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Brian James Smith reports from the 30th Anniversary screening of The Rock (1996) at the 2026 Edinburgh International Film Festival
By: Brian James Smith
Published:
2026-08-25
2026-08-25
The Rock follows FBI chemical weapons expert Dr Stanley Goodspeed (Nicolas Cage) who is teamed up with federal prisoner, and former SAS captain, John Mason (Sean Connery), ‘trained by the best. British Intelligence.’ Along with a group of Navy SEALs, they infiltrate the former prison facility of Alcatraz which has been taken over by a rogue group of US Marines. They are armed with chemical weapons which they intend to fire, by rocket, on the population of San Francisco if their demands are not met. There are a few coded nods to Bond. When Mason is given his scuba gear, he remarks: ‘In my day, we did it all with a snorkel and a pair of flippers.’
Jason Connery introduced the film. He recalled the day he visited his father on the set of The Rock:
“I thought maybe something terrible had happened because it felt very dark. We were in the bottom of Alcatraz, full of water, and they were getting about thirty seconds of useable film a day. I kept thinking god, this is all very dour, and the crew seemed to be quite downtrodden. At a certain point I was standing next to Dad who was next to Michael Bay. He said, ‘Michael, I’m not sure you realize, but if you speak to that grip again like that, I think he might deck you.’ So, I got a sense of quite a lot of tension. Ultimately, it works well in the film.”
Jason Connery introducing The Rock at the Edinburgh International Film Festival with festival director Paul Ridd. Photo by Cameron Allan. Copyright © 2026 Edinburgh International Film Festival Ltd. All rights reserved.
Jason also shared an amusing story when he attended the Oscars ceremony with Sean a few years later:
“It goes on for an unbelievably long time. There’s this strange thing when you get up to go to the loo, they have actors who come and take your place, because as the camera pans over, they’re so paranoid that anybody would see an empty seat. But nobody told us that, so we were coming back, looking for our seat. So finally, these two actors jumped up and said, ‘this is your seat, please sit here.’ And as we sat down, this very pretty young lady said to Dad, ‘Hi Dad!’ I just saw this little bit of a... I think he was thinking... ahh... Anyway, it turned out it was Claire Forlani, and she had played his daughter in The Rock, and he had forgotten. The look of relief on his face was an inspiration to actors everywhere!”
Jason Connery with his wife Fiona at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. Photo by Cameron Allan. Copyright © 2026 Edinburgh International Film Festival Ltd. All rights reserved.
On the closing night of the festival, and in partnership with The Sean Connery Foundation (SCF), The Sean Connery Prize for Feature Filmmaking Excellence was awarded to Kieron J Walsh for Skintown. The legacy of Scotland’s biggest global star endures.
Article by Brian James Smith. Copyright © 2026 From Sweden with Love. All rights reserved.
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