Traversing 'The Family Man': Nicolas Cage and the Labyrinth of Choices

Have you ever pondered the road not taken, the life unlived, the choices that could've led you down an entirely different path? Join us as we wade through Nicolas Cage's fascinating portrayal in "The Family Man," where we unearth the rich tapestry of 'what ifs' and the profound message embedded within Jack's journey. Nostalgia hits hard as we recall the quirks of the year 2000, an era of CD players and Tamagotchis, setting a reminiscent backdrop for dissecting the movie's core themes of wealth, personal connections, and true happiness.

Fancy a trip down the rabbit hole of alternate realities and moral conundrums? We've got you covered. This episode is an adventure through the moral complexities of hypothetical scenarios and the pursuit of happiness across divergent life paths. As we explore symbolic moments like the cross of lights and the suggestion of a higher power at play, prepare to reflect on your own life choices and the impact they have on your moral compass.

Wrap up your day with our take on the striking performances that define Nicolas Cage's career, as we dissect movie scenes that call into question societal norms and the fabric of reality. Our parting gift to you is a pop culture send-off, seasoned with appreciation for Cage's dramatic flair and a heartfelt thank you for sharing in our exploration. Join the conversation, share your thoughts, and follow us for more musings on the captivating world of movies and beyond.

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Transcript

  📍  Welcome to Second Emulation, the podcast that explores all things pop culture, from movies and TV shows to the latest anime releases. Join us as we dive into the world of entertainment, sharing our thoughts, opinions, and insights on the latest trends and releases. With a focus on what's hot and what's not, we're your go-to source for all things pop culture. So sit back, relax, and let's get started

I'd like to welcome you back to another episode as we deep dive into Nick Cage's filmography on the Nick 

through the multiverse, is that what you're calling it? The 

Nick Cage of the multiverse and this movie is essentially what you would think it's a wonderful life and you just drop Nick Cage 

in it.

Of course we're talking about The Family Man. Yes, The Family Man. Directed by Brett Ratner, but we don't. We don't talk about him. He's terrible  as we didn't even realize he had directed it until we watched the movie again 

And the movie came out in you know, 2000 So we were still freshly in high school.

I'm, sorry. 

What year did you go to high school? Oh, 

man, it's been so long correction I was 10. How 

old did you think? 

Middle school elementary school The years when you get older. I'm 

already aging, don't age me faster than I need to be. 

Time is just a memory at this point,  but it was in the 20, 2000s. 

It was in, it came out literally year 2000.

Yes, 2000. You would have been 11 and I would have been 10 if it came out around my birthday.  

So we were,  we still had CD 

players. Oh yeah, what was I doing when I was in the fourth grade. I was just. Figuring out, oh no wait, I graduated early, I was in the 5th, wait,  5th grade.  And I was reading through all of Harry Potter.

Yes. F. J. K. Rowling. She's 

transphobic. iPhones weren't even a thing. Not for a few 

more years. Myspace didn't exist yet. People were using what is it, Napster? Napster. People were making mix CDs. 

Cassettes were still a thing I believe. I 

mean, we didn't really deal with it, but yeah, we did have, we did see things with cassette players.

It was a different time. Nick Cage still had hair. The 

most advanced technology thing we had was a Tamagotchi and a Digivice.  And yo yos. I remember that. And yo yos were like the most common.  Concept. Yeah. So 

like Y2K had just happened. People were settling down from the panic of thinking the world was going to end because of the computer foreshadowing for 2019.

Yeah. 

So that's, that's pretty much where we're at. And this movie  plays some parts in that, but it felt like this is like a a cautionary tale of some sort of, it was like, you really want to punish someone who's wealthy.  It's essentially just make them a lower middle class with family and kids. Mm, yeah.

And so that's exactly what ends up occurring. 

It's like, A Wonderful Life, slash, Scrooge, slash, all of those other movies. Correct. 

With, Also trying to teach you a morally life lesson. Like if the, the grass is greener on the other side, but for someone who already has everything they want, the thing that they're missing is just companionship.

And so,  because they, they could have had that it's like essentially the what if, if  since, you know, what would 

your life be like if you made different choices? I think it's literally like the tagline of the movie. 

Correct. It's like Marvel has the what if. this is essentially the what if because the movie starts off,  opens up  like shot for shot him and his love interests. 

They're at the airport. And you know, I think he leaves and there's that split second where he could, they had the opportunity to stay. And it feels like, you know, that split second, you know, since we've been watching Loki a timeline. Yeah. Could have created. And so this begs the idea. What if he said, yes and 

stayed?

So if for those who haven't seen it, it's a movie based around this man named Jack who it does open to a scene where he's at the airport w here's supposed to be madly in love. He's going off, I think, to London to go to college. Or to, to take an internship or something like that? Correct. They had just completed college.

And she, she's asking him to stay and he tells her that it's only gonna be like a year or two. He'll be back before she knows it and he gets on the plane and then, you know, it cuts to his life. And his life is, he's some big financier,  works on Wall Street, has a ton of money, like 15 years later is this wealthy guy.

And he's could not be happier financially. It's just like this corporate entity.  And then I guess the question is what, what would have happened if he had said yes. And 

then that's where like the story starts. It's like, it's just, Drives us down this path. As we mentioned, Scrooge, it Scrooge in a wonderful life.

Undertones are in the film as you know. We're seeing like how big of a Dick Nick Cage is, or just anyone in general who's in Wall Street, who has money. Anyone who has money. Yeah. The term we get a lot, can money buy happiness? It can't really, but it can buy all the material things. And essentially you see it on full display that, you know, Nick Cage has. 

All the material things that, you know, he needs, he consumes a lot. So everything from the nice, expensive shoes, suits, like he, he's essentially like a walking billboard for wall street. Yeah. 

I mean, it's really just more of a money can't buy you happiness outside of it can buy you material effects. And if that's how you gain your happiness, then yeah, that's how you can get that.

But he does, he does wake up in the world where he has everything. He owns a penthouse suite.  He has really what do you call them? Surface level relationships with the people around him. He's sleeping with this one girl, but they're not like,  they don't really know each other. They're not really committed to each other.

His, his work colleagues don't really know him. It's all work level. He banters with the lady in the elevator, but she doesn't really know him. Like, he's just a surfer level guy. He doesn't seem to have a lot of friends. He just has his money.  And his material objects. And  he decides to go to a, what is that convenience store, a body bag in the middle of the night. 

I think it's what Christmas Eve? Yeah. It is. It's Christmas Eve. When he's alone, as one does, cause he has to make a big deal and he tries to stop a robbery from happening via one Don Cheadle. And you know, I think his Demeanor. And his ego really set Don Cheadle off. And the next day he wakes up next to a high school sweetheart. 

And they're married, and they have two kids and a dog.  

It's,  it's even more than that. Like we'll dissect it a little bit, but  it's more of the ego.  I think it's more about  In that scenario of trying to stop a robbery, it begs the question, can money solve all your problems? Not just for yourself, but in anything in general.

And here is Nick Cage, he goes, I'm wealthy, here's a person, who's literally trying to like, I guess, cash a, I guess, a a lottery ticket gets turned down. Could be, you know, some kind of racism at play. He's like, you know what?  I'll buy the ticket from you. You know, if you can't cash it, I'll buy, I'll solve it.

He 

doesn't even buy it for more than what it's worth. He buys it for a little bit less than what it's worth and says, I can still make a profit off of it. Like that just goes to that.  Like display guys robbing somewhere and you have money and your whole thing is not just like  You can just take the money and go or I'll give you more money than in what it's worth It's I'll give you this you give me the ticket and then I still make a profit.

Mm hmm, which is very I think speaks to his character  

It's not even that he even goes a step further. There's like, you know, what? Do you have a place to go which is a very?  I guess you could say a little bit of undertone of like Scrooge. Like not only did he, you know, offer money for the ticket, he even was like, is there a shelter you can go to?

Oh yeah, 

he just assumed that there was.  This person would be homeless or transient.  

And so he's like, is there a shelter you can go to? Almost referencing like a, like how Scrooge was like, well, there are work camps that I, I, I can invest and put, you know, put you out for the night.  And so that just ruffled the guy's feathers because he just made the assumption based on his appearance that, Oh, he was living on the streets. 

And so that ruffled them. And so there was a lot of undertones there. And then I think one key in the.  Key I had to recall, but like during this whole interaction taking place, it's very subtle, but you'll, you'll miss it if you're not paying attention. But like the lights in the background while they're Don Cheadle and Nick Cage were having this exchange, and he was like really heated because  he did a good thing and then he ruined it by, you know, playing to his human nature of greed and then not doing it out of kindness of his heart.

And so in the background, the office lights were all turned off except for a set row that were like in the form of a cross. 

Yeah. So, I mean, it alludes, and I think it's never made clear, but we can assume. Whether or not Don Cheadle is an angel or anyone who has high enough, high enough power to alter your reality  and set you in a different universe or reality has to have some type of power.

And I think he does it to teach him a lesson.  People say that they think that he did it to show him what he, what he could have or what he doesn't have, but I really think it's actually to teach him a lesson because.  I don't even think he does a nice thing when he helps when he offers to buy the ticket to stop the robbery, like, it's all out of his own self preservation.

He does it because he doesn't want to be hurt, and he doesn't want his night to be held up. And he doesn't even do it nicely, like, he does it with the intention to benefit himself, both financially, and he can't even do anything, say it nicely, when he's like, do you have anywhere to go? He's just You know, he's used to money solving all his problems.

Correct. And his time 

being important. He does it from from a position where he's in the ivory tower. So essentially he's  Troll essentially, 

yeah,  it really does set off Don Cheeto who may or may not have been sent there to  Write the wrong within him or might have just but you know, I feel like whatever entity he is There's no reason he just randomly picked that fuckin Bodega, 

I think he knew I think you're on to something I think essentially like he either was in the area knew  Like he was gonna write a wrong or maybe You The path that he was on wasn't the correct one.

Mm-Hmm. . And like he knew, like, we don't know if he would've continued. 'cause later in the film we, we actually find out what the company that Nick Cage was at, like what dealings was gonna happen. Like what major comp, like what the company was actually trying to do. Mm-Hmm. and.  And we find this out in the alternate timeline.

What actually was happening and further down the path. So we don't know like vice versa, if you were to continue down that, if he would you know, end up in ruin and up in some type of scandal, because we later find out, you know, spoilers that when he's in the alternate timeline, when he's not. This big head honcho and he's trying to get that life back that there's this big deal.

You end up finding out 

that he was working on that deal and the other reality,  

but you also find out that they were trying to back, there's like some information that they're trying to back out from it and things like that, like something that they didn't know. And then, so there could have been something else going on.

I think he tells the guy, I could have gotten you more basically.  for the deal, like a couple like another billion or something, which I, I don't know. It's, it's all, again, it's all money. Like that, that's all that they care about at that level. And  he says that the person doesn't,  you know, hit the person who's out the helm, who in the other universe doesn't really have the chutzpah, I guess, to be at the helm.

He says that he could, he didn't do as good of a job, but that's all unrelated. These are two, I think things are supposed to be opposite.  in these worlds because it is a different reality. So obviously people are not going to be the same. Even, even his college sweetheart's not the same. But yeah, so he wakes up after that, he goes back to his penthouse, goes to sleep, wakes up and he's in bed with his  college sweetheart and they've been married for  what, 13 years.

It turns out he literally, he left in this universe, he left to London and then he flew back the next day  and they got married and stayed together and they live in a house in New Jersey. They have two kids and a dog  and yeah, he wakes up super bewildered and jets out to leave and, and does all the things basically associated with being confused with waking up in our own reality. 

I think my favorite scene is just the whole mental breakdown and the explanation that Don Cheadle gives him. Because normally in scenes in films, like when something like this happens, you always have like,  someone kind of tells you the rules of why shit's happening. So, not only did Don Cheadle or this entity,  you know, rip him from his life, but he's also going to set like, The boundaries and guidelines and tells him that he's been dropped here to learn a valuable lesson and that lesson is not something that he can teach him.

It's something that he has to figure out. So, and there's no time limit. So there's not something that, you know, in seven days he goes back. He is stuck here until he figures that whatever he needs to figure it out. And so  he's like,  What? So you just ripped me from my life and now I'm stuck here. And he goes, yeah, that's pretty much it.

You're getting a glimpse. He calls it a glimpse, but I think he put him in a whole new timeline,  which, you know, it's kind of crazy, but I mean, being an entity or an angel will say he could do that. Yeah.  

He could do whatever he wants. Yeah. He could do it. He's probably doing it that to multiple people. So yeah, I mean, I think my, one of my favorite scenes is actually right before that when he goes back when he's freaking out and he goes back to his his building that he was living in in New York and he's trying to talk to the doorman and the lady he used to have a banter with. 

And there he keeps telling him that he's you know He lives there and he owns the penthouse and he's rich and they're looking at him like he's insane and I keep thinking that like what if all people who are having mental breakdowns like that are actually people who are from other Universes who were stuck they woke up in a different reality because that's kind of what is happening there like everyone's looking at him like he's crazy, but he's legitimately 

Yeah, he, he's legitimately like,  like yelling and  it's so reminiscent because the shoes on the other foot, because he's now on the outside.

Cause he's, he was once  on the in crowd and he's like, I know these who these, these are people I associate with. They should know me. And 

also I have money. I have power. People should listen to me. Correct. Listen to me. 

And the fact that he, his status, the money he had, they're just gone. 

Yeah, they could not give a crap who he is.

They think he's an insane person and they are gonna get him out of there. And 

I think she says, Hey, we're going to have to call someone to remove you. 

Yeah. And he's like, remove me. I'm going to remove you from the  What was it again? The board or whatever. The board, the housing 

association. Yeah, the committee or 

whatever that they have for in New York for build own buildings and people are on when they own their penthouses and stuff like that.

And he starts talking about getting the doorman fired and certain things and just, you know, stuff that he would say because he's, he believes he's still this person, but he's definitely not. Having a reality check 'cause he is got no power. And then he goes to his, the company he worked at and  he doesn't exist anywhere there too.

And they won't let him past anything. Mm-Hmm. . And he's absolutely caught off guard and then has to come all the way back to the house that he's at with his now wife, Kate. And yeah,  he's living a life he's not used to. 

And he has that fractured mental state. Yeah. Like, it really, it really hits him.

He's like, I'm just, I don't know what to do. Like he's numb to it.  It's like,  it's like a scene from hook when Robin Williams is back and he's like, tries to fly again and he doesn't. That's like Nick Cage. He's like, he's,  he's back. And he's like, ah, this life that I had, I'm trying to reclaim it, but I can't.

Yeah. And so the realization is like, this, this is it.  But.  The odd thing, I think another favorite theme of mine is the little girl, cause the little girl has her peepers on him. Yeah. And she's smart cause she's like.  This guy, something's up with him. Yeah, 

she thinks he's an alien. Yeah, but she knows that that's not her dad.

Something is off. Yes. And she's the only one that recognizes it because the son is an infant and the wife knows that there's something different, but she just thinks it's stress. But the little girl immediately knows that this is not her dad.  She she just asks him not to abduct her I think is what she does.

Yeah, like she gives, she's Parenting her dad and she's only, I think, what, five? 

I think she might actually be like six or seven. Parts of an 

elderly area, but she's like, you know, giving them pointers. And like what he has to do. Yeah. Well he has to do And then she's like, please, you know, don't, you know, abduct us or take our brains.

Yeah. Me, my brother, I'll help you, but just don't take 

a Yeah, I'll help you if you just don't take us. And he's like, all right. Okay. That's not going to do anything. Yeah. 

So I thought that was a good, you know, my other favorite scene was just like her having an adult heart to heart With him and then her perspective like he hears this foreign person He's not acting normal.

She was able to take him out of the crowd all the adults were like, that's probably stress But her knowing like how she spends more time with him, but they'll be like this isn't right. He's off 

Well, I think it's supposed to go back to like Kids and pets are supposed to be able to tell like when you know when spirits or whatever are there And she's a young kid, so she's not as Hardened by the world so she knows something is off and obviously her immediate Rationale is not going to be oh you must be stressed.

It's gonna be like that's a different guy And she's not wrong. It is different guy.  And so that that is fun to see. i did like that. I think some of my favorite scenes are just how Extreme Extremely goes back and forth like around Robin.  When he's freaking out, him singing opera, and when he wakes up at  the penthouse and then also when he wants to buy that suit and he like looses his mind and he just goes like from zero to one hundred.

It's very classic Nic Cage, you know.  When he gets mad about the cake because she ate his cake. Or she was eating his cake. And he was super peeved about it.  He's just irritated by everything 

Because it's the one guilty pleasure. He has Like  I am now a middle class Person this is the only it's the only guilty pleasure that I can indulge in.

And this five dollar slice of 

cake. 

Yeah. But I think it goes to say that like he does miss those things, like the wealth and, and the finer quote unquote, finer things in life, but very quickly, I feel like he settles into the comfort of having. People around like constantly having a life and and people who  who love you And you know even the the things that seem like chores 

Yeah, and it go, but also about the you hear it all the time with, you know, people who put their careers first and you know, they've they done the career stuff and then when they're on their deathbed, they talked about how they wish they should have traded that time with, you know, for family and friends.

because they were so career focused that. The time that they spent focusing on that, they didn't have no friends. No, they just gave it all away. And now, you know, when the time comes, they don't have, they have nothing left. 

Yeah, I don't, don't get me wrong. I think that that is an aspect. But I will say, it's not saying that your entire life will be better if you have love and a family and all of that.

Because obviously that's not for everyone. But. I think the real big differentiation for here is that it, it's the person that matters for him. He's in love. He's totally in love with that girl. That's he calls her the love of his life. Even ages later when he's in his fancy job, he still thinks of her and remembers her.

And like,  I think that that that's what's the difference maker. If he had just woken up with some random woman who he didn't know and had a life, I don't think it would have mattered as much, but He woke up with the woman he had so much love for where a different life was definitely possible. And he got to see what that life would have been like.

And he ultimately ended up loving that life.  What were some of your, your least favorite scenes? I think my 

least favorite scene, which  they kind of slipped it in, which there wasn't, I guess there was kind of build up to it, which was one of the wives You know, was interested in him, a Nick Cage character.

There wasn't any buildup to it. I thought she was just like, Oh, being kind. But when you've, when they finally, when Nick Cage addresses it,  you, it comes up to the open that she's been flirting with him for the longest time. And now, you know, she's open to having an affair. Like she wants to be with him. 

And I'm like, no way.  Did I expect this coming from? 

Honestly, it came, it wasn't even, they didn't even put like a plot in there. She was giving him extra attention at that dinner party. Mm hmm. And you can already see like it's alluding to she was interested in him and then the next time you see each other. 

He, he kind of just asked her straightforward what's going on and if they are having an affair and she admits that she wants to and gives them the option, and that definitely was out of nowhere. 

Yeah. And cause like no one, you know, any of his friends, Dan know about like people that knew him and like the, the, the social group would have told them like, Hey, so and so is this, you know, like they would've, or.

You know, the wife would've they made it seem like his wife didn't know and she, the other wife was still communicating with his wife So they made it her So they were like made it seem like she was Oblivious to it. 

Oh, and this, and this woman was like super obvious. Yeah. I, some, a lot of people are at one stereotype of hate is when they're like women, no, it's not even a women, no thing.

It's like, it was so blatantly apparent.  I would even, as someone who doesn't pay attention to heterosexual relationships would at a party be like, is that lady, okay. She's falling over your husband. A lot. Yeah. Like he keeps touching him his neck, which is a weird place to touch someone. So, and like trying to fix his collar and.

People just don't do that. You know, and she keeps touching his chest and I'm like, she has a whole ass husband there. What the freak is she doing?  

And the husband didn't come up and like reprimand 

her. Yeah. No one else in the party knows, seemed to notice it was happening. Yeah. So, I mean, 

it was,  I'm sure it's probably there to like create like this tension scene, but I would say that would probably be the worst part because her character in that scene, if you remove it, it's fine.

But like having it there doesn't really add to the character, like add to it. It doesn't move the story forward 

It doesn't add or take away I think they probably added it to be like there's a foil here Like this is to to show that even everyone else Cause his friend tells him that he would be a idiot to to pursue that Cause Nick Cage does consider it Considering he's not  the per he's from a different reality And he wants to, I guess his main priority is having sex.

And his friend in that, you know, in that world tells him that he'd be an idiot because everyone is jealous of the wife that he currently has. And, and it gives him advice, like, just don't cheat on your wife and all this stuff, which is great. We, we all agree, but it, I think it doesn't add or remove anything because it's so, it's so quickly, like he's only in this life. 

Literally for that day when he meets that woman, it's the same day he wakes up in a different house. That party is that night. And then like a few days later, she's, she's making the moves on him. So he doesn't really, I think, have enough time in his, in his new life to really  for it to be any type of foil.

I think maybe if they were going to pursue that, if they did it later after they had already rebuilt a relationship with it, with his wife, Kate, then it might've been more significant, but yeah, you could have removed that. And. Did nothing like it didn't add or take away from you know, you wouldn't have even noticed if it wasn't even in there.

Mm hmm like You didn't even have to show him at the bowling league. It would have been fine. Yeah, it would have been fine. So 

that's what, that's my, you know, worst scene. It just, it didn't need to be there. Baby was trying to play on his weakness of his previous life, but yeah, that's my, that's my scene.

Yeah. I would say mine is kind of similar. It's more so I think the it's not even that it's in there. Cause I get why they put it in there. I guess just how it happened. It's when he's, he works at a tire shop or, or whatever. Right. And his old boss from his old life comes in to get his car fixed. And he decides to start talking to him about whatever their business was doing previously.

And he you know, he gets a meeting with him and then like pitches him and he gets offered a job and. It's just all of this crazy stuff that happens so fast that I don't think realistically would have happened in that way. I could see him still wanting to work for the same job because he still aspires to have You know, the money.

'cause then he could have it all. He could have the wife, the kids, and the money and the job he likes that he feels like he's good at. But it just happened so quickly and out of nowhere. I think honestly, it it, it didn't need to be done. 

I mean, that's movie magic. It's movie magic. Yeah. I mean, there, there are some rare instances that something like that could occur, but that's like one out of a million before it.

At like in this. instance for it to happen that quickly like Joe Schmoe off the street talking to Wall Street and then like by end of day he got a job you know I don't see that happening unless like you really sweep some guys 

off the  street. Yeah and that's really hard to do for at a multi billion dollar company like you don't just get meetings with those people.

Correct. So it just doesn't it's not something that I think. would happen, nor that makes sense. I think if they really want to set into the fact that,  you know, he's choosing his new life, just continue to build upon his relationship with, with his wife, Nick Cage and Tia Leone actually have good chemistry in this movie.

Like, it's believable. I mean, she could probably have chemistry with the wall, but it's believable that they like, you know, that they love each other and that they're attracted to each other. And I think they could have just continued down that path, you know, maybe done something else like someone wanted to come by the tire shop he works at and he's considering like selling it for her dad or something, you know, something else.

Middle, middle game that made more sense. Not something so outlandish,  you 

know, he's like, I'm going to ditch this job for 

another job. Guy's just going to immediately give, you know, it was going to want to give me someone who works in and middle, like middle management is going to want to immediately give me an opportunity.

We work in the real workforce as a middle class, I guess we're middle class people, lower middle class, whatever. We're middle class. That just doesn't happen. Yeah. It just doesn't happen like that. So it's interesting to see,  but I didn't prefer it. Yeah. Yeah.  What about you? Is there anything else?  

I'm trying to think.

I  mean, I don't think there was other, 

I guess you could say it wasn't really, it might be kind of a worse scene,  I think and piggybacks after what you just said is when.  After he gets the dream job and he's getting the tour, you know, the guy who was like his underling, which is now in the position who's now in his position, kind of like pulls him aside and goes, I know what you've done. 

So and so, you know, it's not gonna, you know, you might have him for like, gives him like that whole, type of speech of like, you're not going to encroach on my, on, you know, what's mine. I, I see what's going on. And  it's weird because like, he sees this person, you know, kind of like speaking up for himself in a way that he  doesn't have in his other timeline.

And then his response is like, I'm good for you. I'm happy. Yeah. I'm happy. And it doesn't faze him. The guy's like tripping out. I mean, I guess it didn't really need to be there. You know?  

It was just done to, to kind of prove that there's still like, there's such a difference between you know, these two, these two realities, these people, everyone's kind of different than they were before. 

Well, yeah, I guess it wasn't really necessary. He does say that he likes, he likes him in this other,  this other world cause he has more cojones. I think he even says cojones. I don't know. But yeah, I mean, I guess I would agree that that's probably not really. Really necessary. 

Yeah. Coming like, dude, they gave you the job or they, they gave you a position and the guys like throwing you around, which I mean at this point, you know, it doesn't really matter.

The guy can threaten you with all like all he wants, you know,  at this point and then they gave him a house, like a penthouse apartment, 

they can say. Stay out whenever they, how forever long they wanted. It was the same. I was like, 

yeah, it was the same. Like, oh, this, this scene doesn't even need to 

be here.

Yeah, it doesn't make sense. And then of course, him and and Kate have a ginormous fight and.  She's like, if that's really what you want, I will do it because I choose you. And I guess it's supposed to underlie how much she loves him. But I mean, you could have already tell how much she loved him. She got him that suit, a suit that was kind of like an off brand version of the suit that he wanted.

Like,  clearly they, they love each other. That's not the issue. So yeah, I would say that was probably not very, not a very good point. Those to me, like there are obvious plot holes in the movie, but those to me are. are the ones that I think are the biggest. I do have another favorite scene. I forgot that when he comes back to his, his normal life when he sees Don Cheadle again and he says that he doesn't want to go, you know, but Don Cheadle's like, it was just a glimpse, man.

You're going to go back. He tries to stay awake but can't obviously. And then he falls asleep and wakes up back in his. His old life and he has to go, you know, he tries to find, he goes back to the house in New Jersey to try to find his wife, Kate. They're not there clearly. And then he goes back to work cause they're freaking out and he's dressed like normal and he, nope, everyone's caught off guard.

And he gives us whole speech about, you know, cause they're about to lose the deal because he, they couldn't get ahold of him or something. And he's like, I guess I'm going to go on a plane to Switzerland and I'm going to. You know, spend Christmas drinking and doing these things and closing the deal. And I'm gonna have a great time because that's me.

'cause I have no one else to spend my day with because I'm alone and I manage a multimillion company and that's just what I'm gonna do. That's my life. And I was like, oh damn  . I like that scene. 'cause I think it's supposed to highlight how sad he is now with his material. 

Like there. Yeah. There's no sustenance. 

There's no sustenance in it anymore. 

It's just he's, he realizes that he's hollow. Yeah. And that superficial, superficial and that doing all those stuff, he thought he was like, he, he had sustenance and now he doesn't because you take that away  and he's nothing. But he.

Thought he had something cuz those were just shield. And now he's like, I'm with my time is my time that I have. I'm going to be spending it over there doing this and for what  to make more 

money to make more money, to have more things which we all would like more money, but But  have more things but to not have people to share it with it can definitely 

he felt disgusted I think that's what it was like as he gave that speech he felt disgusted like he didn't want to do it yeah 

because for him like I think he recognized yeah like he said it's hollow it's all superficial he doesn't have there's something to be said about people who even in this even though she didn't want it she didn't want that and she didn't support the like The idea of moving their kids and him taking this job and them living this new life.

She supported him and them together  throughout everything. So she said she'd do it. And that's like someone who's really committed to you. And also someone who really cares about you, who's willing to put their, their needs second so that you're for your happiness ultimately. And like, he doesn't have that in this other world.

He just has himself.  It's hard to, to, I think. That's the part they probably get right, is it's hard to go through life without having someone who fully is there for you, or understands you, and he recognized how lonely it is now, you know? Mm hmm.  

I think I have another favorite scene. 

I forgot that girl that he slept with is there too.

And he just like bypasses her. 

Yeah. She goes, Merry Christmas. He goes not today. And he just leaves. Yeah. But also he gets a call because remember in the beginning of the scene, he gets a call from her  and he doesn't call her back. Oh yeah. That's right. And so he wakes up and he gets the call and he calls out  to her instead to get.

The information finds out it's  his  ex's  assistant and the call was that she wants to give him  all their stuff that she kept from college. 

Oh, that's right. 

Yeah. And then we find out that She became successful and the shoes on the other foot that she's going to 

France Just going to Paris. Yeah, I think Mm  hmm, and she's going to yeah, cuz he does the hunter he in the beginning of the movie He gets a call from her and then at the end of the movie He follows up on the call and she's trying to return his stuff, which I don't know who holds on to their college I don't know Or X's stuff and then calls in 13 years later to return it.

But here we are. And he goes and And she's moving you know and she's in a she's different. She's in a high profile job. Obviously. She's not She doesn't work for a non profit like she did in in the other reality. She works for like a A high corporate lawyer corporation. Mm-Hmm. , a lawyer corporation,  law firm, that's the word.

And then he's the one who is, who goes rushes to the airport to beg her to stay. Correct. So the shoe's on the other 

foot. And then what's even more interesting is like, as he's trying to convince her to stay, he tells her. Like a crazy person this  grandiose  life that they live together and they're imaginary kids and the name of these magic he goes you know he names them he goes you know we'll have them that might not be their names but we have two great kids, yeah, and she's like just In awe because she's thinking that he's already thought out this planned life  and thinking that one of two things this guy is very crazy  or he has like the foresight and has thought about them In a sense that, you know, there's a future with them together.

Yeah. And so it, it could, well, I mean, she 

stays so clearly. She stays, she's got so loved there and she buys into what he is saying. Mm-Hmm. . I do like when he says that we own a house. Well after  so and so payments will own a house. That part's funny too. And when he's talking about the kids, that's funny.

Yeah,  so it was just an interesting movie that had like great ups and downs.  

Also, the fact that those kids don't actually exist. What were those kids doing in this new universe? Like when he goes back to his reality, what happens to those children? They just stop freaking existing? 

Yeah, I, that's.  Well, that's that was the thing like when he sees Don Cheadle and he's like you can't do this to me He goes those kids deserve better.

He goes they don't exist  

They've created two children made gave them Gave them like actual personalities. They're real people. Honestly, the way the little girl acts is just like a child  And made him care for them. And then he's like, soyk, they're not real.  I 

kind of,  I kind of think that he kind of put him like in some type of coma. 

You think so?  Yeah, because he had, he had to go to sleep.  

Oh yeah. So he was like dreaming 

almost. Almost like he he's either like in a deep type coma, like state that everything was like real to him. Yeah.  

But still, that stuff is like, real to him in another world. So Cause if you 

think about it, he wakes, he wakes up on Christmas Eve and then when he comes Christmas Day,  no, he goes to bed on Christmas Eve, wakes up on Christmas Day, has his whole experience, comes back and it's still Christmas Eve. 

He wakes up and the chick opens the door like Christmas Day except yeah,  so but he Harry spent all this time 

Yeah, while he was sleeping. Yes. Oh, yeah, I guess he could have been like in a deep coma state or like 

There's so many theories 

that could that he saw like the house is there all that stuff is there it's just like the kids don't exist and the you know, the  other people I think the friend exists.

I can't. I know. Maybe not. I don't know. It's just that that part was interesting, but I wouldn't say that's a favorite or not favorite. It's just a wild 

part. like I said, There are people out there probably like giving out theories and like a little white board, and strings, like all this different stuff cause you could talk about that forever I mean, it could be a dream, it could, ya know, a dream I think timeline might also exist We've seen timelines  

Maybe it's just a different timeline and he hops into 

it.

Mm hmm. Man, I feel bad for, like that the Nick Cage goes back and that wife is like, you know, If she 

goes back at all, if they're even real, but yeah, that'd be, that'd be funny. 

She's like, yeah, you were, you were into it. And then that whole scenario blows up in his face. Which one? You know,  the, his other self shows up in the timeline after he comes 

back.

Oh, and then like what the wife notices or? Yeah. 'cause she's like, oh, 

you're, you were hitting on me. You're into it. 

Oh, the, the chick who tried to have an affair. Yeah. And 

that whole scenario blows up. I 

mean, he never did it though, so he could just, he always has the. Plausible deniability of being like, yeah, I took her number, but I didn't do anything.



But now she knows 

that she's interested. I don't think that, I don't think the wife will ever, that other wife will ever say anything. 'cause what's she's supposed to say, I gave you my number and you never called to have an affair. Like you don't . But, but now 

she knows that he's interested.  

Okay, I guess its 

Yeah that's the thing like now she knows that he interesting Well he could have, he could have stopped advances 

to begin with This is before cell phones the like kind of cell phones were used to I think So there wouldn't have been, it's like landlines it seems like If you 

really wanted to have an affair you had to call someone's landline Yeah, 

that's what I'm saying Hey Like they wasn't as easy, but yeah, I mean she could've Communicated with it and then it would've blown up in his face.

What would you rate the movie?  

I would rate this one a  3.5. Three and a half stars. 

Three and a half stars. Mm-Hmm.  I'll give it three stars as well. I didn't hate it. I.  Like it I enjoy it and now I'm older so I can tell a lot more plot holes And I don't love but yeah, I still think it's a decent nick cage film.

One of the better ones.  

I mean  If Nick Cage wasn't in it, what character would they have to play Nick Cage's role? Well, 

I don't know who would have pulled that crazy shit off. His dramatic, his dramatic nature. Imagine Tom, imagine Tom Hanks. Absolutely not.  You can't imagine Tom Hanks, asshole. He's just, he's like America's dad.

Bruce Willis. Oh yeah, maybe Bruce Willis, but  Bruce Willis is a nice guy. Mel Gibson. Mel Gibson we don't like. He's racist.  He's anti semitic.  So what reviews do you have? 

So we will be getting on to our next section where we read reviews from Letterboxd from people who also watched the movie and had opinions about the movie.

The movie themselves. So we all, each one of us is going to read two. So I'm gearing mine up right now. I got to find it. So my first one is going to be, I got to look this up now,  Is going to be from username, Erin.  Ain't nothing that can beat a bit of Nick Cage. And he gave it three and a half 

stars. That's your review?

Ain't nothing that can beat a bit of Nick Cage? 

Yeah, that's my, that's my review. 

All right. Well, mine is from Jordan and it's three stars. And they said, I like this movie because I enjoy seeing Nick Cage spend two straight hours in immense distress. And I agree, that's what I'm saying. Like, his dramatic emotional wheel, I feel like he just spun a different thing on it and it picked scream and he was screaming.

Like, there's just, you know, like, Sometimes his flair is just wholly unnecessary, but I enjoy it. I thought it was great in this movie So I like watching him in distress.  

He feels like he only has one mode and that's just scream 

Yeah scream distress, whatever that type of stuff, but I thought it was funny I would like to also just read one that we both talked about But didn't choose because it's intense and that's from Zara who said, Oh yeah.

Who gave it two stars and they said it's funny how alternate Nick cage did like eventful things on all their anniversaries. Like the most eventful thing my dad ever did for my mom on their anniversary was have a brain aneurysm in another state, which led to my mom finding out about his nine month long affair. 

That took a really dark turn and I hope that person is okay. That's like, I don't know what that has to do with the movie, but that's really intense. Of 

course! Good luck! That, that person, that person who that user, user, hopefully everything works out for you. But yeah when we read that, you were really getting stuff off your chest.

Yeah! On, on letterbox.  Yes. Like of all places. I almost felt like I was on LiveJournal again. So you, so was that your So 

my 

second one 

is coming from The Film Woke.  They give it 3 stars and Nick Cage stops a guy from robbing a convenience store with 200 and that  for some reason warrants a complete reset of his life. 

Well, he was, I'm sorry. Part reviewer, but he was an asshole and that does warrant a complete  Over like redo of his life. He's got to end up in another body if he's gonna treat people like their commodities h And this is, 

remember, he He rated it three stars, but I mean, I guess you can, I think from the perspective of what he was saying, it's like he, he did a good Samaritan, but then the person's like, aha, I 

gotcha.

I mean, was it a good Samaritan though? He wasn't nice about it and it wasn't also good. It wasn't done. I feel like being a good Samaritan is you do it  selflessly. It's not for yourself, your benefit. Like when you save someone else or you do something else, it's like, Oh, I'm doing this nice thing. He didn't do a nice thing.

He did a, a thing that worked out for other people, but for also for his own benefits. So he wouldn't have to be there when that happens. So anyway, mine is from a Joey  Lewandowski and they gave it four stars and they said,  I wonder where family man Cage went when businessman Cage took over his body.

Was he trying to run a business and unable to do so? I want to see that movie too. And then they put, I'm ranking all of the Nicolas Cage's movies for Cage Club. I genuinely want to love them all but sometimes that just isn't possible. But I think that's just like a, a little, a tidbit they added, but yes, I want to watch the movie as to what happened to, to family man cage.

If he got put in business, man, cages, body, he was trying to run a billion dollar company. 

Yeah. Cause, cause  does he like, did he just disappear or did he's like, I now have wealth, what am I going to do now? Just 

try. Find Kate like what what happens in this other world? I wonder 

yeah, like because now we know everything just gets reset like what kind of Damage  or things he was doing now that he doesn't have the attachments of the family Does he go full villain 

or does he is this whole entire thing for him a nightmare?

Is he having a nightmare?  This is when he wakes up. He's like, oh, thank god. That was a nightmare  I didn't enjoy any of it Yeah, probably probably 

I will say that we should probably start adding like honorable mentions from letterboxx like one  Across that aren't part of the two. They're like, I just 

can't forget.

Yeah. Yeah, we just can't forget Could not forget it. It was just we'll live in my my mind rent free. So thanks for that. No, Sarah 

So as this episode is coming to a close, do you have any final words? 

As always I lost my hand. I lost my wife Johnny has his head.  Johnny has his wife 

and with that we bid you Adieu.

I'm a vampire. All right. 

Bye.

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