(1991) During the maiden test flight of their new airplane in anticipation of entering the national races, young pilot Clifford Secord (Bill Campbell) and his gray-haired genius engineer Peevy (Alan Arkin) lose their Gee Bee in a wreck after the plane buzzes a pair of cars and sustains damage when shot at by the FBI agents chasing Wilmer, who has the stolen Cirrus X-3 from Howard Hughes (Terry O'Quinn).

With their three-year project gone and owing Otis Bigelow (Jon Polito), an air-show promoter and owner of the airstrip, for damages (the FBI refuses to take financial responsibility, having got their man but not the valuable device), unemployed Cliff agrees to perform stunts for Bigelow. Hidden inside another aircraft in the hanger, Cliff and Peevy discover what turns out to be a rocket pack, powered by alcohol, which gives the pilot an idea for making money to pay off their debts; Peevy insists on returning it to the feds.

Meanwhile, Hollywood action star (looking like Errol Flynn) Neville Sinclair (Timothy Dalton) calls on gangster Eddie Valentine (Paul Sorvino) and his Frankenstein-like goon Lothar to obtain the X-3. Cliff's buxom girlfriend Jenny Blake (Jennifer Connelly), an aspiring actress on the movie set with Sinclair, becomes an object of intense interest for America's number-3 box-office draw when he learns of her connection with the rocket pack.

Using the rocket pack with Peevy's custom-made helmet, Cliff performs a daring rescue of Malcolm in a biplane during Bigelow's air show, becoming a press sensation (though his identity remains unknown): the flying rocketman (whom an astonished farmer calls "big gopher") receives the moniker "Rocketeer."

At the South Seas Club, Jenny in the company of Sinclair meets Clark Gable and W.C. Fields before being kidnapped: "Do you have to drug all your women to seduce them?"

Set in 1938 Los Angeles on the eve of World War II, director Joe Johnston's adventure movie, based on Dave Stevens's graphic novel, has Nazi spies and saboteurs, a zeppelin, 100% American gangsters, pyrotechnics, and Disney's razzle-dazzle. "It's all part of the show!"

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Copyright © 2009 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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