The Right Stuff

This film follows the early years of the American space program and NASA, from its beginnings through the Mercury Missions. After test pilot Chuck Yeager (Sam Shepard) breaks the sound barrier in a landmark flight, he seems a shoe-in to join the ranks of the first men in space, but suprisingly is passed up for others. The film explores the early training the astronauts were given and the publicity circus that surrounds them. The astronauts are an unruly group; hotheads "Gordo" Cooper (Dennis Quaid) and Gus Grissom (Fred Ward) rub up against straight arrow John Glenn (Ed Harris) in a contest of egos. Who will be the first man to orbit the Earth? Meanwhile, Chuck Yeager struggles to make a historical flight of his own, and the astronauts' wives adjust to being in the giant shadow their husbands now cast.