The Rocketeer is the best comic book adaptation! Bringing comic books to the screen is difficult since superheroes are absurd in concept. The Rocketeer is successful IMO since it is based on a pre-World War II setting comic book. The character was in a series of vignettes that ran through the anthology comic Pacific Presents (not as popularly known as Marvel Comics. It featured the good girl artwork of Dave Stevens, co-producer of the film, mixed with the adventures of movie serial heroes. The serials were popular in the 1930’s, black and white, short films that ended in cliffhangers. They inspired films like Raiders of the Lost Ark and in part Star Wars (1977). Stevens as writer and artist took the concept of King of the Rocket Men (1949), but combined him with early aviation, spies, and a dash of pin-up model, Bettie Page. The movie is directed by Joe Johnston who worked for ILM as a designer and directed Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989) for Disney and later Captain America: The First Avenger (2011). I knew he was perfect for that film when announced as director. The screenplay and co-story is by Danny Bilson and Paul DeMeo who created The Flash (1990) series. The story is also by William Dear, director of Harry and the Hendersons (1987).
It opens to the score by James Horner, one of my favorite film scores, it has all of the gentleness of an early morning with the promise of adventure. The dark hangar doors are opened. Mechanics roll out the yellow and black Gee Bee (standing for the Granville Brothers) Model R plane, a squat and compact racer. The color design makes it look like tough bee. It is rolled out to the airfield which brings me back to the days of watching air shows. We hear the discussion between genius mechanic, Peevy (Alan Arkin) and pilot, Cliff Secord (Billy Campell). Arkin brings a charm to every role he plays including Edward Scissorhands (1990) and Argo (2012). Campbell starred in Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) and later the SyFy series Helix. Peevy is detail oriented, but Cliff relies on his experience, he puts his gum on the tail for luck. The hood is locked onto the cockpit and the propeller is spun. Peevy throws away the gum. Cliff takes the Gee Bee to the runway and gives a kiss to the photo of his girl, Jenny. The Gee Bee lifts off and the soundtrack soars. Cliff does a fly by of Peevy and the boys, not as a show off, but just love of flying. Then, we get the setting, “Los Angeles, 1938.”
The film jumps to a Tommy gun fired by a gangster in the back of a roadster. They are being chased by a police car running its siren. Behind them is federal agents, Fitch (Ed Lauter) and Wooly (James Handy). Lauter who was in the action movie, Raw Deal (1986) and he plays the square-jawed tough guy here. Handy plays an F.B.I. agent who smooths things over with Fitch's impulsiveness. He was previously in the horror movie, Arachnophobia (1990). The Tommy gun takes out the front tire of the police car and it runs into a ditch. The two cars race across the field and Cliff’s Gee Bee flies over them. The gangster fires at the plane and hits the fuel line. The federal agents’ car gets caught between trees as the gangsters reach the airfield. The driver, Wilmer (Michael Grodénchik) takes the box and sees the gunman, Lenny, has died. Grodénchik is known for playing Rom in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Peevy sees the Gee Bee come in sputtering smoke. Wilmer replaces a vacuum cleaner into the box and takes off. He jumps out of the car as the Gee Bee slices through it, but loses its landing gear. The gangster car hits a fuel tank which explodes as the Gee Bee comes in burning! The mechanics help Cliff out and he runs back to get Jenny’s photo. Peevy and Cliff angrily tell the agents that years of work went into the Gee Bee. Cliff strikes Fitch and gets a fist in return.
The agents question Wilmer on a stretcher looking for “The Package”, but he says it was blown up. Another agent pulls out some burning wreckage. Fitch tells Wooly to make the call. At a white-washed Hughes Aircraft hangar, a man in a suit (Terry O’Quinn) gets the call, he is very dapper with a mustache. Quinn is known for playing John Locke in Lost and also lawyer, Alex McSween in the western Young Guns (1988). The man holds some blueprints and then tosses a folder with jet packs flying over the 1939 Worlds Fair. He tells the government and military officials what to say to the president (Roosevelt), “Tell him the dream is over. Tell him Howard Hughes said so.” Back at the hangar, Peevy and Cliff argue with the owner, Bigelow (Joe Polito), over the three hundred dollars of the fuel costs. Polito was in Highlander (1986) and later The Crow (1994). Bigelow wants them to revive their old clown act. Cliff wants to fly the old, dusty Miss Mable plane and finds a large package. They uncover two rockets in a art deco style pack, Cliff accidentally activates it and the jet pack flies across the room, then he slips it on with stunned looks between them. Night, they saw off the statue of “Lucky” Lindy, Charles Lindbergh, in front of the flight school. Cliff and Peevy take it over to the back of the pick-up truck and drive away.
We have the head of the gangsters, Eddie Valentine (Paul Sorvino) asking about Wilmer, turning around is Neville Sinclair (Timothy Dalton). Sorvino is a veteran character actor appearing in Goodfellas (1990) and also the Dick Tracy (1990) movie. Neville has the grace and fencing sword of Errol Flynn. Dalton of course was James Bond for several films, but I remember him as the dashing Prince Barin in Flash Gordon (1980). Neville's house has white columns with ancient iconography. Valentine is about to walk away when Neville reveals that The Package is really a rocket and he adds, “Like in the comic books”, love it! Valentine says Wilmer knows what happened to it and that he is in the hospital. Neville frets about Eddie’s men and makes a call to the mysterious Lothar (Tiny Ron Taylor). Tiny Ron was in the action movie Road House (1989) and later Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. A stake is hammered into a field with a chain to the statue wearing the jet pack. Cliff and Peevy take cover and the switch is thrown by the mechanic. The jet pack ignites and is thrown into a rotation by the chain. Cliff notices the stake is being pulled up and the statue disappears in the night sky. Peevy and Cliff search the sky for signs of the rocket pack and then find it is hurtling behind them! They run and the pack crashes into the field. Cliff has the idea of “borrowing” it to make some money, and he finds the head of the statue broken, he mentions that Peevy should make a helmet!
Next, we get the closeup of a shapely leg as Jenny Blake (Jennifer Connelly) pulling up her pantyhouse, the closest thing we will get for Bettie Page. Connelly played Sarah in Labyrinth (1986) and voiced Karen in Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017). Cliff heads over to take Jenny on their date. She is excited that she landed a part in a Neville Sinclair movie. Jenny asks him about his flight in the GeeBee. Then, they decide on a movie and Jenny mentions the Neville Sinclair movie, Wings of Honor. The newsreel at the beginning of the film shows the Nazis and the zeppelin on a world tour. A dark shadow enters the hospital room of Wilmer. Lothar sets a chair against the door as the nurse and officer listen to a radio show. He shakes Wilmer, whose shattered body is wrapped up in bandages, awake and startled at Lothar’s Dick Tracy villain-like features. Lothar asks about the rocket and Wilmer reveals the switch. The nurse laughs at the radio program’s screams and then realize it is coming from the hospital room. The officer breaks in and finds that Wilmer was folded in half! The danger ramps up with aerial action, a nightclub battle, and Cliff Secord finally becomes The Rocketeer, reluctantly, and to save the people close to him. The Rocketeer is a blend of a clever look at Hollywood of the time, Nazi movie villains, and a perfect cast!
Five Rocket Packs out of Five!
#TheRocketeer, #JoeJohnston, #BillCampbell, #JenniferConnelly, #AlanArkin, #TimothyDalton
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