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Homer: [to his dad] Sure Dr. Von Braun is a great scientist, but he isn't my hero.
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John: [to Leon, about helping Homer] Don't you have some work to do?
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Homer: Man, we should be trying to get into that science fair instead of sitting around here like a bunch of hillbillies.
Roy Lee: Well, I got some real sad news for you Homer. We *are* a bunch of hillbillies.
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Homer: No. Coal mining may be your life, but it's not mine. I'm never going down there again. I wanna go into space.
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[imitating, incorrectly, Quentin's favorite saying]
Roy Lee: Prodigenous!
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Roy Lee: [after a rocket launch] Holy shit, it's headed for the mine.
[beat, then runs]
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Elsie: Your father always has to be the big hero. I swear if he dies I won't shed a tear.
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Homer: Why're the jocks the only ones who get to go to college?
Roy Lee: They're also the only ones who get the girls.
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[a mine worker, formerly one of the Tuskegee Airmen, almost gets hit when he watches Homer launch a rocket]
Leon Bolden: Homer, I flew with the Red Tails in World War II. And seein' that rocket come at me... it almost took me back there.
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John: Vernon!
[slams Vernon against the wall]
Vernon: We ain't at the mine now Hickham! This ain't your business!
John: [to Roy Lee] You wait in the car with Homer, son.
[to Vernon]
John: Now you listen to me you drunken son of a bitch. If that boy's father were still alive, he'd kick your ass. So I'm gonna have to do it for him. If I see him with a bruise... you get a scar. If I see him with a limp... you get *crutches*! Do you hear me? Do you hear me?
[lets Vernon go]
Vernon: I'm reportin' you to the union!
John: Screw you and your damn union.
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Roy Lee: I'll tell you what's unbelievable... captain of the football team being jealous of you.
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O'Dell: That's a good idea. Four unidentifiable high school students lost their lives early this morning when their toy rocket exploded.
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Homer: [jumps into Roy Lee's car to go to football tryouts] Let's go, Roy Lee! It's almost nine.
Roy Lee: You sure are in a hurry to get yourself killed, huh, kid?
O'Dell: There are easier ways to commit suicide, Homer.
Homer: Would you just step on it, Roy Lee?
Roy Lee: [frustrated with his car] I *am* stepping on it.
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[Insisting John help his son]
Elsie: If you don't, I'll leave you. I'll find work. I'll do whatever it takes to get away from here. I'll live in a tree to get away from you. Don't you think I won't.
John: [Softly] Where would you go?
Elsie: Myrtle Beach.
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Quentin: What do you want to know about rockets?
Homer: Everything.
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[about Homer going to college]
Jim Hickam: Yeah, on a science fiction scholarship, maybe.
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Roy Lee: What's an auk?
O'Dell: It's a bird that don't fly.
Roy Lee: You mean like a parakeet?
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Quentin: They watched us get arrested. We're practically ex-convicts. They'll never dance with us.
O'Dell: Jesus, Quentin, you don't know anything about women.
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Roy Lee: Are you sure we need this nozzle thing?
Quentin: Are you kidding? The nozzle is the most important part - it directs the flow of the hot gases!
Roy Lee: Hey, cool it, Quentin! Man, talkin' 'bout your 'hot gases'...
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Jim Hickam: [at football practice] Hey, Lenny; take it easy on my kid brother, but make it look good, all right?
Jim Hickam: [Homer is tackled hard] I thought I told you to take it easy on him.
Lenny: I *did* take it easy on him
Homer: [playing against Lenny] I'm gonna run right over you, you son of a bitch! You hear me?
[is tackled several times more]
Coach Gainer: [helping Homer up] Well, Homer, you've sure got guts; but ya gotta know when to quit.
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Roy Lee: I don't know why they'd drop a bomb on this place, be a heck of a waste of a bomb.
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O'Dell: God's honest truth, Homer. What are the chances... a bunch of kids from Coalwood... actually winning the national science fair?
Homer: A million to one, O'Dell.
O'Dell: That good? Well, why didn't you say so?
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O'Dell: [after hearing train whistle coming towards wrecked track] I-It's abandoned. Uh, look at the rust. Caretta number two shut down in '51.
[whistle blows again]
O'Dell: Shit, shit!
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John: [after a cave in] Come on. Come on, Jensen. Come on back.
Jensen: What happened?
Jake Mosby: Whole damn mountain about fell on your head. And John here, he saved your life.
Homer: That's my dad.
John: I want you out of this mine, and don't you ever come back, you stupid son of a bitch. Didn't I tell you to watch those pillars? Now we coulda all been killed today, because you didn't have the sense to look up!
Homer: [ashamed] That's my dad.
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Roy Lee: Let them have outer space. We got rock 'n' roll.
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Jake Mosby: Buck up, Homer. You're a Coalwood boy! You get down there, get that shovel in your hands, coaldust on your neck, feel just as natural as a tick on a dog.
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Quentin: [shooting off their last rocket] Look at it go, Homer. This one's gunna go for miles.
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Homer: Did you ever see Frankenstein and the wolf man?
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Principal Turner: Miss Riley, our job is to give these kids an education.
Miss Riley: Mmm-hmm.
Principal Turner: Not false hopes.
Miss Riley: False hopes? Do you want me to sit quiet, let 'em breathe in coal dust the rest of their life?
Principal Turner: Miss Riley, once in a while... a lucky one... will get out on a football scholarship. The rest of 'em work in the mines.
Miss Riley: How 'bout I believe in the unlucky ones? Hmm? I have to, Mister Turner, I'd go out of my mind.
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Homer: [to John] Dad, I may not be the best, but I come to believe that I got it in me to be somebody in this world. And it's not because I'm so different from you either, it's because I'm the same. I mean, I can be just as hard-headed, and just as tough. I only hope I can be as good a man as you. Sure, Warner Von Braun is a great scientist? but he isn't my hero.
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Homer: You know, it, uh, won't fly unless somebody pushes the button. It's yours, if you want it.
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Homer: Listen, I'm sorry about what's going on around here, but it isn't my fault! What do you want from me anyway?
John: You better watch yourself, Homer.
Homer: If I go on to win at Indianapolis, I can go to college, maybe even get a job at Cape Canaveral. There's nothing here for me. The town is dying! The mine is dying! Everybody here knows that but you!
John: You want to get out so bad, then go. Go!
Homer: Yeah, I'll go! Yeah, I'll go!
John: GO! GO!
Homer: And I'll be gone forever! I won't even look back!
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Roy Lee: That thing had better fly, or you can kiss your chances of losing your virginity goodbye.
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Description
Coalwood, West Virginia, 1957. Working in the coal mines is an inescapable way of life in this small town. When high schooler Homer Hickam, Jr. (Jake Gyllenhaal) sees the Sputnik satellite in the night sky, he dares to break free of the mines and reach for the stars. With the support of his teacher (Laura Dern) and three friends, Homer sets out on an inspiring quest to build his own rocket. Overcoming a poor education, a tough father (Chris Cooper) and a series of misfires, Homer turns his dreams into reality in this incredible true story of hope, determination and triumph. You ll laugh with it, cry with it, and go away absolutely loving it, says Robert Butler (Knight Ridder News Service) of the critically acclaimed October Sky.
BONUS MATERIALS:
Aiming High: The Story of the Rocket Boys
Feature Commentary with Homer Hickam
Spotlight on Location
Production Notes
Theatrical Trailer
System Requirements:
Runing Time 108 Min
Format: DVD MOVIE
Amazon.com
Based on the memoir Rocket Boys by Homer H. Hickam Jr., October Sky emerged as one of the most delightful sleepers of 1999--a small miracle of good ol' fashioned movie-making in the cynical, often numbingly trendy Hollywood of the late 20th century. Hickam's true story begins in 1957 with Russia's historic launch of the Sputnik satellite, and while Homer (played with smart idealism by Jake Gyllenhaal) sees Sputnik as his cue to pursue a fascination with rocketry, his father (Chris Cooper) epitomizes the admirable yet sternly stubborn working-man's ethic of the West Virginia coal miner, casting fear and disdain on Homer's pursuit of science while urging his "errant" son to carry on the family business--a spirit-killing profession that Homer has no intention of joining. As directed by Joe Johnston (The Rocketeer), this wonderful movie is occasionally guilty of overstating its case and sacrificing subtlety for predictable melodrama. But more often the film's tone is just right, and the spirit of adventure and invention is infectiously conveyed through Gyllenhaal and his well-cast fellow rocketeers, whose many failures gradually lead to triumph on their makeshift backwoods launching pad. Capturing time and place with impeccable detail and superbly developed characters (including Laura Dern as an inspiring schoolteacher), October Sky is a family film for the ages, encouraging the highest potential of the human spirit while giving viewers a clear view of a bygone era when "the final frontier" beckoned to the explorer in all of us. --Jeff Shannon
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