Why Some People Are Convinced Nicolas Cage Is Immortal

These days it feels like people will believe anything they see on the internet. But human beings' gullibility and enthusiasm for believing wild stories with little to go on is nothing new — just ask the accused witches of Salem. Yet while some outlandish claims and conspiracy theories can be harmful — even deadly — others are just kinda fun, like the notion that actor Nicolas Cage is immortal, a vampire, or even a time traveler. 

The idea first started a few years back in 2011 when a man who deals in creepy and fascinating old photos named Jack Mord posted a Civil War-era photo on eBay of a man that looked remarkably similar to Cage. To accompany the photo, Mord wrote, "Personally, I believe it's him and that he is some sort of walking undead/vampire, et cetera, who quickens/reinvents himself once every 75 years or so. One-hundred-and-fifty years from now, he might be a politician, the leader of a cult, or a talk show host" (via The Hollywood Reporter). Sure enough, Mord tried selling the thing for $1 million, and boom, the seed was planted. 

The post has long since been taken down, but according to Hollywood Reporter, in 2012 Cage, denied that he is a vampire to David Letterman, pointing out that he can see his own reflection, and he shows up in photos (as the lore goes, vampires do not). He also told Letterman he doesn't drink blood, although he forgot to mention sunlight doesn't kill him. Even if Cage isn't a vampire, we can still have fun hypothesizing the "Raising Arizona" star is immortal because maybe we just want to keep him around, and celebrity deaths can be a bummer.

To keep the impossible theory going, in 2013, a Redditor posted a likeness of Emperor Maximiliano of Habsburgo from a textbook on the subreddit dedicated to Cage called "OneTrueGod." The user wrote, "In a past life, our God was a Mexican Emperor." The picture he posted was a sketch that really does look just like Cage, but it's a drawing. Unfortunately, a Google search of the emperor is disheartening because the real guy's face is not as Cage-like as the drawing. And according to Worldbook, Maximiliano was killed by a Mexican firing squad in 1867.

Ultimately, it stands to reason that even Nicholas Cage is mortal. Really, neither of the images that people jokingly claimed proved he is immortal look exactly like him — maybe they could be his less attractive brother.