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The Rock (1996) ft. Jesse Sertle

  • Writer: Thomas Duncan
    Thomas Duncan
  • 5 days ago
  • 5 min read

Guest:


Cast:

  • Michael Bay, Director

  • David Weisberg, Douglas S. Cook, and Mark Rosner, Writers

  • John Schwartzman, Cinematography

  • Richard Francis-Bruce, Editing

  • Nick Glennie-Smith and Hans Zimmer, Music

  • Sean Connery as Captain (retired) John Patrick Mason SAS/MI6

  • Nicolas Cage as Dr. Stanley Goodspeed, FBI

  • Ed Harris as Brigadier General Francis "Frank" X. Hummel, USMC

  • David Morse as Major Tom Baxter, USMC

  • John Spencer as FBI Director James Womack

  • William Forsythe as Ernest Paxton, FBI

  • Michael Biehn as Commander Charles Anderson, USN

  • Vanessa Marcil as Carla Pestalozzi

  • Gregory Sporleder as Captain Frye, USMC

  • Tony Todd as Captain Darrow, USMC

  • John C. McGinley as Captain Hendrix, USMC

  • Bokeem Woodbine as Sergeant Crisp, USMC

  • Danny Nucci as Lieutenant Shepard, USN

  • Claire Forlani as Jade Angelou


Background:

  • The Rock was released on June 7, 1996.

  • On a budget of $75 million dollars, the film would go on to gross roughly $335.6 million to finish as the #4 film worldwide for 1996.

  • Reviews at the time were generally positive and the film was nominated for one Oscar: Best Sound.

  • In 2014, Time Out listed The Rock at 74th place on their list of top action films.

  • In 2019, Tom Reimann from Collider ranked The Rock as Bay's best film and "a perfect snapshot of the height of 90s action movies".

  • The Rock currently holds a 69% on RT, a 58 score on Metacritic, and a 3.6/5 on Letterboxd.


Plot Summary: In The Rock, a rogue U.S. general (Ed Harris) seizes Alcatraz Island and threatens San Francisco with stolen chemical weapons, forcing an unlikely duo—a bookish FBI chemist (Nicolas Cage) and a vanished‑from‑the‑grid ex‑spy (Sean Connery) —into the island’s fog‑shrouded fortress. As they infiltrate the abandoned prison’s tunnels and rusted battlements, the mission becomes a tense clash of wills and philosophies, where loyalty, guilt, and the weight of past secrets press in as heavily as the Pacific mist. The Rock turns into a high‑stakes pressure cooker, inviting you into a world where every corridor hums with danger and every choice feels like it could tip the balance.


Did You Know:

  • There were tensions during shooting between director Michael Bay and Walt Disney Studios 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 and was approached by Sir Sean Connery in golfing attire. Connery, who also produced this movie, asked Bay where he was going, and when Bay explained that he had a meeting with the executives, Connery asked if he could accompany him. Bay complied, and when Bay arrived in the conference room, the executives' jaws dropped when they saw Connery appear behind him. According to Bay, Connery then stood up for him, and insisted that he was doing a good job and should be left alone.

  • The premiere of the movie was held in the Prison Recreation Yard on Alcatraz.

  • Sean Connery was rumored to have asked the production to build him a cabin on Alcatraz so that he wouldn't have to travel to the mainland every day. In reality, Connery allegedly did ask permission to anchor a yacht off the dock of Alcatraz but was denied by the Coast Guard. No cabin was built but he would spend time in his trailer whenever he didn't want to go back to the Hyatt hotel in San Francisco where he was staying for the duration of the shoot.

  • While filming, Alcatraz was still open to the public, and many visitors watched the movie being shot. However, on December 15, 1995, the federal government, which owns Alcatraz, partially shut it down, due to stalled budget talks, and filming continued with no visitors present.

  • The studio wanted this movie shot in Los Angeles, with only a handful of exteriors of Alcatraz and San Francisco to complete the illusion, but director Michael Bay refused, telling them "I gotta shoot on this island because this island is so fucking bitchin."

  • Much of Nicolas Cage's dialogue was ad-libbed (including the "Zeus' butthole" line, which Michael Bay wanted to cut, but Cage insisted on having).


Best Performance: Sean Connery (Mason)

Best Secondary Performance: Sean Connery (Mason)/John Spencer (FBI Director)

Most Charismatic Award: Sean Connery (Mason)

Best Scene:

  • Chemical Room

  • Chasing Mason

  • Shower Room

  • Morgue

  • Hummel's End

  • Rocket Man

Favorite Scene: Rocket Man

Most Indelible Moment: Hummel's End/Welcome to the Rock/Chasing Mason


In Memorium:

  • N/A


Best Lines/Funniest Lines:

John Mason: [while on the stairs leading to the prison morgue] Are you sure you're ready for this?

Stanley Goodspeed: I'll do my best.

John Mason: Your "best"! Losers always whine about their best. Winners go home and fuck the prom queen.

Stanley Goodspeed: Carla *was* the prom queen.

John Mason: Really?

Stanley Goodspeed: [cocks his gun] Yeah.


Stanley Goodspeed: [to Mason] Look, I'm just a biochemist. Most of the time, I work in a little glass jar and lead a very uneventful life. I drive a Volvo, a beige one. But what I'm dealing with here is one of the most deadly substances the earth has ever known, so what say you cut me some FRIGGIN' SLACK?


Stanley Goodspeed: Really? You know I like history too, and, maybe, when this is over, you and I can stop by the souvenir shop. But right now, I just wanna find some rockets.


Stanley Goodspeed: [while in the prison morgue] You've been around a lot of corpses. Is that normal?

John Mason: What, the feet thing?

Stanley Goodspeed: Yeah, the feet thing.

John Mason: Yeah, it happens.

Stanley Goodspeed: Well I'm having a hard time concentrating. Can you do something about it?

John Mason: Like what, kill him again?


Stanley Goodspeed: [while in the tunnels underneath Alcatraz] You enjoying this?

John Mason: Well, it's certainly more enjoyable than my average day... reading philosophy, avoiding gang rape in the washrooms... though, it's less of a problem these days. Maybe I'm losing my sex appeal.


Paul (hotel barber): [to Mason, in the elevator] Okay, I don't want to know nothing. I never saw you throw that gentleman off the balcony. All I care about is: are you happy with your haircut?


Stanley Goodspeed: Well, I'm one of those fortunate people who like my job, sir. Got my first chemistry set when I was seven, blew my eyebrows off, we never saw the cat again, been into it ever since.


Stanley Goodspeed: But how, in the name of Zeus' BUTTHOLE!... did you get out of your cell? I only ask because in our current situation, well, it could prove to be useful information. *Maybe*!


John Mason: Welcome to the Rock.


The Stanley Rubric:

Legacy: 4.5

Impact/Significance: 6.17

Novelty: 2.33

Classic-ness: 2.33

Rewatchability: 5.67

Audience Score: 8.45 (84% Google, 85% RT)

Total: 29.45


Remaining Questions:

  • Did Mason really have to roll through the fires?

  • Is this the most ridiculous plan ever?

  • Who yells before they shoot someone right in their crosshairs?

  • How does someone open a cast iron metal door with only an axe?

  • How the hell does Stanley survive a direct strike of thermite?

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