The unbearable weight of massive talent isn't just an action movie starring Nicholas Cage.

Lots of action movies have starred Nicholas Cage.

No, this action movie stars the actor, Nicholas Cage, as the actor, Nicholas Cage, who

must get himself out of a jam after he attends the birthday party of a potentially deadly

Nicholas Cage superfan.

I'm Aisha Harris.

And I'm Stephen Thompson.

Today we are talking about the unbearable weight of massive talent on pop culture happy

hour from NPR.

Joining Aisha and me is NPR contributor Serena Torres.

Hi Serena.

Hey you, Stephen.

It is great to have you here.

So the Nicholas Cage in this movie is a fictionalized version of Nicholas Cage, but the script

does draw heavily on the actor's career and long history of eccentric performances.

In this story, Nicholas Cage is a down on his luck actor who is estranged from his family.

He keeps getting passed up for roles and winds up taking a gig where he's paid a million

dollars to fly to Spain and attend the birthday party of a wealthy superfan played by Pedro

Pescal.

That's where things take a turn.

When Cage gets to his destination, he's recruited by CIA operatives played by Tiffany

Haddish and Ike Baronholz, who explain that Cage's benefactor is a dangerous, wanted

...