Nicolas Cage’s instantly iconic ‘deranged’ moment in new film was all his idea

Hollywood star Nicolas Cage’s new movie sees him deliver a great new line as he dials his performance up (Picture: Roadside Attractions/Everett/Rex/Shutterstock)

Nicolas Cage has revealed that he is personally responsible for a glorious new entry in his enviable quote canon from new film The Surfer.

The Oscar-winner, 61, has long built a reputation for his unique delivery when it comes to lines and how he interprets them.

Combined with his capacity to play intense characters who often flip out in movies like Vampire’s Kiss, The Wicker Man and Colour Out Of Space, and it’s no secret that Cage is a popular meme and star of many ‘losing his s**t’ YouTube montages.

But this latest line might just be the best – so it’s no surprise it came from his own mind and a slightly unusual Hollywood inspiration.

In The Surfer, Cage’s character is bitten by a rat, which he quickly kills by smacking it against a car door. Later, when he’s so hungry he can’t see straight, he finds the dead rat and bites into it.

After being interrupted he pockets the rat to use later, which comes during a fight when he truly snaps – resulting in his character pulling the rat from his pocket and shoving it into his opponent’s mouth.

The actor with The Surfer’s director Lorcan Finnegan at Cannes, where the movie premiered last year (Picture: Getty)

‘Eat the rat!’, he exclaims wildly – and thus another iconic Cageism is born, joining his collection of iconic quotes.

In a new interview with The Guardian, Cage confirmed that it was him who wanted to say ‘Eat the rat!’ before being inspired by the quality of the rubber prop to go one step further.

‘I had gotten the idea from an old Billy Wilder movie called Sabrina, where Humphrey Bogart takes an olive out of a martini glass, puts it in his uncle’s mouth and says: “Eat it”.

Cage’s character is put through the wringer, leading up to a climactic scene with a rat (Picture: Vertigo Releasing)

‘I couldn’t stop laughing when I saw that moment. When I saw the prop rat, I said, ‘I’ll put it in my pocket,’ because I liked the way the rubber tail was moving,’ he explained, adding that he found it ‘amusing’ and felt he could ‘use’ it in some way.

Cage decided to ‘channel it in more of a punk rock way than Bogart did with the olive, by shoving the rat in Pitbull’s [Alexander Bertrand] mouth’.

He continued: ‘It was a cathartic moment. By that point in the movie, I thought my character has gone through enough suffering and that he’s earned the right to go big and shove a rat in the guy’s mouth.’

In the film, Cage plays a man who returns to his beach side hometown in Australia, only to be humiliated in front of his teenage son (Finn Little) by a local group of surfers who claim ownership over the secluded beach of his childhood.

He revealed the surprising classic Hollywood film that inspired the moment (Picture: Tea Shop Productions/Lovely Productions)

This territorial behaviour slowly starts to drive Cage’s character crazy as he contends with what is basically a cult of gangster surfers.

Without giving too much away, it’s a gradual journey that builds up to the Longlegs star barefoot, covered in bird poo and hallucinating thanks to severe dehydration.

And he really wants his surfboard back.

The star himself has previously shared his understanding of fans catching onto this one, as he whipped the audience at Cannes up into a frenzy by roaring ‘Mangez le rat!’ (his meme-worthy line, translated) during the film’s six-minute standing ovation when it premiered last May.

”Eat the rat!’ is destined to become the battle cry of discerning Midnight moviegoers & drive-in denizens, once they get a gander at Nic Cage’s latest gonzo turn,’ predicted Toronto Star movie critic Peter Howell on X after seeing it a Cannes.

‘A sunburnt miragic descent into madness and male ego’ with ‘reliable crazy man Nicolas Cage’ @The13Ben then praised from the BFI London Film Festival screening, while @AlecSaracen described it as a ‘deranged in-your-face nightmare comedy’.

‘Only Nic Cage could bring the unhinged energy and dedication needed for The Surfer to work,’ added @KatieMayBone.

The offbeat star is known for his intense performances and characters, which fans love (Picture: Tea Shop Productions/Lovely Productions)

When the footage of Cage’s reaction from Cannes was posted online by Variety’s London Bureau Chief Alex Ritman, fans were into it with @pamela_lpz_ replying: ‘Oh we are so back!!!’

‘He’s the only actor ever actually,’ added @m_midniter. 

The Surfer, directed by Lorcan Finnegan, also stars Julian McMahon and Nicholas Cassim.

The Surfer is in UK cinemas from today.

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