History Main / TheRock

[[redirect:Film/TheRock]]

[[quoteright:297:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/The_Rock_7214.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:297: Watch out, SeanConneryIsAboutToShootYou!]]

Action movie directed by MichaelBay and starring NicolasCage, SeanConnery (playing an aging {{Expy}} of JamesBond) and Ed Harris.

''The Rock'' tells the story of USMC Brigadier-General [[XtremeKoolLetterz Francis X. Hummel]] who, enraged at how his men have been treated by the country that they served, steals a truckload of DeadlyGas and holes up on Alcatraz Island (hence the title), threatening to kill San Francisco unless the government gives him a buttload of money to help out military widows and orphans.

The administration responds by sending in Stanley Goodspeed (Cage), a chemical warfare expert, and John Mason (Connery), a British secret agent turned Alcatraz fugitive turned full-time convict. Oh, and a SEAL team led by Michael Biehn, but they don't last long...

''No relation to the wrestler turned actor, he is under DwayneJohnson.''
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!!Includes examples of:
* ActionDuo: Goodspeed and Mason.
* ActionSurvivor: Goodspeed starts like this before becoming a real ActionHero.
* ActorAllusion: Kicked off Nicholas Cage's "Beige Volvo" trilogy. And then of course Connery's lines about being a [[JamesBond British agent]]. Roger Ebert described the latter as "an in-joke the entire world gets."
* TheAlcatraz: The original, naturally. ("The Rock" being its nickname among the prisoners).
* AntiVillain: Hummel ([[SlidingScaleOfAntiVillains Type III -> Type I]]). He just wants compensation for the families of dead soldiers, and though he is using extreme methods, he very much regrets his men killing the [=SEALs=], and in the end [[spoiler: he was bluffing the entire time. Pity his men weren't.]]
-->'''Hummel''': [[spoiler:I'm not about to kill 80,000 innocent people! Do you think I'm ''out of my fucking mind?'' We bluffed, they called it. The mission is over.]]
* BadassBookworm: Stanley Goodspeed. Also Mason, who presumably became one while in prison. At one point he laments that he'd have rather been a poet.
* BadassGrandpa: John Mason, Ex-SAS man and one of the few to escape the rock.
* BlastOut: When Hummel informs Captains Frye and Darrow plus Gunny Crisp that he plans to [[spoiler:abort the mission]], a Mexican standoff ensues, with Hummel's second-in-command Major Baxter being the only one not participating. When Frye tells him to pick a side, Baxter opens up on the mutinous officers.
* BlueEyes: Hummel has these.
* BoxedCrook: John Mason
* BrickJoke: A morbidly hilarious one: Goodspeed is listening to the Elton John song Rocketman early in the film with his girlfriend. This leads to his PreMortemOneLiner.
* CampGay: The hairstylist.
* CasualDangerDialogue: Goodspeed, when he's working:
--> '''Stanley''': Alright guys, good news. The bomb is fitted to a timer and there's enough C4 attached to level the building. Bad news is this gas is corrosive and it's eating through our [chemical] suits.
* ChaseScene: Uses just about every Trope on that list.
* ChekhovsGun: [[spoiler:The atropine and signal flares.]]
** The motion sensor one of the marines installs.
** Mason's "special operations gear": kerosene, washers and waterproof matches. The kerosene and matches he uses to set a marine on fire, and the washer is used to break out of an Alcatraz prison cell.
* CoolCar: Ferrari chases Hummer.
* CrazyPrepared: Mason defines this.
* CurbStompBattle: The battle between the [=SEALs=] and Hummel's forces.
* DeadpanSnarker: Mason and Goodspeed.
* DeadlyDodging: The fist fight between Mason and a {{Mook}} near the end.
* DeathFakedForYou: [[spoiler:Mason in the end, by Goodspeed.]]
* TheDragon: David Morse's Major Baxter to Ed Harris' General Hummel. [[spoiler: He eventually follows Hummel in his HeelFaceTurn and gets killed along with him]].
** Darrow is also Captain Frye's [[TheDragon Dragon]].
* ElitesAreMoreGlamorous: Marine Corps Force Recon faces off against the Navy [=SEALs=] and a former member of the the British Special Air Service. [[AndZoidberg And Goodspeed.]] [[spoiler:ZigZagged--the Recon slaughters the SEALS, but are killed by one SAS.]]
* EvenEvilHasStandards: Hummel never shows any regret for what he did, but in the end [[spoiler: he makes it clear it was all a bluff, and he's not about to launch neurotoxins on an unsuspecting city full of innocent people]].
* {{Expy}}: John Mason, a character who is JamesBond in all but name. Even shares his background and played by Sean Connery.
* FlashedBadgeHijack: Stanley does it to hijack a Ferrari. [[WatchThePaintJob Which gets destroyed,]] of course.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: In the shower room scene, Hummel is unwilling to shoot the [=SEALs=] [[spoiler: while in contrast Frye and Darrow are eager to do it and take enjoyment in doing so.]]
* ForeignCussWord: The Filipino chef cusses out SeanConnery as he barges through the hotel's kitchens.
* FourStarBadass: Hummel.
* GenreSavvy: Hummel threatens [[HostageForMacGuffin to kill a hostage in exchange for the guidance chips]] that Mason and Goodspeed stole. When Goodspeed looks [[MacGuffinDeliveryService as though he might actually give them back]], Mason snatches them and destroys the chips.
* GirlishPigtails: Carla put them on once, since it seems Stanley has a thing for them.
* HeroStoleMyBike: Stanley
-->''Guy'': "''Hey, man, you just fucked up your Ferrari''!"
-->''Stanley'': "''It's not mine. Neither is this.''"
** Mason and the Humvee also qualify. When the vehicle's outraged owner calls the Humvee's phone, Mason responds "I'm only ''borrowing'' it".
* HistoricalInJoke: One of the marines starts beating up Mason, calls him an "English prick". (the character's from [[{{BonnieScotland}} Glasgow]], but ID'd himself as SAS earlier) He takes a few more pokes at Mason, then goes "[[TheIrishQuestion Did I mention my father was Irish?]]"
** The Joint Chiefs also reference Hummel's Vietnam-era missions into China, a longterm ConspiracyTheory about the latter days of that war.
** Also, [[spoiler:what Goodspeed reads on the microfilm at the end. WhoShotJFK...?]]
* HonorBeforeReason: Stanley courageously continuing the mission to stop Hummel '''alone''' in spite of having virtually ''none'' of the combat abilities of Mason, who has just abandoned him.
* HypocriticalHumor: Some between Hummel and Mason during their first conversation. Hummel accuses Mason of not knowing what it's like to see your government betray the memory of their soldiers. Mason, of course, spent half his life in prison (including the one they're standing in) because the British disavowed him.
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: [[spoiler: Darrow who falls on a sharp fence post after he has been propeled trought the window by the rocket fired by Goodspeed.]].
* IronicEcho: "Welcome to the Rock."
* ItAlwaysRainsAtFunerals: Kind of. There's no funeral, but it's pouring when Hummel goes to visit his wife's grave, just prior to his theft of the nerve gas. He's more or less [[TearJerker apologizing]] to her for what he's going to do.
** Played straight with the Marine Honor Guard giving a volley of gunfire for....someone.
* KillItWithFire: [[spoiler: the Thermite Plasma.]]
* KilledMidSentence: Random marine: ''"I said shut the fu--''" (Mason snaps his neck).
* KnightTemplar: Averted as Hummel, although a very sympathetic villain, [[spoiler: had never intended to launch the Missile]].
* LargeHam: Nic Cage, unsurprisingly.
* LastStand: We hear the radio chatter of Hummel's Marines fighting one over the opening credits. Help doesn't arrive.
* MalevolentArchitecture: The way John Mason gets in[=/=]out of the cistern room (under the furnaces with belching fire and turning gears). Mason: "I memorized the timing. I just hope it hasn't been changed..."
* AManIsAlwaysEager: Averted. After decades of imprisonment, Mason is eager for freedom in general, but he mentions nothing about getting a girlfriend. This is almost certainly due to his age.
* MeaningfulName: The etymology of Stanley Goodspeed's last name.
** Francis Hummel's surname. Hummel is the German term for [[spoiler:Bumblebee]], who are well-known to be by far less [[spoiler:aggressive and dangerous]] compared to other types of [[spoiler:bees (like asps)]], despite being [[spoiler:[[BigBad quite big]].]] Yet, it may still have been unintentional on the directors' part.
* MinecartMadness
* MonsterSobStory: Hummel's back story.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: [[spoiler:The general didn't realize until it was too late that some of his men were only in it for the money and not the cause. Oops.]]
** Hummel actually says this [[spoiler: before dying]].
* NeckSnap
* NeverFoundTheBody: Of course they didn't. [[spoiler: Mason wasn't anywhere near the explosion that allegedly vaporized him. Goodspeed just reported that so that Mason could escape.]]
* NeverHurtAnInnocent: [[spoiler:The general was bluffing. His men aren't.]]
* NonLethalWarfare: The Recon Marines neutralize the naval arsenal without killing any guards, not wanting to kill fellow Marines. Of course they were still brutally effective without bullets. [[spoiler: The reinforcements brought to Alcatraz dont have any qualms like that.]]
* OperationGameOfDoom: Disarming the nerve gas rockets - the capsules are VERY fragile, one brush can mean one shattering and dropping.
* OutrunTheFireball: When the marines fireflush the drains.
* PetTheDog: Before the attack, Hummel tries to convince a school tour group to get back on the ferryboats to San Francisco.
* PrecisionFStrike: Goodspeed, who rarely curses in the movie ("Cut me some ''friggin''' slack!") throws one out [[spoiler:as he force-feeds a deadly poison capsule to Captain Frye.]]
* PreMortemOneLiner
-->'''Goodspeed''': [handling VX gas] You know how this shit works?
-->'''Darrow''': [pulls his combat knife] You know how this shit works?
-->'''Goodspeed''': Listen, I think we got started off on the wrong foot. Stan Goodspeed, FBI. Uh--Let's talk music. Do you like the EltonJohn song, "Rocket Man"?
-->'''Darrow''': I don't like soft-ass shit.
-->'''Goodspeed''': Oh, you--oh, oh. Oh. Well, I only bring it up because, uh, it's you. You're the Rocket Man.
-->[Goodspeed fires a rocket at him]
-->'''Goodspeed''': [calling after him] [[BondOneLiner How do ya like how THAT shit works?]]
** Also, Goodspeed force-feeding a mook with a VX gas ball: "Eat that, you fuck!"
* PrisonRape: Not a problem these days. Mason must be losing his sex appeal.
** Alluded to figuratively in the Alcatraz shower room: "We are so fucked!"
** "Possible penetration point in the shower room."
* PsychoForHire: Hummel hired mercenaries. [[spoiler:Doesn't work out for him in the end when they learn they're not getting paid.]]
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler: Hummel and his former friend Baxter get killed by the ruthless marines, once they decided to not fire the rockets on civilians.]].
* RedshirtArmy: The SEAL team. A real SEAL Team no less. Dennis Chalker and Harry Humphries were two of half a dozen SEALS who advised and performed some of the scenes in the film, with Snake actually landing a part.
* RightManInTheWrongPlace: Stanley Goodspeed.
* RuleOfSeanConnery: It's widely considered Bay's best movie, and [[http://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/michael_bay/ his only "Fresh"]] on RottenTomatoes. Considering it stars the guy who names the trope...
* SanFrancisco: See ChaseScene above. Nearly every landmark is menaced by a missile or raced by in a Ferrari. Nearly every San Francisco stereotype is present too.
* ScaryBlackMan: The knife-wielding Captain Darrow (played by {{Candyman}} which makes him more frightening).
* SeanConneryIsAboutToShootYou: TropeNamer.
* SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan: Goodspeed and Mason.
* ShotToTheHeart: Stanley does the self-administered version to counter the effects of poison gas.
* SignatureStyle: Bay's usual [[DutchAngle Dutch Angles]] are in full effect.
* SmugSnake: Womack[[spoiler:", you piece of shit!"]]
* TheStarscream: [[spoiler: Captain Frye who becomes the real BigBad after he and his accomplices killed Hummel and his longtime friend Baxter]].
* StuffBlowingUp: It's a MichaelBay movie.
* TelevisionGeography: [[spoiler:One of the nerve gas missiles is fired towards "a football game", apparently heading for the Oakland Coliseum. When the camera shows the missile seconds away from its target, the stadium shown is actually Candlestick Park in San Francisco.]] [[IncrediblyLamePun Wrong side of the Bay, Bay]].
** The car chase is all over the place geographically.
** The FBI mobile command center is shown to be situated at a warehouse on Pier 39. In reality Pier 39 is a heavily developed shopping center and tourist trap in Fisherman's Wharf.
* ThrowItIn: Much of NicolasCage's dialogue was ad-libbed (including the "Zeus's butthole" line, which MichaelBay wanted to cut but Cage insisted on having).
* TitleDrop: "Welcome to the Rock!"
* TookALevelInBadass: Goodspeed started as a mild mannered lab rat who never swore. He ends the film by [[spoiler:force-feeding the remaining merc VX gas, stabbing himself in the heart with the anti-VX agent, and manages to gather enough strength to avert the firebombing of Alcatraz.]]
* TragicVillain: Hummel's not even a real villain, he's just seeking reparations for the men betrayed by their government after trying every official channel.
* TranquillizerDart: In the opening scene, the mercenaries use tranq darts on the soldiers guarding the chemical weapons depot. All of them fall unconscious immediately.
* TrappedInContainment: First to showcase the nasty effects of VX on a poor rebel, and the second that introduces us to Goodspeed's skills.
* UncomfortableElevatorMoment: "All I need to know is ''Did you like your haircut?''"
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Hummel, driven to extremes to get compensation for the families of soldiers killed on secret missions.
** By virtue of his rank and the gravity of the threat posed by his scheme to San Francisco [[spoiler:(even if he didn't mean to carry it out, his men certainly did)]], Hummel is also arguably a [[GeneralRipper Ripper]].
* WesternTerrorists: All-American heroes, no less.
* WhoShotJFK: Mason is in jail because he stole microfilm containing, among other things, this very secret.
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Mason refused to give back the microfilm because [[GenreSavvy he knew]] the government would "suicide" him.
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* OperationGameOfDoom: The nerve gas rockets.

** A morbidly hilarious one: Goodspeed is listening to the Elton John song Rocketman early in the film with his girlfriend. This leads to his PreMortemOneLiner

* PrecisionFStrike: Goodspeed, who rarely curses in the movie ("Cut me some ''friggin'' slack!") throws one out as he force-feeds a deadly poison capsule to Captain Frye.

* ActorAllusion: Kicked off Nicholas Cage's "Beige Volvo" trilogy. And then of course Connery's lines about being a [[JamesBond British agent]].

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: When Goodspeed takes the atropine at the end of the movie, the act looks suspiciously similar to the basic form of ''seppuku'' (the Japanese act of ritual suicide). Whether or not this was intentional is unclear.

* KnightTemplar: Averted as Hummel,although a very sympathetic villain, [[spoiler: had never intended to launch the Missile]].

* StuffBlowingUp: It's a MichaelBay movie.* TelevisionGeography: [[spoiler:One of the nerve gas missiles is fired towards "a football game", apparently heading for the Oakland Coliseum. When the camera shows the missile seconds away from its target, the stadium shown is actually Candlestick Park in San Francisco.]] [[IncrediblyLamePun Wrong side of the Bay, Bay]].

* StuffBlowingUp: It's a MichaelBay movie.

* CompleteMonster: Captain Frye, Darrow and some of the marines mercenaries compared to the AntiVillain Hummel. Their first actions are first seen when they [[spoiler: massacre an entire Seal team sent to recapture Alcatraz although Hummel orders to chease fire.]]. It's also revealed they're part of Hummel's mission only for money and even when [[spoiler: Hummel calls his terrorist attack a bluff, they decide to go ahead with the Vx bombing anyway, even killing him along his longtime friend]].

* TelevisionGeography: [[spoiler:One of the nerve gas missiles is fired towards "a football game", apparently heading for the Oakland Coliseum. When the camera shows the missile seconds away from its target, the stadium shown is actually Candlestick Park in San Francisco.]] [[IncrediblyLamePun Wrong side of the Bay, Bay]].
** The car chase is all over the place. Specifically in the very beginning Mason is described as heading west on California... which makes sense as the Fairmont Hotel actually IS on California. Except he was clearly going through a few alleys to get there and is then shown heading towards Coit Tower which is to the east and about half a mile north of California. In reality it looks very much like Filbert. When he runs into a traffic cart signs clearly indicate that this was shot at the corner of 7th Street and Folsom several miles to the south. The cable car then crashes at Pacific and Jones, but is marked as a California line car meaning that if it were derailed on California it would then need to grind down Jones for five blocks, the first block of which is uphill.
** The FBI mobile command center is shown to be situated at a warehouse on Pier 39. In reality Pier 39 is a heavily developed shopping center and tourist trap in Fisherman's Wharf.
* TheDragon: David Morse's Major Baxter to Ed Harris' General Hummel. [[spoiler: He eventually follows Hummel in his HeelFaceTurn and gets killed along with him]].
** Darrow is also Captain Frye's [[TheDragon Dragon]].

* DidNotDoTheResearch: It's a Michael Bay film, what did you expect? There's a ton of them.
** VX gas does not [[PoisonIsCorrosive melt your face off]]. It is a nerve agent and causes death through asphyxiation, but is not a blister agent. It is oily and amber in color not green. Only in the aerosolized form does it take effect immediately, exposure to the skin takes a few hours before symptoms are shown.
** The United States signed the Geneva Arms Protocol of 1928 in 1974, prohibiting production, storage, and use of gas weapons. While government agents repeatedly engage in various illegal actions (it's kind of the driving force for the entire film) it's unlikely that they would still be stockpiling a weapon of mass destruction that has been banned for two decades in a fairly standard weapons depot.
** While atropine ''is'' used to treat VX exposure and autoinjectors make self-administration easier it is injected into the thigh, not the heart. That is only necessary if exposed to the aerosolized form.
** The US Air Force does not have any F/A-18s, rather they are used by the Navy. [[WordOfGod Bay mentions in the commentary]] that he was made aware of this, but [[RuleofCool felt they looked cooler]].

* AntiVillain: Hummel ([[SlidingScaleOfAntiVillains Type III -> Type I]]). He just wants compensation for the families of dead soldiers, and though he is using extreme methods, in the end [[spoiler: he was bluffing and refused to go through with his plan. Pity a number of his men were just in it for the money.]]

* AntiVillain: Hummel. He just wants compensation for the families of dead soldiers, and though he is using extreme methods, in the end [[spoiler: he was bluffing and refused to go through with his plan. Pity a number of his men were just in it for the money.]]

* ForeignCussWords: The Filipino chef cusses out SeanConnery as he barges through the hotel's kitchens.

** VX gas does not melt your face off. It is a nerve agent and causes death through asphyxiation, but is not a blister agent. It is oily and amber in color not green. Only in the aerosolized form does it take effect immediately, expose to the skin takes a few hours before symptoms are shown.

** The US Air Force does not have any F/A-18s, rather they are used by the Navy. [WordOfGod Bay mentions in the commentary] that he was made aware of this, but [RuleofCool felt they looked cooler].

* FridgeLogic: The military presumably has records on the men whom Hummel lost, and can track down their families if necessary. So why didn't they find those families and persuade as many of them as possible to ''come to San Francisco''? Sure, some of them probably doubted Hummel's professed motives, but at least if they put a bunch of the people he's claiming to seek justice for in the path of the VX missiles, there's a chance they could neutralize his crusade that way.