A young pilot stumbles onto a prototype jetpack that allows him to become a high-flying masked hero.A young pilot stumbles onto a prototype jetpack that allows him to become a high-flying masked hero.A young pilot stumbles onto a prototype jetpack that allows him to become a high-flying masked hero.
- Awards
- 1 win & 6 nominations
- Cliff
- (as Bill Campbell)
- Spanish Johnny
- (as Robert Guy Miranda)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaDave Stevens, the writer/artist of the original graphic novel, gave the film's production designer 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 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".
- GoofsWhen the Nazi agent is yelling at Sinclair, he shouts, "Ich habe meine Bestellung, und du auch!" ("I have my order, and so do you!") The German word for a military order is "Befehl." "Bestellung" is the order you give to a waiter.
- Quotes
Neville Sinclair: [on the road leading to the Griffith Observatory] C'mon, Eddie. I'm paying you well. Does it really matter where the money comes from?
[siding with the G-men to fight the Nazis]
Eddie Valentine: It matters to me. I may not make an honest buck, but I'm 100% American. I don't work for no two-bit Nazi. Let the girl go!
[Neville laughs, then calls out - in German - a group of hidden armed Sturmabteilung German soldiers who promptly hold everyone at gunpoint]
- SoundtracksDer Hoelle Rache
from Queen of the Night's "Aria" by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Performed by Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin
Courtesy of Laserlight Digital, by arrangement with Sounds of Film
Bill Campbell looks like a cartoon too. In fact everyone in the movie looks like a cartoon except the guy playing the huge thug working for Paul Sorvino. That guy doesn't look like a cartoon. He looks exactly like Rondo Hatten, an acromegalic actor from a few 40s horror flicks. But, it must be admitted, Rondo Hatten looked like a cartoon. And, well, if A = C and B = C, then A = B, no? It's a conundrum alright.
The movie is filled with delicious 1938 atmosphere. I wasn't around to enjoy it but it's always struck a resonant chord in me when I glimpse it in movies or listen to recordings from the period.
Here we have an Artie Shaw sort of band playing "Begin the Beguine" with a close simulation of that famous arrangement that made it such a hit. A smiling singer who looks like Nicole Kidman stands on the stage and sings without rolling around or smashing a guitar. Call me retro, but I prefer it to Snoop Dog Eeeze 2 Dudes. All seriousness aside, what happened to pop music anyway? Where are our Cole Porters and Ira Gershwins. Somebody hand me a hankie.
The production designer deserves a medal for capturing the exhilarating vulgarity of Southern California. I think I glimpsed a reproduction of Benvenuto Cellini's Apollo amidst the faux Egyptian columns.
I enjoyed the airplanes too. The one in the beginning of the movie was built exclusively for racing. (I forget its designation.) It was a horror to fly because it was hardly more than a huge engine with a tiny airplane built around it, as unstable a craft as ever took wing. Scary news footage exists of one of them zipping along at a tremendous rate and then, out of nowhere, kaboom, spinning deliriously into the ground at full speed. The 1930s were famous for their air races, like NASCAR is today. Heroes were made out of aviators. Airplanes that later became famous as fighters in WWII were first configured as racers -- Curtis P-40s, for instance, and the British Spitfires.
Of course it's an imitation of the Indiana Jones series and maybe an imitation of some Indiana Jones imitations, a kind of meta-imitation, but, gee, it's enjoyable. What atmosphere. And lots of action. Everybody and everything is turned into mincemeat one way or another but not in any way that's offensive.
It's really kind of engaging if you don't ask for significance.
- rmax304823
- Jul 2, 2004
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Languages
- Also known as
- Rocketeer
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $35,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $46,704,056
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $9,600,754
- Jun 23, 1991
- Gross worldwide
- $46,704,906
- Runtime1 hour 48 minutes
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.39 : 1