As Fox lets another year slip past them without putting a Fantastic Four movie in theaters, it’s hard not to fantasize about what that movie might look like in the hands of Marvel and Disney. Well… fantasize I have! I’m generally not the type to write fan fiction, and when I do it’s thinly veiled enough to be saleable in it’s own right – the homage, as it were.
Today, I’m just going to describe the Fantastic Four movie I want to see. If you like what I have to say, be sure to let Marvel know they need me writing something fun for them. Restoration, perhaps? Cross-Dimensional? Maybe I could work up an original hero or science-fiction book.
Anyway, I digress:
ACT ONE
In Eastern Europe, the small but financially potent country of Latveria suffers from a power crisis. As one of the world’s most esteemed scientific and intellectual minds, Latveria’s ruler – VICTOR VON DOOM – has approached the United Nations with a solution. Long-range telescopes have detected a storm of cosmic energy hurtling towards Earth, and Doom has designed a space station capable of harnessing that energy. By beaming the power of the storm to a massive generator in the heart of Latveria, Von Doom hopes to spark a new source of energy… one which will reinvigorate the Latverian economy and create clean power across all of Europe.
Leading Doom’s proposed team of astronauts are a group friends he’s known since college at Miskatonic Institute of Technology in Boston: REED RICHARDS, reknowned physicist, his pilot BEN GRIMM, hot-shot co-pilot JOHNNY STORM, and Reed’s flame and fellow engineer SUE STORM.
With the storm approaching, the space construction project will tax every resource the world has to offer, from the stability of the global economy to the safety and very lives of the astronauts themselves. Despite the hardship, Doom’s trust in Richards and his team is well-placed and construction is finished on schedule. Days before the cosmic storm is set to arrive at Earth, the space station is fully operational – and in geosynchronous orbit over Latveria.
When the storm finally hits, Reed finds himself hunched over experiments and computer readouts. Ben and Johnny are sitting in the command shuttle, prepared for an emergency escape if needed. Sue looks down upon the night side of planet Earth, awaiting the dawn of a new era of prosperity.
FWAAM! The cosmic storm hits –
Hot red power scorches through the reaches of near space, down through the Earth’s atmosphere, right into the generator’s massive dish. From space, Sue watches as lights spring to life in a twinkling grid, all across Eastern Europe…
…and then die. All of Europe is in blackout.
Sue asks Reed if that’s normal – and it’s not. Either there was an explosion at the generator, which would certainly have been visible from space…
Or the power is going somewhere else. All the power in Eastern Europe is being diverted. But where?!?
At mission control, communications reports a total loss of telecom contact with the entire nation of Latveria! Planes are being diverted! Internet connections are cut! Nobody knows what’s happening!
Reed redirects all the telescopes away from the cosmic storm and towards the darkened nation. Electromagnet readings indicate…
All that power is being channeled into what appear to be secret subterranean military bases spread all throughout Europe. Deep underneath the planet’s crust, all that power is being used to fuel:
AN ARMY. A ROBOT ARMY.
Latveria wasn’t having a power crisis at all! The whole thing was a trick to power a giant robot army!!!
Stunned, Reed reports his results. Washington is baffled. Reed himself can’t imagine how or why someone would ever perpetuate such a hoax – and the only person with an immediate answer at hand is Ben Grimm.
It’s up to the Four to stop it. Reed agrees, and adds that shutting off the energy beam in the middle of the storm will overload the mass capacitors and create a chain reaction leading to a massive detonation. The station will be torn asunder – first by the explosion, and then by the cosmic radiation as it penetrates the station’s shield.
There’s no time to discuss, Reed claims - everyone but him needs to escape via the shuttle. Ben makes the same argument, and Johnny refuses to be outdone in the hero department. Seeing that there’s no time left for discussion, Sue simply shuts down the beam…
BOOM.
First, there’s a massive wave of red cosmic energy. Then, there comes the explosion.
Back on Earth, deep in Latveria, the beam flickers – and dies. Backing up, Doom’s generator overloads and EXPLODES. As workers and technicians run from the flames, Doom’s face is horribly, horribly scarred.
Back on the space station…
Running from the blast, the four rush for the escape shuttle as the station disintegrates and radiation pulses through them. Somehow stronger than usual, Ben holds the door of the shuttle open against the storm of flame and radiation as his friends pile in – taking the brunt of the blast himself!
As the four pile into the cockpit, they see that the station is still mostly intact! The big explosion is still coming…
NOW. As the massive shockwave reaches towards the frail shuttlecraft, Sue Storm raises her hands in reaction – a force field appears!
For a crucial moment, the shuttlecraft is protected from the blast. Then, the bubble drops and the blast from the station tosses the shuttle tumbling into space.
ACT TWO
Rescue. From the safety of a space shuttle, spacemen cut their way into the emergency craft with torches. Inside, the astronauts are alive but unconscious… and something doesn’t look right. In the shadowy interior of the emergency shuttle, the rescuers appear stunned:
“What is that thing?"
“Oh my God, it’s them!”
Waking up in a quarantine hospital, the four find themselves in the center of an international incident. Europe is on the brink of war, and Latveria has left the United Nations. Half the world’s superpowers have hailed Richards, Grimm, and the Storms as heroes – calling them the Fantastic Four – while the rest of the world is calling them terrorists for sabotaging the efforts of Latveria to provide Europe with power.
To make matters much, much worse, the cosmic storm has had profound effects on the four themselves. Sue can turn invisible at will, and is developing a strange command over force fields – although not to the extent she exhibited in the shuttle. Not yet. Reed is able to stretch his body to an unbelievable and staggering degree. Johnny Storm can ignite his body - and even fly!
By far, the worst of the cosmic effects have manifested in Ben Grimm. As impossible as it seems, Ben Grimm is made of strange, orange rock. Indestructible and unfathomably strong, he comes to be known as the Thing. Sue, of course, is the Invisible Woman. Johnny is The Human Torch, and Reed Richards is Mr. Fantastic.
As the head of the Latverian Coalition, Doom demands that the nations of the west turn over the Fantastic Four. While grateful, the American Government is also understandably tense as they await news from the Four as to what their plans are for the future.
Sensibly, Reed decides that there’s simply not enough known about their new powers to make an educated decision. With a handsome research grant provided by the government, the Fantastic Four move into a state-of-the-art laboratory on the roof of Reed’s family property – the Baxter Building in downtown Manhattan.
While Reed battles Johnny’s impulsiveness, Ben’s rage towards Doom, and his own relationship with Sue in his quest for answers, Doom threatens to destroy a major population center for every day the Fantastic Four remains outside the grasp of Latverian law.
When a giant robot is unleashed on the city of New York, the Fantastic four realize Doom’s not kidding around. In his lust for revenge, Ben throws himself into fighting the robot headlong. Reed holds back in his support while he gathers data and second-guesses the situation. Johnny just wants to show Ben up – and Sue spends all her energy shouting instructions. When the robot is finally destroyed, it’s left several city blocks of New York utterly demolished. Refugees are offered a home in the Baxter Building, but the entire city responds with a public outcry demanding that the Fantastic Four get handed over to Latveria.
Ben actually wants to do it – just to get close to Doom. Anything’s better than waiting around.
For his part, Reed passionately disagrees. Half the world is convinced that robot army doesn’t exist- and Latveria’s extensive space program has Reed convinced that there’s even more to this threat than meets the eye. Naturally, the key to Doom’s plan is the space station, so Reed wants Ben’s help staging a salvage mission. If Reed can deduce how Doom’s technology is powered.
Johnny just wants to explore his new powers. While Ben leaves the family to deal with the Latverian situation and Reed retires to the Baxter building to build a spaceship, Johnny makes a name for himself saving citizens on the streets of New York. Sue is left to put a public face on the Fantastic Four’s “heroics”.
Having built a space-borne “Fantasticar”, Reed explores the orbital ruin… and assembles clues about Doom’s plan. Brought before Latverian justice, Ben Grimm tries to clobber Doom and is found guilty of crimes against humanity. Johnny Storm saves some grateful citizens, but causes just as much damage as his powers get the better of him. Sue is assaulted in politics and the media – suddenly the most visible woman in the world. She begs the United Nations to intervene on Ben’s behalf, to no avail. When Ben Grimm is sentenced to death, Reed is close to unraveling Doom’s secrets… Sue struggles to avoid a conflict in Eastern Europe…
That’s when Johnny sees his chance to establish himself as a bona-fide hero. Against Reed’s advice and Sue’s protests, Johnny stages a prison break… which was Doom’s plan all along!
ACT THREE
Ben Grimm’s prison is actually a rebuilt cosmic generator. While Doom wasn’t able to harness the energy of the storm, it did indeed come down to Earth – in the Fantastic Four!
When Johnny arrives on the scene to break Ben free, Doom seals the doors. Once Johnny has freed Ben from his restraints, Ben finds himself unable to clobber his way out of the massive chamber. When Johnny tries to melt his way out, the generator absorbs his energy. As Johnny burns hotter and hotter (Ben, of course, is immune to heat), the generator hums to life! The robots are powered! Doom’s evil plan has sprung to life!
Can Sue and Reed spring Ben and Johnny from Doom’s Latverian prison? Will Reed’s research reveal a way to defeat an army of Doom-bots large enough to conquer the world? Can the Fantastic Four work as a team, and combine their powers to stop Doom and restore world peace?
You know they can! They’re the Fantastic Four!!!
Come on! Who wouldn’t watch this movie?!?
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