Full story
Long ago, an Old West Ghost Rider was sent by Mephistopheles to collect the Contract of San Venganza, a pact binding a thousand wicked souls. He refused to hand it over and vanished with it. That legend opens the movie.
In 1986, teenage Johnny Blaze works in his father's motorcycle stunt show at a carnival. When he learns his dad has cancer, Johnny accepts a deal with Mephistopheles: the cure in exchange for his soul. The cancer is gone, but his father dies the next day in a stunt. Mephistopheles says he held up his end. Johnny leaves his girlfriend, Roxanne, and skips town.
Years later, Johnny is a famous stuntman who walks away from impossible crashes. He runs into Roxanne, now a TV reporter, and sets up a dinner date. At the same time, Blackheart, son of Mephistopheles, arrives on Earth with three fallen angels, the Hidden, looking for the lost contract. Mephistopheles calls in the debt: he turns Johnny into the Ghost Rider, a flaming skull on a fiery bike, and promises his soul back if he defeats his son. That first night, Johnny kills Gressil, the earth angel, with the Penance Stare, which makes a sinner feel all the pain he has caused.
An old cemetery keeper, the Caretaker, explains how the curse works. Johnny tries to tell Roxanne the truth, but she doesn't believe him and walks away. He gets jailed for murders Blackheart committed, takes on the inmates, kills Abigor, the air angel, and breaks out. The Caretaker then reveals who he is: Carter Slade, the Old West Rider who hid the contract. Blackheart kidnaps Roxanne and demands the document.
Slade hands over the shovel hiding the contract, plus a shotgun, and rides one last time beside Johnny before fading away. He explains that Johnny is different from the others because he sold his soul for love. In San Venganza, Johnny kills Wallow, the water angel, and gives up the contract. Blackheart absorbs the thousand souls and becomes Legion. Roxanne helps with the shotgun, and Johnny uses the Penance Stare, which takes Blackheart down for good because of all the souls inside him. Mephistopheles offers to lift the curse. Johnny refuses and says he will use the power against him. Mephistopheles swears revenge, and Johnny rides off as the Ghost Rider.