Certain films fall into so many culturally relevant subgenres that it becomes truly impossible for them to ever really exit the zeitgeist. It's hard to imagine an age in which humans exist during which people aren't still occasionally talking about the film in which John Travolta and Nicolas Cage swapped faces.
Face/Off has returned to the public eye this time thanks to The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, an upcoming comedy that pokes fun at the larger-than-life celebrity aura that surrounds Nic Cage. Of the over one-hundred roles Cage has portrayed in his ridiculous career, it's that film that he reportedly turned to when brushing up on his own career. The two characters he portrays in the film are undoubtedly iconic amongst his career, but there's much more to talk about than just his performance.
The real titan of cinema that made Face/Off what it is never appeared on-screen. John Woo is the man who made the film into more than just another dumb nineties action blockbuster. Face/Off was the first major Hollywood production that dared to hand creative control over to the Hong Kong legend. Fans of John Wick or the overwhelming tide of peers and imitators often credited to the franchise actually have a different John to thank for most of its tricks. Woo invented the subgenre of action referred to in its home country as Heroic Bloodshed, which introduced and popularized a style now known as gun fu. Reworking gunfight scenes into something approaching martial arts crossed with dance scenes was his invention, and the action of Face/Off is an underappreciated entry in that canon.
Face/Off began life as a spec script by screenwriters Mike Werb and Micheal Colleary. The former wrote the screenplay for 1994's The Mask, the latter created the 2020 show Professionals. They typically work as a duo, together they co-wrote Darkman III and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. The duo optioned the script to Warner Bros. in 1991, but it went dormant until Paramount picked it up in 1994. John Woo joined the project as director two years later after the original director bowed out. The original picks for the lead roles were Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, but neither were available. Johnny Depp reportedly looked into the role but backed out after reading the script. Woo sought out Travolta, fresh off of Broken Arrow, and Cage, late of The Rock. The film had an $80 million budget, which it made back several times over with a 245 million dollar box office take.
The story of Face/Off is fairly simple. Hard-nosed government agent Sean Archer and violent terrorist Castor Troy engage in a years-long bitter rivalry. Troy botches an assassination attempt, leaving Archer alive, but killing his young son. Archer doggedly pursues vengeance against Troy, until he successfully captures him in a climactic gun battle. This is only the beginning, however, as Troy has planted a bomb somewhere in Los Angeles with a multi-day timer ticking down.
Troy is in a coma and his brother isn't talking, so there's only one solution: Sean Archer must undergo experimental surgery to transplant his nemesis's face onto his own, enter prison, and trick Troy's brother into divulging the bomb's location. Archer reluctantly agrees and infiltrates the high-security facility, but Troy awakens without a face and with a new plan. Troy forces doctors at gunpoint to perform the same operation, turning him into Archer, then kills everyone aware of the change. Troy and Archer must wield each wield the other's identity to defeat them and reclaim their face.
It's patently absurd, everyone who has seen so much as a trailer would know that. The overarching narrative and explanatory sci-fi nonsense is a lampshade comfortably hung over any pesky questions of logic. The real draw is Travolta and Cage, two notorious chewers of scenery, getting to cut loose with the most extreme characters possible. More importantly, it allows both of them to portray both characters. Each gets to try their hand at the unflappable cop and the flamboyant criminal. It's tough to call the performances anything approaching "good acting", but it is easy to call them spellbinding and unforgettable.
The action scenes in this movie are bombastic, unrestrained, and outstanding. It throws outlandish shootouts, high-speed chases, and loose hand-to-hand combat on-screen with wild abandon. The masterful direction ensures that it's easy to follow what's going on, but the overblown nature of it makes it tough to believe. It rides the line between Schwarzenegger-style action and semi-grounded superhero movies. It doesn't take itself seriously enough to look like a John Wick vehicle, it has the feel of something like Demolition Man. It's chaotic, and that focus on unhinged action perfectly fits the absurd tone.
There are a lot of aspects of Face/Off that could come across as bad filmmaking in other contexts. The acting is overplayed, the action is unbelievable, the writing is silly, and the premise is ridiculous. But, when all those things are true at once, and with the fated collaboration of John Woo and Nic Cage at the forefront, it forms a must-see film, even 25 years later.