Nicolas Cage reveals he did his own driving stunts for the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced film as Randall "Memphis" Raines, a reformed car thief who finds himself drawn back into the criminal world when his younger brother Kip incidentally leads the police to a warehouse full of stolen cars owned by a British gangster. In the hopes of freeing Kip, Memphis comes up with a plan with steal 50 cars in one night with the help of his old associates in order to avoid detection.
Alongside Cage, the ensemble cast for Gone in 60 Seconds included Angelina Jolie, Christopher Eccleston, Giovanni Ribisi, Robert Duvall, Vinnie Jones, Delroy Lindo, Chi McBride, Will Patton, Scott Caan and Timothy Olyphant. Helmed by Dominic Sena on a script from future Jumanji franchise co-writer Scott Rosenberg, the film received generally negative reviews from critics, with criticism directed towards its nonsensical story and lackluster action sequences. Despite the poor reviews, Gone in 60 Seconds would prove to be a box office hit, grossing over $237 million against its $90 million production budget and garnering a cult following in the years since.
In anticipation of the release of The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, Nicolas Cage sat down with Wired for their special "Autocomplete Interview" series. When asked about the stunts in Gone in 60 Seconds, Cage confirmed he did his own driving stunts for the movie and shared insight for how he prepared for the scenes. See what Cage shared below:
“I did do my own stunts in [Gone in 60 Seconds]. I did go to a high-performance driving school and I was working with Johnny Martin on that and we were doing the 360s and the donuts and the whole kit and caboodle.”
Prior to the 2000 remake, Cage and stunt coordinator Johnny Martin had previously worked together on another fan-favorite Bruckheimer-produced action movie, The Rock, on which the latter worked as a general stuntman. The two have since reunited on a number of projects over the years, including the 2002 action war drama Windtalkers, the 2011 action horror movie Drive Angry and 2014's crime thriller Rage. Given the extensive range of high-valued cars featured in Gone in 60 Seconds, including its iconic 1967 Shelby Mustang GT500, nicknamed Eleanor, it's understandable Cage would want to get behind the wheel to conduct his own stunts in the action remake.
While recent years have seen many actors further get into the world of stunts with hand-to-hand combat, many have followed in Cage's Gone in 60 Seconds footsteps to get in the driver's seat for vehicular stunts. Vin Diesel and Paul Walker have memorably performed a number of their own stunts for Fast & Furious throughout its franchise while Ansel Elgort also did much of his own driving for Edgar Wright's Baby Driver, Anya Taylor-Joy is undergoing stunt driving training for the Mad Max: Fury Road prequel Furiosa and Daniel Craig got behind the wheel for much of his James Bond tenure. Audiences can revisit Cage's driving skills with Gone in 60 Seconds available to stream on Prime Video and Peacock.
Source: Wired
