In 1986, the United States experienced possibly the worst space flight disaster in NASA's history up until that time. (The fire which occurred during the testing of Apollo 1 in 1967 was probably the worst before Challenger.) With a disaster of this magnitude, then President Reagan formed a board of inquiry to determine the cause of the Challenger's untimely explosion which occurred less than 1.5 minutes into its launch. Most of the members of the commission were government, military, and NASA insiders such as astronauts Neil Armonstrong and Sally Ride, Air Force General Donald Kutyna, and William P. Rogers, former cabinet member of presidents and adviser to President Reagan. However, one board member was not only NOT an insider but a Nobel Laureate in Physics: Dr Richard Feynman. The present film chronicles the investigation through the eyes of Feynman, played convincingly by William Hurt, regarded as a bit of a maverick who did not understand the magnitude of consequences if the full and possibly ugly truth were ever laid bare before public scrutiny.

At the time of the disaster, Feynman was teaching physics at the California Institute of Technology. One of his former students, a NASA insider, recommends the professor become involved with the commission. From the first, Feynman clashes with the Director of the commission Rogers (Brian Dennehy),who is at first more worried about NASA's reputation than finding the cause of the Challenger disaster. Feynman begins a bit of rogue investigative work which frustrates other members of the commission, who are worried that reputations and business contracts could be be jeopardized by the findings.

Feynman then befriends General Donald Kutyna (Bruce Greenwood),who turns out to be an invaluable ally in the investigation. Kutyna explains to Feynman that the politics surrounding such an investigation often becomes messy, even ugly. People try to veil the truth, often with lots of scientific jargon, fearing that reputations, positions, and even careers might be compromised if unflattering facts come into the spotlight. At the same time, since Feynman is an outsider, he is much more free to ascertain the truth than other members. Then the physics professor receives a strange message which says "it's just ivory soap". Late in the film, Feynman makes a fascinating presentation of his findings to the other commission members. After the credits, video footage of the real Feynman making the identical presentation is shown as a kind of epilogue or coda.

A compelling and thoroughly entertaining insiders' look into a commission of inquiry appointed by the US Government. While the need to find the truth is what the public expects, they don't often see the political shenanigans which often occur when such an investigation embarks on its task. The Warren Commission, the mishandled board of inquiry formed to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, made decisions which were above and beyond the goal of finding the truth, such as shielding crucial pieces of evidence from other board members for fear that such exposure would embarrass and/or infuriate the Kennedy family. (The Warren Commission's failures would fuel conspiracy theories for decades.) The Challenger Commission (or Rogers Commission) could have fallen into the same trap. However, because of the integrity of several of the members of the board, the truth of the Challenger disaster was finally revealed. And as a result, NASA made far-reaching improvements in its shuttle technology. Sadly, the Shuttle Disaster Commission was Feynman's last undertaking which received national attention. Feynman would die of cancer in 1988 at the age of 69.

It was sad to hear of the death of the star of Body Heat, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Children of a Lesser God, and in recent years some Marvel movies, this TV-made film was broadcast as a tribute to him, and the subject of it sounded interesting as well. Basically, on January 28, 1986, the Challenger space shuttle was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, with seven crew members aboard, including schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe who was trained for the mission. However, 73 seconds after take-off and during its flight, the spacecraft explodes in mid-air, all aboard are killed, and the shuttle disintegrated over the Atlantic Ocean. Physics professor Dr. Richard Feynman (William Hurt) hears of the accident on the radio whilst driving home from a lecture. Several days later, Feynman is by a former student and asked to sit on the Presidential Commission to determine what caused the accident. He is initially unsure whether he should, as he strong views on politics and the government, but his wife Gweneth (Joanne Whalley) encourages him that he cannot pass up a puzzle like this. Feynman arrives in Washington and meets chairman William Rogers (Brian Dennehy),but quickly realises he wants to protect NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) and may not be seeking the real truth of what caused the accident. Feynman is unaware that the commission will be in recess for five days before any official work begins. During this time, he visits various NASA production facilities to learn about the shuttle and things that could cause an explosion. He finds there are several NASA employees afraid to openly discuss known issues with the shuttle program out of fear. Being the maverick investigator, Feynman discovers many other known issues through research, and discovers that the loss of a shuttle was expected. Feynman's only ally on the commission is General Donald J. Kutyna (Bruce Greenwood),who tries to leak information to him, as he has a secret source within NASA who knows what really happened. Feynman gets closer to the truth, but is in shock discovering that he has cancer, and health dramatically changes. Realising how important the truth is, he returns to Washington to divulge the reason for the shuttle's failure. In a televised broadcast of the commission hearing, Feynman has concluded that the O rings were the culprit for the explosion. He demonstrates that due to the cold temperatures on the day of the launch, the O ring could not expand and caused the explosion, and NASA were unwilling to reschedule. Unable to hide from the truth, the findings are reported President Ronald Reagan, and Feynman cites that "reality must take precedence" and "nature cannot be fooled." It ends with a montage of several key members and what happened following the investigation. Also starring Pirates of the Caribbean's Kevin McNally as Mulloy, Eve Best as Sally Ride, Henry Goodman as Dr. Weiss, Meganne Young as Michelle Feynman, and Stephen Jennings as Neil Armstrong. The performances of Hurt, Dennehy and Greenwood are all fine, the pace is a bit up and down, but it is an interesting story of the aftermath of the Challenger Disaster, one of the most tragic and shocking disasters in history, not a bad historical drama. Worth watching!

This is a drama-documentary that has been co produced by the BBC and they managed to attract a starry cast with Oscar winner William Hurt playing distinguished scientist Feynman and Bruce Greenwood continuing his mini run of playing nice guys as General Kutyna.

The drama is based on the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster of 1986 and the Presidential commission set up to investigate the accident.

There are various factions, some with their own self interests who wanted to hinder the investigation or put it down to human error.

The film had to summarise these investigations and sell it to the viewer in an easy to understand way. Feynman is the vehicle who was famous for making science accessible.

Hurt portrays Feynman as dogged but he was also very ill at the time of the investigations.

Kutyna gives him clues along the way. Eve Best who plays Sally Ride was rather sidelined. In real life she was more outspoken about the deficiencies of NASA when it came to safety.

It all came down to 'O' rings and how they reacted in sub zero temperatures. The reveal at a press conference was exactly how it happened in real life.

A good well acted drama but a little bit too neatly packaged to make it digestible for the viewing audience.