Between Worlds

Last updated
Between Worlds
Between Worlds poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed byMaria Pulera
Written byMaria Pulera
Produced by
  • David Hillary
  • Maria Pulera
  • Eric Banoun
Starring
CinematographyThomas Hencz
Edited byTim Silano
Music by Jason Solowsky
Production
companies
Distributed by
Release date
  • December 21, 2018 (2018-12-21)(United States)
Running time
90 minutes
CountrySpain
LanguageEnglish
Box office$146,339 [1]

Between Worlds is a 2018 supernatural thriller film starring Nicolas Cage, and directed by Maria Pulera. The film was released on December 21, 2018, by Saban Films. [2] [3]

Contents

The story follows Joe (Cage), a down-on-his-luck truck driver haunted by the memory of his deceased wife and child. He meets Julie (Potente), a spiritually gifted woman who enlists Joe in a desperate effort to find the lost soul of her comatose daughter, Billie (Mitchell). But the spirit of Joe's dead wife Mary proves stronger, possessing the young woman's body while intending to settle her unfinished business with the living.

Plot

At an Alabama truck stop, truck driver Joe Majors walks in on a woman, Julie, being choked and seemingly assaulted by another man. He grabs the man and pulls him off Julie. However, Julie goes on to explain that she had asked the man to choke her. She relays a childhood experience during which she nearly drowned and had an out-of-body experience which allowed her to enter the spirit world. Since her daughter Billie was recently left in a coma after a motorcycle accident, Julie, desperate to save her, was trying to find Billie's spirit in the nether world to return it to her body when Joe walked in on her being choked. Joe – whose wife and daughter tragically died – takes Julie to the hospital to witness Billie go into cardiac arrest. Julie makes Joe choke her and enters the nether realm to lead Billie's spirit back to her body. Billie survives.

Joe accompanies Julie home and, even though Joe feels and looks as though he's been on the road for three days, they have sex. He stays with Julie for the next few days and is fired for not completing his duties in a timely fashion. He laments that a man without a truck is not a man. Billie is discharged from the hospital. While her injuries are healing, her demeanor seems odd to Julie and to her friends Mike and Rick. She also makes sexual advances to Joe, who is confused but not uninterested. While Julie drives into town to retrieve Joe's belongings from his former employer, Billie reveals to Joe that she is not in fact Billie but the spirit of his deceased wife, Mary, who has taken over Billie's body. Joe is quick to believe her and starts to engage in frisky activities with her, rushing to cover up their exploits when Julie returns home.

Julie is suspicious of Joe's and Billie's behavior and speaks to a nurse from the hospital who is knowledgeable about the logistics of the spirit world. She tells Julie that the spirit that returned to Billie's body is not Billie's and suggests that it is likely that of Joe's dead wife. Meanwhile, Joe and Billie/Mary have intense intercourse at home. During his coitus with Billie, Joe is drawn into a dreamlike memory or alternate world in which he is having sex with Mary. Julie returns home and Joe panics, while Billie assures him that all he's hearing is the cat. He astutely objects, "You don't have a cat," just before Julie walks in on them in the act. Julie is furious and demands that Joe help her expel Mary's spirit from Billie's body. Billie/Mary knocks Julie unconscious to stop her and asks Joe to run away with her.

Billie and Joe intend to rob Mike and Rick. Joe knocks out Mike (who has affections for Billie) and gets into a scuffle with Rick, fatally shooting him by accident. Billie/Mary takes the cash she finds at the house and takes Joe back to the ruins of the house in which Joe and Mary used to live with their daughter Sarah until Mary and Sarah died in a tragic fire allegedly caused by accident. Meanwhile, Mike confronts Julie, who tells him about Billie's and Mary's spirits being swapped. Joe gets emotional when he finds Sarah's jack-in-a-box as he still blames himself for her and Mary's deaths. Joe and Billie/Mary vow to rebuild their relationship, but Mike and Julie walk in on them and hold them up at gun point. Billie/Mary draws a gun on Julie and admits to killing Sarah before setting the house on fire on purpose as she says she is "not good on her own". Julie walks towards Billie/Mary and is fatally shot by her. Julie forces Mary's spirit back into the nether realm with her, allowing Billie's spirit to re-enter her own body.

Joe is distraught by what he has learned about Sarah's death. He cradles her jack-in-the-box while calling out her name lamentingly, then pours gasoline over himself, puts a cigarette in his mouth and sets it – and himself – on fire. Seemingly not feeling any pain, he puts the cigarette out on himself as the house around him burns down, yet again. Billie and Mike flee the scene, leaving Julie's dead body behind, and drive off. In the epilogue, we see a memory from Joe's earlier life, during which he shoots his abusive father dead.

Cast

Production

Filming began in Mobile, Alabama, at the end of August 2017 and took place over the course of 23 days. [4] [5]

According to director Maria Pulera, she initially wrote the film as a standard thriller, but later made it "a much more surreal drama in the vein of David Lynch". [6] Pulera wrote the character of Joe with Cage in mind and allowed the actor to improvise for many scenes, including Joe and Billie/Mary's frolicsome water hose fight. [7]

Reception

Between Worlds received mostly negative reviews, with review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes showing an approval rating of 32%. The site's critical consensus reads, "While definitely in line with some of Nicolas Cage's stranger efforts, Between Worlds is too silly and messy to call it good, even in a weird way." [8] BuzzFeed did note Nicolas Cage's performance for engaging in a very risqué on-screen romp with actress Penelope Mitchell and calling it his raciest performance of his career. [9]

Analysis

Between Worlds features aspects of Surrealism and postmodern experimentalism. In many respects, it is evocative of the works of David Lynch, [10] especially the TV series Twin Peaks . Like Twin Peaks, the film features other realms or spirit worlds, dreamlike sequences, aspects of grotesque comedy, a score reminiscent of that of Twin Peaks (which was partly composed by long-time Lynch composer Angelo Badalamenti [11] ) and a seductive but fragile teenage girl at the heart of the plot. Between Worlds also uses experimental camera angles and editing techniques as well as aspects of meta-fiction, for example breaking the fourth wall in a scene in which Joe reads from a book titled “Memories by Nicolas Cage.” The character of Joe also seems to allude to a range of previous roles played by Cage, including Alabama native Cameron Poe from Con Air , snakeskin leather aficionado Sailor Ripley from Lynch's Wild at Heart and chain-smoking hobby arsonist Johnny Blaze from Ghost Rider , thus pointing to the larger Nicolas Cage movie metaverse.

Central themes include the idea of the afterlife, grief, trauma, parent-child relationships, feminist psychoanalytic theory, metaphysics, epistemology, shamanism and the decline of the American working class under contemporary neoliberalism.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicolas Cage</span> American actor (born 1964)

Nicolas Kim Coppola, known by his stage name Nicolas Cage, is an American actor and film producer. He is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for two BAFTA Awards. Known for his versatility as an actor, his participation in various film genres has gained him a cult following.

<i>Leaving Las Vegas</i> 1995 film by Mike Figgis

Leaving Las Vegas is a 1995 drama film written and directed by Mike Figgis and based on the semi-autobiographical 1990 novel of the same name by John O'Brien. Nicolas Cage stars as a suicidal alcoholic in Los Angeles who, having lost his family and been recently fired, has decided to move to Las Vegas and drink himself to death. He loads a supply of liquor and beer into his BMW and gets drunk as he drives from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. Once there, he develops a romantic relationship with a prostitute played by Elisabeth Shue and the film shifts to include her narrative perspective. O'Brien died from suicide after signing away the film rights to the novel.

<i>Wild at Heart</i> (film) 1990 film by David Lynch

Wild at Heart is a 1990 American romantic crime drama film written and directed by David Lynch, based on the 1989 novel of the same name by Barry Gifford. Starring Nicolas Cage, Laura Dern, Willem Dafoe, Crispin Glover, Diane Ladd, Isabella Rossellini, and Harry Dean Stanton, the film follows Sailor Ripley and Lula Fortune, a young couple who go on the run from Lula's domineering mother and the criminals she hires to kill Sailor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elisabeth Shue</span> American actress (born 1963)

Elisabeth Judson Shue is an American actress. She is best known for her roles in the films The Karate Kid (1984), Adventures in Babysitting (1987), Cocktail (1988), Back to the Future Part II (1989), Back to the Future Part III (1990), Soapdish (1991), The Saint (1997), Hollow Man (2000), Piranha 3D (2010), Battle of the Sexes (2017), Death Wish (2018) and Greyhound (2020). For her performance in Leaving Las Vegas (1995), Shue was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress as well as a BAFTA, Golden Globe and SAG Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laura Palmer</span> Fictional character from Twin Peaks

Laura Palmer is a fictional character in the Twin Peaks franchise and the primary focus of the series. She is portrayed by Sheryl Lee and was created by the series creators David Lynch and Mark Frost. She first appears in the ABC original series Twin Peaks. A high school student whose death is the catalyst for the events of the series, Palmer is the protagonist in Lynch's prequel film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), which depicts the final week of her life leading up to her murder. Laura also appears in the novels, Twin Peaks: The Return (2017), and a variety of merchandise based on the series.

<i>Snake Eyes</i> (1998 film) 1998 film by Brian De Palma

Snake Eyes is a 1998 American mystery thriller film directed and produced by Brian De Palma. The film stars Nicolas Cage as a detective investigating a political assassination at a boxing match in Atlantic City, with supporting roles played by Gary Sinise, Carla Gugino, John Heard, Stan Shaw, Kevin Dunn, Joel Fabiani and Luis Guzmán. De Palma also devised the story with David Koepp, who was the sole writer of the screenplay. The musical score was composed by Ryuichi Sakamoto.

<i>Valley Girl</i> (1983 film) 1983 film by Martha Coolidge

Valley Girl is a 1983 American teen romantic comedy film directed by Martha Coolidge and written and produced by Wayne Crawford and Andrew Lane. Loosely based on the tragedy Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, the film centers on the romance between a valley girl and a city punk. Michelle Meyrink, Elizabeth Daily, Cameron Dye and Michael Bowen appear in supporting roles.

<i>Zandalee</i> 1991 American film

Zandalee is a 1991 American erotic thriller/romantic tragedy directed by Sam Pillsbury and starring Nicolas Cage, Judge Reinhold, Erika Anderson, Viveca Lindfors, Aaron Neville, Joe Pantoliano and Steve Buscemi. The screenplay by Mari Kornhauser is based on Émile Zola's 1867 novel and 1873 play Thérèse Raquin.

<i>To Grandmothers House We Go</i> 1992 Christmas television film directed by Jeff Franklin

To Grandmother's House We Go is a 1992 made-for-television Christmas film directed by Jeff Franklin and starring Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. The film's title comes from a part of one of the first lines of Lydia Maria Child's Thanksgiving song "Over the River and Through the Wood". It debuted on ABC as a star vehicle for the Olsens, who were starring in Franklin's Full House at the time, and marked their first appearance as separate characters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gary Windass</span> Fictional character from Coronation Street

Gary Windass is a fictional character from the British soap opera Coronation Street, portrayed by Mikey North. The character first appeared on November 14, 2008, along with his parents, Eddie and Anna Windass.

<i>Trespass</i> (2011 film) 2011 film

Trespass is a 2011 American crime thriller film directed by Joel Schumacher, from a screenplay by Karl Gajdusek. It stars Nicolas Cage and Nicole Kidman as a married couple taken hostage by extortionists. It also stars Ben Mendelsohn, Cam Gigandet, Liana Liberato, Jordana Spiro, Dash Mihok, Emily Meade and Nico Tortorella.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Garrett Clayton</span> American actor and singer

Gary Michael "Garrett" Clayton is an American actor and singer. He is known for portraying Tanner in the 2013 Disney Channel movie Teen Beach Movie and its 2015 sequel Teen Beach 2, and other film, television, and stage roles.

<i>Rage</i> (2014 film) 2014 film by Paco Cabezas

Rage, titled Tokarev in most of Europe and Australia, is a 2014 American action crime thriller film directed by Paco Cabezas and written by Jim Agnew and Sean Keller. The film stars Nicolas Cage, Rachel Nichols, Peter Stormare, Danny Glover, Max Ryan, Judd Lormand and Pasha D. Lychnikoff.

<i>Pay the Ghost</i> 2015 film by Uli Edel

Pay the Ghost is a 2015 American supernatural horror film directed by Uli Edel. The screenplay was written by Dan Kay, based on a short story of the same name by Tim Lebbon. The film stars Nicolas Cage, Sarah Wayne Callies, Veronica Ferres, Lauren Beatty, Jack Fulton, and Elizabeth Jeanne le Roux. The film was released on September 25, 2015, by RLJ Entertainment.

<i>Big Driver</i> (film) American TV series or program

Big Driver is a 2014 American crime thriller television film based on the novella of the same name by Stephen King, published in his collection Full Dark, No Stars (2010). It was directed by Mikael Salomon and written by Richard Christian Matheson.

<i>Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces</i> 2014 feature-length compilation of deleted and extended scenes from Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me

Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces is a 2014 feature-length compilation of deleted and extended scenes from Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, a 1992 film directed by David Lynch and written by Lynch and Robert Engels. It was released over twenty-two years after the movie and the original series ended and three years before the revival, Twin Peaks: The Return, aired.

<i>Body Cam</i> (film) 2020 film by Malik Vitthal

Body Cam is a 2020 American police procedural horror film directed by Malik Vitthal, from a screenplay by Nicholas McCarthy and Richmond Riedel and a story by Riedel. The film stars Mary J. Blige, Nat Wolff, David Zayas, David Warshofsky, Demetrius Grosse and Anika Noni Rose.

<i>Walk a Mile in My Pradas</i> 2011 American film

Walk a Mile in My Pradas is a 2011 American gay body-switching romantic comedy film directed by Joey Sylvester.

<i>The Retirement Plan</i> 2023 film by Tim Brown

The Retirement Plan is a 2023 American crime comedy thriller film directed and written by Tim Brown. It stars Nicolas Cage, Ron Perlman, Ashley Greene, Jackie Earl Haley, Grace Byers, Ernie Hudson, Lynn Whitfield, Joel David Moore and Thalia Campbell. It was released in the United States on September 15, 2023.

References

  1. ↑ "Between Worlds". Box Office Mojo . IMDb . Retrieved December 7, 2022.
  2. ↑ N'Duka, Amanda (23 August 2017). "Nicolas Cage To Topline Indie Thriller 'Between Worlds' From Director Maria Pulera". deadline.com. Retrieved 12 September 2017.
  3. ↑ D'Alessandro, Anthony (8 September 2017). "Voltage Pictures Reps Rights To Nicolas Cage Thriller 'Between Worlds' – Toronto". deadline.com. Retrieved 12 September 2017.
  4. ↑ Roll The Footage!. "Between Worlds with Writer & Director Maria Pulera". YouTube. Retrieved 31 December 2021.
  5. ↑ Coulombe, Michael. "Interview: Director Maria Pulera for BETWEEN WORLDS". Nightmarish Conjurings.
  6. ↑ "Nicolas Cage is a Truck Driver in Trailer for Thriller 'Between Worlds'". FirstShowing.net.
  7. ↑ Saito, Stephen. "Interview: Maria Pulera on Pushing Herself to New Places with "Between Worlds"". The Moveable Fest. Retrieved 31 December 2021.
  8. ↑ "Between Worlds (2018)". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango . Retrieved October 30, 2021.
  9. ↑ Jane, Jocelyn (2018-10-11). "Nicolas Cage Sex Tape to Reveal on Big Screen". BuzzFeed . Archived from the original on 2018-10-19. Retrieved 2018-10-19.
  10. ↑ Murray, Noel. "Review: The award for weirdest Nicolas Cage movie of 2018 goes to 'Between Worlds'". Los Angeles.
  11. ↑ Saito, Stephen. "Interview: Maria Pulera on Pushing Herself to New Places with "Between Worlds"". The Moveable Fest. Retrieved 31 December 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.