Oct 23 2024 106 mins 16
It’s Die Hard in a face swap movie!l
(you can watch this week's episode on YouTube!)
This week, bros Phil Gawthorne and Liam Billingham dive out of an airplane sporting two gold-plated pistols with returning guest Isaac Butler, author of The Method, one of the formative texts of the podcast.
International terrorist Castor Troy (Nicolas Cage) accidentally kills the young son of FBI agent Sean Archer (John Travolta) sparking a long-running feud between the two adversaries. Years later, Troy plants a bomb in LA, but is intercepted by Archer and his team during his getaway. After a chaotic gunfight, Troy ends up in a coma with the exact location of the bomb a mystery. Archer agrees to have Troy's face transplanted onto his own so that he can impersonate him and get the vital information from his imprisoned brother Pollux (Alessandro Nivola) before the bomb detonates. But when Troy awakes from his coma, he steals Archer's face and assumes his identity. With both men now having swapped identities, the stage is set for a final battle between good and evil (But you're still not having any fun!).
FACE/OFF is a pinnacle of action cinema and features two of the most iconic performances of the 90s from Cage and Travolta. So it's fitting that the guys begin the episode by discussing the visceral excitement of this film when it came out before segueing way into a conversation about why this is a movie about acting. Isaac, our acting correspondent, weighs in on why Cage is one of the few innovators left in acting, and how Travola really comes alive as Castor (wooo wee you good lookin'!). They go deep on the idea of doubling in cinema and theater, the psychosexual drama at the core of this action masterpiece, and Isaac tells stories from the set straight from the mouth of Alessandro Nivola!
Events culminate with a runway chase of a ‘Die Hard Oscars’, and red and white boat chase edition of the ‘Double Jeopardy’ trivia quiz! This is one peach you could eat for hours!
FACE/OFF trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-nDX0BeFoQ
At the time of recording, FACE/OFF is available to stream on Paramount Plus and Pluto, and for purchase at all the usual places.
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