Red Rock West

MOVIE #2,134 • SCORE 6/10 • 11.14.24
SERIES: THE YEAR OF CAGE


A mostly forgotten Cage that some (not me) have described as a “post-Western neo-noir thriller film” which is too many describers imo. But let’s get into it.

Cage, a Texas drifter in Wyoming, does push-ups on the side of the road before sprucing up for a job interview at a remote oil field. He can't get the job, though, because his leg is fucked up from first Gulf War.

A kindly old gas station attendant tells him he could look for work in nearby Red Rock. He's immediately mistaken for someone else by barman JT Walsh. This guy thinks he's a hitman from Dallas and Cage plays along. Walsh wants him to take out his wife Lara Flynn Boyle, making it look like a burglary.

Cage goes out to snoop on LFB (he's not really gonna go through with this, is he?). He confronts her about this dirty business and they share a drink…


She doubles down and offers him even more money if he'll kill him instead. Where's Dr. Phil when you need him, right???

Cage comes to his senses and writes a letter to the sheriff explaining the situation. As he's leaving Red Rock, he accidentally hits a pedestrian whose car had broken down in a rainstorm. So he drives this guy back into town to get him help at the hospital and it turns out the dude had been previously shot in the stomach before Cage hit him with his car. What are the odds. The doctors call the local sheriff's department and it turns out the sheriff is none other than J.T. Walsh. He drives a handcuffed cage out into the desert night and Cage promptly and conveniently escapes. They do a shootout…


Cage stumbles out onto a road and is picked up by fellow Texan Dennis Hopper, who we immediately know is the real hitman because he also has Texas plates on his car. Hopper and Cage go to a bar and Sheriff Walsh soon arrives. The jig is up as both Walsh and Hooper are on Cage’s tail now. He gets away and hitchhikes with trucker Dwight Yoakam.

Cage returns to save LFB from hitman Hooper. He knocks out Hooper and disables his car, allowing him and LFB to escape. Meanwhile, Sheriff Walsh's lackeys start to get suspicious when they find the hit money in the squad car glove box.

At a bar, LFB explains that she inherited a lot of money, explaining why her husband wants to kill her. They should be on the run but she is horny and drunk so they get a motel room. They bone.

In the morning, they fantasize about heading to Mexico…


But to get there, they'll need more cash. So they have to break into Walsh's safe back in Red Rock. Obviously, this is a horrible idea but a movie's gotta have a plot.

They take the cash (much less than she was expecting) but Walsh shows up so they hide in a closet. The deputies show up and we get the next big twist…


It turns out Walsh and LFB are a modern day Bonnie and Clyde (they're even on an old-fashioned wanted poster lol). But their union went sour somewhere and now we are here. For what it's worth, LFB swears she had nothing to do with it.

Then Hopper shows up and knocks out Cage. Now that he's hip to this new development in the story, he wants their hidden million for his trouble. Hopper sets a fire as a diversion so he can break Walsh out of prison (killing a cop in the process) to find out where the cash is. The four of them go for a drive and do this dangerous maneuver next to a train for some reason…


They do some exposition in the car to explain how Walsh got the sheriff job because a film like this feels obligated to try and explain something like that.

Walsh leads them to a cemetery where they make Cage dig up a grave to find the hidden money. He unlocks the box, which has a hidden gun in it, and tries to get away with all the money but Hopper shoots him. Then Cage and Hooper get into a fight involving a chain. Cage manages to impale Hooper on the bayonet of a soldier statue. He frees himself and then is shot dead by LFB…


Like a couple of hobos, the two lovebirds hop on a train with the sack of money, leaving the deputies to sort out the graveyard crime scene.

On the train, we get one more final FINAL twist: LFB betrays Cage but the gun she has isn't loaded. Whoops. Cage tosses all the money out of the train and then LFB out with it…


Adios, Red Rock, indeed.

This is a pretty forgettable thriller but it has a fun cast and is certainly watchable.

THE VERDICT: 6 CAGES OUT OF 10 • CLICK HERE for all 𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔜𝔢𝔞𝔯 𝔬𝔣 ℭ𝔞𝔤𝔢 Chapters + Ongoing Rankings.

Next time we'll return to the Cageaissance for his 2023 turn as Dracula in the horror-comedy, Reinfeld.

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⫷ MOVIE #2,133 - (YOU ARE HERE) - MOVIE #2,135 ⫸

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Red Rock West is a 1993 American post-Western neo-noir thriller film directed by John Dahl and starring Nicolas Cage, Lara Flynn Boyle, J. T. Walsh, and Dennis Hopper. It was written by Dahl and his brother Rick, and shot in Montana, Willcox, Arizona, Sonoita, Arizona and Elgin, Arizona. It was released on June 16, 1993.