An epic aviation film, based on Tom Wolfe's book, which charts the history of flight from Chuck Yeager's (Sam Shepard) legendary sound barrier-breaking flight in the 1940s, to the first men in space in the 1960s. The story centres on the relentless efforts of several US pilots to break all records set before them, finalising in the US space exploration programme of the 1960s, in which seven pilots were chosen to represent America in the heated space race with the Russians.