Showing posts with label He's The Hero?!?. Show all posts
Showing posts with label He's The Hero?!?. Show all posts

Friday, September 15, 2017

He's the Hero?!? Dennis Quaid

What’s up guys, it’s Duggs back again to ask who comes to your mind when I mention ‘men who have saved the world’ or those who have been our ‘hero’?  I mean, when you think of someone who saves the world you think of cool, badass, slick, most likely good looking, a nice vocal tone, and don’t forget about the great hair.  In my first piece I covered Keanu Reeves, which probably isn’t the most creative choice on my part since we all agreed last time that he is, at minimum, one of the top 10 coolest people of all time.  This week I dug a little deeper.  I went a little further into my bag of tricks. 
This week we aren’t looking at an all around action star.  We aren’t looking at a necessarily cool or slick guy, even though I’d like to think he is.  I will say, however, he is pretty damn good looking and has a solid voice that has me thinking he would definitely be a super effective over-the-phone salesman.  That’s right, I’m talking about the one and only, Dennis Quaid.  Wait, you’re talking about the dragon dude from the 90’s classic Dragonheart?  Yes.  So you’re talking about the awesomely lovable dad from one of everyone’s all time favs, The Parent Trap?  Yep.  Okay hold on, you’re telling me the stud captain from one of the best sports movies ever made, Any Given Sunday, has saved the world?   Sure did, multiple times.  Even the reverend from the new Footloose remake?  Oh okay, let’s not go that far.  Throughout history some people have mentioned him as a B-List celebrity or a subpar actor.  To those people I say…. fight me.  Look through this man’s IMDB page and tell me with a straight face there aren’t legit classics on there.  Here’s the deal, I know that when you think of world savers Denny doesn’t come anywhere close to your list.  That is what I’m here for.  Sit back and let me show you why we all owe the Quaidster some serious thanks.  By the way you are going to be seeing me refer to Dennis as Denny quite a bit throughout this piece because, frankly, I just think it is cooler than Dennis.  Alright, on to the world saves!

Dreamscape.  1984.
Dennis’ first acting credit according to IMDB is in 1977.  If that is true that means it only took him 7 years to potentially save the world.  Not bad Denster.  In this one our boy Denny is a young psychic who becomes the first person to enter another person’s dreams without any medical aid.  I know what you’re thinking, Inception might be a knock off after all.  Anyway, this ability really comes in clutch when he saves the President from being assassinated.  See, the thing is the dude that is dream hunting the President knows about his continuing nightmare of a world destroying nuclear war.   Also, it just so happens that some world nuclear disarming talks are in the works, so it’s safe to say this dude wants the Presi out in case it’s time to show some nuclear muscle.  Dennis doesn’t want the world to go up in flames.  He doesn’t want any radiation or whatever crazy things come with atomic bombs.  He wants a peaceful world where he can continue to use his powers to gamble successfully.  That’s for sure what I would do.  Overall, not the most impressive save I’ve seen, but has to be up there for the sole fact he is doing all the saving mentally.  Think of all the things you would do if you could manipulate people and situations through other’s dreams.  How many of those deal with saving the Presi because you are a conscious and good willed person?  Exactly.  Now, there are other possibilities where a nuclear war wouldn’t break out if the Presi died, so I think we have to take that into account here.  Besides that, thanks to his good will and his sick mind powers we are still here to see another day.  Thanks dude.  I’m going to call this the “Pre-ception save”.  6.5/10

Where do we go from here you might ask.  We are going to take a huge jump into the future all the way to 2004.  By this point our boy Denny is around 49-50ish (born in 1954).  That math is correct, right?  I hate math.  Before that I’d like to throw out an honorable mention.

Frequency. 2000
This movie is more of a world changer, but on a much smaller more personal scale.  The thing is, it could have easily been on a world scale so I’m throwing it in.  The story gets pretty wild into time travel/changing of events, but I won’t get into all of the deets.  Just know that Denny is in 1969 working with his son who is living in 1999 through an old AM radio to help solve a serial murder case and eventually keep Denny alive.  AM radios always get the cool stuff, sorry FM.  So they end up solving the murder case and with it change some events in history.  One being old Denny surviving and magically appearing in 1999 to chill with his son.  Great story.  The problem is this story only focuses on their family.  I’m thinking more of the ripple in the pond effect for this one.  I don’t think I can sit around and expect Denny to survive 30 more years without anything else in history changing.  Who says by solving the case they didn’t set off some crazy chain of events that will alter the future for all of mankind?  Nothing else was changed?  Really?  I call bullshit.  The point I’m getting at is this movie shows that if things got a little crazy Denny has proved his family had a solution to go back in time and fix it.  That would come in clutch if our future as a species was in jeopardy.  It is a stretch I know, but just think about it.  That is why it is an honorable mention.  Even though Denny’s son ruins the World Series final game for him in this one, I enjoyed this one and suggest you check it out.  The storyline might have you making some stank faces, but who cares it’s time travel.  Alright, enough with the ‘what if’ and ‘maybe this maybe that’ hogwash.  On with the saving!

Just four years after our honorable mention and Dennis Quaid is back saving the world. This time he is a super smart paleoclimatologist (a dude or dudette who looks at past climates to study present and possible future ones…I think).  Personally, this is one of my favorite ‘end of world’ movies and I would definitely suggest checking this out if you haven’t already.  What is happening here?   Basically, Denny realizes that global warming will bring a new ice age upon us but no one really takes him for real, especially the higher ups, including the Vice President.  Some crazy weather prompts him to run some tests and he realizes this ice age, which he thought might come within the next few hundred years, is coming now!  How is this a world save?  We are talking about mother nature here, something you can’t stop.  Just hear me out.  After realizing this he is put in direct contact with the President who starts listening to Denny’s recommendations, like evacuating everyone south.  The movie plot takes on his journey to Manhattan to save his son, but we have to look at the bigger picture here. 
He knew this thing was coming eventually.  When it did he jumped on it and figured out what was going to happen.  Also, we can’t forget that he was providing strategies and plans to save as many humans as possible directly to the Presi, who then was relaying that to the rest of the world.  The movie ends with the human race surviving by migrating south and we see a world view of the northern half of earth frozen over.  Now, I don’t remember if this is directly mentioned in the film, but I feel like after being rescued Denny will have to meet up with the V.P. and begin work on the future to make sure we are all aware the next time something like this is coming.  I mean, he was the first guy to bring this up and even presented it directly to the President.  No one respected what he was saying, so the fact that it all came true has to mean he will be the lead on this kind of thing moving into the future, right?  Even if he is not, the fact that he knew what was happening and told the President what to do to save the human race counts as a world save in my book.  It’s hard to beat mother nature so I’m giving this one a 7/10.  Let’s call this one the ‘I’m So Icey’ Save.

Bear with me on this one.  You know those movies where halfway through you realize that what you are watching is so far beyond awful that there is not even a half legit reason for you to continue watching? Even while your entire body is telling you to stop, you keep watching for some unexplainable reason and then end up forgetting everything that just happened for the past hour and a half as soon as the final credits hit?  No?  Don’t lie.  Well, if you are truly lucky enough to have never had this happen to you then this is the perfect movie to check out if you’re wondering what those feelings are like.  What about those movies where you’re on a date but the movie is so bad that you both agree that the $30 either one, or both, of you just invested isn’t worth another single minute of screen time?  What about those movies that are so damn terrible that your own family and friends won’t watch them with you…except for your one weird friend with just as bad of a taste as you who is always like “Yea I’m down to watch that, sounds like it could be a classic.”  Shout out to my buddy Chubbs.  Fine, I’ll admit it; I love terrible movies, but seriously though, don’t watch this one.  It is the definition of a walk-out. I still regret watching it to this day. 
Anyway, I know what you are thinking.  Our hero Dennis Quaid is in this movie?  Yes!  Well, barely.  I actually can’t remember more than 3 scenes with him.  I don’t have the best memory, but I’m willing to bet a decent amount of money that his over/under line of words spoken would be at 25.  That is like 2.5 sentences.  He is General Hawk, who is the leader and overseer of the G.I. Joe squad, and that is the sole reason he is getting this save credit.  I am basing this save off of the previous work he had to have put in to get to this position.  Basically, the G.I. Joe squad saves the world from the evil group Cobra (possibly the lamest bad guy squad name of all time) who has plans of using new nanotechnology-based warheads to take over and destroy the world.  The whole group puts in effort in this one even though it is really just a whole lot of Channing Tatum and not a whole lot of our boy Denny, but since he is the group leader he has to get some credit.  The funny part of this movie is the ending where we see that one of Cobra’s main strategies actually does happen.  So while Denny helped save the world this time it looks like his job won’t be over with just yet.  Actually, just joking because he doesn’t end up making the cut for the sequel and is replaced with Bruce Willis.  Ouch.  Since Denny literally doesn’t do a thing that I can remember in this movie I’m giving this a 1/10.  The 1 represents all of the previous work we never see that he had to have put in to get to this leader position.  Let’s call this the ‘Seriously, Don’t Waste Your Time’ Save.

Legion.  2010.
Wow, after that last shit bomb of a save there has to be something good coming up, right?  You are God damn right it is!!!!  Pun intended.  Legion, the final and most impressive save by Dennis to date.  The basic plot of this one is that God loses faith in humanity and sends down his legion of angels to wipe us out as a whole.  The problem with that is in order to do that you have to run though fucking Dennis Quaid.  Even holed up in his beat down gas station in the middle of the desert Denny doesn’t make it easy for God to start the Apocalypse.  Now, he does have some help from the Angel Michael who turns his back on God’s plan to help out the humans. Don’t get it twisted though, Denny holds up his end because he is focused on everyone who is trapped in this gas station and their survival, including his son Jeep (which is a pretty dope name – shout out to the writers) and the baby that will eventually carry on our species as humans.  Lot of pressure on that kid.  Side note…I have a personal theory that Michael changes his mind to help the humans once he hangs out with Denny for like 10 minutes.  I just picture him saying something like “Damn dude, I thought humans sucked but like…. wanna hang out later?”  Cool Duggs you liked the movie, how is it a save? 
Well, you see, the key to the future of the human race is the baby who has been stuck and protected by Denny this whole time in the gas station.  Eventually, they have to leave and take the baby to safety, which is when our boy Denny blows up the gas station killing himself in an attempt to take down the angel Gabriel (who was being a real dick the whole movie).  I realize that at the very end it is Michael who comes down and kills Gabriel, which ultimately saves the baby, but he had to be resurrected by God.  Denny busted his ass for at least an hour doing all kinds of crazy things to save this baby, and eventually gave up his life for it and all of the human race.  I’d say that is one hell of a save.  Think about knowing that the future of humans is in jeopardy and you kill yourself just to try and take out the main guy trying to take us down.  That’s not impressive?  I realize he didn’t actually kill that guy, but he is an angel.  Come on, give Denny a break.  Any other scenario that person/thing is toasted.  Angels are super hard to kill, for some reason, in every story that has ever been told.  I’ve never understood that, but in this case it almost happened by a regular dude who fixed cars in the desert for a living.  That regular dude from the desert played a key role in the fact that we are all here today.  Also, thanks to Denny his son gets to live on as the main baby protector and can hopefully re-start that great automobile company he was most likely named after.  As I’ve noted before, I don’t really get into the whole religious thing, but this is the biggest scale of saving one can get to.  It literally doesn’t get bigger than this.  God Damn I’m impressed, Denny.  I’m giving this one a 10/10 and I’m calling it the ‘Save The Baby’ save.
                  
So what do you think?  When it comes down to it these are not your usual saves.  Denny starts off by using only his mind, which when I think about that it just ends up giving me a headache.  Then he moves on to beating Mother Nature, which I think we all can agree is pretty impressive.  From there he leads a top-notch operative military team to save the world.  Not necessarily impressive, but still respectable that he is leading the team and calling the shots.  Lastly, he really beefs up his resume with playing a vital role in possibly one of the biggest world saves ever made.  The point here is how many people are going to add Dennis Quaid to their list of world savers?  Do me a favor and ask the person next to you right now which actors they would think to have the most world saves.  I bet none of them mention Denny.  Hopefully today I’ve made a decent case for him to be brought up next time.  There are a lot of world savers out there, but not all of them live in the limelight.  So Dennis Quaid is my hero!?  You bet your ass he is.  Thanks Denny.



Shout out to Foshe and the FYE Blog for having us on, but don’t forget to check out the best podcast out there, Anything But Credible and stay tuned each Monday for a new episode.  Have thoughts on this should-be-award-winning piece or literally anything else?  Let us know at anythingbutcredible@gmail.com  Or you can hit us up here:
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We have discussed doing more series like this one with some bad ass female actors and male actors who have saved the world but these would be people you would expect; people like Angelina Jolie, Tom Cruise, Will Smith, etc. So if there is something you want to see us breakdown give us a shout on Facebook or Twitter!

Thursday, September 14, 2017

He's the Hero?!? Kurt Russell

In this series of "He's the Hero" Duggs (from the ABC Pod) and I have written about some unsuspecting actors that have saved the world a number of times. So far we have covered Keanu Reeves and Nic Cage. To continue our series I will show you why Kurt Russell is the one you want to save the world when we need it most. Check back tomorrow when Duggs unveils his final actor in this series.

Kurt Russell is credited with 95 movie roles over a career that started in 1962 and is still going strong today. Since his start in '62, he has been in some outstanding movies. He beat the Soviets in Miracle, he was the strongest man in the world, and played Copper from Fox and the Hound. Along the way he has also had some really phenomenal "world saving" roles. These roles include Escape from New York, The Thing, Stargate, Executive Decision, Solider, and Escape from L.A. Let's break down these movies and rate the save on a scale of 1-10.

World Save #1: 1981. Escape from New York
19 years into Russell's acting career and he finally gets his first save, playing a character by the name of Snake Plissken (what a name, am I right?). The movie takes place in a crime ridden 1988 where Manhattan has been turned into a giant maximum security prison by the United States government; anyone sentenced here gets a life sentence with no chance of parole. Our man Snake calls this prison home after being convicted of trying to rob the federal reserve. The Air Force One is hijacked by terrorists while the President is traveling to a peace summit between the United States, China, and the Soviet Union. The President is taking the secret to using nuclear fusion for power generation to the summit. Snake is recruited to save the President and retrieve the secret; if he is successful he will be given a presidential pardon. To deter Snake from fleeing he is injected with micro-explosives that will explode within 22 hours if the President is not returned. Snake ends up rescuing the President and retrieving the nuclear fusion secret. With his job completed the explosives are deactivated but Snake has one more trick up his sleeve. The President is giving a speech after being saved and is planning on showing a cassette (clearly this movie was made in the 80s because they are still using cassette tapes) with the nuclear fusion secret, however Snake switched the cassettes and destroyed the original. If that tape got in the wrong hands we could have had a nuclear war. Rating: 6/10 Name: 'Snake Save'.

World Save #2: 1982. The Thing
One year after his first save, Kurt is right back into saving the world. The Thing is one of the scariest movies of all time, but our man Kurt has nerves of steel. I don't want to ruin the whole movie so I am not going to go into great detail because if you have not seen this one you need to check it out immediately. Seriously, it's kind of a big deal so do your self a favor and don't tell anyone you have never seen it. Just go watch it. Anyway, in The Thing, Russell plays a helicopter pilot sent to Antarctica with a doctor to discover what happened in an American research station. It turns out there is an alien creature that is able to perfectly imitate any kind of organism. This leads to an intensely scary and horrifying 109 minutes of film. Rating: 9/10 Name: 'Scary Ass Save'.

World Save #3: 1994. Stargate
In Stargate, the human race is threatened by the ancient Egyptian God, Ra. Russell plays an Air Force special operations airman and is part of a team that discovers a wormhole to another planet (they bring a nuclear bomb with them just in case-remember this it comes in again). When they arrive at the planet they discover a tribe of humans working to mine a mineral from the planet; the humans tell Russell and his team their leader is Ra. After sometime working with the humans on the planet they discover they are unable to talk so they have to use other ways of communication. Through their communication they discover Ra is an alien being who came to Earth in the ancient Egyptian times looking to possess human bodies to prolong his own life. Ra enslaved the humans and brought some of them to the planet to mine the mineral that is used for alien technology. Ra discovers the nuclear bomb Russell's team brought to the planet and he ends up making it 100x more powerful and threatens to send it back to Earth and destroy the planet. Some of the team use a teleportation device to make it back to Earth after a battle with Ra and Russell uses the teleportation device to send the bomb to Ra's ship and blow it up. This is one of the best saves I have seen for a few reasons:
1. Russell uses a wormhole to get to another planet which is awesome
2. The humans on this planet cannot speak but Russell and his team figure out a way to communicate with them and learn about their leader Ra
3. Does Russell get scared when he learns that Ra has made his bomb more powerful? Of course not he uses this against Ra and blows his ship up with it
Rating: 9/10 Name: 'Egyptian God Save'

World Save #4: 1996. Executive Decision
Another military role for Russell in Executive Decision, he likes the military roles I assume. A group of terrorists hijack a plane with a U.S. Senator and a stolen Soviet nerve agent on board. U.S. intelligence learn that the terrorists plan to detonate a bomb with the nerve gas over U.S. soil, so who do we send in to save us? Dr. David Grant of course, played by our man Kurt Russell. He takes a team with him to sneak on the plane while in the air using a stealth aircraft, which sounds both ridiculous and awesome at the same time. They find the bomb and deactivate one of the triggers only to realize there is a sleeper agent on the place who has the other trigger. During a firefight on the plane the sleeper agent is sucked out of a broken window, which is extremely convenient for Russell and his team. With the bomb deactivated Russell must now land the plane without causing serious damage on the ground even though he has limited flying experience. Luckily there is a large open field he is able to land the plane in. Is this a "world save"? Maybe but maybe not, the nerve gas could have traveled to the world and caused serious problems. Rating: 5/10 Name: 'Executive Save'.

World Save #5: 1996. Escape from LA
The sequel to Escape from New York and we are once again joined by Snake Plissken. (I am going on record to say this has to be the coolest name for a character right? A guy named Snake who wears an eye patch and is total bad ass dude, I don't think it gets any better than that, but anyway back to the movie) When a new President is elected to a life term he decides to ban tobacco, alcohol, drugs, red meat (uh?), profanity, firearms, atheism, freedom of religion and extra-marital sex...wow sounds like a really fun place to live right? Anyone who breaks these laws will be sent to LA which is a prison island after an earthquake split it off from the continent. The President has a remote control which controls a series of satellites that are capable of making any electronic devices on the planet useless. The President tends to use this device on America's enemies and take over the world (first he bans all the good stuff then wants to take over the world? Man this guy has some serious problems it seems like). A leader of a revolutionary group ends up stealing the remote and plans on taking the U.S. back from the President. Our man Snake is back to his old ways of course and is currently being sent to LA for his crimes, however the President intervenes once again. He tells Snake if he gets the remote back he will wipe his record and he will be a free man. Snake agrees to the deal and the President injects him with a virus that will kill him if he does not get the remote within in 7 hours (in the last movie he at least had 22 hours). Snake kills the leader of the revolution and gets the remote back but guess what he does next? He switches the remotes and gives the President a fake, keeping the real one for himself (Snake your name fits you perfectly). Snake uses the real remote ending all technological activity on the planet. The final scene of the movie you can watch below and it is incredible. God Bless Snake Plissken. Rating: 8/10 Name: 'Snake Save 2'.

World Save # 6: 1998. Soldier
In his last and final save Russell plays a futuristic soldier who has been trained since birth for fighting and war. Down the road new soldiers are developed while the old soldiers are used as training dummies for the new more powerful soldiers. Russell ends up escaping the training and flees to another planet that is determined a waste disposal planet. He finds a community of people and since he has no people skills (remember he was trained as a killing machine since birth) he has trouble fitting in. The new more advanced soldier come to the planet and plan to use it as another training ground using the people as targets. Russell has other ideas, he is not as strong as the new warriors but he is smarter and uses his wits to destroy the first batch. The leftover soldiers retreat then come back to the planet with heavy artillery, but they are no match for Russell's skill. The general of the new soldiers decides he is just going to use a nuclear bomb to destroy the planet and Russell. The humans take over the ship and leave the general and his army on the planet. Then the general unknowingly sets off the bomb which destroys the planet him and his army are standing on (not the brightest guy it sounds like). Russell commands the ship full of humans to a new safe planet. Does Russell save Earth? No but this is the future and who knows where we will live then so I consider this a world save. Rating: 6/10 Name: 'Witty Save'

That is a serious set of movies and world saves right there. I had no idea Kurt Russell was such a bad ass dude and has saved us so many times. He has saved us from terrorists, aliens, Egyptian Gods, unruly Presidents, and futuristic robot soldiers, brave Kurt bravo. I think he has a real shot at being the actor we would all want to save us if the world was in serious danger.

Don't forget to check back tomorrow when Duggs unveils his final actor in this series. Be sure to check out the new Facebook  and Twitter pages.




Tuesday, August 29, 2017

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.



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