Michael Bay’s The Rock (1996) might be his most watchable film, which is akin to saying a restaurant is the cleanest in the food court. Still, Bay’s tendency toward overblown set pieces and hyper-masculine melodrama works here because the whole thing is already ridiculous. The movie doesn’t need subtlety; it needs Nicolas Cage running around with a baby’s diaper bag full of green chemical balls that could kill the entire city of San Francisco.
The setup is straightforward: General Hummel (Ed Harris) seizes Alcatraz with a band of rogue Marines, holding tourists hostage while threatening to launch chemical weapons at San Francisco unless the government pays reparations to families of fallen soldiers. He’s a sympathetic villain, maybe even more so today than when the film came out. The government responds by sending in a team that includes Stanley Goodspeed (Nicolas Cage), an FBI chemical weapons specialist, and John Mason (Sean Connery), a former British spy who’s the only person to have ever escaped Alcatraz. Ah, British spies! The plan: sneak in, stop the missiles, and save the city.
What makes the movie work is the casting. Cage leans into his signature mix of awkward humor and lunatic outbursts, while Connery seems to be playing a “what if James Bond had been locked up for thirty years” riff. Their buddy-cop dynamic carries the film through Bay’s action sequences, which would eventually become indulgent, but at the time of the film’s release felt fresh and innovative. Don’t take my word for it! Watch it! Connery’s smooth disdain cuts through Cage’s manic energy, and vice versa. An interesting companion film would be The Untouchables (1987), which has Connery providing supporting contrast as well. Meanwhile in The Rock, Ed Harris’s Hummel is a man who genuinely believes in his cause, and gives the film an unusual moral center for a Bay picture.
Of course, the movie is also peak 90s blockbuster: quick cuts, swelling Hans Zimmer score, Bay’s golden-hour explosions, and a San Francisco that looks like it was built to be driven through at 90 miles an hour. The car chase down Lombard Street alone is both insane and deeply satisfying, a Looney Tunes set piece disguised as military thriller.
In hindsight, The Rock feels like the last breath before Bay’s excesses became exhausting. It has the scale of a true summer movie, but also self-awareness and charisma from its leads. Maybe the best way to put it is this: The Rock is Michael Bay with training wheels. They’ll fall off soon enough.
The Rock
Written by David Weisberg, Douglas S. Cook, and Mark Rosner; Directed by Michael Bay
1996
136 minutes
English
Recommended way to watch (at time of publication): Available to rent on all major services.
You’ll like this if you like: Con Air (1997), Die Hard (1988), Face/Off (1997)