October Sky (1999) on Netflix
PG19991h 48mBiographyDramaFamily
In Coalwood, West Virginia, in 1957, seventeen-year-old Homer Hickam watches Sputnik cross the sky and decides to build rockets. His father manages the coal mine and expects him to work in it.
- Netflix3.9/5
- IMDb7.8/10113,139 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes90%
Trailer
Plot summary
When the Soviet satellite Sputnik passes over Coalwood, West Virginia, in October 1957, seventeen-year-old Homer Hickam decides he wants to build rockets of his own. His family and friends are skeptical, and his father John, who manages the coal mine, expects him to end up working in it. Homer teams up with Roy Lee Cooke, Sherman O'Dell and the social outcast Quentin Wilson, and their teacher, Miss Riley, supports them. Several of their early rockets explode, and when a stray one lands near John's office and nearly injures workers, he orders them off company property. Ike Bykovsky, who runs the mine's machine shop, helps the boys launch from land beyond the company's borders, and John punishes him by sending him into the mine.
Cast
- Randy Striplingas Leon Bolden
- Courtney Cole-Fendleyas Dorothy Platt (as Courtney Fendley)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about October Sky (1999)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- "October Sky" is an anagram of "Rocket Boys", the title of the 1998 memoir the film is based on. According to Hickam, Universal Studios changed the title because research indicated women over thirty would not see a film called Rocket Boys; the book was later re-released as October Sky.
- Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder of Amazon, saw a screening of October Sky in 1999 and told science fiction writer Neal Stephenson he had always wanted to start a space company. Stephenson urged him on; Bezos started Blue Origin and Stephenson became one of its early employees.
- There were actually six "rocket boys" rather than the four in the film, and some of the film's characters are combinations of the real-life boys: Homer Hickam Jr., Quentin Wilson, Jimmy O'Dell Carroll, Roy Lee Cooke, Billy Rose and Sherman Siers.
- Homer never met Wernher von Braun: as it turns out, von Braun was looking for Homer's exhibit at the same time Homer was looking for him, and the two missed each other.
- Homer Hickam Jr.'s father was also named Homer, not John. His name was changed in the film to John to avoid confusing the audience.
- The Chattanooga-based Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum lent one of its steam locomotives, Southern Railway 4501, for use in the film, and it was painted with Norfolk and Western lettering since the story was set in West Virginia.
