Episode 109 - FACE OFF: LIVE!

[FisterRoboto 7499]

I'm about to flip the script on y'all: Jessica Chastain as Shawna Archer and Bryce Dallas Howard as Cassandra Troy. Featuring Patrick Wilson as Shawna's husband, Dr. Evan Archer, and Elizabeth Olsen as Cassandra's younger sister, Polly Troy.

 

Don't be ridiculous. Nic Cage would be Shawna Archer's husband. You can't take the Cage out of this movie!

[Bugs Meany 69]

Don't be ridiculous. Nic Cage would be Shawna Archer's husband. You can't take the Cage out of this movie!

That's my bad.

 

The Archer spouse is too level-headed for Cage. How the face/off doctor? Cage would take him from brilliant surgeon to mad scientist.

[FisterRoboto 7499]

You guys. Apparently, the face waterfall is equal to the face rake, where you can watch firsthand here:

 

 

The first comment on that video has one of the best Second Opinions, especially if you imagine it in Paul's voice:

 

Not really a Correction or Omission, but I guess an observation...

 

I was just wondering, in movies where a character is sent to prison, especially one that flouts Habeas Corpus, when the head prison guard gives the inevitable "your ass is mine" speech, are we supposed to believe this speech is straight off the dome or that it is the approved speech as specified in their Standard Operating Procedures?

 

They're all just trying to be Clancy Brown from Shawshank, who was just trying to be R Lee Ermey from FMJ.

[FisterRoboto 7499]

That's my bad.

 

The Archer spouse is too level-headed for Cage. How the face/off doctor? Cage would take him from brilliant surgeon to mad scientist.

I think you just took this from great movie to greatest movie!

[LauraThornquist 0]

By the way, did anyone notice that the name of sea prison was "Erewhon"? Cleverly, that's an anagram of "Nowhere". Deep.

[paultab 225]

If this movie was mostly improvised, could it be said that this was the Spinal Tap of action movies?

[denimgremlin 1179]

Correction(?): "face waterfall" is not what Urban Dictionary calls it. Who knew?

 

it's up!

 

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Face+Waterfall

[AndrewSwindle 0]

Correction: SCOTUS justices most certainly travel with extensive security when they gives speeches. I graduated from law school this year, but two years ago I attended a speech given by Justice Kagan at my law school. The Secret Service showed up at my school the night before to do reconnaissance and check the building's security. There was also a sponsered lunch with Justice Kagan that had to be held in the school's basement library because that was the most "secure" area of the building. So, Castor Troy's 8 day countdown is probably a little too excessive, but he definitely needed to set the bomb up way in advance to have a hope of murdering those justices.

[SensiiMiller 29]

Mentioning Kubrick, my pairing would be R. Lee Ermy and Alan Rickman.

 

Kubrick would have an ending where Rickman goes crazy not being able to cope with Ermy's life that he blows his head off.

[Blast Hardcheese 636]

Given the fact that both Archer and Troy swap faces/bodies/lives, it seems as if the people in each of their spheres - the people closest to them - go out of their way(s) to not mention how their personalities have changed, or that the change in each of these guy's behavior patterns is a concern to them in any way, shape or form.

 

In most movies, when a life altering event occurs that causes a character to deviate even the slightest bit in his personality, another perplexed or confused character closest to the protagonist will usually ask, "Are you alright?" But not this movie.

 

Face/Off has no time for such trivial emotional nonsense.

 

 

 

BTW, my pairing would by Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan in Face/Off 2: Liar and Ice.

[AmandaArreola 3]

I don't get the prison scene. Pollux becomes suspicious of cage/Travolta because he calls him bro but when they are getting on the plane cage/cage calls him bro. Pollux even says he hates when he calls him bro so why is he so surprised that he called him bro.

[Entering the Bone Zone 81]

Repost from the minisode discussion.

 

LOVED this episode, but not enough was made of the utter disregard for collateral damage.

 

When the FBI raids Dietrich's house to recapture the fugitive Troy-Archer, they wantonly fire - unprovoked - into his house with a fucking HAIL of bullets. This is after we see a POV shot from a sniper rifle where the FBI can clearly see a child and half a dozen or so people who are neither Troy-Archer nor Deitrich. And no care is paid to potential civilians in this ritzy LA neighborhood.

 

After this, not only would Archer-Troy not be named Time's Man of the Year, he and his entire team and his superiors would be arrested, Congressional hearings would be called, trials would be held, etc. Hell, even at David Koresh's compound they waited for days/weeks before anything happened.

 

Alternate pairing: Keanu Reeves and Matt McConaughey in "Southern Accents, I Guess / Off"

[broncotruck11 250]

I listened to this before rewatching the film (saw it a long long long time ago) and had no idea wtf face waterfall was.

[jump on the couch 1]

Has anybody commented on how awkward it was when Cagevolta was escaping from the prison, and then his shoes caught on fire out of basically nowhere.

 

Is there any doubt what so ever, that the stuntman performed that stunt without shoes, and then they went back and had to add that shot of his shoes being on fire and being taken off (without a full body shot), for continuity's sake?

 

I'm guessing that someone confused Cage's beshoed character for the now dead shoeless character.

 

Cagevolta.

[PlanBFromOuterSpace 3138]

If this movie was mostly improvised, could it be said that this was the Spinal Tap of action movies?

It certainly goes up to 11. BAM.

[jarrycanada 2483]

people this is what a face waterfall looks like, it can be seen at the Coppola falls.

 

[OoofMaGOOF 348]

They didn't mention it on the show, but my favorite kookoo bananas moment that was so ridiculously John Woo...when they're inciting the riot and escaping the prison. Cagevolta finds some canister of acid (because why not?) flings it up perfectly between 2 guards, SHOOTS IT PERFECTLY like it's goddamn skeet shooting, acid all over the guards.

 

That shit had me rolling.

[Kickpuncher 5012]

That also annoyed me, because it wouldn't really hurt them. They were wearing full riot gear, so they had no exposed skin and multiple layers of protective gear (not too dis-similar to what someone would wear in a chemistry lab for that very purpose) and rugged clothes that could withstand some acid splashing on them.

[KayleighQuate 7]

So I may be revealing too much about myself here, but did anyone else think the movie was trying to imply that Adam was Michael reincarnated?

 

I would say he's about 6 years old, Sean Archer instinctively calls him Michael despite the fact that there's no evidence of that kind of PTSD previously, and Adam's reaction to Lolita's face waterfall is like he already knows what the fuck that means. This movie clearly thought it had lots of deep themes, especially if you keep in mind that original ending, so I can see someone arguing that Castor Troy accidently fixed his biggest mistake.

[mreilly 3]

Face/Off Omission:

 

I was surprised that the discussion of Face/Off did not include a mention of the trailer played in the preceding mini-episode, since that trailer appears to be for a completely different movie!

 

The audio for the trailer consists of John Travolta as Sean Archer explaining his tireless pursuit of "the most dangerous and brilliant criminal mind" he's ever known, leading up to this set up for the movie: "and now after all this time, I've finally figured out a way to trap him: I will become him."

 

Sounds compelling enough, but that is NOT the movie we all just watched! Archer doesn't become Troy to trap him -- by the time Archer becomes Troy, they've already caught him (in fact, he's in custody and in a coma and they use his actual friggin' face -- how are you gonna trap a guy AFTER you steal his face?!). No, Archer becomes Castor Troy in order to get his brother Pollux to reveal the location of a bomb.

 

You could argue that maybe Archer is talking about Pollux Troy in the trailer, but c'mon, the film makes it clear he's obsessed with Castor, not Pollux.

 

So what happened here? How did we get from the plot in the trailer to the plot in the film? WTF, mate?!

[ScottYoungbauer 0]

The choice of 'Over the Rainbow' with a Olivia Newton John cover I thought was a bizaree choice to play over the shootout. I think I read years ago in Premiere Magazine that the Wizard of Oz was one of John Woo's favorite films as a child so it kind of makes sense he would put it over the scene.

I'm also kind of obsessed with Gina Gershon putting head phones over his ears to ONJ singing one of his favorite show tunes to put in out of the violent situation going on. A kid that takes after my own hearts obviously. I want to hear the conversation on the set with John Travolta that his old Grease costar ONJ would be doing the 'Over the Rainbow' cover over the scene.

[JillianLaFave 3]

I have a huuuuuuuuuuuge question regarding the "Science" of this movie (surprise, surprise).

 

How the hell did they switch their teeth???? They explained the face, hair, and voice adequately enough. But the teeth?!?! They would have had to switch skulls for that to work! I mean at least gloss over something "dental" sounding to explain it. I really wanted to be on board with the idea but the teeth are so distracting.

 

 

[JeremiahBenjamin 2]

I recall a couple mini episodes ago in the Q&A section you addressed the question of if How Did This Get Made was a movie, what A-listers would play you. To my astonishment, none of your answers included Nicholas Cage! So I ask, would this theoretical movie be better with Nicholas Cage in it?

[babyoilbandit 81]

In the questions section of the show someone remarked that they would like to see a black actor and a white actor switch faces. Already been done in the great film Suture starring Dennis Haysbert as a man who has a white half-brother and after an attempt to kill him with a car bomb fails the hospital assumes he is actually his white brother and gives him the surgery to restore that face. Great movie even though it may sound silly as hell.

[CraigFranklin 1]

How does Sean Archer think at the end of the movie his life gets to go on happily from that point on? Surely someone will figure out he is responsible for the deaths of about 30 police officers during that prison escape scene.