The Rock

There is only one Michael Bay film that has a positive Rotten Tomatoes score. It’s the same one that Roger Ebert awarded 3.5 out of 4 stars. It’s not Pearl Harbor and doesn’t involve drilling asteroids. It’s The Rock and it happens to be a great action movie.

You may think The Rock doesn’t deserve to be underrated because it made a truckload of money, received mostly positive reviews and isn’t exactly obscure. That was before the Michael Bay problem.

Look, I’m not really a Michael Bay fan either. The mix of explosions, bad jokes, quick cuts, more explosions and no substance isn’t typically what I look for in a movie. I understand I share that opinion with many others, but the Michael Bay problem tarnishes the legacy of The Rock. It has simply become a situation where anything with Michael Bay’s name on it is instantly considered trash. However, The Rock was before Michael Bay became self-aware of his Bayness. In this case he just created an original, fun, action movie that’s certainly better than you remember.

Alcatraz is besieged by ex-military who take tourists as hostages. This crew is led by General Hummel, played by Ed Harris, who gives a great villain performance. What makes a great villain? When the audience empathizes with the villain. His soldiers died on covert operations. Their families got nothing. Their sacrifices were officially denied. He’s demanding $100 million in reparations, which works out to roughly what the government spends on sticky notes. 

The only thing that puts Hummel on the wrong side of the film is that his plan risks killing thousands of innocent civilians. Even then, the film shows us that he is not actually willing to do it. He is a good man who went too far. The film never lets you forget that. Most action movies give you a villain you can’t wait to see defeated. The Rock gives you one you’re quietly rooting for even while you’re hoping he fails.

The only ones that can stop these domestic terrorists are a chemical weapons expert and a former secret agent who’s been illegally incarcerated for 30 years. Nic Cage is in the perfect spot in his career, finding his action movie groove before he became an unhinged parody of himself. He’s playing the anxious, unprepared everyman being dragged through something he was never built for and he’s having a blast doing it. Sean Connery shows he still commands the screen and is as charming as ever. They share a chemistry that builds throughout the movie and by the end you believe in their relationship completely.

If you watch The Rock again with full attention, I am convinced that the sequence from the SEAL team’s assault on Alcatraz through the final Michael Bay explosion is one of the most sustained, expertly constructed stretches of action filmmaking you’ve seen. The stakes are real because the characters are real. The tension escalates in a way that feels earned rather than manufactured. Hummel’s final choice, when it comes, lands with genuine emotional weight. That’s not something action fmovies do. That’s something great films do.

Forget that Michael Bay directed five Transformers movies (five!) and give this one another watch. The Rock deserves better than the title of Michael Bay’s best movie or a guilty pleasure. It’s secretly one of the best action movies of the 90’s.