From the safe: As the streaming arena continues to grow, more and more extensive studio catalogs are becoming available. This includes lost and forgotten jewels, bad-it-good duds, and just plain weird bits of film history. And you probably won’t find them waiting for streamers to put them in front of you. In from the safe Android authority aims to save these titles from the algorithm graveyard and help you get more out of your streaming subscriptions.
With Disney now working on a restart, it’s a great time to catch up on the 1991 superhero classic The Rocketeer on Disney Plus.
Directed by Joe Johnston, the adventure film feels ahead of its time and is as entertaining as ever. If you missed it when you first released it, or haven’t seen it in a while, don’t miss your chance to stream it today.
An underrated classic
The Rocketeer, based on the Dave Stevens comic book, wasn’t a huge hit when it came out 30 years ago. It came and went without much fanfare or big box office numbers.
But it has stood the test of time and has become an unlikely classic. The story is pretty straightforward, but leaves plenty of room for some great performances from actors like Timothy Dalton, Alan Arkin, Paul Sorvino, Terry O’Quinn, John Polito, Margo Martindale, and the two main characters Billy Campbell and Jennifer Connelly.
The Rocketeer is much better than its first reception suggests.
In 1938, Cliff Secord is a stunt pilot who is about to make it big when he finds a mysterious jetpack on his plane. Hidden there by gangsters who stole it from famous aviator Howard Hughes, the jetpack enables Cliff to become the flying hero, the rocketeer. But with Nazis in his story, Cliff realizes that he may be overwhelmed.
As a superhero origin story, The Rocketeer hits many of the high notes that later hero films have to contend with. And it feels like a blueprint for some of the early films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We meet a multitude of fascinating characters, get to know the challenges of an unusual conflict and experience an exciting journey in a tight period.
The Rocketeer looks gorgeous too, giving us just enough campy, pulpy fun to keep things weird and not too gloomy or self-serious.
The rocket man … The first avenger?
I’m not kidding when I say The Rocketeer feels like a blueprint for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Many of Marvel’s best hits find prototypes in the film. It makes perfect sense that director Joe Johnston would direct Captain America: The First Avenger for Marvel 20 years later. You can also see the influence of Raiders of the Lost Ark, which Johnston worked on as visual effects art director.
In Cliff we see references to the upcoming Steve Rogers / Captain America and Tony Stark / Iron Man. He has a bit of Tony’s audacious cockiness and a bit of Steve’s all-American goodness. He’s an idealist and a dreamer, and he’s on the lookout for number one. The jetpack is like Iron Man’s armor and Captain America’s super soldier serum rolled into one, giving him the added advantage of becoming the best he can be.
Read: Captain America at 10
But by merging the two larger-than-life heroes, he becomes more than the sum of its parts.
Cliff isn’t as cocky and selfish as Tony. And he’s not as pure as Steve. He’s more of a normal guy than any of them. And that makes his hero’s journey more down to earth and ultimately more rewarding.
He can grow into his hero personality more organically, but with some similar results. It appeared a full 20 years before Captain America: The First Avenger and hit Cap in many ways.
The rocketeer is finally getting some love
The rocketeer has certainly gotten some well-deserved love lately, with several high profile write-ups celebrating its 30th anniversary earlier this year.
The guard‘s Scott Tobias hailed it, saying, “The Rocketeer feels like a backlot tour of romanticized Hollywood at best. The action sequences are full of suspense and visual wit, especially the climax of the showdown on a Nazi airship, but most memorable as a time machine to a place that never existed, between cartoon history and screen fantasy. Who wouldn’t want to pay him a visit? “
See also: The best Marvel series and films on Netflix
Somebody at Disney seems to have got the memo. A series based on the film and the comic premiered on Disney Junior and Disney Channel in 2019. In it, a seven-year-old girl inherits the family’s jetpack to become the next rocketeer.
And now Disney is producing a restart, or rather a sequel. The Return of The Rocketeer is produced by David Oyelowo’s Yoruba Saxon Productions-Banner, with Oyelowo expected to star. The sequel follows a retired Tuskegee aviator who takes on the rocketeer’s coat. Oyelowo previously played a Tuskegee aviator in Red Tails 2012.
There’s no release date for the reboot just yet, but now is a good time to check out the original The Rocketeer on Disney Plus before it comes out.
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