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October Sky is a 1999 American biographical film directed by Joe Johnston, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Chris Cooper, and Laura Dern. It is based on the true story of Homer Hickam, a coal miner's son who was inspired by the launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957 to take up rocketry against his father's wishes, and who eventually became a NASA engineer. Most of the film was shot in rural East Tennessee, including Oliver Springs, Harriman, and Kingston in Morgan and Roane counties.

Title
October Sky is an anagram of Rocket Boys, the title of the 1998 book upon which the movie is based. It is also used in a period radio broadcast describing Sputnik as it crossed the "October sky." Homer Hickam stated that "Universal Studios marketing people got involved and they just had to change the title because, according to their research, women over thirty would never see a movie titled Rocket Boys" so Universal Pictures changed the title to be more inviting to a wider audience. The book was later re-released with the name in order to capitalize on interest in the movie.

Plot
The film is set in Coalwood, West Virginia in October 1957. The coal mine is the town's largest employer and almost every man living in the town works in the mines. John Hickam (Chris Cooper), the mine superintendent, loves his job and hopes that his boys, Jim (Scott Miles) and Homer Hickam (Jake Gyllenhaal), will one day join him in his mine. When it appears that Jim will receive a football scholarship to attend college, this leaves Homer to fulfill his father's dream, although his mother, Elsie (Natalie Canerday), hopes for more for her son.

In October, news of the Soviet Union's rocket launch of Sputnik 1 reaches Coalwood. As the townspeople gather outside the night of the broadcast, they see the satellite orbit across the sky. Filled with awe and a belief that this may be his chance out of Coalwood, Homer sets out to build rockets of his own and enter the science fair, writing about his progress to Dr. Wernher von Braun, one of the head engineers at NASA. Initially, his family and later his classmates think he has gone crazy and is wasting his time, especially when he teams up with Quentin Wilson (Chris Owen), the school's math geek who also has an interest in rocket engineering. With the help of his friends, Roy Lee Cooke (William Lee Scott) and Sherman O'Dell (Chad Lindberg), and support from their science teacher, Miss Riley (Laura Dern), the four try out their new passion. While their first launches are failures, they begin experimenting with new fuels and rocket designs. After several successful launches, the local paper runs a story about them.

The next day, they are arrested — accused of having started a forest fire with a rocket that had gone astray. After John picks up Homer from the police station, Roy Lee is seen getting beat up by his stepfather, Vernon. John intervenes and rescues Roy Lee, warning the drunken man that, even though Roy Lee's father is dead, he will fight for Roy Lee as Roy Lee's father would have. In a rare display of emotion, he tells Roy Lee that Roy's father was one of the best men who ever worked for him.

The arrests, along with John's lack of support, crushes the boys' dream and they abandon rocketry.

After a mine disaster, John is injured while rescuing "... a dozen men [who] would have died...", though one of the victims who was killed is Ike Bykovsky (Elya Baskin), a machine shop worker who originally let Homer use the shop to build his rockets, and then transferred to the mine for better pay. This fills Homer with contempt for the mine, but despite this, he drops out of high school and works the mine to provide for the family while his dad recovers.

Later, Homer is inspired to look at a rocket science book Miss Riley gave him, and learns how to calculate the trajectory of a rocket. This reveals that an unrecovered rocket launched by the boys could not have caused the fire, as it was unable to travel that far. Homer and Quentin calculate the precise distance of the missing rocket and find it in a stream. The boys present their findings to Miss Riley and the school principal, Mr. Turner (Chris Ellis). Chagrined at the police, Turner identifies the offending projectile as a flare from a nearby airfield.

Homer returns to school, the boys return to rocket making, and soon win a school science fair. The school decides to send Homer to the national science fair in Indianapolis, Indiana. That night, John is almost shot by a man in a drive-by shooting in his kitchen. John, with Homer and Jim in tow, exits the house to see who fired. John shouts "Vernon!" realizing this was apparently revenge for the threats John gave Roy Lee's stepfather earlier. Homer and Jim express their concern about this to their father, but John passes it over, bitterly telling Homer to go "look for his suitcase" (Homer had been doing so prior to the shooting). Fed up, Homer confronts his father and a heated argument ensues. Homer storms out of the house, vowing to never return or look back.

At the national science fair, Homer's display is received very well. Overnight, someone steals his de Laval nozzle, as well as his autographed picture of Wernher von Braun. Homer makes an urgent phone call home for help. Elsie implores John to end the ongoing strike so that Mr. Bolden (Randy Stripling), the machine worker that replaced Bykovsky, can use the mine's machine shop to build a replacement nozzle. John initially refuses, but relents when Elsie, fed up with his lack of support for their son, threatens that she will leave him. With the support of the town, Homer wins the top prize and is besieged with scholarship offers from colleges. He is also congratulated by his inspiration Dr. von Braun, but in the confusion does not realize the engineer's identity until after he is gone.

Homer returns to Coalwood as a hero, and visits Miss Riley, who is now dying of Hodgkin's disease. He shows her the medal he has won, and she says she'll be proud to tell her future students that she taught the Rocket Boys. A launch of their largest rocket yet (called the Miss Riley) is the last scene of the film. (In the reality of which this scene is emblematic, the rocket boys' most successful rocket reached an altitude of 30000 ft — higher than the summit of Mount Everest.) John finally shows up for a launch, and is given the honor of pushing the firing button. As the rocket streams upward, the film shows the view from the perspectives of many characters. As the group looks up to the rocket, John slowly puts his hand on Homer's shoulder and smiles.

A series of vignettes (including footage of a Space Shuttle launch and home movie footage of the characters in the 1950s) reveal the outcome of the main characters' lives

Cast

 * Jake Gyllenhaal as Homer Hickam
 * Chris Cooper as John Hickam
 * Laura Dern as Miss Freida J. Riley
 * Chris Owen as Quentin Wilson
 * William Lee Scott as Roy Lee Cooke
 * Chad Lindberg as Sherman O'Dell
 * Natalie Canerday as Elsie Hickam
 * Randy Stripling as Leon Bolden
 * Chris Ellis as John Turner
 * Elya Baskin as Ike Bykovsky
 * O. Winston Link as Railroad engineer
 * Andy Stahl as Jack Palmer

Filming
Filming began on February 23, 1998, almost a year before the movies release. Although the film takes place in West Virginia, Tennessee was the location of choice for filming in part because of the weather and area terrain. Film crews reconstructed the sites to look like the 1957 mining town setting the movie demanded. The crews also recreated a mine for the scenes of the movie underground. Director Joe Johnston exspressed that he felt that the looks of the mine in the film gave it an evil look, like the mine was the villain in the film. And felt it ironic because that is what gave the town its nourishment. More than 2000 extras were used in the move. A small switching yard allowed the filmmakers and actors to film the scenes with the boys on the rail road and gave them freedom to do as they pleasesed. Even tear apart tracks. Filming concluded on April 30, 1998.

The weather of east Tennessee gave the filmmakers trouble and delayed production of the film. Cast and Crew recalled the major weather shifts and tornadoes in the area during the filming months but Joe Johnston claims, "...ultimately, the movie looks great because of it. It gave the film a much more interesting and varied look."
 * Weather


 * Gyllenhaal

Jake Gyllenhall was 17 at the time of shooting, the same as Homer Hickham's character. Natalie Canerday recalled in an interview him being tutored on set because he was still in school and taking advanced classes.

Release

 * Awards

October Sky won three awards including: OCIC Award for Joe Johnson at the Ajijic International Film Festival 1999, the Critics Choice Award for Best Family Film from the Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards 2000, and a Humanitas Prize 1999 for Featured Film Category.

October Sky opened on February 19, 1999 in 1,495 theaters and had an opening weekend gross of $5,905,250. At its widest theater release, 1,702 theater were showing the movie. The movie has had a total lifetime gross of $34,675,800 worldwide.
 * Box Office

The film received critical acclaim from film critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 90% out of 72 critics gave the film a positive review, with a rating average of 7.6/10: "Rich in sweet sincerity, intelligence, and good old-fashioned inspirational drama, October Sky is a coming-of-age story with a heart to match its Hollywood craftsmanship." MetaCritic gave the film a 71 rating with these being dubbed "Generally Favorable Reviews" based on 23 professional critic reviews of the movie.
 * Critical reception

Many critics tend to commend the movie for its values, family, and inspirational aspects. A lot of reviews focus on the main character's relationship with his father and on the actors' performances. Roger Ebert recognized that the film "doesn't simplify the father into a bad guy or a tyrant. He understandably wants his son to follow in his footsteps, and one of the best elements of the movie is in breaking free, he is respecting his father. This movie has deep values." Joe Leydon of Variety reviewed the film and called it, "Immensely entertaining and unabashedly inspirational"

James Wall of the Christian Century describes the film's concentration on the father-son relationship as "at times painful to watch. There are no winners or losers when sons go their separate ways. October Sky does not illustrate good parenting; rather, it evokes the realization that since parents have only a limited vision of how to shape their children's future, the job requires a huge amount of love and a lot of divine assistance". However some reviews such as one from Entertainment Weekly and TV Guide claim that the movie's highlight was the acting of Jake Gyllenhaal and Chris Cooper

Differences in the Film
Although the movie has gained a lot of praise for its portrayal of 1950's Appalachia, it has several major and minor differences from the book it is based on that was written by the author.


 * Homer Hickam is the main character's name, however in the book and in real life he was nicknamed and referred to as "Sonny.
 * Homer Hickam Jr's father was not named John, this was changed in an effort to keep the audience from being confused.
 * There were actually 6 rocket Boys instead of 4 in the movie. Some of the movie's representations of the characters are combinations of the real life boys. Their names were: Homer Hickam Jr., Quentin Wilson, Jimmy O'Dell Carroll, Roy Lee Cooke, Billy Rose and Sherman Siers.
 * The Rocket Boys did not steal railroad parts as they did in the film, however they did attempt to grab a cast iron pipe under the tracks and according to Homer's website, this almost got him killed
 * Homer never dropped out of school to work in the town's mine
 * Homer never met Warner Van Braun
 * The boys did not win any college scholarships

Cultural Impact
There are two annual festivals in honor of the Rocket Boys and the movie that are held. One is held in West Virginia where the real life events that the book and film took place, and the other is in Tennessee where the movie was actually shot. The "Rocket Boys" often visit the festival in West Virginia on a regular bases and it is also called the "Rocket Boys Festival", while the festival in Tennessee focuses more on the filming locations being the relevance to the movie. The Tennessee festival's cite claims that the festival is "a celebration of our heritage."