The Rock

A group of rogue U. S. Force Recon Marines, led by disenchanted Brigadier General Frank Hummel (Harris) and his second-in-command Major Tom Baxter (Morse), storm a heavily guarded naval weapons depot and steal a stockpile of deadly VX gas-armed M55 rockets, losing one of their own men in the process. The next day, Hummel and his men ? along with newly-recruited Marine Captains Frye (Sporleder) and Darrow (Todd) ? seize control of Alcatraz Island, taking eighty-one tourists hostage. Hummel threatens to launch the rockets against San Francisco unless the U. S. government pays him $100 million from a military slush fund, which he will distribute to his men and the families of Recon Marines who died on clandestine missions under his command but whose deaths were not compensated.

The Pentagon and FBI develop a plan to retake the island with a U. S. Navy SEAL team led by Commander Anderson (Biehn), enlisting the FBI's top chemical weapons specialist, Dr. Stanley Goodspeed (Cage). FBI Director James Womack (Spencer) is forced to offer a pardon to federal prisoner John Mason (Connery), in return for information. Mason, a 60-year-old British national imprisoned without charges for two decades, is the only Alcatraz inmate ever to escape the island. After being set up in a hotel, Mason escapes, resulting in a car chase with Goodspeed through the streets of San Francisco. While Mason seeks out his estranged daughter, Jade (Forlani), Goodspeed arrives, but he covers for Mason by telling Jade that Mason is aiding the FBI.

Goodspeed, Mason, and the SEALs infiltrate Alcatraz but Hummel's men are alerted to their presence and ambush them in a shower room. All the SEALs, including Anderson, are killed ? leaving only Mason and Goodspeed alive. Mason sees his chance to escape custody and disarms Goodspeed, but is convinced to help defuse the rockets after the Marines use explosive devices to flush them out.