Face/Off
8/25/97 Update
8/18/97 Update
8/7/97 Update
7/28/97 Update
7/21/97 Update
7/14/97 Update
7/7/97 Update
(Note from Phil: Haven't seen this movie so no plot summary and no brash reflections from me but no doubt more nitpickers will pick nits so I thought I'd start a file.)
Reflections from the Guild
[Note from Phil: I have not verified these but they sounded good to me!]
Joseph Pintar of New Hartford, NY: I just Face/Off. This is one of those movies which is made for nitpicking because the premise is so outlandish. The movie works because of the excellent performances by John Travolta and Nicolas Cage.
Did the vehicle Archer was riding in remind anyone of the vehicle he rode in the movie Broken Arrow?
I wonder why Archer did back off after seeing the captured FBI agent. He should've known she would probably die anyway and his obsession with getting Troy would override everything else especially from what we learn about later in the movie. Of course, if he didn't back off, this would be a real short movie.
So Troy goes flying, hits himself on metal and is assumed to be dead but is just in a coma. That's it! I know that's probably enough to kill you in real life but this is a movie in which people can go faster than bullets and people survive things they should've died from. Something more outlandish was in order here.
Did Pollux have something even resembling a trial? He is sent to a maximum security prison really quickly. About this prison, do things like this actually exist? Prisons on off-shore oil rigs and magnetic boots that keep prisoners at bay sound a little too absurd for my tastes. Maybe director John Woo was being creative with his prison.
For the third movie in a row, Nicolas Cage is behind bars. He was the most famous prison, Alcatraz, in the Rock; got sent to prison in Con Air, and now he sent up the river in Face/Off. I hope Cage is not planning to make a prison drama next.
The movie states that the only way to tell Archer and Troy apart is blood type. What about fingerprints? That would tell easily who is who better than blood type.
How does Troy manage to take over the hospital where he was in a coma so easily? There was an entire task force devoted to putting him behind bars and he manages to easily contact his goons, force the doctors to put Archer's face on, and destroy the building. Something is wrong here.
When I first saw the 5 year old boy, I knew right away his mother, father, and uncle would die so Archer could adopt him.
So at the end, they manage to reverse the procedure. How? Everything about the procedure was destoryed by the Troy. Did CCH Pounder's character tell her twin sister on ER about this procedure?
I think many of the characters should've figured out that Troy was impersonating Archer. How? Because you can by the way he walks he's a woman's man...Ah! Ah! Ah! Staying Alive! Staying Alive! (I'm sorry, couldn't resist)
7/7/97 Update
[From Someone Only Identified as Writter79]: The number one nit of this movie concerns the possibilty of living someone
else's life simply by swiping faces. I'm not sure, behind the technobable,
how it was accomplished but Nick Cage and John Travolta have different
shapped heads (John's is round, Nick's is more oval). Plus there are several
subtle differences, like size of museles, height, size of feet, etc, etc.
Plus personality differences. Sean Archer (as Caster Troy) was smart he had
enough knowledge on Caster Troy that he could easily impersonate him. Where
as Caster Troy (as Sean Archer) simply tells everyone "there''s going to be a
fe changes, I've finally got the stick out of the mud" and everyone goes
along with it.
Why did Pullox Troy make a detailed (and I mean detailed, and HIGHLY
graphical) computer model of his bomb?
Sean's wife has lived with Sean for, I imagine at least 18 years, has had two
children with him, and when Troy (as Sean) sleeps with her, she dosen't
notice any, um... "difference?"
What DID happen to Pullox's trial?
Did the scar-removing laser, remind anyone of a similar device seen on a
certain Sci-Fi TV show?
Not a nit but an observation.
I saw a program on The Learning Channel yesterday afternoon, that said (and
showed) that scientist in labs can "pre-manufacture" body parts! In fact it
showed some techs. making a mold of a human ear, using advanced lab-grown
skin, and graphed it onto the back of a mouse! And it look completely
seamless! This kind of made me wonder where the creators got the idea for a
scene where a cop gets an ear sewn back on to him from.
Un-Nits
Someone above asked how they switched his face back, well Troy only killed
the people who knew about Sean's operation, at the end they called in the
countries top plastic surgeons to fix everything.
Someone also said that fingerprints were a better way to tell the difference
between two people. That may not be entirely true. Many, many fingerprints
can look alike, and be hard to tell from another. Where as blood types can
only be one of few things (A+, A-, O, AB, AB-, etc.) (Note from Phil: I realize fingerprints might look similar but if police really can't tell the difference between them, I'd say law enforcement has a lot of explaining to do!)
Johnson Lai: Personally, I loved the movie. It's more of a fantasy/sci-fi than a
"reality" film so that's what makes it great. I'm not going to go into
nitpicking the plot, because of this movie's fantasy nature, but I do have
just one small observation to point out this time: when the cops get to the
convention center to disarm the bomb, we start off with a wide establishing
shot outside the building. Then, the shot changes to have the camera
inside the building, looking outward. In that shot, you can see a crane
outside behind all the police vehicles. That must be the camera used for
the establishing shot. It would seem logical that both cameras were
rolling at the same time to maintain continuity between the shots.
Well, it was a small observation, but I guess it took me a long paragraph
to describe. :)
Robert J. Woolley: I can't believe I'm among the first to comment on this. What a luxury, not to
have the disappointment of finding that everything I noticed has already been
reported by somebody else!
Contrary to the first repsondent, I think this movie should almost be declared
off-limits for nitpicking. It is one that requires an incredibly high level of
suspension of disbelief. (Actually, our local newspaper reviewer says that it
requires you to forget you ever knew there was such a thing as disbelief!)
Basically, you either buy the whole thing or you don't; unlike most sci-fi, it's
pretty hard to say, well, I'd be able to accept it if not for thiese little
flaws and inconsistencies.
So, I'll not comment on those really enormous items of preposterousness that
form the basic premise, but only on some details. And, as usual, I tend to
notice the medical things most. Of course, we have to just swallow that there
exists a top-secret government facility that can perform face transplants that
heal with no scars in a few days, transplant the scars and body hair and other
distinguishing characteristics, etc. (And we'll just pass over without comment
whether they managed to transform his private bits so that his wife could have
sex with him and never notice anything amiss...)
OK, all that given. Still, there are problems with how it is presented. They
clearly show and state that they are merely removing the skin, and reattaching
it to the underlying muscles and other soft tissue of the new host. This is just
wrong. The skin is most decidedly not what gives the face its shape; it simply
conforms to the underlying tissue. IOW, if all you do is exchange the skin,
you'll end up with two people looking just like they did before, except for skin
color/texture variations. About the most you can do by operating on the skin is
something like a facelift. They should have said that they had to resculpture
the facial bones and muscles. Then they wouldn't even have to necessarily
trnasplant the skin, but could just put the original skin back on and let it
conform to the new shape! Of course, that would ruin the movie, since then Troy
(Cage) would not wake up and find his face missing, and Travolta's face lying in
a lab dish. In fact, no surgery at all would have had to be done on Cage; they
could have just let him die, and done the operation on Travolta to look like
Cage.
OK, OK, so maybe I'm violating my own self-prohibition against questioning the
premise!
Next: Nicolas Cage is in a coma. One of the doctors says he's a "turnip," and to
prove it, grinds out her lit cigarette on his arm. I certainly *hope* no doctor
would do such a thing! But more importantly, it would be impossible for them to
know that he would not awaken. This will take some explanation, I'm afraid, but
I hope will be worth it.
Comas are, for the most part, very unpredictable as to which way they will go.
But the one predictable thing is that they will not remain comas. Coma is a
transitory state, never a permanent one, the popular phrase "permanent coma"
notwithstanding. Coma turns into one of three subsequent states: (1) death, (2)
persistent vegetative state (with eyes open--not the same thing as a coma), or
(3) reawakening. Coma often lasts for days, sometimes weeks, rarely months, but
is never permanent.
The only way one can be sure of the outcome early on is if there is so much
damage to the brain, as seen on CT scan, that it is unsurvivable. Basically, you
can see the brain turned to mush--literally liquified; then you can know that
there is no hope. But (and here we're getting to the important part) if there is
this much damage, the brain function would be such that the person couldn't
breathe spontaneously, but would have to be on a ventilator. Cage, in the film,
is not on a ventilator. Therefore, at least the brainstem is still functional.
Therefore, there *cannot* be the level of brain damage that would allow the
doctors to be certain that the outcome would be either (1) or (2) above.
It's too bad, really. They could have made this more accurate *and* more
dramatic at the same time. Put Cage on a ventilator. Then when he wakes up, he
can be shown pulling the breathing tube out of his own throat! (Of course, that
would set off all sorts of alarms, which is maybe why they didn't do it that
way.)
At one point (I think just as Cage is waking up), the heart monitor reads "107"
(as I recall), but the beeps in the background are going much faster, maybe
180-200.
If I remember correctly, Travolta's surgery scene shows them removing his face
with no ventilator tube in his mouth. Pray tell, how did they get him deeply
enough asleep to remove his face while he's still breathing on his own?
I was disappointed that they never did a clear shot of Nicolas Cage with his
face off. They always shot him from the back, except for one blurry view
reflected in somebody's glasses. (And that, too, was unconvincing, since it
clearly showed him with lips, whereas the face in the dish, awaiting
replantation, has the lips on it!) Given all the money they spent on special
effects, they couldn't afford 5 seconds of computer generated drippy gore as the
underlying facial tissue? (Note from Phil: Eeew! ;-)
Cage's head, after his face is removed, is just wrapped in gauze. Nobody would
do this. Gauze sticks horribly to exposed, skinless tissue. There are a variety
of non-stick materials that might be used, but we never see these.
It's amusing (in a macabre kind of way) to hear Cage talking on the telephone
with no face. I think they probably got about right how difficult it would be
for him to speak clearly without lips, though perhaps a speech pathologist could
tell us how close they got.
Toward the end of the movie, Travolta gets a vicious stab wound in the thigh,
which properly causes a severely antalgic limp. However, in the later boat-chase
and fight scenes, which follow immediately, the limp is only inconsistently
present.
7/14/97 Update
Matthew Chiappardi: If you get the chance, check this flick out. It's purely escapist
action, but it certainly does deliver on the 'fun' scale.
One nit (I hope reading all these nits isn't ruining the movie for
you)-- the creators go through great pains to mention Sean Archer's scar
from the bullet wound Castor Troy gave him. It looked like they were
trying to foreshadow how Troy would be found out wearing Archer's face.
Perhaps while Troy was being intimate with with Archer's wife she would
notice no scar and......
But they just used it as a melodramatic reminder of Archer's son's
death. At the end Archer tells the doctor he 'won't need his scar
anymore', well O.K., you now have about 500 more, so I guess you don't
really need it. Missed opportunity.
Also, kudos to John Travolta for his self parody during the film. He
gets jabbed about fixing his 'love-handles' when he becomes Troy; and
Troy as Archer mention that 'ridiculous chin'.
Anyone else notice the legend of Castor and Pollux which took place in
Troy?
Finally Robert J. Woodley mentioned he was dissapointed they failed to
have a full shot of Troy's cut off face. I wasn't, besides the 'ewwww'
factor John Wu used a much more effective cinematic device. It's always
more scary or gory for what you don't show on screen. it leaves it up
to the audience's imagination which, to the individual, will always be
more effective than a manufactured image on a screen. This is a method
that has fallen out of disuse recently with horror films, and
subsequentially the closer we get to now, the less classic horror films
there are. They're just not as effective. For the same reason that
horror novels are so much more effective than films. So that scene
freaked me out, because I kept imagining how Nicholas Cage would look
without a face.
However, it would be pretty cool to see a guy with no face on screen (I
guess I'm part of the problem too).
Bob Cascella of Falls Church, VA: I'm just getting started with this nitpicking, so my first entry is fairly simple: Near the beginning of the movie, the location of the
bullet hole in Archer's back is much higher than it is later depicted,
even accounting for a certain amount of downward angle on the trajectory
of the bullet. The way it appeared to me, the bullet would have gone
through the muscles between his neck and shoulder and hit his son in
the head.
Nobody thought it was unusual that Archer knew how to disable
the bomb that the bomb squad couldn't disable?
The fake Archer makes Eve a huge dinner, with lobster and I
don't remember what else. They eat all this and then make love, etc.
Later on, the real Archer (as Troy) convinces Eve that he is really
Archer by retelling the story of their first date. A key part of that
story was that Eve was a VEGETARIAN!
Paul MacEachern of Hudson, MA: I went into this movie with a relaxed, non-nitpicking attitude. However, being a big fan of the nitpicker guild, I had to make a few
comments.
At one point, Travolta's wife takes a blood sample while he is
sleeping. Now, I'm a pretty deep sleeper, but if I was lanced in my
sleep, I doubt I'd simply grunt and roll over as John does.
To extrapolate further on a point by a previous entry. Even with the
face switching, it's quite evident to see that Travolta's and Cage's
skeletal structure is quite different. Wouldn't some stretching/sagging
occur? Maybe they did the ol' face switching nip and tuck method.
One question going in was 'How are they going to change the voices?'
The answer is a chip that attaches to the vocal chords and resynthesizes
the voice. The doctor intones that any slight jarring movement will
dislodge the chip, yet the chip seems to be working just fine even after
several boat chasing/fighting scenes.
Erin Hunt: Not only do Troy and Archer switch faces, but each one miraculously
acquires the other guy's very different physique.
After removing Troy's face, they just leave him like that, without
giving him new skin or artificial skin or anything. Are the doctors
really allowed to treat patients like that? Not only does it seem just
plain inhumane, but you'd think a great big open wound like that would
be a risk for infection, wraps or no wraps.
7/21/97 Update
Lisa B: Well, this was interesting. Lots of explosions and death and blood and
gore, and behind it all a plot line.A lot of the story was unnecessary,
considering the whole affair could have been wrapped up in five minutes
with a simple blood test (done later in the show) and the removal of the
microchip that altered Archer's voice. But I guess the writers wanted to
stretch the story out. One thing I don't think is realistic (although I may
be wrong) is the fact that so many people; including police, criminals, and
victims; died in the persuit of one man (meaning only during the times when
the government agents were in the vicinity of Troy or Archer and trying to
apprehend him). Also, there was some sort of phenomenon (not a pun) that
caused Troy and Archer to be unkillable. Troy got flung backwards a couple
hundred feet into a metal wall and lived. Archer jumped from very high up
into the water and not only lived, but somehow made it to land (presumably
very far away). Both of them were flung into the air out of a boat and
lived. I half expected Troy to get up while Archer was removing his ring
from Troy's finger. I'm sure there were other things, but even these things
were probably said be others.
Did anyone notince how when Archer (as Troy) was talking to Troy's buddies
about taking "Archer's" face off, they just kept repeating it? And why you
ask? Oh look, the Film's title has a double meaning. Wow. "Face off between
Travolta and Cage, and taking their faces off!" Isn't John Woo slick?
Shon Lo from Cambridge, MA: This is in response to someone else's observation...
In mythology, Castor and Pollux were minor gods (of sailors?) who became known for their
fraternal love.
I thought this was a good movie - definitely one of the best of the
summer. Of course, it was scientifically/medically inaccurate (as
other people have pointed out), but I guess you can't have
everything...
small nits:
I want to know how Archer got to shore after escaping from the prison
- did he swim all the whole way? Also, are there any oil rigs in the
Pacific? I thought they were mostly in the northern atlantic, and
similarly cold waters.
Shouldn't Castor be restrained, even if he is in a coma? why didn't
they just let him die on the operating table?
I won't even start in on how Mrs. Archer could have missed the changes
in her "husband"
favorite scene:
when Cage/Castor is getting out of the car at the airport and his
overcoat billows out behind him in the wind as he's slinking towards
his brother's plane.
7/28/97 Update
Alexander Shearer: Yes, there are oil drilling stations off the west coast, in the
LA-ish area (I don't recall exactly where, though I want to say near Long
Beach...).
James E. Puntch: This one is a doozy, I can't believe no one else has mentioned it.
During the gunfight in the church, Travolta picks up a mac-10 type
weapon. They then take the gunfight outside. The mac-10 apparently
runs out of ammo and he draws a mprmal semi-automatic type pistol. BUT,
the sound effects continue to make automatic-weapon sounds when he
fires. I nearly jumped out of my seat when I first saw this, and it
stills raises my blood pressure when I see it (I work in a theater, so I've seen it a lot.)
When Nic Cage steals a car he parks it outside of the hospital to
call his wife. While he's on hold he rubs the chip in his throat and it
garbles his voice. However, in the gunfight in the church, he strangles
Travolta with the aforementioned mac-10, and Travolta's voice doesn't
change? Why?
When Archer's son is shot, we see blood splattered on the carousel
horse's neck. This would need to come from an exit wound on the back of
his son's head/neck area (It was hard to tell where the bullet would go
in) However, when we see his son's back, no exit wound is seen.
Also, as a matter of reference, here are all the references to John
Woo's "The Killer" that I found. 1) Someone wearing a fake mustache in
order to snipe (Is that a real word?) someone 2) A gunfight in a church,
with birds flying around. 3) A speedboat chase. Well, this came out
much longer than I intended. So I'll go away now.
P.S. What an astoundingly complex mexican standoff at the end. I kept
waiting for more people to show up to take part. Heehee, I could just
imagine 2 dozen people all pointing guns at each other.
8/7/97 Update
Matt Cotnoir: First of all, and this is a big one, why on God's green earth did Castor
Troy want to kill Sean Archer in the first place. No explanation was
ever given.
Secondly, about everybody's questions to how the pulled off the
switching of the bodies. There were many references to other surgeries
involved that helped them take on each others apprearance.
I also believe CCH Pounder's character was a FBI agent, not a doctor as
previously mentioned.
I also hope nobody in that prison had any broken limbs. The magnetic
field would wreck havoc on any pins or plates in the prisoner's limbs
(sort of like the same reason why they ask you if you have any metal in
your head if they want to give you an MRI. Ouch!)
Another nit about the prison scene...When Archer as Troy starts rioting
in the, uh, correctional room, there is a cut away to the control room,
the one when they can see where everyone is because of the boots that
they have on. In this scene, they have a position of Archer as Troy in
the prison, but this would be impossible because of the fact that he
didn't have his boots on.
The whole last chase scene of the film to me is invalid. When the white
boat (I forget who was driving it) crashed into the police boat, one of
two things would have happened:
1. ...the boat would have collapsed into a pile of rubble or
2. ...the propellor on the boat would have been shorn right off.
Either way, the boat would have gone nowhere fast.
One last thing...why was the funeral service in Latin? The Catholic
Church hardly uses it any more, and when the do, it is usually reserved
for Eucharistic Benedictions and blessings.
Jeffrey M. Muscato: I haven't seen the movie but I just wanted to put my two cents in: there's
a lot more to how people act than just their face and voice (and blood
type). Every little movement shows characteristics of a person's
personality -- and anyone who's known that person closely for years would
immediately tell the difference. Think about how you can tell what member
of your family is walking down the hall outside the room you're in just by
the sound of their footsteps. It's almost unconcious, but stop and think
how many times you call out to someone by name just from hearing their
footsteps. Or the way that they tap their fingers or their foot or
whatever. There's just so many things that should be obvious to a loved one
if someone isn't who they say they are.
8/18/97 Update
Francis J. Rogers, of New Rochelle, NY: I greatly
enjoyed [this movie]. For once, you didn't just have special effects (altho the fights
and gunfights were great, in the air, on the ground, and in the water) but
real characters; kudos to Travolta and Cage for their performances as each
other(!).
First off, I'd like to acknowledge there are flaws in the logic of the
film (nitpickers have noted the medical improbabilities/impossibilities, plus
the unlikely scenario of having Troy suddenly waking up and finding out
where he is without anyone noticing). However, in defense of the film...
About the prison: FACE/OFF was originally set about thirty years in the
future (I've read the opening scenes of the original script off the Net, and
they're quite different from what's on screen), so it's not surprising the
prison has a "futuristic" feel that seems somewhat out of place from the time
frame of the film.
Some people have mentioned that Archer and Troy could have been
identified from their fingerprints. I recall a scene (saw the movie twice,
something I don't do often) in which Archer puts his hands on some sort of
instrument, which I assumed was giving him Troy's fingerprints. Also, some
have speculated (with varying degrees of ribaldity) why Archer's wife didn't
know it was an imposter when Troy came in with Archer's face. 1, she hadn't
had been intimate with her husband in two months, 2, Archer and Troy might
not have been been, ah, too different in that particular area; 3, Troy posing
as Archer might have been intimate with Mrs. Archer in the dark, so she
didn't have any chance to see it closely.
Two last comments: someone mentioned that Eve was a vegetarian, and
would not have eaten that meal of steak and lobsters. The key might be Eve
WAS a vegetarian...after 18 years of marriage, she might have changed her
eating habits! Also, someone complained about the comments by Archer (as
Troy) that he wanted to take "Archer's" face off, and this was repeated by
his budies. Actually, I thought this was done to show that Archer (being
"Troy") was starting to lose it, and was obsessing about the operation (he
had just escaped from prison, after all, and had just swallowed
which-apparently-contained cocaine, not exactly guarenteeing a stable
personality!).
8/25/97 Update
Michael Gurwitz of Washington, DC: I hope my nit for Face/Off hasn't already been pointed out: If Castor and Pollux Troy are supposed to be such clever, paranoid, and technologically
adept terrorists, then why on Earth did they plot with each other over CORDLESS PHONES! Good grief,
talk about your most basic screw-up.
I could go on to nit this movie to shreds, but why bother. If one can manage
to leave
their disbelief at home in a sealed jar before seeing this movie, one can
have a very
good time.
If you would like to add some comments,
drop me a note at chief@nitcentral.com.
Please put "Face/Off" in the Subject line and include your real
name, city and state (or province and county as the case may be) in the body
of the e-mail so I can give you credit if you are the first person to bring
up a particular nit. (Remember the legalese: Everything you submit becomes
mine and you grant me the right to use your name in any future publication
by me. I will do my best to give you credit if you are the first person to
submit a particular nit but I make no guarantees. And finally, due to the
volume of mail received at Nitpicker Central, your submission may or may
not be acknowledged. However, your submission will earn you a membership in the Nitpickers Guild if you are not already a member!)
Copyright 1997 by Phil Farrand. All Rights Reserved.