Looking For Action? Get A Piece Of ‘The Rock’

As long as A-bombs and chemical weaponry have been around, Hollywood has loved the idea of several thousand people dying because of them. How many more times can a movie threaten America with a nuclear/chemical strike?

With the production of “The Rock,” at least once more.

For some reason, film audiences are captivated with the thought of such a devastating attack, or even the mere threat of one. But, of course, there wouldn’t be a happy ending with a nuclear/chemical strike, so, for the last 50 years, screenwriters have been dreaming up ways to stop them.

Very few have been more creative than the effort in “The Rock.”

The movie starts out simply: A small group of mercenaries commanded by former naval general Francis Hummel (Ed Harris) take 81 hostages at Alcatraz, aim four VX gas rockets at the San Francisco area and ask for $1 million. These rockets, say one expert, could each kill 70,000 people.

Hummel seems to be mad at the U.S. government for not acknowledging the deaths of several undercover military agents he worked with in the Navy. I was never really convinced this was adequate cause for such violent action, but the movie is digested a lot more easily if you just go along with it.

After arguing for a while, a group of cronies in Washington decide the only way to solve the problem is to assemble a team of Navy SEALS led by Patrick Mason (Sean Connery), the one man who escaped from Alcatraz, to get them in. Chemical weapons expert Stanley Goodspeed, played by Nicolas Cage, goes along to defuse the weapons.

A lot of the screen time is wasted getting Mason to agree to help, but once he does, the movie moves along quite well. I won’t give away any more of the plot; “The Rock” is filled with surprises from this point on.

Both Connery and Cage play exceptionally complex characters and play them well. Connery’s character, a former British intelligence agent, has been locked up in different prisons for 30 years since he broke out of “the rock.” He is offered a pardon for helping the SEALS get into Alcatraz and only grudgingly agrees.

Goodspeed, as he puts it, is a “chemical super-freak” who has never seen combat, and never wants to. Both actors become vitally important to the mission and the interplay between their drastically differing personalities is constantly intriguing.

Harris, as usual, is very interesting. He tackles a difficult character - a military hero turned terrorist - and makes him convincing. In a unique deviation from the nuke-film formula, his terrorist has real-life weaknesses and Harris brings them out well.

Despite the rather predictable nature of the film, “The Rock” is incredibly tense. As with any Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer creation, there is always a surprise waiting around the corner. Inevitably, this keeps the audience on edge.

For a formula picture, “The Rock” is fantastic. It accomplishes everything it claims to: 130 minutes of pure excitement, great action scenes and the undeniable talents of Cage, Connery and Harris.

If you leave “The Rock” disappointed, you were watching something other than the movie.

Grade: B+