The Rock (film)

The Rock
Directed by Michael Bay
Produced by Don Simpson
Jerry Bruckheimer
Written by David Weisberg
Douglas S. Cook
Mark Rosner
Quentin Tarantino[1]
(uncredited)
Aaron Sorkin
(uncredited)
Jonathan Hensleigh
(uncredited)
Starring Sean Connery
Nicolas Cage
Ed Harris
Michael Biehn
William Forsythe
Vanessa Marcil
Music by Nick Glennie-Smith
Hans Zimmer
Harry Gregson-Williams
Cinematography John Schwartzman
Editing by Richard Francis-Bruce
Studio Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer Films
Distributed by Theatrical (United States):
Hollywood Pictures
Home Video:
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
Release date(s) June 7, 1996
(United States)
June 7, 1996
(Canada)
June 21, 1996
(United Kingdom)
July 26, 1996
(Australia)
Running time 136 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget US$75 million
Gross revenue $335,062,621 (worldwide)

The Rock is a 1996 action film that primarily takes place on Alcatraz Island, and the San Francisco Bay area. It was directed by Michael Bay, director of Bad Boys, and stars Sean Connery, Nicolas Cage, and Ed Harris. It was produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, producers of Top Gun and Crimson Tide, and released through Disney's Hollywood Pictures. The film is dedicated to Simpson,[2] who died five months before its release. This was the first film on which Cage and Bruckheimer worked together.

Contents

Plot

A group of rogue Force Reconnaissance Marines led by disenchanted Brigadier General Francis Hummel (Ed Harris) seize a stockpile of VX gas-armed rockets from a military bunker, losing one of their men in process. The next day, Hummel and his men seize control of Alcatraz Island during a guided tour and takes 81 tourists hostage in the prison cells, threatening the Pentagon with launching the rockets against the population of San Francisco unless the government pays ransom and reparations to the families of Recon Marines who died on illegal, clandestine missions under his command and whose deaths weren't even honoured. The Pentagon and FBI develop a plan to retake the island with a Navy SEAL Team (presumably SEAL Team 6), enlisting chemical weapons expert Stanley Goodspeed (Nicolas Cage).

In need of first-hand knowledge of Alcatraz, FBI Director Womack (John Spencer) is forced to turn to Federal prisoner John Mason (Sean Connery), a former MI6 agent whom Womack has illegally detained for decades, and the only inmate of Alcatraz to ever successfully escape. He is placed in Custody under the supervision of Special Agent Ernest Paxton, though Mason escapes custody and leads the FBI on a high-speed chase through the streets of San Francisco to see his estranged daughter for the first time. Goodspeed covers for Mason by telling Mason's daughter that he didn't escape and is aiding the FBI, convincing Mason to aid the mission. Originally releasing Mason with the intention to merely consult him on the tunnel system, Womack reluctantly allows him to go on the mission at the urging of the SEAL team leader.

The team infiltrates Alcatraz, through the underground tunnels with Mason's guidance, but are ambushed by Hummel's marines in the shower room, and are all killed, leaving only Mason and Goodspeed alive. Paxton plans to abort the mission, but Womack, who is aware of Mason's MI6 and SAS background, agrees to let them continue saying that Mason and Goodspeed are their last hope. Mason attempts to leave the Island, but Goodspeed manages to convince Mason to help him defuse the rockets. They disable 13 of the 15 rockets and eliminate small teams of Marines until Hummel threatens over the loudspeaker to execute a hostage if the remaining "Navy SEALs" do not surrender. Only Mason surrenders to Hummel, trying to buy Goodspeed some time. However the Marines capture him shortly thereafter.

With the incursion team lost, the military readies a backup plan: an air strike by armed F/A-18s that will neutralize the poison gas but kill everyone on the island.

As Mason uses his unique experience to escape from their cells, he reveals why he was held there for so many years — for stealing a microfilm of the United States' most closely-guarded secrets, including the 1947 UFO Crash, the Kennedy Assassination, and the Watergate Incident. While they search for the final two rockets, Hummel fires one of them but changes the coordinates at the last second causing the rocket to crash land out to sea and revealing to his mercenaries that he has only been bluffing. Realizing that they will not be paid, the mercenaries led by Captain Frye gun down Hummel and his men and proceeding with the plan to fire on San Francisco. With his last breath, Hummel tells Goodspeed the location of the last rocket. As the jets approach, Goodspeed and Mason kill off the remaining mercenaries and Goodspeed disarms the last rocket until one of the gas pearls breaks off. He manages to catch it before it cracks open, but is then attacked by Frye who begins to strangle Goodspeed to death. Using the VX to defend himself, Goodspeed shoves the gas pearl into Frye's mouth, exposing both of them to the gas. Goodspeed injects himself in the heart with Atropine as Frye dies from the VX gas. He lights green flares to signal that the threat is over — but only after one of the pilots fires, sending Goodspeed's body flying into the sea. The early detonation hits the back of the island and harms no one else.

Mason reappears to pull the unconscious Goodspeed to shore, who gives him time to escape before the FBI arrives, but not before saying to Mason that Womack tore up his pardon from prison and telling Womack he's been "vaporized". The film ends with Goodspeed and his pregnant bride Carla in Fort Walton, Kansas, on the advice of a note from Mason, recovering the microfilm with a half century of state secrets. An epilogue is shown to the audience that Don Simpson, producer of the film, passed away before the movie's release.

Cast

James Caviezel, Xander Berkeley, Stuart Wilson, and Raymond Cruz appear in various uncredited roles.

Box office

Produced at a budget of US $75,000,000, the movie was a smash hit, grossing a total of $134,069,511 domestically and $200,993,110 internationally, for a worldwide total of $335,062,621. It was the 7th highest grossing film of 1996 in the US, and the 4th highest worldwide.[3]

Production

Quentin Tarantino was an uncredited screenwriter on The Rock,[1] along with Jonathan Hensleigh and Aaron Sorkin. 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. The car chase was not in the original script; it was Michael Bay's idea. It was Nicolas Cage's idea that his character would not swear; his euphemisms include "gee whiz."

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.

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.[4]

The fact that Connery's character, John Patrick Mason, was a British secret service agent imprisoned since the 1960s alludes to Connery's famous role as James Bond. This is similar to his casting as Henry Jones Sr. in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

In popular culture

The scene where Goodspeed struggles to set off green flares in order to prevent the airstrike was replicated in the popular video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, in which the player, an Army Ranger, must fight his way to the roof of the White House and set off green flares in order to stop the Air Force from carpet bombing Washington, D.C., which is thought to be under Russian control. The shower room shootout scene is also re-enacted in the mission "The Gulag." The same shower room is also featured in the 2006 first person shooter Black.

A reference to 'The Rock' appears in the video game World in Conflict in the level 'Liberty lost', in which Spetsnaz units seized Liberty Island, Ellis Island and Governors Island and threatened to launch an attack against New York with chemical weapons, stored in the Statue of Liberty. After calling in an airstrike against the Statue, Colonel Sawyer, the player's commanding officer, orders the player to attack the remaining Soviet forces on Liberty Island and recapture the island in eight minutes. If the player is successful, Sawyer calls off the airstrike, after looking through his binoculars and spotting green smoke next to the Statue of Liberty, just seconds before USAF F-15E Strike Eagles arrive and fly by the Statue.

Qayamat: City Under Threat was Hindi remake of the film with a romantic scenario.

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian also features a skit on the "green flare" scene—as the lead characters escape on a plane, the monkey "Able" waves green flares as they fly overhead.

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.[5] 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 the reduction of multiple gunshot impacts into Gamble's feet in the morgue down to a single hit; a close-up of his screaming face as the air conditioner falls onto him; a sound cut to Mason snapping a Marine's neck and two bloody gunshot wounds (to Hummel and Baxter), both near the end of the film.[5]

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.

The film also received some censorship of profanity in its Asian releases; the terms "fuck" and "Goddamn" are normally omitted or substituted. For instance, whenever Star Movies (a popular Asian movie channel) plays the film, Connery's line in which he says to Cage "winners go home and fuck the prom queen" is replaced with "winners go home and date the prom queen."

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 currently holds a "fresh" rating (65%) on Rotten Tomatoes.[6]

The film was selected for a limited edition DVD release by the Criterion Collection, a distributor of primarily arthouse films it categorizes as "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."[7]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Peary, Gerald (August 1998). "Chronology". Quentin Tarantino Interviews. Conversations with Filmmakers. University Press of Mississippi. xix. ISBN 1-57806-050-8. http://books.google.com/books?id=c5SdiFJmswcC&pg=PR19&lpg=PR18&ots=N_HP-JMwh2&dq=Tarantino+Crimson&ie=ISO-8859-1&output=html. Retrieved 2008-08-03. 
  2. ↑ Maslin, Janet (June 7, 1996). "FILM REVIEW;Break Into Alcatraz? Why Not?". New York Times. http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9901EED61F39F934A35755C0A960958260. Retrieved 2008-11-16. 
  3. ↑ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=rock.htm
  4. ↑ Great Hotels. The Travel Channel
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Later DVDs merged into the Video Hits section". The Melon Farmers. http://www.melonfarmers.co.uk/ardhhits.htm. Retrieved 2008-11-16. 
  6. ↑ "The Rock (1996)". Rotten Tomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1072011-rock. Retrieved 2010-03-16. 
  7. ↑ http://www.criterion.com/asp/release.asp?id=108&eid=120&section=essay&page=2

External links

Films directed by Michael Bay
1990s
Bad Boys (1995) · The Rock (1996) · Armageddon (1998)
2000s
Pearl Harbor (2001) · Bad Boys II (2003) · The Island (2005) · Transformers (2007) · Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)
2010s
Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011)