The Rock (1996)

Plot synopsis of The Rock (1996)

On a rainy morning at Arlington National Cemetery, Brigadier General Francis Hummel visits the grave of his wife, Barbara, who had recently passed away from an illness. He tells her that he misses her, but there is something he has to do now, and most of the world isn't going to like it. He hopes that wherever she is, she understands why he has to take the action he plans to.

After saying a final goodbye, he places his Medal of Honor on the headstone and kisses it before he leaves. Later that night, Hummel leads a group of rogue Force Recon Marines on a raid of a naval weapons depot. They seize a stockpile of rockets armed with weapons-grade Oyl methyl phosphonothioic acid, more commonly known as VX gas.

They lose one of their men in the process, a horrific death caused by an accidental release of the chemical when one of the canisters was dropped, and a sphere containing the deadly substance shatters. The man's skin begins to dissolve; he convulses and chokes to death. Hummel and his second in command, Major Tom Baxter, have no choice but to leave the room sealed with their man inside.

In an FBI lab in Washington, D.C., Dr. Stanley Goodspeed is called in to inspect a package sent to Bosnian refugees. He and a trainee, Marv Isherwood, find a small doll inside that sprays them with sarin gas and contains a bomb made of C4 explosive that could destroy the lab and kill everyone in the building. As Stanley works frantically to disarm the bomb, he turns down a hypodermic needle loaded with a dose of atropine.

Stanley disarms the bomb successfully. At home that night, he relaxes until his girlfriend, Carla, arrives home. He tells her about his experience and mentions that because the world is so cruel and violent, anyone considering having children is being foolish. She tells him she's pregnant, and Stanley, stunned, tells her he's happy. When she proposes to him, he accepts.

Hummel is joined by other Marines who have served him over the course of his career: Major Tom Baxter, with whom he served in Vietnam; Captain Hendrick, with whom he served in the Gulf; and Captains Fry and Darrow, who organized the raid on the weapons depot.

They seize Alcatraz Island and take 81 tourists hostage, placing them in the prison cells, then threatening the FBI and Pentagon with launching the VX rockets against the population of San Francisco unless the government pays ransom and reparations to the families of Marines who died on illegal, clandestine Marine Force Recon missions that were commanded by General Hummel.

After Goodspeed makes love to Carla, he receives a call telling him to report to San Francisco. He assures her that it is probably just a training exercise and they can be married there when it is finished. When he arrives, he is greeted by Senior Agent Ernest Paxton and Bureau Director James Wack. The agents brief Dr. Goodspeed on the situation, asking him to consult.

Goodspeed agrees but asks Paxton for a gun, having left his own sidearm at home. SEAL Commander Anderson offers to lead an incursion team to the island to neutralize the warheads and free the hostages. In need of reliable, firsthand knowledge of the physical layout of Alcatraz, Wack is forced to turn to long-time federal prisoner John Mason, the only former inmate of Alcatraz to ever successfully escape.

There is a considerable amount of bad blood between Mason and Wack, so Goodspeed is tasked with talking to him. Mason is willing to cooperate; however, shortly after he signs his pardon, Wack tears it up. Goodspeed notes that while they were talking to Mason, he mentioned the names of several historical figures who were wrongfully imprisoned, like Nelson Mandela, Sir Walter Raleigh, Archimedes, and Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

Wack brushes it off, accusing Goodspeed of asking too many questions. Part of Mason's agreement includes a short stay at a luxury suite at San Francisco's Fairmont Hotel. He calls in a large amount of food to distract his minders. Out on the suite balcony, Mason, while "shaking on the deal" he made with Wack, slips a rope around Wack's wrist and throws him over the side, holding the rope.

When Goodspeed calls the other agents to help him pull Wack to safety, Mason escapes. He steals a Humvee from a hotel patron and drives recklessly through San Francisco, colliding with cars and other obstacles to block their pursuit. He finally makes it to the Palace of Fine Arts and meets with his daughter, Jade. The two seem to reconcile, Jade being bitter after her mother's death and Mason's abandonment.

Goodspeed shows up and tells Mason they have to rejoin the FBI team. Upon their return, Goodspeed learns that he himself will accompany Mason and the incursion team to Alcatraz, despite his minimal combat training and fear of deep water. Paxton appeases him by having his men get Carla to safety. With Mason's guidance, the SEAL incursion team successfully infiltrates Alcatraz mostly undetected.

But as they work their way through the tunnels of Alcatraz and enter the shower room, their presence is discovered by sophisticated warning equipment set up by Hummel's men. Hummel attempts to talk Anderson down, but Fry and Darrow grow impatient and open fire, leaving only Mason and Goodspeed alive. With Mason deciding to leave the island, Goodspeed must reveal the true purpose of the mission.

Realizing his daughter's life is at risk, Mason agrees to stay and help. They begin the process of seeking out and disabling the 15 rockets one by one, traveling through the underground catacombs to avoid detection. They find them in the morgue, and Goodspeed begins the painstaking process of removing the guidance chip from each missile, with the VX spheres arranged in a delicate configuration.

The work is slow and precise. While he removes the chips, he explains to Mason what the effects of VX are on the human body. After 12 rockets are sabotaged by Goodspeed and Mason, Captain Hendrick is ordered to take a fire team down to the catacombs, resulting in a pitched battle in which Goodspeed uses lethal force for the first time.

After learning that Hendrick's squad has been killed, Hummel threatens to execute one of the hostages unless the guidance chips of the sabotaged rockets are returned to him. Goodspeed grapples with the idea of surrendering the chips for a few moments until Mason destroys the chips, then surrenders to Hummel to buy time for Goodspeed to disable more rockets.

During a tense confrontation in the prison courtyard, Mason insinuates that Hummel is actually insulting the memory of his fallen soldiers by threatening innocent civilians and tests the General's resolve by calling him an idiot and denouncing his sense of patriotism as "a virtue of the vicious." Hummel angrily strikes Mason and prepares to shoot him in the head, but instead orders him locked up.

Goodspeed is able to disable the 13th rocket just before he is captured. Meanwhile, realizing that the SEAL team is lost, the Pentagon readies a backup plan: an attack by armed F/A-18s that will neutralize the poison gas. Mason fashions the bedding of his cell into a knotted rope with a wheel caster tied to the end for weight.

He explains that the government had no intention of ever letting him go; had he given up the microfilm, they would have simply killed him, making his death look like suicide. Goodspeed furiously asks how he managed to get out of the cell in the first place. An annoyed Mason ignores the question, simply throwing the rope until it finally hits a security switch that unlocks their cell doors.

Once they have safely made it to the beach, Mason again decides to leave the island, convinced that Hummel is only bluffing. Goodspeed insists that the military will need more than Mason's assumption to call off the air strike, and he will finish the mission alone if he has to. Goodspeed is captured before he can find another rocket, but he's rescued by Mason, who decided to come back.

He did not want to see Stanley's child grow up without a father, as Jade had. The deadline Hummel gave the FBI/Pentagon arrives, and when there is no ransom paid and no more time requested, Major Baxter demands that he take action. Hummel orders a rocket fired. It's headed for a full stadium at Candlestick Park, but Hummel slightly revises the coordinates on his computer keyboard and redirects the rocket so that it falls into the ocean.

The surviving officers are fearful, as Washington will now believe they are weak and incompetent and hit them with everything they've got. Hummel tells them that the whole operation was a bluff that the government didn't fall for, and since he's a professional soldier, not a murderer, it's all over. He tells his men to take some hostages and leave; he will surrender and take the heat for it all.

Fry and Darrow refuse. They consider themselves mercenaries working for pay, and they want their money or to make good on the threat. A Mexican standoff ensues, and Mason and Goodspeed arrive just in time to witness its conclusion. As shots are fired, General Hummel and Major Baxter are fatally wounded. Mason opens fire on the mutineers, forcing them to disperse.

A dying Hummel tells Goodspeed that the last rocket is in the lower lighthouse. Goodspeed heads to the lighthouse while Mason covers him from the rooftops. As Goodspeed disarms the last rocket, Darrow corners him, menacing him with a combat knife. Goodspeed launches the now-unarmed rocket, which hits Darrow squarely in the chest, causing him to plummet to his death.

As Goodspeed is handling the final string of green VX spheres, one of them drops on the deck. He catches it before it can shatter. Fry attacks him, chasing him through the lighthouse. Deciding to take a stand against Fry, Goodspeed lures him with the last guidance chip and attacks him with the thermite plasma. The armed jets are approaching. Fry overpowers Goodspeed and tries to strangle him.

Out of options, Goodspeed shoves the loose sphere into the Captain's mouth and hits him in the jaw, crushing the vial and releasing the contents. Captain Fry dies almost instantly, violently convulsing as his flesh melts away. Goodspeed is also exposed to the toxin, and he immediately stumbles away, pulling the atropine antidote from his boot and injecting himself in the heart with it.

He is then able to grab and light two green flares, the pre-arranged signal that the threat is over. The flares are spotted from land, but only after one of the jet pilots has released his bombs, exploding on the rear of the island, missing all the hostages and sending Goodspeed flying into the bay. Mason reappears and drags the unconscious Goodspeed to shore.

Paxton calls on the radio and learns from Goodspeed that all the hostages are still alive, but that Mason had been killed. The distraction provides Mason time to escape before the FBI arrives. Telling him that Wack tore up his pardon, Mason suggests that Goodspeed take his honeymoon with Carla by way of Fort Walton, Kansas, giving him a slip of paper saying "front pew."

When Paxton and Wack arrive, Goodspeed tells them that Mason was vaporized by the thermite plasma missile. The film ends with Goodspeed running from a church in Walton, Kansas, as Carla urges him to hurry and get in the car so they can get away. Goodspeed has in his hand a canister containing microfilm. He looks at the microfilm and asks Carla, "Would you like to know who really shot JFK?"

#ad

Full video recap of The Rock (1996)