4. The Rock (1996)
Nicolas Cage gets to throw his Die Hard hat in the ring with this film. "Die Hard on a Rock" or "Die Hard on Alcatraz" or as I like to think of it, "I Left my Die Hard in San Francisco," it follows the same formula but puts things back on solid ground instead of flying, driving, or floating. Cage plays FBI Weapon's Specialist Dr Stanley Goodspeed who is ordered to work with ex-con John Mason (Sean Connery) to stop madman Brigadier General Frank Hummel (Ed Harris) who has stolen a batch of deadly nerve gas missiles. Taking this load of missiles to Alcatraz he and his henchmen (one of whom is the wonderfully deep voiced Tony Todd) take 81 day tourists hostage and aim the missiles at San Francisco. A team of Navy SEALs have been sent in but Goodspeed and Mason are the 'plan-b' of this outfit. After the SEALS are eliminated with extreme prejudice, plan b get stuck in. This film, besides using the tried and true Die Hard formula, marked a transition for Cage. Until now he'd always played odd and quirky characters. After The Rock, he "beefed up" and got to play heroes. So Die Hard in prison does a pretty good job emulating the original.