An old legend in the West tells the story of the Ghost Rider, who is said to come once every generation. They're a damned soul cursed to ride the Earth collecting the devil's deals. Many years ago, a Ghost Rider named Carter Slade was sent to the village of San Venganza to fetch a contract worth one thousand evil souls, but this contract was so powerful that he couldn't allow Mephisto to have it so Carter rode away with it and outran the devil himself.
One hundred fifty years later, in 1986, Johny Blaze and his father Barton work together as stunt motorcycle riders, although Barton is angry with Johny because he keeps getting distracted by his girlfriend Roxanne sitting in the audience, which could cost him his life during a show. Barton's health is clearly deteriorating more every day, but he refuses to quit smoking no matter how many times Johny throws his cigarettes away. One afternoon, Roxanne comes to talk to Johny to share some devastating news: her father is sending her away to live with her mother.
Johny can't stand the idea of losing her and asks her to run away together, Roxanne enthusiastically agrees and they plan to do it the next day. Later in the evening while Barton is asleep, Johny finds a letter in the trash from a hospital explaining that Barton's cancer is spreading. Johny can't believe his dad has been hiding something like this and begins to think he may not be able to run away with Roxanne anymore since leaving Barton like this would be cruel.
His thoughts are suddenly interrupted by Mephisto, who offers Johny a deal: he will cure Barton's cancer in exchange for the boy's soul. Johny doesn't believe him but still checks the contract out of curiosity, causing him to accidentally cut his finger with the paper. The drop of blood that falls on it is enough for Mephisto to consider the deal sealed and before Johny can ask what he means, he passes out and wakes up the next morning on his bed.
Just as Mephisto promised, Barton's cancer is gone now. He's so excited about this turn of events that he's already planning a new show that could possibly include jumping over a helicopter and wants Johny to join him, but Johny is getting ready to run away with Roxanne. Now that his dad is better he doesn't need him anymore and Johny wants more in life than stupid stunts; such words hurt Barton but he doesn't want Roxanne's dad to send the cops after them either, so he allows Johny to take his most beloved bike.
When Johny is about to leave, he hears some commotion coming from a tent and runs back to find out his father died during the show after Mephisto paid him a quick visit. Afraid of what the contract has gotten him into, Johny rides away considering ending things for himself, but Mephisto stops him because he needs him alive, he also promises to come back in the future when he needs him. Before disappearing, he touches Johny and lights a flame inside him as he asks him to leave everything he loves behind.
Afraid of what this may mean, Johny takes his bike and drives by Roxanne waiting for him but leaves her without offering an explanation. Twenty-one years later in 2007, adult Johny is a famous stunt rider known for how he's survived every single fall. When his stunts do fail is because he keeps thinking about Mephisto and the contract, but he tries to convince himself he isn't afraid.
Johny never gives interviews but he's on good terms with his traveling crew, especially his best friend Mack, who is worried about Johny wanting to clear the length of a football field in cars with one jump on the anniversary of Barton's accident. There's also the fact Johny's obsessed with weird religious books that Mack thinks may be messing with his mind, but Johny dismisses his worries, explaining he's waiting for a sign. Meanwhile Mephisto's son Blackheart appears on Earth and approaches a biker bar to kill every human inside.
Once everyone is dead, the Hidden show up; they're three fallen angels bonded with the elements. There's Gressil with earth-based powers, Abigor with air-based powers, and Wallow with water-based powers. Blackheart wants them to help him find the San Venganza contract to harness its tremendous power and take over the world and the Hidden agree.
Before they can get moving though, Mephisto shows up outside to remind Blackheart it isn't his time yet, but Blackheart doesn't care. Mephisto can't hurt him on Earth because he's never fallen, although the Ghost Rider can. However Blackheart isn't scared of Mephisto's creation and dares to send the man after him, although he's clearly jealous over the fact his dad gave such power to a human instead of him.
The next day, Johny is getting ready for the show and ignoring reporters as usual, but he makes an exception when he discovers an adult Roxanne has come to interview him as well. Instead of answering her questions though, Johny keeps making his own because he wants to know what she's been up to all these years. The interview is cut short since it's going nowhere and Roxanne leaves no matter how much her cameraman wants to stay because she never liked watching Johny jump.
Speaking of Johny, he considers seeing Roxanne the sign he's been waiting for and decides to go through his dad's old idea of jumping over a bunch of helicopters instead of cars. By replacing the dark thoughts with Roxanne, Johny's jump is a total success, but instead of stopping to celebrate, Johny just keeps going and drives out of the building to catch up to Roxanne's van on the road. Since she refuses to pull over or even talk to him, Johny speeds up ahead and blocks the road to make the van stop.
This makes Roxanne furious, but Johny points out that if Roxanne really didn't want anything to do with him she would've turned down the interview before kissing her. Roxanne pushes him away but also sees his point and accepts to get dinner together later. Night falls and Roxanne is waiting at the restaurant, worried about the lack of messages from Johny, who is already pretty late.
He's still at his apartment, delayed because he's noticed his hands are getting quite red and hot. There's also a mysterious voice calling his name, and when he goes outside he finds Mephisto, who wants Johny to stop Blackheart since that's part of the contract. Obviously Johny refuses and gets on his bike ready to go on his date, but the magic behind the contract kicks in and the bike suddenly gets covered in flames as it takes Johny away at an insane speed, melting objects as they pass.
Meanwhile Blackheart and the Hidden arrive at the local train station where there used to be a cemetery; rumors say the San Venganza contract was buried there. The station caretaker explains the graves were moved to a church graveyard and tries to kick the group out, which gets him killed by Blackheart. Back to Johny, the bike takes him all the way to a warehouse in the train station, where he finally loses all control and the magic transforms him into a firey skeleton known as Ghost Rider.
Blackheart finds him and doesn't take him seriously enough to attack him at full power, so he sends Gressil after him before leaving. Johny is more powerful than he looks and easily frees himself from Blackheart's attack before jumping on Gressil, killing him in a second with his special flame chain. Afterward, Johny uses his new powers to transform his bike into something more powerful and rides away until he finds a teenager being robbed.
Johny stops the attack and after the girl safely runs away, he grabs the thief and uses his Penance Stare on him, a power that causes mortals to feel all the pain they have caused others, searing their soul. The thief has caused so much damage to others in his life that he can't take judgment and dies. Then Johny keeps on riding until he makes it to the local graveyard just in time for the sun to rise, meaning he goes back to normal the moment he reaches his father's grave, unaware that Carter Slade's also buried nearby.
There, he's found by the Caretaker, who takes Johny to his little shack when he passes out. A few hours later, Johny wakes up with a headache, but Caretaker makes sure to remind him everything that happened last night was real and it will happen again, so Johny needs to come to terms with the fact being Ghost Rider is part of his life now. Caretaker offers his help and Johny accepts after some hesitation, thus Caretaker takes care of Johny's wounds while telling him about the town of San Venganza, where all the citizens' souls were trapped forever after killing each other over greed.
Meanwhile Roxanne is covering the disaster at the train station for the news, interviewing the teenager that almost got robbed but not believing her when she describes a skeleton in flames. After the interview is done, Roxanne is approached by Johny trying to apologize, but she doesn't accept it, pointing out this is the second time he's hurt her and that maybe her father had been right, he's just a phase. While the cops found a bike license plate under all the rubble, Johny returns home and while using tips from his religious texts, he begins practicing to control his powers.
His training is interrupted by Roxanne, who is leaving town soon and wants to apologize for the hurtful things she said only to end up kissing him. Worried about the whole Ghost Rider deal, Johny pushes her away because he doesn't want to put her in danger. This enrages Roxanne, who is tired of Johny's mixed messages and forces him to confess what's going on.
Obviously she doesn't believe him and she gets even angrier when he asks her to leave because the sun is setting, so she's out of the door with her heart broken and assuming Johny is just making up excuses to get rid of her. As soon as Roxanne is gone, the cops show up to arrest Johny because the license plate they found was from his bike. At the police station, the detectives try to pull off the good cop/bad cop trick on Johny and even threaten his career, but since Johny doesn't fall for it, he's put in a cell until he's ready to confess.
This cell is full of inmates eager to beat up a famous person but as soon as they come closer, night finally falls and Johny becomes Ghost Rider again, easily knocking out all the prisoners with one single hit except for a teenage boy with a pure soul. After stealing another prisoner's jacket, Johny burns the cell bars and escapes on his bike, ignoring the cops that try to stop him by driving on water. Meanwhile Blackheart is visiting the priest that supposedly protects the location of the San Venganza contract, but the priest refuses to talk and gets killed.
Blackheart can also sense that Ghost Rider is coming after them, so he sends Abigor to stop him; this causes Johny to chase the demon all over the city while the cops chase him in return. When Abigor climbs up a very tall building, Johny does the same on his bike; this is seen by Roxanne from her hotel room and helps her start believing the story. On the top of the building, Johny uses his chain to catch the police helicopter and throws it away before turning to Abigor, but the same trick doesn't work on him because you can't grab something made of air.
Fortunately Johny is a quick thinker and uses the chain to create a small firey hurricane that absorbs Abigor and kills him anyway. Afterward, he lands his bike in the middle of the streets and notices Roxanne in the curious crowd but he can't approach her because the police get in the way. Their bullets can't hurt Johny so after pushing them back with a wall of fire, he rides safely away.
By the time the sun rises, Johny makes it to the graveyard and asks Caretaker for help. After explaining the whole story behind Carter Slade and the stolen contract, Caretaker reminds Johny that Blackheart would do anything to get him, including hurting his loved ones, so Johny rushes back to the city to check on Roxanne. In the meantime, the police are still trying to find Johny and ask Roxanne for her help since she's close to him, but she pretends to know nothing.
Afterward, Roxanne goes to Johny's apartment only to find Mack, who is trying to find out what's going on with his best friend. Roxanne doesn't want to tell such an unbelievable story, but she does accept to look over the religious texts for clues with him. When night falls, Blackheart and Wallow visit Caretaker and beat him up, trying to get him to confess the location of the contract, but since Caretaker doesn't break, Blackheart decides he'll need to go after Johny.
Moments later, he shows up at the apartment too and after killing Mack, he turns to Roxanne to find a way to use her against Johny. Speaking of Johny, he finally shows up then and starts a fight against Blackheart, but his Penance Stare doesn't work on him because Blackheart doesn't have a soul. Blackheart takes advantage of this moment to push Johny away and undo his transformation, then he kidnaps Roxanne while telling Johny that he'll have to bring the San Venganza contract if he wants to see her again.
Moments later, Johny is back at the graveyard and convinces Caretaker to give him the contract, which had been hiding in his shovel all along. Since Johny made his deal out of love and not greed, Caretaker trusts he can end this and offers his help as he reveals the Carter Slade grave is fake. It turns out Caretaker is the real Carter and he still has his Ghost Rider powers, so he calls his horse and rides together with Johny to guide him to San Venganza.
Unfortunately Caretaker can't stay because this is the last time he could transform, but he does give Johny a shotgun before leaving. The first opponent that Johny encounters is Wallow, who tries to drown him in his swamp, but water can't hurt Johny and he uses his flames to evaporate the demon. Next, Johny goes after Blackheart, making him drop Roxanne before pretending to hand him the contract.
This is just a trick that triggers another fight, but since the sun is coming out, Johny loses his powers and can't stop Blackheart from grabbing the contract and absorbing the power of all the souls, transforming him into Legion. Johny still refuses to give up and shoots Legion with his shotgun, but the bullets don't hurt him and Legion grabs Johny by the neck, ready to kill. Luckily he's saved by Roxanne, who retrieves the shotgun and blows up Legion's head, making him drop Johny.
While Legion takes a moment to regenerate, Johny takes the shotgun from Roxanne and manages to transform it the same way he did with his bike by putting it in the shadows, because the problem is sunlight itself and not just the time of the day. A shot from this powered weapon blows up Legion, and while he goes through regeneration again, Johny watches the souls reforming the demon's body, which gives him an idea. By stepping into the shadows, he manages to transform into Ghost Rider and this time, he can use his Penance Stare because now Legion has thousands of souls to be judged.
By burning all the corrupt souls, Legion dies as well. With their enemy defeated, Roxanne comes closer and touches the flaming face, proving she isn't afraid of Johny before kissing him. On their way out, they come across Mephisto, who congratulates Johny on a job well done and asks for the Ghost Rider power back.
However Johny refuses to return it because he doesn't want it to fall in the wrong hands, so he'll keep it to protect the innocent. Unfortunately this also means Johny can't have a normal life again, so after Mephisto is gone, he says goodbye to Roxanne, who is very understanding since this is what Johny has always been. The couple shares one last kiss before Johny rides his bike into the sunset to start a new life as the only Ghost Rider.
