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Andy in childs play
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The page Stanley Goodspeed contains mature content that may include coarse language, sexual references, and/or graphic violent images which may be disturbing to some. Mature articles are recommended for those who are 18 years of age and older.

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Look, I'm just a biochemist. Most of the time, I work in a little glass jar and lead a very uneventful life. I drive a Volvo, a beige one. But what I'm dealing with here is one of the most deadly substances the Earth has ever known, so what say you cut me some FRIGGIN' SLACK?
~ Goodspeed's most famous line

Stanley Goodspeed is the main protagonist of the 1996 action film The Rock. He is a mild-mannered biochemist who is sent to infiltrate Alcatraz to stop a group of terrorists from attacking San Francisco with sarin gas, assisted by John Mason, the only man to ever escape the prison.

He is portrayed by Nicolas Cage, who also portrayed Sean Archer in Face/Off, Cameron Poe in Con Air, Rick Santoro in Snake Eyes, Tom Welles in 8mm, Randall Raines in Gone in 60 Seconds, Big Daddy in Kick-Ass, Ben Gates in National Treasure, Balthazar Blake in The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Spider-Man Noir in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Zoc in The Ant Bully, Johnny Blaze in Ghost Rider, and Grug Crood in The Croods.

Personality[]

Goodspeed is a self-described "chemical super freak", an amiable, socially awkward biochemist who works for the FBI as a chemical weapons specialist. He lives a quiet, ordinary life with his girlfriend, Carla. He loves the Beatles, is prone to conversational gaffes, and likes to relax in private by playing guitar in the nude. Goodspeed is also shown to sense of right and wrong and a man of his word like after witnessing Womack tore up Mason's pardon which he knows his illegal and after saving the day, he gave his word to Mason that he would be let go.

In the Film[]

After a hard day at the office in which he is nearly killed by a package filled with anthrax, Goodspeed goes home to Carla, who tells him she is pregnant with his child. That night, he is ordered to go to San Francisco for what he thinks is a training exercise.

When Goodspeed arrives, however, FBI Director James Womack orders him to take part in a mission to stop a platoon of disaffected U.S. Marines, led by General Frank Hummel, from launching 15 rockets filled with VX gas at the city unless they are paid $100 million. He is to accompany a team of U.S. Navy Seals into Alcatraz, where Hummel has taken hostages, and disarm the rockets. He will be assisted by John Mason, a former British Secret Service agent who was held without trial in the prison 30 years before for stealing microfilm containing classified U.S. government information, and who is the only person to ever escape the facility.

After an awkward interview with Mason in which Goodspeed offers Mason a pardon in return for his help, he watches uncomfortably while Womack tears up the pardon. Later that day, Mason escapes custody and leads Goodspeed in a chaotic car chase throughout San Francisco. Goodspeed finds Mason talking to his estranged daughter, Jade, and tells her that Mason is aiding the FBI so she will think better of her father. In gratitude, Mason agrees to assist the mission.

Once they are inside Alcatraz, however, the mission goes horribly wrong - Hummel and his men massacre the Navy Seals, leaving Goodspeed and Mason the only survivors. With Mason's reluctant help, Goodspeed finds and disarms all but three of the rockets, and is forced to kill two Marines when they attack him. Hummel threatens to execute a hostage if they do not surrender and return the rockets' guidance chips, but Mason destroys them before surrendering to Hummel to stall for time. Goodspeed disables another rocket just before being captured. With the Seal team lost, the President initiates the FBI's backup plan - to bomb the island, which will kill everyone on it.

Mason breaks them out of their cells and leaves Goodspeed to disarm the final two rockets, reassuring him that Hummel is bluffing. Sure enough, Hummel purposely sends a rocket off course into San Francisco Bay to avoid killing innocent people, which provokes a mutiny among his men. Goodspeed finds Hummel mortally wounded by his traitorous subordinates, Captains Darrow and Frye, and gets the location of the final rocket out of him before he dies.

Goodspeed finds and disarms the rocket, kills Darrow by shooting him with the empty missile, and kills Frye by putting a pearl casing of VX in his mouth and punching him in the face, breaking the capsule and poisoning him with VX. Goodspeed injects himself with the antidote, and sends up a flare to stop Air Force pilots from firing on the island. He is a second too late, however, and one jet fires, fortunately, the bomb misses the prison and Goodspeed , although the impact knocks him into the water. Mason saves Goodspeed's life, and in gratitude Goodspeed tells Womack that Mason is dead, allowing him to escape. Mason leaves behind the location of the microfilm; shortly afterward, a just married Goodspeed and Carla steal the microfilm, which reveals the culprit of the John F. Kennedy assassination, from a church pew in Kansas on their way to a hospital to deliver the baby.

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