October Sky Movie Review

October Sky is a movie about a boy, Homer Hickman, and his friends, who worked to build a small working rocket. The movie is set in Coalwood, West Virginia in October 1957, when the news of the Soviet Union’s satellite, Sputnik 1, being successfully launched reaches Coalwood. Everyone watches the satellite cross the night sky, and afterwards Homer becomes inspired. Homer plans to build a rocket and enter the science fair. Everyone thinks he’s crazy when he teams up with Quentin Wilson, the school's math geek, who seems to know quite a bit about rockets. With the help of a few of his other friends they try their hand at building rockets and called themselves “The Rocket Boys”. His teacher Miss Riley is very supportive of his ambitions.

They fail several times, and later they are accused of starting a forest fire with one of their stray rockets. His father gets injured in an accident while working at the local coal mine, and Homer stops his school to work at the coal mine to support his family. Later, when his father is recovered, Homer is re-inspired by a Rocket Science book Miss Riley gave him, and he teaches himself the math needed to find a rocket’s trajectory. He then proves to the police that his rocket did not set the fire because the fire was to far away.

He returns to school, and he and his friends return to rocket making. They win the science fair, and Homer takes their rocket to the national science fair in Indianapolis. He wins the national science fair and returns home, a hero.

I liked this movie. It was very interesting, and I liked that it was based on a true story. This movie is well done and captivating. I liked Miss Riley a lot. She was a very happy and supportive character. The Rocket Boys are funny but determined. Homer is a smart, strong willed, and inspiring character.

I liked the movie because it was interesting. I find movies about science interesting, and I also like the story equality to it. I like documentaries, but I like movies that are based on true stories but are told in story form. October Sky is a story. I thought it was cool, and I would recommend it to a lot of people