History Film / TheRocketeer

** [[spoiler: Eddie Valentine also seems to be this, as he takes many orders from Sinclair, however, when he finds out Sinclair is really a German sleeper agent, Valentine has a HellFaceTurn and fights with the FBI against Sinclair and the german forces.]]

* DamselInDistress: Sinclair targets Jenny as a way to get to her boyfriend, Cliff, first with seduction, because Sinclair doesn't know who Cliff is and needs to find out who has the jetpack, and then by drugging and kidnapping her to lure the Rocketeer to him. The Rocketeer needs to intervene in both cases. However, Jenny, while requiring rescue, does a lot to help save herself. In fact, the reason she doesn't escape before being kidnapped was that she went back to help Cliff when he was cornered in the club.

* HindenburgIncendiaryPrinciple: At the end, Jenny fires off a flare gun in the cockpit, and the zeppelin the Nazis intend to escape in goes up in flames.

* IHaveYourWife: The bad guys kidnap Cliff's girlfriend as leverage to get him to give them the rocket pack.

* LighterAndSofter: A slight case -- in the comic, Cliff's girlfriend is a nude model named "Betty" after pin-up icon Creator/BettiePage; in the movie she's Jenny, who works as a film extra.

** Cliff's habit of chewing gum and putting a piece of chewed gum on his aircraft "for luck" saves his life by providing something to plug the bullet hole on the rocket pack [[spoiler:and dooms Neville Sinclair's when Cliff can easily and subtly slides it back off before handing the pack over.]] So would this be [[IncrediblyLamePun Chekhov's gum?]]

A [[AllCGICartoon computer-animated]] [[WesternAnimation/TheRocketeer television series for]] [[Creator/DisneyChannel Disney Junior]] premiered in 2019 and focuses on Cliff Secord's great-grandaughter, Kit, who receives the helmet and rocket pack on her seventh birthday and becomes the new Rocketeer.

It was nominated for a UsefulNotes/HugoAward in 1992, but lost to ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay''.

* CoolGuns: The FBI Agents and the Police use Colt Official Police revolvers, while the mobsters use Colt 1911 pistols and Colt 1903/1908 Hammerless Pistols. Also, in a nod to the comic books, The Rocketeer uses a Mauser C96 near and during the climax. In the comics, the Mauser C96 Broomhandle was his weapon of choice. In the climax, all the gangsters and G-men use Thompson sub-machine guns with [[MoreDakka drum magazines]] because, well, [[TwoFistedTales it's a pastiche of 1930s pulp adventure comics and movies.]]

* ZeppelinsFromAnotherWorld: Since it's only a ''slightly'' alternate version of TheThirties, the Germans use a zeppelin to visit 1938 Los Angeles (when in fact airship travel ended in 1937 with the ''Hindenburg'').

It was nominated for a Hugo in 1992, but lost to ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay''.

!!This film provides examples of:

* ZeppelinsFromAnotherWorld: Since it's only a ''slightly'' alternate version of TheThirties, the Germans use a zeppelin to visit 1938 Los Angeles (when in fact airship travel ended in 1937 with the ''Hindenburg'').

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Howard Hughes. Creator/ClarkGable and Creator/WCFields also appear at the South Seas Club.

* PursuedProtagonist: Well, pursued PunchClockVillain anyway. The second scene shows two Valentine {{Mook}}s with the jetpack {{MacGuffin}} fleeing from several police cars. One of them is quickly killed, while the other hides the jetpack in the protagonist's workplace (where he quickly finds it) before being captured.

* ThoseWackyNazis: [[spoiler:The real bad guys of the film. This is [[{{Foreshadowing}} foreshadowed]] at the beginning of the film, when Cliff and Jenny go to the cinema]].

* NonindicativeName: In fact, everyone keeps calling the device in question "The Rocket" when everything that's shown tells us it's basically a jet engine. Completely justified by the fact that in 1938 "jet engine" was something that few people were aware of, and even fewer could have recognized one, while rockets were fairly well understood.

* ActionSurvivor: Cliff is just a stunt pilot trying to make a living. Even when he picks up the jetpack, it's only for the purpose of flying it at a show to recoup some of the losses of his crashed plane (and to have some fun, since he loves flying). But when a friend is aloft in a floundering airplane, he immediately grabs the jetpack that they've never flown manned to rescue him, and when his girlfriend is in danger, he insists on going to rescue her rather than leaving it to the authorities. The fact that his skill is as a ''pilot'', not a fighter, is highlighted towards the end, when ends up in a fist-fight against the BigBad, an [[spoiler:actor who does his own stunts]], and promptly gets knocked all over the room.
* ActorAllusion: During the fight scene on board the zeppelin Cliff says to Neville, "Where's your stuntman now Sinclair?" which Neville replies "I do my own stunts." This line is in reference to Creator/TimothyDalton's time as Film/JamesBond, since he is known for being the only Bond actor to perform most of his own stunts.

* BadBadActing: The scene on the set of Jenny's acting job reveals that the small speaking part she was hoping to land, with the line "O my sweet prince, that I may drink of your lips as deeply!", instead went to the [[{{Nepotism}} producer's niece]]. The first take drives home that it was ''not'' due to the niece's acting skills. (The second take was better...)

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Early in the film, mentioned by name, when the FBI and LAPD are chasing after Eddie's goons, one of the FBI agents wishes the "black and white" (the cop car) would get out of the way so he could fire on Eddie's men. After the cop car wrecks, it exposes the agents to Eddie's men's Tommy gun.
** Jenny finds her romantic life with Cliff lacking, as they just tend to go to the same places and hand out at the Bulldog cafe with the same people, while she longs for more glamor and excitement. But when she gets a date with Neville Sinclair and is taken to a lavish restaurant, she finds that he's a tremendous bore, only able to recite lines from his own films to romance her and is leered at by other patrons.

* BritishNazis: [[spoiler:Subverted with Neville Sinclair (played by Timothy Dalton), who is revealed a Nazi spy -- not a British one, but a German one]].

* TheCasanova: 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 BookcasePassage to [[spoiler:Neville's Nazi communications room]] was even opened by a book called "The Conquests of Casanova".

* ContrivedClumsiness: Cliff Secord does this when he's at the South Seas Club, where his girlfriend Jenny is with Neville Sinclair, who's looking for the rocketpack. He "accidentally" spills some champagne on Jenny just before she tells Neville about him and how he's got the rocketpack.

* DisproportionateRetribution: When one of the nazis insults Neville by calling him an "actor", Neville responds by shooting him out of the zepplin.

* OperaGloves: Jenny wears these.

* NoSell: Sinclair tries to seduce Jenny, but his lines are just dialogue from movies he's acted in. Being a dedicated fan, Jenny quickly realises this.

* NoMacGuffinNoWinner: The rocket pack gets destroyed [[spoiler:when Neville Sinclair crashes and burns into the Hollywoodland sign,]] although Peevy [[spoiler:took very good notes when they dismantled the rocket pack earlier in the movie, and got his notes back from Jenny after she swiped them back from Sinclair...]]

* NoodleIncident: When their car gets shot up in the opening scene, the FBI duo mention that this is the third time that's happened this month, and after their mission ends in failure, one of them says that it's his partner's turn to call their boss and report failure.

--> '''Jenny''': [[spoiler:I finally played a scene with Neville Sinclair.]] ''(Zips up her dress)''

--> '''[[spoiler:Sinclair]]''': For the Fatherland!
--> '''Captain''': ''(nervously)'' Ja.

** Cliff's habit of chewing gum and putting a piece of chewed gum on his aircraft "for luck" saves his life by providing something to plug the bullet hole on the rocket pack [[spoiler:and dooms Neville Sinclair's when Cliff can easily and subtly slide it back off before handing the pack over.]] So would this be [[IncrediblyLamePun Chekhov's gum?]]

** At the beginning, when Cliff's plane is shot and he's struggling to keep it flying, he passes above an ad of "Wings of Honor", Neville Sinclair's latest movie.

* GreaterScopeVillain: Sinclair is the main bag guy in this plot, but behind him, [[spoiler: and looming over the rest of the world is the Third Reich]].

** Jenny gives a kick in the groin towards the aviator of the zeppelin near the end of the movie, though her white dress obscures the kick itself. Also causing him to fall out of the zeppelin.

* LineOfSightName: After such false starts as "Rocketman", "Rocketboy" and "Missile Man", Bigelow coins "Rocket''eer''" after seeing the word "Pioneer" on a billboard outside.

* BeMyValentine: "100% American" Eddie Valentine, who is played with cuddly menace by Paul Sorvino, but ultimately [[spoiler:turns on his employer and helps the Rocketeer and the FBI take him down when he finds out he's a Nazi spy]]. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by [[spoiler:Sinclair, after they each turn their back on the other, when he is about to leave with Jenny]] and taunts, "Goodbye, Eddie. Happy Valentine's Day." This is followed by the arrival of [[spoiler:the FBI]].