Headscratchers / The Rocketeer

• Why did Malcolm dress as a clown before taking Cliff's place in the air show? I don't think anyone would have seen him either way.
  • Because it was part of the act Cliff was supposed to do. Malcolm is Cliff's friend, and he's going to do what he can to help him.
• Isn't the use of Uniformed Commandos on American soil technically an act of war? Admittedly neither the US nor Nazi Germany has the means of fighting a cross-Atlantic war. But surely a diplomatic row would ensue?
  • Not even technically. It IS an act of war. Especially when combined with the video that clearly outlines the Nazi plan to invade and conquer America once they steal the rocket. Normally such a thing would lead to an immediate declaration of war, but the Feds decided to cover it up for now. I guess because they weren't ready to reveal the existence of the rocket to the general public just yet. Not until they had one of their own to play with, at least. So either Howard Hughes and Peevey took the secrets of the rocket pack to their graves and history continued as normal, or WWII took a turn for the Rule of Cool.
  • Just because something can be taken as an Act of War does not mean that war is obligatory. Over the years every nation on Earth has gotten very good at looking the other way over acts of war,mainly because it is disadvantageous to have a war at that point. That is one of the big jobs of diplomats, smoothing over stuff like that and finding ways to not have wars.
• It's not hard to imagine that a small squad of German agents and commandos could sneak into late 30's-era Los Angeles, but how on earth did they successfully hide that big-ass Zeppelin covered in swastikas and keep it ready for immediate deployment right behind the Griffith Observatory?
  • It's mentioned in the newsreel earlier in the film. The Zeppelin was there as part of a goodwill tour, making stops at several points across the United States. That they were able to hide it Behind the Black for the climax is a bit of a reach, but not the Zeppelin being there.
• Why did the Nazis play scary music in a cartoon made for their own soldiers that was supposed to depict their victory?
  • It's meant to be inspiring, in a Wagnerian way, but without actually being Wagner.
  • Plus, well, they're Nazis. They're kind of scary people.
  • Propaganda was something the Nazi regime was well known for. They produced propaganda films complete with editing and music. When it was time, this was definitely something they were going to show the public.
• Why doesn't the exhaust flame of the rocket pack burn Cliff or Neville's legs off. I get that the pack itself has a cooling feature to keep it from exploding on his back but that doesn't excuse the flames being long enough to reach his pants without them catching on fire.
  • _{Shh! You're not supposed to notice that!}
  • Actually, if you look closely, you can see a thick heat shield just below the exhaust nozzles of the rocket pack, which would indeed protect the operator's legs. Also the movie version of the jetpack uses a dual-engine design while the comic book had only one, meaning the individual engines could run a little cooler, combined with the heat shield at the hottest point of the exhaust and Cliff's legs will be just fine.
• Why did Neville Sinclair have a walk-in closet full of women's dresses in his house?
  • For all the women he brings home, duh. Take a poor girl home, dress her up like a doll, a bit too much wine...
  • Far better - and infinitely creepier question: why did he have chloroform with him on his date?
  • Only marginally better, maybe he was intending to use the date as cover for an operation of secondary priority, maybe someone in the region was on a list of targets of opportunity for some reason?
  • For the chloroform, he is a spy. He might have a need to render someone unconscious at a moment's notice. As for the dresses... he's also kind of a creep.
  • Another one of Fridge Horror: The dresses weren't for the women he brought up there but from the women he brought up there before making them disappear. He is a spy. It's safe to say that he may have found a few women to pump information from and then had to "remove" them so that his secret didn't get out. He had Jenny there for the same reason. Now try looking at that closet full of dresses the same way again.
• How does Cliff put on the rocket pack outside his cool leather jacket without any straps being visible externally? Did he cut slits in his jacket to pass the straps through?
  • The front panel of the jacket buttons over the straps and the belt. Awesome, but Impractical, but the movie glosses over any moments where Cliff would need to unbutton the whole thing to get the pack on or off.
  • That feature does end up saving Cliff's life when a soldier tries to remove the rocket pack as it slows him down enough for the FBI to show up.
• Is Neville Sinclair English working for Germany or German pretending to be English? If it's the former, he slips into a German accent while speaking English a lot after he's found out, and if it's the latter, how long has he been pretending to be English? Since before the war? He seems like he's been a movie star for a while by this point.
  • German pretending to be English ("It wasn't lies, Jenny, it was acting."). As for how long he's been a movie star, FWIW Errol Flynn, who he is inspired by, got his big break in Captain Blood in 1935.