The Rock

The Rock

Release Date

1996

Director

  • Michael Bay

Cast

  • Nicolas Cage
  • Sean Connery
  • Ed Harris

A mild-mannered FBI chemist must team up with a dangerous ex-con—the only person ever to escape "The Rock"— to lead the counterstrike when a renegade general and his men threaten a nerve gas attack from Alcatraz against San Francisco.

The sophomore film from former music video and commercial director Michael Bay, this fast-paced action yarn featured rapid-fire editing, a cutting-edge rock soundtrack and liberal use of shots awash in a haze of burnished hues, all trademarks of producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer.

Nicolas Cage stars as Stanley Goodspeed, an FBI chemical weapons expert handed a unique assignment. Francis X. Hummel (Ed Harris), an insane Marine Corps general, has taken 81 tourists hostage on the abandoned island prison of Alcatraz. He and his men are threatening to bomb San Francisco with deadly gas unless $100 million is paid in war reparations to the families of servicemen killed in covert operations. Goodspeed is teamed with former British spy John Patrick Mason (Sean Connery), the only man ever to escape "The Rock," as well as a Navy SEAL team. When their military escorts are ambushed, it's up to odd couple Goodspeed and Mason to break into Alcatraz and stop Hummel.
~ Karl Williams, Rovi

Banner image courtesty of Buena Vista Pictures/Photofest

Past Programs

2020

Responding to chemical warfare

The State Theatre, Modesto, CA