The Michael Bay Retrospective Series - The Rock (1996)

Written In October 2013

Today I’m reviewing, The Rock, starring Nicholas Cage, Sean Connery, Ed Harris, John Spencer, William Forsythe, David Morse, Tony Todd, Gregory Sporleder, and directed by Michael Bay. I’m Coty, and losers sit and whine about movies by Michael Bay, winners go home fuck the prom queen!

So for historical perspective, it had been a year exactly since Michael Bay, a punk music video director, had made his feature film debut in 1995 and the public was clearly in love given that a $15 million dollar movie had manged to gross over $141 million dollars abroad during it’s theatrical run. Naturally, producers Jerry Brukheimer and Don Simpson saw a spark in the young lad and gave the keys to the kingdom, featuring to big ass stars and a plump $75 million dollar budget. Said big ass stars were Nic Cage, fresh off of Oscar Winning performance in Leaving Las Vegas; and Sean Connery, best known of course for playing James Bond from Dr. No to You Only Live Twice, and two more times there after in Diamonds Are Forever and one of only two Non-Eon Bond films, Never Say Again, additionally only one week prior to The Rock’s release Connery had made his animated film debut with Rob Cohen’s Dragonheart and the year before had taken claim to yet another British icon, King Arthur, in 1995’s First Knight. Surely there was no way in the world this film could suck… And surprisingly, IT DIDN’T! Not only is this the highest rated Michael Bay film to date on Rotten Tomatoes, with a shocking 67%, and not only was it given 3.5 out of 4 by the late great Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times, but it is considered by many audiences and critics alike to be Michael Bay’s best film. So does this film live up to it’s height? Let’s take a look, starting with a plot summary.

The film starts with a surprisingly atmospheric title sequence with Ed Harris as USMC Force Recon Brigadier General Francis X. “Frank” Hummel (and Goddamn is that name a mouthful) at a military funeral speaking briefly to a gravestone and placing a congressional medal of honor upon, kissing it once there, and then turning to his second in command (David Morse) and informing him it’s time to act. We then cut Morse and Harris’s team as they ransack a military base for a number of M55 Rockets equipped with deadly VX Gas.

We then cut to an FBI Headquarters where we meet our main character, Stanley Goodspeed played by Nicholas Cage, Stanley is a doctor of biochemistry, who specializes chemical weapons and is also something of a classic rock fan, being such an enormous fan of the Beatles that he spent over $100 dollars to buy a vinyl copy of The Beatles LP “Meet The Beatles”. We then see Stanley and his rookie, trying to diffuse a chemical weapon in a gas chamber as a corrosive poison gas begins eating through their respective suits. We see here that Stanley, as he notes repeatedly later on in the film, is extremely great under pressure. After at a “rough” day at the office, Stanley comes home to his girlfriend, where he laments about how sick the world can be and notes that he finds the idea of bringing a child into it to be a cruel one. His girlfriend then explains to him she is pregnant and proposes marriage to him.

There after we see Ed Harris’s team then commandeering Alcatraz island and holding the tourists hostage. We then are introduced to our secondary antagonists Captains Darrow (Tony Todd) and Frye (Gregory Sporleder) of the USMC Force Recon and find out the reasoning for what Ed Harris is up to. This is his attempt to protest the government’s refusal to recognize black ops soldiers and their families upon their deaths.

We cut to Washington where the FBI and the Pentagon begin discussing what to do about General Hummel and his hostages. They speak with him on a video chat and where Hummel’s previously stated intentions are made clearer. After the conference, FBI Director James Womak (John Spencer) forces himself to contact Federal Prisoner and escape artist extraordinaire John Mason, played by Sean Connery in a quasi-return to his role as James Bond, knowing that a ground attack on The Rock would be futile and Mason is the only man to have ever escaped that prison and lived to tell the tale.
Along with Mason, Stanley Goodspeed is recruited for being the most knowledgeable there is about VX gas.

While Mason is initially uncooperative Goodspeed manages to get him to talk about his knowledge of the old prison, also informing as that Womak has had Mason imprisoned illegally for 33 years. Later, after a slightly comedic scene where he receives a haircut at a very nice hotel, Mason manages to escape “borrowing” a guest’s Hummer H1 (man those were awesome) with Goodspeed in hot pursuit, having commandeered another guest’s Ferrari F355 (also awesome), leading to a high speed car chase through the streets of San Francisco that probably looked DAMN good in movie theaters. Mason leaves the vehicle at the park, where he goes to meet his 20-something year old daughter, who had been conceived during one of Mason’s two breakouts. Goodspeed arrives on the scene shortly there after, who out of compassion, explains to Jade (Mason’s Daughter) that his father is currently working with the FBI to help catch some terrorists.

There after, Mason explains that he does not how to navigate Alcatraz by map, but only memory. Womak reluctantly then allows for him to accompany the unit to retake the island, with Goodspeed accompanying them. Once upon the island, the team encounters General Hummel’s forces. When the general pleads with team leader SEAL Commander Anderson to surrender, the man refuses to prompting Captains Frye and Darrow prompt a firefight killing all member of the team except for Mason and Goodspeed. Mason then attempts to run off, but is persuaded otherwise by Goodspeed, and there after helps the younger man diffuse the bomb in a somewhat comical scene where Stanley explains the effects of VX gas much to the older fellow’s great shock.

Back at the pentagon, it is revealed that John Mason is both a highly trained MI-6 agent and a former SAS (Special Air Service to my fellow colonists) Captain who was detained for stealing a microfilm containing all of the US’s most closely guarded secrets at the time, such as who really killed JFK and what happened in Roswell, NM back in ‘49. Meanwhile, John’s knowledge of the prison and hand to hand capability allow for him and Stanley to continue progressing, eliminating multiple small teams sent for them and disarming 12 of the 15 missiles. At one point however, Stanley and John are overwhelmed and surrounded, the latter opting to surrender himself for the former to the job they were there for. Upon the military realizing that their tactical team has been killed in action however, decide to opt for an air strike on the island.

After disabling the 13th rocket Goodspeed is captured. However, after a quick bit of verbal jousting between the duo and some delightful over acting from Nic Cage, Mason manages to bust them out, taking a quick moment to explain why the FBI detained him, saying they would’ve killed him and called it suicide if he told them anything. In the mean time Hummel fulfills his threat of launching a missile, but reroutes it at the last minute, much to Darrow and Frye’s dismay. The two captains proceed to then relieve the General, Hummel refuses to yield to the captains prompting a shootout between Hummel and his second in command, Major Tom Baxter, against the two captains with our heroes watching from afar. Baxter is killed with Hummel mortally wounded, prompting John and Stanley to intervene. Stanley asks Hummel where the final missile is, Hummel tells him with his final breath that the missile is on the back end of the island.

Mason and Goodspeed split up, with Cage going to disable the missile and Connery going to kick some marine ass. Eventually Goodspeed disarms the last missile but needs to hide the VX gas away from Darrow and Frye. When Darrow finds him at the launch site, Stanley launches the disarmed missile at the Captain sending him soaring through the widow and landing on a fence post, impaling him to death. Frye is then later killed by Stanley in a a struggle between them where the latter shoves a VX pearl in his mouth. While both are exposed to the gas, Goodspeed manages to cure himself in time. And manages to inform the planes that the job his done, but not before one missile is launched. Mason finds Goodspeed unconscious but alive. The two exchange words with the former telling the latter the location of the microfilm out of gratitude lying to Womak that Mason’s body was vaporized by the explosion. The film then ends with Goodspeed married and looking at the microfilm, asking his new wife if she wants to know who really killed JFK.

This is the epic action flick to end… Most action flicks! Circa the 90’s that is. I say most because putting this over Terminator 2 would be a cinematic sin. Regardless, when this movie gets going, good fuckity hell does it get going! It of the pinnacle of popcorn entertainment! Why is it so awesome you say? Nic Cage is fantastic, Sean Connery is fantastic, Ed Harris is fantastic, the action is well filmed and well choreographed, the villain is genuinely sympathetic; his motivations are clear and genuine and he avoids bloodshed as much and as often as he can, and Bay’s recurring theme of idiot bureaucrats actually works here (whether that’s because of current events or the film, I am unsure of), and the movie is extremely quotable, so much so that I paraphrased it at the beginning. Watch this movie and watch it often! I’m giving Michael Bay’s The Rock a 4.5 out 5.