Chiasmus cult cinema trailers - "Face/off" (1997). *These will be ongoing posts, courtesy of the A.Glass DVD collection. As I offer via Chiasmus Cult trailers, my summarized overviews

What happens when you combine 1970s grindhouse drive in style, shock cinema, with 1990s Hong Kong action melodrama?  You get John Woo's 3rd Hollywood production, the 1997 cult classic "Face/Off" .  Written by screenwriters Mike Werb and Michael Colleary in 1990, and inspired by late 1940s and early 1950 noir crime drama, with a mix of Greek mythology and a schlock take on the reverse 'buddy' movie premise of two arch enemies trading places.  

Originally offered to Warner Brothers as an early 1990s action flick, which was shelved until its option to create a production expired in 1991, and in 1994 Paramount acquired the rights, with the 1995 pre production beginning in Los Angeles.  Originally pitched for American director Rob Cohen to direct, unable to commit due to other projects, it will quickly given to the renown Hong Kong action director John Woo, with already two Hollywood productions under his belt, "Hard Target" (1993) and "Broken Arrow" (1996) with filming beginning in 1996.   Shifting through a collection of top tier Hollywood 'action' actors at the time, Woo settled with John Travolta and Nicolas Cage, Travolta playing the internally tortured, and obsessive FBI agent "Sean Archer", and Cage, the psychotically driven, hitman-for-hire, "Castor Troy".   And with the over-the-top, comical, yet equally over acting of both stars, showcasing Woo's skilled interpretation of how to rework a blockbuster Hollywood production, into a schlock, action flick with bizarre science fiction elements, that both Travolta and Cage perfectly attuned to their given characters.  

The overall premise.  Switching faces, due to a cutting edge surgical procedure, as after tracking down "Castor Troy" (Cage), in a dramatic shootout at the beginning of the movie, placing him in a coma, Travolta's character, who is also able to offer closure, due to the fact that "Troy" had killed his son, with a bullet that was intended for "Sean Archer" (Travolta).  "Troy" and his crazed nerdy brother, have planted a chemical/nerve gas bomb within a downtown L.A. plaza.  Thus, the switcheroo of each other's faces, in "Archer's"  vain, undercover attempt at extracting the location of the bomb from "Troy's" brother who is incarcerated in this bizarre offshore maximum security prison, where prisoners are parading around in huge steel boots, magnetically attached to the iron mesh flooring.    Confused?  We'll too bad, that's only 30 minutes in, when it all goes south, "Troy" awakes from his coma, realises that he has no face, kidnaps the surgeon responsible (and the 'other' FBI agents who know about the face transplant procedure), and has has "Archer's" face attached to him, then kills them all.   And this is where it gets really strange, in a fun and over acting way, as the villain and the hero trade places, inadvertently, with Travolta, and Cage, as mentioned, putting in stella performances, whilst the action and 'comic book' intrigue goes into overdrive.  

The grindhouse element here is evident, as it was reported that John Woo watched the late John Frankenheimer's 1966 science fiction film, "Seconds", involving surgery and changing identity, to which Woo clevely inserted the more unreal, and risque elements into the production, giving it that 1960s and 1970s stylization, which you normally would not find in a 1990s blockbuster production, when 70s inspired innuendos and adult in-jokes were replaced with extra explosion, gunfights and blood. 

And you have to chuckle at Nicholas Cage's facial expressions and performance whilst playing the villain and hero simultaneously (watch for the scene when he is with his 'gang' and is given his special box of goodies, which includes some odd psychedelic type drug/drink.  And he goes off his head), and Travolta's change from the uber serious FBI agent, to a chain smoking, hypersexual, sleazy 'killer', as the both impersonate each other to the action packed finale, after one of them dies, they switch faces, obviously that would be Cage ("Castor Troy").  

However, it was rumored that John Woo shot an ambiguous ending, in true noir-esque style, that the producers scrapped; Did they actually swap faces back again?  And who was really killed?

A 1990s cult classic.  

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(A.Glass 2026)