By Jason Saldivar 

jsaldivar@lc.edu 

***Warning: Spoiler Alert*** 

Fantastic Four was directed by Tim Story and released by 20th Century Fox on July 8, 2005. The story follows Reed Richards, played by Ioan Gruffudd, in his attempt to research plants exposed to a cosmic storm in space. Due to a miscalculation predicting the storm’s path of travel, Richards and the others on the space station are exposed to the cosmic event as well.  

All five start to change due to the exposure, resulting in strange superhero-like transformations. Reed’s biology becomes stretchy and flexible, akin to rubber. Sue Storm, played by Jessica Alba, is able to bend light to seemingly disappear and create invisibility fields of any shape. Johnny Storm, played by Chris Evans, gains the ability to control fire and “flame on” to rocket into flight. Doctor Victor Von Doom, played by Julian McMahon, is slowly turned into a metal harder than diamond and begins to manipulate electricity. As for Ben Grimm, played by Michael Chiklis, he is turned inside and out into an indestructible rock like material.  

While most of the team have an easier time dealing with their new change, Grimm has to deal with feeling and looking like a monster. His own fiance is even afraid of him when he tries to go see her. These stressors lead Grimm to cause an accident on the bridge, causing Richards, Johnny Storm, Sue Storm, and Grimm himself, to expose themselves and their powers to the public where they are deemed  superheroes. 

Contrary to the newly formed “Fantastic Four” and their rising fame, Von Doom was spiraling due to losing millions on the failed space mission, his company’s stock plummeting and about to go bankrupt from investors who cut his funding. He dubs himself “Doctor Doom” and tries to pick off the Fantastic Four one by one, only for them to come together in the end to face him together. Doctor Doom is turned into a statue after having his metal body superheated and rapidly cooled, where he is then shipped back home to Latveria while the Fantastic Four are now seen as true heroes and not exclusively celebrities recognized for their powers.