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It seems Greg McClean was never fond of the spike in tourism caused by the Crocodile Dundee movies. So much so, when he gained an a chance to be a director, he created movies focussing on deconstructing the positive Crocodile Dundee stereotype and making Australia appear as a tourist hell-hole. In Wolf Creek, McClean showed a Mick Dundee character torturing and murdering British tourists. In Rogue, he showed that outback Australian men are rude bogans, the women are generally useless, and huge Crocodiles ensure no-one is safe. When a hero is needed, only American travel writers can be counted on to save the day.

Rogue begins with the hero, the American travel writer, visiting a garish outback town. He enters a café and looks at newspaper clippings on the wall. Rock Around the Clock is playing in an annoying fashion, and the attendant makes him a coffee, secretly dropping something in it. Perhaps out of guilt, the attendant gives the coffee for free, but its garbage anyway so the American travel writer throws it out. It is a scene that adds nothing to the movie other than making outback towns seem uninviting places to visit.

 The hero gets on the sightseeing boat and meets the Australian lady, and her dog, that run the tour. A short time later, a couple of bogans in a speedboat go past with their bums in the air. They then pull up to the tour boat and proceed to harass the Australian lady and the tourists. John Wayne style, the American travel writer tells them to be on their way, and they heed his advice.

One of the tourists spots a distress flare and the tour guide goes to investigate. They see an upturned dingy and then are attacked by a crocodile. With water leaking into their boat, they make it to an island. Unfortunately, the tide is coming in and the island will soon be submerged.

The bogans return, and soon find that their boat is attacked as well. One bogan is eaten by the croc while the other makes it to the island. He then suggests that he swim to the bank with a rope so that a makeshift bridge can be made. He makes it, and then strangely disappears from the movie. The rope bridge is made, a lady crawls across, and freezes half way. A frustrated couple then decide they aren't going to be held up by a lady frozen on the bridge, climb on despite protests not to, and sure enough, the bridge collapses.

Enter the American travel writer. He says the solution is to take the croc head on. He suggests that the boat's anchor be used as a fishing hook, baited and thrown in. When the croc bites, the tourists will swim for it.

The plan seems to work, and the croc is hooked. While the tourists swim for it, the American travel writer plays the croc like a fish. Unfortunately, the anchor is straightened and the croc gets off. The Australian lady is still swimming and is soon taken by the croc. Gallantly, the American travel writer dives in to save her. He is too late to pull her from its jaws, but manages to get to the bank.

On the bank, all the other tourists seem to have just disappeared. However, the Australian lady's dog is about, and the American travel writer is very concerned for its safety. He follows its barking and eventually falls down a cave and into water. A dead body washes up. He also finds the Australian lady laying on a small beach in the cave. It seems that he has found the croc's lair, and that the croc likes to deposit its un-killed victims on little beaches in its lair where they can be saved by American travel writers.

A battle between American travel writer and croc breaks out. Time and again, the American travel writer narrowly escapes the jaws, before finally outwitting it and driving a big stick into its brain.

The American travel writer picks up the Australian lady, carries her out and she lives to show her gratitude.

Perhaps the casting of an American as a hero could be attributed to McClean's dislike of Australians and his reluctance to show them in a positive light. Alternatively, it could be attributed to McClean's desire to appeal to an American audience. If so, his marketing ploy was a little short-sighted. The Mad Max and Crocodile Dundee series succeeded in America with Australian heroes. Likewise, the Rambo and Die Hard series succeeded in Australia with American heroes. Audiences don't need to see their countrymen in a hero role in order to watch the movies. If anything, such marketing makes the movie look stupid. An Australian hero in the Die Hard or Rambo series would have been absurd, as would have an American hero in the Mad Max or Dundee series. In Rogue, it was absurd. McClean would have been had more success if he had concentrated on improving his skills as a director than a jingolistic casting of an American.

McClean's carreer seems destined to go the same way as Stephan Elliot, the last director that had an unhealthy obsession with deconstructing Crocodile Dundee stereotypes. After deconstructing the positive outback stereotypes in Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Eliot took them up a notch with Welcome to Woop Woop, which featured an American hero trapped in an outback town. Welcome to Woop Woop flopped, and Eliot's promising career flopped with it. McClean likewise had an initial success, and subsequently brought out another negative movie designed to appeal to an American audience by casting an American in the hero role. It likewise flopped. Rogue was made with a budget of $16, but only returned $1.6 million. This was well short of the $328 million that Crocodile Dundee returned in 1986.