In 1982, comic book writer and artist Dave Stevens introduced his character The Rocketeer via a backup strip in issues 2 and 3 of Mike Grell’s Starslayer series from Pacific Comics before going on to front his own title at IDW. Film rights were bought almost immediately by Disney, the nostalgic, throwback character (he feels like he stepped out of an old serial like King of the Rocket Men (1949)) seemingly a good subject for adaptation post-Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). But it took almost a decade for him to reach the screen thanks to Trancers (1984) and Zone Troopers (1985) writers Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo and special effects artist turned director Joe Johnston. Sadly, it failed to click with audiences and plans for a trilogy of films were scrapped following poor box office.

It’s 1938 and in Los Angeles, mobster Eddie Valentine (Paul Sorvino)  and his gang steal a prototype rocket pack from aviation magnate Howard Hughes (Terry O’Quinn). As they flee the police, one gang member stashes the pack in the cockpit of a biplane at an airfield, destroying the aircraft owned and flown by stunt pilot Cliff Secord (Billy Campbell) in the process. Cliff and his mechanic Peevy Peabody (Alan Arkin) find the rocket pack and start experimenting with it while arrogant Hollywood star Neville Sinclair (Timothy Dalton) is revealed to be a Nazi collaborator and the man behind the attempted theft. Cliff’s girlfriend, actress Jenny Blake (Jennifer Connelly), has a job on Sinclair’s latest swashbuckler and when the actor overhears him trying to tell Jenny about the rocket pack and his secret life as superhero The Rocketeer (described by Peevy as looking (“like a hood ornament”), so he realises where it is. As Cliff slowly learns to control the unpredictable rocket pack, the lives of Peevy and Jenny are threatened by Sinclair and his Rondo Hatton lookalike sidekick Lothar (Tiny Ron Taylor in a prosthetic designed by Rick Baker) leading to a dramatic showdown aboard a Nazi Zeppelin high above the streets of Los Angeles. The aerial scenes are a huge amount of fun, not just the Rocketeer business (created by Industrial Light & Magic) but some actual flying stunts featuring an array of very lovely vintage aircraft going through the paces.

If there really were such a thing as justice, The Rocketeer would have been a huge box office hit and the other two films planned for the character would have been made. Sadly it wasn’t to be. It’s a joyously old-fashioned film in the same vein as Star Wars (1977) and the Indiana Jones films calling on the simple thrills and naivete of the serials, but something about it failed to connect and audiences proved elusive and it’s really hard to understand why. It’s a solid, unfussy, unpretentious blockbuster with plenty of action, amore coherent plot than many later Disney financed superhero films, likable performances and a cracking score from James Horner. All the ingredients were there for The Rocketeer to be a massive hit, but despite an aggressive advertising campaign from Disney and an OK but not amazing opening weekend, audiences stayed at home, or else were queuing for Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, City Slickers or Dying Young instead.

Cliff is an unlikely superhero, barely in control of his backpack and often succeeding in spite of himself. This only endears him to us, his lack of any superpowers beyond a rigid sense of good and bad and immense bravery making him “one of us”, albeit a boyishly handsome everyman. With guts, a beautiful woman by his side and a huge amount of luck he muddles through and it’s no spoiler to reveal that it all ends with Cliff saving the day but that predictability was all part of its charm. Billy Campbell plays the part well, charming enough to win over co-star Connolly (they were together for five years after the film was completed) but the film is pilfered from under his nose by Timothy Dalton, two years after leaving the James Bond films and seemingly having a whale of a time as the narcissistic Sinclair, the self-proclaimed “number three box office star in America.” Preening, flamboyant and devious, he rampages through the film, bringing some much-needed pizazz to the film’s few slower moments.

It’s all exhilarating stuff but plans for the two follow-up films were scrapped when Disney saw the disappointing box office receipts and it looked like it was game over for The Rocketeer on the screen, consigned to the dump bin of failed blockbusters. But the video release proved popular and the film started to develop a cult following, finally finding the audience that had escaped it on release in the summer of 1991. It wasn’t enough to save the sequels more’s the pity but the lingering love for the character did eventually yield results many years after when Disney made a short-lived computer-animated television series broadcast on Disney Junior and Disney Channel in 2019. It only ran for a single season of 22 episodes, but it proved that The Rocketeer‘s appeal hadn’t diminished one jot over time. And indeed, Disney had been trying to revive the film series for a few years and as of spring 2023, it’s still in development.

So who knows, maybe The Rocketeer will finally take to the skies again before long. Whether a modern take on the character will have the same easy charm and old-fashioned appeal as the 1991 film remains to be seen but they’ll have to work hard to even equal it. The Rocketeer remains one of the great unsung gems of the 1990s, a film that deserved a better hand than it was dealt, and which is still riotously good fun after all these years.