Rocketeer (1991)
"The Rocketeer" (original title)

A young pilot stumbles onto a prototype jetpack that allows him to become a high flying masked hero.

Director:

Joe Johnston

Writers:

Dave Stevens (graphic novel "The Rocketeer"), Danny Bilson (story),

Stars:

Billy Campbell, Jennifer Connelly, Alan Arkin

1 win & 5 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Billy Campbell	...	Cliff (as Bill Campbell)
Jennifer Connelly	...	Jenny
Alan Arkin	...	Peevy
Timothy Dalton	...	Neville Sinclair
Paul Sorvino	...	Eddie Valentine
Terry O'Quinn	...	Howard Hughes
Ed Lauter	...	Fitch
James Handy	...	Wooly
Robert Miranda	...	Spanish Johnny (as Robert Guy Miranda)
John Lavachielli	...	Rusty
Jon Polito	...	Bigelow
Eddie Jones	...	Malcolm
William Sanderson	...	Skeets
Don Pugsley	...	Goose
Nada Despotovich	...	Irma

Storyline

Straight from the pages of a pulp comic from a past era, the Rocketeer recreates 1930's Hollywood, complete with gangsters, Nazi spies, and the growth of the Age of Aviation. Young pilot Cliff Secord stumbles on a top secret rocket-pack and with the help of his mechanic/mentor, Peevee, he attempts to save his girl and stop the Nazis as The Rocketeer.

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Plot Keywords:

nazi | gangster | 1930s | blimp | aviation | 

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Taglines:

Three years before the United States declares war, Cliff Secord leads America's first battle against the Nazis.

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Family | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

21 June 1991 (USA)

Also Known As:

Rocketeer

Filming Locations:

California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$40,000,000 (estimated)

Gross:

$46,704,056 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone Pictures, Silver Screen Partners IV

Technical Specs

Runtime:

108 min

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) Dolby SR (35 mm prints) (as Dolby Stereo)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Disney had a special mechanism built especially for this film. Called the "Shaky-cam", it was designed to be the exact opposite of the "Steady-cam", that is, to introduce vibrations into the picture. This was used in the scenes filmed inside the Zeppelin to give the impression of the power of the engines. When the movie went to video, the effect didn't transfer too well, and was therefore steadied.

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Goofs

The string is briefly visible when the jet pack hooked to the "Luck Lindy" statue takes off.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Peevy: [as they bring the Gee Bee out for its maiden flight] Keep her straight, keep her level. It's your first time up, so don't do anything interesting.
Cliff Secord: Who, me?
Peevy: And remember, she stalls out at about a hundred. So keep the air speed up. Otherwise, you're gonna be drifting around all over the sky. And if the ailerons start to shimmy...
Cliff Secord: Peevy, I have flown a plane or two in my life.
Peevy: Not like this one, you haven't. This one's... This one's a handful. You sneeze in this thing and you're ...
[...]

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Connections

Spoofed in The Cockateer 2 (1992)

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Soundtracks

"VILLA"
Written by Franz Lehár and Paul Francis Webster
Performed by Artie Shaw and his orchestra
Courtesy of Bluebird / RCA / BMG record labels

User Reviews

Pretty enjoyable

There's more fun to be had out of this movie than I'd expected. The story is given elsewhere so I'll pretty much skip it and get to the more important things, like the twenty-year-old Jennifer Connelly. She's a bit plumper (all over) than we're used to seeing her but it's okay because cartoon figures ought to be slightly overdone. She looks and sounds magnificent -- those over-sized nacreous incisors, I guess. She could open mangoes with those teeth. Not that she's as beautiful as any woman possibly could be. Connelly COULD be better looking but if she were it would probably be against some law.

Bill Campbell looks like a cartoon too. In fact everyone in the movie looks like a cartoon except the guy playing the huge thug working for Paul Sorvino. That guy doesn't look like a cartoon. He looks exactly like Rondo Hatten, an acromegalic actor from a few 40s horror flicks. But, it must be admitted, Rondo Hatten looked like a cartoon. And, well, if A = B and B = C, then A = C, no? It's a conundrum alright.

The movie is filled with delicious 1938 atmosphere. I wasn't around to enjoy it but it's always struck a resonant chord in me when I glimpse it in movies or listen to recordings from the period. Here we have an Artie Shaw sort of band playing "Begin the Beguine" with a close simulation of that famous arrangement that made it such a hit. A smiling singer who looks like Nicole Kidman stands on the stage and sings without rolling around or smashing a guitar. Call me retro, but I prefer it to Snoop Dog Eeeze 2 Dudes. All seriousness aside, what happened to pop music anyway? Where are our Cole Porters and Ira Gershwins. Somebody hand me a hankie.

I enjoyed the airplanes too. The one in the beginning of the movie was built exclusively for racing. (I forget its designation.) It was a horror to fly because it was hardly more than a huge engine with a tiny airplane built around it, as unstable a craft as ever took wing. Scary news footage exists of one of them zipping along at a tremendous rate and then, out of nowhere, kaboom, spinning deliriously into the ground at full speed. The 1930s were famous for their air races, like NASCAR is today. Heroes were made out of aviators. Airplanes that later became famous as fighters in WWII were first configured as racers -- Curtis P-40s, for instance, and the British Spitfires.

Of course it's an imitation of the Indiana Jones series and maybe an imitation of some Indiana Jones imitations, a kind of meta-imitation, but, gee, it's enjoyable. What atmosphere. And lots of action. Everybody and everything is turned into mincemeat one way or another but not in any way that's offensive.

It's really kind of engaging if you don't ask for significance.