- An FBI chemical weapons expert, and a former SAS solider turned political prisoner, must break into Alcatraz prison when a rogue military group, led by a renegade general, take it over and threaten a nerve gas attack on San Francisco.
- Stanley Goodspeed, who lives in Washington, D.C., is a biochemist who works for the F.B.I. Soon after his fiancée Carla Pestalozzi announces that she is pregnant, Stanley gets a call from F.B.I. Director James Womack. Womack tells Stanley that San Francisco's Alcatraz Island has been taken hostage, along with eighty-one tourists, by Marine General Francis Xavier Hummel who, for years, has been protesting the government's refusal to pay benefits to families of war veterans who died during covert military operations. The death of his wife Barbara on March 9, 1995 drove General Hummel over the edge, and now he's holding hostages in order to get his point across. Stanley is needed because General Hummel has stolen some VX gas warheads and has announced that he will launch them onto San Francisco unless his demands are met. Stanley knows how to disarm the bombs, but he needs someone who knows Alcatraz well enough to get him inside. That man is former British Intelligence Agent John Patrick Mason, who has been in prison for the past thirty years without a trial because he was accused of stealing the private files of J. Edgar Hoover. In 1962, John became the only inmate ever to escape from Alcatraz, and he stayed out of Alcatraz long enough to father a daughter named Jade Angelou. Despite his extreme hatred of the F.B.I., John agrees to help Stanley. When John and Stanley are sent into Alcatraz with a Navy S.E.A.L. team, General Hummel's men kill the entire S.E.A.L. team, leaving Stanley and John to work on their own to rescue the hostages.—Todd Baldridge
- With a madly daring scheme to unleash a devastating chemical warfare on the unsuspecting citizens of San Francisco, the disillusioned war hero, General Francis X. Hummel, and a handful of loyal men take over the impregnable prison island of Alcatraz. Demanding $100 million in reparations to the families of his lost brothers-in-arms, the highly decorated military man threatens to launch deadly rockets filled with nerve gas, unless the Pentagon takes him seriously. Now, the fates of millions rest in the hands of two unlikely companions: the nervous FBI chemist, Stanley Goodspeed, and the experienced British ex-spy and former Alcatraz inmate, John Patrick Mason, who must break into the abandoned fortress to thwart the general's plans. Many tried to break out of this rugged and impervious jail; however, only one succeeded. Can Mason and Stanley escape from the Rock in one piece?—Nick Riganas
- FBI chemical warfare expert Stanley Goodspeed (Nicolas Cage) is sent on an urgent mission with a former British spy, John Patrick Mason (Sean Connery), to stop Gen. Francis X. Hummel (Ed Harris) from launching chemical weapons on Alcatraz Island into San Francisco. Gen. Hummel demands $100 million in war reparations to be paid to the families of slain servicemen who died on covert operations. After their SEAL team is wiped out, Stanley and John deal with the soldiers on their own.—FilmsNow
- It's a quiet day in San Francisco. There are eighty-one civilians on a tour of Alcatraz, the prison famous for the fact that no prisoner had ever successfully escaped. During one of the tours, Marine General Francis Xavier Hummel takes the civilians hostage, with the help of other Marines. He has fifteen rockets of deadly VX gas at his disposal, ready to launch at San Francisco. His reason for doing this is simple. He has seen Marines under his command get killed in combat without a military burial or benefits to their families. He makes a threat to the F.B.I.: give the fallen Marines recognition or he will launch the VX rockets. After learning that one rocket is enough to take out sixty or seventy thousand people, the F.B.I. sends for their top chemical weapons expert: Dr. Stanley Goodspeed, engaged to his pregnant girlfriend. While trying to figure out a countermeasure to the current situation, the F.B.I. is forced to resort to John Patrick Mason, an ex-con who broke out of Alcatraz in 1962.—Ridley Lavine
- Rogue Force Recon Marines led by heroic Brigadier General Francis "Frank" Hummel (Ed Harris) seizes a stockpile of 15 rockets armed with VX gas, a highly toxic chemical weapon, from a Naval Weapons Depot. Hummel and his men including second-in-command Major Tom Baxter (David Morse) then seize Alcatraz Island and take 81 tourists hostage, placing them in the prison cells, then threatening the FBI and Pentagon with launching the VX rockets against the population of San Francisco, unless the government pays ransom of $100 million from a military slush fund, which he will distribute to his men and the families of Recon Marines who died on covert missions under his command, but whose deaths were not compensated.
In one such recent mission, 15 of Hummel's men were slaughtered as they were refused any assistance in the battlefield as they were behind enemy lines. Hummel went through the chain of command and even to the Congress and the Senate committees to get justice for his men but was denied. Hummel decided then that such inhuman treatment of US Marines had to stop. Hummel also recently lost his wife Barbara and now had nothing to live for, but his men and the unit under his command.
The Department of Defense and the FBI plot to retake Alcatraz by infiltrating the old tunnel system beneath the island, with Navy SEALs. The Pentagon and FBI develop a plan to retake the island with an elite Navy SEAL team led by Commander Anderson (Michael Biehn), enlisting chemical weapons expert Stanley Goodspeed (Nicolas Cage) to help remove the VX and disarm the rockets. Goodspeed is not a field agent but has no choice in the matter as he is the only expert available.
With no knowledge of the latest architecture of the tunnels, and in need of reliable first-hand knowledge of the physical layout of Alcatraz, FBI Director Womack (John Spencer) releases federal prisoner John Mason (Sean Connery), the only former inmate of Alcatraz to ever successfully escape. Mason is a former British MI6 and SAS operative and stole a microfilm created by J. Edgar Hoover containing classified U.S. information. Mason refused to reveal the microfilm's location after being captured, knowing he would be killed and was imprisoned without trial.
Mason is bribed with a pardon to cooperate with the FBI, but in reality, Womack has no intention of keeping the promise. Mason agrees after signing a pardon that clears his record, though Womack destroys it shortly after. Mason escapes to make contact with his estranged daughter Jade Angelou (Claire Forlani). Mason leads the FBI and Goodspeed on a car chase causing a rampage through the city before being caught by Goodspeed.
At the command center, Mason negotiates to join the team heading to Alcatraz. With Mason, the team infiltrates Alcatraz. But the entire prison has sensors installed by Hummel's team and are quickly discovered. They confronted by Hummel's men in the shower room. Hummel tries to convince Anderson to surrender, but the zealous Captain Frye and Captain Darrow deliberately cause a shootout that kills Anderson and his team. Mason and Goodspeed manage to evade them. Goodspeed wants to finish the mission and attempts to strong-arm Mason into helping. Believing the mission to be a failure, Mason sees this as his chance to escape custody, and disarms Goodspeed., Mason prepares to leave until Goodspeed reveals the truth about the VX, explaining that Mason's daughter and his pregnant fiance, Carla, would be killed as well.
Mason and Goodspeed eliminate several teams of Marines and disable twelve of the fifteen rockets by removing their guidance chips.
FBI prepares strike fighters with Plasma to destroy the entire island along with the VX gas. Mason tells Goodspeed that as a British agent he stole a microfilm containing serious secrets about U.S. and other world leaders and events. The information came from the personal files of former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. Mason was imprisoned for 33 years when he refused to divulge the location of the microfilm.
Hummel threatens to execute a hostage if they do not surrender and return the chips. Mason destroys them before submitting to Hummel to try reasoning with him and stall for time. Goodspeed disables another rocket but then gets captured.
They escape from their cells, but Mason, having assessed Hummel as a soldier who doesn't kill innocents, leaves, with Goodspeed continuing on his own. Caught and held at gunpoint, Goodspeed is forced to surrender, but Mason saves him, convinced that Goodspeed's unborn child needs its father.
As the deadline passes, Hummel launches but then destroys the warhead at last minute. When confronted by Captains Darrow (Tony Todd) and Frye (Gregory Sporleder), Hummel explains the rocket threat was an elaborate bluff, as he had never intended to harm innocent civilians. He declares the mission over and orders the Marines to leave Alcatraz with some hostages and the remaining rocket to cover their retreat while he assumes the blame. His men mutiny saying they expect to be paid for their trouble.
A firefight ensues as Baxter is killed defending Hummel, who is mortally wounded. The general manages to tell Goodspeed where the last rocket is before dying.
An airstrike is initiated to destroy Alcatraz with experimental Thermite plasma bombs, which will neutralize the gas but kill everyone on the island. As Goodspeed retrieves the VX globule, he is attacked by one of Hummels men. Goodspeed breaks the globule in the attacker's mouth, killing him instantly. He then injects his own heart with a vaccine to protect himself from death. Though Goodspeed signals that the threat is over, one jet accidentally drops a plasma bomb, and the blast throws Goodspeed into the bay, and Mason rescues him.
Goodspeed confirms the mission's success to Womack but claims Mason was killed in the explosion before telling Mason that Womack shredded his pardon. The pair part ways amicably, with Mason recommending Goodspeed to a church in Kansas where he kept the microfilm. Sometime later, Goodspeed and his newly wedded wife, Carla, recover the microfilm from the church. Mason had told him where to find it. He looks at the microfilm and asks Carla if she'd like to know who really shot JFK.
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