History Film / FaceOff

* HighConcept: Sean Archer, top agent in the FBI Los Angeles field office, plays off against Castor Troy, most wanted terrorist in the United States, and they have to impersonate each other while desperately racing to try and cause/prevent acts of terrorism, each being hounded within an inch of their lives by their own allies along the way.

** Likewise, one sees that Archer clearly has some points about being reluctant to undergo a surgery giving him Castor's face. His point being that there are a number of ways in which such an undercover operation could be bungled, like Castor coming out of his coma.

* ThoseTwoBadGuys: Lars and Leo, the only thugs the Troy brothers keep working for them after the face switch.

** [[spoiler: Dietrich]]

** Castor also appears to have this expression in the beginning after he accidentally kills Michael,

** Also seen when Castor stops Jamie from being raped by her boyfriend in the driveway of Archer's house. He may be "helping" by giving a teenage girl a knife without any formal training and committing grievous bodily harm but it's still pretty heartwarming saying that an insane psychopath like Castor who does worse things like kill cops and plant big bombs is stopping this kind of thing.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: [[ZigzaggedTrope Zig-zagged]] with Castor Troy, an indiscriminately murderous scumbag. He beats up Jamie's boyfriend's for trying to rape her and gives her a knife for self defense. However, earlier in the film he also threatened to rape Jamie ''[[RelativeButton to her father's face]]''. He shows that he's serious when, during the standoff in the climax, [[LecherousLicking he licks her face while she thinks Troy is her father]]. In the opening Troy also shows shock when he accidentally shoots Archer's son, but when he visits the boy's grave with Archer's weeping wife he looks more bored than remorseful. The only definite redeeming trait he ends up with is [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes his love for his brother Pollux]].

*** Ultimately, Castor's unorthodox tactics gets Lazarro even more suspicious of him. Enough that Castor is forced to kill him when he gets too close to the son.

* TearOffYourFace: Archer and Castor, for contrived reasons, end up surgically switching faces (and taking each others places). After Castor wakes up and before he receives Archer's face (off-screen), he is shown walking around without a face (just barely; it's limited to a couple of seconds of his face reflected in Dr. Walsh's glasses and a couple very quick direct shots when he's clapping after watching the videotape of the surgery; otherwise, we only see him from behind or his shadow on the side of a wall).

%%* IndyPloy: Archer staging a jailbreak.

* RealityEnsues: Because of how different Archer's FBI job is from Castor's criminal lifestyle, both Archer and Castor at several points come narrowly close to slipping their identities away.
** Castor comes dangerously close to giving himself away as an impostor on at least three occasions:
*** When he meets Jamie for the first time, he mistakenly calls her "Janie" (and one will notice that he refers to her by that name in the hangar standoff). She is understandably not pleased to find that Castor has "forgotten" her name, and Castor hastily looks at a bed pillow with Jamie's name on it before replying, "I don't think you heard me, ''Jamie''. You got something that I crave." Castor also smokes, while Archer doesn't.
--->'''Jamie Archer:''' Clarissa left those here.\\
'''Castor Troy:''' Oh, well I won't tell mom if you don't. ''[He lights a cigarette]''\\
'''Jamie Archer:''' When did you start smoking?\\
'''Castor Troy:''' You'll be seeing a lot of changes around here. ''[blows smoke rings in Jamie's face]'' Papa's got a brand new bag! OW! ''[Jamie laughs. Castor slowly walks out of the room singing along to the music]''
*** Castor uses Archer's job to cut a "deal" with Pollux to get him out of prison. The real Archer is shown to be a tough cop who never cuts any plea bargains with suspects, and certainly not with the brother of his sworn enemy. Lazarro is quick to call Castor out on this. Castor narrowly dodges a bullet by replying, "Well, when all else fails, fresh tactics!"
*** Castor sees [[spoiler: Pollux die in front of him, and understandably he breaks down in tears, [[DrivenToSuicide and puts a gun to his head]]. Then Loomis sees him and says, "Sir why are you so upset? It's just Pollux Troy." Castor [[BoomHeadshot shoots Loomis in the face]].]]
*** Ultimately, Castor's unorthodox tactics gets Lazarro even more suspicious of him. Enough that Castor is forced to kill him when he gets too close to the son.
** Archer nearly gives away he's just impersonating Castor on a couple of occasions:
*** This starts as early as the moment he is dumped in jail and he recognizes an inmate he put away, and almost forgets he's not supposed to answer to the name of Sean Archer.
*** When speaking with Pollux, one notices that Archer is rather hesitant and a bit quieter when talking, probably because he knows he has to be extra careful not to say something that could blow his cover.
*** Archer is not used to the drugs that Castor normally takes, so when he takes drug-laced water at Dietrich's place, his body rejects it.
** When Archer breaks back into his house to reach out to his wife, she (not knowing about the switch) understandably freaks out as she thinks she's face to face with the man who killed their son.

--->[[spoiler: [[FamousLastWords Hey, man... we had some good times, didn't we?]]]]

* HamToHamCombat: For most of the film, Castor Troy is John Travolta pretending to be Nicolas Cage pretending to be Travolta, while Sean Archer is Nicolas Cage pretending to be John Travolta pretending to be Cage. [[CrazyAwesome It's just as glorious as it sounds.]]

-->'''Castor Troy:''' OK, Victor, I'll, uh, give the taxpayers a break. ''[puts his hand on Lazarro's shoulder]'' But I've got something to confess. I don't think you're gonna like it.
-->''[puts his mouth on Lazarro's ear]''
-->'''Castor Troy:''' ''[angrily]'' I ''am'' Castor Troy! ''[throws Lazarro to the floor and punches him in the chest hard enough to stop his heart completely]''

-->'''Sean Archer:''' This is between us. Leave them out of it.
-->'''Castor Troy:''' No. You should have left ''them'' out of it. Your son was an accident. I wanted to kill you. But, you took it so personally! Why couldn't you just kill yourself or let it go?
-->'''Sean Archer:''' No father could.
-->'''Castor Troy:''' No brother could either. ''[Castor's girlfriend Sasha comes in with a pistol in hand]''
-->'''Sasha Hassler:''' Neither could a sister. Hey baby. ''[She tosses a spare gun to Archer, as Archer has Castor's face]''
-->'''Castor Troy:''' ''[annoyed]'' Sasha, what the fuck are you doing here?
-->'''Sasha Hassler:''' Gee, Archer, I'm crashing the party. You okay, baby?
-->'''Sean Archer:''' Yeah. I'm fine. Thanks.
-->'''Castor Troy:''' Sasha... baby, ''I'm'' Castor. ''He's'' Archer.
-->'''Sasha Hassler:''' And I'm bored. Put the fucking gun down.

-->[[spoiler: [[FamousLastWords Hey, man... we had some good times, didn't we?]]]]

-->'''Carousel Sniper Victim'''\\

-->'''Castor Troy:''' Whoooo-wheeee, you're good lookin'! Ya ''hot!'' ''[He advances on Archer]'' It's like looking in a mirror, only ''not.'' ''[beat]''
-->'''Sean Archer:''' Troy?
-->'''Castor Troy:''' Now ''that'' [[JustBetweenYouAndMe is between us]], OK?
-->'''Sean Archer:''' But you were--were, uh...
-->'''Castor Troy:''' In a coma? Nothing like having your ''face'' cut off to disturb your sleep! Read the newspaper lately? ''[flashes a newspaper article in the real Archer's face headlined "Deadly Inferno at Walsh Institute" with Dr. Walsh's picture]''
-->'''Sean Archer:''' You killed them?
-->'''Castor Troy:''' Yeah, well, beats paying the bill, huh? Come on, uh, if a face lift costs five grand... ''[shows Archer's wedding ring on his hand and shouts]'' See anything you like?! ''[cut to Tito bound, gagged, and being doused in gasoline]''
-->'''Sean Archer:''' Tito! ''[A hand flicks a cigarette lighter and drops it in a puddle of gasoline, sparking a fire that spreads towards the hostages]''
-->'''Castor Troy:''' I torched all the evidence that proves you're you, okay? So, wow! ''[looks at his watch]'' Looks like you're going to be in here for ''[in na-na voice]'' THE NEXT HUNDRED YEARS! ''[quietly]'' Now, I have got to go. I've got a government job to abuse and ''[whispers into Archer's ear]'' a lonely wife to fuck. Oh, I'm sorry, make love to! God, I miss that face!

-->'''Castor Troy:''' One of yours, Sean?!
-->''[beat. Castor shoots her in the back]''
-->'''Sean Archer:''' Shit!

--->'''Burke Hicks''': What's the matter, pal? Dontcha remember the little people? ''[Archer turns to Hicks]''\\

-->'''Castor Troy:''' ''[reading Eve's journal]'' "Date night. Fizzled again. We haven't made love in two months." [[LampshadeHanging What a loser...]]

-->'''Castor Troy:''' ''See anything you LIKE?!''

* AttemptedRape: By way of the facelift, Castor Troy intends to ruin Archer's life. Even though his personality doesn't change and he's still a psychotic killer, [[EvenEvilHasStandards rape is one crime even he finds too evil]]. In the midst of a heated phone call to Pollux, Castor sees Jamie's boyfriend attempting to rape her after parking his car in front of his house. He tells Pollux to call back, then rushes out, bashes the window, pulls Karl out of the car, throws him around, then forces him to apologize. (Then again, see BedTrick below.)

* DateRapeAverted: Castor beats up an abusive boyfriend who attempts to rape Jamie.

* AmbiguousDisorder: Pollux Troy is said to have a high IQ and is very skilled at building things, but he has NoSocialSkills and struggles with any basic task that doesn't involve creating weapons of mass destruction.

* AlasPoorVillain: [[spoiler: Dietrich]]

In order to find where Castor has planted the bomb, Archer is forced to have Castor's face surgically transplanted onto him so he can get close to Castor's nerdy brother Pollux. Except, while Archer (now played by Nicolas Cage) is away, Castor wakes up from his coma and forces the doctors who performed the surgery to do the same to him, and then murders them and everybody else who knew about the operation. With his new face, Castor (now played by Travolta) begins inserting himself into Archer's life, including wife Dr. Eve Archer (Creator/JoanAllen) and daughter Jamie Archer (Creator/DominiqueSwain).

Theoretically, this would be the point where the movie completely jumps the rails -- but that would be assuming [[RatedMForManly it was ever on rails]].

* VillainousValor: in the penthouse raid scene there's plenty of this. Dietrich stands in plain sight firing his shotgun at invading cops. A thug in a red jacket is seen trying to yet the two hanger-ons to safety. Another thug briefly shields Archer, Sasha and Adam. And one of the gangsters (whose easy to keep track of form his white pants) goes absolutely ham with GunsAkimbo on the agents dropping through the skylight.

* VillainousValor: in the penthouse raid scene there's plenty of this. Dietrich stands in plane sight firing his shotgun at invading cops. A thug in a red jacket is seen trying to yet the two hanger-ons to safety. Another thug briefly shields "Castor", Sasha and Adam. And one of the gangsters (whose easy to keep track of form his white pants) goes absolutely ham with GunsAkimbo on the cops dropping through the skylight.

** Eve Archer is one of those "you promised to quit after one last job" types of wives. What makes this example particularly strange is that not only does she seem to show no interest in helping Archer bring Castor Troy to justice, but Archer doesn't even try to explain to her that there's a chemical bomb threatening to be set off in their city (though one figures that Archer probably didn't want to scare her... although he could have just not explicitly said what Castor was up to beyond a vague "Castor Troy set something up and it'll still happen whether or not he's in a coma" kind of explanation). In the end, the movie just sets up Archer as a workaholic cop with a distant marriage and expects it to fly. So when Castor takes over Archer's identity, he is quick to exploit the distanced marriage.

In order to find where Castor has planted the bomb, Archer is forced to have Castor's face surgically transplanted onto him so he can get close to Castor's nerdy brother Pollux. Except, while Archer (now played by Nicolas Cage) is away, Castor wakes up from his coma and forces the doctors who performed the surgery to do the same to him, and then murders them and everybody else who knew about the operation. With his new face, Castor (now played by Travolta) begins inserting himself into Archer's life, including wife Dr. Eve Archer (Joan Allen) and daughter Jamie Archer (Creator/DominiqueSwain).

'''''Face/Off''''' is the second American HeroicBloodshed film by Hong Kong director Creator/JohnWoo, starring Creator/JohnTravolta and Creator/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 UsefulNotes/LosAngeles.