the rocketeer

Director: joe johnston

Actor: billy campbell,jennifer connelly,alan arkin,timothy dalton

Data Published: Fri Jun 21 1991

Genres: Action,Adventure,Family,Sci-Fi

Key Words: dieselpunk,jet pack,nazi,1930s,based on comic book

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102803/

WIKI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rocketeer_(film)

Description: The Rocketeer is a movie starring Billy Campbell, Jennifer Connelly, and Alan Arkin. A young pilot stumbles onto a prototype jetpack that allows him to become a high-flying masked hero.

Plot: In 1938 Los Angeles, two gangsters in Eddie Valentine's gang steal a rocket pack from Howard Hughes. During their escape, they find themselves on an airfield, where they hide the rocket pack, ending in an auto-airplane accident while escaping, with the police in hot pursuit. Stunt pilot Cliff Secord's Gee Bee racer is totaled during the accident; he and airplane mechanic Peevy later find the rocket pack hidden in a biplane cockpit. Movie star Neville Sinclair had hired Valentine's gang to steal the rocket pack, and he sends his monstrous henchman Lothar to question the injured getaway driver, who tells him that the rocket pack is at the airfield. Cliff's girlfriend is aspiring actress Jenny Blake, who has a bit part in Sinclair's latest film. On the set, Sinclair overhears Cliff attempting to tell Jenny about the rocket pack, so he invites her to dinner. Afterward, at a local air show, Cliff uses the rocket pack (and Peevy's newly designed face-hiding finned helmet) to rescue his friend Malcolm, who is drunkenly piloting a biplane. The newsreel press and Valentine's gangsters all see him in the airshow audience, whereupon "The Rocketeer" becomes a media sensation, but also sets Sinclair and the FBI on Cliff's tail. Sinclair sends Lothar to Cliff and Peevy's home to find the rocket pack. The FBI arrives, but Cliff and Peevy escape, while Lothar steals its detailed schematics drawn up by Peevy. Later, at the airfield diner, Cliff and Peevy are trapped by several Valentine mobsters; they learn that Jenny had a date with Sinclair, and of the actor's involvement in the hunt for the rocket pack. The diner patrons overpower the gangsters, while a bullet ricochet punctures the rocket's fuel tank, which Peevy temporarily patches with Cliff's chewing gum.[Note 1] Cliff proceeds to the South Seas Club, where he tells Jenny about his new alter ego. The Valentine gang arrives, and Jenny is kidnapped by Sinclair in the ensuing melée. At Sinclair's home, Jenny discovers that he is a Nazi secret agent and knocks him out. She is later detained and forced to leave a message for Cliff to bring the rocket pack to the Griffith Observatory in exchange for her life. Just before he is arrested by the FBI and taken to Hughes and Peevy, Cliff hides the rocket pack. Hughes explains that his rocket pack is a prototype, similar to one that Nazi scientists have, up to now, been unsuccessful in developing, and shows them a horrifying propaganda film that reveals the scope of the Nazis' plans, depicting an army of flying soldiers invading the United States. 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 pack, Cliff explains that he needs it to rescue Jenny; he escapes, inadvertently leaving behind a clue to where he is headed. Cliff flies to the rendezvous, where Sinclair demands that Cliff give him the rocket pack. Cliff divulges to the mobsters that the actor is a Nazi; Valentine's gang turn their weapons on Sinclair and Lothar, but Sinclair summons sixty heavily armed Nazi S.A. commandos hidden at the observatory. The Nazi rigid airship Luxembourg appears overhead to evacuate Sinclair. FBI agents suddenly announce their presence, having secretly surrounded the area; they and the mobsters join forces to battle the Nazis. Sinclair and Lothar escape, dragging Jenny with them aboard the airship. Cliff flies to and boards the airship, but during the ensuing showdown, Jenny accidentally sets the bridge on fire using a flare gun. Sinclair holds Jenny hostage, forcing Cliff to give him the rocket, but not before he secretly removes the chewing gum patch, allowing fuel to leak near the jet pack's exhaust. Sinclair dons the rocket pack and flies off, but the leaked fuel causes the rocket pack to catch on fire, causing Sinclair to plummet to his death near the "HOLLYWOODLAND" sign; the resulting explosion destroys the LAND part of the sign. Lothar is engulfed in flames as the airship explodes, but Cliff and Jenny are rescued at the last moment by Hughes and Peevy flying an autogyro. Hughes later presents Cliff with a brand-new Gee Bee air racer and a fresh pack of chewing gum. As Hughes leaves, Jenny returns Peevy's rocket pack blueprints, which she found in Sinclair's home; Peevy decides that, with some modifications, he can build an even better one.