Entertainment
James Bond Teams With Nicolas Cage In Ultimate '90s Action Thriller Streaming On Hulu
By Robert Scucci
| Published
If you need a good reason to call out of work this week, nobody’s going to blame you for faking a fever so you can stay home and watch The Rock. In fact, you may not even be lying when you tell your boss that you’re unfit to work after watching Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage kick ass for 136 minutes because The Rock will probably knock the fillings right out of your teeth if you’ve got a good enough sound system at home. It goes without question that we all love to occasionally rail on Michael Bay for relying on explosions to tell a story, but the reason we keep giving him second chances is because The Rock is one of the greatest action movies of all time, and we’re holding out hope that one day he’ll strike gold like this again.
An Unbelievable Chain Of Events, But Who Cares?
Time to give you the basic outline of The Rock so we can talk about how insane this movie actually is.
United States Marine Corp Brigadier General Francis X. Hummel (Ed Harris) seizes Alcatraz Island because after years of loyal service to his country, his men that were lost during his tours in Vietnam never received proper compensation for their families. After taking 81 tourists hostage, Hummel contacts the FBI, explaining his plans to launch rockets full of nerve gas that would cause irreparable damage to the San Francisco Bay area if detonated. The Rock introduces the “zero hour” trope we’re all familiar with when Hummel gives the US government a deadline to deliver a ransom of $100 million, meaning that they have to act fast and either pay up or neutralize the threat.
The Dream Team
How does the FBI plan to intervene, you ask?
Nicolas Cage.
Dr. Stanley Goodspeed (Nicolas Cage) is a chemical weapons expert who has had no field experience or gun training outside of his academy days, and knows that he’s a “lab rat” who’s probably unfit to raid a fortified prison compound full of angry Marines with an axe to grind. By the same token, he’s the only person qualified to disarm the rockets that Hummel has in his possession, and he needs to do it in person, not remotely, because it’s 1996.
“But wait, nobody has ever successfully escaped Alcatraz in the fiction that The Rock has established, so this is an impossible mission, right?”
Wrong!
We have James Bond … well, sorta.
Goodspeed is informed of the existence of John Patrick Mason (Sean Connery), a disgraced British Special Air Service (SAS) Captain who hasn’t seen the light of day for 30 years because he stole and hid microfilm from J. Edgar Hoover that lays out all of the US government’s darkest and dirtiest secrets. Mason is also the only man to ever have escaped Alcatraz, but he’s naturally reluctant to help the FBI on a need-to-know basis – especially after being locked up like an animal for a majority of his adult life.
After some convincing, and a high-speed chase that results in the destruction of half the city (you know, the thing that everybody’s trying to prevent), Mason agrees to take on the mission with Goodspeed, and signs a document that offers him a full pardon upon completion of the mission … or so he thinks.
At this point, I need to remind you that The Rock takes about an hour of runtime to even get to the titular island prison and there have already been more explosions than you could ever possibly dream of.
Every Single Action Movie Trope Done To Perfection
In order to fully enjoy The Rock, you need to suspend any and all disbelief because each scene is more over-the-top than the last. Remember, Goodspeed has no field experience, but when he needs to track down Mason (who’s driving at breakneck speeds in a stolen Humvee), he commandeers a Ferrari and tears through San Francisco without even thinking twice.
When Goodspeed and Mason finally get to Alcatraz, it doesn’t take any time at all for an epic shootout to wipe out the accompanying Navy SEALs who were supposed to do all of the heavy lifting. That’s okay though, because Goodspeed, who didn’t even have his own gun on his person before agreeing to become an action hero, suddenly knows what’s up and grows a pair so he can save the city from certain destruction in a nick of time between bickering matches with Mason, who’s gearing up to escape Alcatraz (again) after successfully getting the SEAL team into the compound.
Every single scene in The Rock is an exercise in escalation that culminates in a showdown that will simultaneously have you saying “no way,” and “let’s effing go!,” and there’s something beautiful about a movie that’s paced so relentlessly that you never have enough time to critically analyze just how unrealistic everything about it is.
Marking the height of ‘90s action movie excess, The Rock is one of those movies that I can watch once a year and never get sick of. If you’re looking to witness the reason that Michael Bay keeps getting second chances, especially after Pearl Harbor, then you can watch the greatest action movie of all time right now on Hulu.
Entertainment
Hurdle hints and answers for May 9, 2026
If you like playing daily word games like Wordle, then Hurdle is a great game to add to your routine.
There are five rounds to the game. The first round sees you trying to guess the word, with correct, misplaced, and incorrect letters shown in each guess. If you guess the correct answer, it’ll take you to the next hurdle, providing the answer to the last hurdle as your first guess. This can give you several clues or none, depending on the words. For the final hurdle, every correct answer from previous hurdles is shown, with correct and misplaced letters clearly shown.
An important note is that the number of times a letter is highlighted from previous guesses does necessarily indicate the number of times that letter appears in the final hurdle.
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If you find yourself stuck at any step of today’s Hurdle, don’t worry! We have you covered.
Hurdle Word 1 hint
Bubbly.
Hurdle Word 1 answer
PERKY
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Hurdle Word 2 hint
To accumulate.
Hurdle Word 2 Answer
AMASS
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Hurdle Word 3 hint
A kink.
Hurdle Word 3 answer
CRICK
Hurdle Word 4 hint
A beer.
Hurdle Word 4 answer
LAGER
Final Hurdle hint
Harmony.
Hurdle Word 5 answer
AMITY
If you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Entertainment
NYT Strands hints, answers for May 9, 2026
Today’s NYT Strands hints are easy if you have a green thumb.
Strands, the New York Times‘ elevated word-search game, requires the player to perform a twist on the classic word search. Words can be made from linked letters — up, down, left, right, or diagonal, but words can also change direction, resulting in quirky shapes and patterns. Every single letter in the grid will be part of an answer. There’s always a theme linking every solution, along with the “spangram,” a special, word or phrase that sums up that day’s theme, and spans the entire grid horizontally or vertically.
By providing an opaque hint and not providing the word list, Strands creates a brain-teasing game that takes a little longer to play than its other games, like Wordle and Connections.
If you’re feeling stuck or just don’t have 10 or more minutes to figure out today’s puzzle, we’ve got all the NYT Strands hints for today’s puzzle you need to progress at your preferred pace.
NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: Garden varieties
The words are related to plants.
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Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explained
These words describe garden crops.
NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal?
Today’s NYT Strands spangram is horizontal.
NYT Strands spangram answer today
Today’s spangram is Spring Veggie.
NYT Strands word list for May 9
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Asparagus
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Artichoke
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Onion
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Lettuce
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Radish
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Spring Veggie
Looking for other daily online games? Mashable’s Games page has more hints, and if you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now!
Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Not the day you’re after? Here’s the solution to yesterday’s Strands.
Entertainment
Wordle today: Answer, hints for May 9, 2026
Today’s Wordle answer should be easy to solve if you have great style.
If you just want to be told today’s word, you can jump to the bottom of this article for today’s Wordle solution revealed. But if you’d rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.
Where did Wordle come from?
Originally created by engineer Josh Wardle as a gift for his partner, Wordle rapidly spread to become an international phenomenon, with thousands of people around the globe playing every day. Alternate Wordle versions created by fans also sprang up, including battle royale Squabble, music identification game Heardle, and variations like Dordle and Quordle that make you guess multiple words at once.
Wordle eventually became so popular that it was purchased by the New York Times, and TikTok creators even livestream themselves playing.
What’s the best Wordle starting word?
The best Wordle starting word is the one that speaks to you. But if you prefer to be strategic in your approach, we have a few ideas to help you pick a word that might help you find the solution faster. One tip is to select a word that includes at least two different vowels, plus some common consonants like S, T, R, or N.
What happened to the Wordle archive?
The entire archive of past Wordle puzzles was originally available for anyone to enjoy whenever they felt like it, but it was later taken down, with the website’s creator stating it was done at the request of the New York Times. However, the New York Times then rolled out its own Wordle Archive, available only to NYT Games subscribers.
Is Wordle getting harder?
It might feel like Wordle is getting harder, but it actually isn’t any more difficult than when it first began. You can turn on Wordle‘s Hard Mode if you’re after more of a challenge, though.
Here’s a subtle hint for today’s Wordle answer:
A soft fabric.
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Does today’s Wordle answer have a double letter?
There are no recurring letters.
Today’s Wordle is a 5-letter word that starts with…
Today’s Wordle starts with the letter S.
The Wordle answer today is…
Get your last guesses in now, because it’s your final chance to solve today’s Wordle before we reveal the solution.
Drumroll please!
The solution to today’s Wordle is…
SATIN
Don’t feel down if you didn’t manage to guess it this time. There will be a new Wordle for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we’ll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints. Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today’s Strands.
Reporting by Chance Townsend, Caitlin Welsh, Sam Haysom, Amanda Yeo, Shannon Connellan, Cecily Mauran, Mike Pearl, and Adam Rosenberg contributed to this article.
If you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Not the day you’re after? Here’s the solution to yesterday’s Wordle.
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