Movie  1997
 Face/Off      Back      Home
Dr. Eve Archer: Happy Birthday, Mikey. He took our baby, Sean. He took our little boy.
Castor Troy: You watch your FUCKING mouth!
[a faceless Castor Troy confronts Dr. Walsh after waking from a coma]
Dr. Malcolm Walsh: What do you want?
Castor Troy: Take one goddamn guess.
Castor Troy: You'll be seeing a lot of changes around here. Papa's got a brand new bag.
Castor Troy: Wheee. What a predicament.
Castor Troy: Interception! Now our side's got the ball. Sorry!
Castor Troy: I'm ready, ready for the big ride baby!
Castor Troy: I'm about to unleash the biblical plague "Hell"-A. deserves.
Dietrich: No more drugs for that man.
Castor Troy: I hate to see you go, but I LOVE to watch you leave.
Burke Hicks: Don't you remember the little people?
Castor Troy: I AM Castor Troy!
Castor Troy: Well, I've gotta go. I've got a government job to abuse, and a lonely wife to fuck.
Castor Troy: [as Sean Archer] Sasha, baby, I'm Castor. That's Archer.
Sasha Hassler: And I'm bored.
Sean Archer: The man you think is your husband is not your husband.
Castor Troy: [holding his gun at Archer] Wow. We have something in common. We both know our guns.
Pollux Troy: Seeing that face on you makes me afraid my tiramisu might come back up.
Castor Troy: Well, think about me. This nose. This hair. This ridiculous chin.
Sean Archer: Any word from the LAPD intelligence? If there IS such a thing?
Loomis: Not yet, sir.
Sean Archer: Of course not, because we're a covert anti-terrorist team that is so secret, that when we snap our fingers NOTHING HAPPENS!
Sean Archer: I am your father!
[after waking from his coma and watching a video of his surgery]
Castor Troy: Hello, Doctor. I hope you don't mind: I took a few of your groovy painkillers. I'm just enjoying some of your greatest hits here. Oh God, this is excellent. Oh, bravo. Bra-fucking-vo.
Sean Archer: I want to take his face... off. Eyes, nose, skin, teeth. It's coming off.
Castor Troy: Isn't this religious, ah yes. The eternal battle between good and evil, saint and sinners... but you are still not having fun.
Castor Troy: I torched *all* the evidence that proves you're you. So, like, WOW! Looks like you're gonna be in here for...
[looks at his watch]
Castor Troy: [in a childish na-na tone] THE NEXT HUNDRED YEARS!
Castor Troy: Ohhhhhhhhweeee, you good-lookin.
Jamie Archer: Please tell me what planet I'm on!
Dietrich: God damn. My place is getting FUCKED up.
Castor Troy: Ha HA HA HA HA Ha!
Walton: You are now the property of Erewhon Prison. A citizen of nowhere. The Geneva Convention is void here; Amnesty International doesn't know we exist. When I say your ass belongs to me, I mean exactly that.
Sean Archer: When we put this thing away, you can brand the fourth amendment on my butt.
Castor Troy: If I were to send you flowers where would I... no, let me rephrase that. If I were to let you suck my tongue, would you be grateful?
Castor Troy: No daughter of mine would shoot so wide.
Castor Troy: When all else fails - fresh tactics!
Castor Troy: Hello? This is Sean Archer.
Sean Archer: Well, if you are Sean Archer, then I must be Castor Troy.
[Tito, Sean Archer's best friend was killed by Castor Troy]
Buzz: Listen, sir... we just want you to know...
Wanda: We're all really sorry about Tito.
Castor Troy: [as Sean Archer] Yeah, well, shit happens.
Sean Archer: I'm not afraid to die.
Jamie Archer: Dad, I'm sorry I shot you.
Castor Troy: [after saving Archers daughter from help boyfriend raping her] Do you have protection?
Jamie Archer: Protection? You mean like condoms?
Castor Troy: [pulls out his switchblade] No. Protection. Next time, let Carl drop his pants, slip this in his thigh, turn it. That way the wound won't close...
Dietrich: You look like you just fucked your mother.
Castor Troy: You're not having anymore fun, are you Sean?
Castor Troy: Well, you're gonna have to shoot me, 'cause I don't really give a fuck!
Dietrich: Hey Sean, how's your dead son?
[Sean Archer and Castor Troy, each wearing the other's face, meet]
Castor Troy: It's like looking in a mirror. Only... not.
Castor Troy: You are right, Sean. I misbehaved. I have to be punished. But remember... Every time when you look in the mirror, you'll see my face.
Castor Troy: You're not the only one in the family with the brains.
Pollux Troy: No, although now I am the only one with the looks.
Castor Troy: Touche.
Castor Troy: Lies, deceit, mixed messages... this is turning into a real marriage.
Castor Troy: If you dress like Halloween, ghouls will try to get in your pants.
Castor Troy: I don't know what I hate wearing worse: your face or your body. I mean I certainly do enjoy boning your wife, but let's face it, we both like it better the other way, yes? So why don't we trade back.
Sean Archer: You can't give back what you've taken from me.
Castor Troy: OK, then... plan B, why don't we just kill each other?
Castor Troy: Sasha, what the *fuck*... are you doing here?
Castor Troy: Y'know, I could eat a peach for hours.
Description
At his best, director John Woo turns action movies into ballets of blood and bullets grounded in character drama. Face/Off marks Woo's first American film to reach the pitched level of his best Hong Kong work (Hard-Boiled). He takes a patently absurd premise--hero and villain exchange identities by literally swapping faces in science-fiction plastic surgery--and creates a double-barreled revenge film driven by the split psyches of its newly redefined characters. FBI agent Sean Archer (John Travolta) must play the villain to move through the underworld while psychotic terrorist Castor Troy (Nicolas Cage) becomes a perversely paternal family man while using every tool at his disposal to destroy his nemesis. Travolta vamps Cage's tics and flamboyant excess with the grace of a dancer after his transformation from cop to criminal, while Cage plays the sullen, bottled-up agent excruciatingly trapped behind the face of the man who killed his son. His attempts to live up to the terrorist's reputation become cathartic explosions of violence that both thrill and terrify him. This is merely icing on the cake for action fans, the dramatic backbone for some of the most visceral action thrills ever. Woo fills the screen with one show-stopping set piece after another, bringing a poetic grace to the action freakout with sweeping camerawork and sophisticated editing. This marriage of melodrama and mayhem ups the ante from cops-and-robbers clichés to a conflict of near-mythic levels.

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At his best, director John Woo turns action movies into ballets of blood and bullets grounded in character drama. Face/Off marks Woo's first American film to reach the pitched level of his best Hong Kong work (Hard-Boiled). He takes a patently absurd premise--hero and villain exchange identities by literally swapping faces in science-fiction plastic surgery--and creates a double-barreled revenge film driven by the split psyches of its newly redefined characters. FBI agent Sean Archer (John Travolta) must play the villain to move through the underworld while psychotic terrorist Castor Troy (Nicolas Cage) becomes a perversely paternal family man while using every tool at his disposal to destroy his nemesis. Travolta vamps Cage's tics and flamboyant excess with the grace of a dancer after his transformation from cop to criminal, while Cage plays the sullen, bottled-up agent excruciatingly trapped behind the face of the man who killed his son. His attempts to live up to the terrorist's reputation become cathartic explosions of violence that both thrill and terrify him. This is merely icing on the cake for action fans, the dramatic backbone for some of the most visceral action thrills ever. Woo fills the screen with one show-stopping set piece after another, bringing a poetic grace to the action freakout with sweeping camerawork and sophisticated editing. This marriage of melodrama and mayhem ups the ante from cops-and-robbers clichés to a conflict of near-mythic levels. --Sean Axmaker