Taglines: Cocked, locked, and Ready to Rock!
The Rock movie storyline. It’s a quiet day in San Francisco. There are 81 civilians on a tour of Alcatraz, the prison famous for the fact that no prisoner had ever successfully escaped. During one of the tours, marine General Francis Xavier Hummel takes the civilians hostage, with the help of other marines. He has 15 rockets of deadly V.X. gas at his disposal, ready to launch at San Francisco.
His reason for doing this is simple: he has seen Marines under his command get killed in combat without a military burial or benefits to their families. He makes a threat to the FBI: give the fallen Marines recognition or he will launch the V.X. rockets. After learning that one rocket is enough to take out sixty or seventy thousand people, the FBI sends for their top Chemical Weapons expert: Dr. Stanley Goodspeed, engaged to his pregnant girlfriend. While trying to figure out a countermeasure to the current situation, the FBI is forced to resort to John Patrick Mason, an ex-con who broke out of Alcatraz in 1962.
The Rock is a 1996 American action thriller film directed by Michael Bay, produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, and written by David Weisberg and Douglas S. Cook. The film stars Sean Connery, Nicolas Cage and Ed Harris, with William Forsythe and Michael Biehn co-starring. It is dedicated to Simpson, who died five months before its release. The film received moderately positive reviews from critics, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Sound Mixing at the 69th Academy Awards. It was a box office success, grossing over $335 million against a production budget of $75 million.
In the film, an FBI chemist and a former SAS captain are tasked with stopping a group of rogue US Force Recon Marines who have seized Alcatraz Island, taken hostages, and threatened to launch rockets filled with nerve gas over San Francisco unless they are paid $100 million.
About the Story
A group of rogue U.S. Force Recon Marines, led by disenchanted Brigadier General Frank Hummel and his second-in-command Major Tom Baxter, storm a heavily guarded Naval Weapons depot where they seize a stockpile of deadly VX gas–armed M55 rockets; Hummel loses one of his own men in the process when one of the VX canisters ruptures.
The next day, Hummel and his men seize control of Alcatraz Island and take eighty-one tourists hostage. Hummel threatens to launch the rockets against San Francisco unless the U.S government pays $100 million from a military slush fund, which he will distribute to his men and the families of Recon Marines who died on clandestine missions under his command but whose deaths were not compensated.
The Pentagon and FBI develop a plan to retake the island with a U.S. Navy SEAL team led by Commander Anderson, enlisting the FBI’s top chemical weapons specialist, Dr. Stanley Goodspeed. FBI director James Womack is forced to offer a pardon to federal prisoner John Mason, in return for information. Mason, a 60-year-old British national who has been imprisoned without charges for three decades, is the only Alcatraz inmate ever to escape the island, doing so in 1963 through uncharted underground tunnels. After he learns of Womack’s involvement in the deal, Mason flees resulting in a car chase through the streets of San Francisco. Mason seeks out his estranged daughter Jade; Goodspeed arrives with a team to re-arrest him, telling Jade that Mason is aiding the FBI.
Goodspeed, Mason, and the SEALs infiltrate Alcatraz. However, Hummel’s rogue Marines are alerted to their presence and ambush them in a shower room. All the SEALs, including Anderson, are killed, leaving only Mason and Goodspeed alive. Mason sees his chance to escape custody and disarms Goodspeed, but Goodspeed convinces him to help defuse the rockets after the Marines use explosive devices to flush them out.
Mason and Goodspeed eliminate several teams of Marines and disable 12 of the 15 rockets by removing their guidance chips. Hummel threatens to execute a hostage if they do not surrender and return the guidance chips. Mason destroys the chips, then surrenders to Hummel, trying to reason with him as well as buy Goodspeed some time. Though Goodspeed disables another rocket, the rogue Marines capture him. With the incursion team lost, the military initiates their backup plan: an airstrike by F/A-18s with thermite plasma, which will neutralize the poison gas but kill everyone on the island.
The Rock (1996)
Directed by: Michael Bay
Starring: Sean Connery, Nicolas Cage, Ed Harris, Michael Biehn, William Forsythe, Vanessa Marcil, John C. McGinley, Gregory Sporleder, Brendan Kelly
Screenplay by: David Weisberg, Douglas S. Cook, Mark Rosner
Production Design by: Michael White
Cinematography by: John Schwartzman
Film Editing by: Richard Francis-Bruce
Costume Design by: Bobbie Read
Set Decoration by: Rosemary Brandenburg
Art Direction by: Mark W. Mansbridge, Edward T. McAvoy
Music by: Nick Glennie-Smith, Hans Zimmer
MPAA Rating: R for strong violence, language and a sex scene.
Distributed by: Buena Vista Pictures
Release Date: June 7, 1996
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