He's The Hero?!? Nic Cage

Last week we had our first post in the series "He's the Hero?!?" which was written by Duggs from the Anything But Credible Podcast. He covered Keanu Reeves and all his films where he has saved the world, check his article out right here. This week I will be covering a man who I have already written about, the one and only Nic Cage, and his movies where he has saved the world. Check back next time where Duggs covers another actor in our series.

Nic Cage started out on top of the world with movies like Con Air, Face/Off, Gone in 60 Seconds, and National Treasure but following a sharp decline he has done a lot of questionable roles. With these roles however he has given us some fantastic world saves which I am going to cover in depth right here. Covering these saves will prove why he is the actor we need in case of a world emergency.

He is credited with 91 acting roles (which is the same number as Keanu Reeves....weird) which start in 1981 and are still going strong with 8 movies coming out this year and next. That's gotta be good for at least a couple new world saves, right? Now going in depth on Cage's career was a real rabbit hole situation that made me almost want to watch some more of his movies. From my research, I found 6 films where our man saved the world, Season of the Witch, Next, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Windtalkers, and Ghost Rider 1 & 2. If you would be alive today because of Cage I classified it as a save. Let's go down the rabbit hole together.

World Save #1: 2002. Windtalkers

Unlike Keanu, Cage took over 20 years to get into the world saving business and this one could be a stretch but I am classifying it as a save. In this film Cage finds himself in World War II protecting a Navajo code talker on the battlefield. The Navajo code was based on 2 parts: the Navajo language and a specific code in the language which would confuse even native speakers. The code was practically unbreakable which was great but also only a few specific people knew it. When Cage learns of his assignment he is less then thrilled but over the movie they become closer over music and religion. These code talkers were extremely important in taking down some of the Japanese strong holds which were crucial in winning the war. You may say that we might have won the war without Cage and his code talker but I am going the opposite way, he prevented the Axis from winning the war and world domination. I will rate this save as a 4/10 and call it 'War Save'.

World Save #2: 2002. Ghost Rider

Is this one of the worst movies ever made? Absolutely. Does Johnny Blaze save the world? You bet your ass he does. In 1986, the Devil reaches out to our man Johnny Blaze with a deal: the Devil will cure his father's cancer in exchange for Blaze's soul. Of course he accepts this deal but his father is tragically killed in a motorcycle stunt that same day... tough luck man. 21 years later the Devil's son, Blackheart, and 3 fallen angels come to Earth looking for a list of a thousand corrupt souls to make Blackheart stronger. Blaze kills the fallen angels and then does battle with Blackheart, who he subdues using his "Penance Stare"(which is like his special move). The Devil comes back offering to take back the curse of the Ghost Rider but Blaze does not want to make another deal so he keeps the curse. It goes without saying that the Devil doesn't like this and wants his power back, but Blaze ain't scared. Cage killed the Devil's son, told the Devil he is keeping the Ghost Rider curse, and drives the Devil back to hell. That is pretty damn impressive right there and I am rating this one 7.5/10. Let's call it the 'Flaming Save'.

World Save #3: 2002. Next
In Next, our man plays a small time magician working in Vegas but he has a secret: he can see into the future, but only 2 minutes ahead (and some other confusing shit that you can read on your own time if you feel so inclined). I know you are dying to go see this after that opening sentence. Anyway he makes money as a magician but he really makes his money ripping off casinos in Vegas; that is until an FBI agent figures out his secret and wants to use his powers to stop a nuclear terrorist's bomb. He evades the agent by using his power and seeing where she is coming from. Sometime in all of this the terrorists decide they want to kill Cage and follow the FBI agent in hopes of finding him. The FBI captures him after he saves his girl crush (played by Jessica Biel, who must have been really desperate for work) but the terrorists end up capturing her. Cage ends up escaping the FBI (he is a magician after all) to go and save his girl but he is once again followed by a FBI agent who promises to help save Biel if Cage promises to stop the bomb. They arrive at the terrorist's stronghold and Cage walks right up to the terrorist leader by dodging the bullets because he can see where they are coming from. They kill the terrorists and save Biel, but the bomb has been moved and it explodes. Think that is the end? That would not classify as a world save so hold on tight, the movie reverts to a past scene. Cage's character is able to see every past event Biel is involved in, he uses this power to see where the bomb is and calls the FBI to prevent nuclear disaster. "Every time you look into the future, it changes." This movie sounds like it has the chance to be worse then Ghost Rider. Like why did the whole first part of the movie happen if he can just go back in time and avoid it? Okay so he saves the world and I will give that a 5/10, as far as the movie I am going 0/10 and calling it the 'Nuclear Save'.

World Save #4: Sorcerer's Apprentice. 2010
Nic plays a sorcerer named Balthazar in this absolute turd of a movie. Poor Jay Baruchel got roped into this one but has had a pretty good career regardless. Anyway Merlin has 3 apprentice's and Balthazar is one of those along with Veronica and Horvath. Horvath ends up betraying his comrades and joins forces with the evil Morgana. Morgana ends up mortally wounding Merlin before Veronica is able to absorb her soul into her own. Morgana tries to kill Veronica from within but Balthazar traps them in a Grimhold, which is a magic prison in the shape of a nesting doll. In the future, 10 year old Dave walks into Balthazar's antique shop and receives a dragon figure that identifies him as a descendent of Merlin, which makes him Balthazar's apprentice and the one who can defeat Morgana. Okay I am not going to drag this one out anymore then it needs to be so here is a short summary. Cage rides a steel gargoyle eagle from the Chrysler building, Morgana is freed from the Grimhold and tries to cast a spell that would enslave all of mankind, Balthazar is killed in the final battle but because of Balthazar's training, Dave kills Morgana and ends up reviving Balthazar. So Nic trained Dave and because of that training mankind is not enslaved which is a big plus for us. I will rate this as a solid 7/10 on the save and call it the 'Sorcerer's Save'.

World Save #5: Season of the Witch. 2011
The name of this movie alone should draw you in but I will go ahead and give you the run down on it as well. Cage plays a knight alongside another solid actor, Ron Perlman. They are traveling the country side when they discover the Roman Empire has been swept with the Black Plague. While traveling they are commanded by the Cardinal to escort a supposed witch, who caused the Plague, to a remote monastery where a group of elite monks reside. These elite monks can determine if the girl is indeed a witch and if she is they can cancel her powers and stop the Plague. Along their journey to the monastery, the supposed witch saves one in their group from falling off a bridge. After this, they enter a forest where one in the party thinks they should kill her and go home. The "witch" does not like that so she summons some monstrous wolves (seems pretty witchy to me) and they eventually arrive at the monastery. While there, they discover the monks have all been killed by the plague, so Cage and Perlman try to cure the girl themselves. They realize she is indeed not a witch but is actually possessed by a demon so they start performing an exorcism (I'm sure they're qualified). After an intense battle, Perlman is killed and Cage eventually dies, but not before exorcising the demon. Cage (and Perlman) becomes an exorcist and kills a demon. I consider that pretty impressive. I am scoring this one 6.5/10 and naming it the 'Witch (AKA Demon) Save'.

World Save #6: Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. 2011
As if Ghost Rider wasn't bad enough, they decided to make a second one. I am not going to go into great detail on this one because it looks like the same movie. Cage saves the world from the Devil himself. I will give it a 3/10 from my research and name it 'Flame(less) Save'.

It is hard to believe that Cage has 91 acting credits (check out Netflix if you want to see any of his movies). It may be even harder to believe that he has saved the world 6 different times. He has saved us from the Devil (twice), a Demon, an evil Sorcerer, communism, and a nuclear terrorist attack. That is a pretty solid and a wide range of saves in my opinion. There is not much else that can be said about our main man, Nic Cage... all I can say is this: he may be the one we want when the world needs saving.

Check back next week as we continue our series and Duggs writes his second hero piece! Keep checking out the ABC Pod as well with new episodes every Monday.