I Watch Films: The Rock

 

The Rock (1996)

US marine General Hummel and his unit raids an American chemical weapons store, steals some VX-gas armed-rockets. They then take over the San Francisco Bay island of Alcatraz, a former prison. He communicates his demands; he thinks that American special forces have been badly treated and wants a secret slush fund to be used to pay families of deceased troops who have been disavowed*, also him and his men to escape to another country with the rest of the slush fund.

Enter FBI Agent Dr Stanley Goodspeed (Nicholas Cage) the FBI's chemical weapon and bomb expert, calm under pressure, Beatle-maniac, his girlfriend pregnant. He’s brought in to join a team of Navy SEALS led by Commander Anderson (Michael Biehn). The only problem is getting onto the island without alerting Hummel and his men, experienced soldiers.

The way is the tunnels but no one knows how to get to them or where they lead. No one except John Mason (Sean Connery) a British agent disavowed and secretly kept in prison for the last thirty years. Mason is the only man to ever escape Alcatraz, later to be recaptured. Mason initially isn’t interested, but Goodspeed makes a deal, only for his boss to refuse it to Goodspeed’s shock. Lying to a prisoner? Mason takes the opportunity to escape, finding his daughter. Goodspeed catches up with him, makes excuses to the daughter then gets Mason to lead them onto the island.

The rest is cat-and-mouse between Hummel, Goodspeed and Mason (and briefly Anderson and the SEALs), high stakes ultimatums, people giving speeches about how troops must be respected. Silly but exciting action film, it’s magnificent wrongness about almost everything from how VX gas works to the choice of troops to how special forces are treated helping to leave the film a simple enjoyable fantasy.

Watch This: A 90s action thriller with all the flaws and excitement that implies
Don’t Watch This: Incoherently bad about many real issues, also may have caused the Iraq War

* Hummel specifically refers to Marine Recon, an interesting choice as although they work closely with special forces, that’s not quite their role. Indeed Hummel says “The men of marine force recon are selected to carry out illegal operations throughout the world.” Which is why they’re disavowed! Yet he never asks why he’s carrying out illegal operations? He specifically says that twenty of his men were left to rot outside Baghdad when they guided in attacks during Operation Desert Storm, but surely that wouldn’t have been an illegal operation. Yet the film insists they were. His complaints are incoherent in the real world.