:Spoilers alert:
This is a very inspirational story (based on true life events) about four young boys from a mining community, who stumble onto building “hobby rockets”. They get into this by first watching the news about the first Russian rocket – Sputnik. Despite all odds of getting raw materials and equipment, these young boys succeed in launching rockets. They are encouraged by their high school teacher who pushes them to apply for a regional science fair. The boys win the trophy (and scholarships to college).
The story also weaves in an element of paths and family bonding with the father not very happy with his son going to this hobby. He wants his son to be a miner too. He thinks that all this rocket business is trickery and not worth it. The last scene is an emotional one where he at last comes to one of the rocket launches and becomes real proud of his son.
As an added bonus for those who are fond of hearing different accents, the movie does not disappoint with the Virginian accent – it has the twang and a drawl to it. You should listen to it to understand what I am talking about. It is a period movie set in the 60s – so it has all the sets painfully created – complete with old vintage cars and a couple of Steam Loco runs.