25 Fun Facts About Michael Bay's THE ROCK and a Short "Making Of" Documentary
In my opinion, The Rock is Michael Bay’s best film. At least, it’s my favorite film that he’s made. I freakin’ love that movie because it’s just so much damn fun! It was released at a time when I was fascinated with the history of Alcatraz, so to see a badass action movie set on Alcatraz island was super freakin’ cool.
The movie starred Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage, who were both great in their roles. There was also an awesome supporting cast that included Ed Harris, Michael Biehn, and more.
Since I’ve been locked down in my home, I’ve been revisiting films that I enjoyed when I was growing up, and I’ve been showing some of them to my kids. The Rock was one of those movies, and I thought I’d put together a list of fun facts about it with information that you may or may not have ever known. There’s actually a lot that a came across here on Imdb that I didn’t know before!
Here’s a list of twenty-five fun facts for you to enjoy:
Sir Sean Connery insisted the producers build a cabin for him on Alcatraz, as he didn't want to travel from the mainland to the island every day. He got what he asked for.
According to Bay, the script was written much more straight and serious than the final movie. Most of the humorous moments and lines were improvised during filming.
Quentin Tarantino is an uncredited screenwriter on this movie, along with Jonathan Hensleigh, who wrote the shooting script, and Aaron Sorkin.
Much of Nicolas Cage's dialogue was ad-libbed, which included the "Zeus' butthole" line, which Bay wanted to cut, but Cage insisted on having. It was also Cage's idea that his character would not swear. His euphemisms include "gee whiz".
Goodspeed's "Eat that you fuck!" was originally "Did I ever tell you I was gonna be a dad?" Cage hated it, but tried the line out at the request of Jerry Bruckheimer, who conceded it didn't work as well as what replaced it.
Producer Don Simpson was largely responsible for creating the critical General Hummel character. Simpson watched a 60 Minutes (1993) segment about the U.S. government's refusal to acknowledge soldiers who had died during covert overseas missions, and later read Colonel David H. Hackworth's memoirs which harshly criticized U.S. planning during the Vietnam War. He combined these elements into Hummel's character and, as Jonathan Hensleigh described, created "a really compelling villain: a soldier with a noble end, but, unfortunately, psychotic means."
There were tensions during shooting between director Michael Bay and Walt Disney Studios executives who were supervising the production. On the commentary track for the Criterion Collection DVD, Bay recalls a time when he was preparing to leave the set for a meeting with the executives and was approached by Connery in golfing attire. Connery, who also produced this movie, asked Bay where he was going, and when Bay explained that he had a meeting with the executives, Connery asked if he could accompany him. Bay complied, and when Bay arrived in the conference room, the executives' jaws dropped when they saw Connery appear behind him. According to Bay, Connery then stood up for him, and insisted that he was doing a good job and should be left alone.
In the scene in the interrogation room where FBI agent Stanley Goodspeed introduces himself to John Mason (Connery), John replies "But of course you are". This the same line he used when he met Plenty O'Toole in the casino scene in the Bond movie "Diamonds Are Forever."
Arnold Schwarzenegger was offered the role of Cage’s character, but at the time the script was only eighty pages "with a lot of handwriting and scribbles, and it didn't seem fully baked." He said he regrets not taking the role.
Some of the Navy S.E.A.L.s in this movie were played by real Navy S.E.A.L.s.
Michael Biehn, who has played Navy S.E.A.L.s, or some variation thereof on multiple occasions, was unsure of himself while acting for the first time here against real S.E.A.L.s. He told Bay he was freezing up pretending to be the leader in front of them, as well as in Connery's presence.
This movie marks the third time that Biehn has played a Navy S.E.A.L. The first was in The Abyss, and the second was in Navy S.E.A.L.s. He also played a Colonial Marine Corporal in Aliens.
Bay said, "The car chase in San Francisco turned out to be the biggest clusterfuck I've ever done in my entire filming career". He said getting clearances for even a two-block stretch required thousands of signatures, and when they fell behind on the shooting schedule, it resulted in a trio of studio reps arriving to give him a stern talking.
The studio originally wanted to shoot the movie in Los Angeles, with only a handful of exteriors of Alcatraz and San Francisco to complete the illusion, but Bay refused, telling them "I gotta shoot on this island because this island is so fucking bitchin.”
Most of the scenes involving F/A-18s are stock footage of the U.S. Navy Blue Angels.
Bay walked off the movie for a couple hours once, and was threatened with a $60 million lawsuit when the studio tried scrapping the scene where the SEALs approach the island from underwater. He held his ground, though, and they budged first.
Cage showed Bay and Bruckheimer Jaws to highlight Richard Dreyfuss' performance as what he wanted to do in the bomb-dismantling scene. "I admit that I steal from other places. I think that actors should be allowed to do that.”
The "mine" cart scene was initially meant to be a big chase with carts hanging from a ceiling track as opposed to ones on traditional rails, the production ran out of money. Remnants of it are seen in the hanging cart in which Goodspeed lands.
Cage was concerned that he "looked like a little Japanese schoolboy" in his S.C.U.B.A. gear while the other actors all looked cool. Bay admits to intentionally making him look ridiculous.
Ed Harris wasn't necessarily thrilled with the excessive amounts of coverage Bay shot of his scenes. "They shoot you head on, they shoot you from underneath, they shoot you right and left, they shoot you from above, they shoot you on the move. He just loved the camera." Michael recalls Ed "testing" him during a rehearsal by suggesting the actors are the only ones up on the screen, but Michael told him his name would be up there too. "It's like two dogs sniffing each other out.”
Bay explained "There's a major logic flaw in the movie. Why are the boilers working on the Rock when this island hasn't been used for years?" He answers his own question saying "Screw it, it's entertaining, don't you think?”
Mason stabbed Hendrix's hand and pins it to the cart, but they removed the shot for being too gruesome and out of character.
Tony Scott was originally supposed to direct, but turned it down to direct The Fan.
The premiere of the movie was held in the Prison Recreation Yard on Alcatraz.
Michael Bay's idea for a sequel involves a now-married Goodspeed in possession of the microfilm evidence who finds himself pursued by the government, and with nowhere else to turn, he's forced to ask Mason for help.
Below you’ll find the original trailer for the film along with a behind-the-scene “making of” documentary that you might be interested in watching!