It’s been a long time since I had last seen The Rocketeer (1991) and as it is on Disney+, figured it was time to take a trip down memory lane. The film is set in 1938, prior to the outbreak of World War 2 and during the rise of Nazi Germany. The short synopses is that a down on his luck pilot (Billy Campbell) and plane mechanic (Alan Arkan) find a rocket pack that was stolen from Howard Hughes. After figuring out how to use it safely and that there is a mobster after it, who is working for a nefarious Nazi spy who wants to hand it over to the Germans, Many adventures ensue, and a lot of dead bodies strewn throughout. The film has a great cast in addition to Campbell and Arkon that included Timothy Dalton, Jennifer Connelly (recently seen in Top Gun: Maverick) , Max Grodénchik (Star Trek: Deep Space 9) and Tiny Ron Taylor (ST:DS9 and Voyager).
The Rocketeer - IMDB
In a very real sense, The Rocketeer is a homage to both pulp novels of the ‘30s and ‘40s as well as movie serials of the same era (I’ll write more about movie serials another time), specifically the Commando Cody serials Radar Men from the Moon and Commando Cody: Sky Marshall of the Universe, and adapted from a comic series by Dave Stevens, published by Pacific comics in the ‘80s (notes from Wikipedia).
The Rocketeer trailer - youtube.com
Not wanting to give too many spoilers, especially important ones, I’m going to shift gears a bit. Jennifer Connelly plays Secord’s (Campbell) love interest, who is an aspiring actress in Hollywood, while Timothy Dalton plays Neville Sinclair, the #3 box office draw, and appears to be somewhat modeled after Errol Flynn. The aforementioned Max Grodénchik is a mobster who is murdered by the Nazi spy’s henchman, Lothar, played by Tiny Ron, and this dude looks like something out of a ‘50s Hammer Horror film, and twice as big. Meanwhile the FBI, led by Fitch (Ed Lauter – guess what, ST:Next Generation) thinks Secord is in with the bad guys, while Secord wants to stop the bad guys. Good guys chasing bad guys chasing good guys chasing bad guys.
I have to give kudos to the behind the camera team, as Director Joe Johnston did a knockout job orchestrating The Rocketeer, with a screenplay by Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo. One also has to give credit to the editors, prop makers (gotta wonder if Bear or MaxC. worked on the props...I should ask them sometime), camera crews, special effects team, costumers (they had to get the period clothing right) and many others responsible for producing this film, and it all worked.
Sadly, the film was not considered a box office success, even though a lot of people, including myself and many of my friends, thought it was one heck of a great film. I’m just sorry it took me this long to sit down and watch it again!
If you’ve never seen The Rocketeer, hopefully I have succeeded in sparking your interest in seeing it, and haven’t given too much away, and if you have seen, maybe, like me, it is time to take a walk down memory lane and break out the popcorn, root beer, and fire it up on the TV and have a blast.
Thanks for stopping by.
Blair Keith’s Rocketeer reproduction is frequently on display at Twin Cities conventions, and it does have a rocket pack to complete the costume, unfortunately I don’t have a picture of that part of the suit handy, but you get the picture of what a great job he did from using photos from the film.
