Challenger is a 1990 ABC made-for-television docudrama directed by Glenn Jordan and starring Karen Allen, Barry Bostwick, Richard Jenkins, Joe Morton, Keone Young, Brian Kerwin, Julie Folton, Kale Browne, Angela Bassett, and Peter Boyle.
The film depicts the events leading up to the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, focusing heavily on the safety issues regarding the shuttle's booster rockets that failed so catastrophically during its launch on January 28, 1986. At the same time, it aims to humanize the seven crewmembers who perished that fateful morning. Generally, the film supports the Space Shuttle program and the dedication of NASA personnel to the advancement of science while criticizing the organization's upper management.
This film provides examples of the following tropes:
- Developing Doomed Characters: The film spends much of its runtime delving into the personal lives of the seven astronauts who will later perish onboard the eponymous Space Shuttle.
- Foregone Conclusion: It's fairly well-known that Challenger's final flight would end in its destruction just over a minute after launch, killing all onboard. The film ends just as the shuttle takes off, following a symbolic scene of the crew reciting John Gillespie Magee, Jr.'s poem "High Flight", parts of which were used in President Reagan's eulogy for the crew the night after the disaster.
- Happily Ever Before: The film ends about 45 seconds into the launch, fading to black just before the actual moment of disaster.
- Historical Beauty Update: The real Christa McAuliffe, while certainly not unattractive by any means, wasn't quite as photogenic as Karen Allen, lacking the latter's distinctive eyes.
- Ignored Expert: Thiokol engineer Roger Boisjoly attempts to warn NASA management about the dangers of launching at sub-zero temperatures due to the possibility of the O-rings failing, but his concerns are repeatedly brushed aside as irrelevant.
- Vehicle Title: Challenger.
