As far as I am aware, there is no screenwriter announced for the MCU Fantastic Four movie. With Jon Watts leaving as director this is my chance to send out my plot idea for the movie into the universe, get 400k likes, and get hired to write the script.
So here goes nothing!
Origin story or no origin story?
We’ve done that twice so hard pass. Let’s take a cue from Civil War and Homecoming and leave the origin story inferred or just off the screen entirely.
Now, Hollywood usually can’t resist a big action sequence in space with cosmic rays, so if that is a must-have, then the better vehicle for that scene is in what is looking like the immediately preceding movie, The Marvels. Given its characters, it is likely to have some scenes in space and feature cosmic-based rays. So, we will see our first family on their fateful space flight perhaps in the middle of one of the battles in that film. And lo and behold, a bunch of cosmic shenanigans end up hitting the rocket. And one of the post-credit scenes would feature the six explorers landing back on Earth and getting their powers.
Yes, I said six explorers and not four. Because who else will be on this space flight? That’s right. Franklin and Valeria.
We need to talk about the kids
The Fantastic Four comics do a great job featuring the interplay and conflicts between its members. You have the husband-wife dynamic between Reed and Sue. The guilt-over-turning-your-best-friend-into-a-giant-monster dynamic between Reed and Ben. The competing genius dynamic between Reed and Valeria. And the how-do-we-raise-a-kid-who-is-the-most-powerful-entity-in-the-universe dynamic between Reed, Sue, and Franklin.
Franklin and Valeria provide a lens to showcase the original foursome in a more fulsome manner. Let’s include them from the start!
Plus Valeria can make a joke about why they are not named the Fantastix and Reed can answer that they didn’t want to be sued by the producers of that long running Broadway show.
Cold open
The benefit of moving the origin offscreen or to The Marvels is that we don’t need to spend precious minutes retelling the origin in the movie proper. Instead we open with a huge monster exploding out of a New York City street, the Mole Man on its shoulder! This scene will be an homage to Fantastic Four issue 1, and will end with the 4 sealing the Mole Man underground.
Back at the Baxter Building, Franklin and Valeria are ticked that they didn’t get to come on the mission yet again.
“That’s the sixth time this month you’ve left us at home!” Valeria complains, while then remarking that she’s probably smarter than Reed. Franklin teases her and says “You’re only smarter because of the cosmic rays. Dad was already that smart,” which of course infuriates Valeria who then reveals a machine that seals a hole in the Baxter Building basement that Franklin had made with his powers. “See, this could have been super useful instead of Uncle Johnny accidentally burning half of the block!”
Parental scolding ensues. We have character interactions galore between all of the members, setting up the family dynamics.
Sidenote: the one character who is going to get the short shrift in terms of a character arc is probably going to be Johnny. We’ll have that in the second movie.
Even Rocky had a montage
We then have a montage (because who doesn’t love a montage?) showing the FF doing there thing: Johnny fighting random C-list bad guys while chasing girls and going to ESU, Reed in his lab trying to figure out a cure, Ben getting dumped by his girlfriend and then walking by Alicia randomly on the street, Sue being a single mom and trying to get funding for Reed’s research in DC because Reed hasn’t left his lab in weeks, Valeria creating crazy machines in her room, Franklin’s powers going on and off seemingly at random, destroying stuff around the Baxter Building and out in the city.
The montage ends with Ben getting a drink at a bar on Yancy Street, with Reed skulking in, having given up for the moment, his guilt over taking the family on the space flight weighing on him. Even though Ben is down in the dumps, he tries to help Reed, saying he shouldn’t be going through this alone. Reed agrees and vows to figure out a way to reverse the cosmic rays, but rather than turning to Sue or to Ben, he instead turns to … you guessed it, a pre-accident Victor von Doom, aka Reed’s college rival, who is but a cog in Oscorp’s giant research department.
Doom is of course furious that Reed managed to make himself a celebrity superhero while Doom toils away in obscurity. He agrees to help Reed, as he will get great pleasure succeeding where Reed has failed AND getting to take Reed’s powers away at the same time. With help from Reed, Doom constructs a cosmic-ray reversal machine and tries to convince Reed to be the first test subject.
Reed is hesitant. One, because he likes all the attention he gets at Mr. Fantastic, and two, because he believes there is something off about Doom’s math. He gets cold feet and Ben volunteers, but Reed stops him from going into the machine, infuriating Ben. They leave. Victor is fuming and keeps working on the machine, which … explodes, disfiguring his face and blowing up half of Oscorp’s R&D department.
Victor flees the country, and eventually collapses on the footsteps of a monastery where a bunch of magical monks live. They slowly walk down the steps and the lead figure, who is hooded, reveals himself to be Kaecilius, who has somehow escaped from the Dark Dimension (where he has been since Doctor Strange 1). We see Doom being taken in and start training in the mystical arts.
Problems abound
Back in New York, Reed apologizes to Ben, who is having none of it, apologizes to Johnny for not being a better role model, apologizes to Sue, who implores him to just spend time with his kids, who need their dad. We get one of those montage speeches where Reed is apologizing to everyone at once, giving different versions of the same speech. He seems sincere, and everyone but Ben agrees to give him a second chance. Things settle down for the First Family, but we still have this nagging feeling that something big is about to happen.
Part of that is because, throughout the movie so far, we’ve been hearing snippets on the news, people chatting in the streets, about random earthquakes around the world. It gets too big to ignore, and so Nick Fury calls up and asks the Fantastic Four to get involved.
Reed asks, “Where’s Banner? Where’s Pym?” “Not their expertise,” Fury answers.
Reed, Sue, and Johnny agree to go, as Ben is nowhere to be found. Just as they’re about to leave in the Fantasticar, Ben runs out and joins them. They travel to Iceland and then Madripoor and then Egypt to investigate, with Ben opening up little-by-little on each stop.
In the last stop, they find out that Franklin and Valeria have been hiding in the trunk this whole time. They beg to help. Valeria says she’s created a seismic predictor, powered by Franklin, and the next quake is going to be in Latveria. Ominous.
Against everyone’s better judgment, they go there. And who should emerge out of the ground after the next quake but none other than … the Mole Man! He’s baaaack and he’s not alone. Bursting from the pit right behind him and the cause of the planet-wide earthquakes has been none other than … Annihulus and an insectoid horde that Mole Man discovered deep within the earth after the Fantastic Four banished him from the surface. Oops.
The Fantastic Four try to rush Annihulus but Fury buzzes in and says it’s mayhem all over the planet as wave after wave of insectoids emerge from the Earth. Reed tells Sue to get the kids out of there, but Sue says no, and puts up an enormous force field, stopping Annihulus, at least temporarily.
“You protect them,” she says, blood dripping out of her nose. Reed nods, wraps the kids, and retreats back to New York, while the other three stay behind to fight.
The final battle
In New York, it’s chaos. Street-level heroes have joined the fight, but the wave of insectoids is overwhelming. Reed and Spider-Man are trying their best, while Valeria and Franklin are locked in the Baxter Building, which they easily break out of to join the fight. Eventually Annihulus flies down from the sky at the wreckage of Oscorp and all seems lost until…
… a portal opens. It’s Doom, in full armor, a master of magic (yes I know this is quick but we’ll probably add another time passes montage in here somewhere because I hate superhero movies that take place in a week). He’s got the unconscious Sue, Ben, and Johnny. And he’s got a plan. He’ll fix his machine and rob Annihulus of his power by nullifying the cosmic control rod that the bug lord is using to control the insectoids. Reed agrees, knowing he’ll be giving up his powers because they’ll be too close to the blast radius of the machine.
Unbelievably, it works! Doom is ascendant (at least in terms of fixing the machine), everyone loses their powers (and Ben turns back to normal), Annihulus appears weakened as the cosmic control rod begins to crack, but then….
… it repairs itself. But now everyone has no power. Even Doom’s magic is tapped out. And Franklin and Valeria, who had managed to sneak over to the fight, are hit as well. All is lost.
Except then Franklin’s hands begin to glow. He somehow still has his powers! “Impossible!” says Doom. “Doom’s machine worked as it should have.”
Franklin creates a ball of light that soon expands into a portal, which starts sucking in Annihulus and his insectoids.
WTF is going on?
I think you know.
Franklin has created a pocket universe/dimension to trap Annihulus.
AKA THE NEGATIVE ZONE.
The rest of the Fantastic Four get their powers back shortly, with Ben turning back into the Thing, and they help Franklin seal the portal, saving the planet. Reed offers to perfect Doom’s machine but Ben says no, he’s accepted who he is, as a cute blind girl walks by. Doom leaves, furious.
Post-credits scene
Reed has seemingly given up his desire to solve everything. He wants to be a good husband and father, and so we see him fall asleep next to Sue. However, this is Reed Richards we’re talking about. He wakes up a little while later, sneaks off to his lab, and flips on…
… the Bridge, a multiversal gateway into other universes. Waiting on the other side is a group of shadowy figures, who all happen to look just like … fade to black.
Oh you thought we were done?
WRONG.
Second post-credits scene
Sometime later, there is a ring at the doorbell of the Baxter Building. Reed goes to answer it.
It’s Professor Charles Xavier.
“Hello, Reed.”
“Hello, Charles.”
“We need to talk about your son.”
“What about him?”
“He has the X-gene. He’s a mutant. He’s one of us.”
The empty street behind Charles suddenly shimmers and we see, for the first time ever on screen, the assembled X-Men behind Professor X.
