Homer Hickam (Jake Gyllenhaal) wants to build a rocket having been inspired by Sputnik. And so he recruits a team from school, Quentin Wilson (Chris Owen) is the nerd and the brains behind the group; O'Dell Carroll (Chad Lindberg) who help with tracking the rockets; Roy Cooke (William Lee Scott) who has a car. Their first rocket gos sideways, and Homer's father (John Hickam), who isn't keen on the idea of rocketry, orders them off company grounds. He is the foreman. Homer feels he favors his older brother, Jim (Scott Miles) who plays football and gets a scholarship for football. The company is a coal mine which extends several miles, but they do find a place to test their rockets, and they slowly get better. They use a company engineer (Elya Baskin) for some of the parts. Miss Riley (Laura Dern) is a school teacher who encourages the boys to enter a science fair. It could be a springboard to get a scholarship and an education and work away from the coal mines. Homer's mother (Natalie Canerday) is also supportive.
At want point they close up their project. They are accused of starting a fire and are hauled off to jail. At this time Homer quits school and works in the mines because father is injured in a mining accident. During this time Miss Riley encourages Homer to read a book on rockets and trajectory. Through this he determines it couldn't have been their rocket that caused the fire. Using their calculations they are able to find the rocket they couldn't account for. They actually see the rocket and it is a weather apparatus from the military. Homer comes back to school and they are off to the county science fair--and actually win. They are off to the national fair, and only Homer is able to go due to school budget restrictions. At the fair the De Laval nozzle is stolen and Homer's picture of Dr. Wernher Von Braun, a rocket scientist. His father has the machine shop worker make him a new part and they ship it to him. And they win the first prize. All the boys in the rocket project go to college and have careers outside the coal industry. Homer works for NASA. Homer and his father resolve their differences.
This movie is based on a true story and the memoirs written by Homer Hickam called Rocket Boys. Miss Riley gets sick and dies but she knows she helped the kids become successes.
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