7 best Nicolas Cage sci-fi movies, ranked

If you’re coming to Jiu Jitsu to see Nicolas Cage, then you’ll probably be disappointed by how small his role is in the movie. And then you’ll be disappointed by everything else. In this sci-fi martial arts flick, Jiu Jitsu experts have been fighting off alien invaders for years. Cage plays Wylie, one of the best fighters who is among Earth’s defenders.

But this movie is primarily about Jake Barnes (Alain Moussi), a Jiu Jitsu warrior who was injured during his last encounter with the aliens. Jake awakens without his memories, but that’s not going to stop the aliens from attempting to finish the job they started on him.

Cage’s Noah Kross is a member of the title organization in The Humanity Bureau. It evaluates each citizen in the future, and those who are found to be unproductive are deported to New Eden, which isn’t a fate that anyone deserves — even before the truth about its nature is revealed.

Kross takes pity on a single mother, Rachel Weller (Sarah Lind), and her son, Lucas (Jakob Davies), because he feels a personal connection to them. But this small act of defiance turns the Humanity Bureau against Kross, which forces him to lead Rachel and Lucas on a desperate journey to escape the oppressive regime in America.

Knowing begins with a brief prelude featuring a young girl named Lucinda (Lara Robinson) as she writes down a series of numbers without fully understanding why. Five decades later, Lucinda’s writing is rediscovered in a time capsule, where it winds up in the hands of astrophysicist John Koestler (Cage) and his son, Caleb (Chandler Canterbury).

Much to his shock, John realizes that Lucinda accurately predicted the dates and death tolls of numerous tragedies from the preceding 50 years, including 9/11. Now, there are only three dates left on Lucinda’s predictions, and the last one may mark the end of the world. Out of desperation, John seeks out Lucinda’s daughter, Diana (Rose Byrne), and her daughter, Abby (Robinson). But no matter what John tries, the future appears to be inevitable.

Although Cris tries to keep his powers a secret, National Security Agency (NSA) agent Callie Ferris (Julianne Moore) figures out his abilities, and he also attracts the attention of terrorists. With his options dwindling, Cris feels boxed in by his choices, and there may not be a good outcome for his story.

Osamu Tezuka’s Astro Boy was one of the first manga and anime franchises to catch on in the U.S. during the early 1960s. That’s one of the reasons why Astro Boy got a modern reboot movie in 2009. And shockingly, this animated film gave Cage some emotionally charged scenes to play. Cage provided the voice of Dr. Bill Tenma, a brilliant inventor and the father of Toby Tenma (Freddie Highmore).

In the aftermath of Toby’s tragic death, Dr. Tenma is distraught. He deals with his grief by building Astro Boy (Highmore), a nearly exact robotic duplicate of Toby. But when Tenma realizes that Astro Boy isn’t simply an exact copy of Toby, he rejects him. Yet over time, Tenma realizes his mistake and recognizes that he loves Astro Boy as well. Their reconciliation really pulls at the heartstrings, and earns it a high spot on this list.

On almost every level, Face/Off is a standard action thriller … except for its core premise, which is where the sci-fi aspect kicks in. Cage plays Castor Troy, a vicious terrorist who accidentally murders the young son of FBI agent Sean Archer (John Travolta) when the film begins. In the rematch years later, Archer gets the upper hand and Troy is left comatose.

However, Troy had an ace up his sleeve in the form of a hidden bomb. To coax the location of the bomb from Troy’s brother, Pollux (Alessandro Nivola), Archer agrees to an experimental face swap with Troy and goes undercover in prison. Unfortunately for Archer, the real Troy wakes up from his coma and forces the doctors to attach Archer’s face to his body before murdering everyone who knew about the switch. Now Archer is the one on the run, while Troy gleefully steals his identity and menaces his family.