The allure of acting proved too strong, however, and Astin dropped out of college to resume his career, appearing as Beverly D'Angelo's son in the based-on-fact drama "A Child Lost Forever" (NBC, 1992). He returned to features in the leading role of "Iron Will" (1994), a plucky early 20th Century teenager who enters a dogsled race to rescue his family from financial ruin. He later was featured as the aimless, teenaged father grandson of the overbearing Aurora Greenway (Shirley MacLaine) in the uneven "The Evening Star" (1996), a sequel of sorts to James L Brooks' superior "Terms of Endearment" (1984). Astin received some praise for his portrayal of Henry S. Villard, friend and romantic rival to Ernest Hemingway, in Richard Attenborough's overblown and empty romantic drama "In Love and War" (also 1996). In another based-on-fact tale, he played the victim of a violent shooting on a commuter train in the well-received 1998 NBC TV-movie "The Long Island Incident". Astin also contributed strongly to the ensemble of Whit Stillman's feature examination of early 80s night life "The Last Days of Disco" (1998).