The movie October Sky contains some interesting philosophical content. The movie takes place in West Virginia in the town of Coalwood in 1957. The town has a coal mine, which employs most of the men who live there. John Hickam is the foreman at the coal mine. John has two sons, and he intends for them both to work in the coal mine. One of his sons, Jim, gets a football scholarship. The other son, Homer, becomes interested in Rockets. In the movie, Homer overcomes many obstacles in order to launch rockets and get to science faire.
John Hickam has a very limited world view. He thinks that the most important thing in life is working in the mine. He only seems to value people in as far as they can work in the mine. To John, any other profession is somewhat frivolous.
Homer Hickam seems to be a normal teenager with normal ambitions until his world-view is turned upside-down by the sight of the Sputnik satellite streaking across the October sky. Homer decides that he wants to build and launch rockets.
Logic – Homer uses logic in order to gain knowledge of rocket science, so that he can make a rocket. First, he reads science fiction comics and reads about Wernher Von Braun, who is the German rocket scientist. Then Homer meets the nerd in his school who knows about rockets. Then, Homer gets some books on science and math and teaches himself. Then Homer and his friends use trial and error to test the rockets, until they make one that launches correctly. Homer also uses the logic of math to prove that his rocket didn’t start the forest fire.
Cause and Effect – Miss Riley wants to inspire the students about science and encourage them to strive for a better life than most of them are likely to have. She knows that some of her

Greg GraberOctober Sky Philosophy07/01/2010 students will eventually die in the mine, so she wants to push them to “think outside the box” and

get a good education, which will make it more likely that they will leave town for college and a better life. This represents cause and effect – if a student does well in science and math, it is more likely that they will go to college. If they go to college, they will probably get a much better job. If they get a better job, they can have better material possessions, be exposed to new ideas in the city where they will live and have a better life. One event will cause another.
Logical Fallacy - The police who come to the school to arrest Homer and his friends for the forest fire have made a logical fallacy. They believed that the fire was caused by the rocket that Homer and his friends had launched. In actuality, what started the fire was a flying flare from a nearby airport. The police and the principle did not closely examine the flare until later. The police believed that either nothing started the fire, or that Homer’s rocket started the fire – there were only two choices for them. Since fires don’t start themselves, and since Homer’s rocket was launched around the same time that the fire started, the police concluded that Homer’s rocket started the fire.
Ethics – When John Hickam has a close call with death and is recuperating in the hospital, Homer decides to work in the mine to help the family. This is a demonstration of an ethical decision. Homer does not like working in the mine, but he volunteers because his dad is in the hospital, and his brother Jim has a football scholarship, which he would have to give up, unless Homer worked in his place. Homer does great work and gains the respect of the miners

Greg GraberOctober Sky Philosophy07/01/2010 because of his work ethic, even though he doesn’t want to be there.
John Hickam makes an ethical choice when he comes to the defense of Roy Lee who is being beat up by his drunken step-father. John didn’t need to get involved, but he decides to

intervene. John threatens to beat up Roy’s step father and then he tells Roy that his real father, was one of the best men who ever worked for him. Later in the movie, John makes an ethical choice between going to work and going to see Homer fire off his rocket. He chooses to see Homer fire the rocket.
Miss Riley makes an ethical choice by encouraging the students to take an interest in science and to study. It would have been easier for her to “go with the flow” and just teach students the basics and not inspire them to do anything interesting. The principle had tried to tell Miss Riley that all of the male students would wind up working in the mines, and that she was giving them false hopes by trying to inspire them. The principle has made an unethical choice to discourage the male students to aspire to attending college. Miss Riley makes a good ethical choice, by inspiring the students to take an interest in science and strive to go to college. She defies the principal.
Another ethical choice is the one that Ike Bykovsky makes. Ike is a welder and machinist and he is very good at what he does. Ike gets sent to work in the mine after John Hickam finds out that he has been helping Homer with his rocket project. Ike has made two ethical choices. First, he made the choice to help Homer with the rocket. Second, Ike made the choice to send part of his paycheck to his relatives in Europe.

Greg GraberOctober Sky Philosophy07/01/2010
Freewill – Homer has decided that he wants to build rockets, instead of working in a coal mine. Homer is now exercising his freewill, and this causes conflict with his father, and with the townspeople. Homer has examined his life and decided that it is not worth living unless he can exercise his freewill and take a different course than the one that is expected of him.

When John Hickam becomes injured in the mine, Homer uses his freewill to volunteer to work in the mine in place of John. After having worked in the mine until his father can return to work, Homer again exercises his freewill and decides to go back to high school and continue building rockets. Most of the other men in town have not exercised their freewill, because they have assumed that their futures are pre-decided and that they are pre-destined to work in the mines.
Plato’s Allegory of the Cave – The whole movie could relate to Plato’s allegory of the cave. There was a literal cave in the movie. There were miners who were, in a sense, prisoners in that cave – they didn’t ever question their lives or why they didn’t do some other kind of work or go to college instead. Homer was like the prisoner who escaped Plato’s cave, saw the light and let the townspeople know that there were more possibilities in life than just working in the mine. The town’s people at first rejected Homer’s idea, just like the prisoners in Plato’s cave rejected the escaped prisoner, who tried to tell them about the outside world. Zeitgeist – This movie really shows the zeitgeist of the 1950’s. The cars, music, dancing, clothing, types of jobs, social attitudes, and political climate all show the “spirit of the age” of the 1950’s.