The Right Stuff

19831983
PGPG
3h 13m

The Right Stuff (1983)

Home Video Trailer from Warner Home Video

Play trailer3:31

Adventure Biography Drama

The U.S. space program's development from the breaking of the sound barrier to selection of the Mercury 7 astronauts, from a group of test pilots with a more seat-of-the-pants approach than ... Read allThe U.S. space program's development from the breaking of the sound barrier to selection of the Mercury 7 astronauts, from a group of test pilots with a more seat-of-the-pants approach than the program's more cautious engineers preferred.The U.S. space program's development from the breaking of the sound barrier to selection of the Mercury 7 astronauts, from a group of test pilots with a more seat-of-the-pants approach than the program's more cautious engineers preferred.

Director
- Philip Kaufman
Writers
- Philip Kaufman(written for the screen by)
- Tom Wolfe(based on the book by)
Stars

See production, box office & company info

See more at IMDbPro

Won 4 Oscars
- 11 wins & 16 nominations total

Videos2

The Right Stuff

The Right Stuff

"The Right Stuff" History Download

"The Right Stuff" History Download

Barbara Hershey and Sam Shepard in The Right Stuff (1983)

Ed Harris, Lance Henriksen, Dennis Quaid, Scott Glenn, Charles Frank, Scott Paulin, and Fred Ward in The Right Stuff (1983)

Ed Harris, Lance Henriksen, Dennis Quaid, Scott Glenn, Charles Frank, Scott Paulin, and Fred Ward in The Right Stuff (1983)

Sam Shepard in The Right Stuff (1983)

Ed Harris, Lance Henriksen, Dennis Quaid, Scott Glenn, Charles Frank, Scott Paulin, and Fred Ward in The Right Stuff (1983)

Kathy Baker, Veronica Cartwright, and Pamela Reed in The Right Stuff (1983)

Dennis Quaid and Scott Paulin in The Right Stuff (1983)

The Right Stuff (1983)

The Right Stuff (1983)

Ed Harris, Lance Henriksen, Dennis Quaid, Scott Glenn, Charles Frank, Scott Paulin, and Fred Ward in The Right Stuff (1983)

Ed Harris, Lance Henriksen, Dennis Quaid, Scott Glenn, Charles Frank, Scott Paulin, and Fred Ward in The Right Stuff (1983)

Ed Harris, Lance Henriksen, Dennis Quaid, Scott Glenn, Charles Frank, Scott Paulin, and Fred Ward in The Right Stuff (1983)

Director
- Philip Kaufman
Writers
- Philip Kaufman(written for the screen by)
- Tom Wolfe(based on the book by)
All cast & crew
See more cast details at IMDbPro

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Chariots of Fire

Tom Wolfe's book on the history of the U.S. Space program reads like a novel, and the film has that same fictional quality. It covers the breaking of the sound barrier by Chuck Yeager to the Mercury 7 astronauts, showing that no one had a clue how to run a space program or how to select people to be in it. Thrilling, funny, charming and electrifying all at once. —John Vogel <jlvogel@comcast.net>

astronaut project mercury u.s. space program nasa ticker tape parade 118 more

Taglines
- By flying higher and faster than any other man had ever dared before, Chuck Yeager set the pace for a new breed of hero. Those that had just one thing in common...THE RIGHT STUFF.
Genres
Certificate
- PG
Parents guide

Trivia
The mysterious "fireflies" observed by John Glenn on his first orbital flight were actually tiny flakes of frost illuminated by sunlight. As the spacecraft orbited into darkness behind the Earth, the sub-zero temperatures caused condensation on its skin to freeze. When warmed by the sun on the other side of the orbit, the temperature change caused some of this frost layer to break free and to be illuminated by the sun. This was confirmed by astronaut Scott Carpenter on the next Mercury flight when he banged on the craft's side, causing more of the flakes to break free and become visible.

Goofs
When Yeager makes the first supersonic flight, we see the plane's Machmeter going offscale because it only reads up to Mach 1. Although this seems completely silly because the plane was always intended to fly supersonically, it is in fact what happened.

Quotes
[first lines]
Narrator: There was a demon that lived in the air. They said whoever challenged him would die. Their controls would freeze up, their planes would buffet wildly, and they would disintegrate. The demon lived at Mach 1 on the meter, seven hundred and fifty miles an hour, where the air could no longer move out of the way. He lived behind a barrier through which they said no man could ever pass. They called it the sound barrier.

Alternate versions
ABC edited 5 minutes from this film for its 1986 network television premiere.

Connections
Edited into Waiting for Superman (2010)

Soundtracks
Southwestern Waltz
Written by Vaughn Horton (uncredited)
Performed by Bob Wills
Courtesy of MCA Records, Inc.

Top review

The Best Picture of 1983

This picture was selected as Best Picture of its year by 2 of the best movie reviewers in recent memory, Siskel & Ebert. They both chose this film because "it showed how things get done in America."

This is one of my favorite films. If you remember the space race (and not fantasize you do like some other reviewers on this page) and the Mercury astronauts were your heroes too, then watching this movie is like going home again.

As for the younger crowd? Watching this true story will be a lot of fun, and there are a lot of laughs. But more importantly, it will give you a look into a time when your country actually tried to do important things: not b/c they were easy, as President Kennedy said, but b/c they were hard. A concept so sadly lacking these days.

Watch everyone, and enjoy. It's quite a ride, and it all really happened.

helpful•13

2

cagney00
Aug 21, 2001

Release date
- February 17, 1984 (United States)
Country of origin
- United States
Languages
- English
- Russian
Also known as
- Put u kosmos
Filming locations
- Cow Palace - 2600 Geneva Avenue, Daly City, California, USA
Production company
- The Ladd Company
See more company credits at IMDbPro

Budget
- $27,000,000 (estimated)
Gross US & Canada
- $21,192,102
Opening weekend US & Canada
- $1,601,167
- Oct 23, 1983
Gross worldwide
- $21,192,315

See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

Runtime
3 hours 13 minutes
Color
- Color
Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1

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The Right Stuff (1983)

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By what name was The Right Stuff (1983) officially released in India in English?

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