Rewatchables Reference

• The morgue scene – Connery throws the knife, the air conditioner kill, 'that's just about the most awful thing I've ever seen' (Mina Kimes).
• The shower room shootout – SEALs vs. Marines, 'I cannot give that order' (Chris Ryan).
• The mine cart chase (Bill Simmons).
• Connery opening the door to Alcatraz through the fire-pattern boiler room – 'Welcome to the Rock'.

• Alcatraz as a movie setting – always works.
• San Francisco car chases.
• 'Losers always whine about their best. Winners go home and fuck the prom queen'.
• Nick Cage hamming it up – first full Cage, before it became self-parody.
• The politics – unusual nuance for a Michael Bay film about government and patriotism (Mina Kimes).
• The impressive list of 'that guys' who graduated to real careers.

• The movie is too long – 2 hours 15 minutes, some fat in the first third.
• Anthony Clark as the super-gay hairstylist.
• Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson becoming one of the most famous celebrities – hard to Google the movie now.
• Carla (Vanessa Marcil) – not a great character, why is she in the situation room at the end?

• Arnold Schwarzenegger was offered Mason – regrets not taking it.
• Tony Scott was supposed to direct but did The Fan instead.

• Gregory Sporleder – the last marine standing with the pronounced chin (Bill Simmons).
• Stanley Anderson – plays the president in both The Rock and 'Armageddon', suggesting a Bay cinematic universe.
• Danny Nucci – the marine who ends up hanging upside down after the shower shootout.

• Tony Todd (winner).
• Gregory Sporleder (Captain Frye) – 'we're locked and ready to rock, sir'.

• VX gas – first inanimate object ever nominated; very small screen time, looks great (Chris Ryan).
• William Forsythe (Agent Paxton) – quietly very good, lets Mason's survival slide at the end (Mina Kimes).

• Ving Rhames for Tony Todd's mercenary role.
• Phil Hartman as the Alcatraz tour guide.
• Delroy Lindo for one of the mercenary roles (Mina Kimes).
• John Cusack for Nick Cage's role (Mina Kimes).

• Nine writers total due to Writers Guild arbitration.
• Cage insisted his character never swear – hence 'Zeus's butthole' etc.
• Some Navy SEALs in the movie were played by real Navy SEALs.
• Don Simpson created Hummel after seeing a 60 Minutes piece about unacknowledged soldiers.
• Filming at the Fairmont Hotel – guests called the front desk thinking someone was dangling from the balcony.
• Bay's sequel idea: Goodspeed has the microfilm, turns to Mason for help – 'This is essentially National Treasure'.

• Nicolas Cage – Yes, coming off the Oscar for Leaving Las Vegas.
• Late-career Sean Connery – No, 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade'.
• Alcatraz movies – Yes, this is the big one.
• Michael Bay movies – discussed; Mina says this is his best creatively.
• Hummers – apex year for Hummers in movies.

• Connery hasn't driven a car for 35 years but expertly navigates San Francisco.
• Connery remembering the exact fire-pattern sequence 30+ years later.
• $83 million is not that much – the government should just pay it rather than bomb San Francisco.
• Ed Harris has the one man who can stop his mission and just locks him in a cell unguarded.
• Cage's resistance to atropine – side effects are mild vs. VX gas melting your skin.

Yes – the premise is 'unimpeachable'; could expand on hostage logistics and mutiny politics.

• The James Bond theory – debunked but the internet persists.
• How does atropine injection really work?

• The microfilm that reveals how Kennedy really died (Chris Ryan).
• The game-used 1996 Hummer from the movie (Bill Simmons).
• The underwater approach vehicles (Mina Kimes).

Sean Connery (unanimous).