What Goes Up is an American comedy-drama film distributed by Sony Pictures Entertainment starring Hilary Duff, Steve Coogan, Josh Peck, Olivia Thirlby, and Molly Shannon, directed by Jonathan Glatzer and co-written by Glatzer and Robert Lawson. Coogan also served as an executive producer. It premiered on May 8, 2009.
Upon arriving in Concord, New Hampshire in January 1986 to cover the hometown hooplah for the looming Space Shuttle Challenger launch where Concord teacher Christa McAuliffe is among the mission's crew, reporter Campbell Babbitt (Steve Coogan) decides to call an old college friend, only to discover an apparent suicide. Babbitt, who has his own ethical baggage, gravitates toward his friend's high-school students in hopes of finding an unsung hero story about a teacher who made a permanent impact on the social misfits of the school. Instead, he discovers a group of dysfunctional students, outcasts led by a narcissistic seductress (Hilary Duff), a repressed voyeur (Josh Peck), and a scheming pregnant teen (Olivia Thirlby). In a gradual reversal of roles, Babbitt soon finds himself learning from this unusual group of kids.[5]