PODCAST · tv
Travolta/Cage
by Nathan Rabin
A deep dive into the strange, fascinating careers of two of cinema's most prolific weirdos -- John Travolta and Nicolas Cage. With Nathan Rabin (Nathan Rabin's Happy Place) and Clint Worthington (Consequence, The Spool).
Episodes
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#75: Trading Paint/Running with the Devil
Nathan and Clint return after another short hiatus to break down another two-fer of VOD dreck -- first with Travolta's slow-moving racing drama Trading Paint, then with Cage's gonzo Tarantino/Guy Ritchie drug-biz knockoff Running with the Devil! Pledge to our Patreon at patreon.com/travoltacage...
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#74: Speed Kills/A Score to Settle
This week, Nathan and Clint dig back into the classic mold of Travolta/Cage double features -- unfortunately, it's for more late-aughts VOD dreck. First up is Speed Kills, a Dollar Tree Casino riff starring John Travolta as a fictionalized version of speedboat manufacturer and mobbed-up...
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#73: Color Out of Space
This week, Nathan and Clint stare into some glowy rocks for a single serving of Cage in Richard Stanley's Lovecraft adaptation Color Out of Space! Serving as a spiritual followup to Mandy (with its cosmic-horror stylings and full-on Rage Cage moments), Color Out of Space puts Cage in another tale...
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#72: Inconceivable/Looking Glass
This week, Cage plays two flavors of bad husband in a pair of VOD-ready erotic thrillers! First, we cover the Gina Gershon-starring Inconceivable, an overamped Lifetime movie about a crazy mommy (Nicky Whelan) who cozies up to a well-to-do couple (Gershon, Nicolas Cage) whose IVF-born child just…
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#71: 211/Between Worlds
This week, we're back to the unfortunate Nic Cage double features -- this time with our boy Nicolas on either side of the law! First, there's the staggeringly sloppy cop thriller 211, in which Cage plays an aging cop who teams up with his fresh-faced rookie son-in-law and a teenage ridealong to...
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#70: Mandy/Gotti (with Jordan Morris)
This week, Jordan Morris (Jordan Jesse Go!) returns to the pod for a seminal moment for both our boys -- a 2018 that saw Nic Cage rise from the VOD ashes to enter a new era of cult acclaim, and John Travolta take his biggest swing-and-a-miss yet! First, there's Panos Cosmatos' Mandy, a trippy bit...
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#69: American Crime Story: The People vs. OJ Simpson
Happy new year, boys and ghouls! Our first episode of 2024 (and the first after a bit of a hiatus) finally puts the spotlight back on Travolta after a string of Cage double-features and Johnny T failures. Blessedly, the television gods granted him the kind of role his 2010s VOD output could not:...
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#68: Mom and Dad/The Humanity Bureau
Nic Cage plays sad dad figures of children (or child figures) facing the threat of violence this week! First up is The Humanity Bureau, another piping hot cup of Redbox dreck with Cage as a renegade agent for a dystopian future agency meant to track the populace's productivity on a dying Earth....
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#67: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse / Teen Titans GO! To the Movies (with Alonso Duralde)
This week, we take a break from the DTV dreck to get a little more...animated, let's say, with a pair of charming animated Nic Cage jaunts into the world of superheroes! And we've got our trusty sidekick, Alonso Duralde (Linoleum Knife), to join us on this crime-fighting crusade! First up is...
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#66: I Am Wrath / Vengeance: A Love Story
This week, Travolta and Cage go down the revenge rabbit hole (again) in two Cage-produced schlockfests centered on middle-aged men with bad wigs and leather jackets shooting people in the face. Go figure! First is I AM WRATH, a low-budget JOHN WICK riff that was originally meant to pair Cage with...
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#65: In a Valley of Violence / Arsenal
This week, Travolta returns to the fold.... in a good movie this time?! Nathan and Clint break down two tales of violence and revenge, both throwbacks in their own way: one to the spaghetti Westerns of the '60s and '70s, the other to, I guess, Deadfall? First up is Arsenal, a chintzy DTV Cage...
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#64: USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage / Army of One (with Abby Olcese)
This week, The Pitch's Abby Olcese joins us for two Nic Cage-fronted true stories of dubious execution! First up is Larry Charles' Army of One, a grating retelling of the real-life tale of Gary Faulkner (Cage), who was arrested in Pakistan hatching a plot to kill Osama bin Laden in 2010, all for...
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#63: Criminal Activities / Snowden (with Matt Goldberg)
This week, Matt Goldberg (formerly of Turner Classic Movies, currently of the Substack Commentary Track) joins us for the mighty return of... gasp.... John Travolta in a good role? First, we cover Jackie Earle Haley's directorial debut, Criminal Activities, a messy but ultimately interesting...
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#62: The Trust/Dog Eat Dog
This week, Nathan and Clint are pleasantly surprised to find two non-stinkers in Cage's 2010s output! First, there's The Trust, a darkly-comic heist thriller about two amoral cops (A mustachioed Nicolas Cage alongside a wiry, disaffected Elijah Wood) who plot to steal a mysterious stash from...
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#61: Life on the Line/Pay the Ghost (with Brock Wilbur)
We're back, baby! After a couple of months of hiatus (and a whole new set of chompers for Nathan), Travolta/Cage is back on the case! We're not the only thing that's returned: not only do we have guest Brock Wilbur (co-author of Postal, Editor in Chief of KC's The Pitch) popping back on the show,...
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#60: The Runner/Dying of the Light
This week, Nathan and Clint go it alone for two more Nic Cage joints, ones in which he plays characters reckoning with their personal political failings! In The Runner, Cage plays a well-meaning but deeply flawed N'awlins politician whose attempts to heal NOLA post-BP oil spill gets thrown by one...
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#59: Joe/Rage (with Marya E. Gates)
This week on the podcast, film critic and author Marya E. Gates (read her Substack!) joins us for another double-feature deep dive into Nicolas Cage's 2010s filmography, this time as two men failing to run from violent pasts! In the VOD thriller Rage, Cage plays a former criminal whose successful...
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#58: Outcast/Left Behind (with Dave White)
This week, Linoleum Knife's Dave White joins us for some rigorous religious scholarship surrounding two of Cage's Godliest movies! First, there's Vic Armstrong's adaptation of the best-selling apocalypse novel Left Behind, starring Cage in one of his sleepiest roles as hotshot airline pilot…
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#57: The Croods/The Frozen Ground (with Dan McCoy)
Happy New Year, Travoltatrons and Cageiacs! The year may have changed, but Nathan and Clint are still trudging along the highs and (mostly) lows of our boys' filmography, as Cage cranks out role after role and Travolta hangs back, waiting for the right time to strike. Luckily, this week we've got...
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#56: The Forger/Stolen
This week on the podcast, Nathan and Clint go it alone for the welcome return of Travolta to the cast! Unfortuantely, it's in the worse half of an otherwise-decent double feature about ex-thieves dragged back in for One Last Job to look after an estranged child in hyper-specific American cities!…
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#55: Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance/Drive Angry 3-D (with Patrick H. Willems)
Third time's the charm for returning guest (and video essayist extraordinaire) Patrick H. Willems, as we strap ourselves into the driver's seat for a pair of gonzo Cage-rage drivin' devil movies! First up is Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, the Neveldine/Taylor-directed sequel to the 2000s...
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#54: Seeking Justice/Trespass
This week, we continue our descent into the early 2010s with the two films that truly cemented Cage's "will-do-anything-for-money" phase! First, there's Seeking Justice, the Roger Donaldson-directed thriller about a mild-mannered English teacher (Cage) who decides to enlist the services of a kind...
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#53: The Sorcerer's Apprentice/Season of the Witch
This week, Nathan and Clint meet up for a rare in-person podcast! It's a double-dose of fantastical, flop-haired Cage this week, as he fights the forces of evil with swords, magic, and no small amount of dodgy CGI sorcery. First up is his third and final Disney collab with Jon Turteltaub, The...
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#52: Astro-Boy (2009) / Kick-Ass
This week, Nathan and Clint go it alone to kickstart our Cage-heavy catchup through the 2010s, blazing through his robust filmography while Travolta peeks in every once in a while! Still, this revamped schedule allows us to indulge in some genuinely wacky double features, like Cage as the…
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#51: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (with Jamelle Bouie)
After a too-long hiatus, Nathan and Clint are back, with a new episode and new approach! Since Travolta and Cage's output are going to, well, dramatically differ in pace in the most recent decade of their careers, we're gonna double up on Cage movies, and let Travolta catch up as we reach the…
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#50: Killing Season/G-Force (with Marya E. Gates)
This week, our boys lean into some hard times on opposite ends of the family-friendly spectrum; in Killing Season, Travolta slaps on a dyed-black chinbeard and a thick moose-and-skvirrel accent as a Bosnian War vet set to take revenge on the American soldier (a weary Robert De Niro) who nearly...
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#49: Savages/Knowing (with Knowledge Fight)
You know, every day it seems like we're hurdling ever closer to the end of the world — so it's fitting that we've got a double feature to match! This week, Dan and Jordan from Knowledge Fight take a little breakie from sifting through the purestrain nonsense of Infowars and Alex Jones to talk…
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#48: From Paris With Love/Bangkok Dangerous (with Patrick H. Willems)
This week on the podcast, YouTuber video essayist extraordinaire Patrick H. Willems hops back on the mic with us for another pair of misguided, xenophobic action pictures! First, there's Bangkok Dangerous, a messy mix of John Woo and Wong Kar-Wai involving an American assassin (Cage) traipsing...
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#47: Old Dogs/National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets
Film critic Caroline Siede (The AV Club, FOX Digital) joins us on a globe-trotting double feature with two distinctly inconsequential sets of stakes! In Old Dogs, Travolta teams up with the late, great Robin Williams (and the team behind the execrable but profitable Wild Hogs) for a maddening,...
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#46: The Wicker Man (2006) (with Bill Corbett)
This week, we're taking a break from the double-feature format for a special, singular look at one of the most important films in Nic Cage's filmography: Neil LaBute's baffling remake of The Wicker Man. And we're pleased to be joined by special guest Bill Corbett, of Mystery Science Theater 3000...
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#45: The Taking of Pelham 123/Next (with Elliott Kalan)
Elliott Kalan of The Flop House fame returns to the pod to fully usher our boys into the era of Bad Movies and Bad Hair! First up is The Taking of Pelham 123, Tony Scott's penultimate film and a remake of the 1976 thriller classic about a heist aboard a New York City subway train. But this time,...
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#44: World Trade Center/Hairspray (with Jason Bailey)
Film critic and author Jason Bailey (Fun City Cinema) hops on the Amtrak Acela Express with us, as we bounce between the Big Apple and Baltimore for a decidedly cacophonous double feature! First up is Oliver Stone's World Trade Center, which trades in Stone's signature conspiratorial thinking for...
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#43: Ghost Rider/Bolt
Nathan and Clint ride alone this week for two movies about going very fast - one for the kiddies, one for angsty Hot Topic teens! First up is Ghost Rider, Nic Cage's first foray into the world of Marvel's very own bike-riding Spirit of Vengeance. The good news? Cage is really fun, injecting no...
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#42: Wild Hogs/The Ant Bully (with Jordan Morris)
This week, Jordan Morris (Jordan, Jesse, Go!, the new graphic novel Bubble) comes back to the cast for a decidedly cursed double feature to end 2021: Wild Hogs and The Ant Bully! In Wild Hogs, Travolta plays second fiddle to Tim Allen, alongside Martin Lawrence and William H. Macy as a quartet of...
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#41: The Weather Man/Lonely Hearts (with Jon Gabrus)
This week on the podcast, actor, comedian, and podcaster extraordinaire Jon Gabrus (Drunk History, The Action Boyz Podcast) joins us to talk Cage's The Weather Man and Travolta's Lonely Hearts! In The Weather Man, Cage continues his mid-aughts exploration of sad, moody middle-aged antiheroes as a...
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#40: Lord of War/Be Cool (with Lon Harris)
This week on the podcast, Screen Junkies writer and Binge Boys host Lon Harris joins us for another case study for why the mid-2000s were so good for Cage, and so. very. bad for Travolta: Lord of War and Be Cool! In Andrew Niccol's Lord of War, Cage plays an unscrupulous arms dealer with a...
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#39: National Treasure/Ladder 49
This week on the podcast, Nathan and Clint go it alone for this double feature about AmErIcAn HeRoEs - National Treasure and Ladder 49! First is National Treasure, one of Disney's most successful post-Pirates bids to chase the big-budget family-friendly adventure dragon. This time, the theme is...
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#38: A Love Song for Bobby Long/Matchstick Men (with Preston Fassel)
We're back after another short hiatus! This week, Daily Grindhouse's Preston Fassel joins us to talk about two films featuring our heroes in erstwhile dysfunctional families: A Love Song for Bobby Long and Matchstick Men! In Love Song for Bobby Long, Travolta plays the titular Southern-fried...
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#37: The Punisher/Adaptation (with Stephen Sajdak)
This week, we're dealing with a decidedly idiosyncratic double-feature, with We Hate Movies perennial Stephen Sajdak along for the ride! First, there's the 2004 version of The Punisher, the Tom Jane-led throwback to 70s action movies mixed with the best 2000s buttrock post-9/11 society had to…
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#36: Basic/Sonny (with Robert Daniels)
This week on the podcast, we're joined by film critic Robert Daniels (of 812filmreviews and a contributor to RogerEbert.com, NY Times, Vulture, and others) to break down an exceedingly strange double feature in our heroes' oeuvre! First up is Basic, the final film to date from John "Die Hard"...
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#35: Domestic Disturbance/Windtalkers
This week, Nathan and Clint go it along for a decidedly humdrum double feature in Travolta and Cage's careers — the early-aughts slumps Domestic Disturbance and Windtalkers! In Domestic Disturbance, Travolta squares off against a sleazy Vince Vaughn (still knee-deep in Gus Van Sant Psycho modes,...
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#34: Swordfish/Christmas Carol: The Movie (with Patrick H. Willems)
For this week's decidedly strange double feature, YouTube video essayist extraordinaire Patrick H. Willems hops into the driver's seat as we gawk at the baffling combination of Swordfish and 2003's Christmas Carol: The Movie! First, we put on our wraparound sunglasses and low-rise jeans to...
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#33: Lucky Numbers/Captain Corelli's Mandolin
This week, Nathan and Clint go it alone to compare two strange curios in Travolta and Cage's respective careers — Nora Ephron's post-Battlefield Earth comedy flop Lucky Numbers and the painfully-earnest romantic war drama Captain Corelli's Mandolin! While it got a critical drubbing upon release…
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#32: Battlefield Earth/The Family Man (with Alonso Duralde)
Greetings, rat-brains! This week, we welcome puny man-animal Alonso Duralde for a double dose of religious-themed mayhem: Travolta's Scientology-adjacent epic Battlefield Earth and Nic Cage's erstwhile Christmas dramedy The Family Man! Battlefield Earth has long carved out a place as one of the...
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#31: The General's Daughter/Gone in 60 Seconds (with Simon Barrett)
This week, the realms of Travolta and Cage come perilously close to merging, as our double feature covers films directed by fillmmakers who either have or will directed the other! In The General's Daughter, we've got a steamy, somewhat dated legal thriller/airport potboiler courtesy of Con Air...
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#30: A Civil Action/Bringing Out the Dead (with Josh Gondelman)
his week on the podcast, comedian and podcaster Josh Gondelman (author of Nice Try: Stories of Best Intentions and Mixed Results) hops in the passenger's seat for a wild night of good-to-great cinema with our two boys! First up is A Civil Action, the schmaltzy-but-scintillating Steven Zaillian...
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#29: The Thin Red Line/8mm
This week, Nathan and Clint go it alone for one of the podcast's most curious double features — an art-film masterwork with barely any Travolta in it, and a fully-loaded grotesquery with more Cage than we can shake a snuff film at!First, there's Terrence Malick's 1998 war film The Thin Red Line…
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#28: Primary Colors/Snake Eyes (with Emily VanDerWerff)
This week on the podcast, Vox culture writer extraordinaire Emily VanDerWerff hops on the campaign trail for an interesting, auteur-driven double feature mired deeply in the politics and aesthetics of the late '90s! First up is Primary Colors, a Mike Nichols-directed, Elaine May-scripted…
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#27: Mad City/City of Angels (with Fiona Underhill)
This week, we (along with special guest, JumpCut Online's Fiona Underhill) begin our post-Face/Off slide into the latter years of Travolta and Cage with two '90s artifacts, Mad City and City of Angels! In City of Angels, Nic Cage takes the 'fallen angel' baton from Travolta's Michael, as a...
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#26: Face/Off (with Jordan Morris)
It's like looking in a mirror, only.... not. It's finally here, folks, the apex of John Travolta and Nicolas Cage's careers, American action cinema, and this podcast's stated mission! This week, the two realms merge with John Woo's Face/Off, in which Travolta and Cage play dual-wielding badasses…
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Travolta/Cage have?
Travolta/Cage currently has 125 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Travolta/Cage about?
A deep dive into the strange, fascinating careers of two of cinema's most prolific weirdos -- John Travolta and Nicolas Cage. With Nathan Rabin (Nathan Rabin's Happy Place) and Clint Worthington (Consequence, The Spool).
How often does Travolta/Cage release new episodes?
Travolta/Cage publishes regularly with 125 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to Travolta/Cage?
You can listen to Travolta/Cage on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Travolta/Cage?
Travolta/Cage is created and hosted by Nathan Rabin.
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