The Rocketeer
The Rocketeer theatrical poster
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 Ed Lauter Jon Polito Terry O'Quinn
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
Budget	$40,000,000 (estimated)
Gross revenue	$46,704,056 (USA)
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

The Rocketeer is a 1991 superhero adventure film produced by Walt Disney Pictures/Touchstone Pictures^[1] 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. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Joseph Eggleston Joe Johnston III (born May 13, 1950 in Fort Worth, Texas) is a well-known American film director responsbile for such films as Hidalgo, Jurassic Park III, October Sky, and Jumanji, amongst others. ... Lawrence Gordon (born March 25, 1936 in Yazoo City, Mississippi) is an American producer and motion picture executive. ... Lloyd Levin is an award-winning film producer. ... Dave Stevens (1955- ) is an American illustrator and comics artist. ... Danny Bilson is a writer, director, and producer in movies, television, videogames, and comic books. ... Billy Campbell as Thadiun Okona in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode The Outrageous Okona. William O. Campbell (born July 7, 1959 in Charlottesville, Virginia is an actor who who is well known for his starring role in the television series Once and Again as well as his role... Alan Wolf Arkin (born March 26, 1934) is an Academy Award-winning American actor and director. ... Jennifer Lynn Connelly (born December 12, 1970) is an Academy Award-winning American film actress and former child model. ... Timothy Peter Dalton (born March 21, 1946) is a British actor of stage and screen, best known for portraying James Bond in The Living Daylights (1987) and Licence to Kill (1989). ... Edward Lauter is an American actor, born on October 30, 1940 in Long Beach, Long Island, New York. ... Jon Polito (born December 29, 1950) is an American actor, best known for working with the Coen Brothers. ... Terrance Terry OQuinn (born on July 15, 1952) is an Emmy Award nominated American actor. ... James Roy Horner (born August 14, 1953) is an American composer of orchestral and film music. ... Hiro Narita (born June 26, 1941 in Seoul, South Korea) is an Korean-based cinematographer who works in the USA since the 1960s. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group is a collection of affiliated motion picture studios, all subsidaries of The Walt Disney Company. ... June 23 is the 174th day of the year (175th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 191 days remaining. ... 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... DVD front cover for The Adventures of Captain Marvel film serial. ... Walt Disney Pictures logo (2006-present) Walt Disney Pictures is an American film studio, with off-shoot studios in Japan and other sites in the United States. ... The current logo for Touchstone Pictures films since 2002 Touchstone Pictures (also known as Touchstone Films in its early years) is one of several alternate film labels of The Walt Disney Company, established in 1984. ... Joseph Eggleston Joe Johnston III (born May 13, 1950 in Fort Worth, Texas) is a well-known American film director responsbile for such films as Hidalgo, Jurassic Park III, October Sky, and Jumanji, amongst others. ... Rocketeer Adventure Magazine #1 (1988), Comico Comics. ... Dave Stevens (1955- ) is an American illustrator and comics artist. ... For the game, see Jetpack (computer game). ...

Music for the movie was written by James Horner. The film won a Saturn Award for Best Costume in 1991. It was the third movie directed by Joe Johnston, who later went on to direct movies such as Jumanji and Hidalgo. For other uses, see Music (disambiguation). ... James Roy Horner (born August 14, 1953) is an American composer of orchestral and film music. ... The Saturn Award is an award presented annually by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films to honor the top works in science fiction, fantasy, and horror in film, television, and home video. ... Joseph Eggleston Joe Johnston III (born May 13, 1950 in Fort Worth, Texas) is a well-known American film director responsbile for such films as Hidalgo, Jurassic Park III, October Sky, and Jumanji, amongst others. ... Jumanji is a 1995 feature film directed by Joe Johnston and based on Chris Van Allsburgs 1982 book, Jumanji. ... Categories: 2004 films | Biographical films | Western films | Movie stubs ...

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). Nickname: City of Angels Location within Los Angeles County in the state of California Coordinates: State California County Los Angeles County Incorporated April 4, 1850 Government  - Type Mayor-Council  - Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D)  - City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo  - Governing body City Council Area  - City  498. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ... ... Mobster is a slang term for a person who participates in organized crime, which is known as belonging to the Mob. In western stories and movies, cowboys as mobsters are known as outlaws. ... The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is a federal criminal investigative, intelligence agency, and the primary investigative arm of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). ... For the Welsh murderer, see Howard Hughes (murderer). ... Terrance Terry OQuinn (born on July 15, 1952) is an Emmy Award nominated American actor. ... Billy Campbell as Thadiun Okona in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode The Outrageous Okona. William O. Campbell (born July 7, 1959 in Charlottesville, Virginia is an actor who who is well known for his starring role in the television series Once and Again as well as his role... Alan Wolf Arkin (born March 26, 1934) is an Academy Award-winning American actor and director. ... For the game, see Jetpack (computer game). ... Jennifer Lynn Connelly (born December 12, 1970) is an Academy Award-winning American film actress and former child model. ... A movie star is a celebrity who is well known for his or her starring, or leading, roles in motion pictures. ... Timothy Peter Dalton (born March 21, 1946) is a British actor of stage and screen, best known for portraying James Bond in The Living Daylights (1987) and Licence to Kill (1989). ...

The story

The Rocketeer in flight.

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. Nearby, a pair of mobsters are fleeing a police car and a pair of FBI agents. One of the mobsters, armed with a Tommy gun, spots the Gee Bee and shoots at it, puncturing the fuel tank. The mobster's car arrives at the airfield and the driver gets out, only to discover that his partner has suffered a fatal gunshot wound. Taking a mysterious bundle from a suitcase in the back of the car, the mobster hides it under the seat of an old biplane and drives back out onto the runway. Meanwhile, Cliff has managed to fly the Gee Bee back to the airfield and is now on a collision course with the mobster's car. The car rips the landing gear off the plane and the driver bails out just before the car crashes into a fuel truck and explodes. Cliff manages to survive the crash landing but the Gee Bee is completely ruined. Even worse, the owner of the airfield, Bigelow (Jon Polito) demands that Cliff and Peevy pay for the loss of the fuel truck, bankrupting the both of them. Image File history File linksMetadata Rocketeerscreen1. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Rocketeerscreen1. ... The Gee Bee air racers are synonymous with the Golden Age of Air Racing. ... An Air France Boeing 777, a modern passenger jet. ... A race is a competition of speed. ... A lance corporal of the East Surrey Regiment, British Army equipped with a Thompson M1928 submachine gun (drum magazine), 25 November 1940 The Thompson was a family of American submachine guns that became infamous during the Prohibition era. ... Jon Polito (born December 29, 1950) is an American actor, best known for working with the Coen Brothers. ...

Desperate for money, Cliff volunteers for the dangerous job of flying stunts in an old junker of a biplane during an airshow. While inspecting the plane, Peevy and Cliff discover the mysterious bundle hidden by the mobster earlier that day. The bundle turns out to be a prototype jetpack stolen by the mobsters from Howard Hughes.

After a somewhat problematic test flight, Peevy makes Cliff promise not to use the jetpack again until Peevy can get a better handle on the design and build a custom helmet to go with it. The next day, Cliff is on his way to the air show but arrives late. To save Cliff's job, his friend Malcolm takes the biplane out and attempts to perform Cliff's act. Unfortunately, Malcolm hasn't flown a plane in years and is badly out of practice. To stop him from killing himself or someone else, Cliff dons the jetpack and Peevy's helmet and takes off. In the process of saving Malcolm, Cliff flies dramatically over the crowd, getting caught on camera. Dubbed the Rocketeer, Cliff becomes a media sensation.

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 (as was rumored about Flynn) 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. Timothy Peter Dalton (born March 21, 1946) is a British actor of stage and screen, best known for portraying James Bond in The Living Daylights (1987) and Licence to Kill (1989). ... For a description of the medieval homage ceremony see commendation ceremony Homage is generally used in modern English to mean any public show of respect to someone to whom you feel indebted. ... Errol Leslie Thomson Flynn (June 20, 1909 – October 14, 1959) was an Australian film actor, most famous for his romantic swashbuckler roles in Hollywood films and his flamboyant lifestyle. ...

Also in the play are Eddie Valentine (Paul Sorvino) and his gang (to which the two mobsters from the beginning had belonged), 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. Boris Karloff as Frankensteins Monster in Frankenstein (1931) Frankensteins monster (sometimes Frankensteins creature or the Frankenstein monster or even Frankenstein) is a creature first appearing in Mary Shelleys novel, Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus. ... Ronald Tiny Ron Taylor is an American film actor. ... Rondo Hattons acromegalic features have made him a Hollywood Horror icon Rondo Hatton (April 22, 1894 - February 2, 1946) had a brief, but prolific career playing thuggish bit parts in a slew of Hollywood, California B-movies. ...

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. For the Welsh murderer, see Howard Hughes (murderer). ... Terrance Terry OQuinn (born on July 15, 1952) is an Emmy Award nominated American actor. ...

At the meeting spot (the Griffith Park 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. Griffith Observatory, September, 2006. ... This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims. ... LZ127 Graf Zeppelin, one of the two zeppelins that carried passengers from Germany to the United States. ...

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. LZ 129 Hindenburg was a German zeppelin. ... The Hollywood Sign is a famous landmark in the Hollywood area of Los Angeles, California, spelling out the name of the area in 50-foot[1] (15. ...

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.

Production

Steve Miner was the first filmmaker to option the movie rights to Stevens’ comic book but he strayed too far from the original concept. Screenwriters Danny Bilson and Paul DeMeo originally approached Stevens to work on the film Zone Troopers but he had to pass due to other commitments. They were given an option on The Rocketeer’s screen rights in 1985 because Stevens liked that “their ideas for The Rocketeer were heartfelt and affectionate tributes to the 1930’s with all the right dialogue and atmosphere. Most people would approach my character contemporarily, but Danny and Paul saw them as pre-war mugs.”^[2] Their script kept the comic book’s basic plot intact but fleshed it out to include a Hollywood setting and a climatic battle against a Nazi zeppelin. They also tweaked Cliff’s girlfriend to avoid comparisons/legal hassles to Bettie Page (Stevens’ original inspiration), changing her name from Betty to Jenny and her profession from nude model to Hollywood extra. Steve Miner (born June 18, 1951 in Westport, Connecticut) is best known as a film and television director. ... Bettie Mae Page (born April 22, 1923), more commonly known as Bettie Page, was an American model and pin-up girl, active mostly in the 1950s. ...

Bilson and DeMeo submitted their seven-page outline to Disney in 1986. The studio put their script through an endless series of revisions and, at one point, the screenwriters talked to Stevens about doing The Rocketeer as a smaller film shot in black and white. However, the involvement of Disney resulted in a significant increase in budget as DeMeo said, “You can imagine the commitment Disney was making to develop a series of movies around a character. They even called it their Raiders of the Lost Ark.”^[3] With Stevens input, Bilson and DeMeo developed their screenplay with director William Dear who proceeded to change the zeppelin to a submarine. Raiders of the Lost Ark, also known as Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, is a 1981, Academy Award-winning adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg. ... William C. Dear is a well-known Dallas-based private investigator. ...

Over five years, Disney fired and rehired Bilson and DeMeo three times. DeMeo explained that “Disney felt that they needed a different approach to the script, which meant bringing in someone else. But those scripts were thrown out and we were always brought back on.”^[4] They found the studio’s constant tinkering with the screenplay to be a frustrating process as executives would like “excised dialogue three months later. Scenes that had been thrown out two years ago were put back in. What was the point?” DeMeo said.^[5] Disney’s biggest problems were with all of the period slang peppered throughout the script. Executive were worried that audiences wouldn’t understand what characters were saying.

One of Bilson and DeMeo’s significant revisions to the script over the years was to make Cliff and Jenny’s “attraction more believable...how do we bring Jenny into the story and revolve it around her, and not just create someone who’s kidnapped and has to be saved?” DeMeo remembers.^[6] The numerous project delays forced Dear to leave the production and Joe Johnston signed on. Johnston was a fan of the comic book and when he inquired about its movie rights was told that Disney already had it in development. He approached the studio and was quickly hired to direct. The filmmaker said in an interview, “One of the great appeals of Stevens’ work was his attention to detail, which really placed the reader in the period. I’ve tried to do the same thing cinematically.”^[7]

In 1990s, Bilson and DeMeo’s third major rewrite finally got the greenlight from the studio. However, Disney also acquired the rights to the Dick Tracy film from Universal and this worried DeMeo who was afraid that the studio would dump The Rocketeer in favor of a much more high-profile project. However, when Dick Tracy failed to perform as well at the box office as Disney had hoped, his fears subsided. Pre-production started in early 1990 with producer Larry Franco in charge of securing locations for the film. He found an abandoned World War II landing strip in Santa Maria which they used to build the mythical Chaplin Air Field. The Rocketeer’s attack on the Nazi zeppelin was filmed near the Magic Mountain amusement park in the Indian Dunes. Dick Tracy is a 1990 film based upon the Dick Tracy comic strip character created by Chester Gould. ... Santa Maria is the largest city in Santa Barbara County, California. ... Six Flags Magic Mountain is an amusement park in the Santa Clarita, California neighborhood of Valencia, north of Los Angeles. ...

Bill Campbell wasn’t familiar with the comic book when he got the part but quickly read it in addition to books on aviation and listened to period music. The actor had a fear of flying but overcame it with the help of the film’s aerial coordinator Craig Hosking. To ensure his safety, Campbell was doubled for almost all of the Rocketeer’s flying sequences.

Bilson and DeMeo approved of everything that was put in the movie and enlisted Stevens’ help designing the Central City Police badges and initial revisions to the Rocketeer suit. For the Air Circus scene at Chaplin Air Field, 700 extras and 25 vintage planes were employed. Hosking remarked in an interview, “What makes The Rocketeer so unique was having several one-of-a-kind planes that hadn’t flown in years,”^[8] including a 1916 standard bi-wing and a round-nosed and small-winged Gee Bee. The film ended up going 50 days over schedule due to weather and mechanical problems. Production wrapped on January 10, 1991 after five months of filming.

Reactions

Released on June 21, 1991, The Rocketeer grossed $46,704,056 in US domestic returns.^[9] The website Rotten Tomatoes (launched in 1998) lists the film with a 72% "fresh" rating based on all polled critical reviews.^[10] It also has a 5.9 rating at the Internet Movie Database with 8,375 votes.^[11] June 21 is the 172nd day of the year (173rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 193 days remaining. ... Rotten Tomatoes (http://www. ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean [1]. // Coated in ice, power and telephone lines sag and often break, resulting in power outages. ... The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) is an online database of information about movies, actors, television shows, production crew personnel, and video games. ...

Trivia

In the UK, the film's music is published by Campbell-Connelly (it is published by Wonderland Music in the U.S.). This is not a reference to the film's stars, but to songwriters Jimmy Campbell and Reginald Connelly.

References

The current logo for Touchstone Pictures films since 2002 Touchstone Pictures (also known as Touchstone Films in its early years) is one of several alternate film labels of The Walt Disney Company, established in 1984. ... The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) is one of the largest media and entertainment corporations in the world. ... Cinefantastique is a horror, fantasy, and science fiction film magazine started in 1970 by publisher/editor Frederick S. Clarke. ... Cinefantastique is a horror, fantasy, and science fiction film magazine started in 1970 by publisher/editor Frederick S. Clarke. ... Cinefantastique is a horror, fantasy, and science fiction film magazine started in 1970 by publisher/editor Frederick S. Clarke. ... Cinefantastique is a horror, fantasy, and science fiction film magazine started in 1970 by publisher/editor Frederick S. Clarke. ... Cinefantastique is a horror, fantasy, and science fiction film magazine started in 1970 by publisher/editor Frederick S. Clarke. ... Cinefantastique is a horror, fantasy, and science fiction film magazine started in 1970 by publisher/editor Frederick S. Clarke. ... Cinefantastique is a horror, fantasy, and science fiction film magazine started in 1970 by publisher/editor Frederick S. Clarke. ...

External link

• The Rocketeer at the Internet Movie Database