a hero and visits Miss Riley, who is dying of Hodgkin's lymphoma. At the launch of their largest rocket yet – the Miss Riley – John, who never attended any of the launchings, shows up at the last moment and is given the honor of pushing the launch button. The Miss Riley reaches an altitude of – higher than the summit of Mount Everest. As the town looks up to the skies, John slowly puts his hand on Homer's shoulder and smiles, finally showing Homer that he is proud of him. An epilogue, using home movie footage, reveals the real-life outcomes of the main characters' lives. Cast Production Filming began on February 23, 1998, almost a year before the movie's release. Although the film takes place in West Virginia, Tennessee was the location of choice for filming in part because of the weather and area terrain. Film crews reconstructed the sites to look like the 1957 mining town setting the movie demanded. The weather of east Tennessee gave the filmmakers trouble and delayed production of the film. Cast and crew recalled the major weather shifts and tornadoes in the area during the filming months but Joe Johnston claims, "ultimately, the movie looks great because of it. It gave the film a much more interesting and varied look." The crews also recreated a mine for the underground scenes. Johnston expressed that he felt that the appearance of the mine in the film gave it an evil look, like the mine was the villain in the film and felt it ironic because that is what gave the town its nourishment. More than 2000 extras were used in the movie. A small switching yard allowed the filmmakers and actors to film the scenes with the boys on the railroad and gave them freedom to do as they pleased, even tear apart tracks. The locomotive used in the scene was Southern Railway 4501 re-lettered as Norfolk and Western No. 4501. Filming concluded on April 30, 1998. The film's star, Jake Gyllenhaal, was 17 years old during filming, the same as Homer Hickam's character. In an interview in 2014, Natalie Canerday recalled that Gyllenhaal was tutored on set because he was still in school and taking advanced classes. Release October Sky opened on February 19, 1999 in 1,495 theaters and had an opening weekend gross of $5,905,250. At its widest theater release, 1,702 theaters were