10 Philip K Dick Movie Adaptations Ranked Best To Worst

The award for the most senseless, ham-fisted and embarrassing (especially considering the amount of talent involved) adaptation goes to this version of PKD’s The Golden Man, the kind of epic misfire that knocked Nicolas Cage off his superstar pedestal.

The story goes something like this: Cage is a Vegas magician who can see two minutes into the future, which brings him to the attention of Julianne Moore’s FBI agent, who is tracking a stolen bomb. When he tries to stop a robbery, Cage somehow becomes a wanted man, which leads to a few blah action sequences.

In the midst of all this, Cage decides he has a date with destiny. He’s been having visions of meeting Jessica Biel in a coffee shop at a certain time, so despite being wanted by the cops and feds he shows up at the right moment and, because this is a baaaaad movie, Biel takes one look at his moose teeth and bad wig and falls instantly in love, leading to one of the quickest and most unbelievable screen romances of all time. (The age gap doesn’t help matters – Cage is eighteen years his leading lady’s senior).

The original draft was reportedly closer to the source material, (where the main character is a precognitive mutant) and incorporated Dick’s usual themes of paranoia and authoritarianism, all of which died when Saturn Films acquired the script.