Was The Rock Responsible For The War In Iraq?

Michael Bay has been accused of committing many, many cinematic atrocities. But I don’t think anyone ever thought that one of his films would lead to an actual war.

According to the Chilcot report, which was released on Wednesday and delivered a damning verdict on Britain’s role in the Iraq War, the Secret Intelligence Service doubted the MI6 intelligence from September 2002 about Saddam Hussein’s nerve gas arsenal, which convinced Tony Blair to lead the country into the war, because it was eerily similar to scenarios depicted in Michael Bay’s 1996 blockbuster ‘The Rock’.

The Chilcot report states, “questions about the use of glass containers for chemical agents and the similarity of the description to those portrayed in ‘The Rock’ had been recognised by the Secret Intelligence Service.”

It also pointed out that, “Glass containers were not typically used in the chemical munitions; and that a popular movie (’The Rock’) had inaccurately depicted nerve agents being carried in glass beads or spheres.”

You can check out this bizarre snippet of the report courtesy of a tweet from Simon Willlmetts below.

For those of you that haven’t seen ‘The Rock’, which I seriously suggest that you do because it’s probably Michael Bay’s finest, it teams up Nicholas Cage’s SAS captain with Sean Connery’s imprisoned former SAS captain that attempt to stop a rogue group of US marines that have taken control of San Francisco’s Alcatraz and are threatening to release rockets filled with deadly gas over the city if they don’t receive $100 million.

MI6 have admitted that they eventually discovered that their source had been lying “over a period of time.” The breaking point was when they tried to insist Saddam had his own fleet of Decepticons.

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Images via Buena Vista Pictures