October Sky

4 Pages 887 Words

“Sometimes one dream is enough
to light up the whole sky.”

In Coalwood, West Virginia in 1957, every boy grows up thinking they are destined to be coal miners, and Homer Hickam has no reason to think he'll be any different. He’s not talented enough to earn a football scholarship, which is usually the only way any of them can escape coal mining. Homer has no way out of his predetermined life - until the Soviet satellite Sputnik flies over the October sky and changes everything. A dream is started and with much determination, is later accomplished.

Universal Pictures presents October Sky, which is based on the triumphant true story of Homer Hickam, Jr., a high school student in West Virginia, who seemed destined to repeat his father's life in the coal mines until he turned his attention to the skies.

The coal mine is the center of life in the closely-knit community of Coalwood, West Virginia. As mine superintendent, Homer's father (John Hickam) has worked his way up to a position of status in his community. John loves the coal mine. The mine is the whole reason for the town to be there. There was no Coalwood before someone found coal there and built the town around the mine. Homer's father is a central figure in all this and would love for Homer and his brother, Jim, to grow up to be mine supervisors. He has no greater wish than to see his sons follow in his footsteps, But Jim has won a football scholarship and Homer has other ideas about his future. Inspired by Dr. Werner Von Braun, he sets out to build and launch his own rocket with the help of three of his friends. He builds his first rocket by using the powder from cherry bombs. He thinks that it's going to go up three hundred feet but instead it blows up his mom's fence. Not discouraged, Homer enlists two of his bud!
dies, Roy Lee and O'Dell, along with the town math geek Quentin, to help him design and launch a series of rockets. They all bring to the task the...