The Rocketeer (film)
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| The Rocketeer | |
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 The Rocketeer DVD cover |
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| Directed by | Joe Johnston |
| Produced by | Charles Gordon Lawrence Gordon Lloyd Levin |
| Written by | Dave Stevens (graphic novel) Danny Bilson (sceenplay) Paul De Meo (sceenplay) |
| Starring | Bill Campbell Alan Arkin Jennifer Connelly Timothy Dalton |
| Music by | James Horner |
| Cinematography | Hiro Narita |
| Editing by | Peter Lonsdale Arthur Schmidt |
| Distributed by | Buena Vista Pictures |
| Release date(s) | 23 June 1991 |
| Running time | 108 min. |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
The Rocketeer is a 1991 adventure film produced by Walt Disney Pictures and directed by Joe Johnston. It is based on the comic book The Rocketeer by Dave Stevens about a young stunt pilot who discovers a mysterious jet pack that allows him to fly.
Music for the movie was written by James Horner. The film won a Saturn Award for Best Costume in 1991. It was one of the first movies directed by Joe Johnston, who later went on to direct movies such as Jumanji and Hidalgo.
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[edit] Plot summary
The movie is set in Los Angeles in 1938, the time just before World War II as Nazi Germany was preparing to go to war. Numerous other topical elements from the time period are combined, including the Golden Age of Hollywood, mobsters and G-men, and the enigmatic Howard Hughes (played by Terry O'Quinn). The film involves the escapades of Cliff Secord (Billy Campbell) after he and his friend A. "Peevy" Peabody (Alan Arkin) discover a jet pack. Secord also has to defend his relationship with Jenny Blake (Jennifer Connelly) from being broken up by movie star Neville Sinclair (Timothy Dalton).
[edit] The story
The movie opens with Cliff flying a Gee Bee airplane in which he and Peevy have invested a lot of time and money ("Building that plane took three years and every damn cent we had!"), in preparation for an upcoming race. Due to circumstances out of his control, Cliff is forced to crash-land the aircraft, ruining the investment. These circumstances included mobsters being pursued by G-men on the ground; one of the mobsters had shot at the plane as it was flying overhead. A mysterious package hidden by one of the pursued is discovered by Cliff and Peevy. It contains a jet pack, apparently fueled by alcohol, with a design that allows it to stay cool by quickly dissipating the heat of combustion.
Peevy is instrumental in perfecting the rocket-pack's usefulness, as well as keeping Cliff in the air. He constructs a helmet for Cliff to wear as he tries out the jet pack. The helmet, which has a large tail-fin to allow Cliff to steer in flight, is an Art Deco design that reflects the time, though it isn't necessarily the most fashionable thing: When Cliff asks, "How do I look?" Peevy replies, "Like a hood ornament."
Meanwhile, Cliff's girlfriend Jenny has been given a chance to appear in a Hollywood film starring actor Neville Sinclair (Timothy Dalton, in an homage to '30s movie star Errol Flynn). She is almost kicked off the set when Cliff shows up and bungles a shot, but she attracts Sinclair's attention. What is not publicly known is that Sinclair is in fact a Nazi spy who is secretly working to get Cliff's jet pack for the Germans. Having heard part of a conversation between Cliff and Jenny in which Cliff tries to tell her about the rocket pack, he decides to target Cliff via his girl.
Also in the play are Eddie Valentine and his gang (to which the two mobsters from the beginning had belonged to), as the hired muscle to broaden the search pattern. Valentine is increasingly frustrated about why he has to steal the rocket pack, especially since that got him tangled with the FBI, but he does not suspect Sinclair's true agenda. Another factor is Sinclair's Frankensteinish goon Lothar (Tiny Ron, in makeup to make him resemble character actor Rondo Hatton), who has a habit of killing people by literally folding them in half.
Soon everyone is hot on Cliff's tail. During a shoot-out with Valentine's goons, the rocket-pack is slightly damaged by a ricocheting bullet, puncturing a fuel line. A piece of Cliff's gum seals the rupture. Cliff is arrested shortly thereafter by the FBI and brought into a covert meeting with Howard Hughes (Terry O'Quinn), who reveals that he designed the rocket-pack, racing against Nazi Germany to perfect a single-man flying machine. It is the prototype and only working model. Mass-produced, it would be invaluable in the coming war. He demands the return of the rocket, but Cliff "isn't finished with it yet", since in the meantime Sinclair has kidnapped Jenny and blackmails Cliff into surrendering the rocket pack.
At the meeting spot (an observatory), Sinclair, Lothar and Eddie's gang wait for him. When all attempts to have Sinclair release Jenny first fail, Cliff plays out his last ace and reveals Sinclair's secret - which he had guessed when Hughes had mentioned a Nazi spy in the Hollywood scene -, at which point Valentine and his gang, like any red-blooded Americans, switch sides. Along with the FBI, who had tracked Cliff to the scene, a firefight breaks out with the Nazi commandos Sinclair has brought along, but Sinclair, Lothar and Jenny are taken away by a German zeppelin, the Luxembourg, which was touring America in a 'gesture of friendship'. Cliff immediately follows the vessel with the rocket pack.
The last major scene in the movie is a fight on the Luxembourg, which eventually ends in the ship's fiery destruction (an obvious reference to the Hindenburg disaster). Aboard the zeppelin, Sinclair demands the rocket-pack in exchange for Jenny. Cliff reluctantly slides it over, but not before dislodging the gum. Sinclair exits the zeppelin in mid-air, but the dripping fuel soon catches fire, causing to rocket-pack to careen out of control and explode, taking Sinclair and the last four letters of the famous "Hollywoodland" sign with it. Cliff and Jenny are rescued by Hughes and Peevy in a gyrocopter.
In the epilogue, Howard Hughes makes a gift of a brand new Gee Bee plane to Cliff and Peevy, to replace the one they lost at the start. At the same time, Jenny has a reward of her own — the detailed schematics of the rocket-pack which enable Peevy to contemplate rebuilding the device with improvements, possibly the setup for a sequel.
[edit] Reactions
Released on June 21, 1991, The Rocketeer grossed $46,704,056 in US domestic returns.[1] The website Rotten Tomatoes (launched in 1998) lists the film with a 72% "fresh" rating based on all polled critical reviews.[2]
