Warning: SPOILERS for Prisoners of the Ghostland

Nic Cage has made a name for (and meme of) himself by frequently taking on wild roles, but Prisoners of the Ghostland may be his wildest movie yet -- even by his standards. Directed by Sion Sono, the mastermind behind the brilliant four-hour-long Love Exposure (2008), Prisoners of the Ghostland is an exciting "testicle-detonating" neo-noir samurai Western action film -- a baffling mixture of genres reminiscent of the post-apocalyptic videogame Fallout: New Vegas (2010), albeit charged with Cage's signature "Cage Rage" lunacy. Even Cage's performance aside, the film's anachronistic neon-tinged visuals and amphetaminic pacing qualify it as an exceptionally strange film.

The plot for Prisoners of the Ghostland is deceptively simple: the story follows Hero (Cage) who, after being imprisoned for attempting to rob a bank, is offered a chance at freedom with a non-negotiable mission to save Bernice (Sofia Boutella), the adoptive sex-slave "granddaughter" of the unscrupulous Governor. To ensure the mission's completion, the Governor fits Hero with an admittedly stylish leather suit fit with bombs that will detonate should Hero stray from his mission or fail to retrieve Bernice within five days. During the suit's reveal, the film takes special notice of two bombs in particular: the two located on Hero's crotch -- thereby establishing the film's violently absurd tone that only escalates with Hero's journey for redemption.

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By Nic's own admission, Prisoners of the Ghostland is one of "wildest" movies of his already impressively wild filmography -- a bold claim from the star of Vampire's Kiss (1988), The Wicker Man (2006), Willy's Wonderland (2021), etc. etc. This admission came during an interview with Yahoo! Entertainment, in which Cage doubled down on previous statements regarding the film's strangeness: "I said it in a magazine: This is gonna be the wildest script I've ever made. And that transmogrified into 'the wildest movie I ever made.' And I stand by that."

Prisoners of the Ghostland Nicolas Cage and Tak Sakaguchi pic

One scene in particular that occurs roughly at the end of the first act, involving the detonation of one of Hero's two unfortunately located bombs, was nearly cut at the behest of Cage's manager. However, Cage petitioned to keep the "testicle detonation" scene intact, as he further explained in the Yahoo! interview: "I think that scene is like a microcosm of [the issue of sexual assault]. It’s like, ‘Warning! Warning!’ That’s why I thought they should put it back in." With the scene's inclusion in Prisoners of the Ghostland, this has become somewhat of a minor staple of Sono films, as 2008's Love Exposure also involves a grisly male castration scene linked to sexual abuse.

With that in mind, Sono's directorial influence is, compared to Cage's frenetic acting, equally -- if not more so -- responsible for this being one of Cage's wildest films to date. Hailed as one of the most subversive filmmakers in Japan, Sono derives much of his storytelling inspiration from his years as a cult member prior to his career jump into poetry and film. No doubt, Sono's cult background can be found in the cult-like dynamics of post-apocalyptic communities portrayed in Prisoners of the Ghostland, Sono's debut (semi-)English-language film. Given the apparent chemistry between Nic Cage and Sion Sono, one can only hope for more from this endearingly oddball duo.

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