The Rock 1996 Film Starring Sean Connery
Disenchanted General Threatens to Launch Weapons at San Francisco
Sep 28, 2009
The United States has a habit of abandoning its overseas operatives when the political climate changes. One General has had enough, and has decided that the government finally needs to acknowledge the sacrifices that their own people have made.
The Rock's Plot and Characters
Brigadier General Francis X. Hummel (Ed Harris) and a group of his operatives raid a naval base stealing a number of rockets filled with VX poison gas. The group then attacks Alcatraz during a guided tour, take hostages and establish a command post threatening to launch the weapons at the San Francisco Bay area.
The US government plans to retake the island, and rescue the hostages by using their best SEAL team led by CDR Anderson (Michael Biehn). Joining them on the mission is an FBI agent Stanley Goodspeed (Nicholas Cage) a chemical weapons expert, and John Patrick Mason (Sean Connery) a former SAS agent. He is also the only person to have ever escaped incarceration on Alcatraz, and knows the layout of the island.
FBI Director James Womack (John Spencer) and his West Coast subordinate Ernest Paxton (William Forsythe) direct the SEAL incursion via helmet monitors. The group is discovered moments after they enter the prison and are slaughtered by Hummel’s forces (even though he tries to prevent the massacre). The only survivors are Goodspeed and Mason, and together they take on Hummel’s forces as they try to disarm the rockets and save the hostages.
An Excellent Example of a Superior Action Film
The Rock is an action film with a great story that features an all star cast. Cage is perfectly cast as the geeky FBI agent, who is in over his head, and Connery is excellent at playing the gruff older soldier who is more than a match for the marines. It is also always nice to know that even though the American Marines are tough, even a 60-odd SAS operative can take them, because the SAS are just that good.
The Rock doesn’t have a stereotypical bad guy who is threatening to kill millions because they want money or power, or troops out of their country. Hummel is an honourable man and just wants the government to give the reparations that fallen soldiers’ families deserve. He may be using the threat of launching weapons that could kill millions to make his point but Mason reads him and doubts that he will actually make good on his threat.
Cage and Connery have good on-screen chemistry, and there is a moment when they are in separate jail cells and their conversation is very funny. Connery doesn’t talk much as Mason but he is one of those characters who is always thinking and assessing their surroundings. In the beginning Mason is reluctant to work with the FBI but Goodspeed gets him out of an awkward situation. The audience can see the moment when Mason begins to like Goodspeed and the relationship between the pair changes.
Director Michael Bay does not let the action falter, and there are numerous explosions during the film. The plot may have been done before (person holding a city to ransom) but The Rock does have a different take on the premise. Hummel is not a typical villain, and there is a good reason why he has become so disillusioned with his own government.
All in all, The Rock is one of the best action films to date, and has not suffered from the passage of time. This was also one of the first films in which Cage demonstrated his ability to do action (another being Con Air). There is no shortage of spectacular sequences and Connery fans will delight in the aging hero going to toe to toe with the US marines.
5/5
Excellent film with an all star cast
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