Fantastic Four
Directed by	Tim Story
Produced by	Avi Arad Bernd Eichinger Ralph Winter
Written by	Screenplay: Michael France Mark Frost Characters: Stan Lee Jack Kirby
Starring	Ioan Gruffudd Jessica Alba Michael Chiklis Chris Evans Julian McMahon
Music by	John Ottman
Cinematography	Oliver Wood
Editing by	William Hoy
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	July 8, 2005
Running time	Theatrical Cut: 106 min. Extended Cut: 124 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$100 million
Followed by	Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
Official website
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Fantastic Four is a 2005 superhero film based on the Marvel Comics comic Fantastic Four. It was directed by Tim Story, and released by 20th Century Fox. This is the second live-action Fantastic Four movie to be filmed. The previous attempt, a B-movie produced by Roger Corman to retain the film rights, was never officially released. Download high resolution version (521x755, 72 KB) File links The following pages link to this file: Fantastic Four Fantastic Four (movie) Categories: Fair use posters ... Timothy Kevin Story (born March 13, 1970) is an African-American film director. ... Avi Arad (Hebrew: אבי ארד) is an Israeli-American businessman. ... Bernd Eichinger (born 11 April 1949) is a German film producer and director. ... Ralph Winter is a Hollywood film producer who has produced blockbuster movies such as X-Men, X2: X-Men United, Fantastic Four, and the upcoming X-Men 3. ... Micheal France is a screenplay writer and has written screenplays for popular comic book films such as Hulk, The Punisher and Fantastic Four. ... Mark Frost (born 25 November 1953) is an American novelist, television/film writer, director, and executive producer. ... For the fictional character of this name, see Stan Lee (Judge Dredd character). ... Jack Kirby (born Jacob Kurtzberg, August 28, 1917 – February 6, 1994) was one of the most influential, recognizable, and prolific artists in American comic books, and the co-creator of such enduring characters and popular culture icons as the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, the Hulk, Captain America, and hundreds... Ioan Gruffudd (pronounced , yoe-an gri-fidh) (born October 6, 1973) is a British actor from Wales. ... Jessica Marie Alba (born April 28, 1981) is an American actress. ... Michael Charles Chiklis (born August 30, 1963) is an Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning American actor. ... Chris Evans as Johnny Storm a. ... Julian Dana William McMahon (born 27 July 1968) is a Golden Globe-nominated Australian actor and former fashion model. ... John Ottman (born July 6, 1964 in San Diego, California) is an American film editor, composer and director. ... Oliver Wood is a fictional character in the Harry Potter books who is played by Sean Biggerstaff in the film adaptions. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Twentieth (20th) Century Fox Film Corporation (known from 1935 to 1985 as Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation) is one of the six major American film studios. ... is the 189th day of the year (190th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... DVD front cover for The Adventures of Captain Marvel film serial. ... This article is about the comic book company. ... This article is about the superheroes. ... Timothy Kevin Story (born March 13, 1970) is an African-American film director. ... Twentieth (20th) Century Fox Film Corporation (known from 1935 to 1985 as Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation) is one of the six major American film studios. ... The Fantastic Four is an unreleased low-budget feature film completed in 1994. ... The term B-movie originally referred to a film designed to be distributed as the lower half of a double feature, often a genre film featuring cowboys, gangsters or vampires. ... Roger William Corman (born April 5, 1926), sometimes nicknamed King of the Bs for his output of B-movies (though he himself rejects this appellation as inaccurate), is a prolific American producer and director of low-budget exploitation movies, many of which are some of the most influential movies made. ...

The film was released in the United States on July 8, 2005. It was the third superhero film of the year, after Elektra and Batman Begins. is the 189th day of the year (190th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses, see Superhero (disambiguation). ... Elektra is a 2005 action movie directed by Rob Bowman. ... For the video game based on the film, see Batman Begins (video game). ...

Taglines:
4 times the action. 4 times the adventure. 4 times the fantastic.
Prepare for the fantastic.
Fun. Fabulous. Fantastic. A tagline is a variant of a branding slogan typically used in marketing materials and advertising. ...

Plot

Dr. Reed Richards, a brilliant but timid and bankrupt scientist, is convinced that evolution is triggered by clouds of cosmic energy in space, and has calculated that one of these clouds is soon going to pass near Earth. Together with his partner, the gruff yet gentle astronaut Ben Grimm, Reed convinces his equally brilliant but conceited MIT classmate Dr. Victor von Doom, now CEO of his own enterprise, to allow him access to his privately-owned space station. Von Doom agrees, in exchange for control over the experiment and a majority of the profits from whatever benefits it brings. He brings aboard Susan Storm, his chief genetics researcher (and Reed's ex-girlfriend), and her brother Johnny, his private astronaut, who was Ben's subordinate at NASA but is his superior on the mission, much to Ben's disgust. The quintet travels to space to observe the cosmic energy clouds, but Reed has miscalculated and the clouds materialize well ahead of schedule. Victor refuses Reed's plea to abort the mission, knowing he must produce results to justify his expenditure, no matter the human cost involved. Knowing Ben is space-walking to set up equipment, Reed, Susan and Johnny leave the shielded inner area of the station to rescue him, and Victor closes the shield behind them. Whilst Victor is seemingly safe, the others are exposed to the cloud. Ben receives full exposure out in space, while the others receive a more limited dose within the station. Mr. ... A scientist, in the broadest sense, refers to any person that engages in a systematic activity to acquire knowledge or an individual that engages in such practices and traditions that are linked to schools of thought or philosophy. ... This article is about evolution in biology. ... The Ancient and Medieval cosmos as depicted in Peter Apians Cosmographia (Antwerp, 1539). ... This article is about Earth as a planet. ... For other uses, see Astronaut (disambiguation). ... thing, see Thing (disambiguation). ... Mapúa Institute of Technology (MIT, MapúaTech or simply Mapúa) is a private, non-sectarian, Filipino tertiary institute located in Intramuros, Manila. ... Doctor Doom (Victor von Doom) is a fictional Marvel Comics supervillain created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. ... Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is the job of having the ultimate executive responsibility or authority within an organization or corporation. ... The International Space Station in 2007 A space station is an artificial structure designed for humans to live in outer space. ... Alternate meaning: The Invisible Woman, a 1940 film. ... This article is about the general scientific term. ... This article is about the Silver/Modern Age Human Torch, Johnny Storm. ... This article is about the idea of space. ...

The astronauts make it home intact; however, before long they begin to mutate, developing strange powers. Reed is able to stretch like rubber; Susan can become invisible (by bending light around objects) and create force fields, especially when angered; Johnny can engulf himself in fire at up to supernova-like temperatures, and is able to fly; and Ben is transformed into "The Thing", a large, rock-like creature with superhuman strength. After Ben, brooding about his situation on the Brooklyn Bridge, inadvertently causes a major traffic pile-up whilst attempting to stop a man from committing suicide, the four use their powers to prevent any loss of life and to rescue a fire truck and its crew from falling off the bridge. The media dubs the team the 'Fantastic Four'; whilst Johnny eagerly embraces his powers and new life, Ben - the only one whose transformed appearance is permanent - suffers. His disfigurement has caused his fiancee, Debbie, to abandon him and has seen him shunned and feared by much of New York. Blaming himself, Reed vows to return Ben to his human form. Therefore he, Susan and Ben work on a cure, constructing a healing chamber in Reed's high tech Baxter Building loft-turned-laboratory. During this time, Reed and Susan begin to rekindle their attraction to one another. Susan admits that she is not interested in Victor, but had turned away from Reed because he feared to make a binding vow, thinking only in terms of variables. His excessive caution was hard for Susan to deal with, and now it begins to test Ben's patience, as he is eager to return to his human form while Reed is taking his time on the machine. For other uses, see Astronaut (disambiguation). ... Superpowers (also super powers or simply powers) is another term for superhuman abilities, that is, any abilities that a human cannot possess. ... This does not cite any references or sources. ... For other uses, see Light (disambiguation). ... In general physics, a force field is a vector field representing the gradient of a potential. ... For other uses, see Supernova (disambiguation). ... This article is about the geological substance. ... For other uses, see Brooklyn Bridge (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Suicide (disambiguation). ... The Baxter Building is a fictitious Manhattan 35-story office building whose five upper floors house the Fantastic Fours headquarters in the Marvel Universe. ... In computer science and mathematics, a variable (pronounced ) (sometimes called an object or identifier in computer science) is a symbolic representation used to denote a quantity or expression. ...

Unknown to the others, however, Victor's body is also mutating; he is turning into organic metal capable of absorbing and manipulating electrical energy. As a result of the disastrous expedition, his company is going bankrupt and he is losing public stature; blaming Reed for his misfortunes, Victor swears revenge. After killing a bank chairman who had pulled investment out of his company, Victor sees the opportunity to finish off his rival once and for all. Manipulating Ben's insecurity and anguish, Victor tricks Ben into thinking that his teammates are not working on a cure with due diligence; after a vicious argument between himself and Reed, Ben storms out of the Baxter Building. Reed experiments with the curative machine on himself and nearly dies in the process, but learns that the machine only needs more power to fully succeed. Victor, who has been spying on Reed, tricks Ben into entering the machine and provides the extra power. Ben becomes normal again, while Victor's own mutation increases exponentially, increasing his power but also physically disfiguring him. When Ben realizes that Victor merely wanted the super-strong Thing out of the way so that no one could stop him, Victor immobilizes Ben and attacks Reed after Reed discovers them, taking him prisoner and freezing him to prevent him using his powers of distention. Look up living in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This article is about metallic materials. ... For other uses, see Revenge (disambiguation). ...

When Susan and Johnny realize what has happened, Victor - now calling himself 'Doom' - fires a heat-seeker missile at the Baxter Building, intending it to target and kill Johnny. Johnny uses his powers of heat and flight to lead the missile to open water, where he ignites a garbage scow to dispose of the missile. However, he is thrown into the water, and whether he is okay is not shown. Meanwhile, Susan attempts to rescue Reed and confronts Doom. She is hopelessly outmatched against the powerful Doom, and he is on the verge of killing her when Ben - having activated Reed's machine and used it upon himself to restore his mutation - bursts into the room. Doom and Ben fight, until the battle spills onto the street below. But no matter how hard Ben attacks him, he is unable to overpower Doom, and Doom knocks him flat on his back. He is about to deal the finishing strike, when a recovered Reed and Susan arrive to save Ben. Doom begins to scorn them, when he is blasted from behind with fire from none other than Johnny, who survived his encounter with the missle unharmed. Doom absorbs all the electricity in the area that he can to begin the final showdown. Doctor Doom (Victor von Doom) is a fictional Marvel Comics supervillain created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. ... For other uses, see Heat (disambiguation) In physics, heat, symbolized by Q, is energy transferred from one body or system to another due to a difference in temperature. ... For other uses, see Flight (disambiguation). ... Impact from a water drop causes an upward rebound jet surrounded by circular capillary waves. ... For the surname Battle, see Battle (surname). ...

At first, it seems that Doom has the advantage, as the team struggles under his onslaught of electric blasts. Reed manages to use his elastic body to temporarily restrain Doom, and then coordinates the team for an offensive attack, trusting his initial judgment for the first time. He starts by telling Johnny to unleash his supernova heat on Doom, despite the fact that even Johnny agreed this was dangerous. Johnny uses this to surround Doom in a vortex of fire, while Reed gets Susan to try to contain it (and its dangerous amount of heat) within a force field. She manages to do so while Doom makes futile attempts to break free with his electric blasts. When Johnny and Susan give out, it looks as if Doom is just starting to melt, but he is still on his feet and merely sneers "Is that the best you can do? A little heat?". Reed responds "What happens when you rapidly cool hot metal?". Ben then kicks the top off of a fire hydrant, and he and Reed direct the water shooting out of it at Doom. The steam created as the water hits Doom forms a thick cloud, and when it settles, Doom is seemingly left as a statue of inert metal.

Ben informs Reed that he has accepted his condition with the help of Alicia Masters, a blind artist for whom he has developed feelings, and the team decide to embrace their roles as superheroes and unite officially as the Fantastic Four. Reed proposes marriage to Susan, who accepts. Doom's remains are being transported back to his homeland of Latveria when the ship carrying them experiences unusual electronic interference. The Thing and Alicia Masters. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

Cast

As in almost all of the previous Marvel Comics-based films, Fantastic Four co-creator Stan Lee makes a cameo appearance. He is Willie Lumpkin, the postal worker who greets the team on their way to the Baxter Building elevator.^[1] Ioan Gruffudd (pronounced , yoe-an gri-fidh) (born October 6, 1973) is a British actor from Wales. ... Mister Fantastic is a Marvel Comics superhero who is the leader of the Fantastic Four. ... Jessica Marie Alba (born April 28, 1981) is an American actress. ... “Invisible Girl” redirects here. ... Michael Charles Chiklis (born August 30, 1963) is an Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning American actor. ... thing, see Thing (disambiguation). ... For other persons of the same name, see Christopher Evans. ... This article is on the current Human Torch. ... Julian Dana William McMahon (born 27 July 1968) is a Golden Globe-nominated Australian actor and former fashion model. ... Doctor Doom (Victor von Doom) is a fictional Marvel Comics supervillain created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. ... Hamish Linklater as Matthew in The New Adventures of Old Christine Hamish Linklater is an American actor, currently starring as Matthew in the CBS sitcom The New Adventures of Old Christine. ... Kerry Washington (born January 31, 1977) is an American actress. ... The Thing and Alicia Masters. ... Laurie Holden (born December 17, 1972 in Los Angeles, California, USA) is an American actress. ... There are several people named David Parker. ... Maria Menounos (Μαρία Μενούνος in Greek) (born June 8, 1978) is an American actress, journalist, and television presenter. ... An anime voice actor, probably most well known for playing Char Aznable in the english dub of Mobile Suit Gundam. ... For the fictional character of this name, see Stan Lee (Judge Dredd character). ... Willie Lumpkin is a fictional supporting character in the Marvel Universe, who is best known as the mailman of the Fantastic Four in their self-titled comic book. ... A cameo role or cameo appearance (often shortened to just cameo) is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television. ... A postal worker is one who works for a post office, such as a mail carrier. ... The Baxter Building is a fictitious Manhattan 35-story office building whose five upper floors house the Fantastic Fours headquarters in the Marvel Universe. ... For other uses, see Elevator (disambiguation). ...

Reception

On its opening weekend, "Fantastic Four" reached #1 with $56,061,504. By September 2005, the film had grossed over $330 million worldwide, with a domestic gross of $154 million.

In critical reaction, the film scored a 26% positive rating at the critics-aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes and 40% at Metacritic. The movie was criticized for weak storytelling, poor science, an overall lack of much action, and paper-thin characters — especially the bland portrayal of Doctor Doom, one of the hallmark villains in the Marvel Comics world. In addition, Jessica Alba's performance earned her a Razzie nomination for Worst Actress. Doctor Doom (Victor von Doom) is a fictional Marvel Comics supervillain created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. ... The Golden Raspberries or Razzies were created by John Wilson in 1980, intended to complement the Academy Awards by dishonoring the worst acting, screenwriting, songwriting, directing, and films that the film industry had to offer. ... The Golden Raspberry Awards are given to the worst movies of the year. ...

Deleted scenes

Among the deleted scenes included on the December 2005 DVD release:

• Three slightly modified penultimate scenes concerning the attack on Doctor Doom - one in which Reed uses his body as a funnel to direct a stream of water at Doom, one in which he doesn't, and one in which Doctor Doom's line "Is that the best you can do, a little heat?" is cut short, having the "..a little heat?" portion removed.

• Two versions of a scene with Jessica Alba and Ioan Gruffudd. The original features the pair in the planetarium, where they communicate their feelings for each other without an argumentative tone. This ends in a kiss. The second version, included in the DVD release as a bonus feature, features the two outside, looking toward the Statue Of Liberty. Similar lines are used, but it ends with Alba's Susan turning invisible before Gruffudd's Reed can kiss her. A joke was used during the line "a stronger man": Instead of Reed giving himself a square jaw (as he does in the theatrical release), he makes his skin look like the X-Men's Wolverine. Actor Gruffudd breaks the fourth wall and looks directly at the camera as he does this.

• There is also a scene where Reed and Sue are in a storage room of the Baxter Building where we see on one of the shelves is a robot that is suppose to be H.E.R.B.I.E. from the 1970s Fantastic Four cartoon.

The novelization of the film contained a number of scenes not in the final cut, including a small number of scenes that developed the character of Alicia Masters. For other monuments to freedom, see Monument of Liberty. ... The X-Men are a group of comic book superheroes featured in Marvel Comics. ... For other uses, see Wolverine (disambiguation). ... The fourth wall is the imaginary invisible wall at the front of the stage in a proscenium theater, through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play. ... H.E.R.B.I.E. is a fictional robot from the Marvel Universe, and an ally of the Fantastic Four. ...

Extended cut

In June 2007 an extended cut was released incorporating over 20 minutes of deleted scenes plus a preview of Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.

See also

• Fantastic Four film series
• Fantastic Four (video game)
• Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

The Fantastic Four film series currently consists of two superhero films based on the fictional Marvel Comics team Fantastic Four. ... Fantastic Four is a fighting game based on the 2005 film of the Fantastic Four. ...

Footnotes

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References

• Fantastic Four movies on Marvel.com
• Official site
• Official site (web archive)
• Fantastic Four at Rotten Tomatoes

This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ...

External links

• Fantastic Four at the Internet Movie Database
• Fantastic Four: Comic vs. Film
• F4Movies.com