On a tidal wave of success and global popularity, the director sensation John Woo chose Face/Off to be his prime Hollywood thrust. The man spearheaded an entire genre a decade before, the “Hong Kong action movie”, very recently referred to as “gun fu,” and was applying his consummate talents to the West. In the wrong hands, Face/Off could have been another flop, especially if they kept the original stars Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger (imagine the body morphing necessary for that face swap), but Woo wisely chose John Travolta and Nicholas Cage as the main leads instead. Together, the three of them made a 90s action cinematic masterpiece. In the next few years, Hollywood will tempt fate by making a Face/Off sequel. Will it be any good?
For the uninitiated, John Woo is a legendary director. Before he came to the United States, he launched his career in the Seventies making martial arts films for the Shaw Brothers in Hong Kong, even working with a young Jackie Chan. By the Eighties, Woo wanted to do more than martial arts, he wanted to do something new and different. In 1986, together with his friend and partner Tsui Hark, another Hong Kong legend, they released a film that would influence all of cinema to this day: A Better Tomorrow. This movie exploded out of Hong Kong movie theatres and into the world. It launched the career of Chow Yun-fat, and established a new template for action cinematography, score, style, and pace. Woo would go on to make a sequel to A Better Tomorrow the following year, as well as other revered action movies like The Killer (1989) and Hard Boiled (1992) before trying his hand in America.
For American audiences, he first directed Jean-Claude Van Damme in Hard Target (1993) and then John Travolta and Christian Slater in Broken Arrow (1996). Woo, however, was unhappy with Hollywood’s oversight. They interfered with editing and the tone of his movies by reducing the violence and action. Additionally, they presumed the language barrier would make English filmmaking difficult for him. For Hard Target they paired Woo with Sam Raimi, himself a huge fan, and who immediately let Woo’s talents get to work unhindered. Both movies received mixed reviews but were still financial successes. Woo almost left America until a custom-tailored script came to him, complete with the freedom of creative control. Face/Off was released in the summer of 1997. It became the 14th highest-grossing film of 1997 and was nominated for an Oscar in Best Sound Effects Editing in the 70th Academy Awards.
Face/Off went up against the literal Titanic in that ceremony, so it is no surprise that it lost in its category. However, it is no small achievement for a pulp action movie to reach the heights of the Oscars. Prior to the current esteem of superhero movies, it was uncommon for popular films to be considered Academy Award material. Face/Off, of all things, was nominated for an Oscar!
Originally, fans assumed Paramount Pictures would be remaking Face/Off with producers David Permut and Neil Moritz. Then, once Adam Wingard became attached, it was clarified that the new movie would be a direct sequel. Neither John Travolta nor Nicholas Cage was asked to participate. It is somewhat understandable for Cage, since the villain was killed at the end of the movie, but Travolta should potentially reprise his role. The same exclusion applies to John Woo. He is neither producer nor a consultant.
So, Permut, Moritz, and Wingard are creating a new project in the world of Face/Off? What kind of story can expand the original? Castor Troy is dead, Sean Archer saved Los Angeles and returned happily to his family. If a thing is the sum of its parts, then the idea behind Face/Off alone is not enough to make a good movie. If they borrow the same concept as the first, in that there is a swap of “camps,” then audiences would be watching a rehash of a bunch of other better movies, including Face/Off. The Infernal Affairs trilogy already explored the concept of a good character infiltrating a criminal organization, and a gangster scion infiltrating the police force. Martin Scorsese Westernized this franchise in 2006’s The Departed.
Part of what made Face/Off so exciting was the distinct style of John Woo. Lacking his talent and sharpened eye, the new Face/Off would be an imitation. Worse, if they do not try to emulate John Woo, then the sequel to one of his most famous movies would end up an empty, hollow film. Further, Wingard could never find actors or actresses with the same charisma as Nineties Travolta and Cage. Even if they chose well, the new leads would be endlessly, unfairly, compared to the original cast and likely found lacking. Lightning rarely strikes twice, let alone is it captured in a bottle more than once.
Paramount is taking a huge leap trying to recreate the magic of Face/Off. Several other movies attempted to continue the story of older films, only to fall flat. One could simply look at a list of sequels that attempted to extend a completed film only to see a list of fallen visions. Take Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, Independence Day: Resurgence, and Zoolander 2 as examples. There is also a grab bag of awful remakes to better movies that have failed, point to 2012’s Total Recall for one of the worst.
Co-writer and director Adam Wingard has very big shoes to fill with the Face/Off sequel. Depending on the route they take with the material, the new Face/Off could be a festival of action and bullet mayhem, a true champion of the gun-fu genre. Or it could be a forgettable plate of dusty mashed potatoes. Here is hoping it is the former. Before the fate of this sequel is revealed, Adam Wingard is set to release Godzilla vs. King Kong next month.