Smokey and Rusty live in a rundown town which in their childhood was ruled by gangs, who were in turn ruled by Rusty's older brother, a youth known only as The Motorcycle Boy. He skipped town a few years ago, leaving only graffiti and a lonely younger brother in his wake. Rusty is nostalgic for these days of "the rumbles" and tries to recreate them unsuccessfully, with himself in his brother's place. His girlfriend Patty tries to discourage him: "You're always trying to be like your brother" but he argues "Hey, my brother's the coolest." When The Motorcycle Boy comes roaring back, we learn this mythos is embraced by almost all the town's denizens, who describe The Motorcycle Boy as "like royalty in exile." The only one who seems to disagree is the lone policeman, who is determined to lock up the "crazy" Motorcycle Boy and tells Rusty "You kids think he's some kind of hero. He's no hero."
As a whole the movie is somewhat haphazard-- there are fights, there are parties, there are endless games of pool, but like the aimless kids it follows, it has no real direction. The scenes unfold against stunning black-and-white cinematography: what the town lacks in supervised after-school activities it more than makes up for in bright lights, harsh shadows, and perpetual fog. (Also in prominently placed clocks, as the film's obsession with time, apparent from the first time-lapse shot of clouds racing through the sky, steadily grows until the landscape begins to resemble the Flavor of Love house, with man-sized clocks strapped to every conceivable surface.) The reason for some of the film's anachronistic style is hinted at when The Motorcycle Boy reveals he is colorblind and that to him the world resembles "a black and white TV."
Eventually, some splashes of color do appear on the titular rumble fish, whose bright blue and red bodies swimming against the grey tones of the pet store begin to attract The Motorcycle Boy's attention late in the film. In the dramatic finale he determines to free them from the cell-like tanks they are kept in to stop them killing one another, declaring in a voice dripping with symbolism, "I don't think they'd fight if they were in the river." Unfortunately fish-theft carries a heavy sentence in this town, and when he does steal the aquarium from the pet store the police shoot and kill him, leaving Rusty James to finally take up his brother's mantle and deliver the fish to the river before taking his brother's motorcycle and zooming off towards the ocean.
Although Cage is not a headliner here, he has one notable scene, wherein Smokey steals Rusty James' girlfriend Patty. After seeing them canoodling at the diner, Rusty accuses Smokey of masterminding an elaborate plot to break him and Patty up, a devious plan to which Smokey nonchalantly admits. The insecure Rusty is dumbfounded and enviously responds "I could never think of something like that." Smokey replies coolly "I know" and declares that if they did live in the glory days of gangs, Rusty would never be in charge: "You've gotta be smart to run things. It's nothing personal Rusty James, but nobody would follow you into a gang fight. Cuz you'd get people killed. And nobody wants to be killed." Cage's deadpan delivery of that line makes his presence worthwhile, but he is hardly an essential part of the film. And any movie which has Nicolas Cage standing on the sidelines watching as people punch other people in the face is guilty of an almost criminal negligence of his talent. Still, it is easy to see how this role plus his bad-boy turn in Valley Girl established his rebel reputation, and certainly there is plenty of face-punching to come.
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