Last Updated on September 6, 2024
As one of the most recognizable faces on the red carpet, Nicolas Cage has starred in many box office hits (and a few flops!). But we are here today to celebrate this lanky actor’s brightest moments.
So, if you are a fan of his iconic smile and talent, then settle in for a great time by flipping through our reviews below. For your convenience, we have handpicked the best movies where Cage aced his roles!
1. Face/Off (1997)
When FBI Agent Sean Archer survives an assassination attempt that kills his young son, his obsessive 6-year manhunt finally runs down the killer, a sociopath called Castor Troy.
During the capture, Troy is knocked into a coma but not before revealing that he has planted a bomb in Los Angeles. Desperate to find the device, Archer agrees to an experimental surgery where he swaps faces with Troy. While Archer infiltrates the assassin’s gang to find the bomb, Troy wakes up and forces the surgeons to give him Archer’s face.
Since Troy killed everyone who knew about the surgery, Archer struggles to convince his family and colleagues where the real danger lies – with the imposter living in Archer’s home and office.
2. Con Air (1997)
Ex-Army Ranger Cameron Poe is paroled after serving eight years for killing a man who tried to attack his pregnant wife. He boards a prison transport plane filled with dangerous criminals heading to a supermax prison.
Poe’s happiness to return home and meet his daughter for the first time turns into a fight for survival when the convicts take over the plane.
3. The Rock (1996)
Disenchanted by the way the US military never compensated the families of soldiers who died under his command, Brigadier General Francis Hummel takes tourists hostage on Alcatraz Island. He threatens to attack San Francisco with rockets filled with deadly gas unless the government pays the soldiers’ families $100 million.
But authorities send a clandestine infiltration team instead. Chemical specialist Dr Stanley Goodspeed, a SEAL team and John Mason, the only man ever to escape from The Rock. Hummel’s men kill the SEALs, leaving the incompatible Mason and Goodspeed to avoid capture and find the rockets before an airstrike destroys everything and everyone on the island.
4. City Of Angels (1998)
In this romantic fantasy, Dr Maggie Rice loses her first patient on the operating table. Impressed by her efforts to save him and her heartache at not being able to do so, an angel called Seth becomes intrigued by her. He decides to become visible to Maggie and after spending some time with her, he realizes that they are in love. Seth decides to give up his immortality to be with her.
Seth’s first hours as a human is filled with humor as he experiences color, physical pain and hunger for the first time. But he also learns the hard way that life is fleeting and beautifully fragile.
5. Raising Arizona (1987)
H.I. “Hi” McDunnough is a serial convenience store robber and after one arrest, he meets police officer Edwina (“Ed”) and they later get married. But Hi cannot have children and when they learn of a wealthy man who just became the father of quintuplets, their parental instincts kick into overdrive and they kidnap one of the babies to raise as their own.
But they have dicey friends in their lives who also want the baby, leading to a hilarious sequence of kidnappings between the groups until Ed and Hi realize that they have to do the right thing and return the baby boy to his parents.
6. Leaving Las Vegas (1995)
This is the role that won Cage both a Golden Globe and an Academy Award. He plays Ben Sanderson (based on the real life of John O’Brien), a man who loses everything and decides to go to Las Vegas and drink himself to death.
Upon arrival, he meets Sera, a hardened prostitute but they click and they move in together. They agree that Sera will never complain about his drinking and that Sanderson doesn’t criticize her occupation. At first, everything goes well but inevitably reality kicks in. The movie follows the violent and tragic elements of their lives, their struggle with addiction and the mistreatment they suffer from society.
7. Gone in 60 Seconds (2000)
Kip Raines is a car thief who delivers vehicles to a crime boss called Raymond Calitri. But the latter is more interested in Kip’s older brother, Memphis, a retired criminal who is a legendary car booster. Threatening Kip’s life, Calitri gives Memphis 72 hours to steal 50 high-end vehicles.
Memphis reassembles his old team to help him locate and steal all the cars in a single night. The movie is an action-packed adventure filled with chase scenes, humor, romance, and a genuinely good story about a brother who has to atone for his decisions by saving his sibling who got into trouble because he followed in Memphis’s footsteps.
8. Lord Of War (2005)
After Yuri Orlov (Nicolas Cage) witnesses a murder involving Kalashnikov rifles, he feels inspired to sell firearms and make a fortune. As it turns out, he has a knack for arms dealing and together with his younger brother, they make their first big paycheck by selling weapons to both sides during the 1982 Lebanon War.
On the back of atrocities and conflict, Yuri’s business grows. But as his wealth and customers increase, it not only destroys countless civilian lives but also his own family. He also has to dodge the tightening net of the law, always staying one step and arms deal ahead of those who seek to stop him.
9. National Treasure (2004)
Benjamin Franklin Gates is an adventurer who cannot get a family legend out of his mind. When he was a boy, his grandfather told him of a secret that had been passed on to one of their ancestors in 1832, a secret that will reveal the location of the legendary treasure of the Knights Templar.
As an adult, Gates is now a historian, cryptographer, and treasure hunter. With the first clue in hand, provided by his grandfather, Gates and his team sets off on an action-packed adventure filled with romance, mysterious leads, an arch-enemy and FBI agents in hot pursuit.
10. Joe (2013)
Marked as one of Nicolas Cage’s best performances of his career, he plays Joe Ransom, a foreman of a crew of forest workers. He becomes embroiled in a dangerous situation when a young teenager asks to join his men. Joe is impressed by Gary’s willingness to work and gladly offers him a job but when he witnesses the boy being beaten and robbed of his wages by his own father, Joe slowly enters their tragic world where the father will stop at nothing to exploit his own children.
