Surf’s Not Up

A Nic Cage slow burn (Massive Spoilers)

The Surfer (Nicolas Cage) is a man with a dream. He wants to buy a house in the prestigious Cliff Top Drive, which overlooks Luna Bay beach. He plans on showing the house off to his son, the Kid (Finn Little), during a surfing trip. However, shortly after their arrival, the Surfer learns that the Bay Boys have taken over the beach.

The Bay Boys are a group of hyper-macho “yuppies cosplaying at being surf gangsters.” They’re led by Scott “Scally” Callahan (Julian McMahon), who’s basically if Patrick Bateman decided to become Bodhi (Patrick Swayze). Scally and the other Bay Boys tell the Surfer that non-locals aren’t allowed. The Surfer refuses to stay away, both because he’s trying to close this deal and out of sheer pride.

The Surfer’s reasons for buying the house are partly sentimental, since it once belonged to his father, but he also wants it as a status symbol. He spends most of the opening scene trying to impress his son with it, despite the Kid’s clear disinterest. And since he’s so determined, the Surfer ignores his troubles at work, his ex-wife’s new relationship, his strained relationship with his son, and the never-ending harassment from the Bay Boys.

The Surfer is very slow-moving, especially since the whole thing might as well have been subtitled “all of this guy’s problems could have been avoided if he simply cut his losses and moved on.” Of course, the Surfer’s drawn-out suffering is almost certainly deliberate, since the movie’s big plot twist is that the Bay Boys have been trying to indoctrinate him into the group the entire time. It’s all part of their misery-builds-character (NSFW) ideology.

Where It All Leads

At first, The Surfer seems to be building towards a Straw Dogs-type collision course. Then, once the Surfer gets invited into the club, it seems like a bad-guy-wins ending is going to occur. However, the Surfer wises up to the fact that he’s sold his soul to the devil when Scally makes it clear that he plans on indoctrinating the Kid into the group as well. So, what happens then? Does the Surfer fight Scally to the death for dominance?

No, because that would lead to Scally winning posthumously by perpetuating his ideology. Instead, the Surfer goes surfing with his son, which is what he should have been focusing on instead of buying a fancy house. Luckily for the audience, someone else kills Scally, allowing the Surfer to keep his hands clean. If you watch this movie and still want Scally to get away scot-free, then you’ve missed the entire point.

The Surfer takes forever to get to the good stuff, but the ending is satisfactory. The movie’s commentary on toxic masculinity and materialism isn’t anything new, but it’s still valid. McMahon, who knew how to imbue heinous characters with enough humanity to make them interesting (NSFW), was in fine form. Cage also delivers one of his more nuanced performances, but don’t worry. He slips into Nic Cage mode more than he did in Pig.