October Sky (1999)

★ 7.7 1h 47m 1,409 votes IMDb

The true story of Homer Hickam, a coal miner's son who was inspired by the first Sputnik launch to take up rocketry against his father's wishes.

October Sky

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Cast

Jake Gyllenhaal
Jake Gyllenhaal as Homer Hickam Age 45 · Los Angeles, California, USA Jake Gyllenhaal (born December 19, 1980) is an American actor and producer. Born into the Gyllenhaal family, he is the son of director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner; his older sister...
Chris Cooper
Chris Cooper as John Hickam Age 74 · Kansas City, Missouri, USA Christopher Walton Cooper (born July 9, 1951) is an American actor. He has appeared in supporting performances in several major Hollywood films, including American Beauty (1999), October Sky (1999), T...
Chris Owen
Chris Owen as Quentin Wilson Age 45 · Michigan, USA Chris Owen (born September 25, 1980) is an American actor. He is best known for his role in the American Pie movies as the inimitable Chuck Sherman (self-styled as "The Sherminator"). He reprised this...
Laura Dern
Laura Dern as Miss Riley Age 59 · Los Angeles, California, USA Laura Elizabeth Dern (born February 10, 1967) is an American actress and filmmaker. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and five Golden Glob...
William Lee Scott
William Lee Scott as Roy Lee Age 52 · Hudson, New York, U.S. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. William Lee Scott (born July 6, 1973) is an American actor. He is best known for his portrayal of dim-witted high school student Stanley "Bullethead" Kuznocki o...
Chad Lindberg
Chad Lindberg as O'Dell Age 49 · Mount Vernon, Washington, USA Chad Tyler Lindberg (born November 1, 1976) is an American actor. He is best known for his film role as Jesse in The Fast and the Furious and for a rape scene in the 2010 remake I Spit On Your Grave....

Audience Reviews

r96sk 10/10 Jul 02, 2025
<em>'October Sky'</em> got me in the feels. I tend to (unintentionally) be a bit of a hardnose when it comes to fiction (even if a biopic) making an impact, but it does occasionally happen and this is one of those times. Weirdly too, because it is cheesy/cliché/whatever, but it worked tremendously for me.

I felt my heartstrings tug a fair number of times throughout, culminating with those lovely final few scenes; I was actually welling up, would you believe? Any longer and tears may have been shed <i>*shudder*</i>. I've basically only seen one movie this last month - what has the break done to me?!

Humour aside, I did love this though. I've said it before, but to be honest if you give me what I consider to be great cast performances then I'm practically sold on the film upon that coming to fruition. Jake Gyllenhaal is terrific (this still doesn't surpass <em>'Source Code'</em>, mind) as lead.

Chris Cooper is ace, as are Laura Dern and Natalie Canerday. Chris Owen (Sherminator!), Chad Lindberg (Jesse!) and William Lee Scott (eh... well, Roy Lee as of now!) are good supports to Gyllenhaal as well. Even the likes of Elya Baskin and Randy Stripling add needed small bits.

The music is good too, especially towards the end; early on it kinda goes with what I said about the flick being a tad cheesy and/or cliché. I would describe the movie as that to be frank, but that is more endearing than anything else. I'm fine with those things if it works, which it pleasantly does here.

Joe Johnston really went back-to-back with this and <em>'Jumanji'</em>. Impressive!

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