20 Reasons Why You Rock: The Rock (1996)
Every generation of action lover has a director that captures that time and becomes the face of the genre. I think that this era of the late 90’s belonged to Michael Bay. After Bad Boys rocked everyone’s collective faces off, The Rock just so happened to star one of the biggest stars in the world in Sean Connery. Connery wasn’t the type to do just any movie at this point in his career and teaming him with Nicolas Cage, who had yet to do a full-on action film, seems like it could have been a problem. Luckily, that wasn’t the case and Cage would go on to have one of the greatest three-peats in history with Con Air and Face/Off following. If you’re reading this far then you are probably a fan of one or both and I hope that you agree with my reasons as to why I love this flick so much. This is 20 Reasons Why You Rock!!!
1. Ed Harris is the “villain” of the movie but he’s not doing it for greed or insanity like in most films of this kind. He’s doing it because the US Govt has fucked him and soldiers everywhere over for too long and he’s sick of it. Good for him.
2. The platoon sized element of mercenaries working for Ed Harris take the VX Gas missiles without firing a shot. One of their guys gets trapped with the gas and dies horribly. It shows us what the stuff is capable of before anyone ever tries to describe it. It’s one of my favorite things in film; show me something instead of spending 25 minutes trying to tell it to me.
3. If you weren’t already convinced that the seran gas was bad then the scene of Nic Cage and his partner trying to take out a bomb is amazing. Stanley (Cage) is a boss with unshakable nerves. He saves the entire building and it sets up the heart scene for later in the film.
4. Vanessa Marcil is a goddess.
5. The bring up how much each of the mercs are getting paid for their services and suddenly $1 million doesn’t seem like enough. Good on them, though, since they are asking for 100 million dollars from the US Government and most of that is going to the families of the dead marines. They should’ve known that the Gov’t spends that much on service dogs in the Coast Guard each year.
6. The buildup for Connery’s character is amazing. Former member of SAS. Broke out of Alcatraz along with a number of other maximum security prisons. Just a complete badass.
7. If you’ve ever wanted to “get over” as many characters in the film as possible in one scene then just do what they did with the interrogation scene. Each person on leaves there is instantly a more interesting character.
8. 40 mins into the movie and we’re still not at the island but there is the most audacious chase scene through the streets of San Francisco that I’ve ever scene. It looks tame comparted to Fast and the Furious shit these days, but this one really is destructive and top notch.
9. The Feds drop the news on Stanley that he’ll be going on the mission with them and you can almost feel his heart stop.
10. Give me more Michael Biehn!! Especially as a Navy SEAL!
11. They actually infiltrate the facility really easily. That might be the biggest knock on the film for me but I do understand the reason for it since it’s taken so long for the heroes to make their way to the island.
12. It’s a brutal scene when the SEAL’s get taken out by the marines. Not only that, it’s impactful because it’s something that neither side wanted. Harris’s character was doing his best to compete his mission without bloodshed and now that it’s happened he’s more angry at the US Government than ever.
13. The duo of Connery and Cage is impeccable. There is so much good dialogue between the two characters that it’s hard for me to believe that much of it wasn’t ad libbed by the actors.
14. The two surviving members of the team go about diffusing the bombs one by one and slowly take out the mercenaries all the while growing in friendship with one another. What a beautiful thing.
15. This is often talked about as one of Nic Cage’s best action flicks (along with Con Air and Face/Off) but I would also say that this is Michael Bay’s best action flick. He’s a director who really peaked around with time Bad Boys, The Rock, and Armageddon all within a few years. What a way to cement yourself as a top guy in the action game.
16. The Mexican standoff between the General and his men is a great way to end his arc. He had been battling with his duo loyalties for the duration of the film and I think he finally snaps. He says it himself, “They call our bluff”. Only problem for him, though, was that his mercs weren’t bluffing.
17. The General’s biggest opponents in these last few minutes are played by Tony Todd and Gregory Sporleder. They are all too quick to start killing but you can’t really blame them too much since they were clearly there just for the money. Getting blasted by the rocket and impaled on a pole is my favorite death, btw.
18. Cage getting the smoke out and the bombs still being dropped is just visual excellence. Cage’s character goes flying and Sean Connery has to save him once more by pulling him from the ocean. All the while, some majestic Scottish tunes play in the background and Stanley gets his hero moment when he radios in that he’s still alive and the bombs are all taken care of.
19. Vaporized
20. I like the ending with Connery’s Mason giving all the stolen secrets to Stanley. The best thing about it is how it leaves you with the desire to find out more without the open-endedness of a movie trying to get a sequel. Could have have somehow shoe-horned this into a series? Definitely. But it might have taken a massive leap of faith and I’m all leaped out after this one.
