With a Nicolas Cage movie, you never know exactly what you’re going to get. After the uneasiness I felt watching Amos and Andrew, I was really hoping for a rebound film. Specifically, I wanted to see something different from Cage that I hadn’t seen before. 

Looking back at the last five movies, we’ve seen Nicolas Cage play: 

• An ex-convict
• A helicopter pilot
• A painter / construction worker
• A private investigator, and
• A directionally-challenged small time criminal

But in Red Rock West (1993) we see Cage playing a slightly different role in a slightly different genre, an ex-Marine out-of-work drifter starring in a plot-twisted suspense movie.

Cool. I’m here for it. 

Summary

Michael (played by Cage) is an ex-Marine who drives from Texas to Wyoming seeking work at an oil field. Promised a position by a friend, Michael is passed over by the site supervisor because of his disability (a leg injury) which he decided to report on his job application. Running low on money and other options, Michael takes the advice of gas station attendant and drives to Red Rock, Wyoming to look for work.

At the Red Rock bar Michael is met by Wayne the bartender (played by J.T. Walsh) who mistakes Michael for Lyle, a Texas hitman he hired to kill his wife. Intrigued by the offer to make a few thousand dollars and curious why a man would pay to have his wife executed, Michael plays along and pretends to be Lyle and takes the money. In service to his conscience though, Michael then goes to Wayne’s home and reveals the murder plot to the wife, Suzanne (played by Laura Flynn Boyle). Suzanne offers to pay Michael double to spare her and have her husband killed. Instead, Michael warns Suzanne she should just leave town or go to the police. Michael leaves Suzanne’s home, writes an anonymous note to the local police revealing that there was trouble brewing with the unhappy couple, and tries to leave Red Rock before Wayne realizes he’s been hoodwinked.

As he drives away from town through a dark rain storm, Michael accidentally drives his car over a man who was standing in the road. Fearful that he has killed the man, Michael drives him back to town to the Red Rock hospital. Before he can escape the hospital and any residual small-town entanglements or run-ins with Wayne / Suzanne, Michael is flagged down by the ER doctor who has called in the police.

SPOILERS TO FOLLOW!

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When questioned about the injured man’s condition by two Red Rock deputies, Michael explains that hitting him was an accident. The police seem skeptical of this explanation and ask Michael why the doctor treated the man for multiple gunshot wounds. Without an explanation for the gunshots, Michael is further struck dumb when the sheriff shows up to the hospital and it is none other than Wayne, the man behind the bar who hired him to kill his wife.

Wayne, who by now is aware that Michael is not Lyle and that he has attempted to steal his money, puts Michael in his car and questions him about his real identity and the location of the money he has stolen. Michael offers to leave town to never return and to remain silent about the contract Wayne has put on his wife’s life. Wayne is not buying it, and attempts to drive Michael to a remote location where he hopes to kill him, claiming that the “criminal” was trying to escape. Michael finds a way to actually escape from Wayne before he can shoot him, but while evading Wayne in overgrown field injures his bad leg. Hobbles out of the woods he stumbles onto a different highway where he is nearly hit by a car himself.

Who’s driving the car? Of course it’s Lyle (played by Dennis Hopper) from Texas, finally showing up in Red Rock to fulfill his hitman responsibilities. Unaware of the impersonation drama that has unfolded and the identify of Michael, Lyle agrees to give him a ride (ensuring he won’t be captured by Wayne who has not caught up to the two). On the way to town the two talk about their time in the Marines and Michael realizes who Lyle is and why he has come to Red Rock.

Fast forwarding a bit, Lyle eventually connects with Wayne and then begins to hunt down Michael. Michael evades Lyle and circles back to save Suzanne who is now in danger of the real Lyle showing up to kill her. Suzanne and Michael hook up (and stay a local Comfort Inn) and she reveals that she has “inherited” a large sum of money which Wayne wants all to himself. She persuades Michael to escape with her to Mexico, but first they must go back to Red Rock bar to secure her riches (which are in a safe in Wayne’s office).

Turns out Wayne and Suzanne stole their millions TOGETHER (it was no inheritance) and she was responsible for the bullets that nearly killed the man that Michael hit with his car (he was a ranch-hand who was extorting the couple). Lyle takes Wayne, Suzanne, and Michael captive at gunpoint and negotiates a deal where Wayne takes him to the money (which he’s hidden in a cemetery) and they split the money evenly and go their separate ways.

Lots of double crossing ensues, people get shot or impaled, and Suzanne / Michael eventually grab the bag of money and race to catch a passing train before the police arrive. Since there’s no honor among thieves, the question is Suzanne trust Michael and vice versa? This question is answered in the last scene as the two hop on an empty train car with one gun and one bag of money. I won’t spoil that ending (just yet!)

SPOILERS CONCLUDED

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The World According to Cage as Michael

I feel like there was a notable trend in the 1990s where a thriller had to have a series of unexpected character driven plot twists that would then turn out to be even more twisty or twist in on themselves like a fun house mirror. I say character-driven because most of the time the twist involved the person you didn’t expect (it was the wife after all!) or the hidden motive that you didn’t expect. I’m thinking about movies like Basic Instinct and Final Analysis, but I’m sure there were other better ones I’m forgetting. In some ways Red Rock West gave me these same kind of vibes. This movie actually was a similar pre-cursor to the Sean Penn / J-Lo thriller U-Turn (1997) which I also remember liking.

The pattern goes: Wife leaves her bad husband for innocent guy, but maybe bad husband wasn’t really bad and the wife was, and/or maybe the two were both bad and working together all along just to dupe the innocent guy.

Thankfully, they stopped making the more extreme variety of these kind of movies (which can become formulaic in trying to be novel and keep pulling rabbits out of more hats) and/or they just got more sophisticated with some real jaw-dropping twists like in The Usual Suspects or Seven. Heck, M. Night Shyamalan has made a career out of story-driven plot twists (I see dead people) to the point that even he has become a cliched version of himself.

But it’s still kind of fun to see a throw-back nostalgia movie like this where the shedunit-hedunit-whodunit revolving wheel just keeps right on spinning and you’re not quite sure where it will stop.

When life hands you lemon, make a lemon twist

Like I mentioned above, things get twisty in this one (a little bit). For example, Michael gets turned down at the oil drilling field for revealing his hidden injury on his job application. When his friend asks him about why he shared this information when he could have just gotten the job, Michael says, “That wouldn’t be right” since the company would have found out eventually. But then when given the opportunity to take the identity and contract-killing money of Lyle, (twist) Michael forgoes his strong ethics and jumps right in. But then (twist) he does so so he can warn Suzanne of the plot to kill her. And then (twist again) he keeps the money and tries to skip town without fulfilling his contract (but slight twist) writes a note to let the police know what is happening in the town. The twists like this go on an on. Wayne’s the town sheriff (twist) and Michael’s savior ends up being Lyle (twist), Suzanne is the victim but (twist) she’s also the criminal.

In the end, when all the twisting is (mostly) done and Suzanne and Michael have found a way to escape by train with the money in tow, her true colors shine through. [SPOILER ALERT]. She aims the gun at Michael as he is holding the bag of cash. Evidently, sharing is not in her nature. She pulls the trigger but the gun is unloaded. Michael pours the cash out the open door of the train car to Suzanne’s horror. Furious, Michael yells at Suzanne, “You want it, go get it!” before roughly shoving her off the side of the train. Clinging to a small remaining pile of bills that didn’t fly off the side of the train (twist) a beaten and bruised Michael slumps down and leans against the boxcar. He murmurs, “Adios, Red Rock” as Dwight Yoakim begins to sing and the credits begin to roll.

Best Nicolas Cage Lines & Actions as Michael

• Throws a heavy statue of a cowboy riding a bronco at Lyle that knocks him out cold.
• Later says to Suzanne “I don’t want to be here when Lyle from Dallas wakes up? Do you?”
• Shaves outside in a open field. Then does one-armed pushups in the middle of the road.

• Tightrope walks across a 2 by 4 from the top of a building to the top of a truck (to escape Lyle & Wayne)
• Rolls his head in ecstasy / high expression
• Gives some marriage advice to Suzanne, “If I were you, I’d get a divorce.”

• Escapes from Lyle / Wayne on the top of truck and then knocks on the window to alert the driver that he is up there. At gunpoint, he asks the driver, “Listen, hate to ask you this, but do you think you could give me a ride?”
• “Fuckin’ story of my life.” Michael’s response when his escape vehicle’s gas gauge is on E.

• “When I was a kid, my dad took me to Vera Cruz. He bought me a purple sombrero and a little guitar. It was nice.”

Firsts for Nicolas Cage character as Michael

• Hits a guy with his car
• Fills out a job application and hospital paperwork
• Climbs a trellis to surprise a woman
• Kills a guy (almost) with a statue’s bayonet (after knocking out the guy, Lyle, with another statue)
• Digs a grave
• Puts on a knee brace
• Wears a shit-ton of denim (jacket, jeans, shirts)

Recurrences

• Criminal activity (Multiple)
• Eating Doritos (see Zandalee)
• Starring with Dennis Hopper (see Rumble Fish)
• Punching the ceiling of his car (see Raising Arizona)
• Hopping on a train at the end of a movie (see Racing with the Moon)
• Smoking (Multiple)
• Displaying tattoos (Multiple) – This time it was USMC tattoo on his arm.
• Throwing a tantrum (Multiple) – In the restroom he kicks garbage can and punches out a light.

Although it was hard to find (Scarecrow Video to the rescue again) Red Rock West was a surprisingly decent movie. I would say it’s fairly watchable with some decent performances from Dennis Hopper and J.T. Walsh and a comparatively more subdued Nicolas Cage. There’s lots of good (if not somewhat predictable) plot twists that kept the pace just fast enough to not get boring. If you’re ever given the opportunity to stop for a drink in Red Rock, Wyoming (population 1523) I’d say just make sure your car is gassed up, you have some snacks on hand, and just keep on driving! You never know what kind of plots you’ll uncover if you have to stick around there for any amount of time.

Adios, Red Rock.