History Film / OctoberSky

* AdaptationalAttractiveness: Let's just say that most teenage boys in the 1950s don't look like Jake Gyllenhaal, and the real Homer Hickam was no exception.

Despite this, Homer teams up with the school geek and fellow rocket enthusiast Quentin Wilson (Chris Owen), and recruits two of his friends into helping him. Though they fail at their first few attempts, they make several successful launches after experimenting with the fuel and rocket design. However, they run into problems with the law when it is believed that one of their rockets landed astray and caused a nearby forest fire, causing them to be disqualified from the science fair. As if this weren't bad enough, Homer's father John (Cooper) is injured in a mining accident, and now Homer must leave school and take up the work in order to support the family, leaving him with no time to help prove that the forest fire was not their fault. However, the boys' science teacher Ms. Riley (Dern) has a firm belief in what they're doing, and gives Homer a book on rocket science, from which Homer teaches himself how to calculate a rocket's trajectory, allowing him to find their own rocket and prove the group's innocence.

* CoolTeacher: Homer's science teacher Miss Riley is one of the few people who is very supportive of his interest in rocketry and actively encourages him to follow his passion.

* CoolTeacher: Homer's science teacher Miss Riley is one of the few people who is very supportive of his interest in rocketry.

* LastNameBasis: In the film, Sherman O'Dell is never referred to by his first name. Even in the ending credits, his actor, Creator/ChadLindberg, is credited as simply "O'Dell."

Set in 1957, the film follows young Homer (Gyllenhaal) in the mining town of Coalwood, West Virgina, where almost every man works in the mine. After seeing the Sputnik satellite pass over the town while in orbit, Homer becomes inspired to seek a career in rocketry, and leave the town for a new life. He plans to showcase his homemade rockets at the local science fair, though the townsfolk believe he has no chance of succeeding.

Despite this, Homer teams up with the school geek and fellow rocket enthusiast Quentin (Chris Owen), and recruits two of his friends into helping him. Though they fail at their first few attempts, they make several successful launches after experimenting with the fuel and rocket design. However, they run into problems with the law when it is believed that one of their rockets landed astray and caused a nearby forest fire, causing them to be disqualified from the science fair. As if this weren't bad enough, Homer's father John (Cooper) is injured in a mining accident, and now Homer must leave school and take up the work in order to support the family, leaving him with no time to help prove that the forest fire was not their fault. However, the boys' science teacher (Dern) has a firm belief in what they're doing, and gives Homer a book on rocket science, from which Homer teaches himself how to calculate a rocket's trajectory, allowing him to find their own rocket and prove the group's innocence.

* AdaptationalAttractiveness: Let's just say that most teenage boys don't look like Jake Gyllenhaal, and the real Homer Hickam was no exception.

* DisproportionateRetribution: Homer's father promises this to the abusive step-father of one of Homer's friends.
--> "If I see him with a bruise, you get a scar. If I see him with a limp, you get crutches."

* DyingTown: Coalwood.

* ExactWords: After the second attempted launch lands at the mine (which wasn't empty at the time), Homer's dad forbids Homer from any more rockets "on company property." Homer waits until after he and his friends are alone to highlight the last part, and he's not discouraged when they protest that the company owns all the land for miles around.

* FantasyForbiddingFather: Homer's dad at first.

* IllGirl: The kind and encouraging schoolteacher, Miss Riley, who is revealed to suffer from Hodgkin's Disease during the third act of the film, giving the Rocket Boys that extra emotional push to pull off their last, climactic, rocket launch.

* AdaptationTitleChange: The film's title, October Sky, is an anagram of the title of the book on which it was based, Rocket Boys.

* TheFilmOfTheBook: The story is based on Homer Hickham's memoir, ''Rocket Boys''

* CompositeCharacter: The film merges Sherman Siers and Jimmy O'Dell Carroll into one character named Sherman O'Dell, while the book keeps them separate.

* AdaptationalVillainy:
** The union members could fit as well. In the movie they were depicted as violent, when they were depicted at all. In the book, while they may have hated Homer's father, they had no anger towards Homer. Some even helped him make rocket components. One even suggested telling John L. Lewis, the head of the UMW- and renaming them "The United Mine and Rocket Workers of America".

* RealityEnsues: After the boys win the State Fair, Principal Turner asks the boys which member will be the one going to Indianapolis for the National Science Fair. Coalwood being a poor mining town, the school can only afford to send one student.