But for newbie writers reading this: you still have to write a kick-ass, never-seen-that-before scene, all blocked out in thrilling detail on the page. Because that’s what will help sell your material. And that’s how you’ll get an opportunity for some director to completely change it.

How much of what you write shows up in the finished action scenes?

Sometimes the action scene is shot exactly — or almost exactly — as written. Often it changes depending on the director’s vision, on-set inspiration, stunt department concerns, budgetary issues etc.

Take the opening action sequence at the airport. We wrote ten different versions before Mr. Woo was satisfied. We were left to our own devices on how to put Castor Troy in a coma. The tenth version was approved — and that’s what you see in the film. We set the location at a private airport. We had Castor meeting up with his brother Pollux at their hired private jet. And we wrote the basics of the FBI assault. And Castor’s murder of FBI agent Winters (the “flight attendant” plant). And Sean Archer piloting the helicopter. And disabling the jet by landing on it. And the crash into the hanger, the capture of Pollux, Agent Loomis’s ear getting blown off, the intimate confrontation between the hero and bad guy — and the jet turbine beat which sends Castor flying into a coma. That stuff was in the script. We wrote the dialogue and the spine of the sequence. But again, the meat on the bones was pure Woo, including, but not limited to: the famous flapping of Castor’s trench coat, the game of chicken, the engine being shot out, the cat & mouse inside the wrecked hanger, the signature duel guns beat etc. Oh, and Nic Cage ad-libbed the singing bit which Travolta apes at the climax.

What's more important, body count or bullet count?

Well, Face/Off certainly had more of both than we expected. Colleary and I actually had a gripe with the fact that the hero throws acid and shoots prison guards while trying to escape when (with the exception of the warden) they are just people doing their jobs. The original scripted escape had far less random violence. Without going into too much detail, it involved the hero peeling off Castor’s fingerprints (this was never shot) — and he uses Sean Archer’s FBI security clearance to get out.

Then, instead of simply jumping off the oil rig platform — he commandeers a supply chopper and flies off (while being chased) toward the mainland. This is set-up in the opening action scene where we’ve made it clear to the audience that while Castor Troy cannot fly a plane, Sean Archer can certainly fly a helicopter. But this sequence — while beautifully storyboarded and blocked out by Woo — was very expensive and was cut for budget. I remember Nic Cage was not happy when this was excised because it was his favorite action beat. As it stands, the escape still works — but barely. It’s a plot hole. There’s no explanation of how Archer gets to shore (unless you look REALLY, REALLY closely and see that Zodiac boat motor by in the background and make the assumption that he somehow hitched a ride!). Not to sound defensive, but it was handled logically at the script level.