated, flaming motorcycle – leaving a destructive trail of fire in their wake. Some distance from the town, they stop. Slade gives Johnny his shotgun (a sawn-off Winchester Model 1887/1901) and tells him to "use the shadows" before riding away and dying of his own depletion of strength.

Having killed Wallow, the last of Blackheart's three demons, Johnny gives the contract to Blackheart but becomes the Ghost Rider as he does, hoping to pummel his foe into submission. Blackheart shrugs off the attack and manages to subdue Ghost Rider as the sun rises. With Johnny rendered powerless, Blackheart uses the contract to absorb the 1,000 souls into his body, taking the name "Legion". Johnny attempts in vain to lure his enemy into the shadowed area of the church until Roxanne grabs his discarded shotgun, shooting Legion several times before tossing the gun to Johnny. Holding the weapon in the shadows, Johnny transforms the shotgun into a Ghost Rider weapon and blasts Legion apart with hellfire. The souls of San Venganza restore the demon quickly, whereupon Johnny uses the Penance Stare to destroy him. Legion's thousand corrupt souls are seared and he falls, comatose and blind. Ghost Rider then tosses Blackheart's comatose body aside, and reverts to his normal form. He is at first ashamed of his monstrous appearance before Roxanne, until she shows him that she is not afraid of what Johnny has become.

Mephistopheles appears and gives Johnny his soul, offering to take back the curse of the Ghost Rider. Johnny refuses, saying that he will use his power against Mephistopheles, and against all harm that comes to the innocent. Infruriated of being robbed of the power, Mephistopheles vows to make Johnny pay, to which Johnny in response recites his favorite saying: "You can't live in fear". Mephistopheles then disappears, taking Blackheart's body with him. Johnny and Roxanne share some parting words at the tree on which Johnny carved "J&R FOREVER" at the beginning of the film. Roxanne then tells Johnny that he got his second chance before sharing a final kiss with him. Johnny then rides away on his motorcycle, now a legend in his own right.

The film then concludes with a rendition of the song Ghost Riders in the Sky.