The Rock (film)

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The Rock
Directed by Michael Bay
Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer
Don Simpson
Louis A. Stroller
Sean Connery
William Stuart
Written by David Weisberg
(also story)
Douglas S. Cook
(also story)
Mark Rosner
Starring Sean Connery
Nicolas Cage
Ed Harris
Music by Nick Glennie-Smith
Hans Zimmer
Harry Gregson-Williams
Editing by Richard Francis-Bruce
Distributed by Hollywood Pictures
Release date(s) June 7, 1996 (U.S.)
June 7, 1996 (Canada)
June 21, 1996 (UK)
July 26, 1996 (Australia)
Running time 136 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget US$75 million
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

The Rock (1996) is an Academy Award-nominated action film that primarily takes place on Alcatraz Island, and the San Francisco Bay area. It was directed by Michael Bay and stars Sean Connery, Nicolas Cage, and Ed Harris. It was produced by Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer and released through Disney's Hollywood Pictures. The film is dedicated to producer Don Simpson, who died five months before its release.

Contents

[edit] Plot

A group of rogue Marine Force Recon commandos led by a disenfranchised Brigadier General, Francis X. Hummel, seize a stockpile of rockets armed with VX Nerve Agent, a modern chemical weapon of nightmarish virulence and the capability to withstand consumption by napalm, the standard countermeasure to chemical weapons.

The Marines take over Alcatraz Island during a guided tour, taking 81 tourists hostage in the prison cells. Hummel (reinforced by his elite team of marines-turned-mercenaries) calls the Pentagon and the FBI Director informing them of his intentions: he will launch the lethal VX gas rockets over the population of the San Francisco Bay Area unless reparations of $1 million are paid to each of the families of Marines who died under his command in covert operations within 24 hours.

The Pentagon/FBI officials decide to deploy a Navy SEAL team to retake the island and free Hummel's hostages by stealth. In need of first-hand knowledge of the underground tunnels of Alcatraz, the officials' are forced to release the imprisoned, former SAS and disavowed British Intelligence officer John Patrick Mason: the only inmate of Alcatraz who had, reputedly, ever successfully escaped. Nerdy, bumbling, FBI chemical weapons expert Dr. Stanley Goodspeed is also recruited, to neutralize the VX gas threat. The two men and the SEAL team commence their raid on Alcatraz against Hummel's own elite force. Meanwhile, the Pentagon prepares a secondary countermeasure to Hummel's VX gas rockets: readying prototype "thermite plasma" bombs capable of incinerating the poison gas.

With FBI director James Womack and his West Coast subordinate Ernest Paxton directing the SEAL incursion via helmet monitors, details of Mason's complex past are revealed. Soon after getting onto the island, the SEALs are discovered by the Marines and trapped in a bottleneck. During a tense exchange between Hummel and Anderson, the SEALs' commander, the Sailors are startled and open fire on the Marines. Surrounded and weakly positioned (on lower ground without cover) the SEALs are quickly dispatched, leaving only Goodspeed and Mason to thwart Hummel's plans.

Mason and Goodspeed repeatedly battle small groups of marines to great effect, and as the night wears on, they manage to remove the guidance chips from many of the missiles, until finally they are captured close to dawn and left unguarded in holding cells. Mason frees them both with only an hour and two missiles remaining.

Meanwhile, the thermite-plasma weapons are readied, and armed F-18s (incorrectly portrayed in USAF markings, only the USN & USMC operate them) begin to approach Alcatraz ready to blanket the island, destroying the chemical weapons and killing the hostages. The deadline passes and the Pentagon calls Hummel and refuses to pay the ransom. Consequently, the marines fire one of the remaining rockets at a football game, but Hummel redirects the missile at the last minute to detonate harmlessly at sea. Having balked at launching against civilian targets, Hummel reveals the nerve gas to be a bluff. The commanders divide over whether or not to fire the remaining missile and a short gun-battle ensues, in which Hummel is shot repeatedly. In his dying breath, Hummel tells Goodspeed and Mason the location of the last rocket.

While Mason battles the traitorous marines, Goodspeed disarms the last rocket but is exposed to the VX gas and is forced to inject an antidote (atropine) into his heart. He desperately scrambles to the shore to signal to the command center. However, the message is not relayed to the F-18s in time, and the lead plane drops the first of its thermite-plasma payload onto the island. Fortunately, the bomb misses the hostages' cell block, and only throws Goodspeed to the water, where he is promptly rescued by Mason. When the FBI arrive on Alcatraz to recapture Mason, Goodspeed informs them that he was "vaporized" hence releasing Mason to freedom, anonymity, and his estranged daughter——equipped with SCUBA gear, and the keys to a hotel room in San Francisco complete with clothes and money. Before his departure, however, Mason had passed on the location of the secret microfilm which had caused his incarceration, and the movie closes with Goodspeed and his pregnant wife Carla recovering the microfilm, along with half a century of state secrets.

[edit] Cast

The pilot who launched a missile toward Alcatraz in the final scenes is played by then-unknown James Caviezel.

Mason and Goodspeed dismantling the chemical weapon in the morgue.
Mason and Goodspeed dismantling the chemical weapon in the morgue.

[edit] Box Office

Produced at a budget of 75m US $, the movie grossed a total of $134,067,443.00.[1]

[edit] Production

Quentin Tarantino was an uncredited screenwriter on The Rock, along with Jonathan Hensleigh and Aaron Sorkin[citation needed]. Hensleigh in particular was aggrieved to not be credited. LA-based British screenwriting team Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais were brought in at Connery's request to rewrite his lines, but ended up altering much of the film's dialogue, including Goodspeed's reference to LPs sounding better than CDs.[citation needed] The car chase was not in the original script; it was Michael Bay's idea.[citation needed] It was Nicolas Cage's idea that his character wouldn't swear; his euphemisms include 'gee whiz' for Jesus Christ; 'A-hole' for asshole; and 'Zeus's butthole'. Cage had to fight the producers and director to keep the butthole line, but he agreed to deliver the lines "Do you know how this shit works!" and "Eat that, you fuck!" as swearing is a staple of the action genre, and to show how the mission had changed Goodspeed.

There were tensions during shooting between director Michael Bay and the Walt Disney Company executives who were supervising the production. On the commentary track for the Criterion Collection DVD, Bay recalls a time when he was preparing to leave the set for a meeting with the executives when he was approached by Sean Connery in golfing attire. Connery, who also produced the film, asked Bay where he was going, and when Bay explained he had a meeting with the executives, Connery asked if he could accompany him. Bay complied and when he arrived in the conference room, the executives' jaws dropped when they saw Connery appear behind him. According to Bay, Connery then stood up for Bay and insisted that he was doing a good job and should be left alone.

According to a document on Alcatraz Island (December, 2005)[citation needed], during the filming of the scenes with the hostages, the famous sliding doors wouldn't open. Help from the mainland had to be sought and the extras were stuck for several hours. For this reason, visitors are no longer allowed to be temporarily shut in.

The scene in which FBI director Womack is thrown off the balcony was filmed on location at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. The filming led to numerous calls to the hotel by people who saw a man dangling from the balcony.[2]

[edit] Censorship

In the original UK DVD release, the scene in which Connery throws a knife through a sentry's throat and says "you must never hesitate" to Cage was cut, although this scene was shown on British television. Consequently, a later scene in which Connery says to Cage, "I'm rather glad you didn't hesitate too long" lost its impact on viewers who had not seen the first scene. Other cuts included a shot of Mason shooting Gamble's feet and a close-up of his screaming face as the air conditioner falls, a sound cut to Mason snapping a Marine's neck and a bloody gunshot wound, both near the end of the film.

When the film premiered on German television (RTL), it was shown in two versions: the first version (starting at 8:15 pm) had most of its violence and gore cut, going so far as to suggest that some of the terrorists survived. The second version started at 1 am, and left all scenes intact. This scheme was repeated for the second viewing.

[edit] Awards and recognition

The Rock won a number of minor awards, including 'Best On-Screen Duo' for Connery and Cage at the MTV Movie Awards as well as an Academy Award nomination for Best Sound. It's the only Michael Bay film to have been given a "fresh" rating (62%) on Rotten Tomatoes.

The film was selected for a limited edition DVD release by the Criterion Collection, a distributor of primarily arthouse films that releases what it considers to be "important classic and contemporary films" and "cinema at its finest". In an essay supporting the selection of The Rock, Roger Ebert, who was strongly critical of most of Bay's later films, calls it "an action picture that rises to the top of the genre because of a literate, witty screenplay and skilled craftsmanship in the direction and special effects."[3]

[edit] References

  1. ^ for reference or verification, visit http://www.variety.com/profiles/Film/main/30334/The%20Rock.html?dataSet=1
  2. ^ Great Hotels. The Travel Channel
  3. ^ http://www.criterion.com/asp/release.asp?id=108&eid=120&section=essay&page=2

[edit] External links

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Films directed by Michael Bay