‹ All movies

The Rewatchables ·

Face/Off

year 1997decade 90sdirector John Woogenre Drama
host Bill Simmonshost Shea Serranohost Chris Ryanhost Jason Concepcion
All 14 categories

Most Rewatchable Scene · 9:36

The Somewhere Over the Rainbow shootout

A rewatchable movie needs four or five parts you have to watch when flicking channels at the 30 or 50 minute mark, and this one has a lot: the airport shootout that leaves Nick Cage in NFL concussion protocol, the surgery face-switch scenes, the escape from a maximum security prison on Catalina Island where everybody wears magnetic boots, the Somewhere Over the Rainbow shootout with a little kid in headphones, the boat chase and the ending.

Chris Ryan: Asked for the most rewatchable scene, answers that it is absolutely the Somewhere Over the Rainbow shootout.

The Neil McCauley “A Book about Metals” Award for Best Line from the Movie · 54:05

"There will be a lot of changes around here"

Lines put forward: 'I'm Castor Troy' (as transcribed Caster Trey) from the clip already shown; evil Travolta's 'it's like looking in the mirror, but not', a really good Travolta line; and his throwaway 'lies, mistrust, mixed messages, this is turning into a real marriage', offered as a senior high school yearbook quote.

The film

Face/Off (1997)

Directed by John Woo · Drama

139 minutes

IMDbLetterboxdJustWatch
Cast

Selected cast credits · Film reference

John Travolta Sean Archer / "Castor Troy"
Nicolas Cage Castor Troy / "Sean Archer"
Joan Allen Eve Archer, Sean's wife
Dominique Swain Jamie Archer, Eve and Sean's daughter
Alessandro Nivola Pollux Troy, Castor's brother
Gina Gershon Sasha Hassler, Dietrich's younger sister
Nick Cassavetes Dietrich Hassler, Troy's primary drug kingpin
Harve Presnell Victor Lazarro
Colm Feore Dr. Malcolm Walsh
Robert Wisdom Tito Biondi
CCH Pounder Hollis Miller
Margaret Cho Wanda Chang
John Carroll Lynch Prison Guard Walton
Thomas Jane Burke Hicks
Matt Ross Loomis
Chris Bauer Ivan Dubov

Everything from the episode

In the order the hosts got to it. Open a row for the discussion.

6:02

Roger Ebert's review
In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 00:06:02Read transcript
  • Ebert gave the film three out of four stars, really enjoyed it and thought it was one of Nick Cage's best movies.
  • Later a passage from Ebert's June 27, 1997 review is read aloud: this is an actor's dream, and Travolta and Cage make the most of it, spending most of the movie acting as if they are in each other's bodies.
Share this discussion More Roger Ebert's review answers
9:36

Most Rewatchable Scene

The Somewhere Over the Rainbow shootout; the prison escape

The Somewhere Over the Rainbow shootout; the prison escape

In the discussion (12)
Approx. transcript time · 00:09:36Read transcript
  • A rewatchable movie needs four or five parts you have to watch when flicking channels at the 30 or 50 minute mark, and this one has a lot: the airport shootout that leaves Nick Cage in NFL concussion protocol, the surgery face-switch scenes, the escape from a maximum security prison on Catalina Island where everybody wears magnetic boots, the Somewhere Over the Rainbow shootout with a little kid in headphones, the boat chase and the ending.
  • Asked for the most rewatchable scene, answers that it is absolutely the Somewhere Over the Rainbow shootout. — Chris Ryan
  • The shootout begins with Cage entering a trip-hop bachelor pad in an airport hangar, Tricky's Christian Sands (as transcribed) playing to date it to 1997, Castor's son present for some reason, absinthe and a hallucinatory out-of-body experience, and the child always in the line of fire with nobody thinking to put him in a bathtub under a cover; one host would rewatch the whole movie if it were only this scene.
  • Castor's henchman brings out a beautiful oak box holding Chiclets, prescription pills guessed to be an early Dutch version of molly, a dozen rolled joints and two gold-plated handguns, presented as if it were the Ark of the Covenant or a Kansas basketball signing; the two men then fake-laugh at each other unironically a year before the Austin Powers henchmen scene.
  • One host personally thought the prison escape was the most rewatchable scene, and another says they are with them on that.
  • Picks the Somewhere Over the Rainbow shootout as John Woo's victory lap, Woo announcing he is in Hollywood and spending money, with the kid in slow motion, a shootout kept being added to, and so many vases full of lilies blown up again. — Jason Concepcion
  • Two of the hosts share a love of prison movies, to the point of two-in-the-morning emails about a Vince Vaughn prison-movie trailer; the magnetic gravity boots are a good prison wrinkle every jail in America should have, and the film keeps adding: a shootout, then drugs, then a kid in the middle, then Over the Rainbow; a prison in the ocean, then super magnets, then electrocution.
  • The prison is like the Death Star, an impregnable super weapon undone by one trick, since all you have to do is get rid of the boots; Cage brings the four-billion-dollar prison down with one cigarette, fighting to keep it, getting sent to shock treatment, burning a guard and starting a full-scale riot.
  • Travolta switches faces and goes into the prison as Castor Troy, and Castor's brother Pollux is for some reason immediately suspicious; a host does the Pollux impression on request, and nobody can explain why Pollux would wonder whether they switched faces when he thought his brother was dead after the wind turbine.
  • Answers that if he had his college enemy Neil's face on his face, and his voice, his wife Laramie would never be convinced it was him; there is nothing he could say. — Shea Serrano
  • The clip of the prison fight is played, where Travolta wearing Castor's face has to convince the brother it is really him, shouting I'm Castor Troy (as transcribed Caster Joy) and crying; one host calls it their favorite scene in the whole movie, and the tears are joked about as post-concussion emotion or life without a nicotine patch, with Roger Ebert imagined comparing it to first seeing Bergman.
  • Did people take Cage at face value because of Leaving Las Vegas? The entire 90s came and went before anyone collectively asked whether Nick Cage is a bad actor; asked whether they want to change their minds on the scene, the hosts say no.
Share this discussion More Most Rewatchable Scene answers
17:36

Casting What-Ifs

Written in 1990 for Sly Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger; Joel Silver wanted Michael Douglas and Harrison Ford; Joh...

Written in 1990 for Sly Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger; Joel Silver wanted Michael Douglas and Harrison Ford; Johnny Depp was attached; Bruce Willis and Alc Baldwin (as transcribed) were paired; Van Damme and Steven Seagal were paired; Mark Wahlberg turned down Pollux; Julianna Margulis (as transcribed) turned down the Gina Gershon part

In the discussion (9)
Approx. transcript time · 00:17:36Read transcript
  • The script was written in 1990 with Sly Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger in mind as the leads; the hosts agree that would have been horrible given the bodies, faces and accents, wondering how the vocal box would handle Arnold's or Sly's accent.
  • Joel Silver then optioned it wanting Michael Douglas and Harrison Ford, which some think would have been incredible but more like a sexual thriller going to a weird place; this detours into Michael Douglas's publicly stated claim about the sexual cause of his throat cancer, which one host insists is a true story to Google and others call a suburban legend and a humble brag.
  • Johnny Depp was in until he found out it was not a hockey movie, treated as true because it is on the internet, with jokes about whether he thought Pirates of the Caribbean or Edward Scissorhands were hockey movies too; Bruce Willis and Alc Baldwin (as transcribed) were teamed up at one point, which might actually have worked since Baldwin would dial it up.
  • The funniest pairing, apparently a real thing, was Van Damme and Steven Seagal, two of the greatest Russian moles America has to offer.
  • Would most have wanted to see Stallone and Schwarzenegger, because it does not make any sense and he needs to see that. — Jason Concepcion
  • Would want Douglas and Ford, who would have had so much contempt for the material, unable to believe they needed another ranch in Montana this badly. — Chris Ryan
  • Goes with Van Damme and Seagal (as transcribed 'Van Dammen to go'). — Shea Serrano
  • The others knew that pick was coming and call it the worst one of all of them.
  • Mark Wahlberg turned down the role of Castor's brother Pollux; the movie is better with Wahlberg if he is dialing it up, and Pollux's weird hairdo already looks like Wahlberg's Gambler character; Julianna Margulis (as transcribed) turned down the Gina Gershon part because she was filming ER, probably a good choice at that moment, since Gershon does not go around asking whether people saw her in Face Off.
Share this discussion More Casting What-Ifs answers
20:54

What’s Aged the Best?

The prison fight; the concept itself; the 3D-printed ear at Walsh Industries; the magnetic boots; working the title i...

The prison fight; the concept itself; the 3D-printed ear at Walsh Industries; the magnetic boots; working the title into a scene; Joan Allen going along with the switch

In the discussion (9)
Approx. transcript time · 00:20:54Read transcript
  • The magnetic boots and the concept itself, going undercover by switching faces with a guy in a coma, still hold up.
  • Joan Allen plays Travolta's wife, and after the switch she and Cage wearing Travolta's face live as husband and wife, which raises the eternal twenty-year question of whether the surgery extended below the neck; the hosts imagine the conversation with CCH Pounder (as transcribed Bounder) and conclude there was no time, he had to go undercover now.
  • When did she know? Probably immediately, there is no way they were the same; one host returns to whether his own wife would know, and the joke turns on whether she would recognize that detail of his enemy Neil.
  • Walsh Industries, where the procedure is done, convinces him because a guy is 3D printing an ear when he walks in; they were also doing chest hairs, removing double chins, moving scars and hairlines, and they take a shot at Travolta's love handles; Travolta could have worked out before filming, since Cage is noticeably skinnier and ready to go.
  • A clip of the title worked into an actual scene is played, 'I'd like to take his face off', which the movie then says six more times; all action movies should do this, with the imagined Mufasa line to Simba, 'you are the Lion King'.
  • Polled on what aged best, one host goes with the fight in the prison, sticking with that one as the best magnetic-prison-boots fight ever, a scene you could put in every movie; another likes the idea of the actual face-off part and would watch a new Face Off every year.
  • After the choices are run through again, magnetic boots, the concept, the title in a scene and Joan Allen realizing early that it is not her husband but going with it, the concept itself is picked and echoed, since it could be a Netflix series everybody would watch, with an expanded face-off universe where he spends three seasons trying to get his old face back.
  • Picks the moment they walk in and are 3D printing the ear, which seemed so amazing then and can just be done now. — Jason Concepcion
  • Whether you can really make an ear at home is argued: you can make a sculpture of an ear, not attach it to a person's head, which is the important part.
Share this discussion More What’s Aged the Best? answers
25:12

What’s Aged the Worst?

The early CGI and obvious stunt doubles; the father-daughter sexual tension and everything with Dominique Swain; the ...

The early CGI and obvious stunt doubles; the father-daughter sexual tension and everything with Dominique Swain; the deception of Travolta's wife, named plainly as rape; the caress-heavy lip touching; the Pollux performance; the improvised sibling kiss

In the discussion (9)
Approx. transcript time · 00:25:12Read transcript
  • The CGI is early and needed to be better, especially for a scene shown later, and there is obvious stunt-double work where Cage suddenly has way more hair than three seconds earlier, looking like Kiki Vandelway (as transcribed).
  • The brother-sister kiss between Dietrich and Gina Gershon's character was improvised on set by Gershon and Nick Cassavetes, improv incest to add a little salt to the relationship, and the director (transcribed as John Lewis) reportedly said go with it.
  • There is a lot of weird touching of the lips of people you do not know, three different times; it is a caress-heavy movie. Pollux Troy was a nice juicy role where the hosts wanted more, did not think the performance was good, and note there is a reason the actor was not seen again.
  • The sexual tension between Cage wearing Travolta's face and Travolta's daughter is flat-out disarming and uncomfortable, not super comfortable in 97 and more uncomfortable as the years pass, down to putting on a Tricky album for Dominique Swain.
  • Swain's character is a Hong-Kong director's idea of a goth teenager: a little more eyeliner, a fake nose ring, blonde and otherwise a regular person, supposedly on the edge.
  • Travolta agreeing to switch faces has not really changed the world, and the film glossed over Travolta's big chin cleft and Cage's rat-like teeth, although the characters joke about the chin and tease each other about the love handles.
  • Says the whole father-daughter thing is an L for everyone involved, everything with Dominique Swain, down to the end when her father brings home a strange boy to replace the child who died and she suddenly dresses like she just went to American Eagle because everything is fine now. — Chris Ryan
  • Picks something from the aged-best list, the plot point in which Cage's character, wearing Travolta's face, has sex with the wife under false pretenses, which he names plainly as secretly raping her and says is literally what happened. — Shea Serrano
  • Others agree that is literally what happened and you cannot do that; in the 90s it was supposed to be funny and now it is not, and one host who is still going with the CGI is made to feel bad about it.
Share this discussion More What’s Aged the Worst? answers
28:33

Half-Assed Internet Research

Cage and Travolta spent two weeks together learning each other's mannerisms; the film was originally set in the futur...

Cage and Travolta spent two weeks together learning each other's mannerisms; the film was originally set in the future, in space; the studio wanted the slash out of the title; the boat chase took four weeks to film; the special edition DVD has an alternate mirror ending; Castor Troy kills 20 people; a Metacritic score of 82

In the discussion (13)
Approx. transcript time · 00:28:33Read transcript
  • The corner is called half-assed because you cannot believe pretty much anything on the internet; according to it Cage and Travolta spent two weeks together picking up each other's mannerisms and learning to play one another, which the hosts buy, and then played really crazy dialed-up versions of themselves.
  • Buys the two weeks: that is the kind of thing you do when you are an actor to pretend it is a job. — Jason Concepcion
  • Whose idea was it, Cage's or Travolta's? 100 percent Cage, imagined inviting him to Bangkok or Thailand to hang out.
  • Originally the film was set in the future, in space, where face technology is better; Woo would not do it and said it needed to be more realistic, which amuses the hosts since space travel has actually been done while face switching and magnetic boots have not.
  • The studio wanted to take the slash out of the title and John Woo resisted, thinking people would think it was a hockey movie, Johnny Depp being the great example; the boat chase took four weeks to film, which makes sense because it feels like it lasts four weeks in San Diego.
  • This was a cool era of movies where desert, marina and big city sit within three blocks, like Seven with its constant rain and then desert; the 90s did not care about meteorology, and it lasted through Collateral with Jamie Foxx getting from the airport to downtown in seven minutes.
  • The special edition DVD has deleted scenes and an alternate ending in which Travolta looks in the mirror and Joan Allen gasps as she and the audience see Castor's face as his reflection; the studio nixed it, an atrocious idea now on the disc.
  • Guesses that Castor Troy killed around 20 people. — Jason Concepcion
  • The body-count quiz draws guesses of at least 24 and 20, with three kills in the first 45 seconds before he slows down; the answer is 20, close enough that the accuracy is called disturbing, Concepcion credited with nailing it after two hosts watched the film four times in a row.
  • A favorite moment: after they get Castor, Sean walks into the office, is told the CIA sent champagne, says he did not know they did catering, then bummed out suggests a drink and names anonymous extras shot in the first shootout, Winters and Finesco, whom nobody cares about; Winters had been on screen for 27 seconds.
  • The favorite killing: Castor holds an undercover woman out of the plane, shoots her, throws her off, she gets run over by the plane and he does the Jordan shrug; before that he makes a crude come-on about sending her flowers and rephrases it into something lewder.
  • They had been working to catch an international, apolitical, stateless terrorist operating in Los Angeles who had already assassinated a federal agent's child, yet all it took was the brother buying a plane ticket and an agent already in place; he was wearing a fake mustache.
  • Metacritic gave it 82 out of 100, which astonished one host; another calls that a low score for acting that has Nicolas Cage pretending to be Castor Troy pretending to be John Travolta pretending to be Sean Archer pretending to be Castor Troy, five levels Inception deep.
Share this discussion More Half-Assed Internet Research answers
38:00

Unintentional Comedy Award

The surgery haircut with the face off; the wife not picking Travolta up from the hospital; adopting the homicidal man...

The surgery haircut with the face off; the wife not picking Travolta up from the hospital; adopting the homicidal maniac's son unannounced; the dove-filled church funeral; the opening carousel and the sniper drinking from a straw

In the discussion (9)
Approx. transcript time · 00:38:00Read transcript
  • Nominees begin with the entire movie, opening credits to the end, Cage making crazy faces in prison, Dietrich and Cage laughing at each other Austin Powers style, and the box with absinthe, molly and Chiclets.
  • At the end Travolta is in surgery for a couple of weeks after being thrown off a boat and badly injured, and his wife is working at her desk at home when he comes in rather than picking him up or waiting at the hospital; a friend from Jimmy's show, Dave Damoshek (as transcribed), used to do an office bit about it: oh, is it Tuesday, I thought it was Monday, it's your husband, he just got his face back.
  • Cage wakes from the coma with his face off, and the hosts work out what counts as face: eyelids, nose and lips yes, ears no; nobody is watching him, he is immediately fine, there are somehow cigarettes and a telephone, and his face sits in a bowl of saline solution under a spotlight like a Hall of Fame plaque (as transcribed 'plus').
  • The clip of his phone call is played, imagining getting that call; the henchmen bring in a doctor who asks what he wants him to do, as if there were any question with the face over there; then Cage, with no lips or face, smokes a cigarette, the most ridiculous part of the movie since he has no nose and would have to hold it in his teeth.
  • Adds two nominees: the denouement at a dove-filled church outside Hermosa, there because Sean Archer's boss has a heart attack exacerbated by Archer breaking his sternum, followed by a funeral like the papal conclave with incense, singing monks, a Marine guard salute and a thousand doves; and CCH Pounder's two options, put an agent in Pollux's cell or switch your face with his, with no other brainstorm. — Chris Ryan
  • Picks the opening of the movie: Travolta on the carousel rubbing his son's lips and hugging him very closely, then the first look at Cage as Castor through the sniper scope, the mustache that looks like carpeting, drinking through a straw like a Diet Pepsi before killing a man. — Jason Concepcion
  • Castor Troy is a terrorist for hire, a kind of friendly independent terrorist with no clear employer who is owed ten million dollars; another bit has them looking at the 1997 internet, really cut scenes from a Sega Genesis game with something about Croatia going on.
  • Another pick is the surgery: in the middle of a super complex procedure lasering the face off and putting it on another man, they first take the face off and then give him a haircut over an open wound, trimming it up.
  • A host hands out medals: bronze to the haircut with the face off, silver to the wife not picking him up from the hospital, and gold to Archer adopting the homicidal maniac's son without clearing it with his wife, just coming home with the child; then Dominique Swain touches the kid's lips, which is how you get into the family.
Share this discussion More Unintentional Comedy Award answers
44:38

The Dion Waiters Award for Best Heat Check Performance

Pollux Troy (Alessandro Navola, as transcribed); the escaping prisoner played by the actor from 8mm and The Wire; CCH...

Pollux Troy (Alessandro Navola, as transcribed); the escaping prisoner played by the actor from 8mm and The Wire; CCH Pounder

In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 00:44:38Read transcript
  • Nominees: Nick Cassavetes as Dietrich, Gina Gershon, Dominique Swain as the daughter, Alessandro Navola (as transcribed) as the brother Pollux, a choice the host does not condone, CCH Pounder, who gets burned to death along with Robert Wisdom's Bunny Colvin from The Wire, Thomas Jane, Todd Parker in Boogie Nights, as one of the prisoners, and the actor who played Machine in 8mm and Sabaka (as transcribed) in The Wire, who escapes with Cage and is one host's favorite.
  • Margaret Cho gets an honorable mention; the hosts cannot believe she is in it as comic relief with one joke, a terrible line about a transplant for the stick up someone's rear.
  • Picks the brother Pollux because of his weird voice, doing the ten million dollars line. — Jason Concepcion
  • Another host has the prisoner Sabaka (as transcribed), our dude whom the others like too.
  • Another goes with CCH Pounder because she smokes in every scene she is in, including inside the medical lab during the face transplant, then puts her cigarette out on the comatose patient, which is never okay.
Share this discussion More The Dion Waiters Award for Best Heat Check Performance answers
46:37

Is This Movie Better With…?

Yes; Trejo as Sean Archer in place of Travolta, or as Castor Troy

Yes; Trejo as Sean Archer in place of Travolta, or as Castor Troy

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 00:46:37Read transcript
  • A new category suggested by a reader whose name the host cannot remember, already recorded for The Fugitive but not yet heard: would this movie have been better with Danny Trejo and in what role, to be asked on every Rewatchables; for Face Off there is no way it is not better, and the hosts imagine an all-Trejo version where every character has had a Trejo face transplant, Heat Trejo and Dusk Till Dawn Trejo switching personalities.
  • One host wants him as a quiet guy, another as Castor Troy (as transcribed Cassius Troy), and another wants John Travolta out and Trejo as Sean Archer, a classic federal agent, so that in the briefing scene he skips the monologue and just says 'Machete don't face off'.
Share this discussion More Is This Movie Better With…? answers
47:41

Apex Mountain

Nick Cage (one host's yes at 157; the moderator closes 'nobody had an apex' at 159)

Nick Cage (one host's yes at 157; the moderator closes 'nobody had an apex' at 159)

In the discussion (7)
Approx. transcript time · 00:47:41Read transcript
  • John Woo: no, with no explanation offered.
  • Joan Allen: no, though a contender, and one host would feel so bad if this were her Apex Mountain.
  • Gina Gershon: no; Bound is suggested instead, and Cocktail (as transcribed) comes up with a don't-get-me-started.
  • Travolta: no way; he was the biggest star in the world, but this is a second, mini-pleasant apex era for him rather than the peak.
  • Nick Cage: a definite yes, this rather than the Oscar is his Apex, after the trilogy of those films in a row, followed by the movie where he plays an angel who comes back, after which it all fell apart.
  • Tangent: Travolta also played an angel, in 1996's Michael, whereas in Phenomenon he had an accident rather than being an angel and is remembered only for the poster pose.
  • After a joke asking whether this is the apex for smoking a cigarette without a face, the host wraps up by saying nobody had an apex, despite the definite yes for Cage moments earlier.
Share this discussion More Apex Mountain answers
48:58

Picking Nits

Dr. Walsh makes the surgery sound routine; the secret off-the-books hospital; Archer tells nobody, not even his wife;...

Dr. Walsh makes the surgery sound routine; the secret off-the-books hospital; Archer tells nobody, not even his wife; prison guards killed rather than informed; Castor never tells Dietrich; a prison fight five minutes after surgery; the hasty reverse surgery and the added love handles; nobody guarding Cage in the coma; Time's Man of the Year for one bomb; helicopters giving up and a 40-mile swim; holding a 250-pound man by a gun barrel; shooting a guard in the toe; Travolta's chin cleft and Cage's teeth glossed over

In the discussion (9)
Approx. transcript time · 00:48:58Read transcript
  • Dr. Walsh spends two minutes on the surgery as if Travolta were getting his hamstring fixed: with the new anti-inflammatories healing takes days not weeks, then they simply connect the muscles, tear ducts and nerve endings; the hosts do not think it is that easy, though he sold it well enough that one would trade faces with a fellow host for a week.
  • This is not a hospital but an illegal secret one, like in the Palisades; why could Travolta not tell his wife or anybody he worked with? Only CCH Pounder and Robert Wisdom knew, it was totally off the books, and the three people who knew were burned alive; still, one host would definitely tell his wife the night before that he was switching faces with the guy who killed their son, hard as that conversation would be.
  • Why could they not tell the prison guards instead of killing them, when those guys are all on the take? And why did Castor not tell Dietrich, the bald guy, when other people in his life knew?
  • Could Travolta as Cage have survived the prison fight with a new face, punched five minutes after surgery when he was told not to get hit, his face itching as he scratches it; way more attention went into putting Cage's face on Travolta, while Travolta's face on Cage was a hasty shotgun job done under threat of immolation, yet afterwards it is the carefully made face that itches while the wearer of the rushed one loves his new face with no itching or side effects.
  • They explained how they would get rid of Travolta's love handles, so how did they add love handles, especially with a gun to the head? And why was nobody watching Cage in the coma, a feared independent terrorist who has taken out 20 people, with his face in a bowl under a spotlight ten feet away?
  • Once Cage's character, wearing Travolta's face, foils his own bomb to become the hero, the film casually drops that Sean Archer was Time Magazine's Man of the Year, and his boss even cites it; would you win Man of the Year for foiling one bomb, and who did he beat in 97, Michael Jordan, Bill Gates, Bill Clinton?
  • Castor escapes the Catalina prison with a 70-foot jump into the water, and the circling helicopters give up at once, the action-movie rule that once you land in the water the helicopter flies away; does he survive the leap and the bullets, swimming 40 miles underwater to L.A., presumably like a dolphin coming up every once in a while?
  • One nitpick maybe nobody notices: as Cage and the prisoner called Machine or Sabaka (as transcribed) escape, murdering guards, Sabaka falls over the rail and Cage holds this 250-pound man up by the barrel of his gun, which would take years on the machines; the hero cannot kill a guard or he would be bad, so Sabaka does the killing while he shoots a guard in the toe from 40 feet; both men shoot well until they shoot at each other at close range and dodge bullets.
  • Earlier, while on what aged worst, a host who hates to nitpick this movie notes that Travolta's big chin cleft and Cage's rat-like teeth were just glossed over, though the film does joke about the chin.
Share this discussion More Picking Nits answers
54:05

The Neil McCauley “A Book about Metals” Award for Best Line from the Movie

"There will be a lot of changes around here"; "We'll take a break when the case breaks"; "What a predicament"

"There will be a lot of changes around here"; "We'll take a break when the case breaks"; "What a predicament"

In the discussion (6)
Approx. transcript time · 00:54:05Read transcript
  • Lines put forward: 'I'm Castor Troy' (as transcribed Caster Trey) from the clip already shown; evil Travolta's 'it's like looking in the mirror, but not', a really good Travolta line; and his throwaway 'lies, mistrust, mixed messages, this is turning into a real marriage', offered as a senior high school yearbook quote.
  • Also 'Sean, we've been living together as man and wife for a week', which is devastating and very uncomfortable, and the actual last line of the movie, 'Dad, I'm sorry I shot you'.
  • Gives an honorable mention to Travolta with Cage's soul going into Dominique Swain's room, seeing her pack of cigarettes and that she is listening to the James Brown song about a brand new bag, lighting one and saying 'there will be a lot of changes around here' before walking out; that is his favorite line. — Chris Ryan
  • Picks a different one: six years after the elite uber terrorist killed his son at the carousel, Sean Archer has become the worst boss ever, and when asked to give the agents a break says 'we'll take a break when the case breaks'. — Jason Concepcion
  • Has two Travolta lines from the church standoff at the very end: Travolta telling the Cage-faced Archer, who is mad that he killed his kid, to either get over it or kill himself rather than take it so personally; and, as the two-man standoff grows person by person to a dozen guns pointed at everyone, 'what a predicament', the best line in the whole movie for him. — Shea Serrano
  • Another host might vote for 'what a predicament' too, since it was exactly a predicament.
Share this discussion More The Neil McCauley “A Book about Metals” Award for Best Line from the Movie answers
57:03

Probably Unanswerable Questions

Why did Cage get the less fun part? Who signed on first? Who got paid more? Did Cage's acting get worse or was he alw...

Why did Cage get the less fun part? Who signed on first? Who got paid more? Did Cage's acting get worse or was he always like this? Why not kill Castor once he wakes up faceless?

In the discussion (9)
Approx. transcript time · 00:57:03Read transcript
  • Why did they give Nick Cage the less fun part, since Travolta becoming evil is so much more fun than Cage becoming the nice guy trapped in Cage's body; the counter is that Cage gets the first 40 minutes to be evil and had more fun in this movie, so his was the better role.
  • They did not direct Nick Cage, Nick Cage directed this movie, or freebase cocaine directed Nick Cage; you needed Cage because he is very good at being crazy and had to have trouble processing being another person, which Travolta could not do.
  • Who signed on first? Cage, the hosts decide, since he would look at the roles and want the one who kills a kid and assaults a teenager in the first 40 seconds. Who got paid more? Split between Travolta, fresh off Greece (as transcribed), and Cage, coming off the Oscar, The Rock and Con Air; the joke is that Travolta was told 15 and Cage got 20, or was paid in Chiclets.
  • Was Cage's acting just as bad here as it would be for the next 20 years, bad in a good way, or straight up great and the same as in all his movies? One host threatens to walk off the stage if the panel decides he was bad in this movie, and the choice narrows to good versus good-bad.
  • Does not know that he has seen a Nick Cage movie since this one, though he did see 8mm. — Chris Ryan
  • The audience is polled and says good-bad; a clip of Cage's interview about the role is played in which he says he meditated on the idea of wearing the face of the man who killed his son, literally not metaphorically, offered as proof that he was a good actor fully in it; the hosts guarantee Cage would still insist today that he took his face off and wore it.
  • Asked how he would explain to his wife that it is really him wearing someone else's face, says he would come home freaking out, laughing and crying, wearing Neil's face. — Shea Serrano
  • In the movie the only reason she believes him is that he names his blood type, O negative or so, and talks about the son's bed; one host would try to come up with memories he has not tweeted about so she would know he was serious, though there is no way it is happening either way.
  • An audience member adds an unanswerable question: when Castor wakes up bandaged after the switch, why not just kill him; the hosts call it a strong point they had not thought of and joke about the Geneva Convention, the Bill of Rights and the rule of law keeping this from being a dictatorship, since removing his face in an office park is already the act of human rights here while he still has the sanctity of life.
Share this discussion More Probably Unanswerable Questions answers
1:02:15

Who Won the Movie?

Nicolas Cage vs. John Woo (1-1 on distinct host ballots; a further Cage pick may be the first voter; the audience pol...

Nicolas Cage vs. John Woo (1-1 on distinct host ballots; a further Cage pick may be the first voter; the audience poll called it unanimous for Cage)

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 01:02:15Read transcript
  • In ten or eleven Rewatchables the show has never had two stars pitted against each other, literally and figuratively, since Heat, where Pacino was named the winner; in the spirit of overacting one host goes Nick Cage.
  • Picks John Woo, since this was really the last time he got to make a heat-rock Hollywood movie before going off the rails. — Jason Concepcion
  • A tangent on Woo's later Paycheck with Ben Affleck, which nobody can quite summarize, filed with Reindeer Games among the Affleck films of six years that had the title first and the script later.
  • After the tangent someone says they also think Cage won the movie, which may be the first Cage voter restating rather than a new vote; the audience is asked and answers Cage in what is called a unanimous decision; it was a tough podcast for Travolta, who got beat up and lost in a lot of ways, plus the love handles in the movie.
Podcast choices
Speaker not identified
Nicolas Cage
Share this discussion More Who Won the Movie? answers

More from the conversation

The recorded intro explains that this episode was taped before a live audience at Largo on October 18, with over 200 people, four hosts, audible laughter, a couple of inappropriate parts and ad breaks inserted, otherwise unedited.
Approx. transcript time · 00:01:18Read transcript
One host introduces himself and the other three, then the room is told the show is on about its 10th or 11th episode, about movies the hosts love and cannot stop watching and why, with categories to go through; the audience is asked how many have seen Face Off.
Approx. transcript time · 00:02:58Read transcript
Adam Carolla's theory that action movies like this had the title first and the script after, and this one works its title into dialogue; some call it the overacting olympics, Cage versus Travolta, compared to Ben Johnson and Carl Lewis in 1988; after winning the Oscar for Leaving Las Vegas, Cage chose The Rock, Con Air and Face Off, called great choices with a cocaine joke.
Approx. transcript time · 00:03:51Read transcript
Agrees with those who call the film the overacting olympics.
Approx. transcript time · 00:04:09Read transcript
Cage is in six theatrical movies this year; IMDb lists both Cage and Travolta as playing Castor Troy and Sean Archer; the film grossed 245 million dollars worldwide and, to one host's surprise, drew almost unanimous praise, around 92 on Rotten Tomatoes, rather than being a campy cult classic.
Approx. transcript time · 00:04:58Read transcript
Likes all action movies, especially any where they cut a face off, suggesting Andy in Shawshank should have done the same to escape.
Approx. transcript time · 00:05:17Read transcript
Asked to summarize the plot, begins with Sean Archer at a merry-go-round with his son, extremely loving almost to a creepy level, brushing his son's face and lips and embracing him, something his own father never did.
Approx. transcript time · 00:06:16Read transcript
Plot: Castor Troy lies in the hills with a sniper rifle and a really fake mustache as his only disguise, shoots Archer through the back so he and his son fly off the carousel in slow motion, and the son dies, all within the opening credits, compared to the Punisher origin; six years later Archer's vendetta leads his team to catch Castor, who has planted a dirty bomb in Los Angeles, after Castor is hit by a jet engine blast, blown two football fields down a tunnel and left in a coma.
Approx. transcript time · 00:06:48Read transcript
The summary skipped the opening minutes where Castor, dressed as a pastor, assaults a teenage choir girl; the clip is shown, its Hallelujah image being the famous gif captioned MOAR on forums, with a joke that it was the take settled on after Cage dialed it even higher and Roger Ebert imagined approving.
Approx. transcript time · 00:08:21Read transcript
Audience question: Cage reportedly wanted the other role until convinced that after the face switch he would end up the good guy for most of the movie; the hosts get a headache from the transitive property of Nick Cage and want to meet whoever explained it to him on a napkin.
Approx. transcript time · 01:03:56Read transcript
Favorite Nick Cage hairstyle: the Con Air mullet, the Caesar in this one, or Guarding Tess, a good movie.
Approx. transcript time · 01:04:52Read transcript
An audience hypothetical of Shaq switching faces with Kobe in 2005 to stay with the Lakers delights the hosts: a six-foot-five Kobe in the post with Shaq's face, a giant Kobe, and who invents the muse cage, with Shaq's head twice the size of Kobe's.
Approx. transcript time · 01:05:06Read transcript
Asked whether Travolta using the newspaper as a prop in the prison meeting was his idea, the hosts think so and that a lot of the movie was improvised; Travolta's bushy hair and Cage's dense chest hair are noted, Cage probably programmed what was in the box, and Travolta, like Keanu Reeves, is one of the worst on-screen cigarette smokers.
Approx. transcript time · 01:07:05Read transcript
Asked who in their lives they would face off with, the hosts name Greenwald, Mallory Rubin, Neil and Skipper, the last to take over ESPN and cause havoc, with the retort that Grantland never made any money and the joke that staff would know because everyone could tweet whatever they wanted.
Approx. transcript time · 01:08:06Read transcript
An audience member believes the movie should be remade every few years as a ritual, and the hosts all agree; suggested pairings are Michael Cera and Jesse Eisenberg, the belt holders, and Donald Glover and Keith Stanfeld (as transcribed) from Atlanta, while the hosts offer The Rock and Vin Diesel as the logical 2018 face-off despite the height gap, folded into the Fast franchise, and Leo and Damon running The Departed back.
Approx. transcript time · 01:09:07Read transcript
Responds to a question about a Bill Simmons and Dave Jacoby face-off by noting it is weird because he is here, and that there are a lot of Ringer and Grantland staff in the room.
Approx. transcript time · 01:10:45Read transcript
The staff would know immediately because he would be organizing Friday drinks, and one host would know the first time a prison movie came out without the two a.m. email; asked how the film handles Travolta being three or four inches taller than Cage, the hosts say it just claims the heights are about the same, perhaps lifts, and maybe that is why the brother was suspicious.
Approx. transcript time · 01:11:02Read transcript
A first-time viewer suggests polling Ringer readers on four movies before the next live show; the hosts were not sure this one would work, think it did, and will probably do votes next time, having considered Pulp Fiction but fearing a seven-hour show; the opening airport plane ride runs about 12 minutes, a 40-mile runway like Fast Six's.
Approx. transcript time · 01:12:07Read transcript
Thanks to Largo and the hosts; the recorded outro recalls meeting fans, signing books, Grantland quarterlies and the Book of Basketball, floats doing it again in another city such as Seattle, and announces next week's episode, The Fugitive.
Approx. transcript time · 01:13:15Read transcript