 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿 | 🎙️ EPISODE 530: 08.11.22 Starting in 2020, I decided to watch & review the entire Nicolas Cage filmography in alphabetical order. This is 𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔜𝔢𝔞𝔯 𝔬𝔣 ℭ𝔞𝔤𝔢 – Chapter 23 This is a film at odds with itself. Like that clunky "/" in the title, on one side it presents a masterful action movie with exquisite sequences and set-pieces helmed by one of the greats (John Woo), and on the other hand, it's a schlocky mess with a plot so fragile it feels held together by fraying twine. But if you embrace the latter for what it is, you're almost guaranteed to have an amazing time. And folks, that's exactly what I did. I don't go deep with Woo at all, and that's on me. (I honestly think the only other films of his that I've seen are the ones right before and right after this: M.I. 2 (2000) and the rated-R Travolta-Christian Slater vehicle, Broken Arrow, which I distinctly recall going to see in the theaters in 1996 after a buddy's mom agreed to buy us tickets.) But enough tangents, I've got to turn 133 minutes of this craziness into 41 short clips! LFG! |
In this soft-lit, dreamy scene, Troy is attempting to assassinate Archer and his boy is caught in the crossfire with the bullet going right through his torso and killing the agent's only son. Even though they're on a merry-go-round, you can hear one of the fake horses neigh?? ...
Six years later, we see Troy dressed as a priest blasting a cig in Los Angeles and a stressed-out Archer yelling at his underlings at the FBI office. (Sidebar: SOOO much cig-blasting in this. This feels like the beginning of the end for onscreen smoking and watching it in 2022 makes the film seem somehow even older than it is.) ...
Troy is planting a bomb and rocking out to a random choir doing the Händel "Hallelujah" song. Details like this are completely random and meaningless but, cumulatively, they add to the film's over-the-top beauty. Naturally, Troy does a sexy dance to this song (what?) before committing sexual assault on one of the choir ladies...
Let's see those moves again in slo-mo! ...
This is, as many know, one of the all-time Cage performances. Both as Castor Troy and when he's acting in the role of Archer-as-Troy, embodying the much more serious Travolta performance. It is legendary work by an actor who, about 25% of the way into this expansive filmography review series, has proved to be the perfect subject for a career retrospective.
We're then introduced to the two iconic golden guns (which factor greatly into the plot of The Unbearbable Weight of Massive Talent) as well as Castor Troy's brother Pollux, played by the great Alessandro Nivola, who is almost unrecognizable as the nerdy sociopath here when you consider his recent run of tough guy roles. They board a private jet after the time-bomb installation, and Troy sings the little ditty which would become the podcast theme song for this very review series! Then he acts like a maniac and gets an FBI agent posing as a stewardess to suck his tongue...
The FBI were tipped off to their private jet escape. Rather easily, if you ask me. This is the first of about two dozen magical moments to bridge the plot from one action sequence to the next. And holy shit, is this an action sequence. This is old school, massive action with a real plane and gratuitous violence on the runway...
That shrug is so funny.
Then Archer boards a helicopter, shoots out the plane's engine and Troy kills the pilot before the plane crashes into a hangar setting off literal fireworks...
And then this goes RIGHT INTO another crazy shoot-em-up scene inside the hangar where a ton of people get shot and Pollux gets captured. Conveniently, our two leads end up in a head-to-head dual...
Archer gets the better of it after Troy is sent flying down a wind tunnel by the powerful flames of a jet engine, presumably to his death?...
And after that day at the office, Archer gets to come home to find his goth teenage daughter bitching at him. Guy can't catch a break! ...
When he returns to the office, he rejects his hero status because so many died and also because that thing Troy said about the massive bomb hiding somewhere in L.A. is still rattling around in his mind. So he fires up his very 1997 computer...
So now they know the bomb is likely real. And Archer learns they are keeping Troy on life support at a secret location. It is here where we learn about the "Face/Off" surgery and also that it was totally cool to smoke cigarettes just about anywhere...
Yup, in just two minutes they explained the entire technology behind what is literally the title and crux of the film, folks. That's what we call ECONOMICAL EXPOSITION in the biz. Before Archer agrees to this cockamamie plan, though, he attempts to strong-arm members of Troy's gang for information. But the best he can do is beat out the date of the event from one of the thugs...
Knowing that isn't nearly enough, Archer agrees to go through with the procedure. The funniest parts of which are the normal haircut he gets during it, the cut to his face floating in some water, and the hilarious wax Cage face before they cut into him...
It's just so great to know that it's not more scientific than a doctor just manually fixing the new face into place before sealing it back on...
Once the surgery is complete, Archer-as-Troy freaks the fuck out. He still sounds like John Travolta. It takes him a minute to figure out the voice modulator or whatever implanted inside him (don't worry about it)...
"Peach. I can eat a peach for hours..." Of course that's the line they used. They don't have much time to spare so they helicopter Archer-as-Troy to the secret prison where Pollux is being kept. But not before one of my favorite moments in the movie: when Archer-as-Troy's face itches and his partner rubs it for him like he's a little puppy...
This secret prison, we learn later, is housed in an abandoned oil refinery in the middle of the ocean. And character actor supreme John Carroll Lynch explains the rules, most notably Archer-as-Troy's new metal boots...
This was way more sci-fi dystopian then I recall. Inside the general population areas they are playing calm videos of nature and animals above the prisoners. Archer-as-Troy has to prove that he's the real Castor so starts a massive brawl, but it's hard for the FBI agent-turned-maniac to go all the way. And Cage is awesome in creating this dissonance...
For as super secure as this complex is supposed to be they definitely seem pretty liberal about letting brawls get wildly out of control. Oh well, it doesn't matter. Because the biggest stretch of the entire film is about to go down. A "deus ex machina" is a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem in a story is suddenly and abruptly resolved by an unexpected and unlikely occurrence. And folks, having Castor Troy wake up from his coma, ALL ALONE, in the research facility, right next to SEAN ARCHER'S FLOATING FACE, well, that shit is a deus ex machina for the ages...
But this movie wouldn't be the Freaky Friday of action flicks if John Travolta didn't get to unleash his inner Cage as well. So a no-faced Troy, still blasting a cig without any lips because HE GOES HARD, gets his thugs to kidnap the doctor and put Archer's face on his face hole. It leads to an incredible reflection shot...
After some initial suspense, Archer-as-Troy convinces his (not)brother that he's really (not)himself — although, I'm not sure why this would have been so difficult; like was Pollux going to assume that they would send an imposter with literally the exact same face? — he learns about the location of the bomb...
Then, Troy-as-Archer, now fully ensconced in the FBI agent role, pays a visit to Archer-as-Troy in the secret prison and they have their Freaky Friday moment. And we get perhaps the worst line of dialogue in movie history: "it's like looking in a mirror. Only not." Yes, because you are literally looking at your face. That is why...
So Archer-as-Troy is really fucked here. All the people who knew about this switcheroo were burned alive and he's stuck in the most insane prison on earth where everyone believes him to be the worst criminal ever. Not ideal! Troy-as-Archer gets his brother Pollux released and has Archer-as-Troy thrown into solitary confinement. He then hatches the plan to go "straight" by disarming the bomb personally, and profiting off the newfound American hero status...
This is what all topless ladies be saying...
So Troy-as-Archer is such a huge hero that he blows off the President of the USA to have a candlelit dinner with Archer's wife (Joan Allen) but she's suspicious. Mostly because how he is acting nothing like her husband, I guess. Back in jail, Archer-as-Troy assaults a guard so they'll take him to get electroshock therapy because that's the only time they take off a prisoner's magic magnetic boots. Got it. And then he starts a prison escape because they gave him a cigarette for some reason and he burns it on a guard's arm. Again with all the smoking! The revolting inmates fuck up and/or kill so many guards as Archer-as-Troy eventually finds an exit and sees that the prison is literally in the middle of the sea and he jumps into the water after getting shot at by a helicopter...
There are leaps in logic, and I've pointed out many of them already. But the idea that Archer-as-Troy simply swam to shore undetected might take the cake. But as the mantra goes: DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT. Archer-as-Troy escapes the most secure prison ever built almost immediately after deciding to do so. Got it.
Back on land, Troy-as-Archer has an awkward visit to Archer's dead son's grave with his wife, because... you know, the whole "he actually murdered him" thing. Archer-as-Troy tries to call his wife and explain things but she hangs up on him. So he goes to Troy's thug den to get his two golden guns and hang out with the gang. They give him a weird drug drink and he freaks the hell out (Cage is so good) and they drop the title of the movie like ten times...
Still freaking from whatever was in that glass, Archer-as-Troy encounters Gina Gershon, Troy's sorta-girlfriend. And Cage makes one of his most famous faces ever...
I'm sure this has been gif'd 1,000,000 times, but here's one more...
Back at the home front, Troy-as-Archer saves Archer's daughter from getting raped but then immediately slut-shames her. They then share a cigarette and he gives her a knife. This might be the only sloppy cut/transition in the movie, but it's still funny...
Back at the thug den, Archer-as-Troy learns that Troy has a son of his own with Gina Gershon, but that she had kept it a secret that it was his until now. Archer-as-Troy freaks out meeting Castor's son and starts calling him Michael, his deceased boy's name. The kid is listening to "Over the Rainbow" on a Walkman as the gang's place gets raided by the FBI. Epic action ensues. The battle sounds bleed in and out of the diegetic sound of the kid's headphones until that becomes the soundtrack to this madness. It's great...
And they're all just shooting like crazy with this kid right in the middle! Seems like a bad strategy, FBI. Eventually, Archer and Troy are face-to-face again. They try to work out an endgame strategy, but then go with Plan B...
Then, after some more chaotic shooting and fighting, Pollux is killed. And it such amazing stunt work...
Now that they've both lost someone they loved, the stakes are even higher! I mean, they couldn't possibly get higher, but you love this movie for trying. (And yes that was the dude from Silicon Valley who got shot in the head.)
Troy-as-Archer returns to the FBI office and learns that he's been named TIME's Man of the Year (lol). Then he has a fight with his boss — who's played by the great Harve Presnell (the grandpa from Fargo) — that ends with him killing him and staging it as a heart attack. (So many people die in this film, it's nuts)...
A quick shout-out to John Travolta. I think Cage gets more of the credit in this one, and he's obviously the focus of this series I'm doing, but Travolta is really great here.
Archer-as-Troy, who is badly injured, confronts his wife as Castor. She's not buying it. He's overacting here but it's great...
Later, she pricks Troy-as-Archer while he's sleeping and tests his blood type in the middle of the night. Archer-as-Troy is waiting for her at the hospital. She's still not totally convinced, so he recounts their first date and then she believes him.
The next day, they all go to the funeral for the FBI boss Troy-as-Archer killed. Doves are there for some reason. When it clears out we get ready for the big showdown the only way this movie knows how: with slow-mo, Latin and more doves...
Troy-as-Archer takes the wife hostage, a bunch of other people show up and we get a comical game of "who's on first" with all the gun pointing....
Then it's Lights. Camera. Action. And doves. Can't forget about the slow-motion doves...
Most of the gun pointers die except, you guessed it? And those two have yet another nice shoot em' up in around the church. There are doves outside too. But those might have been pigeons? Perhaps they blew out their dove budget. A thug arrives with Archer's daughter, and Archer-as-Troy — now sounding like himself because the voice modulator got messed up — attempts to convince her that it's really him. Imagine how confused she must be that both Nicolas Cage and John Travolta sound like John Travolta! But luckily she has that knife from before and she uses it on the real Troy exactly as he taught her...
Then all of a sudden they're on a dock and it explodes...
This next action set-piece is one of the greatest — if not THE greatest — ever captured on film. Just a breathtaking sequence featuring real speedboats and real stuntmen...
Archer-as-Troy escape's his fiery speedboat by leaping onto the other one and then it explodes into a barge. This is so good...
Troy-as-Archer tries to bludgeon his foe with the anchor which leads Archer-as Troy to start jet skiing on foot with a chain (!) and they almost get decapitated going under a bridge and are both launched out of the boat before another massive explosion. There's nothing like this in movies anymore...
This leads to a good ole' fashioned fistfight on land and Archer-as-Troy finally kills him with a harpoon after Troy-as-Archer tries to literally cut his own face off his own damn head (well, not HIS face, but you get it)...
In the ambulance, Archer's wife says they're bringing in the top surgical team from DC to swap back his face, and Archer-as-Troy takes back his wedding ring from Troy's (finally dead) hand. Cut to a few weeks later, and Archer-as-Archer comes home. In one final, totally cheesy twist, we see that they are adopting Castor's son, Adam ("Over the Rainbow" kid from the shoot-out). It's so bad, but also so beautiful and wonderful...
And there you have it. That's Face/Off in 42 minutes and almost 3,000 words. An all-time classic action flick I have no qualms giving 10 out of 10.
In the next chapter of The Year of Cage, we're gonna rewind the alphabet a bit, as I forgot to include 1984's Francis Ford Coppola-directed The Cotton Club, which feature's Coppola's nephew in a smaller role. (I don't know how this slipped by me!) So stay tuned for that, my peaches. Thanks for sticking with this project :)
THE VERDICT: 10 CAGES OUT OF 10 • CLICK HERE for all 𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔜𝔢𝔞𝔯 𝔬𝔣 ℭ𝔞𝔤𝔢 Chapters + Ongoing Rankings.
CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ EPISODE 529 - (YOU ARE HERE) - EPISODE 531 ⫸
⫷ EPISODE 529 - (YOU ARE HERE) - EPISODE 531 ⫸
Face/Off is a 1997 American science fiction action thriller film directed by John Woo, written by Mike Werb and Michael Colleary, and starring John Travolta and Nicolas Cage. The first Hollywood film in which Woo was given major creative control, Face/Off earned critical acclaim for the performances by Cage and Travolta and its stylized action sequences. The film earned $245 million worldwide, making it the 11th highest-grossing film of 1997, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Sound Effects Editing (Mark Stoeckinger and Per Hallberg) at the 70th Academy Awards. Since its release, the film gained a strong cult following and it’s considered by many as one of John Woo’s best films. It was released on June 27, 1997.
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