History Film / FaceOff

* GenreSavvy: When Castor/Archer is told that Castor Troy was killed attempting escape from prison, he demands to see the body. Uopn being informed that no body was found, Castor/Archer immediately knows his enemy is not dead and is coming for him.

* HeelFaceTurn: Sasha

* [[DeadLittleSister Dead Little Brother]]: Michael.[[spoiler: And later Pollux for Castor]]

''Face/Off'' is the second American HeroicBloodshed film by Hong Kong director JohnWoo, starring JohnTravolta and NicolasCage playing an FBI agent and terrorist, as [[ArchEnemy arch enemies]] fighting it out to see who can use [[GunsAkimbo the most guns at the same time]]. Oh, and then they switch places to save LA.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Even for an indiscriminately murderous villain, Castor does have a semblance of honor: He beats up Jamie's boyfriend for trying to rape her, and teaches her to defend herself against future potential rapists with a [[ChekhovsGun butterfly knife]]. He genuinely loves his eccentric [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes idiot-savant brother]], and refused to kill him after Pollux betrayed their location by personally buying their plane ticket, as most terrorists would have. Most notably, he showed genuine horror at accidentally murdering Archer's son rather than Archer as intended, and could barely contain his remorse before the weeping mother when forced to visit the boy's grave as Archer.

-->''Loomis (to Troy!Sean after Pollux' death):'' Why are you so upset? [[TemptingFate It's just Pollux Troy]]

* ChekhovsGun The differing blood types (used by Eve to confirm that Archer-as-Castor is telling the truth), the voice changers.
* [[ChekhovsGun Chekhov's Knife]]: Castor as Archer gives Archer's daughter a [[ButterflyKnife butterfly knife]] and shows her how to stab someone with it. [[spoiler: Later when Castor takes the daughter hostage, [[HoistByHisOwnPetard she takes out the knife he gave her and stabs him the way he taught her!]]]]

* PsychoticSmirk: Sean Archer does one while he is Castor Troy and while he's drunk.

* ActorAllusion - Nick Cage and his beige Volvos.

* TheAlcatraz - A secret prison ("Erewhon" i.e, "Nowhere") , where the prisoners are forced to wear magnetic boots to get locked into place.

* ArchEnemy - Castor to Archer.
* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking - Castor Troy's box of goodies, two gold plated handguns, gold money clip with a wad of cash, numerous joints, bag of blue pills, prescription pills, and a box of chiclets.
* ArtMajorBiology - The face transplant runs on this.
* ATeamFiring - Every. Single. Character.
* AttemptedRape - Castor (as Archer) roughs up Archer's daughter's boyfriend when he tries to do this to her after parking his car in front of Archer's house.
* AxCrazy - Troy acts like this basically the whole movie. His brother is definitely insane as well, but much calmer.
* BedTrick - Castor-As-Archer with the real Archer's wife.
* BlackBestFriend - Tito to Archer.
* BloodstainedGlassWindows - You just knew that Woo would fit a church shootout into this movie somewhere.
* BluffTheImpostor - Happens to both.

* [[ChekhovsGun Chekhov's Knife]] - Castor as Archer gives Archer's daughter a [[ButterflyKnife butterfly knife]] and shows her how to stab someone with it. [[spoiler: Later when Castor takes the daughter hostage, [[HoistByHisOwnPetard she takes out the knife he gave her and stabs him the way he taught her!]]]]
* CoolGuns - Castor Troy's pair of custom gold titanium nitride plated Springfield Armory M1911-A1 pistols.

* DirtyCop - Castor when he's impersonating Archer.
* DrivenToSuicide - Castor, after his brother, Pollux, got killed by Archer.
* DisturbedDoves - It wouldn't be a JohnWoo film otherwise.

* EvenEvilHasStandards - Even for an indiscriminately murderous villain, Castor does have a semblance of honor: He beats up Jamie's boyfriend for trying to rape her, and teaches her to defend herself against future potential rapists with a [[ChekhovsGun butterfly knife]]. He genuinely loves his eccentric [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes idiot-savant brother]], and refused to kill him after Pollux betrayed their location by personally buying their plane ticket, as most terrorists would have. Most notably, he showed genuine horror at accidentally murdering Archer's son rather than Archer as intended, and could barely contain his remorse before the weeping mother when forced to visit the boy's grave as Archer.

* FreakyFriday - The main setup for the plot in question, except faces and voices are swapped, not the minds.

* GroinAttack - Castor!Archer gives a couple in the prison scene before escaping.

* GunFu - This ''is'' a JohnWoo film, after all.
* GunsAkimbo - See above.

* HeelFaceTurn - Sasha
* HeroicBloodshed - The best-known and most-quoted example of this trope in western cinema.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard - Castor's knife technique is used on him by Archer's daughter.

* LargeHam - Cage and Travolta spend the movie trying to [[HamToHamCombat top each other]]. Both succeed.

* {{Leitmotif}} - Sean's whole family has one.

* MexicanStandoff - A very masterful one of these goes down in the church near the end of the movie. It ends in a BlastOut.
* MySisterIsOffLimits - The source of Dubov's anger at Troy. Later inverted when Archer as Troy recruits Dubov to help him escape by telling him he didn't actually do it.
* NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup: Averted with face replacements. [[spoiler:Even though the doctor who originally performed the procedure is dead, the FBI has some of their best doctors flown in to reverse it on Archer.]]

* PetTheDog - Castor Troy gets a genuinely poignant and humane moment when [[spoiler: his brother Pollux dies]].

* PunnyName - In Greek mythology, Castor and Pollux were twin brothers of Helen of Troy.

* SanitySlippage - Archer-as-Castor has a lot of it that he struggles with while wearing his enemy's face. Castor-as-Archer, not so much, as he's already pretty AxCrazy.
* ShootTheDog - [[spoiler:Castor killing Dietrich for telling the police about the bomb.]]
* SignatureStyle - It's a JohnWoo movie. The question is not "Will the lead actors fire GunsAkimbo while flying through the air?" but "When will the lead actors fire GunsAkimbo while flying through the air?"
* SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay - Castor!Archer has failed in all prior attempts to convince his wife that he really ''is'' Archer. Until he reminisces over their first date, at which point she knows it's really him because that's a story they share.
* SoundtrackDissonance - "Somewhere over the Rainbow" plays over a gunfight. Bonus points: It's the version sung by Olivia Newton-John, who starred opposite Travolta [[{{Grease}} once upon a time.]]

* TearOffYourFace: The hero and the villain, for contrived reasons, end up surgically switching faces (and taking each other's places). At one point prior to the villain's surgery, he is shown walking around without a face (just barely; it's limited to a couple of seconds of his face reflected in someone's sunglasses).

* WeWillNotUseStageMakeupInTheFuture - The transplant procedure.
* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic: Mythological names. Mirrors. Faces. Colours. Hmm...

* WithThisRing: Troy!Sean taunts Castor!Archer with his own wedding ring. Castor!Archer takes it badly since [[spoiler:it's proof that Castor killed his best friend Tito whom he gave the ring for safekeeping.]]

Not to be confused with ''Face Off'', a makeup-F/X game show on the [=SyFy=] Channel.

** Also seen when Castor stops Jamie from being raped by her boyfriend in the drive of Archer's house. He may be "helping" by giving a teenage girl a knife without any formal training and committing GBH but it's still pretty heartwarming saying that it's coming from the notably insane Castor .

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic: Mythological names. Mirrors. Faces. Hmm...

Not to be confused with ''[[SeriesFaceOff Face Off]]'', a makeup-F/X game show on the [=SyFy=] Channel.

Not to be confused with ''Face Off'', a makeup-F/X game show on the [=SyFy=] Channel.

Not to be confused with ''Face Off'', a makeup-F/X game show on the SyFyChannel.

** Averted in some cases as both Caster and Archer are seen frequently reloading during shoot outs and at one point they both rely on knowing how many bullets the other has in their magazine, this possibly being a shout out to another [[DirtyHarry famous cop action flick]].

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/face-off_01_9340.png

!Tropes included:

* [[DeadLittleSister Dead Little Brother]]: Michael.[[spoiler: and later Pollux for Castor]]

* HeyItsThatGuy:
** MargaretCho plays an [=FBI=] Agent.
** [[ThePunisher Tom Jane]] as Burke Hicks
** [[That70sShow Hyde]] as Jamie's boyfriend.
** Two cast members of TheWire. Frank Sobotka is Dubov, and Bunny Colvin is Tito.
** [[TheShield Det. Wymns]] is another of Archer's partners.
** [[Film/TheBourneSeries Pamela Landy]] as Dr. Eve Archer.
** Max Bemis of SayAnything appears briefly as a choir boy... he looks about eight though, so it's hard to catch.
** The fact that they had access to this technology makes a lot more sense when you realize the doctor behind the procedure [[JusticeLeagueUnlimited was the woman in charge of Cadmus]].

* [[DeadLittleSister Dead Little Brother]]: Michael.