The film stars Nicolas Cage as the titular character, with Eva Mendes, Wes Bentley, Sam Elliott, Donal Logue, Matt Long, and Peter Fonda in supporting roles.

The film follows Johnny Blaze, a motorcycle stuntman who sells his soul and becomes the Ghost Rider, a bounty hunter of evil demons.

The demon Mephistopheles sends his bounty hunter, the Ghost Rider, to retrieve the contract of San Venganza for control of a thousand dark souls.

He returns to the Caretaker, who tells him of his predecessor Carter Slade, a Texas Ranger who hid the contract of San Venganza.

The Caretaker reveals that it is hidden inside a spade, telling Johnny that he is stronger than his predecessors because he sold his soul for love rather than greed, before giving it to him.

Slade then leads Johnny to San Venganza and gives him a lever-action shotgun before bidding him farewell and having finally shaken off the curse, fading into dust as he rides away.

[9] David S. Goyer developed a script and in May 2000, Marvel announced an agreement with Crystal Sky Entertainment to film Ghost Rider with actor Jon Voight attached as a producer.

[10] Production was scheduled to start in early 2001 with a budget of $75 million and Johnny Depp expressing interest in the lead role.

[12] Producer Avi Arad approached Eric Bana on the possibility of playing Ghost Rider, but opted to cast him in Hulk instead.

By May 2002, Columbia Pictures sought to acquire rights to Ghost Rider in turnaround from Dimension Films following their success with Spider-Man.

[18] In April 2003, under Columbia Pictures, director Mark Steven Johnson took over the helm for Ghost Rider with Cage returning for the lead role.

Johnson, rewriting Salerno's script, was set to begin production of Ghost Rider in late 2003 or early 2004,[19] but it was delayed to October.

[21] Actor Wes Bentley was cast as Blackheart, having been introduced to Johnson by Colin Farrell, who had worked with the director in Daredevil.

[27] Johnson originally planned to film before an audience at the Docklands Stadium, but instead opted to create a crowd using computer-generated imagery.

[32] Instead of a "hard drinking and smoking bad ass" Johnny Blaze, Nicolas Cage decided to give him more depth: "I'm playing him more as someone who... made this deal and he's trying to avoid confronting it, anything he can do to keep it away from him".

[34] Kevin's Team at Imageworks also created computer-generated motorcycles, chains, water, black goo, dementors and buildings.

The department supervisors for these teams at Imageworks included Kevin Hudson, Brian Steiner, JD Cowels, Marco Marenghi, Joe Spadaro, Joanie Karnowski, Vincent Serritella & Patrick Witting.

The digital version of the hell cycle was modeled in detail by Kevin Hudson and based on the practical prop used in the film, it included animatable skeletal hands that came alive to wrap the gas tank during the supernatural transformation scene.

Davis filtered Cage's line readings through three different kinds of animal growls that were played backwards and covered separate frequencies.

In addition, Spiderbait, a band that Johnson befriended during filming in Australia,[35] performed a cover of "Ghost Riders in the Sky" for the end credits.

[38] The following July, the studio presented a Ghost Rider panel at San Diego Comic-Con and screened a teaser for the audience.

[41] In April 2006, Sideshow Collectibles announced the sale of a Ghost Rider maquette based on the concept art of the film.

The site's critical consensus states: "Ghost Rider is a sour mix of morose, glum histrionics amidst jokey puns and hammy dialogue".

Ordoña said "for a comic book with a rebel spirit, the adaptation feels obediently conventional",[56] and Catsoulis said Johnny Blaze is "more funny than frightening".

The Robbie Reyes version of the Ghost Rider later appeared in the TV series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.