The Rock (film): Difference between revisions
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==Plot== |
==Plot== |
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A group of renegade |
A group of renegade Marine commandos led by [[Brigadier General#United States|Brigadier General]] Francis X. Hummel ([[Ed Harris|Harris]]) seize a stockpile of chemical weapons and take over Alcatraz, with 81 tourists as hostages. They demand $100 million to be paid in ransom, as restitution to families of Marines who died in covert operations and were thereby denied compensation. Otherwise, he is threatening to launch 15 rockets carrying deadly VX nerve gas into the San Francisco Bay area. An elite SEAL team, with support from an FBI chemical warfare expert ([[Nicolas Cage]]) and a former Alcatraz escapee ([[Sean Connery]]), are assembled to penetrate the terrorists' defenses on Alcatraz and neutralize the rocket threat before time runs out. |
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==Cast== |
==Cast== |
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Revision as of 08:00, 4 February 2008
| The Rock | |
|---|---|
.jpg) | |
| Directed by | Michael Bay |
| Written by | David Weisberg (also story) Douglas S. Cook (also story) Mark Rosner |
| Produced by | Jerry Bruckheimer Don Simpson Louis A. Stroller Sean Connery William Stuart |
| Starring | Sean Connery Nicolas Cage Ed Harris |
| Music by | Nick Glennie-Smith Hans Zimmer Harry Gregson-Williams |
| Distributed by | Hollywood Pictures |
Release dates | June 7, 1996 (U.S.) June 7, 1996 (Canada) June 21, 1996 (UK) July 26, 1996 (Australia) |
Running time | 136 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | US$75 million |
The Rock (1996) is an action film that primarily takes place on Alcatraz Island, and the San Francisco Bay area. It was directed by Michael Bay and stars Sean Connery, Nicolas Cage, and Ed Harris. It was produced by Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer and released through Disney's Hollywood Pictures. The film is dedicated to producer Don Simpson who died five months before its release.
Plot
A group of renegade Marine commandos led by Brigadier General Francis X. Hummel (Harris) seize a stockpile of chemical weapons and take over Alcatraz, with 81 tourists as hostages. They demand $100 million to be paid in ransom, as restitution to families of Marines who died in covert operations and were thereby denied compensation. Otherwise, he is threatening to launch 15 rockets carrying deadly VX nerve gas into the San Francisco Bay area. An elite SEAL team, with support from an FBI chemical warfare expert (Nicolas Cage) and a former Alcatraz escapee (Sean Connery), are assembled to penetrate the terrorists' defenses on Alcatraz and neutralize the rocket threat before time runs out.
Cast
- Sean Connery as Capt. John Patrick Mason (ret)
- Nicolas Cage as Dr. Stanley Goodspeed
- Ed Harris as Brig. Gen. Francis X. Hummel
- John Spencer as FBI Director James Womack
- David Morse as Maj. Tom Baxter
- William Forsythe as FBI Special Agent Ernest Paxton
- Michael Biehn as Cmdr. Anderson
- Vanessa Marcil as Carla Pestalozzi
- John C. McGinley as Capt. Hendrix
- Tony Todd as Capt. Darrow
- Gregory Sporleder as Capt. Frye
- Bokeem Woodbine as Sgt. Crisp
- Bubacarr Sarge as Navy SEALs Commander Harris
The pilot who launched a missile toward Alcatraz in the final scenes is played by then-unknown James Caviezel. Mason's daughter Jade Angelou is played by Claire Forlani
Production
Quentin Tarantino was an uncredited screenwriter on The Rock, along with Jonathan Hensleigh and Aaron Sorkin [citation needed]. 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, including Goodspeed's reference to LPs sounding better than CDs.[citation needed] The car chase was not in the original script; it was Michael Bay's idea.[citation needed] Jerry Bruckheimer came up with the car being flipped during the chase. It was Nicolas Cage's idea that his character wouldn't swear; his euphemisms include 'gee whiz' for Jesus Christ; 'A-hole' for asshole; and 'Zeus's butthole'. Cage had to fight the producers and director to keep the butthole line, but he agreed to deliver the lines "How do you like how that shit works!" and "Eat this, you fuck!" as swearing is a staple of the action genre, and to show how the mission had changed Goodspeed.
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.
According to a document on Alcatraz Island (December, 2005)[citation needed], during the filming of the scenes with the hostages, the famous sliding doors wouldn't open. Help from the mainland had to be sought and the extras were stuck for several hours. For this reason, visitors are no longer allowed to be temporarily shut in.
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.[1]
Censorship
In the original UK DVD release, the scene in which Connery throws a knife through a sentry's throat and says "never hesitate" to Cage was cut, although this scene was shown on British television. Consequently, a later scene in which Connery says to Cage, "at least you didn't hesitate too long" lost its impact on viewers who had not seen the first scene. Other cuts included a shot of Mason shooting Gamble's feet and a close-up of his screaming face as the air conditioner falls, a sound cut to Mason snapping a Marine's neck and a bloody gunshot wound, both near the end of the film.
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 11 pm, and left all scenes intact. This scheme was repeated for the second viewing.
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's the only Michael Bay film to have been given a "fresh" rating (62%) on Rotten Tomatoes.
The film was selected for a limited edition DVD release by the Criterion Collection, a distributor of primarily arthouse films that releases what it considers to be "important classic and contemporary films" and "cinema at its finest". In an essay supporting the selection of The Rock, Roger Ebert, who trashed 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."[1]
References
External links
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