Here’s a list of the non-human creatures that Nicolas Cage has been hunted by and/or fought against over the course of 108 films:

• Demons and the devil (Ghost Rider 1 & 2)
• Witches and more demons (Season of the Witch)
• Wardens of Hell (Drive Angry) 
• Ghosts (Pay the Ghost)
• Wizards and a dragon (The Sorcerer’s Apprentice)
• Sharks (U.S.S. Indianapolis: Men of Courage)
• White Jaguar (Primal)
• Orc-like Motorcycle Gang Members (Mandy)
• Alien ooze (Color Out of Space)
• Alien martial arts master (Jiu Jitsu)
• Radioactive zombies (Prisoners of the Ghostland)
• Animatronic mascots inhabited by serial killer demons (Willy’s Wonderland)
• Dream doppelgangers (Dream Scenario)

That’s a pretty impressive list and it doesn’t include all of the human adversaries he’s run up against which are legion. So it’s surprising that he hasn’t really been the prey or predator of the garden-variety alien mutant that have shown up in so many films these days. It’s also a little bit surprising that he hasn’t starred in a post-apocalyptic dystopian film (other thanThe Humanity Bureau) that addresses creatures that have made life on earth almost uninhabitable. (I don’t really count Prisoners of the Ghostland because that film is not set in a planet I am familiar with at all.)

But with Arcadian (2024) we do get to see Nicolas Cage in a role that hits on some of these popular Hollywood tropes: an environmental catastrophe leads to society’s collapse and humans must adapt in order to survive. 

The World According to Paul

A man named Paul (Nicolas Cage) must survive an apocalyptic future America where environmental catastrophe (or some type of alien invasion) has given rise to a new species of predators that hunt by night and sleep by day. Paul is a father of twin boys, Thomas (Maxwell Jenkins) and Joseph (Jarden Martell), and he struggles to keep his adolescent sons safe by adhering to a strict schedule, fortifying his home against the Predators, and scavenging for food and supplies when the sun is highest in the sky.

Living life in lockdown, and ever fearful of the shaggy four-legged creatures that can cut through wood with their incredibly long, sharp fingernails, the teenage boys are going a bit stir crazy. All the boys have for entertainment seems to be a Bible, a chessboard, and good old-fashioned brotherly infighting. The elder bro, Thomas, has been alleviating the cabin fever on the regular by walking some distance during the day to a neighboring farm where he has been helping Mr. (Joe Dixon) and Mrs. Rose (Samantha Coughlan) with their rose garden. (Secretly, he’s also been fawning over his crush, the Roses’ teenage daughter Charlotte (Sadie Soverall). The younger, more introspective and analytical bro, Joseph stays closer to home where he can better help his dad, and where he tries to figure out ways to trap and study the night creatures–whom he wishes to fight rather than fear.

The trouble ahead is foreshadowed pretty early on in this one, as Thomas arrives home a little too close to dusk, raising Paul and his brother’s concerns. Once Thomas is back home, the three ensure that the windows and doors are covered and boarded (their nightly ritual), so that the family can withstand the regular (methodical) attacks by the mysterious creatures. With the morning, Paul expects his sons to do chores like chop wood, scavenge for supplies, repair the stronghold, and most importantly, be back by curfew. 

Things go really wrong though when Thomas leaves his brother to do the scavenging and goes back to the Smith estate without Paul’s permission. After getting a kiss from Charlotte, Thomas tries to run home through the woods before dark, but falls into a crevasse and is knocked unconscious. When Thomas doesn’t show up for pick up, Joseph returns home and tells his father that Thomas went to the rose farm (tattletale!) and didn’t return. 

Alarmed, Paul tells Joseph to lock up the home and goes out to find Thomas with a knife and torch in tow. He expects that he and Thomas will spend the night at the Smith farm. Reluctant to be alone, Joseph tries to go with his father, but then agrees to stay back to look after their house. 

After dark, Thomas awakes at the bottom of the crevasse with a concussion and no way of climbing out. Lighting a small flame he sees one of the creatures inside the cave and stabs it with a pocket knife. Hearing the commotion, Paul locates his son and tells him that he will find a way to come down and help him. Since it is now fully dark, Paul and Thomas fight off more of the creatures and decide they have to stay in the cave for the night. 

Meanwhile, one of the creatures has found a break in the stronghold where Joseph is sleeping. In a tense scene where the creature is testing the opening to home with his elongated claws, Joseph seems sure to be attacked and killed by the creature as he is sleeping in a rocking chair very close to the door. The creature finds a way to open the door and rushes in, but not before Joseph can spring a trap–a cage falls from the ceiling trapping the creature just as Joseph had hoped. He used himself as bait.

Back in the crevasse cave, Paul and Thomas realize that the creatures are tunneling from beneath them with their long claws. Paul comes up with a plan to set off some kind of incendiary device right as the creatures rise from the depths. This explosion saves their lives but costs Paul part of his hand and severe burns to the rest of his body. It also knocks him unconscious.

At dawn, Joseph is safe to leave the trapped creature in its cage and head out to find his dad / bro. He helps them dig out of the crevasse in the woods near their home. But it takes both boys to haul Paul out of the rubble. They use a modified ATV, built for hauling scrap, to cart their injured / unconscious father back to their home and safety. 

The bros argue about what to do to help their father and what to do about the creature Joseph captured. Impetuous Thomas lets the thing out (accidentally) and they are forced to kill it. Joseph is mad because he wanted to study it. Instead, he ends up dissecting it. 

When it is apparent that Paul is not going to get better without medicine, the three load up in the ATV again and drive to the Smith farm for help. In this new dog-eat-dog terror world, helping others isn’t a simple request. The Smiths don’t want to give up medicine to someone outside of their compound / family. They agree to let Thomas stay with them if he wants, but tell Joseph (and Paul) to return to their home where Joseph can more easily take care of Paul. Paul is still unconscious. Bros get in a bad bro fight over this and Joseph leaves with Paul.

Feeling a bit guilty Thomas stays and takes the opportunity to kiss Charlotte some more which gets him in trouble with Mr. Smith. Thomas tries to steal some medicine (with Charlotte’s help) to take back to his dad, but some of the Smith henchmen catch him in the act and are about to blow his balls off with a shotgun to “teach him a lesson”. Then all hell breaks loose.

At the same time that Joseph has discovered the creatures have tunneled beneath their home, the same thing seems to have happened at the Smith farm. The creatures attack en masse and kill everyone except for Thomas and Charlotte who somehow escape the melee with the help of a rifle. 

Back at the stronghold, Joseph is making plans to fight off the creatures when Thomas and Charlotte arrive. The three of them rig up some Home Alone / MacGyver traps. Giving the medicine to Paul makes him perk up a little bit and he tells his son to “Fight.” Joseph takes the lead and creates a “bomb room” that he will detonate once all the creatures have entered the house. 

Paul makes one more last stand and sacrifices himself for his son’s safety. Thomas, Joseph, and Charlotte all hide in a large freezer and set off a giant fire bomb that explodes the house and kills most of the creatures.

The three younguns escape in the ATV and drive back to the Smith farm, which is now destroyed. They bury their dead. The three make plans to find other survivors out in the countryside and ride off together with their dog trailing in the background.

Goofy Creatures and Good Dads

This film won’t land in my top ten or twenty of the WATC(H), but it was a fun popcorn film. The tension that was built in the first ten to twenty minutes, before the creatures are revealed, holds up with many of the better films in this genre. Too often, directors reveal too much too soon, and this film didn’t really fall victim to that temptation. As a viewer you know, based on Paul’s behavior and his son’s obedience to the rules (even as rebellious teenagers) that this world is a dangerous place, and these creatures are not to be trifled with. There’s a pretty urgent quality to the “lock down” of the home that instantly has you invested. 

In some ways, this film felt a lot like a lesser version of A Quiet Place and was similar thematically (and creature-wise). It’s also nice to see Cage playing a role “straight-up” and by the book. He’s a concerned and methodical father and because he’s no nonsense, he doesn’t have to take on the more expressive, quirky, and spasmodic caricature that he often enjoys and adds his treatment too. It was kind of refreshing. He’s taken on this type of role (serious lead) at many times over the course of his career, but usually in films that I would find otherwise quite boring (World Trade Center, The Runner, etc.) 

Oddly enough, when Cage played his part more conventionally, the creatures in this film were not conventional. Unlike some of the otherworldly horror / alien creatures in movies Cloverfield or TV Series like Falling Skies, the director of this film wanted to bring to life a “horror creature” from his own childhood, i.e. Goofy. That’s right. The Arcadian long-nailed, long-snouted monsters were based on Goofy. And I have to admit when I first saw one of the faces on the creatures, I thought it look pretty ridiculous. I had to pause, rewind, watch again a few times before I realized that the “face” of the creature was actually marking on their heads (I guess?) that looked like a face painted on. There’s some kind of correlation to cockroaches here, too, but I honestly can’t be bothered to do that much research on this topic.

Like I said, this is a popcorn, blockbuster Summer movie type flick. I am trying not to overthink it. The only kind of disturbing, but also interesting thing about the Goofy monsters was the way they spastically would snap their jaws in super fast motion before attacking. This seemed to serve no purpose other than to just look intimidating or perhaps to hide the sub-par CGI being used (probably the latter). 

The last notable thing that I’m mention about Arcadian (since this film is more about the brothers than the real star Nicolas Cage) is that Paul is a good dad. He has to raise these two twins from newborn up to manhood in a dystopian hellscape where scavenging and hiding are the primary modes of survival. Not only does he do this impossible dad feat, but he also teaches them morality, how to read and write, how to protect their home and cook, and how to play chess. He never seems to blame them or get angry with them when they fuck up OR when they endanger their own lives. More often than not he blames himself for any failures which is noteworthy. For once, he plays a dad who is actually doing a great job. Not too strict, not too lenient. He forgives and he sacrifices for his kids.

And, that my friends, is all that needs to be said about Arcadian.

Firsts for Nicolas Cage as Paul

• Fathering twin sons
• Killing creatures inspired by Goofy
• Running down a war-torn city street during an active incursion
• Stabbing a knife into table emphatically
• Repairing a door
• Owns a dog named Rocko
• Beating down some mutant creatures with an aluminum baseball bat

Recurrences

• Back to back film playing a guy named Paul (Dream Scenario)
• In a post-apocalyptic setting (Prisoners of the Ghostland)
• Dying at the end in flames (Multiple)
• Preparing the family meal (Pig, Color Out of Space)
• Wearing a backpack (Running With the Devil)
• Smoking a cigar (Multiple)
• Giving a driving lesson to a young man (Joe)

Quotables

• “YOU’RE LATE!”
• “Are we safe? Are we secure?”
• “If you’re late again, you can’t go past the boundaries.”
• “That’s not helping.”
• “What are you animals? You wanna be animals?”
• “Are we not men?”
• “You can’t stop the grass from growing.”
• “Aw c’mon. You don’t want to show your old dad what you’ve been up to?” 
• “And some of those people, might as well call them heroes, will come over those hills and save us.”
• “That’s what I believe.”
• “I’ll have your dinner waiting.”
• “This isn’t your fault. This is my fault.”
• “Watch the slot.”
• “Let’s try to close up this entrance.”
• “When I say go. Pull that rock.”
• “Fight.”
• “It’s ok. It’s ok.”

Conclusion

How is this even possible? The next film is Longlegs, Nicolas Cage’s last theatrical release to date (chronologically speaking!!!) And then we circle back to The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. 

WTF? The End is Nigh Indeed.