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Face/Off

Play trailer 2:02 Poster for Face/Off R Released Jun 27, 1997 2h 18m Action Play Trailer Watchlist
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93% Tomatometer 98 Reviews 82% Popcornmeter 250,000+ Ratings
Obsessed with bringing terrorist Castor Troy (Nicolas Cage) to justice, FBI agent Sean Archer (John Travolta) tracks down Troy, who has boarded a plane in Los Angeles. After the plane crashes and Troy is severely injured, possibly dead, Archer undergoes surgery to remove his face and replace it with Troy's. As Archer tries to use his disguise to elicit information about a bomb from Troy's brother, Troy awakes from a coma and forces the doctor who performed the surgery to give him Archer's face.
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Face/Off

Face/Off

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Critics Consensus

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.

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Critics Reviews

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Jake Cole Slant Magazine Face/Off immediately dials in on the operatic lunacy of its two leading men. Dec 17, 2023 Full Review Patrick Z. McGavin Chicago Reader Redeemed by Woo’s bravura skills, Face/Off becomes more than just a genre exercise. Rated: 3/4 Jun 15, 2022 Full Review David Ansen Newsweek Woo, a master of poetical carnage, mixes kitsch, sadism, sentiment and comedy with choreographic precision. Feb 28, 2018 Full Review Gayle Sequeira BFI In John Woo’s Face/Off, the unhinged intensity of the actors’ performances and outlandish absurdity of its plot is matched only by the relentless excess of its action. Nov 17, 2024 Full Review Keith Garlington Keith & the Movies In a time when the action genre seems to struggle to find its identity, it says something that the 27-year-old “Face/Off” still holds up against much of what passes for action cinema today. Rated: 4/5 Feb 28, 2024 Full Review Allison Rose FlickDirect Face/Off's action sequences are classic Woo with bullets flying every which way and plethora of guns to go around. Rated: 4.5/5 Dec 28, 2023 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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mark g I've heard of suspension of disbelief in order to enjoy a movie that is somewhat farfetched. However, this film requires a suspension of all intelligence. Too dumb to warrant any respect. Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 01/20/25 Full Review Benjamin H Bathing in its ludicrous nature and the amusing performances by John Travolta and Nicolas Cage, Face/Off is a conceptually interesting action extravaganza that is jacked up on John Woo's stylistic trademarks while also having themes of love and grief that fits nicely in with the kind of movie this is. The film is sometimes a bit chaotic and inconsistent, which is also reflected in some of the editing at times, but this was overall an enjoyable watch. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/12/25 Full Review John C ‘Face/Off’ is a kind of simple film for simple people (and I’m including myself in that demographic). Take one bad guy (Nicholas Cage – cranked up to 11) and then, through a series of bizarre and totally implausible events, he finds himself with his face – literally – swapped with the good guy/cop (John Travolta –also doing his best to crank his performance up to 11) who’s out to catch him. Now, no one believes which one is which and the two of them start trying to take over each other’s lives (while trying to murder each other, obviously). If that brief plot summary hasn’t made you ask more than a few questions regarding the hows and whys of it all, then you really are an expert at suspending your disbelief. Most people would already be picking holes in the story. So, if you’re looking for a watertight plot with no holes in it, you probably should really skip this one. Luckily, Face/Off his just so much fun that you’ll find it easy to gloss over the general absurdities of it all, sit back, break open the popcorn and just roll with it. It is one of the most obviously over-the-top films ever made and, if the plot wasn’t over-the-top enough, then the two leads – Cage and Travolta – spend the film constantly trying to outdo each other as to how extreme they can make their performances. So, take the over-the-top film, add the completely over-the-top performances then, just to finish it off, add the completely unrealistic gunfights and those weird ‘Hollywood-type’ explosions where fireworks seem to shoot out of the flames. What you effectively have here is a B-movie with a decent cast and budget. It carries the film through and will always elevate it over the general mediocre action flicks that go straight to DVD. Basically, it’s a classic – not in the same way as the ‘Godfather’ or ‘Empire Strikes Back,’ but it is a classic for what it is – and what it is is big, dumb, stupid fun. So, if you can appreciate that sort of film, you should definitely get something out of this. Best bit: Nicholas Cage dressed as a priest ‘headbanging’ in a chorus. I will remember that until the day I die. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 12/24/24 Full Review Jonathan O A thrilling crazy roller-coaster powerful action thriller both Cage and Travolta did really phenomenal performance playing cat and mouse and playing each other's characters and the stunts are truly unbelievable and amazing and scripts are so wild and very great writing and spectacular cinematography and really fantastic sound effects. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 12/20/24 Full Review Ari V Not a good film or anything, but lots of fun fodder. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 12/10/24 Full Review Audience Member Does this movie have a lot to say about our society? Not really. Will it change how you view your place in the universe? Probably not. Will it entertain you with 90s action hysteria? Abso-freaking-lutely. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 11/06/24 Full Review Read all reviews
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Face/Off

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Movie Info

Synopsis Obsessed with bringing terrorist Castor Troy (Nicolas Cage) to justice, FBI agent Sean Archer (John Travolta) tracks down Troy, who has boarded a plane in Los Angeles. After the plane crashes and Troy is severely injured, possibly dead, Archer undergoes surgery to remove his face and replace it with Troy's. As Archer tries to use his disguise to elicit information about a bomb from Troy's brother, Troy awakes from a coma and forces the doctor who performed the surgery to give him Archer's face.
Director
John Woo
Producer
Terence Chang, David Permut, Barrie M. Osborne
Screenwriter
Mike Werb, Michael Colleary
Distributor
Paramount Pictures, Buena Vista Pictures
Production Co
Touchstone Pictures, Paramount Pictures
Rating
R
Genre
Action
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Jun 27, 1997, Original
Release Date (Streaming)
Aug 1, 2013
Box Office (Gross USA)
$112.3M
Runtime
2h 18m
Sound Mix
Surround
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