This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (October 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)The film is set in Coalwood, West Virginia, in October 1957. Most people in the town work in the coal mines. John Hickam (Chris Cooper), the mine superintendent, loves his job and hopes that his boys, Jim (Scott Miles) and Homer Hickam (Jake Gyllenhaal), will one day join him in his mine. When it appears that Jim will receive a football scholarship to attend college, this leaves Homer to fulfill his father's dream, although his mother, Elsie (Natalie Canerday), hopes for more for her son.In October, news of the Soviet Union's rocket launch of Sputnik 1 reaches Coalwood. As the townspeople gather outside on the night of the broadcast, they see the satellite orbit across the sky.Filled with awe and a belief that this may be his chance to get out of Coalwood, Homer sets out to build rockets of his own. When first efforts are so messy, he is discouraged and embarrassed at school, his science teacher, Miss Riley (Laura Dern) steps in and her active support turns the tide; she encourages the work and the boys and informs them they may even enter the results in the state and national science fair and win college opportunities and more!Homer is home in rockets and comforted by photos of a NASA rocket failure and begins writing about his progress to Dr. Wernher von Braun, one of the head engineers at NASA. In those days there was John Wayne, Charleton Heston and Werner von Braun. Every home with interests in the space program followed Dr. von Braun's exploits faithfully.The Rocket Boys: Initially, his family and classmates think he has gone crazy and is wasting his time, especially when Homer Hickam teams up with Quentin Wilson (Chris Owen), the school's math geek who also has an interest in rocket engineering. With the help of his friends, Roy Lee Cooke (William Lee Scott) and Sherman O'Dell (Chad Lindberg), and continued support from their science teacher, 'Miss Riley' (Laura Dern), the four begin serious construction and lauches of small rockets. Homer's Dad's shop at the coal mine Ike Bykovsky (Elya Baskin) doing some machining of the hardware.While their first launches are failures, they experiment with new fuels and rocket designs. After they complete several successful launches, the local paper runs a story about them.However: The next day, they are arrestedÂ â accused of having started a forest fire with a rocket that went astray. After John picks up Homer from the police station, Roy Lee is beaten up by his stepfather, Vernon. John intervenes and rescues Roy Lee, warning the drunken man that he will protect him as Roy Lee's late father would have. The arrests, along with John's lack of support, crush the boys' dream, and they abandon rocketry. After a mine disaster, John is injured while rescuing other men. One of the victims who is killed is Ike Bykovsky (Elya Baskin), a machine shop worker who let Homer use the shop to build his rockets, then transferred to the mine for better pay. Homer drops out of high school and works the mine to provide for the family while his father recovers.Then, at this darkest day, Homer is inspired to look at a rocket science book Miss Riley has given him and learns how to calculate the trajectory of a rocket. He uses what he learns to locate the accused guilty and unrecovered "rocket" launched by the boys. Finding the rocket proves that it could not have caused the fire, as it was unable to travel that far. The boys present their findings to Miss Riley and the school principal, Mr. Turner (Chris Ellis), who follows up and looks more closely at the rocket that caused the fire and identifies the offending projectile as a flare from a nearby airfield.Homer returns to school, by special invitation and the boys return to rocket making, and win the school science fair. This wins them the opportunity to participate in the National Science Fair in Indianapolis, Indiana.Later that night, the workers' union opts to go on strike against Homer's dad. While the family eats dinner inside, John goes to the kitchen. A car pulls up outside, and a bullet is shot into the house. It misses John, and he realizes that the shooter was Roy Lee's stepfather Vernon. Homer and Jim express their concern to their father, but John dismisses their fears. Fed up, Homer confronts his father, and a heated argument ensues. The mines are set to close down and there is nothing but trouble and no future for Homer in the mines, he argues. He resents his Father's pressures to follow in the near-extinct mine work. Homer storms out of the house, vowing to never return.At the national science fair, Homer's display is received very well. After a scheduled few days show, the prizes are to be awarded, and Homer enjoys top popularity and some sightseeing. But his popular show is robbed. Overnight, someone steals his machined rocket part model the de Laval nozzle, as well as his autographed picture of Wernher von Braun. Homer makes an urgent phone call home for help. His Mother, Elsie, implores John to end the ongoing strike so that Mr. Bolden (Randy Stripling), the machine worker who replaced Bykovsky, can use the mine's machine shop to build a replacement nozzle. John relents when Elsie, fed up with his lack of support for their son, threatens to leave him. With the support of the town, Homer wins the top prize and is bombarded with scholarship offers from colleges. He is also congratulated by his inspiration, Dr. Wernher von Braun, but does not realize the engineer's identity until he has gone.Homer returns to Coalwood as a hero and visits Miss Riley, who is dying of Hodgkin's disease. A launch of their largest rocket yet (called the Miss Riley) is the last scene of the film. After suffering through the trials and controversy , the Rocket Boys are Heroes, and the town turns out in a fine crowd and the girls from their high school line up to date them. Homer shows wisdom is sticking with the girl who stood by him in through the difficulties. It's her gold star, too. The rocket boys' most successful rocket reaches an altitude of 30,000 feet (9,100Â m)Â â higher than the summit of Mount Everest. Homer's Father, John, who never attended the launchings, arrives this time and, from Homer's hands, is given the honour of pushing the firing button. As the crowd looks up to the skies, following the fine progress of the rocket, John slowly puts his hand on Homer's shoulder and smiles.At the end of the film, since it is based on fact, a series of vignettes reveals the true outcomes of the main characters' lives.
Output: Question: Who plays John Hickam?, Answer: Chris cooper