The Inventor and the Daredevil is a documentary feature film chronicling the lives of two extraordinary men and the machines they build. Engineer Doug Malewicki first rises to national prominence as the designer of stuntman Evel Knievel's original 'canyon-jumping' rocket-cycle, the Skycycle X-1. After a bitter falling out, Knievel hires another engineer to start over and launches Doug's Skycycle to the bottom of the canyon. Doug then teams up with a rival daredevil, Bob Correll, to collaborate on several machines-- Doug as designer and Bob as pilot.
Originally a hang-glider champion, Daredevil Bob Correll becomes the pilot of Doug's patented 'KiteCycle'-- a motorcycle/hang-glider combination-- in 1975. Correll also takes the KiteCycle act to Hollywood, starring in the classic documentary 'American Nitro' (1979), and in several television shows, including 'CHiPs.'
Doug (who has been pastiched on 'The Simpsons' and loosely represented by actor Paul Giamatti in the 2008 film 'Pretty Bird') achieves his most popular invention in 1990 when he debuts Robosaurus, a 42 foot tall fire-breathing hydraulic monster that Correll and another pilot operates from inside the head.
The Inventor and the Daredevil is the story of these two men, their friendship and collaboration, and the triumph of success and the tragedy of failure. It ultimately is about the manner in which people choose to live their lives: as mere spectators, or as the mental and physical 'explorers' who test the limits of human capabilities.
