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Fantastic Four (2005 film)

2005 film directed by Tim Story

Fantastic Four is a 2005 superhero film about a group of astronauts who gain superpowers after a cosmic radiation exposure and must use them to oppose the plans of their enemy, Doctor Victor Von Doom. It is based on the Marvel Comics property of the same name.

Directed by Tim Story. Written by Mark Frost, Michael France (movie), Stan Lee, Jack Kirby (comic book)
Prepare for the fantastic.

Dialogue

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Ben: What's wrong with me?
Johnny: I swear they've done everything humanly possible. The best plastic surgeons in the world, Ben. You had the best -
Ben: [getting frantic] Give me a mirror...
Johnny: They said that's not such a good idea, the shock alone could –
Ben: I said give me the goddamn mirror!
(Ben finally sees his face, it looks completely normal)
Johnny: (beginning to laugh) Unfortunately, the doctors just couldn't do anything to fix your face.
Sue: [to Reed] Look at me.
Reed: [looking up and seeing, or not seeing that Sue has turned invisible] I can't.
Sue: What do you mean you can't?! Look at me!
Reed: Sue, look at your hands!
[Sue turns invisible and starts to undress, then turns visible again]
Reed: Wow. You've been working out.
Sue: Shut up!
Sue: Johnny, say you're sorry.
[Johnny throws a fireball at Ben]
Ben: Did you just-- [ hit with another fireball]
Ben: That's it, Tinker Bell! YOU WANNA FLY?!
Reed: No, Ben.
Ben: THEN FLY!!! [Ben punches through Reed's body to launch Johnny into the Burger King sign]
Sue: Wait a minute, guys. Ben, don't do this.
[Ben growls at Johnny]
Johnny: Let's see if we can get blood from a stone.
Sue: Johnny?
Ben: Let's see. Bring it, Burnout.
Reporter: So what can you tell us about the outfit?
Johnny: [on tv] Not too much, but I will say that it's all weather and no leather. Kind of Armani meets Astronaut.
[Ben, Sue, and Reed stare at the wall-sized TV, mouths agape.]
Sue: He didn't.
Ben: Oh, yes, he did. Flame-boy never listens.
Sue: What did he do to his uniform?
(Reed looks down at his own uniform, to Johnny's uniform on the TV, which has the same insignia, and surreptitiously tries to cover his insignia with his jacket)
Reporter: So what are your superhero names?
Johnny: They call me the Human Torch. Ladies call me Torch.
Reporter: What about the rest of the team?
Johnny: [points to a visual] That's the Invisible Girl.
Sue: 'Girl'..?
Reporter: That's easy to remember. And Reed Richards? I heard they call him Mr. Fantastic. And can he really stretch any part of his anatomy?
[Cheers from the female members of the public behind them]
Johnny: Well, I've always found him to be a little limp. [Another cheer from the people behind them]
Ben: Could be worse.
Reporter: What is that? What is that thing?
Johnny: That's it. The Thing. If you think that's bad, you should have seen him before.
Ben: Okay, now I'm gonna go kill him.
[Ben and Leonard walk into the lab where Victor is.]
Victor: Ben. Come in.
[Ben and Leonard stop walking.]
Ben: What is this? Where's Reed?
Victor: Where do you think? With Sue.
[Ben turns to Leonard.]
Victor: I'll take it from here, Leonard.
Leonard: Yes, sir.
[As Leonard turns around and walks towards the elevator, Ben turns to Victor and walks up to him.]
Ben: What do you want, Vic?
Victor: To help you. The machine– is ready.
Ben: [Walks closer] But Reed said it wouldn't be–
Victor: He also said we'd avoid that storm in space. But we all know how that turned out. He couldn't generate enough power for the machine to reach critical mass. Yet another mistake for Mr. Fantastic.
Ben: [Walks closer] And you can?
Victor: Yes. Tell me, do you want to be Ben Grimm again?
Doom: Did you say goodbye to your brother Johnny? [tosses Sue to the floor next to Reed] It's time to end this!
Ben: [Grimm, transformed back into the Thing, crashes through the roof] No, Vic, IT'S CLOBBERIN' TIME!
Susan: We gotta get out of here.
Johnny: I got an idea.
Susan: Don't even think about it.
Johnny: Never do. [jumps off the building] FLAME ON!
Victor: Susan, let's not fight.
Sue: No. Let's.
[Sue hits Victor with a force field, destroying a window behind him.]
Victor: Susan. You're fired!
[Victor blasts Sue through the air with electricity.]

About Fantastic Four (2005 film)

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  • The Fantastic Four are, in short, underwhelming. The edges kind of blur between them and other superhero teams. That's understandable. How many people could pass a test right now on who the X-Men are and what their powers are? Or would want to? I wasn't watching "Fantastic Four" to study it, but to be entertained by it, but how could I be amazed by a movie that makes its own characters so indifferent about themselves?
    The Human Torch, to repeat, can burn at supernova temperatures! He can become so hot, indeed, that he could threaten the very existence of the Earth itself! This is absolutely stupendously amazing, wouldn't you agree? If you could burn at supernova temperatures, would you be able to stop talking about it? I know people who won't shut up about winning 50 bucks in the lottery.
    But after Johnny Storm finds out he has become the Human Torch, he takes it pretty much in stride, showing off a little by setting his thumb on fire. Later he saves the Earth, while Invisible Woman simultaneously contains his supernova so he doesn't destroy it. That means Invisible Woman could maybe create a force field to contain the sun, which would be a big deal, but she's too distracted to explore the possibilities; she gets uptight because she will have to be naked to be invisible, because otherwise people could see her empty clothes; it is no consolation to her that invisible nudity is more of a metaphysical concept than a condition.
    Are these people complete idiots? The entire nature of their existence has radically changed, and they're about as excited as if they got a makeover on "Oprah." The exception is Ben Grimm, as the Thing, who gets depressed when he looks in the mirror. Unlike the others, who look normal except when actually exhibiting superpowers, he looks like - well, he looks like his suits would fit The Hulk, just as the Human Torch looks like The Flash, and the Invisible Woman reminds me of Storm in "X-Men.".
    Is this the road company? Thing clomps around on his Size 18 boulders and feels like an outcast until he meets a blind woman named Alicia (Kerry Washington) who loves him, in part because she can't see him. But the Thing looks like Don Rickles crossed with Mt. Rushmore; he has a body that feels like a driveway and a face with crevices you could hide a toothbrush in. Alicia tenderly feels his face with her fingers, like blind people often do while falling in love in the movies, and I guess she likes what she feels. Maybe she's extrapolating.
  • Q: Tim, could you elaborate on the dysfunctional family aspect of the group?
TIM STORY: Dysfunctional family, yeah, that's me. (Laughs) I'm a fan of arguments and things not going right all the time, because to me it makes the real; I often say, they run out of milk just like all of us, and that's the fun part. I think when it comes to the superheroes, this kind of fit me best because they're regular people. An extraordinary thing happened to them and then they have to deal with it. And, to me, it's just fun bringing that to life; I guess it is a dysfunctional family because I guess we all can relate to not liking our family, but loving them all the time and that's what this movie kind of accomplishes.
Q: These characters also don't have secret identities, which is different for superheroes.
TIM STORY: Yeah, I think that's the other thing that drew me to it is that you don't have to worry about them hiding from society. This is an origin film, so we're dealing with a little bit of what's happening to them; What we hope to do in the future is to kinda play up on the fact that they walk to the grocery store and they walk and go get a slice of pizza when they're hungry and people just have to deal with, 'Oh yeah, that's the Fantastic Four, like anybody else.'
Q: Ralph, I bet there isn't a day that goes by that you don't wish you had more money and more time? Are there unique challenges to this different than the others you produced?
RALPH WINTER: The challenge that's always present in these films is in the script of getting all five character's heroes to have an interwoven journey so that everybody's got something meaningful and helpful towards the final act&#Array; It's always a challenge financially. Trying to get as much on the screen as possible and make it look as big and as exciting as possible. The Brooklyn Bridge is a huge challenge. We feel very good about that now and now we just have a small fight in New York City in the third act to do here in Vancouver&#Array; Throwing buses and cars and blowing things up, so... Yeah, jumping from building to building. Easy stuff.
Q: Jessica, your character has this maternal instinct. Does that come naturally to you or are you learning?
CHIKLIS: Yes. Yes, you are maternal. I just thought, I'm sorry to jump in like this... I didn't know Jessica before this and she's like a little mommy. I've always told her, you should have children immediately because she's gonna be a beautiful mother. She has this matriarchal way. I'm sorry, now you can go ahead...
JESSICA ALBA: Thank you, thank you. Actually, that is a big part of my personality. I don't get to do [that] a lot, especially as an actress, because I get typecast as the kick-ass bitch or, like, the doting whatever girl and I never get the maternal, loving, supportive intelligent [parts]... And Tim, when I sat down with him, I was like, 'I don't know, I probably won't get this movie, I love this movie, but if I was in this movie, this is Sue Storm to me I thought he was going to be opposed to everything I said, and he wasn't.
  • Q: For the whole cast, how much fun is it to be a superhero, at the end of the day?
CHIKLIS: I get to play a rock hard he-man. That's crazy. Who gets to do that? And I was a fan growing up on the Fantastic Four. I loved this comic book, so I've been blessed to play a number of cultural icons before, and I know that there's a certain responsibility that goes along with that, but you can't get preoccupied with that as an actor. You really have to just bring your own joy to the opportunity to play this character and to just jump in.
Q: How do your character's powers represent who they are?
GRUFFUDD: Well, I think [Julian's] character says in the beginning of the story that Reed is always reaching for the stars. He's always reaching for perfection. His flaw is that he isn't perfect. He's only human and his mistake in his calculations creates these characters. They're exposed to this radioactive energy, this cloud. So I suppose that's sort of his analogy, that he's striving for perfection and then he's always reaching when he becomes the superhero.
  • ALBA: Oh my God. My character, yeah, I mean, she's very intelligent and she's very maternal and she's outwardly emotional because she's a woman. And the guys kind of run the show and they don't see her. She might as well just be invisible because she still lives in a man's world and she has to work double hard to get ahead, and they still overshadow her.
EVANS: I think Johnny's a bit of a hot head. I think he's kind of a playboy. He likes to live life in the fast lane and he likes attention, so what's more of a spectacle than bursting into fire and flying?
CHIKLIS: Ben Grimm, the Thing, he's a tough guy, tough exterior, heart of gold. In a nutshell, that's it. He's been Reed's best buddy and protector. I'm the brawn, he's the brains, so he's in trouble. No, he's a protector, a strong guy who doesn't want to be a hero, doesn't fancy himself a hero. He just wants to do his gig and get on with his life. But I think the thing that makes him truly heroic is choices. As you'll see in the film, he has to make a pretty selfless choice to be heroic and I think they all do. That's key in this little yarn.
MCMAHON: And, you know, the wonderful thing about this whole thing is that you actually get to see the evolution of the characters. They start off as human beings. They don't start off as superheroes or characters with extraordinary strengths or talents or anything like that; But I watched the original TV show, was it '56? The cartoon, sorry. '65? So I saw the whole original comics and all that kind of stuff and it's wonderful because I'd seen the comics and I started watching the comics probably in the '70s and watched it through the '80s; And firstly, you're watching it through a child's eyes, so you're not really involved in the depth of the characters and all this kind of stuff&#Array; But in watching the original cartoons of this thing, it's amazing how much of the original comics and cartoons is put into our characters. And it can be very subtle little things. It really starts off with relationships between the four people. And that is that these two are basically nemeses from day one, they went to college together. Ben was the guy that stood by him. Sue and Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards and Victor had this battle for Sue, who's the most gorgeous woman on the planet; So it's not until they go up into space and they get enveloped by this cosmic storm and they all develop their individual powers that they really start to brazen and to take on their original and probably deeper characteristics. You're not seeing the ultimate part of that humanity until they get infected with this thing, so it's really quite a unique and extraordinary journey. And it's what brings these guys, the four of them, together and it's what separates me from the four of them.

Cast

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