October Sky (1999)

Name: October Sky
Director: Joe Johnston
Genre: Drama
Released: 1999
Duration: 107 min

"Sometimes one dream is enough to light up the whole sky."

ThumbScore

👍 79%Google users liked it ⓘ

Critics Score

🎬 80% (RT: 90%, MC: 71)

Drama

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Director

Joe Johnston

Runtime

1h 47m

Country

United States of America

Language

English

TMDB Rating

7.7/10 (1,396 votes)

Rotten Tomatoes

90%

Metacritic

Cast

Jake Gyllenhaal as Homer Hickam · 70% avg

Chris Cooper as John Hickam · 71% avg

Chris Owen as Quentin Wilson · 74% avg

Laura Dern as Miss Riley · 71% avg

William Lee Scott as Roy Lee · 75% avg

Chad Lindberg as O'Dell · 75% avg

Natalie Canerday as Elsie Hickam

Elya Baskin as Ike Bykovsky · 69% avg

Is October Sky good?

Most people think so. 79% of audiences gave it a thumbs up, by Google's archived audience score. Critics agree, scoring it 80%.

Where it ranks on ThumbScore

Rank in its genre

#1389 / 3335 · Drama

Rank in its year

#59 / 103 · 1999

Rank among its director's films

#6 / 10 · Joe Johnston

By audience score, among films with 500 or more votes.

Overview

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. Wikipedia ↗

Reviews

ThumbScoreReview · 92/100 · 2026-10-16

What worked: Love the feel good nature of it and the coming of age story in such an interesting time in history. I love anything that has to do with space and rockets and Jake Gyllenhaal is an amazing actor. I love the feel good aspect of it while also the drama and sadness especially of the teacher dying.