The Cast Of The Rock Has Changed A Lot Since 1996 - And Suffered A Big Loss

The 1996 prison island masterpiece "The Rock" is arguably the best Michael Bay movie ever — not to mention one of the best action movies of all time, period. The story about a rogue Marine squad taking over Alcatraz Island and holding the entire San Francisco hostage with chemical weapons combines uniquely thrilling action with stellar cinematography, and even features a sprinkle of social commentary on the government's treatment of military veterans and their families.

Combine all of this with the fact that "The Rock" features a cast for the ages, and it's no surprise that the movie has remained an action staple for all these years. Of course, the sheer amount of time that has passed since the movie premiered means that the central cast of "The Rock" has changed quite a lot over the decades — and even suffered a major loss.

Nicolas Cage plays Dr. Stanley Goodspeed, an FBI biochemist. He's supposed to be a strictly non-combatant scientist member on the Alcatraz infiltration mission but becomes a reluctant action hero when the military unit escorting him is killed. Cage was fresh off winning his best actor Academy Award for 1995's "Leaving Las Vegas" when "The Rock" started his red-hot late-1990s string of action movies, which soon continued with "Con Air" and "Face/Off." 

Everyone who's paid even cursory attention to the actor's career knows what a rollercoaster ride his CV has been since then. Cage's best and worst movies alike have become the stuff of legends, and while few would dare to question his talent, he's also known for some truly eccentric movie choices. Though his most terrible movies have occasionally turned him into a bit of a punchline, recent years have seen Cage reliably deliver in critic-approved works like "Mandy," "Dream Scenario," "Pig," and "Longlegs." Still, whether any given Nic Cage movie is good or bad, the actor's ability to transform continues to impress, and even his most outlandish roles are reliably entertaining to watch.

Dr. Goodspeed's co-protagonist in "The Rock" is John Patrick Mason, an old MI6 agent who has been incarcerated for 30 years after stealing important state secrets. He ends up on the Alcatraz mission because he once managed to escape from the facility and finds himself mentoring Goodspeed after the pair become the only survivors of the infiltration team. Mason is played by none other than Sean Connery, who infuses the role with his trademark charm. Connery was already 65 years old when he filmed "The Rock." He retired from on-screen acting in 2003, and his last voice acting role occurred in 2012. He's also the one cast member on this list who is no longer with us; Connery died on October 31, 2020, at 90 years of age. 

There's a wild internet theory that "The Rock" is a James Bond sequel, and Mason is secretly 007 himself. Connery certainly played the role like an aged-up, quite justifiably embittered version of his iconic secret agent role. Perhaps because of this, "The Rock" is one of the Scottish actor's most memorable non-Bond roles — along with films like 1986's "Highlander" and 1987's "The Untouchables." Incidentally, the latter movie earned Connery an Academy Award for best supporting actor, which means that both central protagonists in "The Rock" are Oscar winners.

Brigadier General Francis X. Hummel is a hard-as-nails military man who takes over Alcatraz in a last ditch attempt to make the government provide financial compensation for the families of the Marines who died while under his command. As such, he's not entirely without his redeeming qualities, especially compared to some of the more ruthless men serving under him.

The man who brought General Hummel to life, Ed Harris, is a powerhouse actor with gravitas to spare. The "Apollo 13" and "The Abyss" star had already landed the first of his four Academy Award nominations before "The Rock," making him an excellent choice to portray an opposing force to the double-team of Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage. A veteran of big-budget genre films and ambitious arthouse dramas alike, Harris went on to appear in dozens of other memorable movie roles. He's known for playing the antagonist in films that range from "The Truman Show" to "A History of Violence," but also for his serious fare in films like "Pollock" and "Mother!" His TV appearances are far more sporadic than his movie ones, but he memorably portrays the Man in Black in HBO's "Westworld."

Commander Anderson leads the ill-fated SEAL Team One sent to escort Mason and Goodspeed to Alcatraz Island. An honorable man who sympathizes with General Hummel's motivation to help the families of the fallen but opposes his actions, Anderson could easily be the protagonist of this or many other similar films ... and precisely because of this, Michael Biehn is the perfect choice to portray him.

Biehn joined the movie's cast with a laundry list of famous military man roles already under his belt. He had played future freedom fighter Kyle Reese in 1984's "Terminator, Corporal Hicks in 1986's "Aliens," and Lieutenant Curran in 1990's "Navy Seals." He'd even faced off with Ed Harris before in 1989's "The Abyss." Casting the actor as Anderson and then killing the character off is a perfect way to illustrate how high the stakes are in "The Rock."

As great as Biehn's run in the 1980s and 1990s was, "The Rock" is arguably his last truly iconic film. Nevertheless, he's continued to work steadily since then in smaller movies as well as TV shows like the CBS Western series "The Magnificent Seven" and the syndicated Canadian show "Adventure Inc." He's also played Sheriff Hague in Quentin Tarantino's "Grindhouse: Planet Terror" and made guest appearances in shows like "The Mandalorian" and "The Walking Dead."

FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Ernest Paxton (William Forsythe) plays mission control to Mason and Goodspeed and grows increasingly sympathetic toward the former as he learns about the deeply unfair and illegal circumstances of the former MI6 man's three-decade incarceration. Paxton's initial status as a cold authority figure hints that his relationship with the protagonists could go either way, which is why casting Forsythe for the role was a clever call. At the time, he was known for playing all sorts of criminals, from Evelle Stoats in "Raising Arizona" and Flattop in "Dick Tracy" to Al Capone in the 1993-1994 TV series "The Untouchables," so seeing him ultimately side with the protagonists is a fun little twist.

Forsythe's career was far from over after filming "The Rock." On the contrary, he has appeared in dozens of movies and TV shows since 1996, often playing influential people on either side of the law. Some of his best-known roles include Sheriff John Quincey Wydell in Rob Zombie's horror movie "The Devil's Rejects," Manny Horvitz on "Boardwalk Empire," and J. Edgar Hoover on "The Man in the High Castle."

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Along with Gregory Sporleder's unpredictable Captain Frye, Tony Todd's Captain Darrow heads the mutiny that strips General Hummel and Major Baxter of their command and their lives. The ruthless Darrow feels that Hummel is being too soft with his plan, and he goes on to become an important part of the movie's climactic action scene.

Todd had already made a name for himself in the villain game before "The Rock." In 1992, he played "Candyman's" titular character in a performance that established the hook-handed antagonist as a tragic and terrifying horror icon. Two years later, he played the gangster Grange in "The Crow." After appearing in "The Rock," Todd has remained extremely busy with a wide range of live-action roles and voice acting, having worked on over 200 projects and counting. Apart from Candyman — a role he's reprised multiple times — his most notorious live-action role might be the major "Final Destination" franchise character William Bludworth. His many voice roles include the villainous Fallen in "The Rock" director Michael Bay's "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" and Zoom on The CW's "The Flash." He also voices Darkseid in various DC animated projects.