The Rock debuted 28 years ago this week. A fitting time to add it to the legacy
The setup: The whole conceit of this thread is a 99.9% ripoff of the marvelous Bill Simmons / The Ringer podcast series "The Rewatchables" in which Bill, guests, and friends sit around talking about a movie each week that they all love. I'm going to rip off a lot of Bill's categories and try to encourage as much fun discussion as possible. A lot of these films are insanely stupid and illogical. I love them all. The aim is to do 1 a week. I'll kick off the new thread with my connection to the movie, some general information, categories to discuss, and we'll go from there. I hope you enjoy discussing these movies as much as I've enjoyed finally putting this thing together.
Note: This isn't the thread for telling everyone why you DON'T like this movie or why you don't like me. If you haven't seen the movie or thought it was stupid, there's literally no reason to be here, and even less reason to post here.
Film #4: The Rock
Released: June 7, 1996
Original trailer:
Streaming on: Free: Hulu, YouTube TV; Paid: Amazon, Apple
My history with this film
I graduated from a little place called Texas A&M University less than a month before The Rock debuted in 1996 (whoop).
I tried my best not to, but snuck through with an A, 2 Cs and a D in my last semester, and got 11 parking tickets from PTTS dismissed because I had gotten my vintage VW painted as a graduation present (the tickets all said the car was white, but it was now blue).
My friends and I were excited for the '96 summer movie season as I think I've ever been outside of a Star Wars release. College Station had its brand new megaplex theater (on the bypass!) We'd already been there for Broken Arrow, Happy Gilmore, and Fargo earlier in the year, but the summer was going to be epic. I saw Twister the day before I graduated, MIssion Impossible two weeks later, and then the Rock and Independence Day, then Kingpin, A TIme to Kill, and Escape from LA.
Two things I knew about that summer from the start.
I've been to Alcatraz twice since The Rock came out, and I won't lie. It's a lot more exciting to be told "this is where they had Connery and Cage locked in the cell" than "this is where Al Capone was kept".
The Rock has like 20 really great 80s/90s actions guys in it, a bizarre turn by Dr. Cox from Scrubs as a tough guy, and some of the best dialogue of the decade.
It also stars Sir Sean Connery, who was 65 freaking years old at this time, and 13 years removed from his last turn as James Bond in Never Say Never Again, which came 12 years after his previous turn in Diamonds Are Forever. Connery was on one of the greatest older-guy runs in film history: The Untouchables, The Presidio, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Hunt for Red October, his cameo in Robin Hood, Rising Sun, and First Knight, all in a 9-year period.
Nicolas Cage was fresh off his Oscar Win for Leaving Las Vegas and decided: It's time for Nicky C to get rich, going on the all-time action movie trio of The Rock, Con Air, and Face/Off. There is no more impressive trio of 3 movies in 2 years in human history.
He's a lot more of an action star in the other two, here he's still the quirky nerd that he previously played in Honeymoon in Vegas.
He was just 32 in The Rock, and his love interest was smokeshow Vanessa Marcil. Not to anger anyone, but Vanessa Marcil must have slept with someone to get his role, because she had only been on General Hospital at this point, was 2 years away from getting on 90210 and was in between marriages that qualify for the "Terrible Taste Hall of Fame" - she was married to Corey Feldman from 1989-1993 and then had a kid with David Silver in 2001.
Over time, my favorite part of the movie however, has become Ed Harris as General Hummel - a villain who is doing the wrong thing for the right reasons, is totally convinced he's right, and is a total bad ass 24/7. I cannot overestimate how many times I have used the phrase "prepare to reap the whirlwind" despite it never making any sense.
The movie also stars Michael Biehn as "Michael Biehn Marine role", William Forsythe, as FBI agent who is permanently pissed off, John Spencer as FBI director who is slightly less pissed off, Tony "Candyman" Todd as Black bad guy who really just wants to kill people, Gregory Sporleder as White bad guy who really just wants to kill people, and Tuco Salamanca, who plays literally the exact same role in this movie and in Clear and Present Danger.
Roger Ebert's Review (3.5 stars out of 4)
"The Rock" is a first-rate, slam-bang action thriller with a lot of style and no little humor. It's made out of pieces of other movies, yes, and not much in it is really new, but each element has been lovingly polished to a gloss. And there are three skillful performances: Sean Connery is Mason, an intelligence expert who's been in prison for 30 years; Nicolas Cage is Goodspeed, an FBI scientist, and Ed Harris is Gen. Hummel, a war hero with a mad scheme to wage chemical warfare against San Francisco.
The plot hook is a mission to break into Alcatraz. Harris and his men have occupied the former prison island, taken civilian hostages, and threatened to fire deadly rockets at San Francisco unless their demands are met. What are the demands? Hummel, who has three Purple Hearts, two Silver Stars and the Medal of Honor, is angered that 83 men have died under his command and never been recognized, because they were on secret missions that the government denied even existed. He wants $100 million in payments to their next of kin.
Hummel is known and respected in Washington, and his demands are taken seriously. A news blackout is imposed while the Pentagon assembles a team to break into Alcatraz and neutralize the poison gas missiles. We've already seen Goodspeed think fast while sealed in an airtight chamber with a deadly chemical bomb; now he's assigned to join the task force, even though he's basically a lab rat with minimal field or combat experience.
What really works is the chemistry between Connery, as a reluctant warrior who has all the skills necessary to outsmart and outfight the occupying force, and Cage, as the nerd who can disarm the rockets but is not much in the killing department. And then there is an intriguing complexity added to the Ed Harris character, who is not as one-dimensional as he seems (early in the film, he advises some small children touring Alcatraz to return to their tour boat).
No matter. Director Michael Bay ("Bad Boys") orchestrates the elements into an efficient and exciting movie, with some big laughs, sensational special effects sequences, and sustained suspense. And it's interesting to see how good actors like Connery, Cage and Harris can find a way to occupy the center of this whirlwind with characters who somehow manage to be quirky and convincing. There are several Identikit Hollywood action stars who can occupy the center of chaos like this, but not many can make it look like they think they're really there. Watching "The Rock," you really care about what happens. You feel silly later for having been sucked in, but that's part of the ride.
Box office: Made $134,069,511 on a budget of $75 million. Finished 4th at the box office for 1996.
The Categories
Most Rewatchable Scene:
#1 Mason shreds Hummel's argument
#2 The Rock, welcome to it
#3 The car chase scene, where traffic is then delayed for the next 5 years
#4 Womack goes over the edge
#5 Hummell pusses out, ruining the last chance to destroy the San Francisco 49ers forever.
#6 There's Something About Carla
Feel free to add your own, the movie is pretty non-stop great
Best Quote:
John Mason: All I know is that you were big in Vietnam, I saw the highlights on television.
The Tony Barone Overacting Award: There are a lot of options here, but I'm going to go with William Forsythe as FBI agent Paxton. He's so pissed off from the first second he's in the movie. They should have shown him walking in on his wife cheating on him or something at the start of the movie to justify it.
The One-Night Stand Award (hottest chick): Vanessa Marcil is smoking hot on the rooftop. Although you'd still need a couple of extra showers knowing she had been married to Corey Feldman for 4 years.
The That Guy Award for the actor in the movie that you've seen a bunch of places but you don't know who they are:
There are literally 50 guys in here. I'm going with David Morse as Hummell's second in command, Baxter. In a 5-year period, David Morse was in: The Good Son, The Getaway, 12 Monkeys, The Rock, The Long Kiss Goodnight, Contact, and the Green Mile. And that choice also lets me repeat my favorite South Park joke ever when Mr. Morrison says "I went to see Contact. The movie was 3 hours long and the alien was her ******* father!"
Half-Assed Internet Research:
The movie was combined with Mission Impossible and remade as an Indian movie called Qayamat: City Under Threat in 2003.
What Happened the Next Day?
You'd assume the FBI was tailing Vanessa and Stanley and had that microfilm back pretty damn quick.
Unanswerable Questions:
1. Why do they say the missile is headed to Oakland and a football game but it's clearly Candlestick Park?
2. If things falter between Carla and Stanley, does he go back to SF and shoot his shot with Mason's daughter, played by Claire Forlani?
3. Is John Mason really James Bond?
4. Do the parents of the random kids that Hummel tells to get on the boat off Alcatraz actually leave, or ignore the advice of two five year olds?
5. Did the guy playing White House Chief of Staff Hayden Sinclair realize going in that his role was just to be a preppy *****?
Who Won the Movie? I love Ed Harris and Cage is always Cage, but this is the last great role for Sean Connery and everything he says is a quotable quote.
Previous Entries
#1 Big Trouble in Little China
#2 Army of Darkness
#3 Field of Dreams
The setup: The whole conceit of this thread is a 99.9% ripoff of the marvelous Bill Simmons / The Ringer podcast series "The Rewatchables" in which Bill, guests, and friends sit around talking about a movie each week that they all love. I'm going to rip off a lot of Bill's categories and try to encourage as much fun discussion as possible. A lot of these films are insanely stupid and illogical. I love them all. The aim is to do 1 a week. I'll kick off the new thread with my connection to the movie, some general information, categories to discuss, and we'll go from there. I hope you enjoy discussing these movies as much as I've enjoyed finally putting this thing together.
Note: This isn't the thread for telling everyone why you DON'T like this movie or why you don't like me. If you haven't seen the movie or thought it was stupid, there's literally no reason to be here, and even less reason to post here.
Film #4: The Rock
Released: June 7, 1996
Original trailer:
Streaming on: Free: Hulu, YouTube TV; Paid: Amazon, Apple
My history with this film
I graduated from a little place called Texas A&M University less than a month before The Rock debuted in 1996 (whoop).
I tried my best not to, but snuck through with an A, 2 Cs and a D in my last semester, and got 11 parking tickets from PTTS dismissed because I had gotten my vintage VW painted as a graduation present (the tickets all said the car was white, but it was now blue).
My friends and I were excited for the '96 summer movie season as I think I've ever been outside of a Star Wars release. College Station had its brand new megaplex theater (on the bypass!) We'd already been there for Broken Arrow, Happy Gilmore, and Fargo earlier in the year, but the summer was going to be epic. I saw Twister the day before I graduated, MIssion Impossible two weeks later, and then the Rock and Independence Day, then Kingpin, A TIme to Kill, and Escape from LA.
Two things I knew about that summer from the start.
- #1 Independence Day was going to be the best movie of all time and
- #2 I was not going to start seriously looking for a job until after ID4 had come out.
I've been to Alcatraz twice since The Rock came out, and I won't lie. It's a lot more exciting to be told "this is where they had Connery and Cage locked in the cell" than "this is where Al Capone was kept".
The Rock has like 20 really great 80s/90s actions guys in it, a bizarre turn by Dr. Cox from Scrubs as a tough guy, and some of the best dialogue of the decade.
It also stars Sir Sean Connery, who was 65 freaking years old at this time, and 13 years removed from his last turn as James Bond in Never Say Never Again, which came 12 years after his previous turn in Diamonds Are Forever. Connery was on one of the greatest older-guy runs in film history: The Untouchables, The Presidio, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Hunt for Red October, his cameo in Robin Hood, Rising Sun, and First Knight, all in a 9-year period.
Nicolas Cage was fresh off his Oscar Win for Leaving Las Vegas and decided: It's time for Nicky C to get rich, going on the all-time action movie trio of The Rock, Con Air, and Face/Off. There is no more impressive trio of 3 movies in 2 years in human history.
He's a lot more of an action star in the other two, here he's still the quirky nerd that he previously played in Honeymoon in Vegas.
He was just 32 in The Rock, and his love interest was smokeshow Vanessa Marcil. Not to anger anyone, but Vanessa Marcil must have slept with someone to get his role, because she had only been on General Hospital at this point, was 2 years away from getting on 90210 and was in between marriages that qualify for the "Terrible Taste Hall of Fame" - she was married to Corey Feldman from 1989-1993 and then had a kid with David Silver in 2001.
Over time, my favorite part of the movie however, has become Ed Harris as General Hummel - a villain who is doing the wrong thing for the right reasons, is totally convinced he's right, and is a total bad ass 24/7. I cannot overestimate how many times I have used the phrase "prepare to reap the whirlwind" despite it never making any sense.
The movie also stars Michael Biehn as "Michael Biehn Marine role", William Forsythe, as FBI agent who is permanently pissed off, John Spencer as FBI director who is slightly less pissed off, Tony "Candyman" Todd as Black bad guy who really just wants to kill people, Gregory Sporleder as White bad guy who really just wants to kill people, and Tuco Salamanca, who plays literally the exact same role in this movie and in Clear and Present Danger.
Roger Ebert's Review (3.5 stars out of 4)
"The Rock" is a first-rate, slam-bang action thriller with a lot of style and no little humor. It's made out of pieces of other movies, yes, and not much in it is really new, but each element has been lovingly polished to a gloss. And there are three skillful performances: Sean Connery is Mason, an intelligence expert who's been in prison for 30 years; Nicolas Cage is Goodspeed, an FBI scientist, and Ed Harris is Gen. Hummel, a war hero with a mad scheme to wage chemical warfare against San Francisco.
The plot hook is a mission to break into Alcatraz. Harris and his men have occupied the former prison island, taken civilian hostages, and threatened to fire deadly rockets at San Francisco unless their demands are met. What are the demands? Hummel, who has three Purple Hearts, two Silver Stars and the Medal of Honor, is angered that 83 men have died under his command and never been recognized, because they were on secret missions that the government denied even existed. He wants $100 million in payments to their next of kin.
Hummel is known and respected in Washington, and his demands are taken seriously. A news blackout is imposed while the Pentagon assembles a team to break into Alcatraz and neutralize the poison gas missiles. We've already seen Goodspeed think fast while sealed in an airtight chamber with a deadly chemical bomb; now he's assigned to join the task force, even though he's basically a lab rat with minimal field or combat experience.
What really works is the chemistry between Connery, as a reluctant warrior who has all the skills necessary to outsmart and outfight the occupying force, and Cage, as the nerd who can disarm the rockets but is not much in the killing department. And then there is an intriguing complexity added to the Ed Harris character, who is not as one-dimensional as he seems (early in the film, he advises some small children touring Alcatraz to return to their tour boat).
No matter. Director Michael Bay ("Bad Boys") orchestrates the elements into an efficient and exciting movie, with some big laughs, sensational special effects sequences, and sustained suspense. And it's interesting to see how good actors like Connery, Cage and Harris can find a way to occupy the center of this whirlwind with characters who somehow manage to be quirky and convincing. There are several Identikit Hollywood action stars who can occupy the center of chaos like this, but not many can make it look like they think they're really there. Watching "The Rock," you really care about what happens. You feel silly later for having been sucked in, but that's part of the ride.
Box office: Made $134,069,511 on a budget of $75 million. Finished 4th at the box office for 1996.
The Categories
Most Rewatchable Scene:
#1 Mason shreds Hummel's argument
#2 The Rock, welcome to it
#3 The car chase scene, where traffic is then delayed for the next 5 years
#4 Womack goes over the edge
#5 Hummell pusses out, ruining the last chance to destroy the San Francisco 49ers forever.
#6 There's Something About Carla
Feel free to add your own, the movie is pretty non-stop great
Best Quote:
- John Mason: [while on the stairs leading to the prison morgue] Are you sure you're ready for this?
- Stanley Goodspeed: I'll do my best.
- John Mason: Your "best"! Losers always whine about their best. Winners go home and **** the prom queen.
- Stanley Goodspeed: Carla *was* the prom queen.
- John Mason: Really?
- Stanley Goodspeed: [cocks his gun] Yeah.
John Mason: All I know is that you were big in Vietnam, I saw the highlights on television.
- General Hummel: Then you probably have no idea what it means to lead some of the finest men on God's earth into combat and then watch their memories get betrayed by their own ****ing government.
- John Mason: I don't quite see how you cherish the memory of the dead by killing another million. And, this is not combat, it's an act of lunacy, General Sir. Personally, I think you're a ****ing idiot.
- Stanley Goodspeed: Mason, you all right?
- John Mason: [hanging upside down] Yes. Perfectly okay, you ****ing idiot.
- John Mason: [in the interrogation room] The Rock has become a tourist attraction?
- Tourist: [while in a cell on Alcatraz] What kind of a ****ed up tour is this?
- Bob (park ranger): [while in a cell on Alcatraz] I'm not allowed to carry a gun!
- Female Tourist: Oh you're not allowed to carry a gun? I got a *******ed gun! If I'd'a known this was gonna happen, I'd'a brought my mother-****in' gun! Help!
The Tony Barone Overacting Award: There are a lot of options here, but I'm going to go with William Forsythe as FBI agent Paxton. He's so pissed off from the first second he's in the movie. They should have shown him walking in on his wife cheating on him or something at the start of the movie to justify it.
The One-Night Stand Award (hottest chick): Vanessa Marcil is smoking hot on the rooftop. Although you'd still need a couple of extra showers knowing she had been married to Corey Feldman for 4 years.
The That Guy Award for the actor in the movie that you've seen a bunch of places but you don't know who they are:
There are literally 50 guys in here. I'm going with David Morse as Hummell's second in command, Baxter. In a 5-year period, David Morse was in: The Good Son, The Getaway, 12 Monkeys, The Rock, The Long Kiss Goodnight, Contact, and the Green Mile. And that choice also lets me repeat my favorite South Park joke ever when Mr. Morrison says "I went to see Contact. The movie was 3 hours long and the alien was her ******* father!"
Half-Assed Internet Research:
- Don Simpson died a year before the movie came out; the movie is dedicated to him.
- When the Disney producers were all up Michael Bay's ass about the movie, Sean Connery went with him unannounced to a meeting with the executives and tore them a new one about leaving him alone.
- Some of the Navy SEALS in the movie were real Navy SEALS.
- Among the uncredited screenwriters on the film are Aaron Sorkin and Quentin Tarantino.
- Ed Harris kept breaking character in scenes with Ranger Bob.
- MIchael Biehn admits he was doubly intimidated acting against Sean Connery and pretending to be the leader of real Navy SEALS.
- Michael Bay called the San Fran car chase "the biggest cluster**** I've ever done in my entire filming career."
- Cage purposely chose to have Goodspeed never swear.
- The actor who gets his Humvee voted by Mason plays the same part in National Treasure 2 and gets his car stolen by Ed Harris
- The role of John Mason was offered to Arnold Schwarzenegger ho turned it down.
- Michael Biehn also played a Navy SEAL in The Abyss and of course Navy SEALS. He is a Marine in Aliens and a tech-com solider in The Terminator.
- There are many theories online that Mason really is James Bond.
- Stanley ANdreson is the president here and in Armageddon
The movie was combined with Mission Impossible and remade as an Indian movie called Qayamat: City Under Threat in 2003.
What Happened the Next Day?
You'd assume the FBI was tailing Vanessa and Stanley and had that microfilm back pretty damn quick.
Unanswerable Questions:
1. Why do they say the missile is headed to Oakland and a football game but it's clearly Candlestick Park?
2. If things falter between Carla and Stanley, does he go back to SF and shoot his shot with Mason's daughter, played by Claire Forlani?
3. Is John Mason really James Bond?
4. Do the parents of the random kids that Hummel tells to get on the boat off Alcatraz actually leave, or ignore the advice of two five year olds?
5. Did the guy playing White House Chief of Staff Hayden Sinclair realize going in that his role was just to be a preppy *****?
Who Won the Movie? I love Ed Harris and Cage is always Cage, but this is the last great role for Sean Connery and everything he says is a quotable quote.
Previous Entries
#1 Big Trouble in Little China
#2 Army of Darkness
#3 Field of Dreams
