- A mild-mannered chemist and an ex-con must lead the counterstrike when a rogue group of military men, led by a renegade general, threaten a nerve gas attack from Alcatraz against San Francisco.
- Stanley Goodspeed, who lives in Washington, D.C., is a biochemist who works for the F.B.I. Soon after his fiancée Carla Pestalozzi announces that she is pregnant, Stanley gets a call from F.B.I. Director James Womack. Womack tells Stanley that San Francisco's Alcatraz Island has been taken hostage, along with eighty-one tourists, by Marine General Francis Xavier Hummel who, for years, has been protesting the government's refusal to pay benefits to families of war veterans who died during covert military operations. The death of his wife Barbara on March 9, 1995 drove General Hummel over the edge, and now he's holding hostages in order to get his point across. Stanley is needed because General Hummel has stolen some VX gas warheads and has announced that he will launch them onto San Francisco unless his demands are met. Stanley knows how to disarm the bombs, but he needs someone who knows Alcatraz well enough to get him inside. That man is former British Intelligence Agent John Patrick Mason, who has been in prison for the past thirty years without a trial because he was accused of stealing the private files of J. Edgar Hoover. In 1962, John became the only inmate ever to escape from Alcatraz, and he stayed out of Alcatraz long enough to father a daughter named Jade Angelou. Despite his extreme hatred of the F.B.I., John agrees to help Stanley. When John and Stanley are sent into Alcatraz with a Navy S.E.A.L. team, General Hummel's men kill the entire S.E.A.L. team, leaving Stanley and John to work on their own to rescue the hostages.—Todd Baldridge
- With a madly daring scheme to unleash a devastating chemical warfare on the unsuspecting citizens of San Francisco, the disillusioned war hero, General Francis X. Hummel, and a handful of loyal men take over the impregnable prison island of Alcatraz. Demanding $100 million in reparations to the families of his lost brothers-in-arms, the highly decorated military man threatens to launch deadly rockets filled with nerve gas, unless the Pentagon takes him seriously. Now, the fates of millions rest in the hands of two unlikely companions: the nervous FBI chemist, Stanley Goodspeed, and the experienced British ex-spy and former Alcatraz inmate, John Patrick Mason, who must break into the abandoned fortress to thwart the general's plans. Many tried to break out of this rugged and impervious jail; however, only one succeeded. Can Mason and Stanley escape from the Rock in one piece?—Nick Riganas
- FBI chemical warfare expert Stanley Goodspeed (Nicolas Cage) is sent on an urgent mission with a former British spy, John Patrick Mason (Sean Connery), to stop Gen. Francis X. Hummel (Ed Harris) from launching chemical weapons on Alcatraz Island into San Francisco. Gen. Hummel demands $100 million in war reparations to be paid to the families of slain servicemen who died on covert operations. After their SEAL team is wiped out, Stanley and John deal with the soldiers on their own.—FilmsNow
- It's a quiet day in San Francisco. There are eighty-one civilians on a tour of Alcatraz, the prison famous for the fact that no prisoner had ever successfully escaped. During one of the tours, Marine General Francis Xavier Hummel takes the civilians hostage, with the help of other Marines. He has fifteen rockets of deadly VX gas at his disposal, ready to launch at San Francisco. His reason for doing this is simple. He has seen Marines under his command get killed in combat without a military burial or benefits to their families. He makes a threat to the F.B.I.: give the fallen Marines recognition or he will launch the VX rockets. After learning that one rocket is enough to take out sixty or seventy thousand people, the F.B.I. sends for their top chemical weapons expert: Dr. Stanley Goodspeed, engaged to his pregnant girlfriend. While trying to figure out a countermeasure to the current situation, the F.B.I. is forced to resort to John Patrick Mason, an ex-con who broke out of Alcatraz in 1962.—Ridley Lavine
- Rogue Force Recon Marines led by heroic Brigadier General Francis Hummel (Ed Harris) seizes a stockpile of rockets armed with VX gas, a highly toxic chemical weapon, from a Naval Weapons Depot. Hummel and his men including second-in-command Major Tom Baxter (David Morse) then seize Alcatraz Island and take 81 tourists hostage, placing them in the prison cells, then threatening the FBI and Pentagon with launching the VX rockets against the population of San Francisco, unless the government pays ransom of $100 million from a military slush fund, which he will distribute to his men and the families of Recon Marines who died on covert missions under his command, but whose deaths were not compensated.
The Pentagon and FBI develop a plan to retake the island with an elite Navy SEAL team led by Commander Anderson (Michael Biehn), enlisting chemical weapons expert Stanley Goodspeed (Nicolas Cage) to help remove the VX and disarm the rockets. Goodspeed is not a field agent, but has no choice in the matter as he is the only expert available. In need of reliable first-hand knowledge of the physical layout of Alcatraz, FBI Director Womack (John Spencer) releases federal prisoner John Mason (Sean Connery), the only former inmate of Alcatraz to ever successfully escape. Mason is bribed with a pardon to cooperate with the FBI, but in reality, Womack has no intention of keeping the promise. Mason escapes to make contact with his estranged daughter Jade Angelou (Claire Forlani), Goodspeed and the FBI catch up with him.
With Mason the team infiltrates Alcatraz. But the entire prison has sensors installed by Hummel's team and are quickly discovered. They confronted by Hummel's men & only Mason & Goodspeed escape. Goodspeed wants to finish the mission and attempts to strong-arm Mason into helping. Mason, seeing his chance to escape custody, disarms Goodspeed. Mason changes his mind about assisting Goodspeed for the safety of his daughter.
Mason and Goodspeed eliminate several teams of Marines and disable twelve of the fifteen rockets by removing their guidance chips.
FBI prepares strike fighters with Plasma to destroy the entire island along with the gas. Mason tells Goodspeed that as a British agent he stole a microfilm containing serious secrets about U.S. and other world leaders and events. The information came from the personal files of former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. Mason was imprisoned for 33 years when he refused to divulge the location of the microfilm.
Hummel threatens to execute a hostage if they do not surrender and return the chips; Mason destroys them before submitting to Hummel to try reasoning with him and stall for time. Goodspeed disables another rocket but then gets captured. Goodspeed is rescued by Mason. As the deadline passes, Hummel launches but then destroys the warhead at last minute. When confronted by Captains Darrow (Tony Todd) and Frye (Gregory Sporleder), Hummel explains the rocket threat was an elaborate bluff, as he had never intended to harm innocent civilians. He declares the mission over and orders the Marines to leave Alcatraz with some hostages and the remaining rocket to cover their retreat while he assumes the blame. His men mutiny saying they expect to be paid for their trouble.
A firefight ensues; Baxter is killed defending Hummel, who is mortally wounded. The general manages to tell Goodspeed where the last rocket is before dying. As Goodspeed retrieves the VX globule, he is attacked by one of Hummels men. Goodspeed breaks the globule in the attacker's mouth, killing him instantly. He then injects his own heart with a vaccine to protect himself from death. Though Goodspeed signals that the threat is over, one jet accidentally drops a bomb, and the blast throws Goodspeed into the bay, and Mason rescues him. Goodspeed says that Mason was killed in the attack.
The film ends with Goodspeed running from a church in Ft. Walton, Kansas, as Carla, his pregnant bride, urges him to hurry and get in the car so they can get away. Goodspeed has in his hand a canister containing microfilm. Mason had told him where to find it. He looks at the microfilm and asks Carla if she'd like to know who really shot JFK.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content