SithVamp Reviews: The Rocketeer

Welcome to another episode of SithVamp Reviews. Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Iron Man, the Hulk, Deadpool, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Captain America and the Flash; names that will live forever in the history of Superheroes. But there is one hero, whose name was never included with the greats. Why is it that the name of the Rocketeer has slipped under the radar? Well, let’s take a look at Disney’s live action movie from the early 90s called “The Rocketeer”, and let’s find out!

The Rocketeer came out in 1991. The movie is set in the 1930s, during WWII. The movie opens at an airfield, where our main character, Cliff Secord is getting ready to take flight on his plane. As he flies, Cliff sees a car-chase: it’s gangsters trying to get away from the FBI, because they have something in a box that says “Authorized Personnel Only”. The gangsters notice Cliff flying above them, so they shoot at his plane, hitting its fuel tank. The cockpit of Cliff’s plane gets covered in oil, so he has to land fast.

Cliff crash-lands on the airfield and the gangsters hide the top secret thing in the hangar. Then they try to get away, but the FBI shoots the driver in the shoulder. Then the FBI agents are angry at Cliff and his friend Peevy, played by Alan Arkin, because they think they interfered with the chase and let the gangsters get away. Peevy thinks they have no right to blame him and his company and Cliff even gets in a fight with one of the FBI agents.

Then we cut to some kind of Aircraft Factory, where the CEO: Howard Hughes, an FBI agent and an Army General are talking about the thing the gangsters stole: it’s a jetpack and they’re looking at its blueprints. The FBI agent and the General want to use the jetpack as a weapon, but Hughes says no and burns the blueprints in the fireplace, saying that two of his best pilots died while testing the jetpack.

Then we cut back to the airport, where Peevy is talking to his boss, Mr. Bigelow. Bigelow is pissed, because he thinks that Peevy and Cliff blew up his fuel truck on purpose when the gangsters’ car crashed into it, wasting 300 gallons of fuel with it. Both Cliff and Peevy think this isn’t right and that Bigelow should blame the gangsters instead of them. Since they can’t afford to pay for the caused damage, Bigelow suggests that Cliff and Peevy should do the Air Clown Stunt Show. Peevy refuses, but Cliff thinks it’s a good idea. Then Cliff and Peevy find the stolen jetpack in one of the old planes. They’re astonished to see it.

Meanwhile, the boss of the gangsters, Eddie Valentine, is talking to his employer, an actor named Neville Sinclair, played by Timothy Dalton, saying that two of his men got injured already. Eddie and Sinclair get in a fight, until Sinclair starts threatening Eddie with a sword to find the jetpack or he’ll kill him and his gang. Eddie agrees to find it, then he and his gangsters leave. Meanwhile, Cliff and Peevy are out on a field and are testing the jetpack on a statue. They chain the statue to a peg they fixed in the ground and then they activate the jetpack. At first, the statue stays in place with the jetpack, but then the peg comes loose and the statue flies away until it crashes into the field again. Then Cliff gets an idea that he and Peavy could make a fortune with the jetpack. Peavy thinks this is a bad idea.

Meanwhile, a gigantic monster man named Lothar, who was hired by Sinclair, sneaks into the hospital, where the injured gangster is lying. Lothar asks the gangster where the jetpack is. At first the gangster refuses to talk, but when Lothar breaks his arm, he confesses. Then Lothar proceeds to kill the gangster. The nurse and the police officer hear the gangster screaming, but they can’t get out, because Lothar blocked the door with a chair. Then the police officer crashes through the door, only to find that the gangster has been killed. Lothar, of course, gets away clean.

Then we see Cliff, who meets his girlfriend, Jenny, played by Jennifer Connelly, and takes her out on a date. They’re going to see a movie, which Cliff thinks is a James Cagney movie, but Jenny reveals that the movie stars Sinclair, which gets Cliff a little disappointed. After the movie, Cliff and Jenny go to a diner: the Bulldog Café. Here, we also meet another one of Cliff’s friends: Malcolm. While they’re having dinner, Jenny offers Cliff that they’ll go out for a night in the big city after Cliff wins the Nationals, but Malcolm and the other patrons reveal to Jenny that they saw Cliff crash-landing. Jenny gets upset and she walks out. Cliff runs after her, but she already got on the bus. Then Cliff goes home and tells Peevy, who’s working on something, about how he feels about Jenny. The next morning Cliff notices the thing Peevy was working on last night: a helmet.

Then we cut to a movie soundstage, where they’re shooting of one of Neville Sinclair’s movies; Jenny is here too and she’s playing one of the minor roles. Cliff arrives on the set, looking for Jenny. He’s peeping from behind the set, when suddenly he knocks over the scenery. Cliff and Jenny walk off for a word, but Sinclair gets upset about Cliff’s visit, so he tells the director to fire Jenny. Cliff tells Jenny about the jetpack he and Peevy found and Sinclair overhears this. Later, Sinclair meets Jenny, who just got fired from the movie, and apologizes to her for firing her.

Then we cut to an aerial stunt show. Here, Sinclair’s employee, crime boss Eddie Valentine and his gangsters are looking for the jetpack. Then one of the gangsters hand Eddie a photo of Jenny, which gives Eddie an idea: they’ll look for Jenny, because they think she knows where the jetpack is. Then Cliff arrives and sees that the air clown’s plane just took off. Cliff, Peevy and their boss, Mr. Bigelow soon notice that it’s Malcolm who’s flying the plane. Cliff and Peevy get worried, so Cliff decides to use the jetpack, so he runs to the hangar to get it. Malcolm’s plane soon starts malfunctioning, so the audience starts panicking, but Mr. Bigelow tells them not to worry, saying that it’s all part of the show. Cliff finds the jetpack, puts it on along with the helmet Peevy made, then activates the jetpack and takes off.

Cliff flies on the airfield and the whole audience watches him in awe. Cliff flies under Malcolm’s plane. Malcolm accidentally knocks himself unconscious. Luckily Cliff manages to save Malcolm before the plane crashes. Cliff flies off and Eddie and his gangsters get in their cars to follow him. Peevy gets in his truck too. After some shenanigans with Cliff’s jetpack going out of control, Peevy finds Cliff crashed into a lake. Cliff says he loves the jetpack, but Peevy is still worried that the jetpack isn’t working perfectly yet. Then they notice Eddie and his gangsters coming, so they take off: Cliff turns on the jetpack, so Peevy’s truck can go faster.

Back at the airfield, reporters are asking Mr. Bigelow about the mysterious rocket man, whom Bigelow decides to call the Rocketeer. The next day, the article of the Rocketeer is on the front page of all the papers. That night the FBI agents go to Mr. Bigelow’s office, only to find that Bigelow has been killed: Sinclair found out and sent his monster of an assassin Lothar to kill Bigelow. Then we see Lothar arriving at Cliff and Peevy’s home. He enters the house and attacks Peevy. Cliff enters and tries to stop Lothar, but the German Monster Man is too strong for both Cliff and Peevy. The FBI arrives and Lothar opens fire at them. The FBI agents start shooting too, but before they can get him, Lothar gets away, but before he leaves, he grabs the jetpack’s blueprints. Since the FBI is also looking for them, Cliff and Peevy run away too.

Then we cut to a nightclub, where Sinclair takes Jenny out to a date. Then Sinclair leaves, leaving Jenny alone with WC Fields, because Eddie wants a word with him. Eddie says that his boys are looking for the jetpack everywhere in town. Meanwhile at the Bulldog Café, one of Cliff and Peavy’s co-workers at the airfield tell them about Bigelow’s death. Cliff decides to make a phone call to the FBI, when suddenly Eddie’s thugs enter the Café. They wreck the Café and hold the patrons at gunpoint and even threaten to burn Peevy’s face on the grill, demanding to know where Cliff is. Suddenly, one of the thugs sees Jenny’s name and phone number written on the message board, so he makes a phone call to her. Jenny’s sister tells him that Jenny’s on a date with Sinclair. The thug hangs up the phone and he and another thug leave the Café, telling the others to keep the patrons hostage.

Then one of the thugs looks at the photos on the Café’s wall, and this is when Cliff starts a fight. Cliff, Peevy and the patrons fight off the thugs, then Cliff goes to the attic and puts on the jetpack and flies off to the nightclub, where Jenny is on a date with Sinclair.

At the nightclub, Sinclair asks Jenny to dance with him. After their dance they sit back to their table, when suddenly Cliff shows up, disguised as a waiter. He pours soup into Sinclair’s plate and when he pours champagne on Jenny’s dress, she stands up to clean herself, when Cliff pulls her behind the plants and talks to her: he tells her about Bigelow’s death and says it was the same thugs who are looking for the jetpack. He also reveals to her that he’s the Rocketeer. Cliff then tells Jenny to get out of the club, because the thugs are looking for both him AND her.

Jenny leaves the club and inside, Cliff gets confronted by both Sinclair’s monster henchman Lothar and Eddie’s thugs. They chase Cliff into the laundry room, but luckily Cliff escapes through the laundry shoot, by putting on the jetpack. Then Cliff flies around the club, causing all the guests to run away. Jenny sees this and gets inside. Sinclair tries to capture Cliff, but luckily Cliff flies out of the club, by bursting through the ceiling. Then, since he now thinks she knows too much, Sinclair kidnaps Jenny.

Then we cut to Jenny, who wakes up in Sinclair’s mansion. Then Sinclair enters the room and tells Jenny that he didn’t mean to kidnap her (he’s lying, of course). He then tells Jenny how much he loves her, but Jenny says that he’s just quoting from his movies. Then Jenny goes inside the bathroom and calls Neville in. Here, she knocks him unconscious with a vase then tries to escape. While she’s trying to find a way out, Jenny discovers that one of the bookcases is a secret door to a secret room. Here, Jenny finds Peevy’s blueprints of the jetpack. She puts it away and then tries to call for help with one of the radios in the room, but a German voice replies. Then Jenny finds a little book with the Nazi insignia on it. Then Sinclair enters and since Jenny discovered his secret, he and Lothar take her away.

Meanwhile, Cliff gets back to the Bulldog Café, but no one’s there. Then Cliff gets a phone call from Eddie, who tells him that he and Sinclair are holding Jenny hostage and that Cliff must come and meet them at Griffith Observatory at 4 A.M. sharp and he must bring the jetpack with him, otherwise they’ll kill Jenny. Cliff decides to go, but then the FBI agents burst in. They take Cliff to the Aircraft Factory, where we see Peevy talking to Howard Hughes about the jetpack. After the FBI removes the handcuffs from his hand, Hughes tells Cliff that he built that jetpack and Peevy tells Cliff that they didn’t steal it and Hughes understood. Peevy tells Cliff that he should hand over the jetpack, but Cliff says he can’t.

Then Hughes starts rolling a film that has been stolen from Germany: the film is about Nazis trying to perfect a jetpack and then the film shows what the Nazis intend to do with the jetpack: they want to fly with it to conquer the USA and the whole world. Cliff is horrified to see this film. Hughes and the FBI want the jetpack back, but Cliff says he can’t give it back, because Jenny is kidnapped and they won’t let her go unless Cliff gives them the jetpack. Then Hughes tells Cliff that Eddie and his gang have only been hired by a Nazi agent, someone very big in Hollywood. When he hears the word “Hollywood”, Cliff comes to the conclusion that Sinclair is behind all of this! The FBI agents don’t believe Cliff and they want to arrest him, but Cliff breaks free and then runs off to find Jenny. Hughes lets Cliff run away, saying: “That son of a bitch will fly”.

Then Cliff arrives at the rendezvous point: Sinclair, along with Jenny, Lothar, Eddie and his thugs are already there. Sinclair threatens Cliff that if he tries anything, he’ll kill Jenny. Then Cliff reveals to Eddie that Sinclair is a Nazi. Eddie doesn’t take this too well: he may be gangster, but at least he’s Patriotic and would never betray his country. Lothar tries to pull out his guns, but one of Eddie’s thugs aims his gun at him, saying: “Relax, Frankenstein, you ain’t bulletproof!”. Since his cover has been blown, Sinclair starts barking orders in German and Nazi soldiers jump out of nowhere. Eddie and his gang put down their guns and then a Zeppelin shows up.

Luckily, the FBI arrives. This is when Cliff activates the jetpack and Lothar tries to shoot him, but he gets away. Then Eddie, his gang and the FBI start a gunfight against the Nazi soldiers, with Eddie saying: “Lousy Krauts, let ‘em have it!!”. During the gunfight, Sinclair and Lothar get on the Zeppelin, taking Jenny with them. The Nazi soldiers are taken out and Cliff flies after the Zeppelin to save Jenny.

On the Zeppelin, Sinclair’s Nazi employer, a Gestapo agent is impatient: he yells at Sinclair in German, demanding to know where the jetpack is. Sinclair says that the jetpack will come to them. Cliff gets on the Zeppelin, but immediately gets confronted by Lothar. The two start fighting until Lothar falls off the top of the Zeppelin and his unconscious body breaks though the Zeppelin’s windows (but he’s still tied to a safety rope). The Gestapo agent keeps yelling at Sinclair, until Sinclair has enough and shoots the Nazi, whose body falls out of the Zeppelin.

Then Cliff enters the cockpit, and Sinclair once again holds Jenny at gunpoint, telling Cliff to hand over the jetpack. Cliff gives the jetpack to Sinclair, but not before taking off the gum that keeps the jetpack from going out of control. Sinclair picks up the rocket, but Jenny breaks free and then Cliff and Sinclair start fighting. As they fight, they knock over a lot of stuff in the cockpit, including a first aid box, and Jenny sees a flare gun, which she mistakes for a real gun. Jenny shoots the flare gun and the cockpit catches fire.

Cliff and Jenny are trying to put out the fire, but since saving his own ass is more important to him, Sinclair takes off with the jetpack, not knowing that it has an oil leak. As Sinclair flies to escape, the jetpack suddenly bursts into flames, setting Sinclair himself ablaze too. Sinclair crashes into the “Hollywood Land” sign, destroying the “Land” part. And that’s how Neville Sinclair’s acting career went up in flames. (Rimshot)

Anyway, Cliff and Jenny try to escape from the Zeppelin, which is about to blow up, but Lothar is still there! Lothar pulls out a knife, but the Zeppelin starts blowing up, so Cliff, Jenny and Lothar start running. Luckily, Cliff and Jenny are rescued by Peevy and Howard Hughes, while Lothar is killed in the explosion.

The movie ends with Howard Hughes giving Cliff a new plane and Jenny giving Peevy back the blueprints he made about the jetpack so he can build a new one. Then Cliff and Jenny kiss and the credits start rolling.

And that’s the Rocketeer! What do I think of it? I love it! I think this is a really good movie. This movie is like Indiana Jones, only without Indy himself. The Rocketeer reminds me not just of one, but three Superheroes at once:
1. Iron Man: because he also has a device that allows him to fly
2. Green Lantern Hal Jordan: because he’s a pilot
3. Captain America: because he fights Nazis
I really don’t know why this film is so underrated. It deserves more recognition.

Good things:
- I like WWII themed movies and this movie is a good one too
- I know Timothy Dalton played James Bond, but seeing his performance as the villain in this movie, has he ever considered playing a Bond villain?

Bad things:
- Can’t really say anything here.

Favorite character:
- Peevy
- Jenny
- Eddie Valentine
- Howard Hughes

Least favorite character:
- Sinclair

So overall, I think the Rocketeer is a great movie. I’m giving it 10 out of 10. See you next time on SithVamp Reviews!