The US government plans an infiltration mission to eliminate the threat but needs help from two specialists: FBI agent and chemical weapons expert Stanley Goodspeed (Nic Cage) and the only man ever to escape alive from the infamous prison, John Mason (Sean Connery).
This is Michael Bay from before he became a watchword for tiresome overblown action nonsense.
It is of course overblown nonsense but it's not in the last bit tiresome. One of the great action movies of the 90s it's noisy showy and occasionally funny. Cage and Connery have a degree of chemistry and it's perhaps more sophisticated than you'd expect.
At one point Connery and Harris, who's a genuine character not just a baddie, have a bit of a philosophise at each other and it's not as jingoistic as many of its stablemates.
No it's not sophisticated but it does exactly what it needs to very well, 8/10 90s shooty explodeyness at its finest.