Flare Sci-Fi Forums: "The Rock"

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Posted by Snay (Member # 411) on :

Okay, "The Rock" is one of my favorite action movies. For those unfamiliar with it, it's directed by Michael Bay, and stars Sean Connery, Ed Harris, and Nick Cage.

The plot is rather straight-forward: a group of Force Recon Marines, upset over the Pentagon's treatment of their fallen comrades, steal deadly VX gas and occupy Alcatraz Island. Poised to deliver a gas strike on San Francisco, they demand reperations be paid to the families of their dead fellow Marines. The government quickly puts together a SEAL team to infiltrate the island and overwhelm the Marines: among the team are John Mason, a former Alcatraz prisoner and the only man to escape the island and live to talk about it; and FBI Agent Goodspeed, an FBI chemical “super-freak” who can disarm the VX.

So, anyway, I was watching the film the other day, humming along to the Hans Zimmer score. And I noticed something.

When the SEAL team infiltrates the island through an underwater pipe, they emerge in the “cistern” room. The room is sealed with a door that can’t be opened from the inside, but Mason is able to leave the cistern room by memorizing the flame cycle on an oven of some type. But when Mason escaped, he’d be looking to, if anything, break INTO the cistern room, not out of it. And since the door to the cistern room can be opened from the outside, why would he need to memorize the burn cycle?

Posted by Magnus de Pym (Member # 239) on :

You've sunk an otherwise watertight plot.

Although, it does have John C. McGinley in it. So, it is better than it otherwise would be. John C. McGinley!

Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :

"Watertight"! Because it's on an island! And there's water around it and stuff. And...oh, forget it.

Posted by Free ThoughtCrime America (Member # 480) on :

I wish I could do the People's Eyebrow like The Rock.

He recently lost his title to Brock Lesner. Boy, I wish he had won.

Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :

No! Not Brock Lesner!?! What is that muscle that guy has behind his neck... I'm sure humans don't have a muscle there! LOL!

I can't believe Brock Lesner is the same age as me.

Andrew

Posted by E. Cartman (Member # 256) on :

The guy's twice my weight. Yikes.

Posted by Veers (Member # 661) on :

(In Sean Connery-style voice)
"Welcome to the Rock!"

Yes, "The Rock" is one of the better action movies, and along with "Con Air" and "Face/Off" one of Nick Cage's three best action movies.

Posted by Vogon Poet (Member # 393) on :

I always assumed that back then the door would have been kept locked; many of the now-unlocked doors they go through would have been secured when it was a working prison, surely?

There's just one problem I have with this film: the guy who fights Mason, who tells him he hates the English; that just cried out for The Greatest Living Scotsman to retort that he isn't English! But it's an American film, and you guys can't tell the difference between English and Scottish any more than we can tell the difference between Yanks and Canadians. . .

Posted by Snay (Member # 411) on :

Vogon,

Actually, I noticed that too. Because Goodspeed's fellow techno-nerd on the cell phone says, "he was born in ... Glasgow?" And I am aware that Glasgow is in Scotland, not England. I always thought it would be great for Mason to reply -- right before he sends that chain down the well -- "I'm a Scottish prick, thank you very much!"

As for the cistern room, I was under the impression it was accessed only through the tunnels under the prison. I guess it could also have been locked from the outside.

UM: McGinley is the actor from "Scrubs", right? Played Captain Hendricks? Got burned alive on the old mine tracks and fell into the water? Poor guy. [Frown]

PS: the set designs on that movie were incredible ... obviously, I'm not talking about the scenes actually filmed on the island, but the sets created in Hollywood: the shower room, the morgue, the tunnels ... WOW!

Posted by Aethelwer (Member # 36) on :

The Rock is, like, my favorite movie ever.

"Womack!"

Posted by Hobbes (Member # 138) on :

::smites Jeff:: Don't try to ruin a cool scene! He's James Bond dammit, he can do whatever he wants! [Big Grin]