A Million Miles Away

2023
PG
2h 1m

IMDb RATING

7.3/10

23K

YOUR RATING

Michael Peña in A Million Miles Away (2023)

Follows Jose Hernandez, the first migrant farmworker to travel to space. A tale of perseverance, community and sacrifice to accomplish an impossible dream.

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Biography Drama

A biopic about Jose Hernandez and his path from a farm worker to becoming an engineer and an astronaut. A tale of perseverance, community and sacrifice to accomplish a seemingly impossible d... Read allA biopic about Jose Hernandez and his path from a farm worker to becoming an engineer and an astronaut. A tale of perseverance, community and sacrifice to accomplish a seemingly impossible dream.A biopic about Jose Hernandez and his path from a farm worker to becoming an engineer and an astronaut. A tale of perseverance, community and sacrifice to accomplish a seemingly impossible dream.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.3/10

23K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 5 wins & 6 nominations

Trivia
In the film, Jose Hernandez worked on anti-ICBM missile defense (once called "star wars") while at LLL. He found and solved a problem that saved the project's funding.

Jose Hernandez was also a LLL co-inventor of the digital mammogram. In a 15 September 2023 SF Chronicle interview, Jose considers it to be one of his greatest achievements for the many lives saved.

This didn't make it into the film, but is worth celebrating.

Goofs
Hernandez was not accepted into NASA until 2004.

In the movie he is already in training when the shuttle crashes, which occurred in 2003.

Furthermore he is then notified by the mission director that the Govt has approved new flights and he will be on the next shuttle flight, whereas there were 15 flights after the crash before he flew in 28 August 2009.

A massive ad lib by the script writers for dramatic effect.

Quotes
Kalpana Chawla: Everything looks so pretty from up there. It's as though the whole place is sacred. The atmosphere looks like ribbons of different colors hugging the Earth. And it looks so fragile. Such a small planet with so much going on. We think we control everything. Our lives, our dreams. We get exhausted. We make sacrifices. We think it's about wanting it hard enough. But life is mysterious, you know? Here's the thing, though. Once that ignition sequence starts, we only have each other. That matters. What you learned today matters.

User reviews112

Review

Featured review

'Persistence is a Super Power.'

This is a really fine movie of a great story, of a boy named José who, as a Mexican migrant worker with his family, looked up and asked, "What are the stars for?" And then decided he wanted to become an Astronaut. As he found when he became an adult with an Engineering degree, the odds were stacked heavily against him.

I can relate, as a boy of 11, I remember standing outside with my dad, looking up in the Houston night sky and trying to spot Sputnik, the Russian satellite that became the first one in 1957. However, unlike José, I didn't have any grand dreams and I made my career here on the surface of Earth.

The adult José is played by Michael Peña, which was an excellent choice. Although born in Chicago his family were workers from Mexico, I'd bet that helped him relate to the character he played. Even though Peña was already in his 40s here, he had to play a teenager graduating from high school and with makeup it didn't seem too much out of place.

My wife and I enjoyed it at home, streaming on Prime. Excellent movie. It shows that you can never know from what background a stellar performer will originate, and the power of persistence.