| abstract | - Reed Richards, a brilliant but timid and bankrupt scientist, is desperate to get funding for a space mission to study a cosmic storm, approaches multi-millionaire industrialist Victor Von Doom. Victor agrees to let Reed and his friend Ben Grimm use his facilities, but decides that he and his assistant (also love interest, and former girlfriend of Reed) Susan Storm accompany him, and the mission is piloted by Von Doom astronaut Johnny Storm (Susan's brother and former subordinate of Ben) On the Von Doom space station, Ben is sent to arrange plants for experiments with the cosmic storm, while Reed monitors its approach. Whilst Ben works, Reed find the storm is accelerating much more than he anticipated, and tries to get Ben back inside before it hits. When Victor refuses Reed's plea to abort the mission, the station is engulfed by its vast energies. Whilst Victor is seemingly safe behind the station's shields, the others attempt to rescue Ben (who was space-walking at the time) and are exposed to the cloud. The astronauts make it home intact and are taken to Victor's private hospital to recuperate. There, they begin to experience physical changes. Reed find his body is able to stretch far past normal lengths. Susan finds she is able to turn invisible, and Johnny finds he can engulf his body in flames without being harmed, and has some limited flying ability. Ben, however, is traumatized by his transformation into an orange, rocky creature of superhuman strength. Ben flees the hospital, heading back home. In New York, Ben contacts his former fiancee, but she is terrified by his new appearance. Dejected, Ben retreats back into the shadows. He finds himself on a bridge, where a man is contemplating suicide. In attempting to help him, Ben inadvertently causes a massive traffic accident. He goes to help, as the rest of the team turn up. Using their new-found powers, Reed, Susan and Johnny help to save everyone involved in the accident, and are hailed as heroes in the media. Victor, meanwhile, is developing his own powers. The head wound he sustained begins to spread, and reveals a metallic layer underneath the flesh. He also finds an ability to affect electrical equipment and that metallic objects near him begin to vibrate. The Fantastic Four (although they have yet to adopt this name) all move into Reed's apartment in the Baxter Building, where Reed works to reverse the storm's effects, particularly for Ben. He subjects them all to tests, finding the hottest temperature Johnny can reach (as hot as a supernova, capable of vaporising all life on the planet) and finding the triggers for their powers. (He finds they are caused by emotion: when Susan is annoyed or angry she turns invisible. When Johnny is particularly excited, he can flame-on). However, he cannot work out why Ben is unable to turn his powers on and off. Johnny, tired of being cooped up inside, runs off to participate in a motocross event, exploiting his powers to pull off tricks. As he finishes, the media swarms him, pressing for details of the team. It is now that he gives the team their names- Mr Fantastic, the Invisible Girl, the Human Torch, and The Thing. Ben is particularly put out by this moniker. Victor is called to a meeting by his stockbrokers, who inform him that due to the disastrous space mission, his company is in serious financial danger, and they are planning on withdrawing their capital. It is a final comment, suggesting Victor returns to his home country of Latveria, which causes Victor to snap and murder the head of the stockbrokers that evening. Victor decides that Reed is responsible for his problems, and by proxy the rest of the team. He finds Reed has been working on a machine to reverse their powers, but it lacks enough electricity to work. However, that is not a problem Victor has any more. He lures Ben into the machine and powers it himself, turning Ben human again. Victor then kidnaps Reed, and begins to freeze his body, knowing that if rubber is super-cooled it becomes so rigid that it can be shattered. He fires a heat-seeking missile at Johnny, knowing the Human Torch to be the hottest item in the vicinity. Ben, meanwhile, realizes that if he is to be any use to his friends, he must become The Thing again. He steps into the machine. Susan tries to stop Victor and save Reed, but on her own she is not powerful enough. Fortunately, Ben, now The Thing again, arrives just in time to initiate the final showdown. As Johnny appears again, having avoided the missile and caused it to fly into the river by setting fire to a garbage barge and flaming off, the Fantastic Four is united against Doctor Doom (his body now completely metallic, and his face covered by the familiar mask). Reed co-ordinates an attack utilizing all their powers: Johnny flies around Doom, heating up to full supernova ability, whilst Susan holds a force-field around him to contain the heat. As those two members eventually stop, exhausted, a superheated Doom advances on the other two. Ben breaks open a fire hydrant, and Reed shapes his body into a funnel to shoot the water at Doom, cooling him rapidly and freezing his metal body solid. Ben informs Reed that he has accepted his condition with the help of Alicia Masters, a woman for whom he has developed feelings, and the team decide to embrace their roles as superheroes and unite officially as the Fantastic Four. Reed takes Susan aside and proposes to her, which she accepts. Von Doom, meanwhile, is last seen loaded into a crate and shipped back to Latveria. The electronics on the ship experience unusual interference, and it appears that Doom is not dead after all. Set two years after the first film, Reed Richards and Sue Storm are preparing for their wedding. A silver object enters Earth's atmosphere, radiating cosmic energy that creates massive molecular fluctuations and causes deep craters at locations across the Earth. The government approaches Reed to build a sensor to track the movements of the object. As the wedding begins (humorously, Stan Lee has a cameo where he attempts to enter the wedding), Reed's systems detect the phenomenon approaching New York City, causing a massive power blackout. The object destroys the sensors while the Fantastic Four protect the crowd. The Human Torch pursues the object, discovering that it is a humanoid, a "Silver Surfer." He confronts the Surfer, who drags Johnny into the upper atmosphere where the lack of oxygen and low air pressure snuffs his flame out, then drops him back toward Earth. Johnny manages to reactivate his powers and survives the fall. Later, when Sue tries to comfort Johnny, she touches his shoulders and their powers switch - he becomes invisible, and she is set on fire; when they touch again their powers revert back. Reed's examination of Johnny reveals that exposure to the Surfer has set Johnny's molecular structure in flux, allowing him to switch powers with his teammates through physical contact. Tracing the cosmic energy of the Surfer, Reed discovers that a series of planets the alien had visited before Earth have all been destroyed. The Surfer has been creating a number of deep artificial craters around the globe. Reed determines that the next crater will appear in London, and the team travel there. They are just in time to avert the destruction of the London Eye by the effects of the Surfer's passing, and save its passengers, although the rescue is jeopardized when Johnny accidentally touches Reed and switches powers with him. The Surfer departs, and the Thames drains into the crater. The Surfer's movements around the globe bring him past Latveria, where the cosmic energy affects Victor Von Doom, freeing him from two years as a metal statue. Doom, able to move again but scarred, traces the Surfer to the Arctic and makes him an offer to join forces. When the Surfer rebuffs him, Doom attacks. The Surfer returns fire, blasting Doom through the ice. The cosmic energy of the Surfer's blast heals Doom's body, reversing the changes seen in the first film. Doom, pursuing the power in the board, steals it from the compound, using the device he secretly created earlier to gain control of the board and its powers. The Fantastic Four rescue the Surfer, and pursue Doom in the Fantasticar, confronting him in Shanghai. During the battle, Sue is mortally wounded. With the Surfer powerless, Johnny absorbs the combined powers of the entire team in order to battle the cosmic energy-empowered Doom. Johnny succeeds in breaking Doom's control over the Surfer's board, while Ben Grimm uses a nearby crane to knock Doom into the harbor where he is last seen sinking; however, Galactus has already arrived, and Sue dies in Reed's arms. The Surfer regains the control of his board, and his power is restored. He revives Sue and chooses to defend Earth, flying into Galactus and confronting him. The conflict results in a massive blast of energy, apparently destroying Galactus.Doom leverages his experience into a deal with the American military, who force the Fantastic Four to work with Doom. Deducing that the Surfer's board is the source of his power,from the pulse beginning that it, Reed develops a pulse generator that will separate him from it, while Victor, who was supposed to be helping Reed, is working on some other unknown remote-like machine. While setting up the device, Sue is confronted by the Surfer, during which he reveals he is merely a servant to the destroyer of worlds, and regrets the destruction he causes. The military opens fire on the Surfer, which distracts him and allows the four to fire the pulse, separating the Surfer from his board. The military imprisons the Surfer in Siberia and forbids the Fantastic Four from interacting with him, while they torture him for information. Sue uses her powers to sneak into his cell, where she learns more information from the Surfer. He tells her his master was known by the people of his world as Galactus, a massive cloud-like cosmic entity which must feed on life-bearing planets to survive, and that his board is a homing beacon which even now summons him to the planet. The film ends with the marriage of Reed and Sue in Japan, and the team's creation of their signature "4" in the sky with the Fantasticar. The credits cut back to a shot of the Silver Surfer's seemingly lifeless body floating through space. Just as he drifts off the edge of the screen his eyes open and his board races towards him.
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