Nicolas Cage Movies Ranked: The 10 Best, From National Treasure to Leaving Las Vegas

No other movie star has a career quite like Nicolas Cage's. He has won an Academy Award, headlined some of the loudest blockbusters of the 1990s, made cult films with visionary directors and turned up in a startling number of offbeat genre pictures, often bringing the same fearless intensity to all of them. These Nicolas Cage movies ranked from tenth to first try to capture the full range of that work.

The order puts the performance first and the film second. Roles climb when Cage uses his famously big style with precision or abandons it for something quieter and more exposed, and they slip when the film's appeal rests mostly on spectacle or a clever premise. Comedy, action, romance and horror all have a place, because his gifts show up in every genre he touches.

Nicolas Cage Movies Ranked by Role and Director

#	Movie	Year	Role	Director
1	Leaving Las Vegas	1995	Ben Sanderson	Mike Figgis
2	Adaptation.	2002	Charlie Kaufman / Donald Kaufman	Spike Jonze
3	Raising Arizona	1987	H.I.	Joel Coen
4	Face/Off	1997	Castor Troy	John Woo
5	Pig	2021	Rob Feld	Michael Sarnoski
6	Moonstruck	1987	Ronny Cammareri	Norman Jewison
7	The Rock	1996	Dr. Stanley Goodspeed	Michael Bay
8	Con Air	1997	Cameron Poe	Simon West
9	Mandy	2018	Red Miller	Panos Cosmatos
10	National Treasure	2004	Ben Gates	Jon Turteltaub

10. National Treasure (2004)

Jon Turteltaub's National Treasure stars Cage as Ben Gates, a historian and amateur cryptologist from a family obsessed with a legendary treasure hidden by the Founding Fathers. When the latest clue points to an invisible map on the back of the Declaration of Independence, Ben decides he must steal the document before his ruthless former partner Ian Howe, played by Sean Bean, can get to it. Diane Kruger plays Abigail Chase, a National Archives conservator, and Justin Bartha plays Riley Poole, Ben's wisecracking tech expert.

Cage plays Gates with infectious, almost boyish enthusiasm, rattling off historical facts as if they were the most exciting things in the world, and that sincerity is the secret of the film's charm. It is a family-friendly adventure rather than a showcase for acting, which is why it rounds out the top ten. Yet it remains one of his most beloved films and led to National Treasure: Book of Secrets.

9. Mandy (2018)

Panos Cosmatos's Mandy is set in the Pacific Northwest in 1983, where Red Miller, a quiet logger played by Cage, lives in a remote cabin with Mandy Bloom, an artist played by Andrea Riseborough. Their peaceful life is destroyed when Jeremiah Sand, a failed singer turned cult leader played by Linus Roache, becomes fixated on Mandy and summons a gang of demonic bikers to abduct her. What follows is a hallucinatory revenge odyssey. Ned Dennehy plays Brother Swan, one of the cult's followers.

The second half belongs entirely to Cage, who forges his own battle-axe and wages a blood-soaked war against the cult, but the performance works because of what comes before. An extended, unbroken scene of grief in a bathroom is raw and almost unbearable. It ranks ninth because the film's extreme style will not suit everyone, but it reignited interest in his work and remains a cult favorite for anyone who loves horror thrillers.

8. Con Air (1997)

Simon West's Con Air stars Cage as Cameron Poe, a former Army Ranger paroled after serving time for killing a man while defending his wife. His flight home happens to be on a prison transport plane packed with some of the most dangerous criminals in the country, and they promptly take control of it. John Malkovich plays the mastermind Cyrus Grissom, Ving Rhames plays Diamond Dog, and John Cusack plays U.S. Marshal Vince Larkin, who works from the ground to bring the plane down safely.

Cage plays Poe with long hair, a Southern drawl and a stuffed bunny for the daughter he has never met, and he commits to the hero's earnestness so fully that it becomes part of the fun. The film is gloriously over the top, with a gallery of scene-stealing villains. It ranks eighth because the film is more spectacle than character, but it remains one of the most rewatchable action films he has made.

7. The Rock (1996)

Michael Bay's The Rock begins when a decorated Marine general, played by Ed Harris, seizes Alcatraz Island with a team of rogue soldiers, takes tourists hostage and threatens to launch chemical weapons at San Francisco. Cage plays Dr. Stanley Goodspeed, a mild-mannered FBI chemical weapons expert who is sent in with a Navy SEAL team. His guide is John Mason, a British former agent and the only man ever to escape the island prison, played by Sean Connery. John Spencer plays FBI Director James Womack.

Goodspeed is a lab rat thrust into an action movie, and Cage plays his panic, nerdy enthusiasm and growing courage for big laughs. His odd-couple chemistry with Connery gives the film its personality amid the explosions. It ranks seventh because it launched his 1990s action run, the moment a respected character actor, fresh from an Oscar win, proved he could also headline a summer blockbuster.

6. Moonstruck (1987)

Norman Jewison's Moonstruck is a warm romantic comedy set among Italian American families in Brooklyn. Cher plays Loretta Castorini, a widowed bookkeeper who agrees to marry a dull, safe suitor, then falls hard for his estranged younger brother Ronny while her fiancé is away visiting his dying mother in Sicily. Cage plays Ronny, a hot-tempered baker who lost a hand in a bread-slicing accident he blames on his brother. Vincent Gardenia and Olympia Dukakis play Loretta's parents, Cosmo and Rose.

Cage plays Ronny as a wounded romantic, all wild hair, wooden hand and operatic declarations, and he matches Cher's deadpan perfectly. His impassioned speech on a snowy street after a night at the opera is unforgettable. It ranks sixth because it is a supporting role in an ensemble comedy, but it remains his most charming romantic performance and a key early step in his rise from character actor to leading man.

5. Pig (2021)

Michael Sarnoski's Pig casts Cage as Rob Feld, a reclusive truffle forager living in a cabin deep in the Oregon woods with only his prized foraging pig for company. When the pig is stolen in a violent night raid, Rob returns to Portland for the first time in years to get her back, accompanied by Amir, a young truffle buyer played by Alex Wolff. Adam Arkin plays Darius, Amir's powerful father, and the search gradually reveals that Rob was once a celebrated chef.

Anyone expecting a revenge thriller in the mold of his action films is in for a surprise. Rob barely raises his voice, and the film becomes a melancholy meditation on grief, food and the few things people truly care about. Cage's quiet, wounded performance, especially in a restaurant scene where he gently dismantles a former employee's ambitions, is some of the finest acting he has done. It ranks fifth as the most striking example of his late-career renaissance.

4. Face/Off (1997)

John Woo's Face/Off pits FBI agent Sean Archer, played by John Travolta, against Castor Troy, the flamboyant terrorist who killed Archer's young son. After Troy is left in a coma, Archer undergoes experimental surgery to take on his enemy's face and infiltrate a prison to learn where a bomb has been planted. Then Troy wakes up and steals Archer's face. Cage plays Troy at the start and Archer for most of the film, with Joan Allen as Archer's wife, Eve, and Alessandro Nivola as Castor's brother, Pollux.

The joy of the film is watching Cage and Travolta impersonate each other, and Cage gets the trickier assignment: a decent, grieving lawman trapped behind the face of the man he despises. He plays Archer's horror and rage with operatic intensity, then slips back into Troy's manic glee with obvious delight. It ranks fourth because it is the ultimate showcase for his heightened style, inside one of the great action movies of the 1990s.

3. Raising Arizona (1987)

Joel Coen's Raising Arizona, written with his brother Ethan, stars Cage as H.I. McDunnough, a likable repeat offender who keeps getting arrested for robbing convenience stores. He marries Ed, the police officer who takes his mug shots, played by Holly Hunter, but when they learn they cannot have children, they decide to steal one of the newborn quintuplets of furniture tycoon Nathan Arizona, played by Trey Wilson. John Goodman plays Gale, an escaped convict and old prison buddy who complicates everything.

Cage's H.I. is a slapstick hero with a poet's vocabulary, narrating his own misadventures in a folksy drawl while being chased by dogs, police and a monstrous biker bounty hunter. The performance is pure physical comedy, yet he also makes H.I.'s longing for a family surprisingly sweet. It ranks third because it is the purest example of his comic genius, and it remains one of the most quotable comedies of the 1980s.

2. Adaptation. (2002)

Spike Jonze's Adaptation. is one of the strangest films Cage has made, and one of the best. Working from a script by Charlie Kaufman, it casts Cage as a fictionalized Kaufman, a neurotic screenwriter paralyzed while trying to turn Susan Orlean's book about orchid hunting into a movie. He also plays Charlie's invented twin brother, Donald, a cheerful hack writing a formulaic serial-killer thriller. Meryl Streep plays Orlean, Chris Cooper plays the orchid thief John Laroche, and Tilda Swinton plays Valerie Thomas, a studio executive.

Playing Charlie and Donald opposite each other, Cage creates distinct men with the same face: Charlie sweaty, hunched and full of self-loathing, Donald loose, confident and oblivious. The scenes where they argue about storytelling are among the funniest and saddest he has ever filmed. The dual role earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor at the 2003 ceremony. It ranks second because few actors have attempted anything this technically tricky and emotionally exposed at the same time.

1. Leaving Las Vegas (1995)

Mike Figgis's Leaving Las Vegas follows Ben Sanderson, a Hollywood screenwriter whose drinking has already cost him his family and is about to cost him his job. Cage plays Ben as he burns what is left of his old life and drives to Las Vegas with a simple, terrible plan: to drink himself to death. There he meets Sera, a sex worker played by Elisabeth Shue, and they form a fragile bond built on one rule, that neither will try to change the other. Julian Sands plays Yuri, Sera's violent pimp, and Richard Lewis appears as Peter, an acquaintance from Ben's former life.

Cage never asks for sympathy, and that is what makes the performance so devastating. Ben is funny, gentle and self-aware even as his body fails, and Cage plays the physical decline with frightening conviction while never turning it into a stunt. The role earned him the Academy Award and the Golden Globe for Best Actor, plus the Screen Actors Guild Award for a leading actor, at the 1996 ceremonies. It takes first place as the most complete and courageous work of his career.

Honorable Mentions: More Nicolas Cage Movies Worth Your Time

A filmography this large hides plenty of gems. These performances came closest to the top ten.

• Lord of War (2005): He plays Yuri Orlov, an international arms dealer who sells weapons to anyone who can pay, in a darkly comic crime drama.
• Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009): Werner Herzog directs him as Terence McDonagh, a drug-addled police detective spiraling through post-hurricane New Orleans.
• Kick-Ass (2010): A scene-stealing supporting turn as Damon Macready, a vigilante who calls himself Big Daddy and trains his young daughter to fight crime.
• Joe (2014): David Gordon Green casts him as Joe Ransom, a rough-edged ex-convict in Texas who becomes a mentor to a troubled teenager.
• Color Out of Space (2020): He plays Nathan Gardner, a farmer whose family is transformed after a meteorite lands on their property, in a Lovecraft adaptation.

How the Nicolas Cage Career Took Shape

Cage built his early reputation on eccentric character work. Raising Arizona and Moonstruck arrived in the same year, 1987, and established him as an actor willing to take big swings in comedy and romance. Wild at Heart with David Lynch pushed that boldness further, and Leaving Las Vegas proved that the same intensity could produce a devastating, Oscar-winning tragedy.

What came next surprised almost everyone. Within two years of that win he headlined The Rock, Con Air and Face/Off, a trio of high-octane blockbusters that made him a major action star. He continued to alternate between studio entertainment and serious work through the 2000s, from Adaptation. and Matchstick Men to National Treasure, Lord of War and Ghost Rider.

The 2010s brought an enormous volume of smaller genre films, of very uneven quality, with Joe and Mandy among the standouts. Mandy in particular reminded audiences how compelling he could be with the right director, and it set the stage for a remarkable run of late-career highlights, including Pig, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, Dream Scenario and Longlegs.

Through all of it, Cage has kept his reputation as one of cinema's great risk-takers. Even his most outlandish choices come from a recognizable commitment to emotional truth, however heightened the style, and that is why his best performances feel so alive.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Nicolas Cage's best movie?

Leaving Las Vegas takes first place for Cage's Oscar-winning performance as Ben Sanderson, ahead of Adaptation. and Raising Arizona.

Has Nicolas Cage won an Oscar?

Yes. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for Leaving Las Vegas at the 1996 ceremony, and he was nominated again for Adaptation. at the 2003 ceremony.

What are Nicolas Cage's best action movies?

Face/Off, The Rock and Con Air are his signature action films, all released in 1996 and 1997, with National Treasure the pick for family adventure.

Is there a sequel to National Treasure?

Yes. Cage returned as Ben Gates in National Treasure: Book of Secrets in 2007.

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