Trailer
Plot summary
Charles Farmer was a fighter pilot and an astronaut-in-training until he resigned from the space program and left the military, coming home to Texas to take over the family ranch after his father's death. The ranch is failing and he owes the bank, and he has put what money he has into a replica of the Mercury-Atlas rocket and spacecraft in his barn. His wife Audrey and their children support the project. When he asks about buying rocket fuel, the FBI and FAA investigate, and the publicity makes him a media figure. Officials from several agencies then bury him in red tape and deny him the fuel, trying to stall him until his creditors foreclose.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Astronaut Farmer (2006)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The space suit Billy Bob Thornton wears as Charles Farmer is a replica of the Navy Mark IV pressure suit worn by the original Mercury Seven astronauts, and the rocket in the film is a near scale replica of the actual Mercury-Atlas rocket that first launched Americans into orbit.
- The studio audience seen during Thornton's character's appearance on The Tonight Show in the closing credits is not made up of extras; it is the real audience that attended that day's actual filming of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
