What is the best Nicolas Cage role of all time?

From Oscar-winning heartbreak to gloriously unhinged cult classics, Cage's career is unlike any other in Hollywood history. Which role is his magnum opus?

Ben Sanderson — Leaving Las Vegas

Cage's Oscar-winning 1995 performance as a self-destructive alcoholic who moves to Las Vegas to drink himself to death, meeting a prostitute along the way.

1/15

Charlie/Donald Kaufman — Adaptation

The 2002 Charlie Kaufman meta-comedy in which Cage plays both a neurotic screenwriter and his fictional twin brother with astonishing duality.

2/15

H.I. McDunnough — Raising Arizona

The Coen Brothers' 1987 screwball comedy with Cage as an ex-convict who kidnaps a baby with his police officer wife to start a family.

3/15

Ronny Cammareri — Moonstruck

The 1987 romantic comedy in which Cage plays a one-handed baker who falls passionately in love with his brother's fiancee, played by Cher.

4/15

Cameron Poe — Con Air

The 1997 action blockbuster featuring Cage as a wrongly convicted parolee who must survive a prison transport plane hijacked by violent criminals.

5/15

Stanley Goodspeed — The Rock

The 1996 Michael Bay action film in which Cage plays an FBI chemical weapons expert storming Alcatraz alongside Sean Connery.

6/15

Castor Troy — Face/Off

The 1997 John Woo action-thriller in which Cage plays both a terrorist and an FBI agent after a face-swap operation, going gloriously over the top.

7/15

Red Miller — Mandy

Panos Cosmatos' 2018 psychedelic revenge horror in which Cage gives one of the most unhinged, beloved performances of his career.

8/15

John — Pig

The 2021 understated drama in which Cage plays a reclusive truffle hunter searching for his stolen pig, delivering a surprisingly moving performance.

9/15

Sailor Ripley — Wild at Heart

David Lynch's 1990 Palme d'Or-winning crime road movie with Cage as a leather-jacket-clad rebel fleeing a hitman hired by his girlfriend's mother.

10/15

Yuri Orlov — Lord of War

The 2005 crime drama in which Cage plays an arms dealer tracing his rise through decades of international conflict and moral compromise.

11/15

Benjamin Franklin Gates — National Treasure

The 2004 Disney adventure film in which Cage plays a conspiracy theorist historian on a madcap quest to steal the Declaration of Independence.

12/15

Big Daddy — Kick-Ass

Cage's comedic, Adam West-inspired turn as a Batman-like vigilante training his young daughter Hit-Girl in the 2010 superhero satire.

13/15

Peter Loew — Vampire's Kiss

The 1988 cult film in which Cage's unrestrained, eccentric performance as a publishing executive who believes he's becoming a vampire became legendary.

14/15

Himself — The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

The 2022 meta-comedy in which Cage plays a fictional version of himself, hired by a superfan who turns out to be a criminal mastermind.

15/15