The Rock (1996)

NEUTRAL

Various

79%

1996, Action, 2h 16m

RT Critics’ Score: 68% (UNBIASED)
RT Audience Score: 85%
Awards & Nominations: Nominated for 1 Oscar
9 wins & 9 nominations total

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Critics Consensus

For visceral thrills, it can’t be beat. Just don’t expect The Rock to engage your brain

Audience Consensus

The Rock is like a rollercoaster ride that never ends, with explosions, car chases, and Sean Connery’s Scottish accent thrown in for good measure. Michael Bay’s signature style of tight shots and loud music might make you a bit dizzy, but it’s worth it for the sheer entertainment value. Plus, who doesn’t love seeing Nicolas Cage play an unlikely action hero? It’s a fun, over-the-top movie that doesn’t take itself too seriously, and that’s what makes it a classic.

Storyline

Stanley Goodspeed, who lives in Washington, D.C., is a biochemist who works for the F.B.I. Soon after his fiancée Carla Pestalozzi announces that she is pregnant, Stanley gets a call from F.B.I. Director James Womack. Womack tells Stanley that San Francisco’s Alcatraz Island has been taken hostage, along with eighty-one tourists, by Marine General Francis Xavier Hummel who, for years, has been protesting the government’s refusal to pay benefits to families of war veterans who died during covert military operations. The death of his wife Barbara on March 9, 1995 drove General Hummel over the edge, and now he’s holding hostages in order to get his point across. Stanley is needed because General Hummel has stolen some VX gas warheads and has announced that he will launch them onto San Francisco unless his demands are met. Stanley knows how to disarm the bombs, but he needs someone who knows Alcatraz well enough to get him inside. That man is former British Intelligence Agent John Patrick Mason, who has been in prison for the past thirty years without a trial because he was accused of stealing the private files of J. Edgar Hoover. In 1962, John became the only inmate ever to escape from Alcatraz, and he stayed out of Alcatraz long enough to father a daughter named Jade Angelou. Despite his extreme hatred of the F.B.I., John agrees to help Stanley. When John and Stanley are sent into Alcatraz with a Navy S.E.A.L. team, General Hummel’s men kill the entire S.E.A.L. team, leaving Stanley and John to work on their own to rescue the hostages.

Production Company(ies)
Igor Film Casbah Film

Distributor
Buena Vista Pictures

Release Type
Theatrical

Filming Location(s)
Alcatraz Island, San Francisco Bay, California, USA

MPAA / Certificate
Rated R for strong violence, language and a sex scene

Year of Release
1996

Technical Specs

Color:

Color
Sound mix:

Dolby Digital SDDS
Aspect ratio:

2.39 : 1
Runtime:

2h 16m
Language(s):

English
Country of origin:

United States
Release date:

Release Date (Theaters): Jun 7, 1996 Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 13, 2001

Genre(s)
Action

Keyword(s)
starring Sean Connery, Nicolas Cage, Ed Harris, Michael Biehn, William Forsythe, David Morse, Tony Todd, directed by Michael Bay, written by Douglas S Cook, David Weisberg, Mark Rosner, produced by Don Simpson, Jerry Bruckheimer, action, R-rated, box office gross $134.1M, reviewed by Gene Siskel, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Doug Thomas, Jeff Strickler, Michael Wilmington, Jay Boyar, Sheila Reid, Eddie Harrison, Mike Massie, genre: thriller, adventure, military, chemical warfare, Alcatraz Island, FBI, Navy SEALs, terrorist threat, war reparations, servicemen, covert operations, San Francisco, General Francis X Hummel, Commander Anderson, Major Tom Baxter, Special Agent Ernest Paxton, MPAA rating R, Don Simpson, Jerry Bruckheimer

Box Office Details

Worldwide gross: $335,062,621
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $639,549,272
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 207
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 69,743,650

US/Canada gross: $134,069,511
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $255,904,577
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 244
US/Canada opening weekend: $25,069,525
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $47,851,343
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 246

Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): $75,000,000
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): $143,155,913
Production budget ranking: 239
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): $77,089,459
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): $419,303,900
ROI to date (est.): 190%
ROI ranking: 649

Cast & Crew

Sean Connery

John Patrick Mason

Nicolas Cage

Dr. Stanley Goodspeed

Ed Harris

John Patrick Mason

Dr. Stanley Goodspeed

General Francis X. Hummel

Commander Anderson

Special Agent Ernest Paxton

Sean Connery – John Patrick Mason
Nicolas Cage – Dr. Stanley Goodspeed
Ed Harris – General Francis X. Hummel
Michael Biehn – Commander Anderson
William Forsythe – Special Agent Ernest Paxton
David Morse – Major Tom Baxter

Michael Bay

Douglas S. Cook

Don Simpson

Jerry Bruckheimer

Director

Writer

Producer

Director(s)
Michael Bay

Writer(s)
Douglas S. Cook, David Weisberg, Mark Rosner

Producer(s)
Don Simpson, Jerry Bruckheimer

Film Festivals

Awards & Nominations
Nominated for 1 Oscar
9 wins & 9 nominations total

Academy Awards
Oscar Nominees

Top Reviews

Jonathan Rosenbaum

Gene Siskel

Doug Thomas

Jeff Strickler

Michael Wilmington

Chicago Reader

Chicago Tribune

Seattle Times

Minneapolis Star Tribune

Orlando Sentinel

THE ROCK
All Critics (70) | Top Critics (25) | Fresh (48) | Rotten (22)
Very entertaining action hokum that benefits hugely from the uses made of the three stars.

June 14, 2022

Jonathan Rosenbaum
Chicago Reader
TOP CRITIC
There isn’t a shot, scene or sequence in The Rock that doesn’t move furiously, typically with colored lights flashing into our faces or onto those of the actors.

May 27, 2014 | Rating: 2.5/4

Gene Siskel
Chicago Tribune
TOP CRITIC
You might need to take Dramamine before entering a Michael Bay movie. The one-time music-video director has an annoying habit of finding the tightest shots, editing the heck out of them and scoring the works to loud music.

May 27, 2014 | Rating: 2/4

Doug Thomas
Seattle Times
TOP CRITIC
For action-adventure fans, it just doesn’t get any better than The Rock.

May 27, 2014 | Rating: 4/5

Jeff Strickler
Minneapolis Star Tribune
TOP CRITIC
Since the plot is ridiculous, The Rock works best when it’s most light-hearted.

May 27, 2014 | Rating: 2.5/4

Michael Wilmington
Chicago Tribune
TOP CRITIC
If it’s not the most awful thing I’ve ever seen, it’s close enough to make me wince.

May 27, 2014 | Rating: 2/5

Jay Boyar
Orlando Sentinel
TOP CRITIC
The special effects are reason enough to check this one out.

May 31, 2022

Sheila Reid
Women in the Life
…if The Rock lacks any kind of realism…there’s no shortage of crowd-pleasing antics to amuse all classes…

October 30, 2021 | Rating: 4/5

Eddie Harrison
film-authority.com
The most enjoyable, and the most rewatchable, action blockbuster of the 1990s. (25th anniversary)

July 16, 2021 | Rating: 4.5/5

Stephen Silver
Tilt Magazine
The Rock’s secret sauce though, the thing that allows it to stand the test of time, is the casting.

July 9, 2021 | Rating: 4/5

James Croot
Stuff.co.nz
The Rock makes sense as Cage’s true action debut because it basically forces the quirky Cage character to become an action hero.

June 7, 2021

Fred Topel
Showbiz Cheat Sheet
Connery and Harris are decent in just about anything, shaping their roles into something more memorable and quirky than basic heroes and villains.

September 24, 2020 | Rating: 8/10

Mike Massie
Gone With The Twins…

Plot
Stanley Goodspeed, who lives in Washington, D.C., is a biochemist who works for the F.B.I. Soon after his fiancée Carla Pestalozzi announces that she is pregnant, Stanley gets a call from F.B.I. Director James Womack. Womack tells Stanley that San Francisco’s Alcatraz Island has been taken hostage, along with eighty-one tourists, by Marine General Francis Xavier Hummel who, for years, has been protesting the government’s refusal to pay benefits to families of war veterans who died during covert military operations. The death of his wife Barbara on March 9, 1995 drove General Hummel over the edge, and now he’s holding hostages in order to get his point across. Stanley is needed because General Hummel has stolen some VX gas warheads and has announced that he will launch them onto San Francisco unless his demands are met. Stanley knows how to disarm the bombs, but he needs someone who knows Alcatraz well enough to get him inside. That man is former British Intelligence Agent John Patrick Mason, who has been in prison for the past thirty years without a trial because he was accused of stealing the private files of J. Edgar Hoover. In 1962, John became the only inmate ever to escape from Alcatraz, and he stayed out of Alcatraz long enough to father a daughter named Jade Angelou. Despite his extreme hatred of the F.B.I., John agrees to help Stanley. When John and Stanley are sent into Alcatraz with a Navy S.E.A.L. team, General Hummel’s men kill the entire S.E.A.L. team, leaving Stanley and John to work on their own to rescue the hostages.

Trivia