Face/Off (1997)

Face/Off rating: IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic

IMDb7.3/10· 425K votes

Rotten Tomatoes93%

Metacritic82%

TMDb7.055/10· 6K votes

With 93% on Rotten Tomatoes, backed by 7.3/10 on IMDb and 82/100 on Metacritic, critical reception of this film has been very positive.

About Face/Off

In order to foil a terrorist plot, an FBI agent undergoes facial transplant surgery and assumes the identity of a criminal mastermind. The plan turns sour when the criminal wakes up prematurely and seeks revenge.

Cast of Face/Off

• 

  John Travolta

  as Sean Archer

• 

  Nicolas Cage

  as Castor Troy

• 

  Joan Allen

  as Eve Archer

• 

  Alessandro Nivola

  as Pollux Troy

• 

  Gina Gershon

  as Sasha Hassler

• 

  Dominique Swain

  as Jamie Archer

• 

  Nick Cassavetes

  as Dietrich Hassler

• 

  Harve Presnell

  as Victor Lazarro

• 

  Colm Feore

  as Dr. Malcolm Walsh

• 

  John Carroll Lynch

  as Prison Guard Walton

• 

  CCH Pounder

  as Hollis Miller

• 

  Robert Wisdom

  as Tito Biondi

Face/Off facts

Budget

$80M

Box office

$245.7M

Our take on Face/Off

John Woo's 1997 thriller runs on an audacious premise: an FBI agent undergoes facial transplant surgery to assume the identity of a criminal mastermind and foil a terrorist plot, only for the plan to collapse when the criminal wakes early and takes the agent's face in return. What follows is a delirious dual-identity revenge chase where each man wears the other's life. Woo pushes his operatic style to the limit, with balletic gunfights, slow-motion flourishes and heightened emotion. It rewards viewers who embrace melodrama and stylized action over plausibility, treating its wild concept as a stage for pure kinetic excess. Not subtle, but committed and unmistakably its own thing.