Rocket (Buscapé)

Rocket (Buscapé) is the protagonist and narrator in the movie Cidade de Deus (City of God). His nickname also means Firecracker. He was portrayed in the movie by Alexandre Rodrigues while his younger self is played by Luis Otávio.

Childhood

Rocket's real name is Wilson Rodrigues. The youngest son of a fish salesman, Rocket spent his entire childhood in the favela known as the City of God. His older brother, Goose (Marreco), along with Clipper (Alicate), and Shaggy (Cabeleira) were members of the Tender Trio, the favela's resident street gang.

Unlike his brother, Rocket attends school, mainly because he dislikes working. As a child, he witnessed the breakup of the Tender Trio, following a robbery at the Motel Miami, a known brothel, in which everyone inside was killed. He later reveals that Li'l Dice was the one responsible for the murders and that the Tender Trio was framed as a result.

After the breakup of the group, Goose works with Rocket in selling fish. It is during this time, Goose begins to have an affair with the wife of Shorty, the 'stoolie' inside the City of God. While waiting for his brother outside Shorty's house (Shorty had caught the both of them in bed and assaulted his wife with a shovel before burying her alive), Goose runs out the house naked with only his shirt. After getting Rocket's shorts, Goose leaves, but is later shot dead by Li'l Dice.

Shorty points out Rocket to the cops and the police pick Rocket up. They take him back to his house, where they search it. Finding nothing incriminating, they leave. At that moment, Rocket's father disowns Goose (not knowing that he is already dead). While Clipper goes back to the church, Shaggy hides out with an older woman named Maracana and her daughter, Bernice. The two becomes lovers and shortly afterward, Bernice convinces Shaggy to leave the City of God with her.

On the day they leave the slum, the police arrest Shorty for killing his wife. Shorty sees Shaggy and sends the police after him. Bernice manages to get away, but Shaggy is killed. On that day, Rocket sees a reporter with a camera, which fuels his desire to become a photographer.

Before The Gang Wars

Now eighteen, Rocket is the photographer of his clique, the gang of groovies. Among the members of the crew are his friend Stringy, Tiago (Thiago), and Angelica, Tiago's girlfriend and the only person in the clique who was sexually active. Rocket has a crush on her and wishes to lose his virginity with her.

Both Rocket and Angelica smoke pot, while Tiago prefers snorting cocaine. Rocket offers to buy some pot for her and she gives him a kiss on the cheek to show her approval.

The local dealer in Rocket's neighborhood was Blacky, a former classmate and friend of Rocket's. While visiting Blacky one day after school to buy some weed, Blacky gets an unexpected guest: Li'l Dice. Now called Li'l Zé (Zé Pequeno), he, like Rocket, had came of age and along with his followers, slaughtered the rival dealers and seized control of their rackets, with the exception of Blacky and Carrot (Cenoura) who was a friend of Benny's (Bené).

Zé is about to kill him but Benny stops him, sparing Blacky's life. Zé shoots him in the leg, telling him that he works for him now. Rocket contemplates using Blacky's gun to kill Zé, but tries to walk out instead, only to be stopped by Zé's heavily armed gang.

Zé demands to know who he is and Rocket tells him his name. Benny knows him as the brother of 'the late Goose,' and Zé lets him go, telling Rocket to tell everyone that he runs the business now and that he will also be selling cocaine. While Zé gets richer, Rocket makes his move on Angelica, who has since broken up with Tiago.

Rocket is very afraid of Zé and avoids him at every turn. Instead of buying pot from Zé, he buys it from Carrot instead and shares it with Angelica. Alone on a beach, sharing a joint, Rocket and Angelica are looking over some pictures. When they start kissing, The Runts, a street gang whose members are only kids, arrives, the leader asking for a toke from Rocket's joint. Rocket hands over the joint and Angelica leaves, with Rocket chasing after her. When the Runts offer Rocket his joint back, he tells them to keep it, with the Runts declaring that he's a 'cool guy.'

Benny becomes a playboy and through Tiago (whom he bonds with through nice clothes and cocaine) joins the clique and becomes friends with Rocket. However, he is attracted to Angelica when he first sees her, much to Rocket's dismay. While attending a party, Rocket plans on getting Angelica alone with her, but it backfires when Zé and Carrot argue about Carrot allowing the Runts to rob the slums. Benny manages to defuse the situation, gaining Angelica's admiration.

Flirting with the Criminal Life

While Zé gets the respect of the people, Benny and Angelica started dating. Rocket, in the meantime, begins a job at a local supermarket. While working there, he runs into the Runts, who recognize him as the 'cool guy' from the beach. When the security guard stops them and asks them to lift their shirts (the Runts have been shoplifting), the kids bolt and the manager, thinking that Rocket was in cahoots with the Runts, fires Rocket.

Back home, Rocket pulls out his late brother's revolver and decides to try to rob folks for money. The first person he and Stringy runs into is Knockout Ned (Mané Galinha), a former soldier who works on the transit bus, counting money. Ned recognises the two from the slums and urges them to study so they can make a better life for themselves. Rocket can't hold him up because they respect Ned and that they are friends with Gerson, Ned's younger brother.

At a candy shop the pair are preparing to rob, the female cashier flirts with Rocket, even giving him her phone number on a napkin. When Rocket and Stringy reach the street, a man from São Paulo pulls to a stop, asking for directions to Barra. Rocket and Stringy say that they are heading that way and they hop in. Rocket, Stringy and the man bond over pot, in which they smoke the paper with the cashier's number. Rocket and Stringy give up the idea of robbery for good.

They pass a crime scene in which the police discover the body of a female victim from the City of God. It is later revealed that Blacky was responsible for killing her because she had insulted him and as a result Zé is about to kill him, saying "you kill in the slums, you die as an example." Benny makes the save, throwing Blacky out, and getting some harsh words from Zé.

At a going-away party, Benny presents Rocket with a camera, only to have it taken from him by Zé, who is furious that his best friend is leaving and that he was refused by a pretty girl when he asked her to dance (he forced the girl's boyfriend, who was Knockout Ned, to strip naked as a result). While Benny and Zé struggle over the camera, Blacky appears and fires on Zé. Benny takes the bullet and he dies at the scene.

The Gang War

From his apartment, Rocket hears gunfire. When he looks down, he sees Knockout Ned firing on Zé. Earlier that night, Zé had assaulted Ned and raped his girlfriend. Later on, Zé kills both Ned's brother and his grand-uncle. Carrot gives him a revolver and Ned goes after Zé. Later on, Carrot and Ned join forces against Li'l Zé.

The ensuing gang war divides the City of God into two factions. Meanwhile, Rocket gets a job at the local newspaper, working as a paperboy. He idolizes the newspaper's top photographer, Rogerio Reis and aspires to be a photographer like him. Rocket even gets to meet Reis through a friend who also works at the newspaper as an editor.

Back in the City of God, Ned is injured in the war and is confined to a hospital. When he gets his face in the paper, Zé is furious. He finds the camera and decides to have his picture taken in order to show who is the boss in the slums. When Zé's men fail to get it to work properly, Tiago, who has since joined up with Zé, brings in Rocket, who gets the camera to work properly. Zé gives him the money to get the pictures developed, but he takes it over to the newspaper where his friend - at Reis' urging - develops the pictures.

Another journalist, Mariana, finds the photos of Li'l Zé and they are posted in the newspaper. Rocket finds out about this and is immediately scared for his life. What he doesn't know is that Zé's reaction is the opposite, pleased that he has gotten his face in the paper. Inside the newspaper's offices, Rocket is arguing with Mariana and Reis over the photos. Reis asks him where he got the pictures form, which Rocket replies that he is a resident of the City of God.

After some convincing, Rocket agrees to get some more pictures of Li'l Zé, knowing that the paper will pay him well for the pictures. Reis gives him a better camera from the equipment room. Mariana agrees to let him stay at her place for the night. While staying with Mariana, Rocket loses his virginity (while at the same time, Carrot and his gang help an injured Knockout Ned escape from the hospital while Ned's guard was currently occupied having sex with the nurse).

The Beginning of the End

Several days after Ned escapes the hospital, things have calmed down in the City of God. Rocket and Stringy are walking down a street, Rocket griping about running into Li'l Zé again, even if it is for the newspaper.

"If he finds you, he's gonna kill you," Stringy remarks.

"He's gotta find me first," Rocket replies.

As soon as Rocket utters those words, Zé, along with his gang, come running out of a side street, chasing after a chicken who had ran from a cookout that Zé was attending.

Zé demands Rocket to grab the chicken. At the same time, the police show up from behind Rocket. Zé clearly has more guns than the cops, who quickly depart. Zé asks Rocket to take a picture of him and his gang. As soon as Rocket snaps the first shot, a gunshot rings out, killing one of Zé's members.

Knockout Ned, along with Carrot and his gang have showed up and a firefight ensues. Rocket and Stringy dive for cover. In the ensuing battle, Knockout Ned and Tiago are killed as well as countless members from both sides. As Carrot and the surviving members from his gang rush forward to finish Li'l Zé off, the police arrive and quickly arrest both Carrot and Zé.

Rocket pursues the cops back to Zé's hideout, and begins taking photographs from a concealed location. He watches the police take what's left of Zé's payoff in exchange for the weapons he had stolen earlier, and tell him to pay them the rest back later. An enraged and broke Zé informs the Runts, whom have just arrived, that they are going to go back robbing people in order to get his business running again. The Runts, however, have other plans. Taking vengeance for one of their own whom Zé had killed, the Runts kill Zé in a hail of fire.

Once the Runts leave the scene, Rocket runs up to Zé's body and takes several more photographs, one of which ends up on the front page of the newspaper. He decides not to release his photos of police corruption, fearing for his own safety. Rocket gains an internship with the newspaper. The final note in the movie states that he no longer calls himself Rocket, but rather his real name, Wilson Rodrigues.