Trivia / The Rock

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• All-Star Cast: Sean Connery, Nicolas Cage, Ed Harris, John Spencer, William Forsythe, Tony Todd, David Morse and Michael Biehn.
• Accidentally-Correct Writing: Almost 20 years after the movie was made, researchers had discovered hidden tunnels and even buildings dating back to the Civil War similar to those seen in the film.
• Actor-Inspired Element: It was Nicolas Cage's idea that his character would not swear; his euphemisms include "gee whiz", "a-hole", and "Zeus's butthole".
• Awesome, Dear Boy: Sean Connery said yes to the film because he wanted to work with Nicolas Cage.
• Blooper: In the Mexican Standoff scene, Darrow's pistol keeps changing from left hand to right hand.
• Cast the Expert: Some of the Navy SEALs in the film were played by real Navy SEALS.
• Executive Meddling: Bay was getting quite an amount of studio interference, until Connery told them to just let Bay make the movie the way he wanted, if they wanted Connery to stay with the film.
• Fake American: Stuart Wilson as U.S. Army General Al Kramer.
• In Memoriam: The film was dedicated to Don Simpson, who died during production.
• Irony: The movie was filmed on location, and had catering. As Bay said, people were eating steak and lobster in rooms "where men were taken to their lowest existence."
• Missing Trailer Scene: In the trailer, several shots appear to show Goodspeed firing an XM177 assault rifle. While Goodspeed does acquire an XM177 during the course of the film, he never actually fires it.
• Playing Against Type:
  • Nicolas Cage said yes to the film because people thought he was too quirky to be an action star and he wanted to prove them wrong.
  • William Forsythe usually plays villains, but portrays a Reasonable Authority Figure in the film.
• Those Two Actors: Ed Harris and Michael Biehn had both appeared in The Abyss, where they also opposed each other.
• Throw It In!: Much of Nicolas Cage's dialogue was ad-libbed (including the "Zeus's butthole" line, which Michael Bay wanted to cut but Cage insisted on having).
• Troubled Production: The film launched the blockbuster career of Michael Bay and remains one of his most critically respected films, but is notorious for its behind-the-scenes headaches.
  • It was a film that, along with The Cable Guy, became the center of controversy as the Writers Guild of America went into arbitration over the many writers that had touched the script. The final agreement left several writers on The Rock uncredited, including Jonathan Hensleigh (who had done a number of rewrites) and script doctors like Quentin Tarantino and Aaron Sorkin. Bay called the arbitration process "a sham" in an open letter, particularly for leaving Hensleigh uncredited.
  • Bay, who was still early in his Hollywood career (having only made Bad Boys (1995) less than a year prior), had to deal with overbearing Executive Meddling from Disney executives who were overseeing production. That changed when Sean Connery accompanied Bay to a board meeting and threatened to leave unless Bay was allowed to make the film his way. And since the film was being shot on location at Alcatraz Island and could not close it down for filming, Bay had to plan filming around the many tours hosted there.
  • There were also stresses between long-time production duo Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson. Simpson was one of Hollywood's most infamous party animals and had fallen further into drug use and controversy, most notably when a doctor that Simpson hired as a "rehab specialist" was found dead of a drug overdose in Simpson's estate. Bruckheimer felt his partner was too erratic and unfocused to work with any longer and terminated their partnership in December 1995, though both agreed to see the film through. Simpson himself died of a drug overdose a month later, some five months before the release date. The film would be dedicated to his memory.
• Uncredited Role: Aaron Sorkin was an uncredited script doctor for the screenplay.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Arnold Schwarzenegger was offered the Mason role, but at the time the script was only eighty pages "with a lot of handwriting and scribbles, and it didn't seem fully baked". In a Reddit AMA, he stated he regrets not taking the role.
  • Tony Scott was originally supposed to direct but turned it down to direct The Fan.
  • In a recent Interview, Michael Bay had planned a sequel, where Goodspeed would've gone on the hunted by the Government since he was carrying the Microfilm with the Government's darkest secrets, Carla would or would not be with him. Goodspeed's only hope would've been John Mason to help him.

• This film has the unusual, highly unfortunate legacy of having been the basis of false reports that convinced the United Kingdom to enter the Iraq War. Documents given to Tony Blair described chemical weapons being made by Saddam's regime, stored in identical fashion to the ones in the film (glass beads containing neon-green gas). MI6 was alarmingly careless in vetting the report, and failed to make their doubts of it clear until it was too late. This proved a particular source of consternation to the film's cowriter, David Weisberg, who had, after doing his homework on chemical weapons, completely fabricated the appearance and storage methods of the film's nerve agents for the sake of visual interest. He knew full well that no sane military would make chemical weapons bright neon green or store them in highly fragile glass spheres, and any actual chemical weapons expert should have immediately dismissed the report as a joke.

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