The Rocketeer (film)
Encyclopedia
The Rocketeer is a 1991 period
superhero
adventure film
produced by Walt Disney Pictures
and based on the character of the same name created by comic book writer/artist Dave Stevens
. 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 effects
sequences were created and designed by Industrial Light & Magic.
The film was released on June 21, 1991 and received generally favorable reviews from critics. Plans for Rocketeer sequels were abandoned after a poor box office performance.
: In 1938, a rocket pack designed by Howard Hughes
is stolen from his factory by members of mobster Eddie Valentine's gang, who are pursued by FBI agents to an airfield, where they are caught. Stunt pilot Cliff Secord and mechanic A. "Peevy" Peabody, whose Gee Bee racer
was fatally damaged by the mobsters, find the mysterious rocket inside a biplane of their employer's hangar, where the getaway driver hid it. 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, a Nazi secret agent
, who had hired Valentine's gang to obtain the rocket from Hughes. Sinclair negotiates a new deal and dispatches the mobsters to search for the missing device.
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. Jenny is fired over Cliff's accident; however, Sinclair, who is portraying the lead role of the production, overhears Cliff's attempt to tell Jenny about the rocket pack. After Cliff leaves, Sinclair makes up to Jenny and invites her to dinner at the famed South Seas Club. Sinclair then sends his monstrous assistant, Lothar, to search the airfield for Cliff.
Cliff consults with Peevy in their shared home, where Lothar attacks and seizes detailed rocket pack schematics drawn up by Peevy, but they are interrupted by the arrival of the FBI. 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 Eddie over the diner's phone, Cliff learns of Jenny's date with Sinclair and the latter's involvement with the crime. The diner patrons overpower the mobsters, but a stray ricochet punctures the rocket pack's fuel tank, which Peevy provisionally patches with Cliff's chewing gum
. Cliff proceeds to and 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, discovers that he is a spy. Sinclair recaptures her with Lothar's aid and leaves a message for Cliff: bring the rocket pack to the Griffith Observatory
that very night in exchange for Jenny's life. 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 (as shown in a propaganda film the FBI show Cliff that was smuggled out of Nazi Germany). The FBI agents mention that they are tracking a Nazi spy in Hollywood, whom Cliff realizes to be Sinclair. When Hughes demands the return of the rocket, Cliff explains that he needs it to rescue Jenny; when the FBI protests, Cliff escapes, but inadvertently leaves behind a clue to the location of the exchange.
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. Eddie, drawing the line at treason
, turns on Sinclair, but Sinclair unexpectedly summons Nazi SA
commandos hidden nearby and the gang are held at gunpoint as a Nazi Zeppelin
, the Luxembourg, touring America in a "gesture of friendship" but actually secretly assisting the mission, appears overhead to evacuate Sinclair and his associates, who order their prisoners shot. Suddenly, FBI agents announce their presence and both them and the gangsters find themselves joining forces to battle the Nazi troopers, but Sinclair and Lothar escape with Jenny aboard the Zeppelin. Cliff uses the rocketpack to reach and board the Zeppelin, but during the ensuing showdown Jenny accidentally sets the craft on fire with a flare gun
. Sinclair takes the rocket to save himself, but not before Cliff thumbs off the chewing gum patch; with the leaking fuel ignited by the exhaust flame, Sinclair dies crashing down upon the last four giant letters of the "Hollywoodland
" sign. Lothar is engulfed in flames as the Zeppelin explodes, but Cliff and Jenny are rescued at the last instant by Hughes and Peevy in an autogyro
.
Some time afterwards, Hughes presents Cliff with a brand-new Gee Bee racing aircraft as a compensation for the one he lost at the start of the adventure. As Hughes leaves, Jenny presents Peabody with the rocket blueprints she found in Sinclair's villa. Peabody decides that with some modifications, he can build an even better one.
created the Rocketeer in 1982 and immediately viewed the character as an ideal protagonist
for a film adaptation. Steve Miner
purchased the film rights
from Stevens in 1983 but he strayed too far from the original concept and the rights reverted back to Stevens. In 1985, Stevens gave writers Danny Bilson
and Paul De Meo
a free option
over The Rocketeer rights. Stevens liked that "their ideas for The Rocketeer were heartfelt and affectionate tributes to the 1930s serials with all the right dialogue and atmosphere. Most people would approach my character contemporarily, but Danny and Paul saw them as pre-war mugs."
Stevens, Bilson and De Meo began to consider making The Rocketeer as a low-budget film, shot in black-and-white
and funded by independent investors
. Their plan was to make the film a complete homage
to the Commando Cody
serial films, and use a cast largely associated with character actor
s. However, that same year, the trio approached William Dear
to direct/co-write The Rocketeer and they eventually dropped the low-budget idea. Bilson, De Meo and Dear kept the comic book’s basic plot intact but fleshed it out to include a Hollywood setting and a climactic battle against a Nazi Zeppelin. They also tweaked Cliff’s girlfriend to avoid comparisons to Bettie Page
(Stevens’ original inspiration), changing her name from Betty to Jenny and her profession from nude model to Hollywood extra (a change also made to make the film more family friendly). Dear proceeded to transform the climax from a submarine into a Zeppelin setpiece.
Stevens, Bilson, De Meo and Dear began to pitch The Rocketeer in 1986 to the major film studios but were turned down. "This was 1986, long before Batman
or Dick Tracy or anything similar," Stevens explained. "In those days, no studio was interested at all in an expensive comic book movie. We got there about three years too early for our own good!" The Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group eventually accepted The Rocketeer because they believed the film had toyetic
potential and appeal for merchandising. The Rocketeer was set to be released by Disney-owned Touchstone Pictures
; Stevens, Bilson, De Meo and Dear all signed a contract which would permit them to make a trilogy of Rocketeer movies. However, Disney executive Jeffrey Katzenberg
switched the film to a Walt Disney Pictures
release. According to Stevens, "immediately, Betty and anything else 'adult' went right out with the bathwater. They really tried to shoehorn it into a kiddie property so they could sell toys. All they really wanted at the end of the day, was the name".
Initially, Disney executives wanted to set the film in contemporary times, out of concern that a period piece might not appeal to a large audience. However, Bilson and DeMeo argued that the success of the Indiana Jones
trilogy proved that ticketgoers would enjoy an adventure film set in the 1930s, and the studio finally agreed.
Bilson and DeMeo then submitted their seven-page film treatment
to Disney, but the studio put their script through an endless series of revisions. 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." They found the studio’s constant tinkering with the screenplay to be a frustrating process as "executives would like previously excised dialogue three months later. Scenes that had been thrown out two years ago were put back in. What was the point?" DeMeo said. One of Bilson and De Meo’s significant revisions to the script over the years was to make Cliff and Jenny’s romance more believable and avoid cliché
aspects that would stereotype
Jenny as a damsel in distress
. The numerous project delays forced Dear drop out as director. Joe Johnston
, a fan of the comic book, immediately offered his services as director when he found out Disney owned the film rights. Johnston was quickly hired and pre-production
started in early-1990. Disney finally greenlight
ed The Rocketeer after Bilson and De Meo’s third major rewrite.
The characterization of Neville Sinclair was inspired by movie star Errol Flynn
, or rather by the image of Flynn that had been popularized by Charles Higham
's unauthorized and fabricated biography of the actor, in which he asserted that Flynn was, among other things, a Nazi spy. The film's Neville Sinclair is, like Higham's Flynn, a movie star
known for his work in swashbuckler
roles, and who is secretly a Nazi spy. Because Higham's biography of Flynn was not refuted until the late 1980s, the image of Flynn as a closet Nazi remained current all through the arduous process of writing and re-writing the script.
even had one of the studio's then-staff writers, Karey Kirkpatrick
, audition for the part. Kevin Costner
and Matthew Modine
were the first actors considered for the role. When they both proved to be unavailable, Dennis Quaid
, Kurt Russell
, Bill Paxton
and Emilio Estevez
auditioned for the part. Johnny Depp
was Disney’s favorite choice (who would be later picked by Disney again for the Academy Award-nominated role of Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series
), while Paxton commented he came "really close" to getting the lead. Vincent D'Onofrio
turned down the role and the filmmakers were forced to continue their search.
The decision to cast Billy Campbell
as Cliff Secord caused mixed emotions amongst Disney executives. Director Joe Johnston and creator Dave Stevens believed Campbell was perfect for the role, but Disney wanted an A-list
actor. Johnston eventually convinced Disney otherwise. Campbell was not familiar with the comic book when he got the part but quickly read it in addition to books on aviation. He also prepared by listening to 1940s 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 flying sequences in conventional aircraft. Ultimately, a scale model devised by ILM puppeteer Tom St. Amand was used for all the rocket pack scenes.
For the female lead of Cliff's girlfriend Jenny, Sherilyn Fenn
, Kelly Preston
, Diane Lane
and Elizabeth McGovern
were considered before Jennifer Connelly
was eventually cast. Campbell and Connelly's working relationship eventually led to a romantic coupling, which Johnston found to be a technique for method acting
that helped with their on-screen chemistry. For Secord’s sidekick, Peevy, Dave Stevens hoped that Lloyd Bridges
would play the part, but Bridges turned it down and Alan Arkin
was cast. The part of Neville Sinclair was offered to Jeremy Irons
and Charles Dance
before Timothy Dalton
accepted the role. Lastly, the part of Eddie Valentine was written with Joe Pesci
in mind, but he turned down the part, which went to Paul Sorvino
.
Remaining cast members included Tiny Ron Taylor
as Lothar, Terry O'Quinn
as Howard Hughes
, Jon Polito
as Otis Bigelow, Ed Lauter
as Agent Fitch, Eddie Jones
as Malcolm the Mechanic and Robert Miranda as Spanish Johnny. Rocketeer creator Dave Stevens
has a cameo as the German test pilot who is killed when the Nazi's version of a rocket backpack explodes during the takeoff sequence.
for The Rocketeer lasted from September 19, 1990 to January 22, 1991. Filming at the Griffith Observatory took place in November 1990. The film ended up going 50 days over schedule due to weather and mechanical problems. Rocketeer creator Dave Stevens allied himself with director Joe Johnston and production manager Ian Bryce in an effort to be as heavily involved in the production process as possible and to try and secure as much artistic control
as he could from Disney. Disney, in particular, was not enthusiastic with Stevens' involvement. "I was on the set day and night," Stevens reflected, "from pre-production
till post-production
! And initially, I had to fight to prove that I was there for the benefit of the film, and not for my own ego."
The original production budget was set at $25 million, but rose to $40 million. This happened after Disney became impressed with the dailies
; "they realized this was a bigger movie than they were anticipating," Johnston explained, "and they approved overages. It never got completely out of control." An abandoned World War II runway
at the Santa Maria, California airport housed the fictional Chaplin Air Field. Additional scenes were shot at Bakersfield
. The large hangar built for the movie at the Santa Maria airport was purchased and moved across the field and placed next to the original Minter Field Air museum at the airport. Much of the original movie set detail is visible inside, and there is an added library that can be used for researchers. For the air circus scene, 700 Santa Maria extra
s and 25 vintage aircraft were employed. Aerial coordinator Craig 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," including a 1916 Standard biplane
and a Gee Bee Model Z
racer. The sequence where Cliff rescues Malcolm was adapted shot-for-shot
from Stevens' comic book.
Jim Bissell and his two art directors his entire reference library pertaining to the Rocketeer at that time period, including blueprints for hangars and bleachers, schematics for building the autogyro, photos and drawings of the Bulldog Cafe, the field uniforms for the air circus staff, and contacts for locating the vintage aircraft that were to be used. Stevens remembers that they "literally just took the reference and built the sets". Disney originally intended to change the Rocketeer's trademark helmet design completely. President Michael Eisner
wanted a straight NASA
-type helmet but director Johnston threatened to quit production on The Rocketeer. Disney relented, but only after creating a number of prototype designs that were ultimately rejected by the filmmakers. Stevens asked Johnston for one week to produce a good helmet design. He proceeded to work with a sculptor he knew, made a cast of the film's main stuntman's head and brainstormed ideas with the help of his sketches. They produced a helmet that the filmmakers agreed looked appropriate from all angles.
Rick Baker designed the Rondo Hatton
-inspired prosthetic makeup
designs for the Lothar character, portrayed by Tiny Ron Taylor
.
' Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) with Ken Ralston (Who Framed Roger Rabbit
, Sony Pictures Imageworks
founder) serving as the VFX supervisor
. Rocketeer director Joe Johnston previously worked as an art director
/model maker
at ILM before his film directing career took off. Johnston's insistence on a realistic flying rocketman led ILM to devise a lifelike Cliff Secord model that was filmed in "stop-motion-animation" coupled with a 18" figurine that was manipulated by hand and in "go-motion" to create "motion-blur." Speeded-up Moviola effects were also used to advantage in the air circus sequence where a combination of live action and stop-motion animation was also employed.
The Rocketeer’s attack on the Nazi Zeppelin was filmed near Six Flags Magic Mountain
amusement park in Valencia, California over four months through pick-ups. Remaining visual effects footage took place at ILM's headquarters in San Rafael
and Hamilton Air Force Base
. There, they constructed a 12 ft scale model
of the Zeppelin, which was photographed against matte painting
s that resembled 1938 Los Angeles for intercutting
purposes. The Zeppelin explosion special effect alone cost $400,000.
. The soundtrack received positive reviews and is often mentioned as being one of the film's stronger elements. The soundtrack was released through Hollywood Records
and features nearly an hour of music with eight tracks of score and two vocal tracks performed by actress/singer Melora Hardin
.
endorsements with Pizza Hut
and M&M's
/Mars candies
. An extensive line of computer games, toys, posters, trading cards, pins, patches and buttons were released to coincide with the film's opening. The studio also spent a further $19 million on TV advertising alone. A television special
documentary, titled The Rocketeer: Excitement in the Air, was broadcast on the Disney Channel
in June 1991. That same month, a young adult novelization
written by Peter David
was published by Bantam Books
, while a similar novelization by Ron Fontes, for younger readers was published by Scholastic Books for Disney Press.
The Rocketeer had its premiere
at the 1,100 seat El Capitan Theatre
on June 19, 1991. This was the first premiere to take place at the El Capitan in over two years, due to an Art Deco
-like restoration project Disney had been working on.
, City Slickers
and Dying Young
. Rocketeer eventually grossed only $46.6 million in US box office totals, in which Disney was disappointed with the final figures, declaring it a disappointment. Outside the US and Canada, the film was released through Touchstone Pictures
rather than Disney in an attempt to attract the teenage audience it did not reach in North America.
The Disney tag also was seen to have turned off people who assumed that the film was for children. In addition, Rocketeers original Art Deco poster was changed because it failed to draw attention to the cast, including then-current James Bond
, Timothy Dalton. A new poster was designed to feature Dalton, Billy Campbell and Jennifer Connelly prominently. However, the film performed disappointingly in Britain, grossing just over £1 million in its first two weeks at just under 250 screens. The new ad campaign was being designed while the British promotional campaign for the film was already under way and some theaters still had the stylized U.S. movie poster.
acknowledged he was "satisfied with 70% of the film" and highly praised Joe Johnston's direction. "The overall spirit and sweetness of the series is still there, intact," Stevens remembers. "We lost some good character stuff in editing for time, but the tone of it is still what I was trying to project in the comic pages. I also thought Joe's casting choices were excellent. To his credit, Joe did not fill out the cast with a bunch of 90210
Barbie
and Ken-type kids." Stevens found Billy Campbell to be "a good-looking guy but he also happens to be Cliff! I would never have cast him based on good looks alone, but he came into the audition and just nailed it shut. He was made for it. The part was his."
The film received generally favorable reviews from critics. Based on 49 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes
, 63% of the critics enjoyed The Rocketeer with an average score of 5.9/10. Roger Ebert
enjoyed the film, noting its homage
s to the film serials of the 1930s–1950s. Although Ebert cited the visual effects as being state of the art
, he described them "as charmingly direct as those rockets in the Flash Gordon
serials—the ones with sparklers hidden inside of them, which were pulled on wires in front of papier-mâché
mountains." Leonard Maltin
wrote that the "film captures the look of the '30s, as well as the gee-whiz innocence of Saturday matinée serials, but it's talky and takes too much time to get where it's going. Dalton has fun as a villain patterned after Errol Flynn." Peter Travers
of Rolling Stone magazine also gave a positive review. "The Rocketeer is more than one of the best films of the summer; it's the kind of movie magic that we don't see much anymore," he continued, "the kind that charms us, rather than bullying us, into suspending disbelief."
Internet reviewer James Berardinelli
commented that "The Rocketeer may not be perfect, but it's an excellent example of how to adapt a comic book
to the screen." However, Janet Maslin
from The New York Times
gave a mixed review. She called The Rocketeer "a benign adventure saga that has attractive stars, elaborate gimmicks and nice production values—everything it needs except a personality of its own." Maslin believed that by setting the story in 1938, the filmmakers were more interested in the Art Deco production design and visual effects instead of imbuing the storyline with "inspiration, which may be why it finally feels flat." Hal Hinson, writing in The Washington Post
, felt the film was too concerned with family-friendliness
. Jonathan Rosenbaum
of Chicago Reader believed both the editing and the storyline were not well balanced and felt The Rocketeer ripped-off
elements of Indiana Jones
and Back to the Future
. Rosenbaum also cited the casting decision of character actors as being too practical. "The whole thing is good-natured enough," he explained, "but increasingly mechanical."
and the Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film
, but lost both categories to Terminator 2: Judgment Day
. Costume design
er Marilyn Vance won the Saturn Award for Best Costumes, while Jennifer Connelly (Best Supporting Actress) and VFX supervisor Ken Ralston (Best Special Effects
) also received nominations.
market in 1991–1992 in both LaserDisc
and VHS/Beta videotape formats, The Rocketeer earned an additional $23.18 million in rentals. A movie soundtrack, compiled and produced by James Horner, was released in both audio cassette and CD variants. The Rocketeer was released on Region 1 DVD
by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment in August 1999. No special features were included on the later DVD release although the 1991 LaserDisc (#1239 as) had included the original theatrical trailer. A Blu-ray Disc
will be out on December 13, 2011 for its 20th Anniversary Edition.
. Both Campbell and Connelly were contracted for sequels; Campbell for two more and Connelly for only one. However, with the film's disappointing box office performance, plans for a sequel were halted in July 1991. "[Unfortunately] the movie didn’t make as much money as Disney had hoped," Campbell reflected in a January 2008 interview with MTV News
. "And that coupled with the acrimonious relationship that the director [Joe Johnston] and the studio had, contributed to them not even considering it."
Although the calls for a sequel remain unrequited, as with many films of this genre, the movie has built up a cult following
both stateside and in Japan, where until 2008, Medicom, a major toy manufacturer issued two versions of 12" poseable action figures and replica helmets based on the film. The original Dave Stevens comics are still in demand and movie memorabilia continues to have a ready audience. In addition, Joe Johnston's work on this film lead to him being hired 20 years later to direct another period superhero film, Captain America: The First Avenger
, which proved a success in 2011.
Period piece
-Setting:In the performing arts, a period piece is a work set in a particular era. This informal term covers all countries, all periods and all genres...
superhero
Superhero
A superhero is a type of stock character, possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers", dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas —...
adventure film
Adventure film
Adventure films are a genre of film.Unlike pure, low-budget action films they often use their action scenes preferably to display and explore exotic locations in an energetic way....
produced by Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures is an American film studio owned by The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Pictures and Television, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Studios and the main production company for live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, based at the Walt Disney...
and based on the character of the same name created by comic book writer/artist Dave Stevens
Dave Stevens
Dave Stevens was an American illustrator and comics artist. He is most famous for creating The Rocketeer comic book and film character, and for his pin-up style "glamour art" illustrations, especially of model Bettie Page...
. Directed by Joe Johnston
Joe Johnston
Joseph Eggleston "Joe" Johnston II is an American film director and former effects artist best known for such effects-driven movies as Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Jumanji, The Rocketeer, Jurassic Park III, the period drama October Sky, The Wolfman, and Captain America: The First Avenger.- Life and...
, the film stars Billy Campbell
Billy Campbell
William Oliver "Billy" Campbell is an American film and television actor. In television, he is best known for his roles as Rick Sammler on Once and Again, as Det. Joey Indelli on Crime Story, as Jordan Collier on The 4400, and as Dr. Jon Fielding on the Tales of the City Miniseries...
, Jennifer Connelly
Jennifer Connelly
Jennifer Lynn Connelly is an American film actress, who began her career as a child model. She appeared in magazine, newspaper and television advertising, before making her motion picture debut in the 1984 crime film Once Upon a Time in America...
, Alan Arkin
Alan Arkin
Alan Wolf Arkin is an American actor, director, musician and singer. He is known for starring in such films as Wait Until Dark, The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Catch-22, The In-Laws, Edward Scissorhands, Glengarry Glen Ross, Marley & Me, and...
, Timothy Dalton
Timothy Dalton
Timothy Peter Dalton ) is a Welsh actor of film and television. He is known for portraying James Bond in The Living Daylights and Licence to Kill , as well as Rhett Butler in the television miniseries Scarlett , an original sequel to Gone with the Wind...
, Paul Sorvino
Paul Sorvino
Paul Anthony Sorvino is an American actor. He often portrays authority figures on both sides of the law, and is possibly best known for his roles as Paulie Cicero, a portrayal of Paul Vario in the film Goodfellas and Sgt. Phil Cerreta on the police procedural and legal drama television series Law...
and Tiny Ron Taylor
Tiny Ron Taylor
Ronald "Tiny Ron" Taylor is an American film actor and former basketball player. He is possibly best known for his roles as Lothar in The Rocketeer and Roc in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective , both roles that exploited his 7 ft frame and craggy features...
. Set in 1938 Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, The Rocketeer tells the story of stunt pilot
Aerobatics
Aerobatics is the practice of flying maneuvers involving aircraft attitudes that are not used in normal flight. Aerobatics are performed in airplanes and gliders for training, recreation, entertainment and sport...
Cliff Secord who discovers a jet pack
Jet pack
Jet pack, rocket belt, rocket pack, and similar names are various types of devices, usually worn on the back, that are propelled by jets of escaping gases so as to allow a single user to fly....
that enables him to fly. His heroic deeds attract the attention of Howard Hughes
Howard Hughes
Howard Robard Hughes, Jr. was an American business magnate, investor, aviator, engineer, film producer, director, and philanthropist. He was one of the wealthiest people in the world...
and the FBI
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
, as well as sadistic Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
operatives.
Development for The Rocketeer started as far back as 1983, when Stevens sold the film rights
Film rights
Film rights are the rights under copyright law to make a derivative work—in this case, a film—derived from an item of intellectual property. Under U.S...
. Steve Miner
Steve Miner
Stephen C. "Steve" Miner is an American film and television director who is also a film producer.Miner was born in Westport, Connecticut. Television programs Miner has directed include The Wonder Years, Jake 2.0, Felicity, Dawson's Creek , and Diagnosis: Murder...
and William Dear
William Dear
William Dear is a film director, producer and screenwriter known for directing Harry and the Hendersons, If Looks Could Kill, Angels in the Outfield, Wild America and Santa Who?....
considered directing The Rocketeer before Johnston, a fan of the comic book, signed on. Screenwriters Danny Bilson
Danny Bilson
Daniel "Danny" Bilson is an American writer, director, and producer of movies, television, videogames, and comic books. With his writing partner Paul DeMeo, Danny Bilson wrote the movie The Rocketeer , the video game James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing , the television series The Sentinel ,...
and Paul De Meo
Paul De Meo
Paul De Meo is an American screenwriter and film producer. He is also a video game creator and frequently works with Danny Bilson. Their credits include The Rocketeer, Eliminators and The Flash television series.-External links:...
had creative differences with Disney, which caused the film to languish in development hell
Development hell
In the jargon of the media-industry, "development hell" is a period during which a film or other project is trapped in development...
. The studio also intended to change the trademark helmet design; Disney President Michael Eisner
Michael Eisner
Michael Dammann Eisner is an American businessman. He was the chief executive officer of The Walt Disney Company from 1984 until 2005.-Early life:...
wanted a straight NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
-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 effects
Visual effects
Visual effects are the various processes by which imagery is created and/or manipulated outside the context of a live action shoot. Visual effects involve the integration of live-action footage and generated imagery to create environments which look realistic, but would be dangerous, costly, or...
sequences were created and designed by Industrial Light & Magic.
The film was released on June 21, 1991 and received generally favorable reviews from critics. Plans for Rocketeer sequels were abandoned after a poor box office performance.
Plot
Los Angeles, CaliforniaLos Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
: In 1938, a rocket pack designed by Howard Hughes
Howard Hughes
Howard Robard Hughes, Jr. was an American business magnate, investor, aviator, engineer, film producer, director, and philanthropist. He was one of the wealthiest people in the world...
is stolen from his factory by members of mobster Eddie Valentine's gang, who are pursued by FBI agents to an airfield, where they are caught. Stunt pilot Cliff Secord and mechanic A. "Peevy" Peabody, whose Gee Bee racer
Gee Bee R-1
The Gee Bee Model R Super Sportster was a special purpose racing aircraft made by Granville Brothers Aircraft of Springfield, Massachusetts. Gee Bee stands for Granville Brothers.-Design and development:...
was fatally damaged by the mobsters, find the mysterious rocket inside a biplane of their employer's hangar, where the getaway driver hid it. 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
Movie star
A movie star is a celebrity who is well-known, or famous, for his or her starring, or leading, roles in motion pictures. The term may also apply to an actor or actress who is recognized as a marketable commodity and whose name is used to promote a movie in trailers and posters...
Neville Sinclair, a Nazi secret agent
Secret Agent
Secret Agent is a British film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, loosely based on two stories in Ashenden: Or the British Agent by W. Somerset Maugham. The film starred John Gielgud, Peter Lorre, Madeleine Carroll, and Robert Young...
, who had hired Valentine's gang to obtain the rocket from Hughes. Sinclair negotiates a new deal and dispatches the mobsters to search for the missing device.
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. Jenny is fired over Cliff's accident; however, Sinclair, who is portraying the lead role of the production, overhears Cliff's attempt to tell Jenny about the rocket pack. After Cliff leaves, Sinclair makes up to Jenny and invites her to dinner at the famed South Seas Club. Sinclair then sends his monstrous assistant, Lothar, to search the airfield for Cliff.
Cliff consults with Peevy in their shared home, where Lothar attacks and seizes detailed rocket pack schematics drawn up by Peevy, but they are interrupted by the arrival of the FBI. 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 Eddie over the diner's phone, Cliff learns of Jenny's date with Sinclair and the latter's involvement with the crime. The diner patrons overpower the mobsters, but a stray ricochet punctures the rocket pack's fuel tank, which Peevy provisionally patches with Cliff's chewing gum
Chewing gum
Chewing gum is a type of gum traditionally made of chicle, a natural latex product, or synthetic rubber known as polyisobutylene. For economical and quality reasons, many modern chewing gums use rubber instead of chicle...
. Cliff proceeds to and 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, discovers that he is a spy. Sinclair recaptures her with Lothar's aid and leaves a message for Cliff: bring the rocket pack to the Griffith Observatory
Griffith Observatory
Griffith Observatory is in Los Angeles, California, United States. Sitting on the south-facing slope of Mount Hollywood in L.A.'s Griffith Park, it commands a view of the Los Angeles Basin, including downtown Los Angeles to the southeast, Hollywood to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest...
that very night in exchange for Jenny's life. 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 (as shown in a propaganda film the FBI show Cliff that was smuggled out of Nazi Germany). The FBI agents mention that they are tracking a Nazi spy in Hollywood, whom Cliff realizes to be Sinclair. When Hughes demands the return of the rocket, Cliff explains that he needs it to rescue Jenny; when the FBI protests, Cliff escapes, but inadvertently leaves behind a clue to the location of the exchange.
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. Eddie, drawing the line at treason
Treason
In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...
, turns on Sinclair, but Sinclair unexpectedly summons Nazi SA
Sturmabteilung
The Sturmabteilung functioned as a paramilitary organization of the National Socialist German Workers' Party . It played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s...
commandos hidden nearby and the gang are held at gunpoint as a Nazi Zeppelin
Zeppelin
A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship pioneered by the German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin in the early 20th century. It was based on designs he had outlined in 1874 and detailed in 1893. His plans were reviewed by committee in 1894 and patented in the United States on 14 March 1899...
, the Luxembourg, touring America in a "gesture of friendship" but actually secretly assisting the mission, appears overhead to evacuate Sinclair and his associates, who order their prisoners shot. Suddenly, FBI agents announce their presence and both them and the gangsters find themselves joining forces to battle the Nazi troopers, but Sinclair and Lothar escape with Jenny aboard the Zeppelin. Cliff uses the rocketpack to reach and board the Zeppelin, but during the ensuing showdown Jenny accidentally sets the craft on fire with a flare gun
Flare gun
A flare gun is a firearm that launches flares. It is typically used for signalling, as distress signalling, at sea or from the ground to aircraft...
. Sinclair takes the rocket to save himself, but not before Cliff thumbs off the chewing gum patch; with the leaking fuel ignited by the exhaust flame, Sinclair dies crashing down upon the last four giant letters of the "Hollywoodland
Hollywood Sign
The Hollywood Sign is a landmark and American cultural icon in the Hollywood Hills area of Mount Lee, Santa Monica Mountains, in Los Angeles, California. The sign spells out the name of the area in and white letters. It was created as an advertisement in 1923, but garnered increasing recognition...
" sign. Lothar is engulfed in flames as the Zeppelin explodes, but Cliff and Jenny are rescued at the last instant by Hughes and Peevy in an autogyro
Autogyro
An autogyro , also known as gyroplane, gyrocopter, or rotaplane, is a type of rotorcraft which uses an unpowered rotor in autorotation to develop lift, and an engine-powered propeller, similar to that of a fixed-wing aircraft, to provide thrust...
.
Some time afterwards, Hughes presents Cliff with a brand-new Gee Bee racing aircraft as a compensation for the one he lost at the start of the adventure. As Hughes leaves, Jenny presents Peabody with the rocket blueprints she found in Sinclair's villa. Peabody decides that with some modifications, he can build an even better one.
Cast
- Billy CampbellBilly CampbellWilliam Oliver "Billy" Campbell is an American film and television actor. In television, he is best known for his roles as Rick Sammler on Once and Again, as Det. Joey Indelli on Crime Story, as Jordan Collier on The 4400, and as Dr. Jon Fielding on the Tales of the City Miniseries...
as Cliff Secord/The Rocketeer - Jennifer ConnellyJennifer ConnellyJennifer Lynn Connelly is an American film actress, who began her career as a child model. She appeared in magazine, newspaper and television advertising, before making her motion picture debut in the 1984 crime film Once Upon a Time in America...
as Jenny Blake - Alan ArkinAlan ArkinAlan Wolf Arkin is an American actor, director, musician and singer. He is known for starring in such films as Wait Until Dark, The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Catch-22, The In-Laws, Edward Scissorhands, Glengarry Glen Ross, Marley & Me, and...
as A. "Peevy" Peabody - Timothy DaltonTimothy DaltonTimothy Peter Dalton ) is a Welsh actor of film and television. He is known for portraying James Bond in The Living Daylights and Licence to Kill , as well as Rhett Butler in the television miniseries Scarlett , an original sequel to Gone with the Wind...
as Neville Sinclair - Terry O'QuinnTerry O'QuinnTerry O'Quinn is an American actor, most famous for playing John Locke on the TV series Lost. He made his debut in a 1980 television movie called F.D.R.: The Last Year. Since then, O'Quinn has had minor supporting roles in films and TV movies such as Young Guns, All the Right Moves, Silver Bullet,...
as Howard HughesHoward HughesHoward Robard Hughes, Jr. was an American business magnate, investor, aviator, engineer, film producer, director, and philanthropist. He was one of the wealthiest people in the world... - Ed LauterEd LauterEdward Lauter is an American actor. He has appeared in numerous movies and was a stand up comic before getting into acting.Lauter was born in Long Beach, Long Island, New York...
as Fitch - Paul SorvinoPaul SorvinoPaul Anthony Sorvino is an American actor. He often portrays authority figures on both sides of the law, and is possibly best known for his roles as Paulie Cicero, a portrayal of Paul Vario in the film Goodfellas and Sgt. Phil Cerreta on the police procedural and legal drama television series Law...
as Eddie Valentine - Jon PolitoJon PolitoJon Polito is an American actor and voice artist, who is known for working with the Coen Brothers, most notably in the major supporting role of Italian gangster Johnny Caspar in Miller's Crossing. He also appeared in the first two seasons of Homicide: Life on the Street and on the first season of...
as Bigelow - William SandersonWilliam SandersonWilliam Sanderson is an American character actor.-Early life:Sanderson was born in Memphis, Tennessee, to an elementary school teacher mother and a landscape designer father...
as Skeets - Margo MartindaleMargo MartindaleMargo Martindale is an American stage, television and film actress. In 2011, Martindale won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her performance as Mags Bennett on Justified.-Early life:...
as Millie - John LavachielliJohn LavachielliJohn Lavachielli began his career as an actor in 1983 in The Lords of Discipline as Mark Santoro, Paramount's adaptation of the Pat Conroy novel of the same name. He also appeared in the 1990 film Men At Work, as well as the action adventure, The Rocketeer.John's television guest star appearances...
as Rusty - Clint HowardClint HowardClinton "Clint" Howard is an American film and television actor. He is a character actor with numerous brief appearances on television and films. He has played many bit parts in movies directed by his brother, actor-turned-director Ron Howard. He is also the uncle of actress Bryce Dallas Howard...
as Mark - Rick OvertonRick OvertonRichard "Rick" Overton is an American screenwriter, actor and comedian. His writing credits include Dennis Miller Live, and his acting credits include Willow and The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne.-Life and career:...
as South Seas Patron
Development
Comic book writer/artist Dave StevensDave Stevens
Dave Stevens was an American illustrator and comics artist. He is most famous for creating The Rocketeer comic book and film character, and for his pin-up style "glamour art" illustrations, especially of model Bettie Page...
created the Rocketeer in 1982 and immediately viewed the character as an ideal protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
for a film adaptation. Steve Miner
Steve Miner
Stephen C. "Steve" Miner is an American film and television director who is also a film producer.Miner was born in Westport, Connecticut. Television programs Miner has directed include The Wonder Years, Jake 2.0, Felicity, Dawson's Creek , and Diagnosis: Murder...
purchased the film rights
Film rights
Film rights are the rights under copyright law to make a derivative work—in this case, a film—derived from an item of intellectual property. Under U.S...
from Stevens in 1983 but he strayed too far from the original concept and the rights reverted back to Stevens. In 1985, Stevens gave writers Danny Bilson
Danny Bilson
Daniel "Danny" Bilson is an American writer, director, and producer of movies, television, videogames, and comic books. With his writing partner Paul DeMeo, Danny Bilson wrote the movie The Rocketeer , the video game James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing , the television series The Sentinel ,...
and Paul De Meo
Paul De Meo
Paul De Meo is an American screenwriter and film producer. He is also a video game creator and frequently works with Danny Bilson. Their credits include The Rocketeer, Eliminators and The Flash television series.-External links:...
a free option
Option (finance)
In finance, an option is a derivative financial instrument that specifies a contract between two parties for a future transaction on an asset at a reference price. The buyer of the option gains the right, but not the obligation, to engage in that transaction, while the seller incurs the...
over The Rocketeer rights. Stevens liked that "their ideas for The Rocketeer were heartfelt and affectionate tributes to the 1930s serials with all the right dialogue and atmosphere. Most people would approach my character contemporarily, but Danny and Paul saw them as pre-war mugs."
Stevens, Bilson and De Meo began to consider making The Rocketeer as a low-budget film, shot in black-and-white
Black-and-white
Black-and-white, often abbreviated B/W or B&W, is a term referring to a number of monochrome forms in visual arts.Black-and-white as a description is also something of a misnomer, for in addition to black and white, most of these media included varying shades of gray...
and funded by independent investors
Independent film
An independent film, or indie film, is a professional film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system. In addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies, independent films are also produced...
. Their plan was to make the film a complete homage
Homage
Homage is a show or demonstration of respect or dedication to someone or something, sometimes by simple declaration but often by some more oblique reference, artistic or poetic....
to the Commando Cody
Commando Cody
Commando Cody was the hero in a 12-episode science-fiction serial made in 1952 by Republic Pictures entitled Radar Men from the Moon, which was followed up 1953 with the 12 episode Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe....
serial films, and use a cast largely associated with character actor
Character actor
A character actor is one who predominantly plays unusual or eccentric characters. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a character actor as "an actor who specializes in character parts", defining character part in turn as "an acting role displaying pronounced or unusual characteristics or...
s. However, that same year, the trio approached William Dear
William Dear
William Dear is a film director, producer and screenwriter known for directing Harry and the Hendersons, If Looks Could Kill, Angels in the Outfield, Wild America and Santa Who?....
to direct/co-write The Rocketeer and they eventually dropped the low-budget idea. Bilson, De Meo and Dear kept the comic book’s basic plot intact but fleshed it out to include a Hollywood setting and a climactic battle against a Nazi Zeppelin. They also tweaked Cliff’s girlfriend to avoid comparisons to Bettie Page
Bettie Page
Bettie Mae Page was an American model who became famous in the 1950s for her fetish modeling and pin-up photos. She has often been called the "Queen of Pinups"...
(Stevens’ original inspiration), changing her name from Betty to Jenny and her profession from nude model to Hollywood extra (a change also made to make the film more family friendly). Dear proceeded to transform the climax from a submarine into a Zeppelin setpiece.
Stevens, Bilson, De Meo and Dear began to pitch The Rocketeer in 1986 to the major film studios but were turned down. "This was 1986, long before Batman
Batman (1989 film)
Batman is a 1989 superhero film based on the DC Comics character of the same name, directed by Tim Burton. The film stars Michael Keaton in the title role, as well as Jack Nicholson, Kim Basinger, Robert Wuhl and Jack Palance...
or Dick Tracy or anything similar," Stevens explained. "In those days, no studio was interested at all in an expensive comic book movie. We got there about three years too early for our own good!" The Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group eventually accepted The Rocketeer because they believed the film had toyetic
Toyetic
Toyetic is the suitability of a media property, such as a movie, for merchandising spin-off lines of licensed toys, games and novelties. For example, Saturday morning cartoons in the early 1980s and 1990s were well known for this, in particular Pound Puppies; My Pet Monster; and Rude Dog and the...
potential and appeal for merchandising. The Rocketeer was set to be released by Disney-owned Touchstone Pictures
Touchstone Pictures
Touchstone Pictures is an American film production label and is one of several film labels of the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group. Established in 1984, its releases typically feature more mature themes and darker tones than those that are released under the Walt Disney Pictures banner.Touchstone...
; Stevens, Bilson, De Meo and Dear all signed a contract which would permit them to make a trilogy of Rocketeer movies. However, Disney executive Jeffrey Katzenberg
Jeffrey Katzenberg
Jeffrey Katzenberg is an American film producer and CEO of DreamWorks Animation. He is perhaps most famous for his period as chairman of The Walt Disney Company's film division, and for producing DreamWorks animated films such as Shrek, Antz, The Prince of Egypt, The Road to El Dorado, Chicken...
switched the film to a Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures is an American film studio owned by The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Pictures and Television, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Studios and the main production company for live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, based at the Walt Disney...
release. According to Stevens, "immediately, Betty and anything else 'adult' went right out with the bathwater. They really tried to shoehorn it into a kiddie property so they could sell toys. All they really wanted at the end of the day, was the name".
Initially, Disney executives wanted to set the film in contemporary times, out of concern that a period piece might not appeal to a large audience. However, Bilson and DeMeo argued that the success of the Indiana Jones
Indiana Jones
Colonel Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, Jr., Ph.D. is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Indiana Jones franchise. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg created the character in homage to the action heroes of 1930s film serials...
trilogy proved that ticketgoers would enjoy an adventure film set in the 1930s, and the studio finally agreed.
Bilson and DeMeo then submitted their seven-page film treatment
Film treatment
A film treatment is a piece of prose, typically the step between scene cards and the first draft of a screenplay for a motion picture, television program, or radio play. It is generally longer and more detailed than an outline , and it may include details of directorial style that an outline omits...
to Disney, but the studio put their script through an endless series of revisions. 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." They found the studio’s constant tinkering with the screenplay to be a frustrating process as "executives would like previously excised dialogue three months later. Scenes that had been thrown out two years ago were put back in. What was the point?" DeMeo said. One of Bilson and De Meo’s significant revisions to the script over the years was to make Cliff and Jenny’s romance more believable and avoid cliché
Cliché
A cliché or cliche is an expression, idea, or element of an artistic work which has been overused to the point of losing its original meaning or effect, especially when at some earlier time it was considered meaningful or novel. In phraseology, the term has taken on a more technical meaning,...
aspects that would stereotype
Stereotype
A stereotype is a popular belief about specific social groups or types of individuals. The concepts of "stereotype" and "prejudice" are often confused with many other different meanings...
Jenny as a damsel in distress
Damsel in distress
The subject of the damsel in distress, or persecuted maiden, is a classic theme in world literature, art, and film. She is usually a beautiful young woman placed in a dire predicament by a villain or monster and who requires a hero to achieve her rescue. She has become a stock character of fiction,...
. The numerous project delays forced Dear drop out as director. Joe Johnston
Joe Johnston
Joseph Eggleston "Joe" Johnston II is an American film director and former effects artist best known for such effects-driven movies as Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Jumanji, The Rocketeer, Jurassic Park III, the period drama October Sky, The Wolfman, and Captain America: The First Avenger.- Life and...
, a fan of the comic book, immediately offered his services as director when he found out Disney owned the film rights. Johnston was quickly hired and pre-production
Pre-production
Pre-production or In Production is the process of preparing all the elements involved in a film, play, or other performance.- In film :...
started in early-1990. Disney finally greenlight
Greenlight
To green-light a project is to give permission or a go ahead to move forward with a project. In the context of the movie and TV businesses, to green-light something is to formally approve its production finance, thereby allowing the project to move forward from the development phase to...
ed The Rocketeer after Bilson and De Meo’s third major rewrite.
The characterization of Neville Sinclair was inspired by movie star Errol Flynn
Errol Flynn
Errol Leslie Flynn was an Australian-born actor. He was known for his romantic swashbuckler roles in Hollywood films, being a legend and his flamboyant lifestyle.-Early life:...
, or rather by the image of Flynn that had been popularized by Charles Higham
Charles Higham (biographer)
Charles Higham is an author, editor and poet. Higham is a recipient of the Prix des Créateurs of the Académie Française and the Poetry Society of London Prize.-Biography:...
's unauthorized and fabricated biography of the actor, in which he asserted that Flynn was, among other things, a Nazi spy. The film's Neville Sinclair is, like Higham's Flynn, a movie star
Movie star
A movie star is a celebrity who is well-known, or famous, for his or her starring, or leading, roles in motion pictures. The term may also apply to an actor or actress who is recognized as a marketable commodity and whose name is used to promote a movie in trailers and posters...
known for his work in swashbuckler
Swashbuckler
Swashbuckler or swasher is a term that emerged in the 16th century and has been used for rough, noisy and boastful swordsmen ever since. A possible explanation for this term is that it derives from a fighting style using a side-sword with a buckler in the off-hand, which was applied with much...
roles, and who is secretly a Nazi spy. Because Higham's biography of Flynn was not refuted until the late 1980s, the image of Flynn as a closet Nazi remained current all through the arduous process of writing and re-writing the script.
Casting
Casting the lead role of Cliff Secord was a struggle for the filmmakers. Disney executive Jeffrey KatzenbergJeffrey Katzenberg
Jeffrey Katzenberg is an American film producer and CEO of DreamWorks Animation. He is perhaps most famous for his period as chairman of The Walt Disney Company's film division, and for producing DreamWorks animated films such as Shrek, Antz, The Prince of Egypt, The Road to El Dorado, Chicken...
even had one of the studio's then-staff writers, Karey Kirkpatrick
Karey Kirkpatrick
Karey Kirkpatrick is an American screenwriter and director. His films include James and the Giant Peach, Space Jam, The Iron Giant, The Spiderwick Chronicles, Charlotte's Web and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy adaptation. He has also directed the films, Imagine That starring Eddie Murphy as...
, audition for the part. Kevin Costner
Kevin Costner
Kevin Michael Costner is an American actor, singer, musician, producer, director, and businessman. He has been nominated for three BAFTA Awards, won two Academy Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards. Costner's roles include Lt. John J...
and Matthew Modine
Matthew Modine
Matthew Avery Modine is an award-winning American actor. His film roles include Private Joker in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, the title character in Alan Parker's Birdy, high school wrestler Louden Swain in Vision Quest, football star turned spy Alec McCall in Funky Monkey and the...
were the first actors considered for the role. When they both proved to be unavailable, Dennis Quaid
Dennis Quaid
Dennis William Quaid is an American actor known for his comedic and dramatic roles. First gaining widespread attention in the 1980s, his career rebounded in the 1990s after he overcame an addiction to drugs and an eating disorder...
, Kurt Russell
Kurt Russell
Kurt Vogel Russell is an American television and film actor. His first acting roles were as a child in television series, including a lead role in the Western series The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters...
, Bill Paxton
Bill Paxton
William "Bill" Paxton is an American actor and film director. He gained popularity after starring roles in the films Apollo 13, Twister, Aliens, True Lies, and Titanic...
and Emilio Estevez
Emilio Estevez
Emilio Estevez is an American actor, film director, and writer. He started his career as an actor and is well-known for being a member of the acting Brat Pack of the 1980s, starring in The Breakfast Club and St. Elmo's Fire...
auditioned for the part. Johnny Depp
Johnny Depp
John Christopher "Johnny" Depp II is an American actor, producer and musician. He has won the Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild award for Best Actor. Depp rose to prominence on the 1980s television series 21 Jump Street, becoming a teen idol...
was Disney’s favorite choice (who would be later picked by Disney again for the Academy Award-nominated role of Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series
Pirates of the Caribbean (film series)
Pirates of the Caribbean is a series of fantasy-adventure films directed by Gore Verbinski and Rob Marshall , written by Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer...
), while Paxton commented he came "really close" to getting the lead. Vincent D'Onofrio
Vincent D'Onofrio
Vincent Phillip D'Onofrio is an American actor, director, film producer, writer, and singer. Often referred to as an actor's actor, his work as a character actor has earned him the nickname of "Human Chameleon"...
turned down the role and the filmmakers were forced to continue their search.
The decision to cast Billy Campbell
Billy Campbell
William Oliver "Billy" Campbell is an American film and television actor. In television, he is best known for his roles as Rick Sammler on Once and Again, as Det. Joey Indelli on Crime Story, as Jordan Collier on The 4400, and as Dr. Jon Fielding on the Tales of the City Miniseries...
as Cliff Secord caused mixed emotions amongst Disney executives. Director Joe Johnston and creator Dave Stevens believed Campbell was perfect for the role, but Disney wanted an A-list
A-list
A-list is a term that alludes to major movie stars, or the most bankable in the Hollywood film industry.The A-list is part of a larger guide called The Hot List that has become an industry-standard guide in Hollywood...
actor. Johnston eventually convinced Disney otherwise. Campbell was not familiar with the comic book when he got the part but quickly read it in addition to books on aviation. He also prepared by listening to 1940s period music. The actor had a fear of flying
Fear of flying
A fear of flying is a fear of being on an airplane , or other flying vehicle, such as a helicopter, while in flight. It is also sometimes referred to as aerophobia, aviatophobia, aviophobia or pteromerhanophobia....
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 flying sequences in conventional aircraft. Ultimately, a scale model devised by ILM puppeteer Tom St. Amand was used for all the rocket pack scenes.
For the female lead of Cliff's girlfriend Jenny, Sherilyn Fenn
Sherilyn Fenn
Sherilyn Fenn is an American actress and filmmaker. She came to international attention for her performance as Audrey Horne on the 1990 cult TV series Twin Peaks...
, Kelly Preston
Kelly Preston
Kelly Preston is an American actress and former model.- Early years :Preston was born Kelly Kamalelehua Smith in Honolulu, Hawaii. Her mother, Linda, was an administrator of a mental health center, and her father, who worked for an agricultural firm, drowned when Preston was three years old...
, Diane Lane
Diane Lane
Diane Lane is an American film actress.Born and raised in New York City, Lane made her screen debut at the age of 13 in George Roy Hill's 1979 film A Little Romance, starring opposite Sir Laurence Olivier. Soon after, she was featured on the cover of Time magazine...
and Elizabeth McGovern
Elizabeth McGovern
-Early life:McGovern was born in Evanston, Illinois, the daughter of Katharine Wolcott , a high school teacher, and William Montgomery McGovern, Jr., a university professor. Her paternal grandfather was adventurer William Montgomery McGovern and her maternal great-grandfather was U.S. diplomat...
were considered before Jennifer Connelly
Jennifer Connelly
Jennifer Lynn Connelly is an American film actress, who began her career as a child model. She appeared in magazine, newspaper and television advertising, before making her motion picture debut in the 1984 crime film Once Upon a Time in America...
was eventually cast. Campbell and Connelly's working relationship eventually led to a romantic coupling, which Johnston found to be a technique for method acting
Method acting
Method acting is a phrase that loosely refers to a family of techniques used by actors to create in themselves the thoughts and emotions of their characters, so as to develop lifelike performances...
that helped with their on-screen chemistry. For Secord’s sidekick, Peevy, Dave Stevens hoped that Lloyd Bridges
Lloyd Bridges
Lloyd Vernet Bridges, Jr. was an American actor who starred in a number of television series and appeared in more than 150 feature films. Bridges is best known for his role of Mike Nelson in Sea Hunt, the most-popular syndicated American TV series in 1958...
would play the part, but Bridges turned it down and Alan Arkin
Alan Arkin
Alan Wolf Arkin is an American actor, director, musician and singer. He is known for starring in such films as Wait Until Dark, The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Catch-22, The In-Laws, Edward Scissorhands, Glengarry Glen Ross, Marley & Me, and...
was cast. The part of Neville Sinclair was offered to Jeremy Irons
Jeremy Irons
Jeremy John Irons is an English actor. After receiving classical training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Irons began his acting career on stage in 1969, and has since appeared in many London theatre productions including The Winter's Tale, Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the...
and Charles Dance
Charles Dance
Walter Charles Dance, OBE is an English actor, screenwriter and director. Dance typically plays assertive bureaucrats or villains. His most famous roles are Guy Perron in The Jewel in the Crown , Dr Clemens, the doctor of penitentiary Fury 161, who becomes Ellen Ripley's confidante in Alien 3 ,...
before Timothy Dalton
Timothy Dalton
Timothy Peter Dalton ) is a Welsh actor of film and television. He is known for portraying James Bond in The Living Daylights and Licence to Kill , as well as Rhett Butler in the television miniseries Scarlett , an original sequel to Gone with the Wind...
accepted the role. Lastly, the part of Eddie Valentine was written with Joe Pesci
Joe Pesci
Joseph Frank "Joe" Pesci is an American actor, comedian, and musician.He is known for playing a variety of different roles, from violent mobsters to comedic leads to quirky sidekicks...
in mind, but he turned down the part, which went to Paul Sorvino
Paul Sorvino
Paul Anthony Sorvino is an American actor. He often portrays authority figures on both sides of the law, and is possibly best known for his roles as Paulie Cicero, a portrayal of Paul Vario in the film Goodfellas and Sgt. Phil Cerreta on the police procedural and legal drama television series Law...
.
Remaining cast members included Tiny Ron Taylor
Tiny Ron Taylor
Ronald "Tiny Ron" Taylor is an American film actor and former basketball player. He is possibly best known for his roles as Lothar in The Rocketeer and Roc in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective , both roles that exploited his 7 ft frame and craggy features...
as Lothar, Terry O'Quinn
Terry O'Quinn
Terry O'Quinn is an American actor, most famous for playing John Locke on the TV series Lost. He made his debut in a 1980 television movie called F.D.R.: The Last Year. Since then, O'Quinn has had minor supporting roles in films and TV movies such as Young Guns, All the Right Moves, Silver Bullet,...
as Howard Hughes
Howard Hughes
Howard Robard Hughes, Jr. was an American business magnate, investor, aviator, engineer, film producer, director, and philanthropist. He was one of the wealthiest people in the world...
, Jon Polito
Jon Polito
Jon Polito is an American actor and voice artist, who is known for working with the Coen Brothers, most notably in the major supporting role of Italian gangster Johnny Caspar in Miller's Crossing. He also appeared in the first two seasons of Homicide: Life on the Street and on the first season of...
as Otis Bigelow, Ed Lauter
Ed Lauter
Edward Lauter is an American actor. He has appeared in numerous movies and was a stand up comic before getting into acting.Lauter was born in Long Beach, Long Island, New York...
as Agent Fitch, Eddie Jones
Eddie Jones (actor)
Eddie Jones is an American actor known for playing Clark Kent's father Jonathan Kent in the ABC television series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, and Charles Broden Eddie Jones (born 1937 Washington, Pennsylvania) is an American actor known for playing Clark Kent's father Jonathan...
as Malcolm the Mechanic and Robert Miranda as Spanish Johnny. Rocketeer creator Dave Stevens
Dave Stevens
Dave Stevens was an American illustrator and comics artist. He is most famous for creating The Rocketeer comic book and film character, and for his pin-up style "glamour art" illustrations, especially of model Bettie Page...
has a cameo as the German test pilot who is killed when the Nazi's version of a rocket backpack explodes during the takeoff sequence.
Filming
Principal photographyPrincipal photography
thumb|300px|Film production on location in [[Newark, New Jersey]].Principal photography is the phase of film production in which the movie is filmed, with actors on set and cameras rolling, as distinct from pre-production and post-production....
for The Rocketeer lasted from September 19, 1990 to January 22, 1991. Filming at the Griffith Observatory took place in November 1990. The film ended up going 50 days over schedule due to weather and mechanical problems. Rocketeer creator Dave Stevens allied himself with director Joe Johnston and production manager Ian Bryce in an effort to be as heavily involved in the production process as possible and to try and secure as much artistic control
Artistic control
Artistic control or Creative Control is a term commonly used in media production, such as movies, television, and music production. A person with artistic control has the authority to decide how the final product will appear. In movies, this commonly refers to the authority to decide on the final...
as he could from Disney. Disney, in particular, was not enthusiastic with Stevens' involvement. "I was on the set day and night," Stevens reflected, "from pre-production
Pre-production
Pre-production or In Production is the process of preparing all the elements involved in a film, play, or other performance.- In film :...
till post-production
Post-production
Post-production is part of filmmaking and the video production process. It occurs in the making of motion pictures, television programs, radio programs, advertising, audio recordings, photography, and digital art...
! And initially, I had to fight to prove that I was there for the benefit of the film, and not for my own ego."
The original production budget was set at $25 million, but rose to $40 million. This happened after Disney became impressed with the dailies
Dailies
Dailies, in filmmaking, are the raw, unedited footage shot during the making of a motion picture. They are so called because usually at the end of each day, that day's footage is developed, synched to sound, and printed on film in a batch for viewing the next day by the director and some members...
; "they realized this was a bigger movie than they were anticipating," Johnston explained, "and they approved overages. It never got completely out of control." An abandoned World War II runway
Runway
According to ICAO a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and take-off of aircraft." Runways may be a man-made surface or a natural surface .- Orientation and dimensions :Runways are named by a number between 01 and 36, which is generally one tenth...
at the Santa Maria, California airport housed the fictional Chaplin Air Field. Additional scenes were shot at Bakersfield
Bakersfield, California
Bakersfield is a city near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley in Kern County, California. It is roughly equidistant between Fresno and Los Angeles, to the north and south respectively....
. The large hangar built for the movie at the Santa Maria airport was purchased and moved across the field and placed next to the original Minter Field Air museum at the airport. Much of the original movie set detail is visible inside, and there is an added library that can be used for researchers. For the air circus scene, 700 Santa Maria extra
Extra (actor)
A background actor or extra is a performer in a film, television show, stage, musical, opera or ballet production, who appears in a nonspeaking, nonsinging or nondancing capacity, usually in the background...
s and 25 vintage aircraft were employed. Aerial coordinator Craig 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," including a 1916 Standard biplane
Biplane
A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two superimposed main wings. The Wright brothers' Wright Flyer used a biplane design, as did most aircraft in the early years of aviation. While a biplane wing structure has a structural advantage, it produces more drag than a similar monoplane wing...
and a Gee Bee Model Z
Gee Bee Model Z
-Popular culture:Kermit Weeks, founder of Fantasy of Flight, used a Gee Bee Model Z as his main character "Zee" in a series of children's books set around the Golden Age of Aviation.-See also:-References:NotesReferences...
racer. The sequence where Cliff rescues Malcolm was adapted shot-for-shot
Shot-for-shot
Shot-for-shot is a term used to describe a visual work that is transferred almost completely identical from the original work without much interpretation....
from Stevens' comic book.
Design
Stevens gave the film's production designerProduction designer
In film and television, a production designer is the person responsible for the overall look of a filmed event such as films, TV programs, music videos or adverts. Production designers have one of the key creative roles in the creation of motion pictures and television. Working directly with the...
Jim Bissell and his two art directors his entire reference library pertaining to the Rocketeer at that time period, including blueprints for hangars and bleachers, schematics for building the autogyro, photos and drawings of the Bulldog Cafe, the field uniforms for the air circus staff, and contacts for locating the vintage aircraft that were to be used. Stevens remembers that they "literally just took the reference and built the sets". Disney originally intended to change the Rocketeer's trademark helmet design completely. President Michael Eisner
Michael Eisner
Michael Dammann Eisner is an American businessman. He was the chief executive officer of The Walt Disney Company from 1984 until 2005.-Early life:...
wanted a straight NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
-type helmet but director Johnston threatened to quit production on The Rocketeer. Disney relented, but only after creating a number of prototype designs that were ultimately rejected by the filmmakers. Stevens asked Johnston for one week to produce a good helmet design. He proceeded to work with a sculptor he knew, made a cast of the film's main stuntman's head and brainstormed ideas with the help of his sketches. They produced a helmet that the filmmakers agreed looked appropriate from all angles.
Rick Baker designed the Rondo Hatton
Rondo Hatton
Rondo Hatton was an American actor who had a brief, but prolific career playing thuggish bit parts in many Hollywood B-movies. He was known for his brutish facial features which were the result of acromegaly, a disorder of the pituitary gland.-Biography:Hatton was born Rondo K...
-inspired prosthetic makeup
Prosthetic makeup
Prosthetic makeup is the process of using prosthetic sculpting, molding and casting techniques to create advanced cosmetic effects...
designs for the Lothar character, portrayed by Tiny Ron Taylor
Tiny Ron Taylor
Ronald "Tiny Ron" Taylor is an American film actor and former basketball player. He is possibly best known for his roles as Lothar in The Rocketeer and Roc in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective , both roles that exploited his 7 ft frame and craggy features...
.
Visual effects
The visual effects were designed and created by George LucasGeorge Lucas
George Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, and director, and entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Lucasfilm. He is best known as the creator of the space opera franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones...
' Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) with Ken Ralston (Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a 1988 American fantasy-comedy-noir film directed by Robert Zemeckis and released by Touchstone Pictures. The film combines live action and animation, and is based on Gary K. Wolf's novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, which depicts a world in which cartoon characters...
, Sony Pictures Imageworks
Sony Pictures Imageworks
Sony Pictures Imageworks, Inc. is a visual effects and character animation company headquartered in Culver City, California, USA. SPI is a division of Sony Pictures Digital Productions, which oversees the digital production and online entertainment assets of Sony Pictures Entertainment.The company...
founder) serving as the VFX supervisor
Visual effects supervisor
In the context of film and television production, a visual effects supervisor is responsible for achieving the creative aims of the director and/or producers through the use of visual effects...
. Rocketeer director Joe Johnston previously worked as an art director
Art director
The art director is a person who supervise the creative process of a design.The term 'art director' is a blanket title for a variety of similar job functions in advertising, publishing, film and television, the Internet, and video games....
/model maker
Model maker
A model maker is a professional craftsperson who creates a 3 dimensional representation of a design or concept. Most products in use and in development today first take form as a model. This "model" may be an exacting duplicate of the future design or a simple mock-up of the general shape or concept...
at ILM before his film directing career took off. Johnston's insistence on a realistic flying rocketman led ILM to devise a lifelike Cliff Secord model that was filmed in "stop-motion-animation" coupled with a 18" figurine that was manipulated by hand and in "go-motion" to create "motion-blur." Speeded-up Moviola effects were also used to advantage in the air circus sequence where a combination of live action and stop-motion animation was also employed.
The Rocketeer’s attack on the Nazi Zeppelin was filmed near Six Flags Magic Mountain
Six Flags Magic Mountain
Six Flags Magic Mountain is a theme park located in Valencia, California north of Los Angeles. It opened on Memorial Day weekend on May 30, 1971 as Magic Mountain, by the Newhall Land and Farming Company. In 1979, Six Flags purchased the park and added the name Six Flags to the park's title. In...
amusement park in Valencia, California over four months through pick-ups. Remaining visual effects footage took place at ILM's headquarters in San Rafael
San Rafael, California
San Rafael is a city and the county seat of Marin County, California, United States. The city is located in the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area...
and Hamilton Air Force Base
Hamilton Air Force Base
Hamilton Air Force Base was a United States Air Force base located along the western shore of San Pablo Bay, south of Novato, California.-History:...
. There, they constructed a 12 ft scale model
Scale model
A scale model is a physical model, a representation or copy of an object that is larger or smaller than the actual size of the object, which seeks to maintain the relative proportions of the physical size of the original object. Very often the scale model is used as a guide to making the object in...
of the Zeppelin, which was photographed against matte painting
Matte painting
A matte painting is a painted representation of a landscape, set, or distant location that allows filmmakers to create the illusion of an environment that would otherwise be too expensive or impossible to build or visit. Historically, matte painters and film technicians have used various techniques...
s that resembled 1938 Los Angeles for intercutting
Matte (filmmaking)
Mattes are used in photography and special effects filmmaking to combine two or more image elements into a single, final image. Usually, mattes are used to combine a foreground image with a background image . In this case, the matte is the background painting...
purposes. The Zeppelin explosion special effect alone cost $400,000.
Soundtrack
The whimsical music for The Rocketeer was composed and conducted by James HornerJames Horner
James Roy Horner is an American composer, orchestrator and conductor of orchestral and film music. He is noted for the integration of choral and electronic elements in many of his film scores, and for frequent use of Celtic musical elements...
. The soundtrack received positive reviews and is often mentioned as being one of the film's stronger elements. The soundtrack was released through Hollywood Records
Hollywood Records
Hollywood Records is an American record label owned by Disney Music Group, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company.-History:Hollywood Records was founded in 1989 by then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner with the idea of expanding the music operations of the company and to develop and promote...
and features nearly an hour of music with eight tracks of score and two vocal tracks performed by actress/singer Melora Hardin
Melora Hardin
Melora Diane Hardin is an American actress, best known for her roles as Jan Levinson on NBC's The Office and Trudy Monk on USA's Monk.-Early life:...
.
- "Main Title / Takeoff" (4:30)
- "The Flying Circus" (6:30)
- "Jenny" (5:10)
- "Begin the Beguine" (3:36) performed by Melora HardinMelora HardinMelora Diane Hardin is an American actress, best known for her roles as Jan Levinson on NBC's The Office and Trudy Monk on USA's Monk.-Early life:...
- "Neville Sinclair's House" (7:20)
- "Jenny's Rescue" (3:20)
- "Rendezvous at Griffith Park Observatory" (8:10)
- "When Your Lover Has Gone" (3:25) performed by Melora HardinMelora HardinMelora Diane Hardin is an American actress, best known for her roles as Jan Levinson on NBC's The Office and Trudy Monk on USA's Monk.-Early life:...
- "The Zeppelin" (7:58)
- "Rocketeer to the Rescue / End Titles" (6:30)
Marketing
To promote The Rocketeer, Disney made tie-inTie-in
A tie-in is an authorized product based on a media property a company is releasing, such as a movie or video/DVD, computer game, video game, television program/television series, board game, web site, role-playing game or literary property...
endorsements with Pizza Hut
Pizza Hut
Pizza Hut is an American restaurant chain and international franchise that offers different styles of pizza along with side dishes including pasta, buffalo wings, breadsticks, and garlic bread....
and M&M's
M&M's
M&M's are dragée-like "colorful button-shaped candies" produced by Mars, Incorporated...
/Mars candies
Mars, Incorporated
Mars, Incorporated is a worldwide manufacturer of confectionery, pet food, and other food products with US$30 billion in annual sales in 2010, and is ranked as the 5th largest privately held company in the United States by Forbes. Headquartered in McLean, unincorporated Fairfax County, Virginia,...
. An extensive line of computer games, toys, posters, trading cards, pins, patches and buttons were released to coincide with the film's opening. The studio also spent a further $19 million on TV advertising alone. A television special
Television special
A television special is a television program which interrupts or temporarily replaces programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. Sometimes, however, the term is given to a telecast of a theatrical film, such as The Wizard of Oz or The Ten Commandments, which is not part of a regular...
documentary, titled The Rocketeer: Excitement in the Air, was broadcast on the Disney Channel
Disney Channel
Disney Channel is an American basic cable and satellite television network, owned by the Disney-ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company. It is under the direction of Disney-ABC Television Group President Anne Sweeney. The channel's headquarters is located on West Alameda Ave. in...
in June 1991. That same month, a young adult novelization
Novelization
A novelization is a novel that is written based on some other media story form rather than as an original work.Novelizations of films usually add background material not found in the original work to flesh out the story, because novels are generally longer than screenplays...
written by Peter David
Peter David
Peter Allen David , often abbreviated PAD, is an American writer of comic books, novels, television, movies and video games...
was published by Bantam Books
Bantam Books
Bantam Books is an American publishing house owned entirely by Random House, the German media corporation subsidiary of Bertelsmann; it is an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group. It was formed in 1945 by Walter B. Pitkin, Jr., Sidney B. Kramer, and Ian and Betty Ballantine...
, while a similar novelization by Ron Fontes, for younger readers was published by Scholastic Books for Disney Press.
The Rocketeer had its premiere
Premiere
A premiere is generally "a first performance". This can refer to plays, films, television programs, operas, symphonies, ballets and so on. Premieres for theatrical, musical and other cultural presentations can become extravagant affairs, attracting large numbers of socialites and much media...
at the 1,100 seat El Capitan Theatre
El Capitan Theatre
El Capitan Theatre is a fully restored movie palace at 6838 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood. It is owned by Pacific Theatres and operated by the Walt Disney Company. It serves as the venue for many of Walt Disney Pictures' movie premieres...
on June 19, 1991. This was the first premiere to take place at the El Capitan in over two years, due to an Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
-like restoration project Disney had been working on.
Box office
The Rocketeer was released in the United States on June 21, 1991, earning $9.6 million in its opening weekend in 1,616 theaters. The film opened #4 behind Robin Hood: Prince of ThievesRobin Hood: Prince of Thieves
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is a 1991 American adventure film directed by Kevin Reynolds. Kevin Costner heads the cast list as Robin Hood...
, City Slickers
City Slickers
City Slickers is a 1991 American comedy film directed by Ron Underwood and starring Billy Crystal, Daniel Stern, Bruno Kirby, Helen Slater and Jack Palance. Palance won an Academy Award for his performance....
and Dying Young
Dying Young
Dying Young is a 1991 American romance film, directed by Joel Schumacher. It is based on a novel of the same name by Marti Leimbach, and stars Julia Roberts and Campbell Scott with Vincent D'Onofrio, Colleen Dewhurst and Ellen Burstyn...
. Rocketeer eventually grossed only $46.6 million in US box office totals, in which Disney was disappointed with the final figures, declaring it a disappointment. Outside the US and Canada, the film was released through Touchstone Pictures
Touchstone Pictures
Touchstone Pictures is an American film production label and is one of several film labels of the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group. Established in 1984, its releases typically feature more mature themes and darker tones than those that are released under the Walt Disney Pictures banner.Touchstone...
rather than Disney in an attempt to attract the teenage audience it did not reach in North America.
The Disney tag also was seen to have turned off people who assumed that the film was for children. In addition, Rocketeers original Art Deco poster was changed because it failed to draw attention to the cast, including then-current James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
, Timothy Dalton. A new poster was designed to feature Dalton, Billy Campbell and Jennifer Connelly prominently. However, the film performed disappointingly in Britain, grossing just over £1 million in its first two weeks at just under 250 screens. The new ad campaign was being designed while the British promotional campaign for the film was already under way and some theaters still had the stylized U.S. movie poster.
Critical analysis
Rocketeer creator Dave StevensDave Stevens
Dave Stevens was an American illustrator and comics artist. He is most famous for creating The Rocketeer comic book and film character, and for his pin-up style "glamour art" illustrations, especially of model Bettie Page...
acknowledged he was "satisfied with 70% of the film" and highly praised Joe Johnston's direction. "The overall spirit and sweetness of the series is still there, intact," Stevens remembers. "We lost some good character stuff in editing for time, but the tone of it is still what I was trying to project in the comic pages. I also thought Joe's casting choices were excellent. To his credit, Joe did not fill out the cast with a bunch of 90210
90210 (TV series)
90210 is an American teen drama television series developed by Rob Thomas, Jeff Judah and Gabe Sachs, and the fourth series in the Beverly Hills, 90210 franchise created by Darren Star. 90210 is the first series produced by CBS Productions under the company's re-launch, but is now produced by CBS...
Barbie
Barbie
Barbie is a fashion doll manufactured by the American toy-company Mattel, Inc. and launched in March 1959. American businesswoman Ruth Handler is credited with the creation of the doll using a German doll called Bild Lilli as her inspiration....
and Ken-type kids." Stevens found Billy Campbell to be "a good-looking guy but he also happens to be Cliff! I would never have cast him based on good looks alone, but he came into the audition and just nailed it shut. He was made for it. The part was his."
The film received generally favorable reviews from critics. Based on 49 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, 63% of the critics enjoyed The Rocketeer with an average score of 5.9/10. Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
enjoyed the film, noting its homage
Homage
Homage is a show or demonstration of respect or dedication to someone or something, sometimes by simple declaration but often by some more oblique reference, artistic or poetic....
s to the film serials of the 1930s–1950s. Although Ebert cited the visual effects as being state of the art
State of the art
The state of the art is the highest level of development, as of a device, technique, or scientific field, achieved at a particular time. It also refers to the level of development reached at any particular time as a result of the latest methodologies employed.- Origin :The earliest use of the term...
, he described them "as charmingly direct as those rockets in the Flash Gordon
Flash Gordon
Flash Gordon is the hero of a science fiction adventure comic strip originally drawn by Alex Raymond. First published January 7, 1934, the strip was inspired by and created to compete with the already established Buck Rogers adventure strip. Also inspired by these series were comics such as Dash...
serials—the ones with sparklers hidden inside of them, which were pulled on wires in front of papier-mâché
Papier-mâché
Papier-mâché , alternatively, paper-mache, is a composite material consisting of paper pieces or pulp, sometimes reinforced with textiles, bound with an adhesive, such as glue, starch, or wallpaper paste....
mountains." Leonard Maltin
Leonard Maltin
Leonard Maltin is an American film and animated film critic and historian, author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives.-Personal life:...
wrote that the "film captures the look of the '30s, as well as the gee-whiz innocence of Saturday matinée serials, but it's talky and takes too much time to get where it's going. Dalton has fun as a villain patterned after Errol Flynn." Peter Travers
Peter Travers
Peter Travers is an American film critic, who has written for, in turn, People and Rolling Stone. Travers also hosts a celebrity interview show called Popcorn on ABC News Now and ABCNews.com.-Career:...
of Rolling Stone magazine also gave a positive review. "The Rocketeer is more than one of the best films of the summer; it's the kind of movie magic that we don't see much anymore," he continued, "the kind that charms us, rather than bullying us, into suspending disbelief."
Internet reviewer James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli is an American online film critic.-Personal life:Berardinelli was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey and spent his early childhood in Morristown, New Jersey. At the age of nine years, he relocated to the township of Cherry Hill, New Jersey...
commented that "The Rocketeer may not be perfect, but it's an excellent example of how to adapt a comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
to the screen." However, Janet Maslin
Janet Maslin
Janet Maslin is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for The New York Times. She served as the Times film critic from 1977–1999.- Biography :...
from The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
gave a mixed review. She called The Rocketeer "a benign adventure saga that has attractive stars, elaborate gimmicks and nice production values—everything it needs except a personality of its own." Maslin believed that by setting the story in 1938, the filmmakers were more interested in the Art Deco production design and visual effects instead of imbuing the storyline with "inspiration, which may be why it finally feels flat." Hal Hinson, writing in The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
, felt the film was too concerned with family-friendliness
Family-friendliness
Entertainment or information is called "family friendly" if it is considered suitable for all members of the average family. In particular it means that it is not considered inappropriate for children, which may imply restrictions on engagement in, or depiction of, nudity, sex, violence, horror,...
. Jonathan Rosenbaum
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Jonathan Rosenbaum is an American film critic. Rosenbaum was the head film critic for the Chicago Reader from 1987 until 2008, when he retired at the age of 65...
of Chicago Reader believed both the editing and the storyline were not well balanced and felt The Rocketeer ripped-off
Ripoff
A ripoff is a bad financial transaction. Usually it refers to an incident in which a person overpays for something. A ripoff is distinguished from a scam in that a scam involves wrongdoing such as fraud; whether or not something is a ripoff, on the other hand, is a matter of opinion.In a related...
elements of Indiana Jones
Indiana Jones
Colonel Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, Jr., Ph.D. is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Indiana Jones franchise. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg created the character in homage to the action heroes of 1930s film serials...
and Back to the Future
Back to the Future
Back to the Future is a 1985 American science-fiction adventure film. It was directed by Robert Zemeckis, written by Zemeckis and Bob Gale, produced by Steven Spielberg, and starred Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover and Thomas F. Wilson. The film tells the story of...
. Rosenbaum also cited the casting decision of character actors as being too practical. "The whole thing is good-natured enough," he explained, "but increasingly mechanical."
Awards and recognition
The Rocketeer was nominated for both the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic PresentationHugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation
The Hugo Awards are given every year by the World Science Fiction Society for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was once officially...
and the Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film
Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film
The Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film is a Saturn Award given to the best film in the science fiction genre by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films.-Winners:-External links:*...
, but lost both categories to Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Terminator 2: Judgment Day is a 1991 science fiction action film directed by James Cameron and written by Cameron and William Wisher Jr.. It stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Robert Patrick, and Edward Furlong...
. Costume design
Costume design
Costume design is the fabrication of apparel for the overall appearance of a character or performer. This usually involves researching, designing and building the actual items from conception. Costumes may be for a theater or cinema performance but may not be limited to such...
er Marilyn Vance won the Saturn Award for Best Costumes, while Jennifer Connelly (Best Supporting Actress) and VFX supervisor Ken Ralston (Best Special Effects
Saturn Award for Best Special Effects
The following are a list of Saturn Award winners for Best Special Effects:...
) also received nominations.
Home media releases
When released on the home videoHome video
Home video is a blanket term used for pre-recorded media that is either sold or rented/hired for home cinema entertainment. The term originates from the VHS/Betamax era but has carried over into current optical disc formats like DVD and Blu-ray Disc and, to a lesser extent, into methods of digital...
market in 1991–1992 in both LaserDisc
Laserdisc
LaserDisc was a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. Initially licensed, sold, and marketed as MCA DiscoVision in North America in 1978, the technology was previously referred to interally as Optical Videodisc System, Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Optical...
and VHS/Beta videotape formats, The Rocketeer earned an additional $23.18 million in rentals. A movie soundtrack, compiled and produced by James Horner, was released in both audio cassette and CD variants. The Rocketeer was released on Region 1 DVD
DVD region code
DVD region codes are a digital-rights management technique designed to allow film distributors to control aspects of a release, including content, release date, and price, according to the region...
by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment in August 1999. No special features were included on the later DVD release although the 1991 LaserDisc (#1239 as) had included the original theatrical trailer. A Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
will be out on December 13, 2011 for its 20th Anniversary Edition.
Sequels
From the beginning of the process of making The Rocketeer, creator Dave Stevens and screenwriters Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo envisioned it as the first entry of a trilogy. Disney, in particular, hoped the film would carry a vein similar to the Indiana Jones franchiseIndiana Jones franchise
The Indiana Jones franchise is an entertainment franchise, based on the historical fantasy adventures of Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones, a fictional archaeologist. It began in 1981 with the film Raiders of the Lost Ark. A prequel, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, followed in 1984 and the sequel...
. Both Campbell and Connelly were contracted for sequels; Campbell for two more and Connelly for only one. However, with the film's disappointing box office performance, plans for a sequel were halted in July 1991. "[Unfortunately] the movie didn’t make as much money as Disney had hoped," Campbell reflected in a January 2008 interview with MTV News
MTV News
MTV News is the news division of MTV, one of the first and most popular music television network in the U.S., as well as some of MTV's related channels around the world. MTV News began in the late 1980s with the program The Week In Rock, hosted by Kurt Loder, the first official MTV News correspondent...
. "And that coupled with the acrimonious relationship that the director [Joe Johnston] and the studio had, contributed to them not even considering it."
Although the calls for a sequel remain unrequited, as with many films of this genre, the movie has built up a cult following
Cult following
A cult following is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a specific area of pop culture. A film, book, band, or video game, among other things, will be said to have a cult following when it has a small but very passionate fan base...
both stateside and in Japan, where until 2008, Medicom, a major toy manufacturer issued two versions of 12" poseable action figures and replica helmets based on the film. The original Dave Stevens comics are still in demand and movie memorabilia continues to have a ready audience. In addition, Joe Johnston's work on this film lead to him being hired 20 years later to direct another period superhero film, Captain America: The First Avenger
Captain America: The First Avenger
Captain America: The First Avenger is a 2011 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Captain America. It is the fifth installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe...
, which proved a success in 2011.