Bottle Rocket | |
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Home video release poster
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Directed by | Wes Anderson |
Produced by |
Polly Platt Cynthia Hargrave |
Written by |
Owen C. Wilson Wes Anderson |
Music by | Mark Mothersbaugh |
Cinematography | Robert Yeoman |
Edited by | David Moritz |
Production
company |
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Distributed by | Sony Pictures |
Release date
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Running time
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92 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English Spanish |
Budget | $7 million |
Box office | $560,069 |
Bottle Rocket is a 1996 American crime-comedy film directed by Wes Anderson. It was co-written by Anderson and Owen Wilson. In addition to being Wes Anderson's directorial debut, Bottle Rocket was the debut feature for brothers Owen and Luke Wilson, who co-starred with James Caan and Robert Musgrave.
The film was a commercial failure but launched Anderson's career by drawing attention from critics. Director Martin Scorsese later named Bottle Rocket one of his top-ten favorite movies of the 1990s.
Bottle Rocket is also the name of a short film directed by Anderson and starring the Wilson brothers and Musgrave—shot in 1992 and released in 1994—on which the feature-length film was based.
In Arizona, Dignan "rescues" his friend Anthony from a voluntary psychiatric unit, where he has been staying for self-described exhaustion. Dignan has an elaborate escape plan and has developed a 75-year plan that he shows to Anthony. The plan is to pull off several heists, and then meet up with a Mr. Henry, a landscaper and part-time criminal known to Dignan.
As a practice heist, the two friends break into Anthony's family's house, stealing specific items from a previously agreed upon list. Afterward, critiquing the heist, Dignan reveals that he took a pair of earrings not specified on the list. This upsets Anthony, as he had purchased the earrings for his mother as a gift and specifically left them off the list. Anthony visits his little sister at her school and asks her return the earrings. Dignan recruits Bob Mapplethorpe as a getaway driver because he is the only person they know with a car. The three of them buy a gun and return to Bob's house to plan their next heist, which will be at a local bookstore. The group bickers as Dignan struggles to describe his intricate plan.
The group steals a small sum of money from the bookstore and go "on the lam", stopping to stay at a motel. Anthony meets Inez, one of the motel maids, and the two spark a romance despite their language barrier (Inez speaks little English, and Anthony barely any Spanish). Bob learns that his marijuana crop back home has been discovered by police, and that his older brother has been arrested. Bob leaves in his car the following day to help his brother, without telling Dignan. Before leaving the motel themselves, Anthony gives Dignan an envelope to give to Inez. Dignan delivers the envelope to Inez while she is cleaning a room, not knowing the envelope has most of his and Anthony's money inside. Inez does not open the envelope and hugs Dignan to say goodbye. As Dignan is leaving, Inez asks an English-speaking male friend of hers to chase after Dignan and tell him she loves Anthony. When he delivers the message he says, "Tell Anthony I love him". Dignan fails to realize he is speaking for Inez and does not deliver the message.