The Rock

A group of rogue Force Recon Marines led by disenchanted Brigadier General Francis X. Hummel (Ed Harris), seize a stockpile of rockets armed with VX nerve agent, a modern chemical weapon with nightmarish lethality. They then seize Alcatraz Island during a guided tour and take 81 tourists hostage in the prison cells. Hummel threatens the Pentagon with launching VX gas rockets against the population of the San Francisco Bay Area unless the government pays reparations, including compensation to the families of Marines who died on illegal, clandestine missions. The Pentagon and Federal Bureau of Investigation decide to deploy a Navy SEAL team, led by CDR Anderson (Michael Biehn), 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 Connery): the only inmate of Alcatraz who ever successfully escaped (which was covered up). FBI chemical weapons expert Dr. Stanley Goodspeed (Nicolas Cage)—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 countermeasure to Hummel's VX gas rockets: readying prototype "thermite plasma" bombs capable of incinerating the poison gas, but which will also kill any person left on the island. The SEAL team is deployed at night, via helicopter, into the waters surrounding the island. They successfully infiltrate Alcatraz by following Mason's instructions through the maze of tunnels beneath the prison. Before they can actually carry out their mission however, the SEAL team is ambushed by the marines at the showers. After a short but tense stand-off, a shootout ensues in which all the SEALs are killed. Mason and Goodspeed survived because they remained in the sewers in hiding. After the failed mission, Mason initially wants to walk out, but is convinced to stay by Goodspeed when he told Mason about the gas they were dealing with. Subsequently, Mason and Goodspeed start to move through Alcatraz looking for the VX gas. 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, thus rendering them useless. This continues 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 (atropine) 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 had 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 JFK.