Sean Archer

Sean Archer is the main protagonist of the 1997 science fiction action thriller film, Face/Off. He is an FBI agent who tragically lost his son Michael from an assassination attempt by Castor Troy, whom he also bents to stop from the latter's terrorist acts.
In his normal self, he was portrayed by , who also played Vincent Vega in Pulp Fiction, Danny Zuko in Grease, Frank Morrison in Domestic Disturbance, Charlie Reed in Old Dogs, and Bolt in the 2008 Disney film of the same name. After swapping his own appearance with Castor's, he was then portrayed by , who also played Cameron Poe in Con Air, Rick Santoro in Snake Eyes, Tom Welles in 8mm, Randall Raines in Gone in 60 Seconds, Big Daddy in Kick-Ass, Ben Gates in National Treasure, Ghost Rider in the Ghost Rider duology, and Grug Crood in The Croods.
==Face/Off==
He is a Special FBI agent going on a hunt against his archenemy, the terrorist Castor Troy, who had killed his son Michael (accidentally as he's aiming for Archer himself) while they're in a carnival. When the FBI finally locates the whereabouts of Castor and his younger brother Pollux at a small Los Angeles airport, Archer lays an immediate ambush to capture them, during which Castor goads Archer with knowledge of a bomb located somewhere in the city. The pursuit ends with Castor being knocked into a coma before Archer can learn more. 
Archer affirms the existence, size and possible damage effect of the bomb from Pollux' documents, but the latter refuses to talk to anyone but his brother. Numerous interrogation attempts on other accomplices of Troy's have also made no results. Resorting to a much riskier alternative, Archer's partner and friend Tito convinces him to undergo an experimental face transplant surgery, per Special Ops agent Hollis Miller's suggestion, by reputable surgeon Dr. Malcolm Walsh, temporarily replacing his face and voice with Castor's. The procedure is kept a secret to only the three, much to Archer's reluctance. Once the transplant is done, the initially shocked Archer is incarcerated in the same high-security prison as Pollux, and slowly works on Pollux to learn the bomb's location - which is revealed to be the L.A. Convention Center.
Meanwhile, Castor wakes from his coma and discovers his face missing. With the help of his men, Castor forces Dr. Walsh to give him Archer's face, destroys all the evidents of the surgery and then kills everyone who were involved in the surgery, including Dr. Walsh, Miller and Tito, to prevent them from revealing the truth. Castor goes to the prison to gloat to Archer, and then is able to arrange for Pollux' release under guise of sharing information, and then subsequently locates and disarms the bomb with much bravado. The FBI department is impressed with the new confidence Castor demonstrates as Archer. Despite disliking his new physical appearance, Castor easily enjoys taking over Archer's life, romancing Archer's wife Eve with much indulgences and flirting Archer's daughter Jamie, to the latter's bewilderment and discomfort.
Archer manages to escape from prison after staging a riot and makes his way to Castor's headquarters, convincing Castor's men that he is Castor. He finds one of Castor's gang is a young mother named Sasha with her boy Adam who reminds him of Michael. Archer takes sympathy on Sasha's attempt to lead a better life for Adam. Castor learns of Archer's escape and assembles a large FBI team to raid his headquarters. The raid is run in haste, causes a number of agents and Castor's men, including Pollux and Sasha's brother Dietrich, to be killed. Archer, Sasha, Adam, and several others manage to escape. Back at FBI headquarters, Castor is lambasted by Archer's supervisor, FBI Director Victor Lazarro. Castor, having enough of Lazarro's berations and being consumed by depression and vengeance of Pollux's death, reveals his true identity to the director and kills him. He convinces the rest of the department that Lazarro died by a heart attack, and is subsequently promoted to Acting Director as funeral arrangements are made for Lazarro.
Archer finds Castor's promotion makes it impossible to approach him. Archer meets with Eve at the hospital where she works, and though not able to convince him of his identity, finds that she recognizes her husband seems different. Eve obtains a blood sample from Castor and finds it does not match her husband's blood. When Archer returns, Eve is still confused but lets Archer know of the upcoming funeral which Castor will be present at. Archer persuades Castor's men to launch a non-lethal attack during the funeral.
At the funeral, Archer finds that Castor has anticipated his actions and has taken Eve hostage. Sasha is able to free Eve, but is fatally shot in taking a bullet for Archer, and Archer promises to watch after Adam for her. Castor attempts to take Jamie hostage, but she retaliates by stabbing him with a butterfly knife using a technique he taught her earlier. Castor, with his identity blown, leads Archer on a speedboat chase. Archer forces Castor ashore, and attempts to subdue him through melee. After briefly bests Archer in the fistfight, Castor is cornered and attempts to cut open his face, making it impossible for Archer to get back, but Archer kills Castor with a spear gun, ending his vengeance for good. As the FBI surround the pair, Eve is able to convince the agents of Archer's true identity.
After Archer's transplant is discovered, the face transplant is reversed by top surgeons from Washington DC and now, Archer, back in his former self, returns home to his wife and daughter, and introduces Adam into his new home and family, keeping his promise to the late Sasha. 
==Personality ==
Sean Archer is shown as an ambitious and determined law enforcement officer who always directs his team to achieve a proper, desirable justice. He overworks them with dossiers and briefings that would halt after the outcome is attained together; to the point that these hard-working habits affect his stiff personality, being bewildered while most of his staffs and friends at the FBI congratulates him for temporarily snatching the elusive Castor after the latter's failed escape attempt from a dead calm airport. He also has a great attention of details, knowing every inch of Castor's and Pollux's traits that much and also carefully considering possible consequences of the only choice to resolve a personal conflict that has major impact on his life and career, given that he initially insists to coerce Castor's entourage, including Sasha, into revealing the truth of the explosive Sinclaire's whereabouts.
Despite his serious, rather stiff attitudes, he can still be described as a caring family man, who always tries to mend a tenuous relationship with his wife and daughter due to his full, time-consuming focus in bringing his lifelong opponent into justice. This gentleness also lingers on Archer while he surgically masquerades as Castor meeting Castor's son Adam, to the point where he mistakenly, and tearfully, calls him Michael as Adam reminds him of his dead son; at the end of the story this leads to Archer taking Adam home and introducing him to his new family, keeping his promise to the late Sasha and also as his form of responsibility for the death of the mistress of Castor's. Archer also cares the lives of his colleagues, as he hardly attempts to rescue FBI Agent Winters from being taken hostage by Castor, only for the latter to shoot Winters dead, infuriating Archer even more to pursue him. He also saves FBI Agent Buzz from being shot by Castor and concerns his FBI superior Victor Lazarro's safety and knowledge impacted by the secret facial exchange surgery.
==Gallery==
Sean ambushes Castor..jpg
Images (2)-2.jpg
W1500 199963.jpg|A dilemmatic Sean Archer, the night before the secret facial surgery, is forced to leave her wife Eve behind in order to proceed with the risky operation
MV5BNWM5OGM3MmYtMmJhNC00MTZiLWIyYWUtZjcyYWI4ZjNiNjU3XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyOTc5MDI5NjE@. V1 .jpg|The top FBI agents discover contents of Pollux Troy's floppy disk, realizing that their most important mission is not completely over yet.
Images-1494325415.jpg
Images (4)-1494326503.jpg
Faceoff-lg.jpg|After killing Castor, a completely weared out Archer is about to be taken to a top D.C. surgeon who will restore his original face, voice and other physical attributes back
File:SeanF.JPG|Sean with his original face back to him.
==Trivia== 
*Adam Wingard, the director of the upcoming Face/Off sequel, has stated that he wants to bring back John Travolta and Nicolas Cage to reprise their roles as Sean Archer and Castor Troy, but it's currently unknown if Travolta and Cage are interested in returning or not.
*It is safe to assume that after the storyline finishes, Archer resumes his job at the FBI as the Director (although the position was earlier held by Castor in the guise of Archer, as most people assumed he was the real Archer at that time) and is appointed to full term from earlier being the Acting Director, with most of his duties would be administrative ones instead of field-commanding works, as he mentioned to Eve earlier after apprehending Castor for a while.
*One of the notable trademarks to differ the real Sean Archer and the fake one is a pin in his shirt collar. When using Archer's face and physical appearances, Castor always has his shirt collar bar-pinned in every of Archer's business suit he's wearing. The real Archer never uses one everytime he wears such suit. Furthermore, Castor's shirt color as a part of Archer's daily three-piece suit have always been plain blue, whereas the real Archer is never seen using one; his shirt color during office hours alternates between densely striped blue or plain white.
* Due to the identity exchange being the main core of the plot, most of the encounters between the two sworn enemies, Castor Troy and Sean Archer, are done after both switched faces. The airport hangar shootout in the movie's early minutes is the only set of scenes where both of them facing each other with their original looks.
*While proposing a toast with a champagne delivered by CIA (as a token of congratulation to Archer after taking the defeated Castor Troy in the custody), Archer mentions several names of FBI agents, including Berkeley and Winters. Besides those two, the other names were presumably victims of Castor's homicides, as Winters was mentioned last and it was shown earlier that Castor shot her dead and threw her out of his plane after she failed to apprehend Castor and Pollux while masquerading as the plane's air hostess, and Berkeley was killed by Castor in the hangar gunfight following the plane crash.
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