Welcome back to Movie Recapped.
Today I will show you an action, adventure, fantasy film from 2005, titled Fantastic Four.
Spoilers ahead!
Watch out and take care.
Reed Richards, a genius scientist who happens to be bankrupt, and his friend and colleague
Ben Grimm need funding and support from one of the wealthiest people on the planet.
Reed is seen explaining the experiment he needs to conduct to prove that evolution on
Earth was made possible by exposure to a high-energy cosmic storm borne on solar winds.
Since there is another storm coming towards the planet, research done on it from space
can influence advances in genealogy and medicine.
The man hearing the proposal is Victor Von Doom, who can both pay for the research and
grant Reed access to one of his space stations equipped with a strong shield, capable of
protecting the researchers from the storm.
Victor is mostly interested in the benefits from Reed's research for his business so he
has his Director of Genetic Research, Sue Storm join in on the meeting.
She also happens to be Reed's ex-girlfriend.
Victor asks for 75% of all of the applications and patents derived from the research in exchange
for his funding and Reed agrees to it because he has no other choice.
Sue escorts Reed and Ben into the elevator and there she informs them that she will be
in charge of the launch.
She agrees that Ben can be the co-pilot for the mission, while the pilot is already on
the payroll of Victor's company and it's her brother Johnny Storm.
Six weeks later, just before the launch to Victor's space station, the team is getting
ready for the mission.
They arrive on the space station in a shuttle, docking just nine hours before the cosmic
event, with Victor at the head of the mission.
The five of them enter the main module of the station which is the only place surrounded
by the shields, from where they will be able to monitor the cosmic storm.
Before the storm arrives, Ben will be the one to get the samples from Earth out of the
station to get exposed to the storm.
Johnny helps him get into the spacesuit for his extravehicular activity and asks him if
Reed is planning anything with Sue again because he has noticed him eyeing her.
Unlike him, Ben doesn't think that's such a bad thing, thinking that she might still
love him too.
However, Johnny tells him that he's happy his sister is with Victor now as he secures
the airlock chamber for the spacewalk.
Meanwhile, Victor and Sue are still in the main module and talk about their own future,
with Victor getting ready to propose to her and make her more than just a business partner.
Simultaneously, Reed oversees the progression of the mission, when an alarm goes off notifying
him that the threshold for the cosmic event has moved 6 hours ahead of what they were
expecting.
They now only have minutes to get Ben back and raise the shields until the storm hits
the station.
Just as Victor is proposing to Sue, Reed runs into the module and tells them that the storm
is accelerating, asking Victor to abort the mission.
However, he doesn't have any interest in doing that, thinking that the shield will protect
them so he tells Reed to get Ben inside.
Reed gets to Ben and Johnny explaining what's happened.
Ben fears that he won't be able to make it back inside in time, but Johnny thinks that
the fastest way for him to do it is to jump toward the airlock.
As Ben jumps, Victor begins closing the shields to the main module.
Sue is pissed that he's willing to leave everyone outside of the safety of the shields and she
goes to help the others.
However, the storm is already hitting the station.
Ben is the first to get zapped by the powerful cosmic event, but none of them are spared,
not even Victor.
Sometime later, Ben wakes up back on Earth in one of Victor's facilities, placed in quarantine
together with the rest.
Meanwhile, Victor gets back to work fast, having no other choice since the catastrophe
on the space station has caused his company’s stock to plummet.
He's seen talking to his partners, convincing them that he can turn the whole thing around
but they give him only one week for that until they pull out of the company.
Back at the facility, Johnny gets restless so he breaks quarantine and goes snowboarding
on the nearby mountains.
While snowboarding, he gets an adrenaline rush so he begins to flame and burn right
through his clothes, eventually flaming up and flying for just a moment.
He lands in the snow, creating a tiny water-filled crater around himself.
Ben sets up Sue and Reed for a date in the cafeteria, joining them for a bit so Sue doesn't
suspect his intentions.
Soon he begins to feel a little strange so he retreats to his room, leaving the ex-couple
alone on the table.
It doesn't take them long to start arguing and as they do, Sue begins turning invisible.
Shocked by what is happening to her, she pushes a wine bottle over and Reed unintentionally
and inhumanly stretches his arm to grab it.
Johnny runs into the cafeteria excited to tell them about what has happened to him as
well.
Meanwhile, Victor waits for Sue to arrive for their date and begins exhibiting some
body-altering side effects from the storm and some strange powers.
Reed and the others, go to see how Ben is doing, talking about what might have caused
that to happen to them.
Sue is convinced that it was the storm's influence on their bodies and Johnny is only interested
in the cool new thing he can now do.
When he shows his fire abilities to Reed and Sue, the scientist finally agrees with her
that the storm had fundamentally altered their DNA.
Ben keeps getting worse while slowly changing into his new form.
The rest of the team arrive at his door and try to get in but since Sue's passcode doesn't
work, Reed manages to stretch his arm at will and get it under the door, then to the lock.
He unlocks the door, grossing out Johnny with his new ability, then they walk inside to
see Ben running away from the facility.
Victor walks into the room as well, asking what happened to the room and Reed tells him
that it was Ben who did it because he's had some strange reaction to being exposed to
the cosmic event.
Sue explains that all of them have different symptoms, making him understand what he's
been feeling as well.
Victor orders them to find Ben, leaving the room promptly.
Johnny asks Reed if he has any idea where Ben might be going and Reed realizes that
he will probably try to go home to his wife Debbie.
Sure enough, Ben is back in the city, calling his wife from a payphone down the street from
their place.
Debbie comes out to meet him as he asked, but he tells her to stay back before he can
explain what has happened to him.
The moment that Ben steps out of the shadows and reveals himself to Debbie, she freaks
out and runs back to their place, screaming in fear.
The following day, Reed and the others go into the city to meet with Debbie, who's told
them that Ben was there the previous night.
Meanwhile, Ben is sitting on top of a bridge when a business-looking type of guy gets ready
to end his life by jumping off it.
Realizing what the man is about to do, Ben wants to convince him to change his mind and
begins talking to him.
He manages to get the man off the bridge in the right direction by completely terrifying
him.
The guy drops right in front of some moving cars and Ben jumps down to help him, just
as a massive truck is heading straight toward them.
Without anything else to do, Ben braces himself for impact with the vehicle and stops it dead
with the strength of his body.
Since that's one of the busiest bridges in the city, the crash causes a pile-up behind
the truck and halts further traffic on the road.
Reed and the others are fortunately already there, so they leave the cab to see what's
happened.
Simultaneously, Ben tries to figure out how to handle the terrified guy and the influx
of onlookers, when he notices that the driver from the truck is stuck inside the vehicle.
The police have somehow managed to cordon off the area of the accident and they don't
let Reed and the others pass.
Ben rips open the door of the truck and takes the driver out of it together with the seat.
The police are there to intervene, thinking that Ben is a bad guy, so one of the officers
tells him to put the man down and back away.
Suddenly, a power cable blows, giving Ben enough cover to escape while they shoot at
him.
Meanwhile, the others find a way to get past the police barricade, using Sue's invisibility.
As they get closer to the scene, Sue climbs on a car and sees Ben.
The sparks from the power cord have caused a fire, so when Johnny sees a girl stuck between
the cars next to a gas tank about to explode, he runs over to shield her from the fire with
his body.
The explosion sends a few cars hurling right into an oncoming fire truck.
It swirls off the road and pierces through the bridge.
The explosion keeps getting bigger, so Sue instinctively uses another power she got and
contains the fire from getting out of control.
The fire truck accident pushes one of the firemen out of the truck, leaving him hanging
onto dear life to the truck above the river.
When the other firemen try to help him, the entire truck begins to lean more towards the
river so Ben grabs it and holds it from falling off the bridge.
Another fireman gets launched toward the river on the stairs when Reed decides that it's
time to use his power too.
Ben barely hangs onto the truck and the first firemen slip, beginning to fall, only to be
suddenly grabbed by Reed and stretched back onto the bridge.
Ben finally manages to pull the truck back on the bridge and the second fireman, climbs
back to safety.
The police, however, surround Ben, telling him to get down on the ground, surprised enough
by the cheering crowd to lower their weapons and cheering themselves.
Debbie shows up at the scene, but when Ben excitedly steps toward her, she takes off
her engagement ring and walks away from him forever.
Reed helps Ben pick up the ring from the ground and swears to him that he will do everything
in his power to return him back to his previous self.
Later, as the paramedics are taking care of the team, one of the officers walks inside
the tent and shows them the news.
They are already being called "the fantastic four".
Victor tunes in as well, only to see the team explaining what has happened to them to the
reporters.
He's not too happy about their interviews and neither are his partners, who pull out
of the company sans negotiating.
The fantastic four keep gathering crowds as they are being escorted to Reed's building
by the police.
Walking into Reed's lab and apartment, he tells Sue and Johnny that they should stay
there until they discover the extent of their changes and figure out how to reverse them.
As Sue gets comfortable in her new room, she flips through one of Reed's photo albums remembering
the good time, when Victor walks in.
She apologizes for not calling and tells him that she'll stay at Reed's place, regardless
of his insistence that his doctors should take a look at her.
Reed joins them and tells Victor that he still hasn't figured out what the extent of the
change to their DNA is.
Victor offers his help, saying that they're all in it together.
Before he leaves, Reed apologizes that the mission didn't go as planned, but Victor blames
him for the way it happened, angry about the consequences to both himself and the others.
Reed thinks they're both to blame, however, because Victor didn't abort the mission when
he told him to do it.
Victor gets really angry and tells Reed to fix whatever is going on fast, affecting the
power in the building with his rage.
Ben hears the argument and joins them, stopping it from spiraling and prompting Victor to
finally leave.
In the elevator, Victor punches one of the walls and sees the change taking place in
his body as well.
Later, Reed and Sue do some tests on Johnny and on Ben, trying to identify the source
of the mutation.
In Ben, they see that his organs are completely solid and in Sue, her invisibility comes from
the ability to bend light.
Further investigation on Johnny, makes them realize that he can go as hot as the Sun and
maybe even higher.
They tell him that if he allows the levels to go that high, he can kill all life on planet
Earth.
With Reed's help, Sue learns how to control her invisibility, but her other ability is
still a little unmanageable.
Meanwhile, Victor's doctor tells him that his entire system is changing into some kind
of organic-metallic alloy, stronger than titanium, harder than diamonds.
His doctor thinks that the infection or whatever it is would be complete in two to three weeks,
unable of explaining it fully to himself or Victor.
Because the doctor thinks that it might be some kind of infectious disease and thinks
he should notify someone like the CDC, Victor kills him.
Reed is hard at work back at his lab and he discovers that their uniforms or suits had
also changed the same way as they did.
They can change the size, become invisible, or remain impervious to fire.
Ben laughs at them for looking like an 80's band and Sue tells Johnny that he can't use
his powers in public because it might be dangerous.
Later, Sue gets stormed by some fans because of their growing popularity, so she loses
the crowd by turning invisible again.
When she gets back, she tells the others that they can't really go outside anymore.
Reed is also worried that their powers are still evolving, prompting Johnny to tell them
that he's sure he'll be able to fly soon.
Ben asks Reed if he could cure them and Reed explains that he might be able to reverse
the effects of the storm.
He will build a machine that can recreate the cosmic storm and reverse the wave signal
it creates, they might return back to normal.
The risks are high though, with one possibility being that their powers might be exponentially
increased or it can even kill them.
While Reed works on the machine, every one of the fantastic four gets used to their powers
and their new living arrangements.
Victor continues to change as well, getting even angrier by the minute, considering he
had lost his company and the media is having a field day reporting on his failures.
Besides turning metallic, he learns that he also can control electricity.
In the next scene, he confronts one of his partners and uses this new ability to kill
him.
Meanwhile, Reed is getting close to finishing the machine with the help of other scientists
and Johnny decides to leave the apartment because he can't stand being stuck inside.
Johnny goes out and does some kind of crazy stunt that is broadcasted live on ESPN, bringing
the rest of the team out to confront him for doing things like that.
Reed and Sue scold him for acting like a baby, but Ben is ready to whoop his behind.
Sue stops them from fighting and Johnny confesses to Reed that he wants to remain as he is,
saying that they might have gotten the powers for a reason.
Simultaneously, Victor gets a few things together to destroy and defeat the fantastic four,
but mainly to kill Reed.
Later, he's monitors Reed's lab and concocts a plan to get rid of Ben first.
Victor finds Ben, telling him that he was worried about him, and plants some nasty thoughts
and feelings about Reed and the others into his mind.
So when he sees Reed and Sue back in the lab, he confronts his friend for not working hard
enough to get him back to normal.
Reed tells him that he needs to be patient for a little while longer until he can get
the machine right and not hurt them more, but Ben isn't hearing him.
He begins hitting him and wants to fight, though Reed just manages to incapacitate him
and calm him down.
Ben leaves the lab and the team as well.
Johnny and Sue have a falling out too, while Reed decides to test the machine out by himself.
Sue realizes what he's doing and gets back to the lab only to find Reed has made his
abilities progress to something even worse.
Victor monitors the situation and once Reed and Sue leave, he gets Ben brought to the
lab.
He tells him that while Reed can't get the machine to reach the necessary power capacity,
he can.
Ben is vulnerable enough to fall for his trick and enters the machine.
Victor powers the machine with his powers and returns Ben to normal.
When Ben steps out from the machine changed and happy, he realizes that Victor had planned
that all along.
Victor says that he has embraced his destiny and knocks Ben out.
Reed shows up right on cue and Victor zaps him right out of the building, superheating
him enough so that he can't control his power and falls down.
Victor picks him up from the foot of the building and takes him to his office, finally putting
on his mask to hide his face.
Meanwhile, Sue and Johnny find Ben and he tells them what happened with the machine.
They also realize that Victor must've taken Reed.
Victor tortures Reed by super-cooling him and aims a missile to Reed's lab to destroy
the others from the super team.
Johnny and Sue see the missile, so he jumps off the building, hoping to draw it away from
the lab and instinctively knowing it's a heat-seeking one.
Johnny can finally fly and guides the missile away, disposing of it in kind of a safe way.
Meanwhile, Sue goes off to help Reed and Ben gets back in the chamber to get his powers
back so he can help fight Victor.
Sue turns invisible and releases Reed's restraints when Victor shows up and they begin to argue.
When she can't get him to listen to her, Sue attacks him with her powers.
Victor fights back and she turns invisible, but he stills finds her and is ready to kill
her.
Suddenly, Ben breaks through the walls with all his powers back and clobbers Victor.
The two of them release Reed, but Victor just attacks Ben and throws him out of the building.
Once they fall on the ground, they are surrounded by both a crowd and the police.
The officers shoot at Victor realizing he's the bigger threat and as he's about to zap
them, Ben throws a car at him.
Victor hasn't a scratch on him so the fight continues until he's able to pin down Ben.
Before he can kill him, however, Reed and the team show up and protect Ben, attacking
Victor.
The villain supercharges and attacks the fantastic four, but they can't fight him off.
Reed manages to hold him down for a moment until he relays the plan to Johnny that he
should go to his highest level and attack Victor.
Ben pulls Reed off of Victor, as Johnny creates the fire and Sue contains it with her abilities.
Once they get Victor's metal body hot enough, Ben showers him with water.
That stops Victor in his tracks since rapidly cooled metal hardens fast.
The fantastic four stop the villain they helped create and become a super-team, to the praise
of everyone around them.
Later, they celebrate their success on a boat.
Ben is there with his new girlfriend, while Reed and Sue get engaged.
Johnny is just up to his regular shenanigans.
In the last moment of the film, Victor is seen still alive, but being shipped back to
his home of Latveria.