The Rock is a 1996 American action thriller film directed by Michael Bay, produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, and written by David Weisberg, Douglas S. Cook and Mark Rosner.

It stars Sean Connery, Nicolas Cage and Ed Harris, with supporting roles played by Michael Biehn, William Forsythe, David Morse, and John Spencer.

Connery plays a former SAS captain and Cage an FBI chemist, who must rescue hostages from a rogue group of Force Recon Marines on Alcatraz Island.

Britain's Secret Intelligence Service was led to believe Saddam Hussein was continuing to produce weapons of mass destruction by a false agent who based his reports on The Rock, according to the Chilcot Inquiry.

[6] Disillusioned USMC Brigadier General Francis Hummel and his rogue group of Force Recon marines, including his loyal subordinate Major Tom Baxter, steal 15 rockets filled with lethal VX gas from a U.S. Navy facility.

Hummel contacts the FBI and threatens to launch the rockets at the San Francisco Bay Area unless the government pays him $100 million, of which some will be donated to each family of the men who died during his command but were never compensated.

The Department of Defense and the FBI plot to retake Alcatraz by infiltrating the old tunnel system beneath the island, with Navy SEALs led by Commander Anderson.

Mason escapes and leads the FBI on a car chase, causing a rampage through the city before being caught by Goodspeed when he meets with his estranged daughter, Jade.

Other actors in smaller roles include Todd Louiso as FBI agent Marvin Isherwood, David Bowe as Dr. Ling, Howard Platt as Louis Lindstrom, John Laughlin as General Peterson, Harry Humphries as Admiral Johansson, Willie Garson as Francis Reynolds, Anthony Clark as Paul the hairdresser, Tom Towles as an Alcatraz park ranger, and Anthony Guidera and Jim Caviezel as F-18 pilots.

The spec script (by David Weisberg and Douglas Cook) was reworked by several writers, but other than the original team, Mark Rosner was the only one granted official credit by guild arbitration.

[12] British screenwriting team Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais were brought in at Connery's request to rewrite his lines, but ended up altering much of the film's dialogue.

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 when he was approached by Connery in golfing attire.

[31] Roger Ebert awarded the film 3.5 out of 4 stars, praising it as "a first-rate, slam-bang action thriller with a lot of style and no little humor".

[32] Todd McCarthy of Variety gave the film a positive review, commenting "The yarn has its share of gaping holes and jaw-dropping improbabilities, but director Michael Bay sweeps them all aside with his never-take-a-breath pacing.

[39] In September 2002, MI6 chief Sir Richard Dearlove said the agency had acquired information from a new source revealing that Iraq was stepping up production of chemical and biological warfare agents.

The source, who was said to have "direct access", claimed senior staff were working seven days a week while the regime was concentrating a great deal of effort on the production of anthrax.

Dearlove told the chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC), Sir John Scarlett, that they were "on the edge of (a) significant intel breakthrough" which could be the "key to unlock" Iraq's weapons programme.

By February 2003 – a month before the invasion of Iraq – MI6 concluded that their source had been lying "over a period of time" but failed to inform No 10 or others, even though Prime Minister Tony Blair had been briefed on this intelligence.

Weisberg said he was unsurprised a desperate agent might resort to films for inspiration, but dismayed that authorities "didn't do apparently the most basic fact-checking or vetting of the information.

[43] In June 2017, director Michael Bay discussed his idea for a follow-up to The Rock that never developed past the concept that Goodspeed and Mason are chased by the government after escaping, due to possession of the microfilm as shown in the ending.