john travolta

Out of Character: Face/Off vs Deadly Sibling Rivalry

Face/Off vs Deadly Sibling Rivalry

Two movies about taking on someone else's identity in pursuit of revenge — it's Face/Off vs Deadly Sibling Rivalry.

Read Charisma Carpenter's THR piece, How To Be an Ally of Victims of Abuse

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Every episode of Tasteless, I take a critically acclaimed film and compare it to one that shares the same themes but didn't get the attention it deserves — and explain why that second movie is my pick. This week: two movies about taking on someone else's identity in pursuit of revenge. It's Face/Off versus Deadly Sibling Rivalry.

Face/Off

To foil a terrorist plot, an FBI agent assumes the identity of the criminal who murdered his son via facial transplant surgery, but the crook wakes up prematurely and vows revenge.

This movie came out in 1997, has a shocking 92% on Rotten Tomatoes with just under 100 reviews, and is just one of those action movies that people are talking about all the time. I watched it for the first time. Was shocked by everything that happened. It was nominated for an Oscar for Best Sound Effects Editing — it lost to Titanic.

The most insane part of this movie, though — where somebody's face gets swapped with somebody else's face — the most insane part is it opens on a carousel. John Travolta with his son, who he loves dearly. The son's probably about five years old. And Nicolas Cage is watching them because he's going to shoot John Travolta. And I guess to show his affection for his son, John Travolta takes his big old beefy hand and just runs it down the front of his son's face. You know, like in a movie when someone's dead and the other person runs their hand over their face to close their eyelids? That's what this looked like. It's so weird.

And then when he's trying to convince his wife that he's him later — when he's in Nick Cage's body — he touches her face, rubs his hand down her face, and she's like, it is my weird husband who rudely rubs his hand down my face. This must be him in someone else's body.

It's not a body swap, by the way. They're very specific about that. They're like, it's your body. We've shaved you and done plastic surgery and taken in your love handles. Somebody rudely says that to John Travolta — we've cut out your love handles so your body looks like Nick Cage's body. We have cut your hair and the only thing different is your face.

John Travolta is Sean Archer, an FBI agent who's been hunting this terrorist maniac Nick Cage. His son was killed by Nick Cage — by mistake. Nick Cage was trying to shoot John Travolta and the bullet went through his body into the body of his son. Not the best planning. This movie reminded me of how attracted I was to John Travolta in Look Who's Talking. Knock your — you thought I was going to say Grease? No. Look Who's Talking.

And then his enemy is Nick Cage playing Castor Troy, who is really, I feel like, not that good at crimes. He's really off the handle. When he's setting up the bomb at the beginning, every time he hits a button on this little portable computer, a little graphic of a flame pops up on the button after he hits it. Then we see him dance around in a priest's robes. I don't know why. He just dances around and grabs women's butts. He is truly a predator and disgusting.

Then he gets on a private jet with his brother, played by Alessandro Nivola — who you may know as the man in Disobedience, basically Italy's answer to Sam Rockwell. Nick Cage is hitting on this flight attendant and grabs her and makes her sit in his lap and goes, I can eat a peach for hours. But in kind of a weird valley accent, like, I can eat a peach for hours, man. And then he says that about 200 more times during the movie. That's the phrase John Travolta uses to get into his voice and his identity, because they give him this little voice box. He's just like, I can eat a peach for hours. I can eat a peach for hours. Peach, peach, I can eat a peach for hours. It's so upsetting and insane.

Poor Joan Allen in this movie has to kiss both John Travolta and Nick Cage. We also have CCH Pounder, who I love, John Carroll Lynch, who I love, Margaret Cho, who I love, and Gina Gershon, who we're going to get into in a second.

So they've swapped. They're like, John Travolta, Nick Cage is dead but we've got his brother and we need to find out where this bomb is. He won't talk to anyone besides his brother. So why don't you put on his brother's face and go talk to him? And John Travolta is like, great, sure. They give him Nick Cage's face. He goes to talk to Alessandro Nivola. Then while he's in there, Nick Cage wakes up from being dead, sees John Travolta's face floating in a jar, makes the surgeon give him John Travolta's face, kills everyone who knew that John Travolta was undercover — including CCH Pounder, which made me very sad — and goes on a rampage as John Travolta.

So we have Nick Cage with John Travolta's face, which is just the actor John Travolta pretending to be Castor Troy. And then we have John Travolta with Nick Cage's face, who is supposed to be undercover as Castor Troy. And immediately to one of the prisoners he's like, I busted you. You're in jail because of me. Oh wait, I mean — no. Sean Archer busted you. I'm Castor Troy. How are you an agent that you're this bad at going undercover?

Then he's looking around, like, the brother doesn't buy it's me. So I'm going to really pretend to be Castor Troy, and he does this insane person face that's like a meme online. And he just starts yelling, I'm Castor Troy! I'm Castor Troy! Great plan. If you want to pretend to be someone and you want other people to believe you, just scream that you are them as many times as you can.

Nick Cage, who is Sean Archer in Castor Troy's body, just keeps crying and touching his face. He finds out Tito is dead and he's like, Tito! He can't say the word "die." He keeps saying it and there's always — I watched with subtitles and that's the only reason I could tell he was saying a word and not just making a sound.

Later, Sean Archer in the Nick Cage body is trying to convince his wife, Joan Allen, that it's him. And he tells the most unhinged story: I took this girl on a date. I took her to surf and turf, but it turned out she was a vegetarian. And by the way, the story's about you. You broke your tooth on a rye seed, remember? You just ate a bunch of bread and you broke your tooth. What? This is what you picked to convince this woman that you're her husband?

As much as I hated all of Nick Cage's acting, I really enjoyed John Travolta getting to play Castor Troy, getting to be the bad guy. There's almost something a little feminine about it and something just very loosey-goosey that I enjoyed. He immediately was so creepy to Joan Allen. I feel like if my husband was suddenly a freak, I would at least be like, hey man, should you go to the doctor? Do you have a brain tumor?

Very funny trivia: one of his lines is I hate this ridiculous chin, which is Castor Troy in John Travolta's body talking about his chin. IMDB trivia says John Travolta asked the writers if they were making fun of him with the ridiculous chin line. They explained that Castor was such a narcissist that he would hate having anyone else's face. John Travolta is like, hey, is this joke about my chin? And they're like, no, no, no, it's the character. The character just hates everyone's chin. It's not you specifically.

Also in John Travolta trivia: before shooting emotional scenes, John Woo played soft, sad music to help the actors get into character. John Travolta said he didn't need it. He nailed the scene in one take, earning the nickname One Take John. Okay, that 100% did not happen and/or John Travolta submitted this piece of trivia himself.

They say "face off" about 18 times in this movie. Nick Cage is like, I want to take his face off. And his henchman is like, face off? Face off? You want to take his face off? I'm going to take his face off — for about 10 minutes. It's a real weird Who's on First thing. The studio wanted to take the slash out of the title. John Woo was like, no, I'm worried people will think it's a hockey movie if it doesn't have the slash.

Now, Gina Gershon. She is so cool in this movie. The best part is she's holding her son — probably five years old, turns out Castor is the father — and the FBI comes in to raid these bad guys. She kicks one of the bad guys in the crotch and turns to her kid and goes, I don't ever want to see you do that. IMDB trivia says Gina Gershon decided Sasha should kick a man in the groin. I thought that just encapsulated her whole personality. The whole killer mom. Yes!

She told John Woo she wanted to shave her head for the role and he said no. Then Nick Cassavetes, who played her brother, surprised John Woo by shaving his head for the role. John Woo said it was just the image he wanted. Double standard much?

A couple more bits of trivia because this movie is just a movie. The two main characters' blood types reflect their antagonistic nature. Sean Archer's blood type is O-negative, the universal donor, reflecting Archer's role as a police officer dedicated to serving the community. Castor Troy's is AB-positive, the universal recipient — someone who takes from society without giving anything back. I really hope there's never any IMDB trivia about my blood type and what it says about me.

And important trivia: a lot of people caught the flu while filming the prison scenes because of the dirty conditions there.

The grossest part of this movie is that at the end — spoiler alert — Gina Gershon dies, so John Travolta, now Sean Archer again, brings home Gina Gershon's son and is like, we're going to raise him now. He's the same age as our child that died. His daughter goes up to the little boy and just runs her hand right down his face. What is wrong with this family? Family's a bunch of sickos.

Deadly Sibling Rivalry

In trouble with the law, a woman assumes the identity of her twin sister, who is in a coma after a car accident. Her niece isn't so easily fooled, but proving it could have deadly consequences.

This movie came out in 2011. It does not have a score on Rotten Tomatoes, but it lacks me, and I'll change that.

I decided to crack into this comparison because of Charisma Carpenter's recent headlines. Now, Charisma is an incredible actress and human. I know and love her from Buffy, which led me to following her career in all arenas. She hosted a show called Surviving Evil, a documentary series about people fighting for their lives, and she shared her own story about being attacked. She's created her own virtual convention experience with MyCon.live. And recently she has been in the news because she has come out about her experiences with Joss Whedon, in support of Ray Fisher.

Ray Fisher played Cyborg in Justice League and came out against Joss and his abusive behavior. An official legal inquiry was opened. Charisma provided testimony to support Ray Fisher's claims and shared on social media what she had gone through — how she was psychologically abused during her tenure on Joss's shows. Her speaking out caused many more people from Joss Whedon's past works to come out to support her or share their own stories.

It's so hard to be the first one to do something, but it's so important. One person can make such a massive difference. Following that, Charisma wrote a piece for The Hollywood Reporter titled "How to Be an Ally of Victims of Abuse." In a time where an unprecedented number of people are coming forward sharing their stories, when people have access through social media to the people in their lives who care about them, to people who don't know them, to people who look up to them, and to people that are hateful little trolls — we don't always know how to react. Charisma's bravery is very appreciated and further cements my deep love of her, so I wanted to revisit one of my favorite movies of hers.

This movie — Deadly Sibling Rivalry — not only stars Charisma Carpenter, it stars two Charisma Carpenters. She is twins Janna and Callie. Not only is she a phenomenal actress, but she's so funny. And I love seeing doubles of my favorite actors. What a dream come true to have two Charismas on the screen.

These twins have a contentious history. As teens, they went rock climbing and their father falls to his death in front of them. Now, I will say this: maybe don't do an activity where you could die in front of your children. But it messes them up.

Fast forward to the present. Janna is a mom. She's careful, she's nice, she cares about her daughter more than anything. Instead of rock climbing and adventuring, she owns majority stake in a travel magazine where she writes about the adventures she wishes she could go on. Callie, her twin, is the so-called bad twin. She flits from place to place, no roots, is involved in some shady dealings, some prescription drug thievery, and whenever she comes to town, you know you're in for some trouble.

Janna's daughter is played by Krista Allen — who I know you know as young Jenna Rink in 13 Going on 30. She's in college now and has come back home to visit with her mom and is really excited that her Aunt Callie is visiting because Aunt Callie is fun and laid back, whereas her mother Janna is controlling. Like, yeah, that's what moms are for. Obviously your aunt is more fun. That's how it works.

This movie made the social media rounds again a few months ago because there's a scene — Callie's friend is played by Kyle Richards. Actress, Real Housewife of Beverly Hills, was an actress before that. She's Callie's shady friend involved in the drug dealings. Callie kills her, puts her in a freezer, and sits on top. It's an amazing, classic death scene — so ridiculous in the best way. In a movie where there are twins and there's an evil twin, obviously someone dies in a freezer. Every time that scene floats around Twitter because it has Kyle Richards, I have to go immediately watch Deadly Sibling Rivalry.

Janna and Callie, the twins, are in the car together and wind up in a car accident. Janna flags down help. Callie is in a coma. While Janna remains mostly unscathed, we see her rattled, shaken up, but relieved to be back with her daughter. Her daughter Fiona checks in on Callie, talks to her to help get her out of the coma because she heard that's good for coma patients. And Janna is just so happy to be alive that she says life is too short and starts being more "fun" with Fiona. But fun in the same way that Nick Cage in John Travolta's body is fun in Face/Off — where I'd be like, no, I don't want this much freedom.

She starts being more fun with her daughter, lets her drink wine, and her daughter's like, mom, you're cool now. And then her mom goes into the bathroom, closes the door, and — spoiler alert, as is revealed — it was Callie all along!

Callie has taken Janna's place and it is actually Janna who is in the coma. Callie is wearing Janna's scarf, but when she starts changing, we see the red lingerie that Callie had put on at the beginning of the film. It's such a good villain reveal. I truly gasped. She goes into the bathroom and you're like — her mom is going in to get changed or whatever. And she goes, I'm going to have to retrain that girl, and undoes her shirt. Boom! Callie's bra. Whoa.

Fiona starts to suspect something is wrong. She suspects her mother is actually the one in the coma. But no one believes her. This is just one of those movies where it's so fun from beginning to end. You're just like, oh my God, what? Oh my God, what?

There's a mother-daughter motorcycle ride. Very cool. One Charisma Carpenter shoots a shotgun at the other Charisma Carpenter. If that's not the description of your perfect movie, then we have nothing in common. I'm sorry. That's my perfect film.

Shared Themes

Our characters face a crisis when taking over someone else's identity, because a life that has been built on how they are perceived by others is suddenly shattered.

John Travolta in the body of Nick Cage — so Sean Archer, the nice FBI man, now wearing Nick Cage's crazy face and receding hairline — at first doesn't want to lean into Nick's identity, into Castor Troy. He aggressively does a bad job at being undercover, whether subconsciously or just because he's a dummy. He's like, hey, I arrested you — I mean, someone else did, I'm a bad guy. Up until he realizes Castor Troy is out in the world wearing his face, being him, taking over his life, and that everyone who knew he was undercover is now dead. No one's going to believe he isn't who he looks like.

He seems a lot less concerned with Castor Troy being out in the world, sleeping with his wife, being bad, having a bomb — and a lot more concerned with: no one is going to know who I am. The fact that Castor Troy has killed everyone who could vouch for Sean Archer's true identity really sends Archer into a tailspin.

And then we see how quickly people accept Castor Troy in Sean Archer's body — Castor Troy in the John Travolta body, slapping butts, having a nice time. Margaret Cho, one of his employees, is like, finally, you're fun and you'll drink with us. It's so weird to see how much they love him not being himself.

Castor Troy in the body of John Travolta never really attempts to take on John's identity. He tamps down his own craziness the teeniest bit so as not to fully give up the game, but he doesn't do a great job. He continually comments on missing his old face, his old body, his weird new John Travolta chin. He risks his freedom to get the Nick Cage face back. He needs his face back. He's obsessed with it. He really is loud and proud about loving himself. It's incredibly important to him that people see him as Nick Cage and not as Sean Archer.

Sean Archer in Nick Cage's body is so crushed to be thought of as evil. He just cries for most of the movie. He so quickly has to be reminded who he is — he gets Nick Cage's face put on him and his bosses are like, hey, hey, it's okay, you're Sean Archer wearing Nick Cage's face. It's fine, cool it.

In Deadly Sibling Rivalry, Callie is thrilled by the reception she gets as Janna. People trust her. They let her in. She's not thought of as a flake, as a criminal. She's always been jealous of Janna, envious of the life she lives, and now she gets to fully immerse herself in that life. She talks about herself in this third-person way, constantly complaining to other people about Callie, and she waits for other people to agree, expecting them to. It throws her off when Fiona doesn't — when Fiona sees the good in Callie.

She's frustrated by Fiona's constant support of Callie. Fiona's love for someone who flits in and out of her life. Callie doesn't understand how Fiona could keep loving her. It's clear that if Callie had had that sort of support throughout her life, things could have turned out differently. But she shakes that off, angry, and goes back to trashing the supposed Callie in the coma.

At this point, everyone thinks Callie is the one in the coma. The police want to interrogate her. She's in a coma. She can't talk. But then she wakes up. Janna wakes up and is told that she's Callie. And because she has amnesia, she goes along with it. She fully loses her identity. She doesn't quite jive with being Callie — who they say Callie is, someone who has committed crimes — but she doesn't know what else to believe. It's easier to accept what doctors tell her, what police tell her.

Fiona has to convince her who she is, of the incredible mother she is, to bring her back to herself. It's her love for her family, for her daughter, for her father, that brings back her memories and allows her to gather the strength to protect herself and her daughter from Callie's rage.

Face/Off and Deadly Sibling Rivalry are about identity and about how inhabiting the life of someone else causes our characters to further discover who they really are deep down — because there's this realization that at the end of the day, we can't escape ourselves, for better or for worse.

John Travolta, Sean Archer in the Nick Cage body, truly wigs out. He is distraught with how people look at him, what they expect him to be. He is so weirdly pumped when he finds out Castor is the father of Gina Gershon's son, because he gets to hug this little boy and play a fatherly role. Now, he does hug the little boy while screaming his dead son's name, and Gina Gershon is like, okay, please stop, you're scaring him. But Sean Archer's identity as a father is so important to him. He needs that affection. Getting to connect as a father again is what drives him — it's what brings him back to himself and laser-focuses what he needs to do to get his life back.

Nick Cage, Castor Troy in John Travolta's body, becomes so weird because he feels this need to prove himself. It's like he's constantly showing off. He wants all these FBI people to be kissing his butt so he can be like, ha ha, I got them. And it's like, well yeah, you work with them. And he's like, no, but I'm secretly a bad guy. Ha ha. He just needs that. He needs this fear of himself.

In Deadly Sibling Rivalry, we have two women who don't want to admit that there are things about themselves they would like to change. So they reject those things in others wholeheartedly. Janna and Callie are like oil and water, hating everything about the other person because they see what they themselves lack.

Janna clearly misses adventuring, is wistful over the people she features in her magazine who are living the lives she writes about. Everyone sees Janna as this uptight person without understanding how the death of her father led her to wanting to stay safe, to be cautious. When she believes that she is Callie, she doesn't feel quite right hearing the things Callie is accused of doing. She wonders how she could have gotten here. It's her love for her daughter that brings her back from the amnesia.

Everyone thinks of Janna as boring, as a stick in the mud, and there's a certain freedom to inhabiting the skin of carefree Callie. She's willing to bust out with her daughter because a little bit of pressure is lifted, a little bit of expectation. She warns her daughter though, when they're making their escape from the hospital, about being careful, about potentially getting in trouble. And her daughter Fiona laughs and is like, see, you are my mom. Callie doesn't care about getting in trouble. Janna, in this weird way, finds the best of both worlds in this post-amnesia state.

Callie is the more conflicted of the duo. She lives life carefree, globetrotting, but is resentful of the peace and harmony that Janna has with her daughter. Callie makes reckless decisions that lead to her getting in trouble with the law, but she sees a way out in the form of taking over Janna's life. As Janna, she realizes even further what she's been missing — the love of Janna's daughter, just the respect she gets, having a home to call her own. Instead of coming to terms with the things she doesn't have, she tries to destroy them.

The rivalries we witness are deeply personal because the people our characters love have gotten caught in the crossfire. Revenge is a powerful motivator, one that gives our characters some strange sense of control. In pursuit of revenge, they finally feel like they're working towards something.

Castor Troy has taken everything from Sean Archer — and by everything I mean his weird son whose face he rubs. He kills that son and Sean never recovers. So Sean is willing to have his face ripped off and replaced with another face to see through ending the criminal streak of Castor Troy. He gives up his wife and his daughter so quickly — yeah, of course I'll abandon them and wear a new face, great. He couldn't do anything to save his son Mike, so he thinks this is how he makes amends. But then when he's actually faced with the thought of losing who he is, that's when he's motivated. That's when he's like, okay, no, I have to get back to my life. A life he had been working to escape, a life he had been absent from. Joan Allen was like, oh my God, please just come home, you loser. But revenge keeps him going. It's only when he overcomes that revenge and is out to reunite with his family that he's able to save himself.

In Deadly Sibling Rivalry, Callie kills her own father when she's trying to kill her sister. She blames this on her sister. She never wanted her father to die, but it happened because of her jealousy. And so now she has to make that horrible mistake worth it. She has to get rid of the person she sees as the architect of her misery: Janna. She's given the opportunity to take Janna's life for herself and she does. When she realizes that doesn't change who she is at her core — that Kyle Richards can still sniff her out and say, I knew you were a rat, I see your hand on your hip like the uppity jerk you are — Callie can't escape herself. This revenge drives her insane. Because she can't put it aside, can't come to terms with Janna, she basically kills herself in this quest.'

What Deadly Sibling Rivalry Does Better

Despite being played by two different actors, the two main characters of Face/Off are not particularly distinct, whereas Charisma Carpenter creates two very different people in Deadly Sibling Rivalry.

According to IMDB trivia, in Face/Off, Nicolas Cage and John Travolta spent two weeks together before filming to learn how to play each other. They decided on specific gestures and vocal cadences for each character that could be mimicked. To that I say: you did a bad job. This is straight up just two Nick Cages almost immediately. Two Castor Troys. Castor in Sean's body doesn't try to blend in at all — he acts as though he's making fun of it the entire time. So John Travolta is basically doing a Nick Cage and Nick Cage is doing a Nick Cage.

Nick Cage just screams. He's supposed to be the FBI agent, the calm one. He should be the more walled-off Sean Archer. Instead he just goes bananas. Yes, okay, it's fun to see everyone acting wacky. But it's frustrating that Sean does not retain who he is when he's in this new body, except for his weird thing with touching little boys' faces. Oh my God — I can't get over the fact that he adopts Castor Troy's son and his daughter immediately is like, let me just put my entire hand on this boy's face. I would rather live with Nick Cage than with these freaks.

Nick Cage as Sean Archer acting like Nick Cage, John Travolta as Castor Troy acting like Nick Cage. Indistinct. Just immediately both full-blown crazy in a way that makes it hard to determine the real effects of the face swap.

In Deadly Sibling Rivalry, Charisma's two sisters are more distinct — and they're played by the same person. There is an art to this. One Charisma Carpenter has mastered, one people like Tatiana Maslany have mastered.

Even when we don't know yet that Charisma is playing Callie pretending to be Janna, there are subtleties to her performance that let you know something is off — things you can really pick up on on a second watch. They are two fully distinct women, women who wonder about the effects of nature versus nurture, women who have carved out separate lives despite having all the same advantages and opportunities. It's fascinating to wonder what it is that shapes us.

Callie ponders that something went awry in her nurturing since she and Janna are identical, and she constantly rips on Janna out of misplaced jealousy. I have empathy for both women. Yes, one of them murders Kyle Richards in a freezer, tried to murder her sibling, accidentally murdered her dad. But man, do I feel for that sibling rivalry.

And yes, I'm a twin. Sharing a birthday with someone, it's tough. You share all milestones. You go to the same schools, take the same tests, go to college at the same time. Everything is both of you and you want to differentiate. It's so hard not to nickel-and-dime your parents in terms of the time they spend with your sibling. Everything given to one sibling, you want as well. I feel for this woman who thinks she's gotten the short end of the stick, whose envy of the relationship between her sister and her dad leads to the biggest tragedy in her life.

Callie is clearly unwell and projects her hatred and anger onto Janna, who really just wants to do what's best for her daughter. I understand both of these women. That may come down to the fact that Face/Off feels very black and white, while Deadly Sibling Rivalry explores many facets of humanity.

The director of Face/Off, John Woo, is all about good versus evil in his works — it's a major theme. Nick Cage is given almost no redeemable characteristics. He's just evil. We don't even have the emotional payoff of Castor Troy finding out he has a son — we get Sean Archer in Nick Cage's body finding out about the relationship. Castor is just a bad guy through and through. Sean Archer is our supposed good guy. He just gets pass after pass. He's a terrible husband and father. He's just disengaged and grumpy. Somebody should have sent him home to take a nap. There are no shades of gray to these two characters.

What's so interesting about Deadly Sibling Rivalry is that I can see myself in both of these women. With Callie, even at her darkest, I understand it. I can feel for what she's been through, that she goes through life thinking she's less than. And Janna has sympathy for Callie, which is so important. Janna is upset with how things end. Fiona is surprised when Janna mourns her sister. But Janna points out — at the end of the day, no matter what, that's her family.

There's a humanity, a code, a backbone, a personality to these women that shines through and makes me want to support them and watch them and follow their story. Face/Off has some great action sequences, but are we invested in either of these men? Sean Archer is supposed to be our hero, but he spends a lot of the time crying and saying peach. We don't know them — not the way I feel I know Callie and Janna so clearly.

I hope you will give Deadly Sibling Rivalry a watch. It is on Tubi. It's very fun. Or rent it wherever you rent movies. Make sure you read Charisma Carpenter's Hollywood Reporter column — it is really important, really helpful, critical required reading for people with the access we have to people whose lives we don't know.

Hit me up at @tastelesspod on social media. We can talk about how incredible it is to watch two Charisma Carpenters in the same scene. We can talk about the fact that I'm a twin and I have yet to murder my father trying to murder my sibling, so I have that going for me.