Characters
The Lavoie family and the world around them.
Rob Lavoie
Rocket Rob
Makes pancakes shaped like hockey pucks. Drives Max to practice in a minivan he wishes were a rocket. Ties a dish towel around his shoulders because his son asked him to. He has no superpowers. For years, Max has narrated him as a hero. When that voice goes quiet, Rob has to choose what kind of dad he will be without it. On the tower, he takes up Max's heroic language in his own voice — an engineer and a father talking himself through the next impossible step.
Claire Lavoie
Vela
Runs the Lavoie household the way air traffic control runs an airport — invisibly, thanklessly, and with the understanding that if she stops, everything crashes. She swaps the wrong snack without a word. She checks the belt buckle when Rob isn’t looking. She catches things too fast, knows circuits she shouldn’t, and never explains why. The audience files it away without knowing they’re filing it. Then: “I was Vela before you were Rocket Rob.” And everything they watched plays back differently. In Act Three, she chooses Vela again on her own terms. She did not lose that identity; she forgot she could choose both.
Max Lavoie
The Believer
Eight years old. For years, Max has narrated his dad's life as a superhero adventure. That voice drives the film's visual language until hurt and disappointment make it go quiet. In Act Three, Rob and Claire take up that language themselves and become the parents Max needs. His voice returns only at the end: "Every family has heroes. Ours has the best ones."
Maple
Tactical Operative / The Cat
Orange tabby. Sits between Rob and Claire during the tense silences. Sits on the dish-towel cape. In Max's imagination, Maple is a tactical operative with night vision and a comm link. In reality, Maple knocks things off the counter. During The Silence, when Max stops narrating, the cat keeps showing up — the same spots, the same camera angles. On the rooftop, one casually placed paw knocks loose the right coupling. The relay powers down. The lights come back. Maple is already grooming.
Victor Watt
Watt Dynamics Founder
Rob's former Titan colleague and the founder of Watt Dynamics. Victor chose the office over family and has the corner suite, the title, and the empty apartment to prove it. A framed photograph stays in his jacket pocket. He offers Rob the promotion that would make the same choice permanent. Rob comes to refuse, falters, and leaves with the card in his pocket — the one small yes inside a no he has not yet managed to say.
Character Design
Rob — Classic
Rob — Playful
Claire as Vela
Maple — Operative
The World Around Them
Coach Hank
Max's Hockey Coach
The kind of coach who notices when a kid stops looking up at the stands. Never says anything directly — just watches Max play through it. After the final game: "And you're here." Four words. The whole film in four words.
Hydro Rex
Opening Villain
A towering contraption of copper pipes, chrome faucets, PVC joints, and rubber hoses — exactly the villain an eight-year-old would build from the parts under a kitchen sink, cranked to fifty feet tall. He exists only in Max's imagination. The "Ultimate Flood" was a leaky faucet.
Shadow Dad
Rob's Fear
Not a character — a reflection. The version of Rob that took the promotion: tailored suit, perfect posture, no crumbs. He first appears whole in the glass of Watt's tower the night Rob almost says yes, then returns in screens and mirrors, and offers the seductive path one last time on the rooftop. Then Rob stops looking at him, and he shatters — glass that was only holding together because Rob kept believing in him.
Dr. Overtime & Deadline
Imagination Villains
Imagination-track villains from Max's narration — work monsters made of clock hands and office supplies. They lose their charge as The Silence approaches. The fun drains out before the overlay goes dark entirely.
The Palette
Four colors form the visual identity of the film. They remain consistent across all art.
Rocket Red
#E01B1B
Cape, mask, accents
Warm Gold
#D79B2E
Belt buckle, trim, logo
Sky Blue
#3FA9F5
Rob's eyes, sky
Slate Gray
#6E7073
Suit, architecture