John Woo was already one of the greatest action directors in the business before he’d even set foot in Hollywood thanks to a slew of all-time greats including A Better Tomorrow, The Killer, and Hard Boiled, but he arguably didn’t find his footing in Stateside cinema until he tackled Broken Arrow.
Don’t get us wrong, Jean-Claude Van Damme vehicle Hard Target endures as an undisputed cult favorite for a reason, but it wasn’t until his second overseas feature that the filmmaker was given a budget fitting of his reputation to play with. The $50 million blockbuster painted Woo’s signature style on a bigger canvas than ever before, but it was successor Face/Off that took things to a whole different level.
Pitting John Travolta and Nicolas Cage against each other in one of the decade’s most preposterous actioners yielded instant greatness, but there’s a sentiment sweeping Reddit that Broken Arrow is the superior of the two. It made less money, scored worse reviews, and isn’t talked about anywhere near as often or held on anywhere near the same pedestal, so you can understand why so many replies are showing such vehement disagreement.
Travolta hams it up as a rogue Air Force pilot who steals nuclear weapons with plans to sell them to terrorists, which forces Christian Slater’s friend and protege to track him down and thwart the nefarious scheme. Broken Arrow is solid-if-unspectacular, but it feels like a bit of a stretch to claim that it’s infinitely better than Face/Off, which is legendary for a very good reason.