‘Prisoners of the Ghostland’ review: Nicolas Cage’s ‘wildest movie’

“Prisoners of the Ghostland” is equal parts visual delight and narrative head-scratcher. Most of all, it’s a hefty dose of Nicolas Cage set to full-tilt gonzo.

The most surprising thing? It’s the first movie where Cage has timed explosives strapped to his testicles. It just seems like, you know, something he’d have done by now. 

This carnival of post-apocalyptic tropes sees the pairing of Cage with Japanese auteur Sion Sono (“Love Exposure,” “Tokyo Tribe”) in the director’s first English-language outing. Its trailer features a blurb from the actor calling it “the wildest movie I’ve ever made.” Fair enough, but it’s also a wild movie to try to follow with any sort of logic.

Nicolas Cage goes on a post-apocalyptic mission in “Prisoners of the Ghostland.”Courtesy Everett Collection

In a post-nuclear dystopia, Cage’s character, Hero — in prison for a very un-heroic bank robbery that killed a little kid — is hauled out at the whim of the Governor (Bill Moseley), the campy, white-suited leader of a Wild West-meets-geisha-brothel called Samurai Town. He dispatches Hero to rescue his daughter Bernice (Sofia Boutella) from a mysterious zone called the Ghostland — but not before strapping him into the aforementioned explosives, which will shred him if he doesn’t bring her back within five days. It’s a pretty glaring wink at 1981’s sci-fi film “Escape From New York,” one of many genre references throughout. 

What Hero finds in the Ghostland is a community of outcasts, scavengers, quasi-zombies and other survivors, all enslaved to the worship of a giant clock whose hands they must keep from moving. If time starts again, they say, the world will blow up. Some, like Bernice, get sealed up inside old-timey dress-store mannequins. Some, looking like the denizens of the “Mad Max” movies, tinker with scrounged vehicles wearing outfits made of trash. During his rescue mission, Hero attempts to lead them on a Ghostland-exodus revolution, which oddly goes nowhere.

Sofia Boutella plays Bernice, a warlord’s kidnapped granddaughter.Courtesy Everett Collection

I was disappointed the dynamic Boutella didn’t have more to do – she’s kept pretty firmly in the damsel-in-distress role most of the time. Even after she’s pried out of her mannequin shell, Bernice is stuck in a Ghostland-induced catatonia.

If you’re planning to enjoy this film, don’t ask too many questions. Just embrace the spectacle, a mishmash of genres and a riot of color.

Despite Cage turning it up to 11, the one to watch here is Tak Sakaguchi as the Governor’s bodyguard, Yasujiro. His martial artistry is on full display as he takes on any and all challengers in the climactic showdown, even if it’s not totally clear what his allegiances are. Maybe the geishas have the right idea: Relegated to a one-note performance, at least they get to giggle through the whole thing. 

A gaggle of giggling geishas haunt Nicolas Cage in “Ghostland.”Courtesy Everett Collection