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. He has a kid who believes in him so completely that the audience believes too — until they don't. Rob's journey isn't about gaining strength. It's about discovering he had it all along. When Max's narration goes silent, Rob loses the courage it gave him. When he finds it again on the rooftop — his own voice, his own words — it sounds like an engineer talking himself through a system failure. And it saves the city.
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. What nobody knows is that Claire was extraordinary once. Before this family. Before she chose to fold herself into the background. “I was Vela before you were Rocket Rob.” The reveal recontextualizes the entire film — every too-fast catch, every knowing look, every “I’ll handle bedtime.” She didn’t stop being a hero. She chose something harder. And in Act Three, she puts the suit back on. Not because she has to. Because she decides to be seen again.
Max Lavoie
The Believer
Eight years old. Believes his dad is a superhero. The film commits to that belief fully — not as a cute kid thing, but as the engine that drives the entire visual language of the story. When Max narrates, the world transforms. When he stops, it doesn't. The Silence — when Max's narration disappears — lasts roughly thirty minutes of screen time. The audience lives without it. When his voice returns at the end, soft and sleepy and changed, it's not the same voice. "Every family has heroes. Ours has the best ones." Not hero — heroes. He sees both parents now.
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, she knocks things off the counter. Both versions are equally true. During The Silence, when Max stops narrating, Maple keeps showing up — the same spots, the same camera angles. An orange tabby where an eight-year-old in a hockey helmet used to be. On the rooftop, her paw casually knocks loose the right coupling. The relay powers down. The lights come back. She's already licking her paw.
Victor Watt
The Boss
Rob's boss at Titan Sports Tech. Not a supervillain — something worse. A warning. Victor chose the office over the family, and it worked. He got the corner suite, the title, the power. He also got an empty apartment and a framed photo he keeps in his jacket pocket. His hand drifts to it whenever he talks about family — and the audience never sees what's in it. His goal isn't destruction. It's recruitment. If Rob joins him, Rob's life stops being a rebuke. He doesn't get punched into a building. He becomes irrelevant. When Rob chooses differently, Victor dissolves — particles of golden light drifting upward, the photo breaking apart last.
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 appears in glass, in screens, in mirrors. He 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