Face/Off (1997) on Netflix
FBI agent Sean Archer has hunted terrorist Castor Troy for six years, since a bullet meant for Archer killed his son. Castor says a bomb will explode in Los Angeles in days.
- Netflix3.7/5
- IMDb7.3/10431,395 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes93%
Trailer
Plot summary
The bullet that killed Michael Archer was meant for his father, Sean Archer, an FBI special agent who has pursued the terrorist Castor Troy for six years. Archer's team ambushes Castor and his younger brother Pollux at a remote desert airstrip, where Castor says a bomb is hidden somewhere in Los Angeles and will go off in a few days. The fight leaves Castor comatose; his brother, held in custody, confirms the bomb is real but will give its location only to Castor. A government official proposes that Archer take Castor's face, voice and appearance through an experimental transplant performed by Dr. Malcolm Walsh, and Archer agrees, entering Pollux's high-security prison as Castor to learn where the bomb lies.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Face/Off (1997)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Writers Mike Werb and Michael Colleary were inspired to write Face/Off after a mutual friend was injured in a hang-gliding accident, an injury that required the friend's face to be removed and reconstructed before being reattached. They wrote it as a spec script in 1990.
- Johnny Depp wanted to play FBI agent Sean Archer but passed on the role after reading the script; John Woo instead hired John Travolta and Nicolas Cage for the two leads.
- John Woo first shot a more ambiguous ending for Face/Off, but after test screenings he shot a more upbeat one instead.
- John Woo wanted Hans Zimmer to compose the Face/Off score, but Zimmer was too busy, so he pointed Woo to John Powell, whom he had faith in.
- Face/Off inspired Andrew Lau's Infernal Affairs, in which Lau swapped identities rather than faces, and that film in turn led to Martin Scorsese's The Departed, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
- Before Travolta and Cage were cast, other pairings were considered for Archer and Castor Troy, including Sylvester Stallone with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Douglas with Harrison Ford, and Alec Baldwin with Bruce Willis.
- John Powell and Gavin Greenaway had to produce 115 minutes of music for Face/Off in ten weeks, and Powell credited Greenaway with some great sequences.
