54% Of Nic Cage Fans Agree That This Is His Best Movie

Nicolas Cage is best known for his fascinatingly zany roles. Of course, he's also genuinely talented in his own right, and part of a Hollywood legacy — he's the nephew of legendary director Francis Ford Coppola, which makes Sofia Coppola his cousin. Family reunions are probably quite the party, right? It's obvious that talent runs in the family, and when Cage started acting in early '80s comedies like Valley Girl and Fast Times at Ridgemont High, his star was quickly on the rise.

In 1995, Cage won an Academy Award for his performance in Leaving Las Vegas, and his career continued on an upward trajectory from there, earning another Oscar nomination in 2002 for Adaptation. By this point, Cage had established himself as a multifaceted personality, as he continued to take on more and more unique roles — for better or worse — like in the 2006 remake of The Wicker Man. Fans are eager to see the wild side of Cage again in his upcoming TV series, playing Joe Exotic of Tiger King. 

With such an eclectic career, it's no surprise that many fans continue to debate whether some of Cage's more offbeat roles are the work of genius or bad acting. Either way, he clearly knows how to excite audiences. But what's his best role? There's a lot to choose from, but Looper took on the challenge — we asked fans around the world to pick Nicolas Cage's best movie, and with 143,000 responses, we have an answer.

According to Looper's poll, National Treasure is the clear winner, with 54% of the vote. Clearly, there's little debate that fans see Cage's role as Ben Gates as the best of his career, and likely the most memorable.

2004's National Treasure tells the story of Cage's character Gates, a historian and treasure hunter, as he works with a team to find the legendary Templar Treasure before another group does. Their search takes them to a lot of historical monuments and artifacts, including the Declaration of Independence. A sequel, National Treasure: Book of Secrets, came out in 2007. For the many fans of the National Treasure series, some good news also arrived recently, as Disney announced that a TV series is in development for Disney+ with a new, younger cast, while a third film with the original cast has been in early stages of development for a while. There's even been talk of a National Treasure 4.

As for the rest of the votes, 20% chose Face/Off, the action sci-fi movie from 1997, with others picking from a variety of his other roles, like Mandy or Lord of War. 14% of respondents wrote in other candidates, throwing their hats in for fan favorites like Moonstruck, Raising Arizona, and The Rock.