October Sky

Just before the new millennium, Joe Johnston brought a young Jake Gyllenhaal to the screen with October Sky. Coming to us from the dawn of the space age as Sputnik eclipsed the stratosphere and ignited a passion in a few kids and their town, despite a couple of dads being dicks all the time... Jake plays Homer, the key ingredient in a rocket group soup and along with his friends they fight against tradition and black lung as they try to win a college scholarship to escape their hellscape of a town. This flick brought a modest return but found itself fondly nestled in the audience’s O-ring. But does it hold up? Listen in as Jon, Colin, and Brent discuss wheezy towns and the welcome embrace of death while we set up our tripods and see if this flick fails to launch or makes us sputnik all over the place.