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Homer Hickam's father's name is actually Homer Hickam Sr.; in the movie, the father's name was changed to John. The assumption would be that the name was changed in the movie to avoid confusion between father and son. See more...

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October Sky (1999) - 5 corrections

Directed by Joe Johnston, starring Chris Cooper, Jake Gyllenhaal, Laura Dern (add more)

Genres: Biography, Drama, Family

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If Quentin once built an automobile engine from scratch, and can diagnose Roy Lee's car just by listening to the motor run, why don't they have him fix the car instead of junking it? [Character's choice does not make it a mistake. Perhaps the parts needed to fix the car were too difficult or expensive to get.]

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Throughout the movie O'Dell walks and runs with a limp. When the boys are pulling up the railroad and hear the train coming, they all run to stop it. Somehow, on this particular run, O'Dell doesn't have his limp, but did have it before and does have it again. [If you watch the actor's "limp" throughout the movie, you can see that all he does is keep his right knee stiff. During the scene where they are running for the train, he is still keeping his knee stiff, but he pushes it out to the side so that he can run easier. He still has the limp, but it's less noticeable because of his modified run.]

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In the scene where the scout is at the Hickam residence to recruit Jim on a football scholarship, the scout mentions he is from "The University of West Virginia." The official name of the university is "West Virginia University," and has never been called "The University of West Virginia." [Names like this are often changed for movie purposes or maybe they couldn't get permission to use the real name. In Johnny B. Goode, there were several ficticious college names.]

Edit Corrected by William Bergquist

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Homer takes his rocket to get the washer "nozzle" welded on but the 4 fins are already welded on. Why didn't he get that person to do it? [In the construction scene, you see Homer soldering the fins on the rocket body. Since the fins are not taking a large about of heat, they can get away with a thinner material (which can be soldered). The washer takes a lot of heat and needs to be a thicker material (and needs to be welded).]

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When Mr. Bykovsky helps Homer with his rocket secretly in the middle of the night, John Hickham punishes him by sending him down to the coal mine to dig coal. When Mr. Bolden does the same exact thing in broad daylight, nothing happens. [Bykovsky explained to Homer that he was getting paid more to work in the mines than in the shop, and needed the money to send to his family in Europe. Hickham was actually doing him a favor.]

Edit Corrected by MoonMan

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