Since a few months ago we had a movie with only Sean Connery’s voice, I couldn’t let the year pass by without including one with him as an actor as well. The Rock is a 1996 action thriller movie starring Nicolas Cage and Sean Connery; this year marks its 30th anniversary. By the way, it is a Michael Bay movie; it was actually his second one ever (the first being Bad Boys) and several of his techniques and trademarks are already there. Yes, there are explosions everywhere as you would expect from his M.O.
The premise of the movie is centered around biochemical warfare, but this time the threat is internal rather than external (I will get to that in just a second). It is interesting to note that towards the ’80 and ’90 the fear for biochemical conflicts was very much present in society (especially as depicted in various movies); this is something that I would argue has slightly changed in the last two decades, not necessarily disappearing, but at the very least not being as dominant. This may also be because the sense of fear has shifted towards a sense of apathy or even nihilism in our society, but that is probably an article for another day.
As opposed to many other movies of the time, where the bioterrorist attack was a threat made by external foreign forces, in The Rock this attempt comes from the military of the United States itself. In this case, several soldiers, as well as a decorated general, decide to go rogue, steal several experimental missiles and occupy Alcatraz (thus the title of the movie) from where they make their demands. The reason why they go rogue is to be found in the faults of their own government: the military operations they were part of also lead to the deaths of various of their squad members. These soldiers were never given a rightful compensation and their own country had abandoned them because of politics (even lying to their families or feigning ignorance). The demands of these soldiers-gone-rogue, as such, would seem almost humane – especially when considering that the money requested was to be taken from a covert fund (which was a direct result of weapon trafficking). I would argue that this movie, although not unique, remarkably points the proverbial finger not towards the outside, but rather to the internal corruption and flaws of a degrading system – this goes a bit against the normal expectations. It blurs the lines between good and evil, just and unjust, and as such deserves a bit more consideration.
In The Rock it is up to Nicolas Cage, the nerdy bombs and chemistry expert, to disarm the missiles and save the day. He will be accompanied by Sean Connery, the ex-spy who coincidentally was the only one to ever escape Alcatraz. On a personal note, the interrogation scene between the two of them, where Cage is acting like a greenhorn and Connery is guiding him through the questioning process is praise worthy to say the least. Regardless, as one would expect, the duo is successful in dealing with the threat and the missiles are disposed of.
I will add that the soundtrack was written by Hans Zimmer and Nick Glennie-Smith; I obviously had to research that, but to be fair, I am not surprised – the score just slaps.
I would give this movie a 7 out of 10 jailhouse rocks.