The Rocketeer (film): Difference between revisions
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On another note entirely, its primary musical theme by [[James Horner]], [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvBLFqqqS50 Main Title/Take Off], is practically [[Recycled Trailer Music|a movie trailer standard]].
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{{tropelist}}
* [[Ace Pilot]]: played straight with Cliff, a stunt pilot; subverted with Malcolm, allegedly a [[World War
* [[Action Survivor]]: Cliff.
* [[Adaptational Badass]]: Cliff Secord between the comic book (in which he was assisted by other pulp heroes) and the movie (which he actually saved other people, mostly by himself).
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* [[All Part of the Show]]: Said word for word when the Rocketeer first appears, and saves bumbling pilot Malcolm from fiery death. However, the airfield owner saying that has a hard time keeping up that line as the crashing plane destroys ''another'' of his fuel trucks.
* [[Alternate History]] / [[Alternate Universe]]: But only ''slightly'' so. Everything's mostly the same as it was in our 1938, except Howard Hughes has invented a jetpack, the Germans still use zeppelins, and the Hollywoodland sign ends up losing the "-land" eleven years early.
* [[Aluminum Christmas Trees]]: Believe it or not, ridiculously-shaped buildings like the Bulldog Cafe really ''did'' exist; they were something of a fad in midcentury [[Los Angeles]]. Perhaps the most famous is the Brown Derby restaurant, a stars' hangout in old-time Hollywood and the place where the Cobb salad was invented. Since they were built for novelty, not durability, most are gone--but a handful survive, most notably [https://web.archive.org/web/20131115034201/http://randys-donuts.com/frame.html Randy's Donuts] of Inglewood, which is shaped like a giant donut.
* [[Are We Getting This?]]: At the airshow.
* [[Ascended Fanboy|Ascended Fangirl]] / [[Broken Pedestal]]: Jenny is a huge fan of Neville Sinclair until she sees he's a creep. {{spoiler|And a Nazi spy.}}
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* [[The Casanova]]: Subverted; Neville tries to seduce Jenny, but his chat-up lines are all from his own movies which Jenny (as an avid fan) knows off by heart.
** The [[Bookcase Passage]] to {{spoiler|Neville's Nazi communications room}} was even opened by a book called "The Conquests of Casanova".
* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: The Nazi airship is briefly mentioned in a newsreel the characters watch at the opening of the film. You've probably forgotten all about it until it [[Oh Crap|suddenly shows up overhead]] at the climax.
** The bullet hole in the rocket pack.
** Cliff's habit of chewing gum, which saves his life covering the bullet hole on the rocket pack {{spoiler|and dooms Neville Sinclair's when Cliff slides it off.}} So would this be [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Chekhov's gum?]]
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* [[Death From Above]]: The airship.
* [[Deep-Cover Agent]]: {{spoiler|Neville Sinclair.}}
* [[
* [[Disney Villain Death]]: A variation: {{spoiler|Sinclair voluntarily flies out of the zeppelin with the rocketpack, but its fuel leak causes it to burst into a massive fireball, causing Neville to crash into the Hollywoodland sign and explode spectacularly}}.
* [[Disposable Pilot]]: As Neville Sinclair is making his escape aboard a Nazi zeppelin, the captain tells Sinclair that their pilot is the best in Germany, when Lothar's unconscious body knocks the pilot out of the zeppelin.
* [[Damsel in Distress]]: Subverted, somewhat, as Jenny does participate in her own rescue.
* [[Don't Touch It, You Idiot!]]
* [[Dragon-in-Chief]]: Sinclair is the main antagonist, but he works for [[Those Wacky Nazis]].
* [[Easy Logistics]]: Exactly how the Nazis intended an army of jetpack-equipped soldiers to fly clear across the Atlantic nonstop and conquer Washington DC, is not addressed but then, this Trope applies for a ''lot'' of stuff the real ones thought up.
* [[Enemy Mine]]: {{spoiler|During a gunfight in the climax, Valentine finds himself fighting the Nazis alongside the police chief. They glance at each other, and then resume firing.}}
* [[Even Evil Has Standards]]: Eddie Valentine {{spoiler|quits working for Sinclair after finding out he's a Nazi.}}
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** Even before the reveal, Valentine is quite resentful of Sinclair:
{{quote|'''Sinclair:''' Valentine, we're going to do what ''I'' think is necessary.
'''Valentine:''' And that includes breaking one of my men in half, huh? [[Papa Wolf|The next time you go after one of my men, I'll kill ya.]]
'''Sinclair:''' Don't threaten me, Eddie. Just do your job.
'''Valentine:''' Hey, Sinclair? (''lights cigar'') If the Feds take me, [[Taking You with Me|I'm taking you with me.]] I'm gonna tell them everything.
'''Sinclair:''' Who do you think they'll believe? A cheap crook, or the number three box-office star in America?
(''as Sinclair leaves, Valentine throws his cigar at the door'')
'''Valentine:''' Number three jerk! }}
* [[Exact Eavesdropping]]: Sinclair hears Cliff talking to Jenny about the rocketpack on the set of his latest movie.
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* [[Hello Again, Officer]]: Cliff keeps running into the same three feds...
* [[Historical Domain Character]]: Howard Hughes.
* [[Historical In-Joke]]:
** Cliff escapes from Howard Hughes by grabbing a (large) model plane and jumping off a balcony, gliding to safety. The plane is a model of the [[wikipedia:Spruce goose|"Spruce Goose"]], and Hughes comments, "The son-of-a-bitch ''will'' fly."
** [[Los Angeles]]' famous "Hollywood" sign used to read "Hollywoodland". {{spoiler|Neville Sinclair makes a dramatic exit from the burning airship (see [[So Long, Suckers!]], below), right after he smirks "I'll ''miss'' Hollywood..." He then crashes into the last four letters of the sign, obliterating them. (In reality, the "-land" was removed in 1949, to reduce maintenance costs.)}}
** The newsreel shows that the first place to be visited by the German zeppelin is [[wikipedia:Hindenburg disaster|Lakehurst, NJ]].
*** That could be more of a case of [[Shown Their Work]], since that was one of a handful of places in the country with airship landing facilities.
* [[I Have Your Wife|I Have Your Girl]] / [[Come Alone]]: Cliff is summoned to the Griffith Park Observatory. Hey, it was 1938; these tropes were NEW!
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** Plus the plot consists of thwarting [[Stupid Jetpack Hitler]]
* [[Lethally Expensive]]: When Howard Hughes shows Cliff the Nazi propaganda film, he says "Keep watching, kid. It cost a man's life to get this out of Germany."
* [[Line-of-Sight Name]]: After such false starts as "Rocketman" and "Rocketboy", Bigelow coins "Rocket''eer''" after seeing the word "Pioneer".
* [[Look Ma, No Plane]]
* [[Male Gaze]]: When Jenny is introduced to famed comedian W.C. Fields, the camera shows us exactly why he is "Charmed. '''Doubly''' charmed" to meet her.
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* [[The Thirties]]
* [[Those Two Guys]]: FBI agents Fitch and Wooly.
* [[Those Wacky Nazis]]: The [[Bigger Bad]]s of the story.
* [[Trailers Always Spoil]]: Some people said they didn't need to see the film, the trailer told the whole story.
** [[Tropes Are Not Bad|That doesn't make the full movie any less awesome though.]]
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[[Category:The Rocketeer]]
[[Category:Film]]
[[Category:Superhero Genre]]
[[Category:Films Based on Comics]]
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Cult Classic]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rocketeer (film), The}}
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