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Learn more by visiting acast.com slash advertise. Hello and welcome to episode 27 of the Caged in Podcast where we will be talking about 1997's action thriller Face Off. This is one I have been looking forward to because I know this is considered to some a crown jewel in the careers of Nicholas Cage and of John Travolta. I'm looking forward to this, but I'm not only going to have a fascination with Nicholas Cage, I'm also going to have a mad fascination with John Travolta.
I find the guy interesting. I like him at the same time. I feel like I should hate him. It's weird, love, hate relationship.
I almost have Nicholas Cage in that. I just don't know how to feel about them because they are odd and interesting characters with amazing and terrible screen performances as well as fascinating and interesting personal lives. Yeah, so I'm looking forward to this one. All I really know about it is it's directed by John Wu and Clarkson at two hours and 20 minutes.
From what I've seen of gifts and clips just in the past before I decided to do this podcast, I feel like. Like yourselves, I'm also in for a fucking treat to this film because it looks batshit crazy. And what do we know that our boy Nicholas Cage provides to us the most? And that is a good fucking dose of batshit craziness.
I just can't fucking wait guys. If Connell is anything to go by, this one also is going to be a good one. We are well and truly into what I'm calling the golden mile of Nicholas Cage's career, starting off with leaving Las Vegas and storming through with this one. So that's enough of the shit at the beginning.
Let's just get a raging with Cage in. We'll go head to head, we'll go face to face, we'll strip down to the waist, we'll wrestle it out and have a little chat with you once we got back. OK. Feels like I've been awake for days.
What do you feel I'm sorry, Nicholas Cage? Could be shit or it could be fun. Valley Girl Face off an army of one. Dead for Connell, Lord of War, the Wicomand Trust Pass and so many more.
Now how it starts, I don't know how it ends, the first ten or so, then it's me and some friends. No distractors, no expectations over the weeks. Here my frustrations. I guess the podcast is about to begin.
I'm your host Petropassina person. I'm Cage in. I've got to put it in intro. So here it is then rules, rules, rules.
Here at Cage in podcast, I follow two simple rules. No distractions and no expectations and they go as follows. No distractions. So when I'm watching the film, so don't look at my phone, don't look at my laptop, anything from outside world.
I have no outside influences whatsoever and no expectations. So going into the films, I know nothing about them. If I've never seen the film before, I will know nothing. I knew nothing about this film apart from the fact that they switch faces.
Because I think that's in common law that that happens. But apart from that, I knew nothing. So that's out of the way. Let's get on with the episode.
Face up is directed by John Woo. And I love it. We just I love it. Nick, can you John, Trevor, turn two?
Yes, I love it. Oh, yes, I love it. And I fucking did guys. I enjoyed this film so fucking much.
It is ridiculous. This is batshit crazy. It's ramped up to fucking 11 to stupid. And it's just what you want from an action film.
It is brought with tension and brought with emotion. The performances in this film from both Nicholas Cage and John Travolta. Fucking amazing. I just read a bit of trivia about this film, but the initial casting was meant for Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone.
Another time when I wish I'd seen that film, but like Die Hard, a film that was originally intended for Arnold Schwarzenegger, I'm so glad it didn't go to that Austrian brute instead it went to these two maverick nutters and it is fucking great. John Woo just throws every single fucking crazy thing. He possibly can any action stunt he can. There are people diving left, right and center.
It's like a mad Max game. Mad Max? No, Max Payne game left, right and center is fucking great. Yeah, you're in for a treat guys because I am amped for this film.
Now let's talk about what the fuck happens. So we start off. It's moody, it's broody. There's a lot of tension going on.
It's black and white and you have a carousel with John Travolta and his son. It's looking really, really, really nice, having a lovely time, but it looks like it is going to be ruined as we see a man assembling a sniper rifle on a grassy knoll. An image that we all know too well, this man was not the assassin. It's not Lee Harvey as well.
No, it is Cast Detroit as played by Nicholas Cage. One thing I have to mention here is he's got a proper 70s porno tash just to give us a indication that this is a flashback of some sort because the rest of the film does not as if we would be confused in any way. It's got the 70s porno tash. He goes to shoot Travolta by him being the double hard bastard.
That is the FBI agent that bullet just slices straight through him, missing any vital organ and into that of his young son killing him instantly. And the heartbreak is instant as well for Sean Archer. But he has vowed to get the man who killed his young son and will stop at nothing to do so. That is a point that must drill home.
He will stop at nothing to get revenge on the man who killed his son. Cut six years later and Sean Archer is at police HQ. One thing I've noted down here is the PCs are old as fuck. I imagine in 1997 they looked state of the art cutting edge.
People are tapping away. They're looking for stuff. He's losing his shit where the fuck is cast Detroit. We need to get this motherfucker.
We've got a tip that he might be in the area. He's like, you can trust your fancy satellites to know and the thing I'm relying on right now is I will fucking pay $10 for a tip from some crackhead. I just want to get this motherfucker. And we then cut to cast Detroit who is at the LA Convention Center and he is putting together one hell of a bomb on the screen just to let us know that it's really dangerous.
It's really deadly. It has a skull and crossbones on the screen because we all know that it's a universal sign for bad. He's dressed as a priest. And when he leaves the area in which he is like put the bomb in, he then walks out and conveniently there is a choir performing hallelujah.
And he walks over to a poor choir girl who has dropped her notes on the floor and he whispers some profanities into her ear or something like, I never dug Christ, but I dig you and he's real lechie and real creepy and stands behind her and grabs upon that poor Christian bottom of hers and she does not look comfortable, but he is loving it. And this is the first moment we obviously see him and his dancing as a priest. He kind of does some kind of squat head bang that is fucking great. And it's still that I just felt relieved that I'm getting the cage.
I love I'm getting crazy off the wall fucking wild man, Nicholas Cage. And it just gets better. Sean Archer then gets a tip off that Pollock's Troy has made a chartered flight from, I believe, LAX or an airfield and that they will be taking off. And he knows that the one person who will not fly without is his darling brother, Castor.
I did a little bit of research into any significance into the names of Pollocks and Castor because I thought they were very, very odd choices for Caucasian male characters in a film that seem to not have any distinct background or anything like that. And they are references to twins from Greek mythology who Zeus then turns into the Gemini sign on the constellations. So there's a little bit of information on those names. And then we see the airfield where Pollocks is waiting for Castor.
He is there with a couple of unnamed goons. I will refer to these two goons as that for out because they pop up here and there. And Castor makes such a fucking entrance. If it's amazing, he has a laced in velvet.
He has a velvet like silk. He's laced in silk shirt. He has this almost silk suit on. He is looking fucking mental and it is great.
He comes out and he is not happy. He says to the guys, what the fuck are you doing? I'm here. I pay you to protect my brother and even from himself because he's just doing all types of crazy shit.
He should not be booking flights under his own name because that's how the fuck we get found out. One thing of note I have here is that he has these kind of two gold guns in the back of his trousers that have like dragons on the handles and also has a dragon money clip, which are all really fucking cool. I know guns and that shouldn't be glorified, but in the 90s, they did not give a fuck. And I don't really give a fuck because I think they are pretty cool.
And then we get seen on the plane, which someone quoted to me the other week. And I was like, I got a shameful admit to you. I do not know what that quote means. And they were like, oh, it's from Faceoff.
And then I had to admit that I'd never actually seen Faceoff. So hey, you guys on Twitter, I spoke to you. I can't remember who it was, but if you are listening, this is for you because we get the amazing scene of I could eat a peach all day. If any of you haven't seen the film in context, an air stewardess, though she seems, asked Carter Troy, if there's anything he would like whilst they are airborne and he says a peach and by a peach, he means a bit of that sweet ass and he says to her, I could eat a peach all day and then says to her a line that I've written down because I thought it was fucking crazy.
It says, if I let you suck my tongue, would you be grateful? And he just pokes his tongue out and she sucks it. And I started to feel my dinner rise up the back of my neck into my throat and into my mouth before it dissipated back down because the police turn up and the fucking action is ramped up. The FBI are chasing the plane.
Cast the Troy notices the fucking archer there. He's like, Archer, you motherfucker. I would have gone away with it if it wasn't for you. Always there to foil my plans.
The lady on the plane turns out that she is not just another peachy floozy for Cast the Troy. No, she is an FBI agent and she is like hands up motherfuckers. I'm the FBI. Archer plays chicken with the plane because he is a bad-ass motherfucker and he will stop at nothing to get the man who killed his young son.
And at the last second, as any respectable and sane person would do, he pulls the car away so it does not get fucking mowed down by a plane. Good move there, Sean Archer. Cast the then shoots an FBI agent and then Archer, this stuff just happens so fucking quickly. It is crazy.
The next thing you know, Archer is in a fucking helicopter. He's hit the tail of the plane. He's trying to take the plane down so it cannot take off. Oh, the FBI agent, sorry, I just put FBI agent.
Cast the shot, the FBI agent who was on the plane. He shot the lady who had had a hanging out the side of the plane. I guess this is when he was shuddering the head. Let her fucking eat Tomak on the runway and that is her done.
And then back to Archer, he's in the helicopter, he takes out the tail of the plane and then he manages to shoot out an engine, leaving the plane to hurdle into a hanger and the FBI swarmed the plane. Cast the then dives out of the plane in Max Payne fashion, double wielding his guns, mowing down people left, right and centre. And people are literally blown away. You could almost see the cables behind him, yanking him back and it is fucking great.
Pollocks then gets arrested, giving Cast the his moment to slink off and try and get away. The reason he does not shoot is because gas canister is leaking a Pollock system. Let's guess, do not shoot because you will kill us fucking all you crazy motherfucker. Archer then pursues an agent shot by Castner and then they have a face off the front.
The first of many in this film and they have one bullet left each. Castner tells him his plan that there is something that will destroy LA, that will play a cool ring down upon it. The hell of fire and fury will happen to them, the worst the world has ever seen. And he asks him about his family, which really pisses Archer off.
At this moment, Cast the Troy tries to fire at Archer, but then realises he doesn't have any bullets, he's miscounted because he was fucking gone. He was shooting left, right and centre. He then goes to one knee to both knees and then tries to give himself up. But this is just a ploy because he's a crafty motherfucker.
He's a low down dirty dog and that's not the way he is going to go out. He tries to pull a knife out on Sean Archer who then kicks him out of his hand. They scuffle buttons oppressed on a console unit that is attached to a airplane engine and fires Cast the Troy down a tunnel into a fence knocking him unconscious, which brings us to the Elvis reference of this film. And that is when Tito Sean Archer's partner says, guess Elvis has left the building.
Now the Cast the Troy has been apprehended and put to rest. It's time for Sean Archer to get back to some sense of normality. And we see him at home with his family, his wife and his child, his surviving daughter. Obviously she was not gunned down by Cast the Troy.
It was just his poor young son that felt the wrath of our man, Slicknack Cage. His daughter is a turbo goth. She's gone full on his wife saying he needs to have a word for she's gone mental and they have a discussion. He's like, you're not the same person who used to be.
She says, not like you would have a clue who I am anyway. I thought this was a good bit of foreshadowing because maybe you might not know who your father is. At some point. And then Sean explains to his wife that that's it.
They've got Cast the Troy. They can put things to bed. It is all done with. He will get the counseling that he's been saying he'll get for ages and he will just go to a desk job.
And that would be it. He will be just a simple nine to five kind of guy. I have an idea. I guess you probably have an idea that that's not how this film is going to end.
It's not just going to be the rest of the film. John Travolta filing some stuff like maybe getting it in the wrong place. That would have been great. The rest of the film could have been him working in the same office from Van Pais Kiss and him filing stuff in the wrong place, not to find files and then Nicholas Cage just character could come back and have a go at him.
That's not the film we're getting guys. We're getting balls to the wall action. We're getting fucking fun. We're getting.
Oh, we are. Archer then returns to work to applause and heroes. Welcome the CIA have sent champagne and he's a real big killer. He's like, how about we raise a toast to all those dead, yeah?
And like, fuck it. Well, what a party poo part. Come on, let's let's get it going. Like fucking you've got the guy you've spent like the last six years trying to track down.
Like, have a bit of get up and go, but no, he is an absolute party fucking people. Then special forces come in and they have got a little floppy disk around those bad boys with the plans for the bomb that they had got from Pollux Troy. And it kind of has this rad little graphic of a sexy lady, but then her face turns into that of a skull and it's like, we got a bomb and it's got all the blueprints and schematics and stuff like that. And you know, she is gonna go down.
They then interrogate Pollux Troy, who's wearing some green jumps in at this moment. They just know in the mean he looks like the fucking Riddler, like classic comic book adaptation, like an like, not even the Riddler, he looks like Edward Nigma before he was a Riddler. Like, I've recently been playing Arkham Knight and yeah, how he looks in that, like definitely got that vibe. Special forces say as well.
There's only one way that Pollux Troy is going to talk to anyone. And that is if his brother is in the prison as well. And we know that his brother is in a coma. So that is not a likelihood of happening anytime soon.
And even if he was, they wouldn't know about it anyway. So they are in the dark as to the location of the bomb. And these special forces, lady, says to Sean Archer, well, there's one other possibility. And this just made me laugh because from knowing the basic premise of this film, I knew that other possibility was going to be.
And he has taken to a lab and a doctor shows him some crazy fucking shit where one of the guys who cast a droid shot, they are like grafting him a new ear from scratch by the looks of it, which brings me to my thinking about this film since watching it. A massive fucking plot hole in this film is the fact that they are grafting an ear from nothing. So why do they have to go through all of the Rickmarol they go through? I will get back to that point when obviously, yeah, I 110 get back to that point.
And they say we want you to swap faces with cast the Troy. We've got him on ice as it were. Here's in a coma. We and they're showing him all the fucking rad stuff they would do.
We've got this mask that is his face and we will give you liposuction. We will create body hair. We have a laser to give you a haircut because just a normal haircut. We'll give you the exact hairline.
We will make you look the fucking same. And Archer is like fuck that. I ain't on board with being cast the Troy. The man is a fucking lunatic.
I'm kicking it old school. I'm pulling people in. I'm doing some interrogations. I ain't doing any of this new age face swapping bullshit.
You can stick it. He pulls in a couple of the guys to no avail. One of the people he pulls in is D-Trick who is played by Nick Casavetti's. Who is probably more famous for being a director, directed a notebook.
And I believe my sister's keeper. I kind of like those Nicholas Sparks novel films, which is a real departure from his role in this film. He kind of looks like a crazy Richard O'Brien from Rocky Horror Picture Show. And more like Richard O'Brien though from the Crystal Maze, the great Crystal fucking maze.
And another person he pulls in is a legal sasher who is D-Trick's sister and the cast I had said to have been staying with them at points and stuff like that. But still, Sean Archer gets nothing from them. And then he goes back to the Special Forces and says, so what are you asking me to do with this operation? You're asking me to forget about my family, not tell anyone, live as this criminal.
Like it's a black bag operation. So the only people will know by are the doctor, the Special Forces agent, and Sean Archer's partner Tito. And that is it. He molds it over for all of about two seconds and says, you know what guys, I'll fucking do it.
Like even though all the things I've listed have made this sound like the worst possible fucking plan ever, I will swap faces with that fucking nut job. And we then get a scene of Archer with his wife. And they kind of have a bit of an argument because he says he's going to do one last job. And in this kind of emotional moment where he says he wishes that the bullet had been an inch to the left.
So it would have taken him and spared his son's life. And then he goes to sleep in his son's room because he meant his wife having a bit of friction. He kisses his daughter goodbye. And then the next day it is it.
Operation day, the big day. One thing before he goes under he asked the doctor, this scar on my chest, when I go back to being me, can I please have it put back on? Because it is a memory. He then gives Tito his ring and says, like, keep this for me.
I nobody would know that I'm doing this. So you'll be the only person who knows. Please hold on to this for me. I love you.
He doesn't say I love you. But like, it's just my slow motion. It's working. It cracked me up.
Then we get the surgery scene, which is fucking cool. There is a laser slicing his face off and it's slicing. Cast the Troy's face off and these kind of like masks that put on and it's like the face is kind of a mild hide and it is fucking cool. Cast the Troy's face is put on to Sean archers.
And then his face is just left in a kind of stasis in some time from the mild hide or some other super scientific liquid that they have. Archer wakes as Cast the Troy and then has a meltdown of epic proportion and just like can't stand a look of his own face because it's not the face that's tormented him for six years and he just fucking flips out. I'm going, fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, fuck you. And I was like, yeah, I'm fucking in.
But I wasn't before I'm fucking in now. Fuck me. Fuck me for enjoying this so much. I'm fucking in.
And then there are some crazy bit of fucking science. They put a chip in his larynge to alter his voice and they kind of the way they do it is fucking great. It's kind of like they have a audio clip of Cast the Troy and they're saying, please repeat this phrase after me. And he does so.
And then they just pitch it. It just seems like it's real fucking easy. One thing I noticed is that they gave him no real like training in how the tree carries himself or any of the stuff he would have known like he's just going to go into this prison with just fucking blind literally no like he knew martial arts or anything like that or this is the way he carried himself. They just go, you know what, just swap his faces.
That is it. You're going in. He is then bagged and put in to prison. This prison is kind of like out in the middle of nowhere on the middle of a fucking raft in the sea.
It looks like an old oil works or something like that. And it is a fucking super prison. You get the like headguard giving all the new inmates a speech of like you've got no fucking rights here. We do not see to the Geneva Convention.
You've lost everything. You've got these rad fucking magnetic boots and every time you have them on, we know where the fuck you are and at any time we can just fucking shut you down. And you've got nothing. The president is pretty mental.
They're kind of like ambient music played across the place and nature documentaries on screens and everyone seems to recognize Cast the Troy. Obviously it is Sean Archer, which brings me on to the point from this point on. I will be referring to Sean Archer as Cast the Troy as Cast the Archer and Sean Troy will be Cast the Troy as Sean Archer, just the clippings up because I thought about this and trying to explain it is going to be really fucking difficult. So that is the way I'm going to do it and I'm going to stick to it.
I hope so. Everyone recognizes Cast the Archer, but he has no fucking idea who people are. Thomas Jane is one of the inmates who recognizes him. Again, he has no fucking ideas and a massive fucking fight breaks up from a guy who recognizes Cast the Archer from his days as Cast the Troy.
And then, yeah, he has a fucking mental moment again, where a very much gift face of his, he just is kind of weird fucking mental grimace up at Pollock's Troy. And then starts repeating the phrase. It's like a mental break. It starts to be the phrase.
I am. I'm cast the tribe. I'm cast the tribe. I'm cast the tribe.
And it's fucking crazy. Then the real cast of Troy wakes up and it is fucking cool. Obviously we'll be calling him Sean. At the moment, he is no face Troy because he wakes up and he has no face.
He takes off his bandages, looks in the mirror and is like, hang on a second. What the fuck is going on? First thing he decides to do is call up a couple of his goons and say, hey, what fuck is going on? I'm at this facility.
Just not watching this little tape of this operation. I need you to kidnap the doctor and get him here. And then he is watching a convenient tape of the operation that they had performed on Sean Archer that just literally all the same angles that we saw as the viewer. He is watching on a tape.
I'm guessing the only explanation for this is that this is such cutting edge technology that they would need a video like reference point. So when this becomes a lot more of a readily available thing for people to do that he would they would then use that as they template that other people could learn from. My problem I had with the idea of them swapping faces as it's about to happen, like it's about to come full circle is that we have seen them creating an ear out of nothing. So why do they have to swap the faces?
That is a point I can't get my head around now. I'm kind of annoyed at myself that I've thought about it because I apologize that I'm telling you that because now that when you watch it, that would just be in your mind from the start and be like, Oh, yeah, what the fuck is going on? But I'm back to the matter at hand. So he is watching the film and is very nicely filled in on everything going on.
And whilst he's doing so, he's smoking a cigarette. Let's bear in mind he is smoking a cigarette with no fucking face. Just walking around with no skin on your face would be fucking horrible. Let alone smoking a cigarette with no lips.
Oh, yeah, it's fucking brutal, but looks cool as fuck. It's a faceless cage. It's just muscle and grit and goo. It looks fucking cool.
Casta Archer then finds out from talking to Pollux that the guy that he had had a fight with was because he, well, Casta Troy had had a sex sandwich with the inmate's wife and sister the night he got put down into this hell hole of a prison. Then from explaining that his mind is fried and stuff like that and kind of explaining away why Casta Archer is the way he is, gets the information out of Pollux that he needed that the bomb is at the LA Convention Center. Their conversation is interrupted because Casta Archer is told that he has a visitor and oh boy, does he have a visitor out of the dark? The shadows appears a face that Casta Archer knows all too well.
It is the face of his former self that of Sean Archer now belonging to that of Casta Troy, a man that we will refer to from this point on as Sean Troy. He says he has burned all the evidence of the face swap and not just that of the face swap. He has burnt Tito, the special forces agent and the doctor. So as far as anyone is considered, this black bag has been put out to the trash.
Nobody has any idea that they are living as each other and he is there as an inmate and he is fucked. This is a very brief visit. I like that the fact that he has taken a helicopter out to this kind of place in the middle of nowhere, this kind of Alcatraz like oil rig prison. And I think he has done it just to deliver this amazing line.
He is like, well, I better be off because I have a government job to abuse and a wife to fuck which turns Casta Archer's fucking stomach. It kind of seems like that is a big point of this film. It preys up on the fear of just people's fears of you don't want anyone else fucking your partner do you? And it seems like that is a motivation for a lot of this.
I don't want to fucking my wife. And then Sean Troy goes to the suburbs and is not happy. He's like, look at this fucking place. It's disgusting.
I'm used to a lot more grit, a lot more grime, a life of fucking crime. Oh, he automatically fucking turns the charm up to 11 and is trying to seduce the pants off of Sean Archer's wife and she's like, oh, you're like a new man. You're in touch with you. You're in touch with me.
Oh, come on. And she's like, I got to fucking work. Put it back in your pants, you horny bastard. And he gets real creepy with his own daughter.
I believe his line is, well, this is interesting. Comes in stills a cigarette. I won't tell your mum if you don't. He's all of a sudden cool fucking dad.
No, he's not. He's a mass murderer and fucking criminal for hire crazy motherfucker. One of his first things he does as the FBI agent is he cuts a deal with pollocks. He gets him out of prison for information of where the bomb is.
And he tells pollocks, you've got to make me look good. It's an interrogation. You've got to tell me where the location of the bomb is. Obviously, I already know, but you've got to tell you've got to cover it.
You've got to say that's where it is because the money I will get and adulation and fame I will get for being a hero of this great city of LA will be much more than the 10 million we would have got from these mercenary terrorist motherfuckers. Um, Sean Archer, then with seconds to spare, two seconds to spare, diffuses the bomb, a graphic appears on screen like, oh, you've defused me. That sexy skeleton face eight bit graphic appears and he is a national hero. He's getting calls from the president.
He's getting calls from his wife. And at that moment, he says to the president to hold, is he a fucking big swinging dick now? He then goes home that night and makes a romantic meal for him and his wife. She's like, yeah, but is this going to end now that you're the head of the your fucking the big swinging dick in the FBI?
And he's like, well, I'm going to come home every night to my wife. And she's like, I know what about when you're off? Oh, I'll go to the game tonight. Well, there's only one place I want to go right now and that's upstairs with my wife.
And this is the moment where Sean Troy fucks Sean Archer's wife. And it is the fucking death blow to a man who is locked the fuck up. Castor Archer, however, is in prison, just trying to make a life for a I would have guessed by this point, he had probably been in prison, maybe two days, three at the most. And he, but friends, Tom, he doesn't really befriend him.
He just asks him a few questions, like, how the fuck do I get out of here? And he's like, well, that ain't happening. He's like, without your boots coming up, he's like, well, how the fuck do I get these boots off? And they're like, well, if you're going to get fucking lobotomies, if you're going to get shock treatment, that is the only time they take off these big old new rock fucking looking boots.
And then he hatches his great plan for his great escape. He goes up to a guard and steals a cigarette from him and then causes a riot. Then causing the guards to pull him like that's it. You get in fucking shot, you get out of hand.
Him and the inmate that you had a fight with, he says to him, I'm sorry about your wife. I can assure you like I've ever changed man, but it's time for me and you to get out. And they fucking take down the guards, take down this bill and take down that guard. They're going left, right and center taking over.
They go to break out. Castle Archer is messing about with the computer causes a system overload. His new inmate friend, who I'm not quite sure I got his name. If I did, if I did, well, if his name was said, I didn't get in my notes.
He shot his hanging off of a balcony. They are holding on by a gun. They are having a moment where it's like we could be friends. We could be free.
We could get out of this hellhole, but he falls to his death. And it's a real sad moment for a man whose name I didn't even fucking know. He then goes to a fire exit and it is then we see it's not until this point. I don't think we had seen at this point that it is a sea hanger that this prison is on.
And I just thought how the fuck did he seems to like not know that that is the case. Fuck, where am I? How did he not know? Obviously he is a FBI agent posing as a criminal.
So obviously he would have known the whereabouts of this fucking death prison in the middle of the sea, but seems to not have a clue. It's at this moment of confusion that a helicopter pulls up and he's like, fuck, I am Brown bread and then decides to jump from the structure in to the sea. Sean Troy then leaves for work and has stopped by his now wife who says to him, where the fuck do you think you're going? Don't you know we got something very important to be doing and he just looks fucking confused because he is not the head of the FBI.
He's not the head of the FBI. He is not the FBI agent who lost his son six years ago. He is a fucking mad man. And she puts it to him, I know you don't like this day, but we've got to do this.
It turns out that they had swapped faces but days before the birthday of Sean Archer's dead son. Terrible timing on his part. He should have said, I'm up for doing this deal. Obviously, I know we have a timeframe that we only have to the 18th of July or whenever it is to get the bomb, but can we leave it just two or three days so I can fucking like not celebrate by mourn the passing of my son on his birthday.
But no, he just went through it anyway because he's all about getting the fucking job done. He then goes into work and he's informed that caster Archer has died. He jumps off of the mega prison into the sea and asks, have they recovered the body? And I'm like, no, he can't have survived that.
And if anything, he's not going to come back to the city. Oh, wouldn't he? He's already fucking there, guys. So we see caster Archer.
He's skulking about LA trying to figure out what the fuck he's going to do. He manages to get into a car that conveniently has a car phone and manages to call his wife and says, the man, you believe is your husband is not your husband. And she's like, who the fuck this? Don't be calling this number again.
I want to know what the fuck you've got to say, you mad man, get out of here. And then he calls Sean Troy to let him know I'm alive, motherfucker. With a brilliant line, he says, hello, like hello, Sean. Sean Troy answers the phone and says, this is Sean Archer and Sean.
caster Archer replies, well, I guess this is caster Troy then. Fucking check motherfucker. He then caster Archer then maneuvers his way over to Dietrich's place. That is some kind of fucking futuristic looking loft warehouse mansion, looking place that looks cool as shit.
He's got a few people around having the crappiest looking party. I've ever seen those drugs going everywhere. They're all happy to see caster Troy is back like, yo, motherfucker, let's get this party going. They do some drugs, something is put into caster arches drink.
He has a little sippy stippy. He gets his guns back, his nice dragon hilted guns and says, I've got a plan that we are going to kill Sean Archer as we know him to be Sean Troy and says the famous line. And it's at this moment, I was like, I am in. I am so fucking in.
If this was a pool, I'm drowning right now. I'm drowning in the goodness of face off. Fucking yes. We get the line I want to take his face off.
This is again, another fucking very gift. Very gift. Yeah, there's so many gifts of this and stuff like that. It's just fucking great.
Just YouTube this scene, if you haven't seen it, if you haven't seen this film or, yeah, it's it's yes, it's cage is fucking cages. He fucking has a meltdown in the bathroom. Again, just fucking hates the face that he's got upon him and then pulls another mad grimace. And that is the moment that Sasha walks in.
What the fuck are you doing? Slaps him around the face. Sean Troy then explains his plan to pollocks that he is going to somehow get cast a archer. He catches hide from that 70s show.
The actor Danny, I fucking forget his name. He's a Scientologist. He's played hide in that 70s show trying it on with his daughter and fucking just punches him through the window of his car and it's fucking cool as shit. It's like, wow, motherfucker.
Oh, my dad and you not be disrespecting my daughter like that. He then gives his now daughter some sound advice that actually happen. Have you got protection? She's been going, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
No, no, that's extra with you. No, I mean, a fucking knife. Here's a knife. Here's a rad little knife that you can have.
It's like, here's a little tip for you. If you ever want to fucking hurt a man, stab it in, twist it. The wound won't close. Maybe that will come to help you a bit later in the film.
Who knows? Cast a archer is back at Dietrich's Rad Pad and is getting come on by Sasha. She's like, oh, yeah, this is what you want. You know, you want me.
Who's looking over going? Oh, what's going on? Pollocks, the creepy, riddler looking motherfucker. He's got his binoculars on a building across the way.
Calls up Sean Troy and says, oh, I think archer's having a bit too much fun as you and he's at your old friend's house. Cast a archer is then told that Sasha's son is cast a Troy's. And like, it's introduced like this is your son. And he has a weird fucking moment where he looks at him and pictures his own son.
And this is this kind of it's real fucking creepy. But there is no time for it to be happy families to be played. The FBI are there and ambush is on at Dietrich's base and things fucking pop off. It goes crazy, not so bananas and I fucking loved it.
There seems to be a guy in Dietrich's gang who can only shoot by diving like classic fucking Matrix Diamond. That's only way he's double-wielding. This is classic John Woo fucking Hong Kong Hollywood madness and it is great. The people just getting blown away left, right and centre is fucking mad.
Sasha's shooting people Dietrich's fucking mowing people down left, right and centre. Cast a archer is not shooting anyone because obviously he is an FBI agent himself passing. I don't know how he's telling me. I'm hoping you guys are fucking with me here and know what the fucking talking about.
Because watching this film, it seems all pretty self-explanatory watching it. But trying to explain this is my mind is kind of feeling a bit like, what the fuck is going on. There is a really cool moment where there is a shoot out to the sound of over the rainbow because Cast a Archer has put headphones onto his now. He believes his son, Sasha's son, who is listening to somewhere over the rainbow.
And there is a amazing shoot out again. People fucking getting mowed the fuck down. Sean Troy turns up and is not fucking happy. The first thing he does is shoot Dietrich in the fucking neck and he is done.
Then we come to an amazing confrontation. Both Cast the Archer and Sean Troy are either side of a mirror. So there is a mirror like it's mirrored on both sides and they both point their guns and like, that's it. Let's just fucking kill each other.
And it's them obviously shooting at the image of themselves, what they would like to do. What was he shooting at the image of themselves but to them, it is the other person and is trying to explain now is just sounds fucking nuts. But they die by the way, there's fucking bullets flying all over the place. And then the FBI agent who had his ear reconstructed then comes in with a fucking grenade launcher and he's just popping shots off.
Fucking bubble bubble. He's fucking going mental. This actor is played by. I'm really fucking bad of names, but he plays the Gavin Belson in the show Silicon Valley.
So it was nice to see him pop up popping off grenades left, right and center. Cast the Archer runs away onto the roof and he is followed by Pollock's Troy. He lures him up to a high point and then swings on a rope and fucking kicks him through the roof of Dietrich's apartment and onto the floor conveniently next to Sean Troy's feet and that is good night sweetheart for the Riddler Prince Pollock's Troy. And it is at this moment that Sean Archer says, hey, Gavin Belson, you're really good in Silicon Valley, I'm going to fucking shoot you in the face.
Sean Troy, the next day assaults his boss. He's like, I've thought his boss comes in the head of the FBI and I've had enough with your fucking gung ho tactics just because stap, I'm like going and kicking the door and shooting everyone. We want some arrests. We want like we don't want you just to mow down every fucking bad guy.
It's getting a bit suspicious that you seem to know where everything is all the time. Like the higher ups of getting breathing down my neck. I've got to breathe down yours. It's this moment he fucking just smacks him up a bit like hold his hand over his mouth and then just casually calls an ambulance like I think that the head of the FBI is dead.
He's had a heart attack. I'm not sure if he thought he'd get away with this. I definitely think that they would have done an autopsy on him and said like it wasn't a heart attack that killed him. It was the fact that someone karate chopped him in the fucking throat and like suffocated him to death, but he's not a man.
Obviously he thinks about the future too much and I guess by the time that. Oh, no, no, no, it wasn't done. He definitely would have got away with it. Fucks like cast the archer then breaks into the hospital and breaks into not the hospital.
He breaks into his old home and explains to his wife that he is Sean Archer and he is not cast a Troy and she is very skeptical and he says one simple thing. My blood type is O is O negative and cast the Troy's is A B. That is the only way you figure out because everything else about us. I'm not sure.
There's one thing you don't actually find out about this time. They don't say whether they're penises are exactly the same. I know penises can like very, very much in size, length, coloration and stuff like that. It's not a point that the doctor says he doesn't say, hey, we're going to we're going to make you identical in every single way.
But I guess that is something they would have factored in for God knows why it seems that they can change their face. They probably be able to change that with no worries whatsoever. She seems skeptical, but it seems like a seed of doubt is planted in her mind. That night whilst Sean Troy is sleeping, she takes a pinprick sample of blood from him and then that night she is on cool.
So it manages to sample the blood and sees that it is A B and cast the archer is there and he's like, I'm telling you, I'm me and then goes into a long and romantic story of their first date solidifying in his wife's mind that he is who he says he is. It's again in my notes I've written here. This film definitely preys on the idea that you don't want people to shag your partner. They then hatch a plan as to how they are going to rid of cast the Troy once and for all.
At this moment, the tension is ramped up because we see that Sean Troy is pacing his way through the hospital with a couple of goons and he is suspicious and he burst through at the last moment, he's been caught, but his wife is dealing with another patient and cast the archer has managed to slip away for another day. Their plan is that at the funeral of the head of the FBI that he will be there and that to get the daughter away, the next day Sean Troy and his wife are going to victors funeral. Cast the archer is at the church where it's happening. They are sat in the front, he's in the back, they're just kind of cool scenes, slow motion, dubs flying.
He takes the photo of his son that he had taken from his house when he visited his wife earlier and hands it to an old boy of all people who passes it to Sean Troy. Letting him know I'm here motherfucker, things are going to go down. Once the funeral has finished and the church is empty, we kind of get the moment we meet and I let well, this is fucking a showdown. This is biblical, this is fucking going to happen.
Then one of the goons brings in Sean Archer's wife and then we get a standoff between Sean Troy, cast the archer with the wife in the middle. Cast the archer has his gun pointed at Sean Troy. The one of the goons has his point, his gun pointed at the wife. Then Sasha comes out of nowhere and it's like I fucking have in there has her gun pointed at Sean Troy and then Sean Troy says, well, your daughter's coming as well, you're not going to fall us motherfucker.
She's waiting in the car, goon two turns up and he has his gun pointed at Sasha. So we have ourselves a nice little Mexican standoff, guys. Then she pops up, Sasha moves, takes Eve. Sean archers wife down like to protect her guns, just popping off.
Both goons get killed, Sasha is shot in the crossfire and Eve then calls the cops whilst Sean Troy makes a run for it and cast the archer pursue. This is rad shoot outs all the way through the church in the grounds. They're like, she guns going off everywhere. And at that moment, the daughter shows up and cast the archer is kind of trying to protect her, but she's like, am I being held hostage?
She doesn't know what the fuck is going on. Sean Troy then takes her hostage and licks her face. Oh, no, there is, yeah, in the shoot out. She manages to get a gun and there is both of them stood there.
There is Sean Troy and cast the archer like holding on another. And she doesn't know what the fuck is going on. And then the voice box has managed to go on cast our archer. So they both now have John Travolta's voice, Nicholas Cage's voice, nowhere to be seen.
One of them is saying, listen to my voice. I am your dad, whilst you have on his thing. Look at my face on definitely your dad. She decides to shoot cast the archer, the man who is actually her fucking dad.
Sean Troy then manages to get hold of the daughter, takes her hostage and licks her fucking face, which is pretty fucking disgusting. Luckily though, she had been taught a technique if someone does something you don't fucking like, she pulls her knife out, stabs it in his little leggy leggy and twists that mother fucker. He then makes a run for it, shoots a load of cops and gets the fuck out of there. Cast the archer then pursues and then things just get fucking more nuts.
As if they already haven't and I fucking loved it. Sean Troy gets into a boat and blows up a fucking boat house. Just literally no fucking reason. Cast the chases him in a boat.
Sean kills cops in a boat and then cast the archer boat drive through the fucking cops boat. He jumps onto Sean Troy's boat. They fight. He cast has got Sean's head by the propeller and then realizes, oh fuck, we're going to crash into some fucking pier.
So I better stare this motherfucker away. It's at this moment that Sean Troy tries to hit him with an anchor. They scuffle. Cast the archer is then hiding off the side of the boat and manages to get the back up.
They fight some more. Then we see two stunt guys hurtle through the air. It's at this moment I realized this is definitely not Nicholas Cage and John Trevaul. You can clearly see by their faces, they are two stuntmen hurtle through the air as the boat crashes and they kind of end up at like a dockyard, weird piffing and Sean hits Cast out with a pipe.
He beats the shit out of him. Cast there gets a harpoon and then pins Sean Troy up against the wall. And he's like, I'm going to fucking shoot you mate. I'm going to shoot you and then Sean Troy says, well, you want my face?
You want your face back? Have this face and starts cutting it with a broken bit of glass. Does he not realize that obviously the hospital that did this operation in the first place could create an ear out of nothing? So definitely they could probably fix his face.
No worries whatsoever. And it is at this moment he fucking shoots him through the stomach with a harpoon and says, die, die, die. And it's fucking mental. And I was like, yeah, yeah.
Nicholas Cage with John Trevaul is voice yelling, die is fucking great. The cops then turn up and call Sean by his real name. Obviously he's got the face of Nicholas Cage and I hope this hasn't been too confusing for everyone. It's been pretty confusing for me trying to keep track of which name is fucking which his wife then turns up and says, don't worry.
We've got some cops. We've got some surgeons from DC who are going to get you right as fucking rain with your own face. He goes under the knife and says to them, I don't need that scar that was on my chest put back there anymore because I've healed guys. I've been for a while.
That's not what he says, but that's that's definitely what he means. And then we got kind of like hazy scene, a nice little epilogue of Sean Archer. He is back to himself. He has got the face of John Trevaul and he is home sweet home.
He hugs his wife. His daughter runs up to him and kind of does his weird like just like runs his hand down the daughter's face. It seems to be a thing throughout this film, especially Sean Archer's character just kind of runs his hand down people's face. He does it a lot as when he's Sean Troy and it is.
Oh, no, it's caster, caster Archer and it's fucking weird. And then he brings in Sasha's son because he is now an orphan and says this is Adam. Can we keep him? Please, please, can we keep him?
He's a little orphan child, please. Let's keep him. And then Jamie like her father does the weird rub down the face of Adam and then the wife just says, OK, they embrace and then the credits roll. That is the end of face off and I sat there mouth a ghast thinking I might have seen my favorite Nicholas Cage film so far.
This definitely lives up to the hype. It is not just one mad man. I'm going to get in this film. It is too mad men and they both get to ham it up to the nth degree and I fucking loved it.
Now we know what I had to say about this film. Before we go to the scores online, I'm actually going to go to Twitter where I actually put out a thing today, asking some people for any questions and comments about this film, which is going to get some other people's opinions as well. I asked one podcast, the the All Seeing Guys podcast and like if they had a question or comment because they'd retweeted my post and they said, what, we don't need to give a question apart from the fact that this is one of the greatest movies ever made and yes, guys, you are fucking right. It is it is amazing.
And then another question I got is from that Mr Christopher, the guest of two episodes ago of when we covered the rock art. Who do you think plays the better bad guy and who plays the better? Good guy. I think always Nicholas Cage plays a better bad guy.
I just think him as cast Detroit is great. It's just I just felt that John Travolta throughout the film is just apping Nicholas Cage because nobody nobody can do that by him. It's kind of I think a part of it is him. So yeah, so I definitely say Travolta.
Travolta plays the better good guy, but yeah, Cage, the better bad guy through through I just think their careers kind of dictated that in a lot of the roles they've played. Yeah, Travolta up into this point is I think that is the point of this film, that it's guys who are traditionally the other and swapping roles. And that's what that's what makes it so great. Yeah.
Now, you know what I had to say about the film and what other people have chipped in. Let's see what this film scored on. I am DB and Rotten Tomatoes. So we know that I fucking love that the people over at IMDB have given this film a seven point three out of 10, which by my standards is pretty good.
And then Rotten Tomatoes have given this film 92%. I'm pretty sure this is one of the highest scores from Rotten Tomatoes. We've had for any film we have watched so far on the caged in podcast and rightly fucking so this is up there in the pantheon of great Nicholas Cage films. This is maybe up there in the great fucking action frillers I have ever seen.
Guys, I really enjoyed it. Do I need to say to you go watch this film? Yes, fucking do it. It costs you like a pound 50p from CX.
It's cheap and it's probably on it's probably on my TV free every other night. Come on. If you haven't seen it, watch it. There's me explaining it probably isn't enough and I probably confused the shit out of you and if you have made it to the end, thank you.
Thank you very much. As always, please rate, review and subscribe on Apple podcasts and all that stuff is great. The more people the more ratings it gets to stuff like maybe one of these days Apple will do something with it and just give us a bit of love. Give us.
There's only me who puts this podcast together and stuff like that. Yeah, just getting in touch guys, download this on whatever you want, like a cast or set you whatever you got. But yeah, I just want to hear from you guys. Anything you want to say about the podcast or anything you just want to say about Nicholas, I'm happy to talk Nicholas Cage films.
Day in, day out always Facebook and Twitter are occasionally part as well as Instagram. Instagram always post up really stupid fucking photos and stuff like that. Always post like the artwork for the episode and stuff like that. And yeah, I'm active on all of those and I'm always up for having a little chat.
So please follow me on those social medias. And if you want to kick it old school, just send me an email, which is KJNPod at gmail.com. So as always guys, I've been your host Petros Pet syllabus. I've been caged in.
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