# 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?

*By YPB Team · Published April 10, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/what-is-the-best-nicolas-cage-role-of-all-time*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **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.
2. **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.
3. **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.
4. **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.
5. **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.
6. **Stanley Goodspeed — The Rock**
   The 1996 Michael Bay action film in which Cage plays an FBI chemical weapons expert storming Alcatraz alongside Sean Connery.
7. **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.
8. **Red Miller — Mandy**
   Panos Cosmatos' 2018 psychedelic revenge horror in which Cage gives one of the most unhinged, beloved performances of his career.
9. **John — Pig**
   The 2021 understated drama in which Cage plays a reclusive truffle hunter searching for his stolen pig, delivering a surprisingly moving performance.
10. **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.
11. **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.
12. **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.
13. **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.
14. **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.
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.

Tags: movies, actors, tv shows, action, nicolas cage