| Face/Off | |
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 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | John Woo |
| Written by | |
| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Oliver Wood |
| Edited by |
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| Music by | John Powell |
Production companies | |
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Release date |
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Running time | 139 minutes[1] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $80 million[2] |
| Box office | $245.7 million[2] |
Face/Off is a 1997 Americanscience fiction action film[a] directed byJohn Woo, from a screenplay byMike Werb andMichael Colleary. It starsJohn Travolta as anFBI agent andNicolas Cage as a terrorist, who undergo an experimental surgery to swap their faces and identities.[8]
The film co-starsJoan Allen,Gina Gershon, andAlessandro Nivola, and featuresDominique Swain,Nick Cassavetes,Harve Presnell,Colm Feore,CCH Pounder, andThomas Jane in supporting roles. Principal photography began on January 4, 1997 inLos Angeles, and wrapped on April 1. The film score was composed byJohn Powell.
Face/Off was the firstHollywood film in which Woo was given major creative control. It earned critical acclaim for the performances by Cage and Travolta and its stylized action sequences. The film earned $245 million worldwide, making it the11th highest-grossing film of 1997, and was nominated for anAcademy Award forSound Effects Editing (Mark Stoeckinger andPer Hallberg) at the70th Academy Awards.
Since its release, the film gained a strongcult following and it is considered by many as one of Woo's best films.[9][10]
FBISpecial Agent Sean Archer survives an assassination attempt by Castor Troy, a terrorist-for-hire, but the bullet kills his son Michael. Archer then engages in an extended vendetta against Troy. It culminates, six years later, in his team ambushing Troy, who is with his younger brother and accomplice, Pollux, on a remote desert airstrip. Troy goads Archer by saying he knows of a bomb that is located somewhere in Los Angeles and is set to explode in a few days. But before Archer can learn more, Troy is knocked unconscious and falls into a coma. Pollux, in custody, affirms that the bomb is real but refuses to reveal its location.
In secret, Archer reluctantly undergoes a highly experimentalface transplant procedure by Dr. Malcolm Walsh to take on Castor Troy's face, voice, and appearance. Archer-as-Troy is taken to the same high-security prison where Pollux is being held in order to obtain information on the bomb's location. Troy unexpectedly awakens from his coma and discovers that his face is missing. He calls his gang, and they force Dr. Walsh to transplant Archer's face onto him. Meanwhile, Archer successfully learns the location of the bomb from Pollux before being informed shortly thereafter he has a visitor. Anticipating a reunion with his colleagues and a return to his normal life, Archer instead finds Troy wearing his face. Upon revealing he has murdered everyone else who knows about the face transplant, Troy gleefully informs Archer that he looks forward to running his FBI career into the ground and ravishing his wife. An enraged Archer proceeds to strangle him only for the guards to beat him down and take him back to his cell.
Pollux is freed when he willingly tells Troy-as-Archer of the bomb's location, and Troy subsequently disarms the bomb. Troy earns admiration from the FBI office and becomes close to Archer's wife Eve and daughter Jamie, whom Archer had been neglecting while seeking to avenge the death of his son. Back at the prison, Archer-as-Troy escapes after staging a riot and retreats to Troy's headquarters. There, he meets Sasha, the sister of Troy's primary drug kingpin Dietrich Hassler, and her son Adam, who reminds him of Michael. Archer discovers that Adam is Troy's son. Meanwhile, Troy learns of Archer's escape and hastily assembles a team to raid his headquarters.
The raid turns into a bloodbath and many FBI agents and several members of Troy's gang (including Dietrich and Pollux) are killed. However, Archer, Sasha, and Adam all manage to escape. In the aftermath of the raid, Archer's supervisor, Director Victor Lazarro, angrily lambasts Troy-as-Archer for the unnecessary bloodshed he caused. Troy, still furious over Pollux's death, murders Lazarro and is subsequently promoted to acting director in his place. Meanwhile, after taking Sasha and Adam to a safe location, Archer-as-Troy approaches Eve and convinces her to test Troy-as-Archer's blood to confirm his identity. After testing the blood and being convinced that the man wearing her husband's face is in fact an imposter, Eve tells Archer that Troy will be vulnerable at Lazarro's funeral.
At the ceremony, Troy has taken Eve hostage. Sasha arrives, and a gunfight ensues; Sasha manages to save Eve after taking a bullet. Archer promises a dying Sasha that he will take care of Adam and raise him away from criminal life before taking off after Troy. Subsequently, Troy briefly takes Jamie hostage, but she escapes by stabbing him with thebutterfly knife that he lent her earlier for self-defense.
Following the confrontation at the church, Troy reaches the docks and commandeers a speedboat while Archer commandeers one of his own to continue the pursuit. The chase ends when Archer forces Troy to the shore in a collision. With their boats grounded, the two proceed to fight to the death. Upon gaining the upper hand in the struggle, Archer manages to corner Troy at gunpoint with a speargun but Troy stops him from shooting by grabbing the firing mechanism. While admitting defeat, Troy-as-Archer proceeds to cut off his face so that Archer-as-Troy will be doomed to wear Troy's face forever. Before he can finish, Archer kicks Troy in the groin, causing him to lose his grip on the gun and allowing Archer to finally kill him.
Backup agents arrive and address Archer by his name, having been convinced by Eve of Archer's true identity. After the face transplant surgery is reversed, Archer returns home, where he adopts Adam into his family, keeping his promise to Sasha.
Other cast members in the film includeDanny Masterson as Karl, Myles Jeffrey as Michael Archer, David McCurley as Adam Hassler, Romy Walthall as Kimberly,Paul Hipp as Fitch,Kirk Baltz as Aldo,Lisa Boyle as Cindee, Lauren Sinclair as Agent Winters,Steve Hytner as Agent Howell,David Warshofsky as abomb squad officer, andJohn Bloom as a prisonelectroshock technician.
Face/Off was written byMike Werb andMichael Colleary in 1990 as aspec script. They were inspired to write it after a mutual friend injured themself in a hang-gliding accident. The injury required the friend’s face to be removed and reconstructed before being re-added onto their body. Werb and Colleary were also inspired by the filmWhite Heat to create a plot where the main character survived a prison riot.Face/Off initially had a futuristic setting.[11][12][13]Face/Off was optioned toJoel Silver andWarner Bros. in 1991. The option expired in 1994 and the project was purchased byParamount Pictures. American director and producerRob Cohen was originally set to direct the film but when the project was in aturnaround Cohen left to directDragonheart (1996).[14][15]John Woo became attached in 1996.[16] Various actor pairings were considered for the parts of Sean Archer and Castor Troy, such asSylvester Stallone andArnold Schwarzenegger,Michael Douglas andHarrison Ford, andAlec Baldwin andBruce Willis.[17]
Johnny Depp wanted to play Sean Archer but passed on the role after reading the script.[11][18]John Woo instead hiredJohn Travolta andNicolas Cage to play those characters.[19]Michael Douglas served as an executive producer. Werb and Colleary have citedWhite Heat (1949) as an influence on the plot.[16] In preparation, Woo watchedSeconds (1966) directed byJohn Frankenheimer.[20] With an $80 million production budget,Face/Off made heavy use of action set pieces including several violent shootouts and a boat chase filmed in theLos Angeles area. The boat scene at the end of the film was shot inSan Pedro.[21] Calling the brothersCastor and Pollux is a reference toGreek mythology; Castor and Pollux are the twins transformed by the ancient Greek godZeus into the constellationGemini.[22]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    [23] |
TheFace/Off soundtrack was released byHollywood Records on July 1, 1997, the week following the film's release.[24] This was the first film to be composed byJohn Powell and the score was produced byHans Zimmer.
All music is composed byJohn Powell, except as noted
| No. | Title | Music | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Face On" | 4:57 | |
| 2. | "80 Proof Rock" | 4:29 | |
| 3. | "Furniture" | 7:12 | |
| 4. | "The Golden Section Derma Lift" | 3:15 | |
| 5. | "This Ridiculous Chin" | 6:51 | |
| 6. | "No More Drugs for That Man" | John Powell,Gavin Greenaway | 7:27 |
| 7. | "Hans' Loft" | John Powell, Gavin Greenaway | 3:34 |
| 8. | "Ready for the Big Ride‚ Bubba" | 3:53 | |
| Total length: | 41:42 | ||
Several pieces of music and songs were used in the film but not included in the soundtrack. These include:
Face/Off was released onRegion 1DVD on October 7, 1998. A 10th Anniversary Collector's Edition DVD was released on September 11, 2007, and it was also released on the now-defunctHD DVD format on October 30, 2007, in the United States.[26]
The film was released onBlu-ray in the United Kingdom on October 1, 2007, byBuena Vista Home Entertainment, and was released in the United States on May 20, 2008, byParamount Home Entertainment.[27]
The film was released onUltra HD Blu-ray byKino Lorber in December 2023, featuring a new 4K scan of the film.[28]
Face/Off was released in North America on June 27, 1997, and earned $23,387,530 on its opening weekend, ranking number one in the domestic box office ahead ofHercules.[29][30] 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.[2]
The review aggregation websiteRotten Tomatoes records that 93% of 95 critical reviews were positive, with an average rating of 7.80/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "John Travolta and Nicolas Cage play cat-and-mouse (and literally play each other) against a beautifully stylized backdrop of typically elegant, over-the-top John Woo violence."[31] OnMetacritic, the film received a score of 82 out of 100 from 26 critics.[32] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[33]
The role reversal between Travolta and Cage was a subject of praise, as were the stylized, violent action sequences. CriticRoger Ebert of theChicago Sun-Times gave the film three stars out of four and remarked the basic plot concept was "utterly absurd", but Woo's inventive direction along with clever performances made the film entertaining: "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."[34]Rolling Stone'sPeter 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 resistingFace/Off. This you gotta see."[35]Richard Corliss ofTime 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".[36]
Barbara Shulgasser of theSan Francisco Examiner called the movie "idiotic" and argued that "Woo is clearly an imaginative man, and there is no doubt that he can concoct six ways to do any given piece of business ... 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."[37]
The film was nominated for theAcademy Award for Best Sound Effects Editing (Mark Stoeckinger andPer Hallberg) at the70th Academy Awards, but lost to another Paramount filmTitanic.[38]Face/Off also wonSaturn Awards forBest Director andBest Writing, and theMTV Movie Awards forBest Action Sequence (the speedboat chase) andBest On-Screen Duo for Travolta and Cage.
It has been labelled as part of the "holy trinity" ofNicolas Cage action films, along withCon Air (1997) andThe Rock (1996).[39][40] In 2022, Cage said the film had "aged beautifully".[41]
Face/Off is said to have inspiredInfernal Affairs. However,Infernal Affairs directorAndrew Lau wanted to have a more realistic situation; instead of a physical face change, Lau wanted to have the characters swap identities.[42] The concept of "bian lian" or "change face", a technique traditionally used inChinese opera, may have been used here to depict the fluid and seamless morph of Chen and Lau's characters' identities between the "good" and "bad" sides.Infernal Affairs in turn has spawned several adaptations, notablyThe Departed directed byMartin Scorsese, which won theAcademy Award for Best Picture.
Paramount Pictures announced in September 2019 plans to remakeFace/Off with a new cast.David Permut would be executive producer, withNeal Moritz to produce andOren Uziel to write.[43] In February 2021, it was reported thatAdam Wingard would direct and the film would be a sequel to the first film.[44]
As various filmmakers considered the film, pairings like Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Douglas and Harrison Ford, and Alec Baldwin and Bruce Willis, came and went.
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