Everything about The Astronaut Farmer totally explained
The Astronaut Farmer is a
2007 drama film directed by Michael Polish and starring
Billy Bob Thornton. Polish and his brother Mark also serve as writers and producers of the film. The film was released on
February 23, 2007.
Plot
Charles Farmer (
Thornton) is a former
astronaut in training who gave up his dream job with
NASA because his father committed
suicide. Never having traveled into space, he decides to build his own space craft, a replica of the historic
Mercury-Atlas, with his own time and materials. He uses all of his assets and faces foreclosure and family problems. He encounters interference as the United States government tries to stop him.
(External Link
).
Farmer's rocket fails to launch on his first attempt and he's injured badly in the mishap. However, with encouragement from his family and money from his father-in-law's death, his financial problems are over and Farmer rebuilds his rocket. He succeeds in launching the rocket on his second attempt, orbits the
Earth nine times and after a loss of communication with ground control, returns safely.
Cast
Production
The story takes place in
Texas, but the movie was filmed in
New Mexico, USA.
When Thornton's character is being interviewed by
Jay Leno during the credits, the audience members are not extras but the actual studio audience from that day's filming of
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
The
space suit worn by Thornton's character is the same Mercury-era
Navy Mark V pressure suit worn by all of the
Mercury Seven astronauts prior to
Mercury-Atlas 9.
(External Link) Additionally, the rocket featured in the film is nearly-scale replica of the
Mercury-Atlas that launched America's first astronauts into
orbit.
Release
The film's release date,
February 23 2007, came just three days after the 45th anniversary of the United States' first orbital mission,
Friendship 7, piloted by
John Glenn. Glenn's flight and the remaining three Mercury flights were all orbital missions using the Atlas booster.
Real life influences
Shepard, the son in the movie, is named after Alan Shepard, the first American in space.
The United States Congress passed the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act in 2004 (External Link).
The Federal Aviation Administration's Office of Commercial Space Transportation (FAA/AST) licenses private suborbital rocket launches following the Code of Federal Regulations, Title 14, Chapter III.
Brian Walker, on his old website http://www.rocketguy.com/ (now defunct) stated that he sold the movie rights of his real life story to Disney.Further Information
Get more info on 'The Astronaut Farmer'.
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