The premise of this movie is complete and utter bullshit. But it works in a strange kind of way. The dramatic elements are generally pretty good and I did kind of get into it, but the shortcomings were just a big huge black mark over the screen for the duration of the movie. Who the fuck, regardless of how super clever and rich you are, can build a full scale fully functioning space rocket in their back yard and launch it into space? In this flick, Billy Bob Thornton does just that.I think this is one of those movies that get’s a decent budget, a star player, and a full commercial release, but nobody really gives a shit about it. I just have a hard time imagining 2 months prior to release a group of movie fans going “yeah Astronaut Farmer’s out soon, I really want to check that shit out”. This was probably enjoyed in theatres by majority whim ticket purchasers, people who turn up at the cinema to watch a movie, or see what’s showing online after they have decided that’s what they’re doing. AF totally passed me by in 2006, I actually came across it in an Amazon sale and read a synopsis, I just thought “wtf”, so i watched it and yes, as far as films go it was ok, it wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t that good either.
So back to the bullshit, the movie is about a guy named Charles Farmer (Billy Bob) who has an obsession about building a rocket and launching into space. The FAA try to prevent him from doing it by delaying court hearings and the like. He and his wife are in debt to the bank who threaten his financial wellbeing, his hobby/obsession is almost taking over his and his families lives, he becomes a national celebrity, but, who is he? How the hell does he have the ability to pull of this crazy shit?
Well he is actually a graduate in aeronautical engineering; he was a fighter pilot in the airforce, discharged due to medical reasons of some kind. So the guy obviously isn’t stupid. What could have been a cool approach was to actually focus the film on him building a space rocket, but that’s not what the film is really about, it’s about him fighting for his dream, and his right to carry it out. His friends were doubters, the authorities were also, his family believe in him and that’s how this movie plays out, proving all the doubters wrong, and Billy Bob becoming the perfect role model father who doesn’t give up on his dream.
The movie begins and the rocket is already built, a very early scene sees Billy Bob hanging out in his 15 year old son’s room responding to an email from some dodgy dude on the internet that plans to sell him 15thousand pounds of rocket fuel. I haven’t ever tried to get hold of such goods, but this must be really fucking difficult to do, he even gets the dude to meet him in his local town in a bar. I bet if I had any chance of finding a dodgy rocket fuel merchant on the web, I’d have to travel miles to meet the guy. Now I want to hear all about this space rocket?
He gets all his spares from some NASA type junk yard that is shown briefly, he gets his money from previous loans, and his farm, which probably doesn’t make him a whole load of cash. His wife works as a waitress which is a minimum wage job; you know one of those jobs people have when they really need money. But he still manages to finance this mother of all hobbies! His engineering team consists of his 15 year old son (who also doubles up as mission control when the launch comes) and his father in-law. The movie doesn’t address any kind of technical depth whatsoever. The matter of fact is, this is a family drama, it is a very commercial feel good popcorn drama made for the mass audience. It can be quite funny at times, the script had a nice bit of humour to it, it was well acted and generally the characters were really nice people. There was a touch of deep-south stereo typing, but I’m British so what the hell do I know.
I tell you what I don’t know. How the hell he made this rocket! I still want to know how he pulled it off and the film finished 3 days ago. Ok, what I want to know is, how did he go about testing all the individual components? Where did he get all his wiring diagrams from? What sort of rigs did he use to enable a physical construction so high? Had he ever performed engine runs and performance checks? Was all his avionics and Nav equipment properly tested and fully functional? What about the heat shield to stop the thing burning up on re-entry, he briefly mentions it, but, one mistake and he’s fried. How the hell did his 15 year old son know so much, maybe he’s just some kind of child genius? Billy Bob has the poster perfect family and a loving wife; he’s just a crazy and selfish asshole as far as I can see.
Bruce Willis shows up to see him. Bruce plays an air force general of some kind, he seems quite friendly, gets on with his family, he tries to talk Billy Bob out of this craziness, offers him a ride on a space shuttle, that kind of thing. The best part though was Bruce’s reaction when he first sees the rocket. I think I would do the same thing, just stand there and laugh, but I’d follow it up with “you are fucking insane” and clearly make sure I’m at least 500 miles away on the day he plans to launch it.
So after a family argument, Billy Bob gets up early one morning and tries to launch his rocket. Seriously people, there is something wrong here, so the engines fire, the rocket falls over and starts to fly horizontally like a tube shaped snow speeder. The thing is, I thought it was a dream, the CG of the rocket looked dodgy, it clearly looked like CG and the whole sequence felt very erratic. But this wasn’t a dream; He actually woke up early one morning fired up the rocket and just planned to fly right up to space. Job done! Why the hell does NASA need so much money and so many engineers?
This attempt fails and Billy Bob ends up in hospital in a coma with facial lacerations and a couple of broken ribs. This is the point the movie took a huge nose dive for me. He wakes from his coma and returns home all sullen & unhappy. His father in law passes away and the family receive quite a large inheritance. The wife feels bad about his fail and doesn’t want their children who idolise their father to see him as somebody who gives up on their dreams, so instead of using the money to pay off their huge debt at the bank, the wife gives the money to a depressed Billy Bob in a paper bag and says “Hey, go and build another rocket”. And guess what, he does! And fucking Quick! There is no work force, he has to start from scratch, but the rocket is knocked up and functional in no time, the kids aren’t any older, little time seem to have passed. I just felt that this film clearly implies that anybody, with a bit of mathematical knowledge and access to an aeronautical junk yard can build a fucking space rocket in 2 fucking weeks.
The final launch was responsible for the inevitable feelings of achievement and the good old ‘told you so’ to all the doubters. I couldn’t help but feel all warm and fuzzy inside when he finally launched, all the onlookers wish him the best and see the rocket propelled into orbit. The time in space was alright, he sees Africa, orbits the earth 8 times, and in true Hollywood fashion loses communication with mission control (his son in a caravan) as-well as a complete electrical failure of the space capsule. So the tension is on for 5 or so minutes which keep’s the audience on the edge, till Billy Bob carefully removes an instrument panel on his right hand side, pulls a couple of wires and boom, all the power is back! Communication returns and it’s time for re-entry, which is of course, completely successful.
As it stands 5 years on from release, this movie will probably be enjoyed on TV by an unsuspecting casual audience, but for me, I found myself wishing I was watching a different film. This was directing by Michael Polish and written by his brother Mark Polish. Both seem to have similar credits having written/directed a slack handful of movies I haven’t heard of, I suppose the most popular thing they have been involved with was they played Twin Cenobites in Hellraiser 4. Awesome.
