One of the most wonderful things about cinema is the possibility of discovering new stories that fascinate you like no other before, but we must admit that sometimes we want to play it safe. In my case, that usually translates into recovering a title that I have already enjoyed before, but the thing is that I’ve easily seen it 70 or more times and that never fails me: ‘The Rock’.
The premiere of ‘The Rock’ in 1996 caught me when I was barely 12 years old and was one of the reasons why I have been a fan of it for decades. Nicolas Cage. It doesn’t matter that his Stanley Goodspeed is a character that lends itself less to personal brilliance than those he played immediately afterwards in ‘Con Air’ and ‘Face to Face’, for me he is one of the keys to making this second feature film Michael Bay works so well.
An action bomb
For now, ‘The Rock’ is a great example of an action movie from the 90s, since it is true that Bay’s manners behind the cameras are noticeablebut his staging work is still more restrained than it would be later and he knows how to play very well with showiness – that chase through the streets of San Francisco – and a more physical treatment of the action that makes one feel the blows that the characters take.
In addition, Bay also takes advantage of the greater freedom that making a film offers rated R in the United States. It’s not something he excels at, but he does know how to use it wonderfully, whether to show a soldier decomposing due to the effects of the gas or to show a character dying from an impalement. Violence here is not something funny – although there is humor in the film – and it has very serious consequences.
I also haven’t forgotten the extraordinary cast of ‘The Rock’. Just by gathering Sean Connery, Nicolas Cage y Ed Harris You already have a lot of wins, but we also have Tony Todd, Michael Biehn, John Spencer, David Morse, William Forsythe or even the fleeting presence of Jim Caviezel – he is the driver with the most prominence in the last minutes -. And I could continue citing names of well-known performers, who, for example, the daughter in Connery’s fiction has the face of Claire Forlani.
It’s true that they don’t have Oscar material to shine either – ‘The Rock’ is still a summer pastime above all else – but it’s clear that two screenwriters as prestigious as Quentin Tarantino o Aaron Sorkin. If you add that to the good disposition of the actors – Harris’s peculiar villain is especially memorable – you already have a lot to gain.
In fact, Connery even came to Bay’s defense when some executives began to have some doubts about his work. All of this leads to ‘The Rock’ being a film made with a lot of confidence and a clear vision of what it wants to tell. That there are some silly details here and there? Maybe, but nothing that really bothers.
There are more important details, from the fact that it was filmed in the Alcatraz prison itself to the extraordinary soundtrack of Hans Zimmer and Nick Glennie-Smithbecause what we have here is a perfect clockwork mechanism so that the viewer has a great time. For my part, I really enjoyed it when I was still a long way from coming of age – I wore out the VHS copy they gave me from using it so much – and now I have done it again at 41 years old. And it sure won’t be too long until the next time.
You have ‘The Rock’ on Disney+ in case you want to (re)watch it.
In Espinof | The 5 best movies on Disney+ of 2025
In Espinof | 4 of the best Nicolas Cage movies to watch streaming
