FILM 1742: THE ROCK

TRIVIA: Sir Sean Connery insisted the producers build a cabin for him on Alcatraz, as he didn't want to travel from the mainland to the island every day. He got what he asked for.

Quentin Tarantino was an uncredited screenwriter on this film, along with Jonathan Hensleigh, who wrote the shooting script, and Aaron Sorkin.

The premiere of the movie was held in the Prison Recreation Yard on Alcatraz.

Michael Bay's favorite movie of his own.

Dedicated to Don Simpson, who died during production.

Don Simpson was largely responsible for creating the critical General Hummel character. Simpson watched a 60 Minutes (1993) segment about the U.S. government's refusal to acknowledge soldiers who had died during covert overseas missions, and later read Colonel David H. Hackworth's memoirs which harshly criticized U.S. planning during the Vietnam War. He combined these elements into Hummel's character and, as Jonathan Hensleigh described, created "a really compelling villain: a soldier with a noble end, but, unfortunately, psychotic means."

In the scene in the interrogation room where FBI agent Stanley Goodspeed introduces himself to John Mason (Sir Sean Connery), John replies "But of course you are". This was exactly the same line he used when he met Plenty O'Toole in the casino scene in the Bond film Diamonds Are Forever (1971).

The guy who gets his car stolen by Sean Connery is the same guy who got his car stolen by Ed Harris in National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007), another of Jerry Bruckheimer's movies which also starred Nicolas Cage and Ed Harris.

Cinematographer John Schwartzman is one of Nicolas Cage's cousins. Schwartzman's step-mother, Talia Shire is Cage's aunt.

FILM 1340: POINT BLANK

TRIVIA: During a rehearsal taking place in the home of Lee Marvin, he hit John Vernon so hard that it made Vernon cry.

Lee Marvin faked the recoil from the .44 Magnum when he shoots in Lynne's bed. These were in fact blanks, but afterward when shooting in Alcatraz they tried with real bullets and there was no recoil at all. Marvin said to director John Boorman, "Fiction overtakes reality". Marvin's revolver was a Smith & Wesson Model 19. It's a .38/.357 Magnum, not a .44 Magnum.

This was the first major picture to film on location at Alcatraz Island after the closure of the federal prison in 1963.

The house where Walker (Lee Marvin) meets Brewster (Carroll O'Connor) was an actual house in the Hollywood Hills that was rented as a filming location. The Beatles once stayed in this house while visiting L.A. It was the basis for their song "Blue Jay Way", which is the name of the street on which the house sits.