November 23, 2023
EP. 332.5 — Re-Release: Face/Off LIVE! (w/ Randall Park)
Last Looks will return in two weeks! For now, enjoy a HDTGM classic as Randall Park (WandaVision) joins Paul, Jason, and June to discuss the 1997 Nic Cage and John Travolta masterpiece, Face/Off. LIVE from Largo in Los Angeles, they cover everything from Nic Cage’s “tongue suck” to face waterfalls and so much more. (Originally Released 05/01/2015)
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Transcript
Paul Scheer Hello, people of Earth. This week we are taking a Thanksgiving holiday break from Last Looks and instead we are rereleasing a How Did This Get Made classic episode and one of the best movies of all time. Well, I should say one of the best movies about face swapping ever made. That’s right. You’ve already clicked play. So you know that I am talking about the 1997 action thriller Face Off. We are joined in this episode by special guest Randall Park, and you will soon be hearing us discuss Nick Cage’s tongue, suck face waterfalls and so much more. Now there is no Last Looks today, so I wanted to make sure that you could still prep for our next new movie episode. Next week we’ll be kicking off the holiday season with the 2009 made for TV movie The Dog Who Saved Christmas. Oh, I cannot wait. I cannot wait for you to watch this. It stars Dean Cain and Mario Lopez is the dog. Yeah. There are no reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, but there are five sequels. Okay. Oh, I know what you’re in store for. Let’s go to Letterbox because letter box gives us a little taste of what we’re in store for. Kaitlin writes, “It’s home alone, but if Kevin was a dog.” And Ellie comments, “I missed the first 20 minutes to go in the shower, and now I realize I should have stayed in the shower.” You can stream the dog and save Christmas on peacock, Freevie, Tubi, the Roku channel and Pluto TV. Or just rent it on Amazon. Get into it. Get into the holiday spirit and if you have any corrections and omissions for our last episode on munchies, don’t worry, we’ll cover munchies and the dog Who Saved Christmas in our Next Last Looks episode. You can still submit corrections and omissions on our discord at discord.gg/HDTGM or leave a voicemail by calling 619-PAUL-ASK. Remember I am in a holiday movie. Bring me home for the holidays. I am in this movie called Family Switch on Netflix. Check it out. It premieres November 30th. I think you’ll like it. It’s good for the whole family. And now enjoy Face Off.
Paul Scheer Arguably the best movie about face switching ever made. We saw a Face Off. So you know what that means.
Music [Intro Song]
Paul Scheer Hello, People of Earth. And hello, People of Largo. Welcome to another edition of How Did This Get Made? We are very excited to be here in our Los Angeles home at the Largo at the Coronet Theater, which is a great place. If you’re in L.A., go see shows there. If you’re not from L.A. and you visit L.A., come and see shit that happens here. Literally crazy shows with amazing people. I don’t know when you’re listening to this, but just Google it and you’ll be like, Oh, fuck, that happened? I could have seen that? Yeah, it’s crazy. It’s really cool stuff. So definitely do that now, please. Without any further ado, let me introduce my co-host, Jason Mantzoukas.
Jason Mantzoukas What’s up, jerks?
Paul Scheer Welcome, welcome, Welcome, Jason. This movie has been. This has been our biggest argument. Should we do this movie? Should we not do this movie? Yep. And the audience decided the last time we did a live show that we should do this movie.
Jason Mantzoukas Yes. And I conceded that I would do it. And I am here to say it as it is just as fucking awesome. As I remembered it being. So as I said at Con Air. This should be called Thank God this was made because this movie is fucking rad.
Paul Scheer So you know where Jason stands. It wouldn’t be a live show if one of if one of our members wasn’t here. And that’s what’s happening tonight. June is not here. Unfortunately, our our beautiful baby has a temperature. Yes. Thank you. And thank you for acting like that’s the first time I’ve given you that information. We do a preshow and the audience is aware, but they really played along for you, the listeners at home.
Jason Mantzoukas Good crowd.
Paul Scheer Look at how hard they’re working for you.
Jason Mantzoukas Hot crowd.
Paul Scheer Hot crowd. So June will be joining us midstream to give her thoughts, feelings. I can just tease it by saying that she had no idea of what this movie was about. And literally turned to me and said, Is this really happening? So but. Without any further. Do we have a very special guest tonight? Please welcome Randall Park.
Paul Scheer Welcome, Randall. Oh, yeah. Please come in. Yeah.
Randall Park Oh, hey, everybody.
Paul Scheer Welcome, Randall.
Randall Park Hey.
Paul Scheer So exciting. So excited to have you on the show.
Randall Park Thanks for having me. This movie was so horrible. So incredible, too.
Jason Mantzoukas Horribly great.
Randall Park Yes. Yes. It was incredible.
Paul Scheer This is what I’ll say about this movie right from the get go. And it’s now proven in some of my notes. A lot of it has been improvised, like Nic Cage and John Travolta, like threw away the script and just improvised.
Jason Mantzoukas But there was a script.
Paul Scheer And by the way, the screenwriters do the DVD commentary. We’ll be playing a couple of clips from that. As they. As they kind of tackle some of the questions here. So if you don’t know, for those of you who’ve never seen Face Off and you should, it’s about a criminal and a con, oh no, a criminal and a cop who switch faces.
Jason Mantzoukas Yes, that is it is about this is a movie. This is a movie. Guys, this fucking movie is great. This is a movie that begins with the murder of a child. This movie begins with Nicolas Cage shooting a child with a sniper rifle now. And the only gets better.
Paul Scheer It was a mistake. It was a mistake.
Randall Park Was a mistake. He did not mean to shoot the child. He meant to shoot Travolta. And he went through him and killed a child.
Paul Scheer Into a child’s head.
Jason Mantzoukas That’s where this movie starts.
Paul Scheer And by the way, there’s a couple of things about this. For those of you in L.A., it seems to me that they’re at Griffith Park, which is which is a very open kind of family park. And Nicolas Cage seems about 50ft away.
Jason Mantzoukas On like a grassy knoll.
Paul Scheer On a grassy knoll. He has a tarp over his sniper rifle, which I don’t understand why. Because he’s very prominently seen. Because he’s smoking, standing next to it. He’s not in the grass.
Jason Mantzoukas Which means at some point, he set up that sniper rifle. He assembled it in full view of people who were probably like throwing a fucking Frisbee to a dog wearing a bandana, you know? And he’s like putting. it together. And then shoots a child and then guys, he shoots a child and the movie begins. The cold open is infanticide.
Paul Scheer For the audience here have just put up I put up by the way, this is a.
Jason Mantzoukas This was the official police report.
Paul Scheer Yes.
Jason Mantzoukas Carousel sniper victim murdered 9th September 1991. Now, Paul, may I read this?
Paul Scheer Please.
Jason Mantzoukas This is what the police file says in the computer. This is what the police wrote in the computer about this child’s murder that begins this movie. And by the way, I want to remind you, this movie is great.
Paul Scheer The the police report doesn’t even have like a death scene photo. They just got a got is the yearbook photo like like carousel.
Jason Mantzoukas Sniper victim murdered 9th September 1991 Damage report. The boy died in the arms of his father, FBI agent Sean Archer on the carousel in Griffith Park. Castor Troy had intended. It’s. It’s supposes the intention of the murderer. Casper Troy had intended to kill Sean Archer, but the bullet traveled through him and struck Michael in the chest. This kid is dead.
Paul Scheer By the way, this is you know, John Travolta can call this up in the middle of the movie. The damage report doesn’t seem to be a police term. What’s the damage report?
Jason Mantzoukas Let’s quick let’s look it up in the damage reports.
Paul Scheer I think you could probably just flip this whole thing around and say, name Michael Archer. Incident, sniped on a carousel.
Jason Mantzoukas Sniped.
Paul Scheer Sniped. Well, we would say yes.
Jason Mantzoukas Sniped on the carousel that this would be. They wouldn’t.
Paul Scheer Yeah, they wouldn’t list it like a more like it’s listed like like very provocatively, you know, like, oh.
Jason Mantzoukas It’s written very well.
Randall Park I’m surprised it has no mention of Archer’s weird porno mustache.
Paul Scheer That was to show time.
Randall Park All right. Clearly show time.
Jason Mantzoukas Oh.
Paul Scheer I mean, by the way.
Jason Mantzoukas That’s a great fucking beginning. This movie really feels like you start out of the gate, you’re like, Whoa, What?
Paul Scheer I will say that I. I really do like this movie. I bought it on iTunes instead of renting it. And. And when I.
Jason Mantzoukas We get it, you’re rich.
Paul Scheer I already preordered Second Best Marigold Hotel. Suck it. I don’t even care if I know how much it costs. I’m going to buy it.
Jason Mantzoukas That’s just. That’s just to service your Dame Maggie Smith fetish.
Paul Scheer Of course. And why shouldn’t I? I work hard. But to me, like when I watch this movie, I was like, oh, well, they’re not going to they’re not going to kill this kid. Like, they like You don’t think they are going to do it? I at least I really didn’t have that reaction like, oh, oh, wow.
Jason Mantzoukas Oh, I’d forgotten that. That’s how it started. And I was like, Oh, right. This movie tells you straight out of the gate that it’s bonkers.
Paul Scheer Yeah, you were, you were starting at such you’re starting out at ten. And I would say it never lets down.
Jason Mantzoukas Oh, never.
Paul Scheer Well we’ll we’ll get into it. I mean there’s so many questions I want to ask in a general sense. Who played the better version of the other person? I want to I want to get into that because I have opinions about that. But basically, all we know is that after this assassination of his son on a carousel, Travolta becomes a humorless head of a secret task force sent to just basically take down Nicolas Cage’s character, Castor Troy.
Jason Mantzoukas Who appears to be like a famous domestic terrorist. But he says, I heard him say in the trailer “for hire.”
Paul Scheer Yes. Well, in the movie he is working. No, he is working for somebody else because the pilot says, oh, we’re never going to get that money from like the Libyans, like he said.
Jason Mantzoukas Is that it? I never understood. Like what? Who’s hiring him?
Randall Park It’s also like a highly covert secret antiterrorism task force. And all they do is destroy everything.
Paul Scheer I also had an issue with the highly covert, secret organized task force. But when shit went down the way. All right, let’s bring in every major criminal to our office. Yeah. Like, let’s show them where we’re working. Like, you wouldn’t do that. You wouldn’t bring them to the secret headquarters. It’s like Batman going okay we’ll just let him in. We’ll just. Yeah, we’ll have it. We’ll have tea and coffee in here. So, like, they didn’t have a place. So he’s. His wife.
Jason Mantzoukas Joan Allen?
Paul Scheer Joan Allen.
Randall Park She’s incredible.
Paul Scheer Amazing. But I got to say, I feel uncomfortable.
Jason Mantzoukas Give it up for Joan Allen. Yeah, like that was that was tepid.
Paul Scheer And as we said, we already said the movie start. The movie starts at ten. Kid gets killed. Then it goes to like a 20 because then it’s like this opening sequence that is like the end of most movies.
Randall Park Right, Right.
Jason Mantzoukas That’s why this movie’s awesome.
Paul Scheer I would argue this is like one of the defining Nick Cage performances.
Randall Park It was incredible.
Jason Mantzoukas This is the beginning of like, oh, no, it’s not. Because he, like, he’s always doing cuckoo crazy stuff. But this really is like this period of Nic Cage. I feel like firmly establishes him as just going for it.
Paul Scheer No, I mean, from the moment one, like he’s singing along with Hallelujah. Yeah, he is massaging a girl’s ass and like, it’s. It’s awesome. It’s everything about this opening. He has guns with dragons on them. Yeah. He flirts with a girl by saying, How would you like to suck my tongue?
Jason Mantzoukas He says that to multiple people and multiple people take him up on it. I don’t think that would be sexually enjoyable in the least to have your tongue sucked.
Paul Scheer And he does put it out and she sucks it.
Jason Mantzoukas Don’t like that.
Randall Park LWhat was the peach line?
Paul Scheer I can eat a peach all day, and you’re like a peach.
Jason Mantzoukas And he said a lot of people and that other girl. And the other thing was like, I thought I was your peach.
Paul Scheer Yeah.
Jason Mantzoukas So he’s like, oh, So, like, that’s his only line. His only line is you’re a peach. I can eat a peach all night and suck my tongue. And everybody from Gina Gershon to like, that random FBI agent is like, I’m in.
Paul Scheer But if it’s working, why change it?
Randall Park Why change it?
Jason Mantzoukas Seriously, I’m going to start saying those words. I’m going to start using only those pick up lines. I could eat a peach all night. Ow! I’m getting slapped so much.
Paul Scheer In an effort just to slightly move this show forward because there’s so much we could spend so much even in the opening of this movie. I just want to just set the basic premise like. Yes. So the fucking beginning of movie is crazy. There’s helicopters, plane chases, people are getting shot in the head multiple times.
Jason Mantzoukas There’s a I. And I had this too, because there’s that. There’s the whole opening scene, which is the assassination of the child. Then there is a crazy priest where he arms a bombs and now there’s a ticking clock. Humps the girl who’s singing the Messiah, who’s part of the choir. Then there is a chase. There is a Hummer and police cars and helicopters on the tarmac chasing a plane down. And it’s a huge set piece. And it is. I looked. I stopped the thing and it was minute 11. It’s like, God damn, this movie is amazing. And the movie at that point appeared to be like, I was like the status bar. I was like, Oh, I think this movie is like seven hours long and we are only like, this.
Paul Scheer The movie is long. Very long, very long.
Jason Mantzoukas Worth it.
Paul Scheer So the other the other the other theme it kind of sets up early on is that everything explodes no matter what.
Jason Mantzoukas Yes.
Paul Scheer If it’s a box full of eggs, it’s going to explode, well, then the jet goes off course into a jet propulsion laboratory that also happens to be on the tarmac of an airport. I don’t know if they do it that close to each other, but yeah, sure, I’ll buy it. That blows up like a fireworks factory.
Jason Mantzoukas Yes, Huge explosions in this movie. Very satisfying. And we should say this is a John Woo movie, and as such, has all of the hallmarks of John Woo films with all of the crazy doves, all of the standoffs, all of the everything that is John Woo is taken to the extreme because it’s Travolta and Nic Cage.
Paul Scheer Unhinged.
Randall Park Like is this is a question. Is this his first American movie?
Jason Mantzoukas No it’s not. Is it?
Paul Scheer Hard target may be that Is that.
Jason Mantzoukas One right before.
Audience Member Broken Arrow.
Jason Mantzoukas What is it? Broken arrow. Yeah.
Paul Scheer Which is also a Christian Slater Travolta joint.
Jason Mantzoukas Oh. Somebody just said it’s good. It’s great, guy? Calm down. Because you just started it. It’s good. And then I said it’s good. And you went, it’s great. So you just doubled down.
Paul Scheer I describe the performances in this movie to be kabuki-like in the sense that everything is is like, Ahh! Like it’s a full body. The whole thing is.
Jason Mantzoukas Paul, the movie’s about faces.
Paul Scheer Yes.
Jason Mantzoukas So as such. People are doing a lot with their faces in these movies.
Paul Scheer I mean, it is nothing. No. Like, let me just show you, this is jumping ahead, but I just want to show you like the level of of acting that’s going on here. This is just later on in the movie. But we don’t plot wise it’s okay.
Jason Mantzoukas Wait, wait, wait. Just so we know. Is this Nicolas Cage as Travolta right now?
Paul Scheer Yes.
Jason Mantzoukas Okay.
Paul Scheer So, yeah, we’ll get into all of this. You get it. They change faces. But but this is a this is just a good.
Jason Mantzoukas So if you can imagine it, if you’ve never seen the movie and you’re listening at home, John Travolta is performing as Nicolas Cage. And Nicolas Cage is performing as John Travolta now. So it’s two bananas people trying to out bananas each other. You’re welcome.
Paul Scheer The thing before you play this clip that I won’t even bring up and I brought this up in the last episode is that Nicolas Cage finished shooting Con Air and within 12 hours was on the set of Face Off shooting.
Jason Mantzoukas Those 12 hours? Wig construction. Those 12 hours were deconstructing one wig and building the other.
Paul Scheer You have to. Yeah. And the first scene that they shot, you would think, oh, well, we need to shoot the scene where Nic Cage is being Nic Cage and John Travolta is being Travolta because that’s what their baseline will be for the rest of the movie. No. The final scenes of the movie are the first scenes of the of this movie. So the boat scene was the first scene that they both shot.
Jason Mantzoukas Boat chase?
Paul Scheer The boat chase.
Jason Mantzoukas Oh, if you are concerned that after airplane and helicopter chases with Humvees, there might not be a boat chase? There’s a fucking boat chase.
Paul Scheer To me, I think, like I’m even more impressed because here’s two actors that didn’t even get a chance to see what each other was doing before they started copying each other for the thrust of the film.
Jason Mantzoukas I would argue the movie is better for it.
Paul Scheer Potentially, yes. Here we go with this. Again, not we’re not jumping ahead to plot. We’re just seeing the level of acting or power acting. That’s what I would call it. Power acting that goes on.
Movie Audio Well, here’s some poetic justice, sir. Caster Troy’s dead.
Movie Audio He got killed trying to escape from Air one.
Movie Audio Where’s his body? I want to see his body.
Movie Audio It hasn’t been recovered yet.
Movie Audio It hasn’t been recovered yet? Get the LAPD on this.
Paul Scheer So I know it’s small to kind of see, but that’s about the level every scene hits like that kind of encapsulates.
Jason Mantzoukas Oh, they are both going in and out of shouting, you know, in single conversations as if that’s how we all talk to each other.
Randall Park I feel like Travolta is genuinely trying to do like, a Nic cage a little bit. Right? But I feel like Nic Cage is like, Fuck it, I’m just going to do like a version of myself. Just a little toned down.
Jason Mantzoukas Which is still enormous.
Randall Park Enormous. It is enormous. Yeah.
Paul Scheer So again, just to reiterate, the premise is these two guys switch faces this and now I mean. I mean, so many places to go.
Jason Mantzoukas Yeah. Well.
Randall Park Well, can we talk about the science?
Paul Scheer Yes, the science. The science behind it.
Jason Mantzoukas Randall. We can 100% talk about it if we don’t. Shame on us. Yeah.
Randall Park The science. First off, they’re different blood types. Yeah. I don’t know.
Paul Scheer Which is a big plot point.
Randall Park It’s a huge plot point. I don’t know. Like, I’m not that, you know, I’m not that knowledgeable about science.
Jason Mantzoukas You’re not a scientist?
Randall Park I’m not a scientist.
Jason Mantzoukas We always want to assert whether people I mean.
Randall Park I am not a scientist, but I’m assuming that different blood types. Well, I know one of them’s O and one of them’s AB, And I actually looked this up because I was like, I gotta look this up. One of them’s O. And that’s the universal one where you could like and one of them’s AB And that’s the one where you can only kind of give to AB.
Paul Scheer Right.
Randall Park So one of them’s got to die.
Paul Scheer Because they’re wearing the face of the other person?
Randall Park Yes.
Paul Scheer I guess that’s true. I would also argue that if you were just to cut around your face, it got to just get easily sucked off. Like you’re like when I smile. This skin is attached to muscle.
Jason Mantzoukas No, no, no. It’s. It’s barely. Most mostly, your face is attached right around the rim. And so you have to cut the rim of the face because that’s where it’s the strongest. The rest of it is just kind of like sitting on top mush, you know, if you pull really hard on your nose, your face will come out quite a bit. But it’s held in around the rim, so you cut that rim. Guess what? Face Off. Guys don’t encourage me.
Paul Scheer I want to play two questions about science. One is this first John Woo. John, who does not talk very much during the director’s commentary, but when the writers who were on this ask him a question about face swapping, let’s see what he has to say. Here we go.
Movie Audio Now, John, I know you would never say so at the time in the production, but did you ever have a moment when you felt like this was crazy and it was never going to work? The whole idea of face swapping, did you ever have doubt?
John Woo No. No, I have never had any doubts because I believe it could happen in the future, you know,
Movie Audio And now it can.
Paul Scheer John Woo on board. Now, here is just a little bit more science.
Jason Mantzoukas Are we to believe? Are we to believe that this technology is in the hands of the FBI?
Paul Scheer Well, no, it’s in the hand of an independent contractor who is working with the FBI.
Jason Mantzoukas Oh, okay. I thought they had the tech.
Paul Scheer This is crazy. And they run by it so quick. So they’re switching faces. But then they’re also getting intense liposuction, hair like that one that’s more hairy chest.
Randall Park Hair plugs. They literally said hair plugs. Yes. Yes.
Paul Scheer Their body is changing. Their voice is changing, which is a thing. Everything is changing. And they basically say, well, with the pain meds we have now, you’re back up on your feet in like, you know, a half hour. You get a broken nose and you’re not on your feet in a half hour.
Jason Mantzoukas Here’s the thing. What this posits on a biological level is so impossible. So as to necessitate that you don’t look at it at all in the movie, it needs to be glossed over as quickly as possible.
Paul Scheer The person who delivers that information. She delivers it like the micro machines.
Jason Mantzoukas And then then they’re like, they do the buzz saw around the faces. They put the one face on Travolta. Bing, bing, boom. Now he’s in prison. Because who cares.
Randall Park The whole time I was like, There’s gotta be a side effect. There’s got to be you know, they have they have to do this. There has to be something. Literally, the one side effect was like, he was like, my face itches.
Jason Mantzoukas Yes.
Paul Scheer You know what? That brings me to my point about this. So they put in they say that, well, I have two points. They have to make sure their voices match. So they do that by planting a microchip in their throat. Now, listen to the writers talk about that and then I’ll bring up my point.
Movie Audio So here we have the laryngeal implant. We stuck in the word microchip as if that actually had some meaning to what a device like that would be. And we never changed it and survived through all these drafts. We never came up with anything better. No one ever questioned it. A microchip stuck in anyone’s larynx. Larynx. I don’t think it would change their voice or anything and probably just give them an infection. But there it is, microchip.
Paul Scheer So that was it. It was a placeholder term that.
Jason Mantzoukas Didn’t bother me at all. Now I’m on board for this movie by now. You know why? Because they killed a kid. Then they had an action sequence, and I was like, I’m back. This movie is amazing.
Paul Scheer The thing I want to talk about about that. So they go, be careful. Because if you get hit in the throat or you have a harsh sneeze, the microchip won’t work. Then for the rest, for the rest of the movie John Travolta as Nic Cage is getting punched in the throat repeatedly with no ill effects.
Randall Park Not a single ill effect.
Jason Mantzoukas And also this movie takes place during allergy season.
Randall Park And you would think people would get sick with all all of a hand over the face going on throughout the whole movie. They’re rubbing their hands on their faces.
Jason Mantzoukas That is wildly unhygienic.
Paul Scheer That was improvised. The hand over the face.
Jason Mantzoukas Oh, really? Oh, that wasn’t in the script? To drag your hands across your face?
Paul Scheer By the way, if you don’t know, we’re talking about this very visual.
Jason Mantzoukas If John Travolta wiped my face in a scene in an improvizational way. I would be like, Get the fuck away from me.
Paul Scheer This is again, just this talk about this is like.
Jason Mantzoukas He does it to a child.
Paul Scheer This. This is amazing. So. Oh, man, this is the intro. Well, this is all. This is more of a visual one for our audience here. Of all the face waterfalls.
Jason Mantzoukas So if you’re listening to the podcast, you don’t get it.
Paul Scheer Face. Waterfall. Face. Waterfall. Face. Waterfall. Face. Waterfall. Face. Waterfall. Waterfall. Face. Waterfall. Lot of face waterfalls.
Jason Mantzoukas Great. And, you know, you know, what’s not in there. Is the one that he almost gives Gina Gershon and then thinks better of it. Right. At one point, he’s like, oh, no, I’m not.
Randall Park Oh, no, that would be weird.
Jason Mantzoukas You’re not my wife. Oh, boy. I almost fucking face wiped you. I feel like that is the gesture that I. That I’m like that a fuckin a character in like a movie that had like, magic would use to, to kill people would be like.
Paul Scheer Like you become weak.
Jason Mantzoukas Just like, sleep. That’s what they. They just dragging their dirty fingers down each other’s faces. No, thank you. No, thank you.
Paul Scheer Oh, my gosh. I feel like we should maybe call June at this point. And we can talk for a little bit. See how it goes. Hey, June.
Randall Park Hey June.
June Diane Raphael Hi.
Randall Park Sorry. It’s just on me.
Paul Scheer You can see Jason too. Welcome, June.
June Diane Raphael It’s so good to be here.
Paul Scheer A couple of thoughts just just hit us with where you’re thinking. We’ve talked about a couple of things, but your initial reaction to the film. What? For those of you who can’t see it, June just did a face waterfall. Perfectly timed as we just played a montage of face waterfalls. You are connected to us.
Jason Mantzoukas Paul, you keep saying face waterfall. As if that’s what it’s called.
Paul Scheer I think it is.
Jason Mantzoukas Is that what it’s called? Is that a thing?
Paul Scheer What better term for it?
Jason Mantzoukas Wait, did you make that up or is that really called that?
June Diane Raphael What I thought you said was face paw. Which also made sense. Yeah.
Paul Scheer No, I mean, no, I did not make that. I did. Yes, I did make that up.
Jason Mantzoukas You did?
Paul Scheer It’s in my notes as face waterfalls.
Jason Mantzoukas So are you coining this phrase right now? Face waterfall.
Paul Scheer I’m saying, how did this get made coined it. Yeah.
Jason Mantzoukas Okay, cool. Let’s get it up on a T-shirt, assholes.
Paul Scheer June talk to us because you didn’t know what this movie is about. Just any thoughts that you have.
June Diane Raphael I loved it so much. Okay, A couple random thoughts. And I’m so sorry if you guys have talked about this already. Did you talk about the wardrobe of the FBI agent slash flight attendant on the first flight?
Paul Scheer I’m going to say, of course not.
June Diane Raphael Well, he will. Here’s my question about her. And I’m sorry, I can’t hear everybody that well. But here’s my question was she supposed to be like a honey pot. Was it supposed to be like a honey pot situation? Like she was supposed to sort of be attracting him or was it just like she’s just she’s just working as a flight attendant undercover?
Jason Mantzoukas So you’re wondering what her assignment was exactly?
June Diane Raphael Well, I guess I ask this because if she was supposed to be like a honey pot she was wearing. I don’t think honestly, I don’t think you could put more clothes on her. She was wearing a ribbed like mock mock turtleneck. Like a mustard. A mustard ribbed, like, heavy mock turtleneck.
Jason Mantzoukas Yeah. Well, June, I think you need to remember that. That Joan Allen is the sexpot of this movie.
June Diane Raphael Okay. Because on top of that, on top of the mock turtleneck with, like a heavy a heavy wool blazer. Yes. Heavy.
Jason Mantzoukas I think it was a matching blazer and pants.
June Diane Raphael It was. And pants and like a belt.
Paul Scheer Shaking her head in disgust.
June Diane Raphael I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe it.
Paul Scheer June. May I ask you a question before you continue? Would you be attracted or would you be interested if a man asked you to suck his tongue?
June Diane Raphael That was so upsetting, so well. And I guess that that was my question about her. I didn’t know because it almost seemed like she knew exactly what she was going to have to do and she was up for it and she was going to like play the part. But if that was the case and that was the outfit she chose. I mean, it was just it was shocking. It was a real shocker.
Jason Mantzoukas Well, I mean, she does a very bad job of it. She sucks his tongue a little and then is like immediately outs herself as FBI and is killed.
June Diane Raphael Right. That’s true.
Jason Mantzoukas So that, by the way, the second murder after a child is this female FBI agent at like minute ten.
Paul Scheer Who is thrown face first out of a moving airplane.
Jason Mantzoukas Yes.
June Diane Raphael A couple other thoughts.
Paul Scheer Yes, please.
June Diane Raphael Well, I have you guys have you talked about okay, when Nicolas Cage escapes from sea prison.
Paul Scheer We’ll get into sea prison. But yeah, this is good. You tell us and we’ll go back.
June Diane Raphael Am I jumping ahead?
Paul Scheer Please jump ahead. That’s fine.
June Diane Raphael Okay. So there’s there’s an elaborate sequence where he’s finally able to get to the rooftop and he realizes like, oh, God, I’m I’m at sea. You know, I’ve really got no way.
Jason Mantzoukas Like, he’s on, like, a prison oil rig. Yeah.
Jason Mantzoukas Yeah. And there’s just this, like, huge wide shot. And he’s, you know, it’s so upsetting. And then he there’s a helicopter and there’s this. The sequence goes on and on. And then finally, he just jumps into the water. So he jumps into the water. And the next shot is of him, right? Like walking to a valet stand.
Randall Park That he’s at Spago, basically.
June Diane Raphael How did he get there?
Randall Park He swam. Also. This is a prison that, like they said, like nobody knows about. Amnesty International or I forgot all that, like the organization. Nobody knows about this.
June Diane Raphael Where was he?
Randall Park Highly secretive. And he swam to Spago.
Paul Scheer June. You’ll. You’ll appreciate this, June. Just a little fact about that prison. The prison. John Woo recruited actual convicts, ex-convicts to be extras in the prison scenes. And all the boots from that were from Super Mario Brothers.
June Diane Raphael What?
Jason Mantzoukas What?
Paul Scheer Yes.
Jason Mantzoukas I’m blown away by that.
Paul Scheer Yes. The boots are from Super Mario Brothers and they cause many a mistake. The magnetic boots are from the Goombas costumes in Super Mario. They’re made of real metal and were super heavy and caused a lot of problems for the actors and stuntmen. Because they were in metal boots doing full on fight scenes.
Jason Mantzoukas Look at this woman. She has to go to the bathroom and she’s stuck. She can’t get out. She couldn’t get out of that door right there. Oh, man. I bet she’s going to take a hot deuce. When she comes back, we’ll ask.
Paul Scheer June, what else do you. What else do you have?
June Diane Raphael Well, I’m sure you guys went over this, but, I mean, and this is probably been discussed, but it seems like and and look, I love a body switcharoo movie. I love.
Jason Mantzoukas Like a Freaky Friday?
June Diane Raphael I think it’s so fun.
Paul Scheer Like Judge Reinhold and Fred Savage in vice versa?
June Diane Raphael Exactly. I love watching a good old fashioned switcheroo. But it did seem like, you know, it did seem there was a flaw to this logic of, well, it has to be John Travolta who jumps into his body. And because he knows him so well, it seems like actually because of all of this personal history and all of you know, everything that’s happened to him because of this man, he’s probably the one person who shouldn’t do. And.
Randall Park But they’re the same height. They’re the same height.
Paul Scheer I will say that John Travolta is constantly shocked that he is Nic Cage.
Randall Park Every time he looks in the mirror, he pulls out a gun. Yeah. Yeah.
Jason Mantzoukas Every time he sees himself in the mirror. Think about this. He’s seen the face of the man that murdered his son in the first scene. Oh.
Paul Scheer Anything else, June?
June Diane Raphael Yeah. Oh, man.
Jason Mantzoukas June, how did you feel about. Did you. How did you feel about like. Did you have any reaction to. Because Paul said you did not know that this was face switching. So when they started to go about switching the faces. How did you feel at that point?
June Diane Raphael Oh, man. I. Well, I couldn’t watch the actual face watching. That’s where I drew the line. I said, You know what? I can’t watch this. I can’t see it. I couldn’t believe it. I mean, they gloss over that science so quickly. I mean, I just couldn’t believe they were just switching faces. And then I just couldn’t believe it. It was pretty shocking. It was pretty shocking because I. I have always heard a Face Off. And you see, I mean, it could mean so many things, you know, So to actually find out. No, they’re going to see they’re going to switch faces. Switch faces.
Paul Scheer It’s even more shocking in the fact that we did an episode of NTSF based on Face Off that you were in that references.
June Diane Raphael I didn’t get it. One of my favorite moments now that I’m just musing on it was when when Joan Allen tells John Travolta that they’re going to he’s going to get his face switched back and he’s really excited. And she says, yeah, we have a surgical team coming in from D.C.. Who are they?
Jason Mantzoukas I mean, they’re some of the best guys because guess what? They get it done.
June Diane Raphael DC? Okay.
Paul Scheer Can you just talk very briefly about the role of children in this movie and the violence around them?
June Diane Raphael No, no, no. I honestly it was it was I mean, I watched it with Paul was too much for me to bear. It was too much for me to bear. The opening scene was too much to bear. It was just, Oh, the kid with the Walkman. Yeah, that was upsetting. And then also, I’m sure you’ve gotten into it, but the daughter’s reaction to seeing her dad. Her dad, you know, kind of come on to her and act super aggressive. So, I mean, there’s just it was all it was all really, really disturbing.
Jason Mantzoukas But healing for them. What’s so fascinating is Nicholas Cage, where I mean, Travolta as Nicolas Cage infiltrating, going and living with Joan Allen and Lolita in that house helps them heal as a family body by having sex with Joan Allen and and paying attention to her and talking to the girl and like, defending her against one of the Masterson boys. Like, what the fuck is going on? Nicolas Cage, who is a terrorist for hire is like, you know what a great dad. I’m going to be great dad. Knit this family back together.
Paul Scheer He did it.
Jason Mantzoukas He did it. Oh, yeah.
Paul Scheer June, I know it’s hard for you to hear, so we just wanted to check in with you and hear some of your musings.
June Diane Raphael Yeah. Last. Last question. So do you think? Because there’s one beat where and maybe you’ve talked about where Nicolas Cage is at the gravesite of the boy that he killed. And he does seem. I’m sorry. No, not as John Travolta. Oh, yes. Yes. Yeah. As John Travolta. Yes. Okay. So it seems that he feels remorseful.
Jason Mantzoukas You think he feels bad for killing Travolta’s son?
Paul Scheer Yeah, I do think he does.
Randall Park I think he does a little bit.
Jason Mantzoukas I think so, too, because he was not his intent.
Randall Park And also then later, he makes the point, he tells Nic Cage or Travolta as Nick Cage. Yeah, it was a mistake.
Jason Mantzoukas So should we say Travolta Cage and Cage Volta.
Paul Scheer It’s too hard to keep track of. It’s too hard. I want to just. Well, because I know it’s hard for you to hear, but, I.
Jason Mantzoukas June, can I ask you a question? And this is for June and Paul together. If at the end of a tumultuous, violent series of events befell your family and at the end of it, Paul came home with a strange child.
Paul Scheer That’s exactly what I wanted to talk about.
June Diane Raphael I’ll tell you what my reaction would be.
Jason Mantzoukas Yes, go.
June Diane Raphael “Okay.”
Paul Scheer And that that is June.
Randall Park The last line of the movie.
Paul Scheer Okay.
June Diane Raphael Okay.
Jason Mantzoukas Oh, so what? We’re going to raise this kid now because the other kid’s dead. Okay, why not? I guess we’re doing this. I’m Joan Allen.
June Diane Raphael Also like no discussion of the impact it has on their other daughter.
Jason Mantzoukas No.
Paul Scheer The other daughter runs right to his face and gives a face waterfall.
Randall Park Yes.
Paul Scheer Right out the gate.
Jason Mantzoukas I would argue that this kid would be better served in the foster care system than with this family.
Paul Scheer All right, June, thank you so much. We’re going to continue talking here.
June Diane Raphael Thanks to you guys. Take care. Love Fresh off the boat, Randall.
Paul Scheer So they switch faces. They go to this prison, which the prison is insane. They have magnetic boots that lock them to the floor. But they don’t seem to use that. They they let them fight willy nilly like they really do. But he goes in there, do like to get this information. And I would.
Jason Mantzoukas He knows that that. Travolta switches faces because he knows that Nicolas Cage has planted this bomb.
Paul Scheer Yes. That’s going off. For why?
Jason Mantzoukas Who cares?
Randall Park I know it’s a very long time.
Paul Scheer Yeah, but like anyone can find it in eight days.
Jason Mantzoukas And you don’t find out until the end too that. It’s because there’s going to be Supreme Court justices there. And so then the act of terrorism is like, we got to get rid of three Supreme Court justices. Because then the incumbant president can nominate people that you like. Is that what’s going on?
Paul Scheer To me, it’s like I don’t know much about Supreme Court justices, but I don’t think that they.
Jason Mantzoukas You sure?
Paul Scheer I know little. I know Clarence Thomas totally put that pube on his diet coke can. Yeah, I. Remember that that. Was like this dumb thing. Well, it wasn’t dumb it was sexual harassment, but it was. It’s fine.
Jason Mantzoukas It’s just a pube on a Coke can.
Paul Scheer But he the but to me, it’s like there wouldn’t be that much security there for Supreme Court justices. They don’t travel with like Secret Service, do they?
Jason Mantzoukas I think they probably do. I think Supreme Court justices have security, right? Wouldn’t they? .
Audience Member Yeah.
Jason Mantzoukas That was nothing. You guys seem to be split on this.
Paul Scheer All I’m saying is he could have gone in, like, two days before. Not like eight. But he goes down there and he pulls the move that, I think is the worst. If you’re undercover and trying to pretend that you’re somebody. He goes, “I’m Castor Troy!”
Jason Mantzoukas Yeah.
Paul Scheer “I’m Castor Troy!” yells that for a long time.
Randall Park Yeah.
Jason Mantzoukas I want to talk about the fact that when the dad from Fargo, who is Travolta’s boss, is killed. Yes.
Randall Park Who just so happens to be having a heart attack. Yeah. Yeah.
Jason Mantzoukas He appears to be being buried in a beach church. Oh, yeah, Some sort of church that’s on the beach. And this is like a policeman. This is like a blue collar, like, elderly police guy. And he’s like, I want. Like, I want to be buried like Moondog from Gidget.
Randall Park He’s like a legendary figure in the police force. And there’s like 25 people.
Paul Scheer Yeah, like, poorly attended service.
Jason Mantzoukas It’s the weirdest setup.
Paul Scheer And then we just need to get them by the water. Like, yeah, that’s really the only reason why it was there.
Randall Park Where doves are for some reason.
Paul Scheer Lots of doves. Yeah, you would think that they’re like, Get these fucking doves out of here.
Paul Scheer John Woo’s like, more doves. Give me more doves.
Paul Scheer So basically, this is on the DVD commentary, but early on in the jail sequences, the writers had written a scene in which Castor and Pollux, castor’ brother, who knows all the secrets. That’s why they have to go to jail, they said they wrote this, a scene that talks about their past and what that turned them into a life of crime. Nic Cage threw out all of that and improvised, the backstory is that he’s a bad guy because his father made him wear a pink dress, which is also cut from the movie. So that’s the level in which we’re working. Very big scene. No, let’s do this instead. And then that was cut out. So there is nothing really in that scene to show connection.
Randall Park Can I ask, This is a genuine question. Yeah, because I was thoroughly confused. The the bald guy. And Gina Gershon character. They’re their siblings, right?
Jason Mantzoukas They are. Wait, are they?
Randall Park Yet they really are very sexual. Like kiss.
Paul Scheer No. Yeah, you’re right. I saw that to the brother, brother and sister. And he kisses her hard.
Jason Mantzoukas Are they brother and sister?
Randall Park Yes.
Paul Scheer Yes. Because he says when he’s interrogating him, he’s like, I’m going to make it hard for your sister. Yeah.
Jason Mantzoukas They go, okay, okay, okay.
Randall Park Why do they kiss like that?
Paul Scheer I wrote down the exact same thing.
Jason Mantzoukas That might fall into bad guys are incestuous. You know, like you know how bad these guys are? Even like the morality of incest means nothing to them.
Paul Scheer It was really gross, and I really respected Gina Gershon’s character.
Jason Mantzoukas I was into it.
Paul Scheer I couldn’t quite get a handle on I mean, this movie is comical. It would be as if the three of us all had guns two and each, you know, two and one in each hand. And we’re shooting each other here and we miss.
Jason Mantzoukas Nobody can ever hit a target ever with bullets.
Paul Scheer Like, literally, they they do a raid of the bald guy and Gina Gershon’s apartment. The cops have like though They have they have a leg up.
Jason Mantzoukas Oh, yeah.
Paul Scheer And in an apartment full of windows. I don’t think anyone gets killed.
Jason Mantzoukas Nobody.
Paul Scheer Only by very close range shots. People get killed.
Jason Mantzoukas No, dudes drop out of the ceiling with machine guns and are like, (machine gun noises) But nobody gets hit. And then somebody is like, Pew! And that guy’s like, Oh, I’m dead. It is shocking the amount of the amount of gunplay to number of people that gets killed is is crazy. It is a shameful waste of ammunition.
Paul Scheer So you want to know why that they never shoot each other and kill each other? By the way, the end of the movie in which they finally kill Nic Cage. Improvised. Right. Everything improvised in this movie. But here’s a great point. They Nicolas Cage realizes why they never can hit each other. And he believes he goes, Oh, I get it. Archer and Troy are in love with each other. So Cage believes that they can’t kill each other because they’re in love with each other.
Jason Mantzoukas So this is a romantic comedy between these two gentlemen?
Paul Scheer According to Nicolas Cage. He viewed this film as. These two men are in love with each other. That’s why they can’t kill each other.
Jason Mantzoukas I buy it.
Paul Scheer I guess so.
Jason Mantzoukas Well, there’s also a lot of. Obviously because of the face switcheroo. There’s a lot of looking longingly at themselves in the mirror. There is like a very. What’s happening is very interesting. It is both. It is. It is it must be challenging their sense of self and as such could lead to I love my self. I look like that. I must love that. Even though that is not me. Technically, it is me. Well, maybe they are in love with each other because also they’re walking a mile in each other’s shoes, that’s for sure.
Paul Scheer The the original ending, by the way, took place in a mirror factory.
Randall Park Oh, wow.
Jason Mantzoukas Wow. I mean, yes, that’s interesting.
Paul Scheer I love that.
Jason Mantzoukas I want to see that.
Paul Scheer One of the best sequences in the movie is when they’re both on either side of a mirror.
Randall Park Yeah.
Paul Scheer And they’re both looking at the person they want to shoot, but they’re actually looking at themselves.
Randall Park Well, I have this like, indulge me for a second. I have an interesting kind of I’m probably reaching here, but I had just seen Going Clear the HBO documentaries about Scientology. So I couldn’t watch this movie. I saw it right before watching the story. I couldn’t watch it.
Jason Mantzoukas It’s the perfect appetizer for this meal.
Randall Park I could not watch it without thinking or searching for kind of Scientology references. And I thought, this is a Scientology movie while I’m watching it. So.
Paul Scheer Yeah, I like this.
Randall Park The death of my of of Michael the kid that’s like his past trauma. Right. Right. That’s like his trauma. That’s like what he’s working out. The switching faces having to face himself, essentially. That’s like auditing, right? That’s like auditing. The two guns in the hands. That’s the cans of the E-Meter. They’re on a boat. That’s the sea org! Oh, and at the end, he becomes a Theaton. An operating Theaton. That’s my theory. And also. And also not that this means much. Danny Masterson noted Scientologist.
Jason Mantzoukas Sure.
Paul Scheer Well, here’s the thing. In a weird way, I mean, this movie posits that it doesn’t posit. It does. Like at the end of the movie, he just basically takes Castor Troy’s kid. He’s like, okay, back, back to normal now. Yeah, I got one. I got one back. Like you took my kid. I got your kid.
Jason Mantzoukas I want everybody here to imagine what that kid’s going through. Everybody he’s known his entire life is dead. His mother, His uncle. All the other bad guys that he’s apparently growing up in a loft with were murdered in front of him. Okay. Now, Travolta is like, well, you’re going to be my kid now.
Paul Scheer I don’t know where he gets them from either because it seems like he got the Face Off operation. Joan Allen doesn’t go to the hospital to pick him up. And on the way home, he’s like, oh, I picked up Chinese food. You know, like I picked up Chinese food. He’s like, Oh, I picked up this kid. Like, it was like he just picked up this kid.
Jason Mantzoukas This movie. The sequel to this movie. Should be the point of view of that kid. And he’s living in, like, some nightmare world where he’s like, this is they just want me to be the dead son. Poor Adam is going to live the rest of his life being called Michael.
Paul Scheer By the way, he should have good feeling for that because the minute Travolta, Cage’s Travolta sees him, he goes, Oh, Michael. And grabs them like is every child Michael to him?
Jason Mantzoukas Yes.
Paul Scheer Because that’s not healthy.
Randall Park I don’t know. But at the end, they’re like, you feel like, okay, maybe this Adam kid is like, you know, he’s probably going to go through some issues, but then, you know, he’s going to be okay as soon as he gets the face waterfall.
Jason Mantzoukas Oh, yeah.
Randall Park He’s like, fine.
Jason Mantzoukas The minute I walk into a strange house and they’re like, Can we keep him? And everybody’s like, of course. And Travolta is like.
Paul Scheer The same ending of Goonies when they fucking take Sloth. Like, Mom, Dad, can we keep him? Yeah. It’s a fucking animal.
Jason Mantzoukas How dare you? Sloth is not an animal. That kid is going to go up to Michael’s room, look around and go. The kid’s life is a nightmare. That girl comes up to me is like. Like runs her fucking fingers down his face. I’d be like and I’m out of here. I would rather live on the street.
Paul Scheer Well, how about this? But by the way, his mom is no better because his mom. Gina Gershon sees Cage and is going to fuck him. He, like, kind of pushes her off because he likes Joan Allen. And then she’s like, oh, okay, well, meet your kid. But wait. So, like, that kid who’s just waiting outside the door, like, she was like, Oh, and now you come in. Like, it wasn’t like. Like it was like, well, I’ll fuck him. And then they’ll bring the kid in. You just wait. You wait here. Listen to your mom get boned.
Randall Park I feel like that kid waits behind a wall a lot of this movie, like at the end, too. He’s just waiting until, like, Travolta brings him out.
Jason Mantzoukas I like too that she was like, what? You want me to just jump on top of you? And he’s like, What? And then she’s like, jumps on top of him. It is like, Is this what you want? I was like, what is going on here?
Paul Scheer Do you guys think that the title Face-Off was ever in the movie?
Jason Mantzoukas I don’t remember anybody saying it. The words.
Randall Park I do not remember.
Jason Mantzoukas Face and off together.
Paul Scheer Oh, really?
Randall Park I don’t. Yeah, I don’t recall that. I don’t recall it.
Paul Scheer To answer the first question. Face Off was not ever mentioned in the movie. Nic Cage improvised this monologue, which we’re about to hear.
Movie Audio So once we kidnap Supercop, then what?
Movie Audio Surgery.
Movie Audio I’d like to take his face off.
Movie Audio Excuse me? I have to use the little boys’ wee wee room.
Movie Audio You want to take his face.
Movie Audio His Face Off. Eyes. Nose. Skin. Coming off. The face.
Paul Scheer And that is how you improvise in a movie that day, knowing that that was improvised feels like, Yeah, yeah, that’s great. Just say face off a million times.
Jason Mantzoukas Poor Nick Cassavetes. So it has to be like, Wait, please don’t put this in the movie. Please. You promised me you wouldn’t put this take in the movie.
Randall Park Also they don’t take his eyes. Right? They take.
Paul Scheer No.
Randall Park Because, like, when he’s just like when like Nic Cage has his face, like when he comes out of his coma. Yeah. And he has, like, ketchup all over his face. He’s watching a video, remember? Yeah. So his eyes are there.
Jason Mantzoukas No, he’s smoking a cigarette without a face.
Paul Scheer He’s. Yeah. It’s just a plastic shield. I mean, it’s like the worst. The worst mask you’ve ever bought in a Halloween costume.
Randall Park It was ketchup.
Paul Scheer It really was. Oh, gosh.
Jason Mantzoukas Again, I want to reiterate, this movie is great.
Randall Park It’s incredible.
Paul Scheer Before we go to the audience and talk about a couple of things, I want to just talk to you about the actors that were considered for these roles.
Randall Park Oh, my God. Okay.
Paul Scheer Schwarzenegger and Stallone. Awesome.
Jason Mantzoukas Awesome. Wow.
Paul Scheer Who do you think would play the hero and the villain in that?
Jason Mantzoukas I think Stallone is the Travolta and Schwarzenegger is the Cage.
Paul Scheer I agree with that. Harrison Ford and Michael Douglas.
Jason Mantzoukas Well, this is a Michael Douglas produced movie.
Paul Scheer Well, Michael Douglas was originally going to star in this movie. That’s what got John Woo invested in it. Everyone got on board. It was going to take place in the future. That took away the future stuff. And Michael Douglas then dropped out. And yeah, so basically, Michael Douglas did take out the futuristic stuff. And yeah, so that was I mean, was basically Michael Douglas is I mean.
Jason Mantzoukas I would have taken Michael Douglas and Harrison Ford, but they’re not. What’s great about this is that it’s so hammy. Yeah. They are mugging so hard. Both of them. Right. You know, Michael Douglas and Harrison Ford could have been as real snoozer.
Paul Scheer Well, Harrison Ford would have been the good guy. Michael Douglas the bad guy. Yeah. Right. Then Bruce Willis and Alec Baldwin.
Jason Mantzoukas I’m very on board for that.
Paul Scheer I really like that movie. Here’s another.
Jason Mantzoukas I would go either way with the roles.
Paul Scheer And the last two, a pretty great Jean-Claude Van Damme and Steven Seagal.
Randall Park Wow.
Paul Scheer Would have been really great. And finally, Al Pacino and Robert De Niro.
Jason Mantzoukas Amazing.
Paul Scheer I mean, that would have been a great movie.
Jason Mantzoukas That would have been pretty great.
Paul Scheer By the way. Why shouldn’t we just make all of those movies? Yeah. Well, like, why don’t we just hire everyone? I would watch a trilogy.
Jason Mantzoukas I would like to take all of those and just shoot one scene from this movie with each of those pairings.
Paul Scheer Originally, Nic Cage turned down the role because he didn’t want to play the villain, but then was told he’d actually be playing the hero because the face thing. “Oh yeah, I’m in.” All right. Let’s let’s go to the audience and let’s go to the audience here. If you have questions that we I know we haven’t addressed a lot of things, but we’ve this is a long movie and there’s a lot of questions. So we are going to give away four good questions. Some toys from Mezco Toys. We’ve got Sons of Anarchy stuff in here. We got a bunch of cool shit in here. So here we go. What’s your question? Right here, sir. Your name? Who would you like to see as a pair and Face Off? And your question? You don’t have to hold on to the mic.
Audience Member My name is Lance. I would like to see this movie starring Gary Busey and Kevin Costner.
Paul Scheer Great. Wow.
Jason Mantzoukas I’m very into that.
Audience Member And actually, my question was going to be living or dead. Any actor. Who would you like to see as this pair? Who would you be your Castor and who would be your Archer? Who?
Paul Scheer Living or dead. It’s going to be a real it’s going to be a real thinker. Get a toy for that question. Get a plushie. Plushie. Sons of Anarchy.
Jason Mantzoukas I’m going to say. Nicolas Cage as Castor still and then replace Travolta with Nicolas Cage.
Paul Scheer I was just going to say.
Jason Mantzoukas That’s. That’s where I’m at. The only way this movie could be better. Double Cage.
Paul Scheer Yeah, I’m thinking. I’m still thinking.
Randall Park I’d like to see, like, some, like, really, like, serious, well-respected, like serving Sir Ben Kingsley and Meryl Streep. Well, that would be amazing.
Paul Scheer Then I’ll go for the old version of Face Off and, say, Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart. Yes. That’s a good that’s by the way, that’s an Academy Award winning movie.
Jason Mantzoukas How about how about a sequel to Face Off, which takes place like 40 years after the first one. And those actors play the same two characters.
Paul Scheer I’ll be in the 100% in. All right, here we go. Yes, sir. Your your paring. Your question.
Audience Member Yeah. As far as pairing, I think I’d be on board. I think you got to go female.
Paul Scheer Okay, great. I’m Sofia Vergara.
Audience Member And I’ll Lucille Ball.
Paul Scheer Ooh, Wow. Both Sophia Vergara and Lucille Ball. I don’t even know what that is. I love it.
Jason Mantzoukas That movie is rad. Especially because if we shot it now, Lucille Ball would be a corpse.
Paul Scheer Well, he said living or dead. Living or dead. I want to see the female version. Your question.
Audience Member Well, actually, it’s a nice segue because I felt gypped. Yeah. At the end, this movie, I feel like, you know, we had Fat guy is become a skinny, skinny guy’s fat. No taboo left unturned. That little boy shows up at the house. And I think to myself, you know who? He’s the same height as the dead son. Why aren’t we digging up the dead boy?
Paul Scheer Amazing. You get a toy for that.
Jason Mantzoukas This guy gets it. We’ve got the technology. Let’s fucking slap a new face on this kid and fuck him up any more than he’s already fucked up.
Paul Scheer Oh, that’s a great idea.
Randall Park And you’re right. They were the exact same height. So that’s all that matters. Yeah.
Paul Scheer Oh, man, that’s a great choice. Maybe they do eventually do that. They just have to get him up into his room. Okay. Yes, ma’am. Your question. Your paring and your question.
Audience Member Bill Pullman and Bill Paxton.
Paul Scheer Nice.
Audience Member And why didn’t the wife notice when they were intimate that it wasn’t her husband? They’ve been married for at least 15, 20 years. Did they change everything?
Jason Mantzoukas So you’re saying explicitly that is Dick must have been different?
Paul Scheer Well, I was going to say, this movie. This movie shows no restraint. But because I feel like but in that category, they did because they didn’t have like one of those scenes.
Jason Mantzoukas There was no sex scene.
Paul Scheer Well, they didn’t look at his dick and go, whoah. Right? Like. Like, you know, I feel like that’s always in these bodies watching movies. They check out their dicks.
Jason Mantzoukas No, cause they don’t switch bodies. They just switch faces. So they got their own dicks.
Paul Scheer But their bodies are totally changed.
Jason Mantzoukas Okay. Sorry. Yeah.
Randall Park Their bodies are totally changed.
Paul Scheer Yeah, cause they take the hair out of the chest.
Randall Park But that’s all they said. The hair, the hair out of the chest and an abdominal plasty. Right. The dicks are the same.
Jason Mantzoukas They should have said. They should have said they should have said they are the same height and have identical genitalia.
Paul Scheer And you guys are negligibly different in height and your junk looks pretty the same. So how many people do you think they they kept their same dicks by applause?
Jason Mantzoukas Now, I have a question.
Paul Scheer How many people think they did not keep? Is going to interfere with your question or not?
Jason Mantzoukas Go ahead.
Paul Scheer How many people think they did not change dicks?
Jason Mantzoukas Okay, now this one’s for the ladies. Do you think you would notice if your husband’s dick was markedly different? Keep in mind your Joan Allen. So I don’t know if you’re like blowing anybody.
Paul Scheer And they hadn’t had a successful date night in a while.
Randall Park Two months.
Paul Scheer Yeah.
Randall Park No sex for two months.
Paul Scheer Ladies, would you recognize?
Jason Mantzoukas She’s a doctor? Okay, so this girl here is saying that Joan Allen is a doctor.
Randall Park So she’s a dick specialist.
Paul Scheer So she’s examining his dick every time?
Jason Mantzoukas Just fondling Dongs at the hospital. What, is she, a perv? Some kind of Joan Allen dick Doc? Don’t get me wrong, I’d like an exam.
Paul Scheer A full ball exam. That was such a good question. And give you this Michael Bay book that we got. All right. Who are you shaking your hand? That means that you have a good question. All right. Here we go. All right. You’re pairing, your question.
Jason Mantzoukas Oh.
Paul Scheer But you had your hand up. No. Move! Move move.
Jason Mantzoukas What the fuck are you doing? What you had your hand raised. Paul came up to you. And you shit your pants.
Paul Scheer Sir. Here we go. What do you got? You got a notebook out? I know you’re not going to let me down.
Audience Member Can I do my pair?
Paul Scheer Please.
Audience Member I would say Jason Statham and Liam Neeson.
Paul Scheer I like that a lot.
Audience Member And then my question is, when Castor wakes up in the hospital, he’s unguarded. There’s no there’s no medical staff. And he looks outside his window, and the only thing he can see in the darkness is John Travolta’s face.
Paul Scheer It’s a really good point.
Jason Mantzoukas Oh, you mean John Travolta’s face in the face juice?
Paul Scheer Yeah.
Randall Park It’s saline. Yeah, it’s saline.
Paul Scheer By the way, they key. Why would they keep that out in the center of the room? There, they put that in the fridge. You think? Like it may go bad.
Jason Mantzoukas What should I do with this other face? Oh, just leave it in the face, Juice. It’s fine. Should anybody be watching him? He’s in a coma. It doesn’t matter.
Paul Scheer Yeah. Like they should have maybe watched him because that Face Off thing woke him up. I mean, clearly.
Jason Mantzoukas They also should have like, I feel like, here’s the deal. If I’m Travolta, I’m like, Hey, guys, keep my fucking face under lock and key. Like, this shit is pretty fucking important to me. Like, lock it up and somewhere safe. Don’t leave it in some fucking juice. Don’t throw my fucking face in some apple juice and leave it next to fucking Nicolas Cage.
Paul Scheer And why did it have to why did it have to be so secret? Because no one was going to get into that prison to tell Pollock’s right?
Jason Mantzoukas Pollocks, by the way, was instantaneously suspicious of him.
Randall Park Yeah. Yeah.
Jason Mantzoukas As if to think. I wonder if this is a face switch.
Paul Scheer By the way, the smartest character.
Jason Mantzoukas He just told me, Bro, my brother doesn’t usually call me bro. Face switch? Probably face switch. I guess I’ll marry Emily Mortimer.
Paul Scheer Well, obviously we had an opinion about this movie, but there are some people who had a different opinion. It is now time for a second opinions. Alright. This is there are some great ones here. Amazing ones all out of the gate. I’ll just start with this one. From Wanita Clifton. She writes, “Good movie for older people. Not little kids. Oh, I do dislike Cage’s character. He’s a real scumbag. Five stars.” From Miley Munoz. She goes, “It’s very beautiful. I love it. It’s what I wanted and I’m glad I found it. Thank you so very much. I will be doing so recommending of this very beautiful piece.”
Jason Mantzoukas I will be doing so much very recommending?
Paul Scheer Yes. Yes. That is that is that that. This one from Danny, one of my favorites. Danny wrote this back in 2000. Simpler time. “This blasts Die Hard right out of a building and sends it flying down 33 stories. It jump kicks the matrix and breaks it back on a granite wall.”
Jason Mantzoukas Wow.
Paul Scheer “Grabs cliff hanger by the throat and throws it onto a pile of jagged rocks. Yes, this movie kicks major buttocks. It’s a story of an FBI agent and a terrorist who change identities to get a first hand glimpse of how the other lives his own lifestyle. This used to be my favorite flick for about two years until I watch it so much that it just played out completely.”
Jason Mantzoukas This is his amazing review includes the part where he doesn’t like it anymore. Amazing movie. Flawless. Until I watched it so much that I realized it’s terrible.
Paul Scheer Here’s another one. “If you don’t like this movie, you’re a wimp. Five stars.” “I thought this film was great. I had never heard of Nicolas Cage before. And now. I’m a big fan.”
Jason Mantzoukas What? Oh, my God.
Paul Scheer And then.
Jason Mantzoukas That’s shocking.
Paul Scheer And then this one.
Jason Mantzoukas Can you imagine a world in which you’ve never seen or heard Nicolas Cage ever do anything. And then you saw this movie. You’d be like, Oh, what’s happening here? Is this guy okay? Was there not like someone on set being like, Hey, hey, hey, guy, cool it.
Paul Scheer This one is titled Words Can’t Say How Great This movie Is. All in caps. Lot of exclamation points. “This was my favorite movie ever. It was pretty nasty and cool. My little girls thought it was sick. Wow. Five stars.” With little girls.
Jason Mantzoukas Yeah. I think that’s supposed to be red. My little girls thought it was sick.
Paul Scheer Obviously, it’s movie. Don’t feel dumb that you like this movie because it got a 91% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Jason Mantzoukas Because it’s awesome. Again, I didn’t think we should do this movie for a reason.
Paul Scheer But I did feel we did it for the right reasons. Yeah. Margaret Cho in this movie, simply because John Woo’s daughter liked her. Said dad, you need to hire her. And he said, okay.
Randall Park Really?
Paul Scheer That was yeah, that was what he says in the DVD commentary. His daughter likes Margaret Cho is like, Oh, yeah, put her in the movie.
Jason Mantzoukas That’s awesome. Yeah.
Randall Park She has that one great moment where she’s like, Did you get surgery?
Paul Scheer Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah, that’s right.
Randall Park He’s like, to get that stick out of your ass. Yeah, it was a great thing. Great, great comedy moment.
Paul Scheer There’s so much that they improvised. Face Waterfall, the Face Off monologue, the ending with the spear gun, the everything.
Jason Mantzoukas Oh, you mean during the boat chase? Yeah. You mean like the 30 minute boat chase that happens? When one boat jumps through another boat.
Paul Scheer And they’re both competing scarpa or whatever they are as scarabs. Yeah. That’s where I checked out of the movie, like. And I remember watching it originally. The boat chase doesn’t do it for me.
Jason Mantzoukas Ah, it’s pretty great. I’m like, That is where you’re wrong. As as June said.
Randall Park All the time, I was thinking. Sea Org. Yeah. That’s all.
Paul Scheer IJune said to me, How many times are they going to Face Off?
Jason Mantzoukas Are you serious?
Paul Scheer She thought they would just Face Off once. She’s like. They’re always facing off.
Jason Mantzoukas Yeah.
Randall Park The whole movie.
Jason Mantzoukas Wow.
Paul Scheer Well, I want to show you guys the end scene. That was not in the film.
Jason Mantzoukas Oh.
Paul Scheer So this is the alternate ending scene. We’ll watch it. And then can kind of describe to you those that are not here. Let’s take a look at the alternate ending, which is pretty amazing. So it ends the same way. I imagine they adopt this kid. It’s nighttime. Joan Allen’s got on a very sexy outfit. It’s almost like Gandalf cloak.
Jason Mantzoukas No, it’s fucking Galadriel, man. Joan Allen is Galadriel.
Paul Scheer And so she’s prepping the bed, getting it ready for bed.
Jason Mantzoukas That bureau is distracting.
Paul Scheer It is. John Travolta is at the sink.
Movie Audio Sean?
Paul Scheer She goes to check on him. Puts his head down in the sink. Okay. So let me explain what just happened here. So and we need to talk about this, right? So this is the original ending. So John Travolta is looking at himself in the mirror. He’s like, oh, God, it’s been a crazy couple of days. And. Crazy week and a half.
Jason Mantzoukas And this is a this has been a real yipes.
Paul Scheer Puts his head down to be like, oh, fuck it. Looks up. And he is Nicolas Cage. Now, Joan Allen comes in, sees the reflection of Nicolas Cage and goes, Oh.
Jason Mantzoukas So they are sharing a hallucination, right? I guess they are sharing. It’s a shared hallucination.
Paul Scheer Then he looks back and it’s John Travolta. So my question is now, the studio made John Woo cut that because he said it was too ambiguous. I don’t understand what even is ambiguous about like he’s still Nick Cage?
Jason Mantzoukas No.
Paul Scheer But is he?
Jason Mantzoukas What?
Paul Scheer Like. Will he always be Nic Cage?
Jason Mantzoukas Huh? What do you mean? You don’t mean. You don’t mean you? Are you. Are you theorizing that they didn’t switch the faces back in that it’s still Nicolas Cage as Travolta Cage Volta?
Paul Scheer I’m hypothesizing that a little piece of Nicolas Cage is still in Travolta. And I know that’s impossible because it’s only about the faces, but. Well, I feel like they went dark and now he’ll always be dark. Although he was dark in the beginning, too.
Jason Mantzoukas Well, I do think they’ve now walked a mile in each other’s shoes, as I said. And I feel like Travolta has a little bit of cage inside of him now for sure.
Randall Park Maybe they’ve both throughout this whole, whole ordeal. Yeah, they’ve both been traumatized by this experience. They both need to jump on an E-Meter. And be audited again and start the whole process over.
Paul Scheer Wait a second. Are you saying that Castor Troy is a suppressive person?
Randall Park Yes. Is he’s an s p clearly.
Paul Scheer Wait, now, but but my question is, why does Joan Allen see it?
Jason Mantzoukas My question is, where is Shelly Miscavige?
Paul Scheer She’s in a prison camp.
Jason Mantzoukas No, here’s my here’s my genuine question. Do you think Audience Joan Allen prefers sex with Travolta travolta or Cage’s travolta?
Paul Scheer I would actually have liked a scene where Cage or Travolta as Cage, fucked.
Jason Mantzoukas No, Cage as Travolta? Oh. Oh, Gina, Gershon.
Paul Scheer Gershon. And she’s like oh, that was terrible.
Jason Mantzoukas Why are you crying so much? And who’s Michael?
Paul Scheer Was it a telltale sign that, like, Travolta was evil when he started traveling with the two gangsters? Hey. Hey. Nice pop. Oh, yeah. Now they’ve got these two gangsters, like, Yeah, you’re a fucking bad guy. There’s no there’s no doubt about it.
Jason Mantzoukas Well, the idea that he could come home, it’s what I do. And I do love this movie. And what I love about it is they do the face swap. And whether it’s Cage Travolta in Cage’s body with his Nick Cassavetes, Gina Gershon, or Cage in Travolta’s body with his family. Nobody bats an eye. Everybody’s a little bit like, Hey, you okay? Yeah. What do you mean? Nothing.
Paul Scheer Because for as much as Travolta was to know Cage, he doesn’t really seem to get what’s going on. No, like you only go you. I busted. I mean, Sean Archer busted you? Yeah.
Jason Mantzoukas Or he go, Ah, that when she’s like, Well, where are you going? And it’s like the, like the son’s birthday and they need to go to the graveyard or whatever. And he’s just like, What? Okay, bye. And she’s like, Don’t try and get out of it, mister. You know, everything’s like so conveniently, like, it’s solvable. But like, he’s a stranger. Even though he has Travolta face, he’s like a stranger to Joan Allen.
Paul Scheer To me, he also drives past. Yeah, like he drives past his own house and. But it didn’t seem clear to me that he was even driving to the house. Well, it seemed like he may have just passed it by accident. Like because he overshot. Like he just a way overshot it. And she’s like, I figured you would know where your own house was.
Jason Mantzoukas Only a matter of time before you forgot where we live.
Randall Park She’s completely confused, and he drops that line on her. He says, I hate to see you leave, but I love to watch you go. Yeah. And she’s just, like, totally charmed.
Jason Mantzoukas Yes. Yeah. Because guess what? Not a lot of people are giving Joan Allen ass compliments.
Paul Scheer By the way, did you think he was going to fuck the daughter? I thought he was going to.
Jason Mantzoukas Oh, he totally fucked the daughter. Right? Right?
Paul Scheer All right. So.
Jason Mantzoukas Right?
Paul Scheer Obviously, I think we all recommend seeing this movie, Right?
Randall Park It’s incredible.
Jason Mantzoukas 100%.
Randall Park It’s the best.
Paul Scheer So I think we did it justice. Randall. Anything you want to promote, talk about?
Randall Park Uh, well, we are on a show together called Fresh Off the Boat. Super funny show on ABC. On Tuesdays at eight. And it’s a great show.
Paul Scheer And you can catch up on the ABC app. Just go. Go check it out. If you haven’t seen it. Jason?
Jason Mantzoukas I did an episode of Community. It’s online right now on Yahoo! Which everybody should go watch. Um, I don’t know. That’s about it.
Paul Scheer Yeah. I got nothing. I got. We talked about Fresh off the boat, so we did it. Oh.
Jason Mantzoukas Yeah. Uh, How Did This Get Made podcast?
Paul Scheer Oh, that’s good.
Jason Mantzoukas On Earwolf. It’s in New York. We’re going to be at Irving Plaza.
Paul Scheer Yeah, but you can’t come to it.
Jason Mantzoukas Oh, it’s sold out? Yeah. Ha, ha.
Paul Scheer And if you are listening to this and you plan on coming to see us in New York, don’t buy any of those scalp tickets. We’ll be back. You don’t have to pay 150 bucks for a ticket. That’s ridiculous.
Jason Mantzoukas Don’t buy scalped tickets, guys.
Paul Scheer Come on. But the real fans and screw the scalpers and stubhub. Thank you guys so much. A big shout out. And thank you to July up in the booth. Everybody over at Earwolf. Give it up for Nate Kylie. Give it up for Avril Halley, Give it up for our new T-shirts, which you can buy right now on the Earwolf store. They’re no holds barred t shirts. Thank you so much! Give it up for Randall! Give up for Jason Mantzoukas! Goodnight!
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