Feynman, a vocal opponent of the political games politicians and government play, initially is unsure if he should participate; however, his wife Gwen encourages him that he cannot pass up a puzzle like this, and must sit on the inquiry and figure out what really happened.

Feynman arrives in Washington and quickly realizes the chairman William Rogers wants to protect NASA and may not be seeking the real truth of what caused the accident.

There he finds a culture lacking in truth and reality as NASA employees are afraid to openly discuss known issues with the shuttle program out of fear.

[5] Neil Genzlinger of The New York Times writes "The Challenger investigation story doesn’t have quite the level of malfeasance or the cloak-and-dagger undertones of other movies about real-life government or business debacles.

"[6] Michael Starr of The New York Post writes "It’s both a learning experience and an emotional reminder of what can go wrong in that gray area separating man and machine.