So here were are, at the end of what has been a long road filled with adventure, merriment, and some difficult choices. It’s time to draw the Cage-Off to a close.
The remaining four films are all fantastic and show the diversity of Nicolas Cage. In each semi-final we have a film from the 90s pitted against something from this decade which shows Cage’s longevity. We have action, we have drama, we have comedy. These films exhilarate and plunge the depths of grief, but only one can be left at the end.
Semi-final one
Pig vs Bringing Out the Dead.
Michael Sarnoski’s 2021 directorial debut, Pig, and Martin Scorsese’s seventeenth movie, 1999’s Bringing Out the Dead have a lot in common. Both contain excellent performances from Nicolas Cage (that’s why they’ve made it this far), both have settings which are a huge part of the film – Portland in Pig, and New York in Bringing Out the Dead, and both explore the theme of grief. It’s plunging these depths which makes them both so powerful.
When I first watched Pig, I knew very little. When Robin Feld had his Pig stolen, I thought we were going into be in for a Taken-esque experience. Instead, we get Cage plodding around Portland in blood-stained rags driven by a purpose which seems to be way too extreme for the cause. Until we understand what that Pig represents. There are several exquisite scenes in this movie. One sees Feld attend a restaurant and destroy the chef by forcing him to confront why he’s not following his dreams. Alex Wolff is the perfect foil for Cage too. The way he listens to classic music, but has some kind of explanation or commentary on it shows this is a character who is desperately trying to fit in to a difficult world – he’s terrified that towing this truffle-hunter around is going to ruin his reputation.
Then we have Bringing Out the Dead, a film which people keep coming back to and wondering why it didn’t get more attention at the time. Cage himself claims it’s one of his best. When people talk about the underrated Scorsese movies, this one is never far from people’s lips. Some people blame the marketing, others the position of the movie industry at end of the 20th Century. Those who brushed it aside are started to look again, and realise they’re staring at a gem. It captures the role of a paramedic in many different ways – that constant battle against death, the fast pace as you race from job to job trying to save lives. Then it asks what happens if you’re a paramedic who hasn’t saved a life in a very long time. And you’re blaming yourself for one of those you couldn’t save. Oh, and the one person you maybe have saved keeps speaking to you, begging for death. The rest of the cast help show Frank Pierce’s struggles. There are the other paramedics, each troubled in their own way played by John Goodman, Vingh Rhames and an absolutely unhinged Tom Sizemore. There’s Patricia Arquette, struggling to stay clean while dealing with her estranged father as he clings to life. Cage looks like an absolute ghoul in this movie. You genuinely believe he has not only experienced these horrors, but that they’ve got their hooks into him, and they’re dragging him down into the mire with them.
So which film makes the final? At the end of the day, it comes down to directorial experience. Every moment in Bringing Out the Dead contributes to the state Frank Pierce is in. With Pig, there are a couple of moments that don’t quite hit the mark – the persimmon tree conversation with the infant doesn’t quite hit, and the underground restauranteur fight club stretches credibility a little too far. Pig remains a fantastic film, and one I’m sure to watch again and again, but Bringing Out the Dead is the better movie, and by a fraction, the better performance.
Semi Final two
The Rock vs The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
1996 action epic vs 2022 meta action comedy. Damn. Both of these films are ridiculous amounts of fun. This is not an easy choice.
Let’s start with The Rock. It’s an action movie that gets so much right. The action set pieces are a thrill ride. We all know Michael Bay does this well. Bad Boys proved he can handle action. You have to strip away that layer to see what we have here. We have Nicolas Cage as Stanley Goodspeed, an FBI chemical weapons expert. He’s not just good at his job, he’s great at it. He proves it early on in a hectic scene in which he defuses a bomb with only seconds left on the clock. (That’s not the opening scene, we’ve already had an action-packed opener with the stealing of the VX gas rockets by a rogue military operation.) He’s a quirky guy. He’s a science nerd who loves vinyl in the 90s. What he’s not, is a field agent. So when it all kicks off and he’s forced to go to Alcatraz we get the archetypal fish out of water scenario. Cage plays it brilliantly. Goodspeed knows he’s not cut out for this, but he just won’t quit. He just really wants to find some rockets. Then stick him with John Mason. I’m sure we’ve all heard the theory that John Mason is a version of James Bond has American intelligence decided to incarcerate him for decades. It’s a theory that works. You can ignore that and it still pans out the same was. He has training and the instinct to survive in these situations – but the last place he wants to be is back on Alcatraz Island. The two of them are brilliant on screen together. It helps that the dialogue is massively quotable too. It’s probably time for me to “cut the chit chat, A-hole” and move on.
I first watched The Unbearable Weight of Massive talent around 2 years ago, which, funnily enough, is what started me off on this crazy ride. It made me want to watch more of Nicolas Cage’s films, so much that I watched 50 of them in 2023 and then pitted them against each other in an event which took almost a whole year to write up. It also convinced me that it was an excellent idea to write a Nicolas Cage Puzzle Book. Which is also correct. This is a film that couldn’t exist without Nicolas Cage having become the cultural icon that he is, the subject of countless memes. Exploring all of that, this film could have just been a silly mess. It isn’t. The version of Nicolas Cage we see here is just grounded enough in reality. There are jokes about the amount of films he’s in. There’s an early monologue which showcases some of that intensity Cage brings to his roles. There’s the past version of himself that acts as either his conscience, his guilt, or the devil on his shoulder. But it also understands that it can’t just be a film about Nicolas Cage. So, it has another element involving a kidnap and Cage being forced to act as a spy. It’s ridiculous amounts of fun. And as much as The Rock is escalated to greater heights by the dynamic between Cage and Connery, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is made all the better by Pedro Pascal and Nicolas Cage together on screen. The scenes in which they’re driving around discussing movies are full of joy. Towards the end, we lose the comedy and shift firmly into action territory, and that works brilliantly well too, especially the reprise of the early monologue. It’s a film that works best if you’ve seen all of the Cage classics (and a few of the duds, too). It becomes a joyous experience that is so much more that a celebration of the wonder that it Nicolas Cage.
But which film makes the final? Well, it’s The Rock, isn’t it? Why? As much as The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent shines a spotlight on what makes Cage so damned brilliant, The Rock is a damned spectacle from start to finish. The score fits perfectly. Stanley Goodspeed is the kind of unlikely hero we can get behind. The rest of the supporting cast add to it massively too. Ed Harris and David Morse in particular show how complex the villains are – these are good men who feel forced into a horrible situation by a government which has let them down. Yeah, I can make a hundred cases for putting The Rock into the final, so on it goes, leaving behind a very worthy defeated adversary.
The Final
Bringing Out the Dead vs The Rock
Who’d have thought we’d end up with two 90s classics? We have Bringing Out the Dead in which Cage gives an Oscar-worthy performance of a man with a demanding job being torn apart by grief, and we have Nicolas Cage’s first proper role as an action hero. Both are brilliant albeit very different movies with very different moods. As much as I can sing the praises of Bringing Out the Dead, there can only be one winner, and that’s The Rock. Maybe it’s because I’ve watched it so many times it has this comforting familiarity, or maybe it is just that damned good. The Rock is a great film. Stanley Goodspeed is a fantastic character. It’s the worthy winner of this or any other Cage-Off.
It’s over. I’ve finally finished this exploration of all 50 Nicolas Cage movies I watched in 2023. So what’s next? Well, I did watch a fair few Nicolas Cage films in 2024, too, you know. And in 2025, there’s plenty more to look forward to, including this:
The Cage-Off is brought to you by the new and improved Blockbuster Edition of the Unofficial and Unauthorised Nicolas Cage Puzzle Book.