5. The Rock (1996)
Michael Bay's second movie features everything that would become the director's trademarks; high-octane thrills, sweeping camera moves, heavy use of the military and of course, explosions. Lots of explosions. Anchored by the unlikely double-act of Nicolas Cage (in his blockbuster debut) and Sean Connery,
The Rock would go on to become the 4th highest-grossing film of the year and a classic of action cinema. The typically high-concept pitch was simple; when rogue Marines lead a hostile takeover of Alcatraz armed with chemical weapons, an out-of-his-depth weapons expert has to stop them, accompanied by the only man to ever break out of the prison island. However, an idea is only as good as its execution and great performances from the two leads, a stellar supporting cast and superior action scenes elevate
The Rock to greatness. The opening raid by the Marines to seize the weapons is an excercise in precision, the high-speed chase through the streets of San Francisco stays just the right side of ridiculous despite featuring a Ferrari chasing a Hummer, and the infiltration of Alcatraz itself begins as a tense stealth mission before descending into an escalating series of fistfights, gunplay and odd-couple banter between Cage and Connery. Before his directorial style became widely parodied and often-criticized, Michael Bay handles the action with a confidence that belies his status as a sophomore director. One of the overlooked merits of
The Rock is the script; it delivers plenty of backstory and plot without falling too far into exposition, Ed Harris' General Hummel is painted as a tragic war hero rather than a two-dimensional villain, and both Connery's John Mason and Cage's ridiculously-named Stanley Goodspeed are given plenty of character moments. This should really come as no surprise when as well as having three credited writers, Jonathan Hensleigh, Aaron Sorkin and Quentin Tarantino also worked on the script.