| Face/Off | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | John Woo |
| Produced by | David Permut Barrie M. Osborne Christopher Godsick Terence Chang Michael Douglas Steven Reuther Jonathan D. Krane Mike Werb Michael Colleary |
| Written by | Mike Werb Michael Colleary |
| Starring | John Travolta Nicolas Cage |
| Music by | John Powell |
| Cinematography | Oliver Wood |
| Editing by | Steven Kemper Christian Wagner |
| Studio | Permut Presentations |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures (USA) Touchstone Pictures Buena Vista International (non-USA) |
| Release date(s) | June 27, 1997 |
| Running time | 138 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English Latin |
| Budget | $80 million |
| Box office | $245,676,146 [1] |
Face/Off is a 1997 action thriller film directed by John Woo, starring John Travolta and Nicolas Cage. The two both play an FBI agent and a terrorist, sworn enemies who assume the physical appearance of one another.[2]
The film exemplifies gun fu and heroic bloodshed action sequences, and has Travolta and Cage each playing two personalities. It was the first Hollywood film in which Woo was given complete creative control and was acclaimed by both audiences and critics. Eventually grossing $245 million worldwide, Face/Off was a financial success.[3]
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Freelance terrorist Castor Troy (Nicolas Cage) is relentlessly pursued by FBI Special Agent in Charge Sean Archer (John Travolta). Years earlier, Troy, in an attempt to kill Archer, accidentally killed Archer's young son, Michael; the two have been obsessed with each other ever since. The FBI receives information that Castor's brother, Pollux (Alessandro Nivola), has chartered a plane at LAX airport. Archer knows that Pollux will not fly without Castor, so he leads a joint FBI/LAPD team to chase the plane down, which crashes into a hangar. In the ensuing chaos, Pollux is captured by the FBI and Castor is knocked into a coma after bragging to Archer about a bomb that will destroy Los Angeles. Archer's work colleagues congratulate him on catching Castor, but Archer rebuffs the praise he is given and says it should go to those who died attempting to arrest Castor.
Although he learns the date of the bombing, Archer is unable to find any information about the location of the bomb itself. Knowing that the only way to obtain the location is from Pollux and the only person Pollux will reveal the location to is his brother Castor. Archer is presented by his colleagues a secret mission that he will undergo an experimental surgical procedure to temporarily graft Castor's face onto his skull, infiltrate the prison where Pollux is being held, and get the location of the bomb which is is the only way to do so. Arrangements are made for Archer (as Castor) to be incarcerated with Pollux in prison. Once there, he successfully learns the bomb's location. Meanwhile, Castor unexpectedly awakens from his coma and, realizing what has happened, calls his men to kidnap the doctor named Walsh who performed the surgery. Castor then forces Walsh to give him Archer's face and later murders him by burning him alive with flammable liquid. Castor (as Archer) visits Archer in prison, informing him that he killed everyone who knew about Archer’s mission and destroyed all the evidence. He leaves, telling Archer his plans to take advantage of his job and family. Castor then has the FBI negotiate a deal with Pollux for his release, in return for revealing the bomb's location. Castor proceeds to disarm the bomb and revels in the praise from Archer’s colleagues and the media.
Following Castor's disarmament of the bomb, Archer begins an escape attempt. A violent battle ensues, ending with Archer successfully evading the prison guards and leaves the prison. Later, Archer visits Castor’s entourage and successfully fools them into thinking that he is the real Castor. Archer then asks them to help kill “Archer”. Elsewhere, Castor initiates aggressive sex play with Archer's wife Eve (Joan Allen) and flirts with Archer's teenage daughter Jamie (Dominique Swain). Meanwhile, Archer finds himself having to take drugs to impress Castor’s gang. Also present is Sasha Hassler (Gina Gershon), Castor's ex-girlfriend, and their son Adam. Earlier, Archer threatened to put her son into foster care, but he now realizes that she is a devoted mother who is trying to raise Adam away from the poisonous influence of Castor. Archer (as Castor) promises her that Archer will not bother her any more. Archer starts to bond with Adam, reminding him of his deceased son. Pollux, watching Castor’s old safehouse, informs Castor of Archer's arrival. Castor sends an FBI team in. A gunfight ensues, killing most of Castor’s crew, while Sasha and Adam escape with Archer’s help. As he makes his own escape, Archer catches Pollux and drops him through the apartment skylight, killing him. Later, the FBI's Assistant Director in Charge, Victor Lazarro, berates Castor for the unnecessary carnage at the safehouse. Castor, angered over Pollux's death, confesses his true identity and kills him, blaming his death on a heart attack. As a result, Castor is promoted to FBI Assistant Director. Meanwhile, Archer returns to his suburban home and tries to convince Eve that he is really Archer and she is only convinced after he tells her the story of their first kiss.
A few days later, Sasha and Archer track Castor to Lazarro's funeral. Archer arrives during the Mass and prays in a side chapel until it finishes and the mourners leave. He then discovers that Castor is holding Eve hostage. A gunfight ensues, in which Castor's crew are killed. Sasha saves Eve and takes a bullet for Archer, before she dies she makes him promise that he will not let Adam grow up to be criminal as well. Castor then takes a late-arriving Jamie hostage, but she is able to escape, ironically using a knife trick he taught her. Castor and Archer engage in several gun fights and hand-to-hand battles. Eventually, Castor steals a speed boat and is pursued closely by Archer. After a lengthy chase, both Archer and Castor are thrown ashore by an explosion resulting from their boats colliding. The two engage in a final hand-to-hand confrontation. Castor, unable to fight, tries to destroy Archer's face on himself to prevent Archer reclaiming it which results in Archer eventually killing Castor with a spear gun. Later, Eve is able to explain the entire situation to the FBI, successfully convincing them of Archer's true identity. Archer is then taken to the hospital and his face is restored.
The film ends as Archer arrives home with Adam, bringing him into his family in order to fulfill his promise to Sasha of not allowing Adam to grow up to be a criminal.
Face/Off was a spec script which writers Mike Werb and Michael Colleary tried to sell to a studio from as early as 1990. It took numerous studios, producers and rewrites before John Woo became attached several years later.[4]
Originally the film was to be set in the far future and was to star Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone in the lead roles. At one point John Woo considered Jean-Claude Van Damme whom he had worked with in Hard Target to play Sean Archer while Steven Seagal would play Castor Troy along with them learning each others fighting abilities. Other pairings that was considered was that of Harrison Ford and Michael Douglas[5] as well as Alec Baldwin and Bruce Willis, and Al Pacino and Robert De Niro. When the film was eventually made, Douglas was an executive producer. Werb and Colleary have cited White Heat (1949) and Seconds (1966) as influences on the plot.[4]
John Woo was offered a chance to direct but declined unless the studio agreed to give him more creative control than he had received on his previous American films. Travolta had previously starred in Woo's Broken Arrow (Cage was later to star in another Woo film, Windtalkers). Woo set the movie in the present so he could focus on the psychological elements of the story, such as how the feud between the two men affects those close to them — such as Sasha and Adam and Archer's family.
The names Castor and Pollux come from a pair of brothers in Greek mythology that make up the Gemini constellation. The story itself, most notably the hatred between Archer and Troy, is very similar to that of Hector and Achilles, who fought against each other in the Trojan War. Additional influences may have come from the fact that the Greek and Roman god of archery, Apollo, was closely related with the city of Troy. The Archer is also a constellation and is significant because the Archer is the symbol of the Sagittarius constellation. Therefore, this symbolizes the clash between the opposing Sagittarius and Gemini constellations. Ironically, Castor and Pollux were also chosen as names for police dogs in another 1997 film, the sci-fi/horror The Relic starring Tom Sizemore.
Pollux is held at Erehwon, a prison so secret that even the inmates do not know its location. "Erehwon" is "nowhere" in reverse, an idea that also occurs in an allegorical novel by Samuel Butler.
The battle in the church, which includes doves flying around and religious artifacts being destroyed, is similar to the final confrontation in Woo's classic 1989 Hong Kong film The Killer.
Costing $80 million to make, Face/Off made heavy use of action set pieces including several violent shootouts and a boat chase while being filmed in the Los Angeles area.[6][7]
Face/Off was released in North America on June 27, 1997 and earned $23 million on its opening weekend. It went on to become the 11th highest domestic and 14th worldwide grossing film of 1997, earning a domestic total of $112,276,146 and $133,400,000 overseas for a total of worldwide gross of $245,676,146. It was a successful box office hit.[6][8]
The Region 1 DVD of Face/Off was one of the first films to be released on the format on October 7, 1998.[9] A 10th Anniversary Collectors Edition was released on DVD September 11, 2007 and HD DVD October 30, 2007 in the United States.[10] The new DVD is a 2-disc set including 7 deleted scenes, an alternate ending and several featurettes.[11]
The film was released on Blu-ray Disc in the United Kingdom on 1 October 2007 by Buena Vista, and was released in the United States on 20 May 2008 by Paramount Pictures.[12]
Garnering largely positive reviews and high box office earnings, the film was a critical and financial success. The role reversal between Travolta and Cage was a subject of praise, as were the stylized, violent action sequences. Critic Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times remarked that "Here, using big movie stars and asking them to play each other, Woo and his writers find a terrific counterpoint to the action scenes: All through the movie, you find yourself reinterpreting every scene as you realize the 'other' character is 'really' playing it."[13] Rolling Stone's Peter Travers said of the film, "You may not buy the premise or the windup, but with Travolta and Cage taking comic and psychic measures of their characters and their own careers, there is no resisting Face/Off. This you gotta see."[14] Richard Corliss of Time Magazine said that the film "isn't just a thrill ride, it's a rocket into the thrilling past, when directors could scare you with how much emotion they packed into a movie."[15]
Some critics felt the film's violence was overkill, and that the action sequences dragged out too long. Barbara Shulgasser of the San Francisco Examiner called the movie "idiotic" and argued that "a good director would choose the best of the six ways and put it in his movie. Woo puts all six in. If you keep your eyes closed during a Woo movie and open them every six minutes, you'll see everything you need to know to have a perfectly lovely evening at the cinema."[16]
Face/Off holds a 94% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes with 54 positive reviews out of a total 56 and a score of 82 on Metacritic with 25 reviews counted.[17][18] The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Sound Editing at the 70th Academy Awards, but lost to Titanic. Face/Off also won the Saturn Awards for Best Directing and Writing, and the MTV Movie Awards for Best Action Scene (the speedboat chase) and Best Duo for Travolta and Cage.[19]
| Face/Off: Original Soundtrack Music By John Powell | |
|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by John Powell | |
| Released | July 1, 1997 |
| Recorded | 1997 |
| Genre | Score |
| Length | 41:42 |
| Label | Hollywood Records |
| Producer | Hans Zimmer |
| Professional reviews | |
The Face/Off soundtrack was released by Hollywood Records on July 1, 1997, the week following the film's release.
Several pieces of music and songs were used in the film but not included in the soundtrack.[21] These include:
In 2010, The Simpsons based an episode on the same story entitled, "The Bob Next Door". In 2001, MC Solaar references the character "Castor Troy" in the song titled "Playmate" on the album Cinquieme As. However, as Castor and Pollux Troy were brothers involved in the Trojan war, it is unclear whether popular references to these names are allusions to Face/Off or to the original figures for whom the Face/Off characters are named. The Adult Swim comedy series Delocated features an entire episode in season 2, "Mole", as an extended reference to Face/Off. Sergei, the Russian mafia assassin sent to kill the main character "Jon" is captured by the FBI. In a burst of anger "Jon" threatens Sergei that he will tear off his face and wear it like a mask to kill all of Sergei's friends, "just like in that movie, Face/Off". Sergei has actually never seen the film, so "Jon" demands that the FBI agents force Sergei to watch a DVD of the film (preferably the Criterion Collection version). The FBI agents then take "Jon" aside and inform him that "the incredibly far-fetched and medically impossible face-switching technology from Face/Off...is real", and "Jon" accepts their offer to switch faces with Sergei to infiltrate the Russian mafia.
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