• Tagline: Sometimes one dream is enough to light up the whole sky.
• Director: Joe Johnston
• Writer: Homer H. Hickam Jr. & Lewis Colick
• Release Date: 19 February 1999 (USA)
• MPAA Rating: Rated PG for language, brief teen sensuality and alcohol use, and for some thematic elements.
• Parents Guide: View content advisory for parents
• Genre: Biography | Drama | Family
• Runtime: 108 min
• Box Office #’s: Here
In 1950’s mining town called Coalwood, Homer Hickam is a kid with only one future in sight, to work in the local coalmine like his father. However in October 1957, everything changes when the first artificial satellite, Sputnik goes into orbit. With that event, Homer becomes inspired to learn how to build rockets. With his friends and the local nerd, Homer sets to do just that by trial and a lot of error. Unfortunately, most of the town and especially Homer’s father thinks that they are wasting their time. Only one teacher in the high school understands their efforts and lets them know that they could become contenders in the national science fair with college scholarships being the prize. Now the gang must learn to perfect their craft and overcome the many problems facing them as they shoot for the stars.
From the Gallery
Cast Highlights
• Chris Cooper … John Hickam
• Laura Dern … Miss Riley
• Chris Owen … Quentin
• William Lee Scott … Roy Lee
• Chad Lindberg … O’Dell
Trivia
The author wished the movie to be called “Rocket Boys,” like the book it’s based on, but the studio believed that title would not sell well. The compromise title “October Sky” works on two levels: it’s the month when the hero is first inspired by Sputnik flying overhead, and it is an anagram of “Rocket Boys”!
Chris Ellis, who plays Principal Turner, also played Deke Slayton in Apollo 13 (1995) and appeared in the mini-series “From the Earth to the Moon” (1998).
The Japanese title of the movie, directly translated, is “Towards the distant sky”. The sub-heading however, is “Rocket Boys”, which the author wanted to be the English title (see trivia above).
When the college recruiters approach Homer at the end of the science fair, the last one identifies himself as being from “Virginia Tech”, the real life Homer Hickam’s alma mater
The school exterior was actually two different schools – the football scene was shot in the soccer field of Gresham Middle School, Knoxville, Tennessee, and the other exterior scene, right before Homer and his friends are arrested, is the exterior of Fountain City Elementary school in Knoxville. The actual schools are directly across the street from each other.
Homer H. Hickam Jr. never actually met Wernher von Braun.
Two of the real-life rocket boys, Sherman Siers and Jimmie O’Dell Carroll were combined into one character named Sherman O’Dell.
In the steam engine scene where the boys are salvaging iron rails from unused rail lines, the Norfolk & Western coal hauling steam locomotive they see is the former Southern Railway engine #4501. This engine is currently in use at the Tennessee Valley Railroad in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The scenes with the locomotive were filmed in upper Tennessee around Harriman, Oliver Springs, and Lake City with engine #4501 pulling a string of coal hopper cars lettered in authentic N&W livery.
Elsie claims that she’ll move to Myrtle Beach after she leaves John. This was where the real Elsie moved after Homer Hickam Sr. (John) died of Black Lung Disease, and still currently resides.
Although known as Virginia Tech since the early 1990’s, at the time the movie takes place, the university was known as VPI.
The location of the slag dump where the Rocket Boys actually tested their rockets still exists. It is now a large grassy field. It is located in the actual town of Coalwood, WV which still exists today. They erected a replica test stand, launch pad, and “shed” after the movie brought the rocket boys story back into the public light. Every year the town of Coalwood celebrates the Rocket Boys with a festival every October called “October Sky Festival”.
The boys rarely tested a single rocket per day. They often manufactured several rockets and tested them in sequence. The rocket that hit Homer’s father’s office during their early testing, when they were launching rockets near the mine, was actually the last rocket of several they launched that day.
Leon Bolden says he flew with the “Red Tails” in WWII. The “Red Tails” were the 332nd Fighter Group, an all African American unit better known as the “Tuskegee Airmen”.
Cameo: [O. Winston Link] a photographer who has published many classic photographs of steam locomotives appears as a locomotive engineer.
John’s reference to “Bloody Mingo” is about the early 20th century mine war in Matewan. Chris Cooper, who played John, also portrayed union activist Joe Kenehan in the 1987 film Matewan (1987).
The engineer driving the steam locomotive in the rail-harvesting scene was played by renowned railroad photographer O. Winston Link.
Quotes
Homer: Why’re the jocks the only ones who get to go to college?
Roy Lee: They’re also the only ones who get the girls.
O’Dell: God’s honest truth, Homer. What are the chances… a bunch of kids from Coalwood… actually winning the national science fair?
Homer: A million to one, O’Dell.
O’Dell: That good? Well, why didn’t you say so?
Quentin: What do you want to know about rockets?
Homer: Everything.
Homer: You know, it, uh, won’t fly unless somebody pushes the button. It’s yours, if you want it.
Homer: [jumps into Roy Lee’s car to go to football tryouts] Let’s go, Roy Lee! It’s almost nine.
Roy Lee: You sure are in a hurry to get yourself killed, huh, kid?
O’Dell: There are easier ways to commit suicide, Homer.
Homer: Would you just step on it, Roy Lee?
Roy Lee: [frustrated with his car] I *am* stepping on it.
Homer: No. Coal mining may be your life, but it’s not mine. I’m never going down there again. I wanna go into space.
Homer: Did you ever see Frankenstein and the wolf man?
Homer: [to his dad] Sure Dr. Von Braun is a great scientist, but he isn’t my hero.
Homer: [to John] Dad, I may not be the best, but I come to believe that I got it in me to be somebody in this world. And it’s not because I’m so different from you either, it’s because I’m the same. I mean, I can be just as hard-headed, and just as tough. I only hope I can be as good a man as you. Sure, Wernher von Braun is a great scientist? but he isn’t my hero.
Jim Hickam: [at football practice] Hey, Lenny; take it easy on my kid brother, but make it look good, all right?
Jim Hickam: [Homer is tackled hard] I thought I told you to take it easy on him.
Lenny: I *did* take it easy on him
Homer: [playing against Lenny] I’m gonna run right over you, you son of a bitch! You hear me?
[is tackled several times more]
Coach Gainer: [helping Homer up] Well, Homer, you’ve sure got guts; but ya gotta know when to quit.
Homer: Man, we should be trying to get into that science fair instead of sitting around here like a bunch of hillbillies.
Roy Lee: Well, I got some real sad news for you Homer. We *are* a bunch of hillbillies.
Homer: Listen, I’m sorry about what’s going on around here, but it isn’t my fault! What do you want from me anyway?
John: You better watch yourself, Homer.
Homer: If I go on to win at Indianapolis, I can go to college, maybe even get a job at Cape Canaveral. There’s nothing here for me. The town is dying! The mine is dying! Everybody here knows that but you!
John: You want to get out so bad, then go. Go!
Homer: Yeah, I’ll go! Yeah, I’ll go!
John: GO! GO!
Homer: And I’ll be gone forever! I won’t even look back!
John: [after a cave in] Come on. Come on, Jensen. Come on back.
Jensen: What happened?
Jake Mosby: Whole damn mountain about fell on your head. And John here, he saved your life.
Homer: That’s my dad.
John: I want you out of this mine, and don’t you ever come back, you stupid son of a bitch. Didn’t I tell you to watch those pillars? Now we coulda all been killed today, because you didn’t have the sense to look up!
Homer: [ashamed] That’s my dad.
Homer: [gunshot in background] Hey Quentin!
[another gunshot]
Homer: That rocket had to have gone up at least 100 feet didn’t it?
Quentin: More like two hundred.
[another gunshot]
Homer: Goddammit.
Homer: [another gunshot] Will you cut it out, Roy Lee?
Roy Lee: Die you son of a bitch!
[fires another round into the grill of his broken down car]
O’Dell: Besides, didn’t your dad say no more rockets?
Homer: No, he said no more rockets on company property.
O’Dell: Do you realize how far we’d have to go to be off company property?
Homer: Yeah, we’d have to go to Snakeroot.
Quentin: Snakeroot? That’s eight miles!
Homer: It’s not *that* far. I mean we could walk if we had to…
O’Dell: Hey, walk! Heh! That’s a great idea!
Homer: Come on let’s go!
Roy Lee: Wait the hell up, will you Homer? Now I got about as much chance of winning that science fair as you do winning a football scholarship. I know I’m gonna be a miner. I’ve known my entire life. What the hell’s so bad about mining coal anyway?
Homer: Nothing Roy Lee. It’s great. That’s why your stepdaddy is the biggest drunk in West Virginia! I mean, come on guys! You know the mine’ll kill you!
[to Quentin]
Homer: You ever hear the story about how O’Dell’s dad died?
Roy Lee: Homer… will you forget it, man?
O’Dell: Shutup Homer.
Homer: Piece of slate caught him right in the neck… and it cut his head clear off.
O’Dell: [tackles Homer] You son of a bitch!
Homer: [after Homer sees the tiny shack that Quentin lives in with his family] Quentin, I wouldn’t care if you lived in the Governor’s mansion. I’d still think you’re weird!
Homer, Roy Lee, O’Dell: [after lighting their first rocket] Ten, nine, eight…
Roy Lee: Should we get behind something?
[it blows up and they fly back]
