Independent Films, Film Profiles

The Rocketeer (film)
by Joe_Johnston

The Rocketeer is a 1991 period adventure film produced by Walt Disney Pictures and based on the character of the same name created by comic book writer/artist Dave Stevens, who also served as a co-producer. Directed by Joe Johnston, the film stars Billy Campbell, Jennifer Connelly, Alan Arkin, Timothy Dalton, Paul Sorvino and Tiny Ron Taylor. Set in 1938 Los Angeles, California, The Rocketeer tells the story of stunt pilot Cliff Secord who discovers a jet pack that enables him to fly. His heroic deeds attract the attention of Howard Hughes and the FBI, as well as sadistic Nazi operatives.Development for The Rocketeer started as far back as 1983, when Stevens sold the film rights. Steve Miner and William Dear considered directing The Rocketeer before Johnston, a fan of the comic book, signed on. Screenwriters Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo had creative differences with Disney, which caused the film to languish in development hell. The studio also intended to change the trademark helmet design – Disney President Michael Eisner wanted a straight NASA-type helmet – but Johnston convinced the studio otherwise. Johnston also had to convince Disney to let him cast unknown actor Billy Campbell in the lead role. Filming for The Rocketeer lasted from September 19, 1990 to January 22, 1991. The visual effect sequences were created and designed by Industrial Light & Magic.The film was released on June 21, 1991 and bombed at the box office, but received generally favorable reviews from critics. Plans for Rocketeer sequels were abandoned after the poor box office performance.In 1938 Los Angeles, California, a rocket pack designed by Howard Hughes is stolen from his factory by a mobster duo working for crime boss Eddie Valentine. The driver of the getaway car, chased by FBI agents into a hangar, hides the rocket in an aging biplane and deceives the FBI agents with a vacuum cleaner he finds in the hangar. The driver is injured in the shoot-out, arrested and removed in an ambulance; the FBI agents find the ruined vacuum in the burned-out car. They believe the ruined device is the actual rocket and telephone Hughes, who decides its destruction is for the best, and burns its blueprints. Meanwhile, struggling stunt pilot Cliff Secord and mechanic A. "Peevy" Peabody find the mysterious rocket inside the biplane. Cliff experiments with it but Peevy persuades him to leave the rocket alone until he can understand its design and fine-tune it. Meanwhile, Valentine argues with movie star Neville Sinclair, who hired his gang to obtain the rocket from Hughes. Sinclair negotiates a new deal and dispatches the mobsters to search for the missing device. However, Sinclair secretly sends his right-hand man, the monstrous Lothar, to kill the injured mobster in police custody.Shortly afterwards, at an airshow, Cliff uses the rocket (with Peevy's newly-designed, face-hiding helmet) to heroically rescue his elderly friend Malcolm piloting a malfunctioned aircraft. Having been seen by the audience, a media sensation ensues and Cliff, as the anonymous hero, is dubbed "the Rocketeer". However, Cliff and his aspiring actress girlfriend, Jenny Blake, begin to have relationship issues after Cliff visits her on-set of a film and inadvertently causes an accident in which a lead actor is mysteriously injured. Jenny is fired over Cliff's accident; however, Sinclair, who is portraying the lead role of the production, overhears Cliff's conversation with Jenny. After Cliff leaves, Sinclair makes up to Jenny and gets a dinner date with her at the famed South Seas Club. Sinclair then sends Lothar to search the airfield for Cliff.That evening FBI agents find Bigelow dead, while Cliff consults with Peevy in their shared home. Lothar attacks and seizes detailed rocketpack schematics drawn up by Peabody, but is interrupted when the FBI arrives. Cliff and Peevy escape with the rocket, and Lothar also escapes as the house is destroyed by gunfire. Cliff and Peevy arrive at the local diner but are trapped by a team of mobsters who are searching for Cliff, but don't recognize him. Overhearing them consult with Valentine over the diner's phone, Cliff learns of Jenny's date with Sinclair and the latter's involvement with the crime. Cliff decides to confront Sinclair and Peabody provisionally patches the rocket's sudden leaking fuel tank with Cliff's chewing gum. Cliff infiltrates the South Seas Club but is nearly trapped by Valentine's gang, and in the ensuing melée, Jenny is kidnapped by Sinclair.Sinclair tries to seduce Jenny at his villa, but she knocks him out and, trying to escape, finds that he is a Nazi spy. Sinclair recaptures her with Lothar's aid and leaves a message for Cliff; bring the rocketpack to the Griffith Observatory that very night or Jenny dies. Cliff hides the rocket just before he is arrested by the FBI, who take him to Hughes. Hughes reveals that the rocket was a prototype similar to one Nazi scientists were unsuccessfully developing to invade the United States. The FBI agents mention that they are tracking a Nazi spy in Hollywood, whom Cliff obviously realizes to be Sinclair. When Hughes demands the return of the rocket, Cliff explains that he needs it to rescue Jenny and, seizing a large wooden model of the "Spruce Goose" flying boat, glides out of Hughes' hangar headquarters.Recostumed as the Rocketeer, Cliff flies to the rendezvous where Sinclair, Lothar and the Valentine gang are waiting. When Sinclair demands the rocket, Cliff divulges to the gang that the actor is a Nazi spy. Valentine is a career criminal but draws the line at treason; he turns on Sinclair. Sinclair unexpectedly summons Nazi SA commandos hidden nearby and the gang are held at gunpoint as a Nazi Zeppelin touring America in a "gesture of friendship" is shown to be secretly assisting the mission, and appears overhead. A dispute ensues between the Nazis and the arrival of FBI agents, but Sinclair and Lothar escape with Jenny aboard the zeppelin. The climax ensues with Cliff and Jenny being rescued by Howard and Peevy in an autogyro. Sinclair takes the rocket, but not before Cliff thumbs off the chewing gum patch. Sinclair is unaware of the device's oil combust, and he dies crashing down upon the last four giant letters of the "Hollywoodland" sign. Lothar is engulfed in flames as the zeppelin explodes.Some time afterwards, Hughes presents Secord with a brand-new Gee Bee racing plane. As he drives away, Jenny presents Peabody with the rocket schematics she found in Sinclair's villa. Peabody decides that with some modifications, he can build an even better one.