Nicolas Cage is primed to explode (literally) in sci-fi trailer for 'Prisoners of the Ghostland'

Nicolas Cage is well-known for his ability to choose a wide array of roles in a wide array of genres, whether he's playing a literary agent who thinks he's turning into a vampire, a mute loner battling animatronic monsters, or a logger on a quest for revenge. Cage's record of making fascinating choices remains among the most impressive in modern genre cinema, which means when Cage himself calls something "the wildest movie I've ever made," it's probably a good idea to lean forward and pay attention.

The movie in question is Prisoners of the Ghostland, the latest film from Tokyo Vampire Hotel director Sion Sono, which stars Cage as a bank robber who's been thrown in jail for his latest daring job. He gets out thanks to the machinations of a post-apocalyptic authority figure who calls himself The Governor (genre legend Bill Moseley), who offers our hero a deadly proposition. If he can head out into the wastes known as the Ghostland and retrieve the Governor's granddaughter Bernice (Sofia Boutella), he can walk free.

There's a catch, though, something any reader of Suicide Squad comics will appreciate: Cage has five days to bring Bernice back, and if he doesn't, the explosives on the leather suit he's strapped into will detonate, blowing off his head, his arms, and his... well, just watch the trailer.

Prisoners of the Ghostland made its debut earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival, where it blew the virtual doors off the place and earned rave reviews for its inventive, bonkers storytelling. Now, we're just weeks away from the film's wide release, and if this trailer is any indication, it's the kind of movie you're going to want to watch at midnight, gripping your seat as you hold on for dear life thanks to the sheer adrenaline rush of it all.

Written by Aaron Hendry and Reza Sixo Safai, with a cast that also includes Nick Cassavetes, Tak Sakaguchi, and Takato Yonemoto, Prisoners of the Ghostland arrives in theaters and on-demand September 17.