So, here is the thing about the 1998 movie City of Angels. If you were alive and breathing in the late nineties, you couldn't escape it. You literally couldn't walk into a grocery store without hearing the Goo Goo Dolls screaming about not wanting the world to see them. It was a massive cultural moment. But looking back, the movie City of Angels starring Meg Ryan and Nicolas Cage is one of those weird cinematic fever dreams that shouldn't work—and for some people, it definitely didn't.
It’s a story about a literal angel named Seth, played by a very wide-eyed Nicolas Cage, who spends his days hanging out on the tops of buildings and in libraries listening to people's thoughts. He’s part of this celestial crew that wears long black duster coats and hangs out at the beach to hear the sun "sing" at dawn. Then he meets Maggie. Maggie is a high-achieving heart surgeon played by Meg Ryan, who was basically the queen of the box office at the time.
Why City of Angels Still Matters (Even with That Ending)
The movie is actually a very loose remake of a 1987 German film called Wings of Desire. But Hollywood took that artsy, black-and-white meditation on human existence and turned it into a high-stakes, tear-jerker romance. Honestly, the shift is pretty jarring if you’ve seen both. In the original, it’s about the soul of Berlin. In the Meg Ryan and Nicolas Cage version, it’s about whether a guy will jump off a skyscraper just to taste a pear.
People still debate the chemistry between the two leads. It's a bit of an "oil and water" situation. You've got Ryan, who specializes in a certain kind of sunny, relatable warmth, paired with Cage, who is doing this very muted, almost alien performance. He doesn't blink much. He tilts his head a lot. Some critics at the time, like Roger Ebert, actually felt it worked, calling it one of Ryan's best performances. Others felt like they were watching two different movies.
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The "Falling" Logistics
To become human, an angel has to "fall." In this movie, that involves a literal leap of faith. Seth jumps off a construction site, and suddenly, he's bleeding. He's cold. He's hungry. The transition from celestial observer to a guy standing in the rain is handled with a lot of 90s earnestness.
There's a supporting character, Nathaniel Messinger (played by Dennis Franz from NYPD Blue), who provides the roadmap. He’s a former angel who "fell" years ago because he wanted to eat beef and have a wife. He’s the one who tells Seth that being human is worth the trade-off, even though it means eventually dying.
That Infamous Ending Nobody Can Forget
We have to talk about the bicycle. If you mention this movie to anyone, they will immediately bring up the ending. After Seth gives up eternity to be with Maggie, they have exactly one blissful morning together at a cabin in Lake Tahoe.
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Then Maggie goes for a bike ride.
She closes her eyes to feel the wind—because, you know, she's finally "living"—and she cycles straight into a logging truck. It is one of the most polarizing choices in romance movie history. You spend two hours watching an immortal being sacrifice everything, only for the love of his life to be taken out by a truck five minutes later.
Critics often call this "tragedy for tragedy's sake." It feels a bit like a gut punch that hasn't quite been earned. But the movie argues that even that one day of being human was better than an eternity of just watching. It’s a heavy-handed message, but it’s what made the movie a staple for anyone who wanted a "good cry" back then.
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Production Secrets and Filming
- The Mirror Trick: There is a scene where Maggie looks in the mirror and Seth isn't reflected. To pull this off in 1998, they used motion control cameras to shoot the scene twice—once with both actors and once with just Ryan—and then digitally blended them. If you look closely at her hair, you can see a few strands "glitching" where Cage was erased.
- The Library: A lot of those gorgeous library scenes weren't shot in LA. They used the San Francisco Public Library.
- The Soundtrack: This movie's success is inseparable from its music. The song "Iris" by the Goo Goo Dolls was written specifically for the film. Lead singer John Rzeznik was inspired by Seth's perspective—an outsider looking in. It stayed at the top of the charts for a record-breaking 18 weeks.
The Lasting Legacy of the Meg Ryan and Nicolas Cage Era
The movie City of Angels was a huge box office hit, raking in nearly $200 million worldwide. It captured a very specific late-90s "New Age" spirituality. It was a time when everyone was obsessed with angels, destiny, and the impending millennium.
Was it a "good" movie? It depends on who you ask. If you're looking for a logical narrative, it's a mess. If you want a moody, atmospheric exploration of what it feels like to be alive—the taste of a peach, the feeling of rain, the pain of loss—it actually hits pretty hard.
It’s a time capsule of a moment when movie stars were bigger than the brands they played. You went to see a "Meg Ryan movie" or a "Nicolas Cage movie." Seeing them together in a supernatural drama was the ultimate 1998 event.
What You Should Do Next
If you're feeling nostalgic, don't just rewatch the movie. Do these three things to get the full experience:
- Listen to the soundtrack first. It features Sarah McLachlan, U2, and Alanis Morissette at their peak. It sets the mood better than the script does.
- Watch the original. Check out Wings of Desire (1987). It’s a masterpiece. Seeing how the Hollywood version changed the ending will give you a whole new perspective on 90s filmmaking.
- Look for the cameos. Keep an eye out for a young Nick Offerman (Ron Swanson from Parks and Rec) who shows up briefly as a construction worker.
The movie reminds us that life is basically a series of sensory experiences we take for granted. Even if the bicycle scene is objectively ridiculous, the core idea—that being able to feel the wind on your face is better than being an immortal observer—is actually a pretty decent way to look at the world.