Face\Off

Synopsis: Obsessed with bringing terrorist Castor Troy (Nicolas Cage) to justice, FBI agent Sean Archer (John Travolta) tracks down Troy, who has boarded a plane in Los Angeles. After the plane crashes and Troy is severely injured, possibly dead, Archer undergoes surgery to remove his face and replace it with Troy's. As Archer tries to use his disguise to elicit information about a bomb from Troy's brother, Troy awakes from a coma and forces the doctor who performed the surgery to give him Archer's face.
Genre: Action, Crime, Sci-Fi
Production: Paramount Pictures
  Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 11 wins & 21 nominations.
 
IMDB:
7.3
Metacritic:
82
Rotten Tomatoes:
92%
R
Year:
1997
138 min
1,697 Views


FADE IN:

EXT. SKYLINE -- NIGHT

Drizzling ... cold ... foggy ... gray sky vanishes into gray

sea without a seam ... fog so dense we move through it

blindly until ... looming huge: the GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE.

SUPERIMPOSE:
SAN FRANCISCO -- THE NEAR FUTURE

Impossibly close, we soar through repair scaffolding and

over suspension wires ... glimpsing earthquake damage:

broken concrete, dangling cables, cracked support beams.

Turning south ... the familiar jewel-like cityscape ...

Fisherman's Wharf ... Russian Hill ... yet there are now two

Transamerica Towers and we CLIMB UP the new one.

Reaching the fogless PINNACLE ... peace reigns ... as we float

right through an ACCESS PANEL -- strangely wedged open -- and

INTO THE TRANSAMERICA-TWO SPIRE

A maze of wiring, ducts and maintenance-controls ... but behind

one DUCT -- something HIDES ... something GLOWING RED ...

TELESCOPE IN and find THE DEVICE. Unlike any other explosive

charge, it is complex in form and compact in size, with a

sectioned, multi-colored cube panel and a glass GLOBE core ...

MAGNIFY ... now we're INSIDE the globe ... in a gaseous soup ...

with a zillion microscopic parasites ... they crowd the

screen ... throbbing ... BUZZING like a swarm of angry wasps.

INT. TRANSAMERICA-TWO -- PARKING LEVEL LOBBY -- NIGHT

Late. The last few workoholics head for their cars. The

only sound is the sloshing of the Chinese JANITOR mopping.

Slosh. Slosh ... the FREIGHT ELEVATOR opens and out comes

GEOFFREY BARNES (30). Rumpled and out-of-breath -- the slim

Englishman bumbles into the Janitor -- knocking him down.

GEOFFREY:

Thank goodness, a human being.

Fumbling with his briefcase, he kicks over the pail. Water

sloshes everywhere. The janitor starts yelling in CHINESE.

Barnes replies -- in perfect Mandarin.

GEOFFREY (cont'd)

[I'm terribly sorry, but

I feel like Icarus in the

labyrinth. Where the devil

is Parking Level Red-14B?]

The Janitor stares, then smiles and gives directions in

Chinese. BARNES graciously bows. The Janitor bows back.

INT./EXT. STREETS -- SQUAD CAR -- NIGHT

Cops MORRIS and HODGES wait for a green light at the

intersection of Van Ness and Lombard. The RADIO crackles on.

DISPATCHER:

Attention all units -- 211 at

Pier 39. Suspect is a white male,

30's, 6 feet with specs, armed

and very dangerous. Heading

south on Van Ness in a blue Ford

sedan. Watch for this one,

fellas -- he's looney toons.

The exchange glances as ... a blue FORD SEDAN motors by.

INT. CAR -- MOVING -- NIGHT

Geoffrey Barnes innocently drives his rental car -- a blue

Ford Sedan. Tired, he stretches his long legs.

GEOFFREY:

Another day, another - cop?

POLICE SIRENS blaze behind him. Concerned and annoyed --

Barnes finally pulls over.

Adjusting his specs -- Barnes fumbles to find the car

registration. He turns -- and sees a POLICE AUTOMATIC

pointing at his head. Morris waves him out of the car.

EXT. FILLMORE PRECINCT -- NIGHT

A modern multi-use high-rise. A window-washing "DRONE"

works its way up a grid-track. As the RAIN increases, the

drone stops cleaning and retracts into a maintenance shaft.

INT. PLEXIGLASS ELEVATOR -- MOVING -- NIGHT

The elevator ascends quickly -- glimpsing floors dedicated

to Evidence, Parking Authority, Civil Code, Small Claims,

Identification etc. A manacled Barnes trembles.

GEOFFREY:

You're making a ghastly

mistake! I haven't been

to Fisherman's Wharf, I

don't even like fish.

Yeah, yeah, yeah -- like Hodges and Morris really care.

INT. BOOKING LEVEL -- NIGHT

A busy night processing hookers, homeless and alcoholics.

In the thick of it -- the BOOKING CLERK tries to lock Barnes's

hand onto a PRINT-SCANNER -- but he resists mightily.

GEOFFREY:

Check my papers -- I'm with

the English consulate -- I've

got diplomatic immunity -- and

you've - got - no - right!

Barnes pulls away, eyes flashing angrily ... until a HUGE

COP grabs his hand and gently eases it down on the scanner.

INT. HOLDING TANK -- NIGHT

Barnes's thrown into a cell with a nasty group of drunken

GANG-BANGERS. He smiles nervously, goes to the payphone.

One WIRY HOOD trips him. They laugh as Barnes struggles up,

then inserts a "smart" card in the payphone slot.

GEOFFREY:

Hello! Sorry I'm late, but

there's been a bit of a

muddle. I'm on the ninth floor

of the bloody Fillmore police

station. Could you come and

"bail me out" or whatever they

call it? There's a good chap.

Rate this script:5.0 / 2 votes

Mike Werb

Mike Werb is an American screenwriter, whose writing credits include Face/Off, The Mask and the story for Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. A Los Angeles native, Werb attended Stanford. He is a UCLA Film School graduate. more…

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