The Rock is a
1996The year 1996 in film involved some significant events. Major releases this year included Fargo, Trainspotting, The English Patient, Independence Day, Twister, Scream, Jerry Maguire and Madonna's Evita.-Events:...
action filmAction movies are a film genre wherein the story is largely told through physical action as opposed to dialogue. The action typically involves individual efforts on the part of the hero. While action has long been an element of films, the "Action film" as a genre of its own began to develop in the...
that primarily takes place on
Alcatraz IslandAlcatraz Island is an island located in the San Francisco Bay, offshore from San Francisco, California. Often referred to as The Rock, the small island early-on served as a lighthouse, a military fortification, a military prison, and a federal prison until 1963...
, and the
San Francisco BaySan Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
area. It was directed by
Michael BayMichael Benjamin Bay is an American film director and producer. Bay is best known for making large-budget action films, such as Armageddon, The Rock, Pearl Harbor, Bad Boys, Bad Boys II, Transformers, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and producing remakes of horror movies such as Friday The...
, director of
Bad BoysBad Boys is a 1995 action comedy film directed by Michael Bay, produced by Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer, producers of Top Gun and Beverly Hills Cop, and starring Martin Lawrence and Will Smith...
, and stars
Sean ConnerySir Thomas Sean Connery , best known as Sean Connery, is an Academy Award, Golden Globe, and BAFTA Award winning Scottish actor and producer....
,
Nicolas CageNicolas Cage is an American actor.Cage pursued acting as a career, making his debut on television in 1981...
, and
Ed HarrisEdward Allen "Ed" Harris is an American actor, writer and director, known for his performances in Appaloosa, Creepshow, The Rock, The Right Stuff, Enemy at the Gates, The Abyss, Glengarry Glen Ross, Apollo 13, Pollock, A Beautiful Mind, National Treasure: Book of Secrets, The Hours, Milk Money,...
. It was produced by
Don SimpsonDonald Clarence Simpson was an American film producer. He is known for such hits as Flashdance, Beverly Hills Cop, Top Gun and The Rock...
and
Jerry BruckheimerJerome Leon "Jerry" Bruckheimer is an American film and television producer. He has achieved great success in the genres of action, drama, and science fiction. His best known television series are CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, Without a Trace, Cold Case, and The Amazing Race...
, producers of
Top GunTop Gun is a 1986 movie that was directed by Tony Scott, and produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, in association with the Paramount Pictures company...
and
Crimson TideCrimson Tide is a 1995 submarine film directed by Tony Scott, starring Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman, produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, and written by Michael Schiffer and Richard P. Henrick...
, and released through Disney's
Hollywood PicturesHollywood Pictures is one of The Walt Disney Company's several alternate movie divisions. Like Disney's Touchstone Pictures and Miramax Films brands, it produces films for a more mature adult audience than Walt Disney Pictures. The company logo is the Sphinx; its logo music was composed by Danny...
. The film is dedicated to Simpson, who died five months before its release.
A group of rogue
Force ReconThe Force Reconnaissance Companies , are one of the United States Marine Corps's special operations "capable" forces that provide pertinent military intelligence to the combined combat elements of the Marine Air-Ground Task Force ; either supporting the subordinate infantry units of the Fleet...
MarinesThe United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States armed forces responsible for providing force projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to rapidly deliver combined-arms task forces. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
led by disenchanted Brigadier General Francis X.
The Rock is a
1996The year 1996 in film involved some significant events. Major releases this year included Fargo, Trainspotting, The English Patient, Independence Day, Twister, Scream, Jerry Maguire and Madonna's Evita.-Events:...
action filmAction movies are a film genre wherein the story is largely told through physical action as opposed to dialogue. The action typically involves individual efforts on the part of the hero. While action has long been an element of films, the "Action film" as a genre of its own began to develop in the...
that primarily takes place on
Alcatraz IslandAlcatraz Island is an island located in the San Francisco Bay, offshore from San Francisco, California. Often referred to as The Rock, the small island early-on served as a lighthouse, a military fortification, a military prison, and a federal prison until 1963...
, and the
San Francisco BaySan Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
area. It was directed by
Michael BayMichael Benjamin Bay is an American film director and producer. Bay is best known for making large-budget action films, such as Armageddon, The Rock, Pearl Harbor, Bad Boys, Bad Boys II, Transformers, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and producing remakes of horror movies such as Friday The...
, director of
Bad BoysBad Boys is a 1995 action comedy film directed by Michael Bay, produced by Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer, producers of Top Gun and Beverly Hills Cop, and starring Martin Lawrence and Will Smith...
, and stars
Sean ConnerySir Thomas Sean Connery , best known as Sean Connery, is an Academy Award, Golden Globe, and BAFTA Award winning Scottish actor and producer....
,
Nicolas CageNicolas Cage is an American actor.Cage pursued acting as a career, making his debut on television in 1981...
, and
Ed HarrisEdward Allen "Ed" Harris is an American actor, writer and director, known for his performances in Appaloosa, Creepshow, The Rock, The Right Stuff, Enemy at the Gates, The Abyss, Glengarry Glen Ross, Apollo 13, Pollock, A Beautiful Mind, National Treasure: Book of Secrets, The Hours, Milk Money,...
. It was produced by
Don SimpsonDonald Clarence Simpson was an American film producer. He is known for such hits as Flashdance, Beverly Hills Cop, Top Gun and The Rock...
and
Jerry BruckheimerJerome Leon "Jerry" Bruckheimer is an American film and television producer. He has achieved great success in the genres of action, drama, and science fiction. His best known television series are CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, Without a Trace, Cold Case, and The Amazing Race...
, producers of
Top GunTop Gun is a 1986 movie that was directed by Tony Scott, and produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, in association with the Paramount Pictures company...
and
Crimson TideCrimson Tide is a 1995 submarine film directed by Tony Scott, starring Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman, produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, and written by Michael Schiffer and Richard P. Henrick...
, and released through Disney's
Hollywood PicturesHollywood Pictures is one of The Walt Disney Company's several alternate movie divisions. Like Disney's Touchstone Pictures and Miramax Films brands, it produces films for a more mature adult audience than Walt Disney Pictures. The company logo is the Sphinx; its logo music was composed by Danny...
. The film is dedicated to Simpson, who died five months before its release.
Plot
A group of rogue
Force ReconThe Force Reconnaissance Companies , are one of the United States Marine Corps's special operations "capable" forces that provide pertinent military intelligence to the combined combat elements of the Marine Air-Ground Task Force ; either supporting the subordinate infantry units of the Fleet...
MarinesThe United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States armed forces responsible for providing force projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to rapidly deliver combined-arms task forces. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
led by disenchanted Brigadier General Francis X. Hummel (
Ed HarrisEdward Allen "Ed" Harris is an American actor, writer and director, known for his performances in Appaloosa, Creepshow, The Rock, The Right Stuff, Enemy at the Gates, The Abyss, Glengarry Glen Ross, Apollo 13, Pollock, A Beautiful Mind, National Treasure: Book of Secrets, The Hours, Milk Money,...
), seize a
stockpileA stockpile is a pile or storage location for bulk materials, forming part of the bulk materials handling process.Stockpiles are used in many different areas, such as in a port, refinery or manufacturing facility. The stockpile is normally created by a stacker. A reclaimer is used to recover the...
of
rocketA rocket or rocket vehicle is a missile, spacecraft, aircraft or other vehicle which obtains thrust by the reaction of the rocket to the ejection of a jet of fast moving fluid exhaust from a rocket engine. Chemical rockets create their exhaust by the combustion of rocket propellant...
s armed with
VX nerve agentVX, IUPAC name O-ethyl S-[2-ethyl] methylphosphonothioate, is an extremely toxic substance whose only application is in chemical warfare as a nerve agent. As a chemical weapon, it is classified as a weapon of mass destruction by the United Nations in UN Resolution 687...
, a modern chemical weapon with nightmarish lethality. They then seize
Alcatraz IslandAlcatraz Island is an island located in the San Francisco Bay, offshore from San Francisco, California. Often referred to as The Rock, the small island early-on served as a lighthouse, a military fortification, a military prison, and a federal prison until 1963...
during a guided tour and take 81 tourists
hostageA hostage is a person or entity which is held by a captor. The original definition meant that this was handed over by one of two belligerent parties to the other or seized as security for the carrying out of an agreement, or as a preventive measure against certain acts of war...
in the prison cells. Hummel threatens
the PentagonThe Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself....
with launching VX gas rockets against the population of the
San Francisco Bay AreaThe San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, or the Yay Area, is a metropolitan region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses large cities such as San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and...
unless the
governmentThe federal government of the United States is the central government entity established by the United States Constitution, which shares sovereignty over the United States with the governments of the individual U.S. states. The federal government has three branches: the legislative, executive, and...
pays reparations, including compensation to the families of Marines who died on illegal, clandestine missions.
The Pentagon and
Federal Bureau of InvestigationThe Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency. The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
decide to deploy a
Navy SEALThe United States Navy Sea, Air, and Land Forces, commonly known as the Navy SEALs, are the Special Operations Forces of the United States Navy, employed in direct action and special reconnaissance operations...
team, led by CDR Anderson (
Michael BiehnMichael Connell Biehn is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in James Cameron's science fiction-action films The Terminator, Aliens, and The Abyss. He has also acted in other genres in such films as Tombstone, The Rock, and Planet Terror...
), to retake the island and free Hummel's hostages by stealth. In need of first-hand knowledge of the underground tunnels of Alcatraz, they are forced to release the imprisoned John Patrick Mason (
Sean ConnerySir Thomas Sean Connery , best known as Sean Connery, is an Academy Award, Golden Globe, and BAFTA Award winning Scottish actor and producer....
): the only inmate of Alcatraz who ever successfully escaped (which was
covered upA cover-up is an attempt, whether successful or not, to conceal evidence of wrong-doing, error, incompetence or other embarrassing information. The expression is usually applied to people in authority who abuse their power to avoid or silence criticism...
). FBI chemical weapons expert Dr. Stanley Goodspeed (
Nicolas CageNicolas Cage is an American actor.Cage pursued acting as a career, making his debut on television in 1981...
)—socially nerdy and bumbling—is also recruited to neutralize the VX gas threat. The two men and the SEAL team commence their raid on Alcatraz. Meanwhile, the Pentagon prepares a secondary
countermeasureA countermeasure is a system designed to prevent sensor-based weapons from acquiring and/or destroying a target....
to Hummel's VX gas rockets: readying prototype "
thermiteThermite is a pyrotechnic composition of a metal powder and a metal oxide, which produces an aluminothermic reaction known as a thermite reaction. It is not explosive, but can create short bursts of extremely high temperatures focused on a very small area for a short period of time.Thermites can...
plasma" bombs capable of incinerating the poison gas, but which will also kill any person left on the island.
Mason and Goodspeed repeatedly battle small groups of Marines to great effect, and as the night wears on, they manage to remove the guidance chips from thirteen of the fifteen missiles, until finally they are captured close to dawn and left unguarded in holding cells. Mason frees them both with only an hour and two missiles remaining.
Meanwhile, the thermite-plasma weapons are readied, and armed F-18s begin to approach Alcatraz ready to blanket the island, destroying the chemical weapons and killing the hostages. The deadline passes and the Pentagon calls Hummel and asks for another hour to transfer the money. Consequently, the Marines fire one of the two remaining rockets at a football game, but Hummel redirects the missile at the last minute to detonate harmlessly at sea. Having balked at launching against civilian targets, Hummel reveals the nerve gas threat to be a bluff. The marines who loyally served under Hummel agree to end the stand-off, but the mercenary marines, now led by Capt. Frye, who were hired only for this mission decide to fire the remaining missile and a short gun-battle ensues, in which Hummel and his loyalists are shot dead, with Goodspeed and Mason looking on. They soon rescue Hummel and with his dying breath, Hummel tells Goodspeed the location of the last rocket.
While Mason battles the traitorous marines, Goodspeed rushes to locate and disarm the last rocket. After extracting the VX from the rocket, Goodspeed is attacked by Frye. Outmatched, Goodspeed uses a VX pearl that fell loose to kill Frye by forcing it into his mouth, thus causing him to die horrifically as well as exposing Goodspeed to the toxin (at a lower concentration). Goodspeed then forcefully injects an antidote (
atropineAtropine is a tropane alkaloid extracted from deadly nightshade , jimsonweed , mandrake and other plants of the family Solanaceae. It is a secondary metabolite of these plants and serves as a drug with a wide variety of effects. It is a competitive antagonist for the muscarinic acetylcholine...
) to save himself. Weakened, he desperately scrambles to the open ground to signal the command center to abort the airstrike, which would needlessly kill many hostages. In a heroic action, Goodspeed runs out into the open and lights up the green flares to stop the bombing. However, the abort command is received too late by the pilots, and one accidentally drops the first of its thermite-plasma payload onto the island. Fortunately, the bomb misses the hostages' cell block, and only throws Goodspeed into the water, where he is promptly rescued by Mason. When the FBI arrives to secure Alcatraz, Goodspeed informs them that escaping Mason was actually "vaporized," hence releasing him to freedom, anonymity, and his estranged daughter. Before his departure, however, Mason tells Goodspeed the location of the secret microfilm he'd stolen, and the movie ends with Goodspeed and his pregnant bride Carla recovering the microfilm, along with half a century of state secrets. Goodspeed also asks Carla if she wants to find out who really killed
JFKJohn Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
.
Cast
- Sean Connery
Sir Thomas Sean Connery , best known as Sean Connery, is an Academy Award, Golden Globe, and BAFTA Award winning Scottish actor and producer....
as Captain John Patrick Mason, British Army SASThe Special Air Service is a special forces regiment within the British Army which has served as a model for the special forces of other countries. The SAS forms a significant section of United Kingdom Special Forces alongside the Special Boat Service , Special Reconnaissance Regiment , and the...
(Ret.)
- Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Cage is an American actor.Cage pursued acting as a career, making his debut on television in 1981...
as FBIThe Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency. The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
Special AgentSpecial agent is usually the title for a detective or investigator for a state, county, municipal, federal or tribal government.A special agent is not a 'spy' , but an investigator. An agent is a worker for any other federal agency, and a secret agent is one who works for an intelligence...
Stanley Goodspeed
- Ed Harris
Edward Allen "Ed" Harris is an American actor, writer and director, known for his performances in Appaloosa, Creepshow, The Rock, The Right Stuff, Enemy at the Gates, The Abyss, Glengarry Glen Ross, Apollo 13, Pollock, A Beautiful Mind, National Treasure: Book of Secrets, The Hours, Milk Money,...
as Brigadier General Francis X. Hummel, USMC Force ReconThe Force Reconnaissance Companies , are one of the United States Marine Corps's special operations "capable" forces that provide pertinent military intelligence to the combined combat elements of the Marine Air-Ground Task Force ; either supporting the subordinate infantry units of the Fleet...
- John Spencer
John Spencer was an American television actor best known for his role as Leo McGarry, the White House Chief of Staff on the NBC political drama The West Wing.-Early life:...
as FBI Director James Womack
- David Morse
David Morse is an American stage, television, and film actor. He first came to national attention as Dr. Jack Morrison in the medical drama St. Elsewhere from 1982 to 1988...
as Major Tom Baxter, USMC Force Recon
- William Forsythe
William Forsythe is an American actor. He is frequently cast in "tough guy" roles such as criminals or law enforcement officers...
as FBI Special Agent in Charge and head of San Francisco field office Ernest Paxton
- Michael Biehn
Michael Connell Biehn is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in James Cameron's science fiction-action films The Terminator, Aliens, and The Abyss. He has also acted in other genres in such films as Tombstone, The Rock, and Planet Terror...
as Commander Anderson, USN SEALThe United States Navy Sea, Air, and Land Forces, commonly known as the Navy SEALs, are the Special Operations Forces of the United States Navy, employed in direct action and special reconnaissance operations...
- Danny Nucci
-Personal Life:Nucci was born in Klagenfurt, Austria, to a French Moroccan mother and an Italian father, and was raised in Italy until the age of seven, when his family relocated to the United States. He has two sisters, Natalie and Elle. After temporarily living in Queens, New York, the family...
as Lieutenant Shephard, USN SEAL
- Vanessa Marcil
Vanessa Marcil is an American actress known for her roles in the long-running soap opera General Hospital, Beverly Hills, 90210 and the television series Las Vegas.-Early life:...
as Carla Pestalozzi
- Gregory Sporleder as Captain Frye, USMC Force Recon
- John C. McGinley
John Christopher McGinley is an American actor, most notable for his roles as Perry Cox in Scrubs, Bob Slydell in Office Space, and Sergeant Red O'Neill in Oliver Stone's Platoon.-Early life:...
as Captain Hendrix, USMC Force Recon
- Tony Todd
Tony Todd is an American actor and producer, known for his height and deep voice.- Early life :Todd was born Timothy Henry Todd in Washington, D.C. He grew up in Hartford, Connecticut and attended local schools. He was also in the Boy Scouts of America, a member of Troop 450 which met in the Mt....
as Captain Darrow, USMC Force Recon
- Claire Forlani
Claire Antonia Forlani is an English actress of Italian descent.-Early life:Forlani was born in Twickenham in London, the daughter of Barbara , and Pier Forlani, a music manager from Ferrara, Italy. At the age of 11, Forlani entered the Arts Educational School in London, where she began to study...
as Jade Angelou
- Bokeem Woodbine
Bokeem Woodbine is an American film and television actor.Woodbine was born in Harlem, New York to an actress mother. He attended the prestigious Dalton School in New York City, as well as the Fiorello H...
as Sergeant Crisp, USMC Force Recon
- Steve Harris
Steve J. Harris is an American actor who has appeared in a number of films including; Quarantine, Tyler Perry's Diary of a Mad Black Woman, Bringing Down The House, The Rock, The Mod Squad, and Minority Report. He is most famous for his role as Eugene Young on the legal drama The Practice...
as Private McCoy, USMC Force Recon
- Jim Maniaci as Private Scarpetti, USMC Force Recon
- Brendan Kelly
Brendan Kelly is an Irish-born American actor and artist who has appeared mostly in TV series. Kelly has starred and guest-appeared in series like Acapulco H.E.A.T., Tarzan, NY Undercover, Oz, NYPD Blue, and countless others.He has also made small appearances in movies like Malcolm X, Clockers,...
as Private Cox, USMC Force Recon
Box office
Produced at a budget of US $75,000,000, the movie was a smash hit, grossing a total of $134,069,511 domestically and $200,993,110 internationally, for a worldwide total of $335,062,621. It was the 7th highest grossing film of 1996 in the US, and the 4th highest worldwide.
Production
Quentin TarantinoQuentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. In the early 1990s he was an independent filmmaker whose films used nonlinear storylines and aestheticization of violence...
was an uncredited screenwriter on
The Rock, along with
Jonathan HensleighJonathan Blair Hensleigh is an American screenwriter and film director, working primarily in the action/adventure genre of films....
and
Aaron SorkinAaron Benjamin Sorkin is an American screenwriter, producer and playwright, whose works include A Few Good Men, The American President, The West Wing, Sports Night and The Farnsworth Invention....
. Hensleigh in particular was aggrieved to not be credited.
LALos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the municipality of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123.445 inhabitants...
-based British screenwriting team
Dick ClementDick Clement, OBE is an English writer.Born in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, England, Clement is, in partnership with Ian La Frenais, one of the most successful television writers in Britain....
and
Ian La FrenaisIan La Frenais, OBE, , is in partnership with Dick Clement, one of the most influential television writers in Britain. Their fame rests primarily on four series, The Likely Lads, Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?, Porridge and Auf Wiedersehen, Pet.They have also written various other work for...
were brought in at Connery's request to rewrite his lines, but ended up altering much of the film's dialogue, including Goodspeed's reference to LPs sounding better than CDs. The car chase was not in the original script; it was Michael Bay's idea. It was Nicolas Cage's idea that his character wouldn't swear; his euphemisms include 'gee whiz'.
There were tensions during shooting between director
Michael BayMichael Benjamin Bay is an American film director and producer. Bay is best known for making large-budget action films, such as Armageddon, The Rock, Pearl Harbor, Bad Boys, Bad Boys II, Transformers, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and producing remakes of horror movies such as Friday The...
and the Walt Disney Company executives who were supervising the production. On the commentary track for the Criterion Collection DVD, Bay recalls a time when he was preparing to leave the set for a meeting with the executives when he was approached by
Sean ConnerySir Thomas Sean Connery , best known as Sean Connery, is an Academy Award, Golden Globe, and BAFTA Award winning Scottish actor and producer....
in
golfGolf is a precision club-and-ball sport, in which competing players , using many types of clubs, attempt to hit balls into each hole on a golf course while employing the fewest number of strokes. Golf is one of the few ball games that does not require a standardized playing area...
ing attire. Connery, who also produced the film, asked Bay where he was going, and when Bay explained he had a meeting with the executives, Connery asked if he could accompany him. Bay complied and when he arrived in the conference room, the executives' jaws dropped when they saw Connery appear behind him. According to Bay, Connery then stood up for Bay and insisted that he was doing a good job and should be left alone.
The scene in which FBI director Womack is thrown off the balcony was filmed on location at the
Fairmont HotelThe Fairmont San Francisco is a luxury hotel at 950 Mason Street, in the Nob Hill district of San Francisco, California.- Description :The hotel was nearly completed before the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. Although the structure survived, the interior was heavily damaged by fire, and opening...
in San Francisco. The filming led to numerous calls to the hotel by people who saw a man dangling from the balcony.
Censorship
In the original UK
DVDDVD, also known as Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc,is an optical disc storage media format, and was founded in 1995. Its main uses are video and data storage...
release, the scene in which Connery throws a knife through a sentry's throat and says "you must never hesitate" to Cage was cut, although this scene was shown on British television. Consequently, a later scene in which Connery says to Cage, "I'm rather glad you didn't hesitate too long" lost its impact on viewers who had not seen the first scene. Other cuts included the reduction of multiple gunshot impacts into Gamble's feet in the morgue down to a single hit; a close-up of his screaming face as the air conditioner falls onto him; a sound cut to Mason snapping a Marine's neck and two bloody gunshot wounds (to Hummel and Baxter), both near the end of the film.
When the film premiered on German television (RTL), it was shown in two versions: the first version (starting at 8:15 pm) had most of its violence and gore cut, going so far as to suggest that some of the terrorists survived. The second version started at 1 am, and left all scenes intact. This scheme was repeated for the second viewing.
The film also received some censorship of profanity in its Asian releases; the terms "
fuckFuck is an English word that is generally considered profane, that in its most literal meaning refers to the act of sexual intercourse. However, by extension it may be used to negatively characterize anything that can be dismissed, disdained, defiled, or destroyed, and it is due to the convergence...
" and "Goddamn" are normally omitted or substituted. For instance, whenever
Star MoviesSTAR Movies is an Asian movie channel owned by STAR TV.It features movies from American film companies such as Walt Disney Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Sony Pictures, Miramax Films, MGM, Universal Pictures, Canal Plus and other movie distributors...
(a popular Asian movie channel) plays the film, Connery's line in which he says to Cage "winners go home and
fuck the prom queen" is replaced with "winners go home and
date the prom queen."
Awards and recognition
The Rock won a number of minor awards, including 'Best On-Screen Duo' for Connery and Cage at the
MTV Movie AwardsThe MTV Movie Awards is a film awards show presented annually on MTV . It also contains movie parodies that used official movie footage with hosts and other celebrities and music performances. The nominees are decided by a special panel at Tenth Planet Productions, the production company headed by...
as well as an Academy Award nomination for Best Sound. It currently holds a "fresh" rating (66%) on
Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films. The name derives from the historical cliché of throwing tomatoes and other produce at stage performers if a performance was particularly bad.- History :...
.
The film was selected for a limited edition DVD release by the Criterion Collection, a distributor of primarily arthouse films it categorizes as "important classic and contemporary films" and "cinema at its finest". In an essay supporting the selection of
The Rock,
Roger EbertRoger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter.He is known for his film review column and for two television programs Sneak Previews and Siskel & Ebert at the Movies, which he co-hosted for a combined 23 years with Gene Siskel...
, who was strongly critical of most of Bay's later films, calls it "an action picture that rises to the top of the genre because of a literate, witty screenplay and skilled craftsmanship in the direction and special effects."
External links