THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
You want to be pumped up with adrenaline for 2 hours? Watch The Rock. The movie, not the wrestler.
PLOT
The film follows General Francis X Hummel leading a group rogue marines to raid a Naval Weapons Depot. Particularly, they steal they steal rockets armed with a weapons grade acid known as 'VX gas'. Afterwards, they seize Alcatraz Island and take hostage 81 tourists, placing them all in prison cells. Hummel's main partners in this personal mission includes: Second in command Major Tom Baxter and Cpatains Darrow, Frye & Hendrix (John C McGinley). After taking hostages, Hummel calls the Pentagon, threatening to launch the rockets in San Francisco, unless the government pays ransom & reparations towards the families of Marines who died in illegal missions he commanded. Senior agent Ernest Paxton and Bureau Director James Womack decide to recruit chemical weapons specialist Stanley Goodspeed to consult, in which he agrees. SEAL Commander Anderson plans to lead a team inside the island to save the hostages and neutralize the warheads, but needs first hand knowledge of the island's layout. This leads to recruiting federal prisoner John Patrick Mason, the only one to successfully escape. Due to how he never saw eye to eye with Womack, Stanley is able to convince him to cooperate. However, Womack destroys his pardon behind his back. The only requests Mason makes are staying in a luxury suite in Fairmont Hotel and a haircut. Upon settling in, he calls for room service to distract security. After his haircut, he throws Womack ovee the balcony, having his right wrist tied to a rope for him to hold in. As the director is tended to by all of security, this gives him the chance to flee from them, only to visit his daughter Jade (Claire Forlani), getting the chance to reconcile for his unintentional abandonment. It is brief as expected due to Stanley being able to track him down. After this reunion, both men join Anderson's team to infiltrate the island. Upon arrival though, they quickly get made due to warning equipment set up by Hendrix. Hummel tries to talk Anderson, but Frye & Darrow choos to open fire instead, leaving only Mason & Stanley alive. Although Mason wants to leave the island, Stanley makes clear what the purpose of the mission is, which encourages him to stay and help for his daughter's sake. Together, they succeed in disabling 15 rockets one-by-one. Traveling through underground catacombs to avoid detection, they remove every guidance chip that'll prevent them from being launched. By the 12th one, they get found again and Hummel threatens to kill a hostage if the chips aren't returned. Mason destroys the chips instead and surrenders as a new prisoner. Stanley gets captured as well shortly after neutralizing the 13th missile. When the Pentagon realizes that Anderson's team is defeated, they plan to destroy the island with armed F-18s releasing plasma bombs. Before launch, Womack admits to Paxton that he and Mason hate each other because the latter stole a microfilm from J Edgar Hoover that contained private information, various secrets of US leaders and events. This explains the reason to lock him up without benefit of trial, unless he returns the microfilm. When Mason breaks free from capture, he frees Stanley and explains the same situation to him, while also admitting that even if he gives up the microfilm, he would be killed. When they reach the beach, he considers leaving again, but chooses to help instead. With no ransom paid yet, Hummel orders a rocket to be fired towards Candlestick but right after launching it, he changes its coordinates, having it land into the ocean. Realizing that he bluffed, he orders the remaining team that is Frye, Darrow and Baxter to leave the island with hostages as he declares his mission to be over. This bothers Frye & Darrow as they refuse to not be paid after what they've done. When they choose to mutiny, it leads to a standoff that kills Hummel and Baxter. But before Hummel dies from his wounds, he shares Stanley the last missile's location, that is a lighthouse. As Mason covers him from the rooftop, he is able to kill Frye & Darrow while neutralizing the last of the missiles. However, he gets exposed to the toxin when using it to kill Frye, causing him to inject an antidote in his heart. After curing himself, he is able to set off flares to call off Pentagon's attack. But when one jet pilot accidentally releases his bombs, it hits the island's rear, which thankfully misses the hostages. The impact does cause Stanley to be flown into the bay, resulting in Mason to save him from drowning. He returns the favor by allowing him to escape, telling Paxton that he got vaporized from the plasma missile. Mason thanks him by giving him the coordinates to the microfilm. The film ends some time after the successful mission, showing Stanley and his pregnant fiance Carla (Vanessa Marcil) finding the mircofilm in a church in Kansas. He looks at it and uncovers the truth of who shot John F Kennedy, which puts them in a brand new adventure of their own.
THOUGHTS
I've seen a lot of action movies and to think I have seen every formula possible, even this one is able to surprise me. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer and Director Michael Bay were able to keep viewers by having the most pure octane experience you'll ever get in an action film, aside from T2. Since the majority of sequences are done practically, from the car chase to every shootout in Alcatraz, and every necessary explosion in between, your eyes are gonna be glued like mine were. I think the top reason this one has made a strong mark because it has a unique exploration on humanity: It asks the question on if we should stand by our morals or break them to prove a point. In a way, the answer is both because overall, you have to be true to yourself with the decisions you make. And I think all of this is carefully explored through a memorable ensemble. Nicolas Cage leads the way in one of the best performances he could ever provide. He leaves a good impression as Stanley Goodspeed because he feels like an outcast in the world around him. When he ain't fanboying about the Beatles, he'll get snappy to get the job done. You could argue that he is the most selfless of characters in this movie because even though he was scared to join the fight, he didn't really hesitate to stand his guard as he fought until every enemy was vanquished. Sean Connery was honestly the biggest delight in this movie because as John Patrick Mason, he can go from a charming friend to a hard boiled warrior. He bonded with Stanley overtime because he saw himself in him, the dedication on staying true to himself. He always stuck up for him because he didn't want him to be in the same position as him, not having a kid live a life without him. He stole that micro film because he knew the truth cannot be hidden and he gave it to Stanley because he knew he can pull it off. Stanley only returns the favor by letting him escape because after everything they went through, he knew damn well that he deserved a second chance more than anyone and thanks to him, he's gonna have his greatest adventure yet uncovering JFK's true assassin. Every time I saw Paxton and Womack, I saw polar opposites: John Spencer showed Womack to be a selfish figure who is concerned about saving his own skin and refusing to accepting reality that is the country's imperfection, whereas William Forsythe showed Paxton as one who does his best to look out for others. He definitely has a big heart when willing to give Goodspeed a pep talk before saving Alcatraz, as well as promising to protect Carla. And as for Michael Biehn, he stood out for portraying Anderson as not a typical hothead, but as another who ain't gonna back down so easily. When he is ready to take action, he ain't gonna waste too much time, which makes you respect him in his given screen time. When looking back at this genre, I think Hummel is the most interesting villain you'll ever remember. Ed Harris portrays him not as a ruthless one per say, but more of one whose extremely disenchanted with the system and wants to avenge the fallen. When his wife also died from a severe illness, it only drove him to his breaking point to do what he thought was right. He didn't want to do what he did, but it felt necessary to him for his message to be clear. Thankfully as things came to an end for him, he saw that he went over the line before his followers took advantage of him. Particularly, Tony Todd and Gregory Sporleder stood out the most in this lineup of henchmen, as they both perfectly play Darrow & Frye as the stingiest of characters in the island. Despite all of the respect they had for Hummel, money was the only thing on their mind and they knew there was no way they would do anything for free. The only one to truly stand with Hummel until the end is Baxter. Thanks to David Morse's excellent performance, we saw that his loyalty came from understanding the cause as well as his leader did. While he would've liked getting paid as well, hence briefly holding Hummel at gunpoint, he knew in his heart that it wasn't what he wanted. Despite loving this movie from beginning to end, it does not excuse the various flaws I caught when re watching. First off, why would about anyone have access to the room with the rockets? Considering how dangerous they're described to be, this should have had minimum access. But if they were only using Hummel's access, then that should've been a little bit clear. That's more confusing than the fact they protected by a padlock instead of another keycard. Also, I understand that Marvin is being trained, but why would he play with the baby toy when he should know to never play with potential deadly objects as a chemical weapons specialist? Trainee or not, you can't fuck around like that. It is pretty intense for Stanley and Marvin to save themselves from the corrosive materials that eats their suits, but how the hell does the FBI not spend extra money for better suits on occasions like that? That is probably the worst of worse ways to put your allies in danger. It is smart for Hummel to tell the kids to go back on the boat, but how did those kids pull off convincing the teacher to take them back? If it was due to the later commotion, I wish there was a cutaway to confirm that. And how did the mercs fly past Yerba Buena's US Army Post with stolen Black Hawks without being stopped? There is no way they'd be ignored so easily. I'm also pretty thrown off when the secretary immediately cancelled Womack's reservations like she knew it was a good call. You could say she overheard the call with Hummel, but I don't think she did. The scene could've played out better if Womack simply requested it. And what exactly is gained if Pentagon lies to hostages' loved ones? I get that you don't want to evacuate the family, but you might as well not contact them because either way, they're gonna be worrying. It is sensible to have Mason involved in the rescue mission since he escaped Alcatraz before, but how exactly did he pull off navigating when the place has been rebuilt multiple times after his incarceration? I like Mason, but his tie is almost not so valid. That's crazier than how no one looked for him in the tunnels for three days when the blueprints were originally accurate. I do think Pier 39 ain't that bad of a spot for the FBI to have mobile command, but I would rather have such a spot at Coast Guard since it's an island off the bay bridge, which'll cause minimum distraction. I do respect Carla for wanting to be with her fiance, but if she knows he is in the FBI, then she should've stayed home when he requested her not to come to San Fran. That should be a red flag to know shit's going down and it might not end well. It is pretty funny that the security eats all the room service, because I know I would too, but why weren't they any more suspicious that they didn't even order any of it? Maybe I wouldn't either, but I'm not with the FBI, they are. I can buy that security would be distracted of saving Womack from falling, but how did no one else but Stanley try stopping him? I really doubt that any of them let him pass by so easily. Y'all know I hate continuity errors, so you bet your ass I was bothered of how during the car chase in San Fran, the Ferrari went from having a broken windshield to not having one a broken one at all. That was more annoying to see than the wire on Stanley near the climax. I don't mind seeing Mason reunite with his daughter, but how was there not security following her around when they released him? They should've known he would go to her if he broke free. I was caught off guard when Stanley gets outnumbered, but why was he not suspicious of how one of the missiles was unguarded? He should've known he was walking into a trap. It is even cool when he defends himself against Frye, but does he really have combat skills when he is chemical weapons specialist? If combat is always part of the training in whatever FBI position you're going for, then I wish that was clear in this film's case as well. And lastly, I like how Mason gives Stanley the microfilm's location, but how was it hidden in a church for so long? It's not like that wouldn't be refurbished like Alcatraz or any other building. Other than that, this movie is still cool for what it is. In short, The Rock is an action gem for simply being pure entertainment. If action is your go to genre, it would surprise me that you haven't seen it yet as of writing this.
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