October Sky

The movie teaches important lessons in social-emotional learning. It shows that a child with a dream can go far beyond family expectations. This concept is stressed in the film and parents can reinforce it by commenting on the theme or by giving examples of people known to the child who have done something with their lives that was much different than what was expected of them. Also stressed in the movie is the concept that children can prevail over daunting odds. A parental comment about how great it was that these kids didn't give up will help stress this idea. In addition, the movie tells us that most often excellence is the result of a community effort or at least comes with the help of many people, as it did in this case. Parents can explore this issue by asking and helping their child to answer the Quick Discussion Question. See also the Social-Emotional Learning Discussion Questions and the Moral-Ethical Emphasis Discussion Questions. 


Before Watching the Movie: 
The following will greatly enhance a child's understanding and appreciation of this movie:
From 1946 to 1991, the U.S. was locked in a Cold War with Russian Communism. The Soviets claimed that Communism was the wave of the future and that it would bury capitalism, democracy, and the United States. Russia and Communism were a serious threat to the U.S. and the Western democracies.

In the 1950s, the United States believed that its technology was the best in the world. We had more cars than any country in the world. We had the best televisions, refrigerators, record players and a host of other consumer goods. At that time, U.S. factories were building these products. Japan was still recovering from WWII and China was still undeveloped. We had been first with the atomic bomb and first with the hydrogen bomb. Our airplanes and jet fighters were the best in the world. We thought that our military equipment was better than the Russians'. Americans took comfort in the belief that we had the best scientists and engineers that ever lived.

The belief in American technical superiority changed in 1958. Sputnik was the first man-made satellite to orbit the earth. It was sent up, not by the Americans, but by the Russians. Americans looked up to see a Communist star traversing the heavens and realized that in the important arena of space, our technology was inferior to that of the Russians. People worried about what would happen if the Russians put an atomic bomb on one of their satellites. This insecurity deepened as the first several U.S. efforts to orbit a satellite failed miserably. Rockets exploded on the launch pads or they crashed soon after lift-off. All of this occurred live on world-wide television. It was more than embarrassing. It was frightening.

For years, the Soviets led the space race, hoisting larger payloads into space than the U.S., including the first animal in space and the first man in space. All of this occurred during one of the most distrustful and competitive periods of the Cold War. The launch of Sputnik shook the United States to its roots.

October Sky shows one boy's reaction to this event. The story told by this movie is pretty much true.

The movie takes place in a coal town in West Virginia. Coal towns existed for the sole purpose of mining coal. Everything in the town was owned by the coal company: the stores, the church, the schools and the houses in which the miners lived. If a miner was incapacitated and could no longer work, his family was forced to move out of their company owned house, which meant leaving town. Often, when the father was injured, the children had to work in the mines to pay the rent and remain eligible to live in company owned housing. If a miner died in the mines, his family had a very short time (usually two weeks) to move. The coal company didn't want the grim reminders of the dangers of the mine to be around too long. Coalwood, where Homer lived, was one of the better company towns, but it was still subject to harsh practices by the mine owners.

In a mine, coal dust pollutes the air and literally covers everything. A common ailment among miners is black lung disease (pneumoconiosis) caused by inhaling coal dust. Homer's father was suffering from this disease. The mine owners refused to compensate miners for this occupational hazard, so the Federal Government stepped in and set up a health and worker's compensation plan for the miners.


 After Watching the Movie: 
It was very unusual for any boys from Homer's home town to go to college, other than on a sports scholarship. However, each of the Rocket Boys graduated from college and Homer Hickam fulfilled his dream by becoming an engineer for NASA. 

The U.S. eventually pulled equal to the Russians in the space race and was victorious in the Cold War. Russia abandoned Communism in 1991 and has adopted a capitalist model. It is no longer a super power that competes with the U.S. Space exploration is now a cooperative international effort. The Russians are making money by charging very rich people (often Americans) millions of dollars for a trip into space in a Russian space capsule. 

Homer Hickam's book, The Rocket Boys, is better than the movie and contains a number of wonderful vignettes that are not in the film. For example, as the boys built more complex rockets, Homer realized that they needed to learn calculus to take the next steps in rocket design. Homer and the science teacher convinced the principal of the high school to offer a new course in calculus. The enrollment was limited to six people, the exact number of boys involved in the effort to make the rockets. No one expected anyone else at the school to sign up for the class. 

However, the girl that Homer had a crush on signed up too, and since Homer's grades in math were the worst of any of the applicants, he was excluded from the class. The principal at this point was not sure that the Rocket Boys were really up to any good and called them "bombers," a reference to their first effort which had blown up Homer's mother's fence. The principal would not increase the enrollment in the class by one person to allow Homer to take it. Initially, Homer felt that his dreams of a career in rocketry were over, but in the depths of his depression, he found a calculus text on the bookshelf at home. There were notes in the book in his father's handwriting showing that his father, who had never gone to college but who was called upon to supervise engineers, had taught himself calculus. Homer began to study the text and the other members of the club helped him. Homer learned calculus without the class, to his own amazement and that of his teachers and the principal. 

The film does not present a sympathetic view of the United Mine Workers of America (UMW) local in Coalwood. This is a departure from the book. While Homer's father was the manager of the mine and a company man through and through, and while he believed that the reasons for the strike were trivial, it is not clear that he was right. Moreover, the Union men supported the Rocket Boys long before Homer's father did and they were instrumental in facing down the company when it wanted to shut down the boys' test firing range (it was on a massive expanse of tailings from the mine). Overall, the UMW has made an important positive contribution to U.S. history, forcing the coal operators to make the mines safer and to pay a living wage. For a film that shows some of the difficulties the miners had in organizing their union and gaining recognition from the mine owners, see Matewan. 

Also in the book, and not in the film, is a clear explanation of how the Rocket Boys got the precision nozzles necessary to fly their rockets. After Homer's father had sent Mr. Bikovsky (the first machinist to help the Rocket Boys) into the mine as punishment, the town coalesced behind them. Homer then convinced the supervisor of another mine machine shop to make the nozzles and Homer's father permitted company time and company materials to be used. A fundamental truth illuminated by this story is that to perform amazing feats, not only do people need to be committed and work hard, they often need the support of their communities. Moreover, they need to seek out and get that help. This is especially true in today's complex environment. 

The sequence in which Homer quits high school and goes to work in the mine is fictional but rings true from a former time when the mine owners provided no benefits for the miners or their families. (The real Homer Hickam did work in the mine during the summer after his first year of college, but he was not forced to take the job.) Homer Hickam had this to say about the movie and about this incident:

It was great fun to see Rocket Boys become the movie "October Sky." Of course, I thought they should have just filmed it exactly the way I wrote it down in my book but Hollywood has its ways, and they're not generally the same as book-writers. But only good things have come of it, I'd have to say, even though I didn't like that the movie showed me quitting [high] school. I would have never quit school. My parents would have lived in a tree before they would have ever let that happen! But so many people across the world have been inspired by the movie. A lot of astronauts even watch it the night before they climb aboard the shuttle. Now, that's pretty special! [Quoted fromBookwire Speaks with Homer Hickam.]

The black machinist tells Homer that he flew with the "Red Tails." This is a reference to the "Red Tailed Angels" of the all African-American 332nd Fighter Group. In the Second World War, the 332nd was the only Fighter Group which never lost a bomber to enemy planes, thereby destroying the prejudice that blacks could not fly modern fighters. See Learning Guide to "The Tuskegee Airmen". 

Notes on Coal Mining 

There are two principal methods of mining coal. Strip mining coal close to the surface is the most economical, but also the most environmentally destructive. Power equipment (power shovels or drag lines) removes the earth and rock to expose the coal. The coal is then broken up and loaded onto trucks or railroad cars. 

When the coal is not located close to the surface, a method called underground or deep mining is used. A shaft is dug to the location of the coal seam, either vertically, on a slant or, if the coal is located in a mountain, horizontally. The coal is cut, using machines or controlled explosions. The key to deep mining is controlling cave-ins, dispersing gas, particularly methane and carbon dioxide, and suppressing coal dust. Pillars of coal are left to help support the roof. Steel beams are placed across the roof to prevent the rock from falling onto the miners. In some mines the roof behind the coal face is allowed to collapse as the face moves forward along the seam. Huge fans and complicated ventilation systems are used to draw out the gases and bring in clean air. Coal dust is highly combustible and must be strictly controlled. Limestone dust is sprayed in the mine to keep the coal dust in check. The work in the deep mines is automated as much as possible. Continuous mining machines combine the separate steps of cutting, drilling, blasting and loading the coal at rates as high as 10.8 metric tons of coal per minute. The coal is then transferred by electric trolley to the surface where it is taken to preparation plants. There it is screened, washed, sorted by size, and crushed before shipment.