Space Cowboys

Space Cowboys
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Clint Eastwood
Produced by	Clint Eastwood Andrew Lazar
Written by	Ken Kaufman Howard Klausner
Starring	Clint Eastwood Tommy Lee Jones Donald Sutherland James Garner Marcia Gay Harden William Devane Loren Dean Courtney B. Vance James Cromwell
Music by	Clint Eastwood Lennie Niehaus
Cinematography	Jack N. Green
Studio	Village Roadshow Pictures Malpaso Productions
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	United States August 1, 2000 United Kingdom September 22, 2000 Australia October 5, 2000 New Zealand November 2, 2000 Japan November 3, 2000
Running time	130 min.
Language	English
Budget	$60,000,000
Box office	$128,884,132

Space Cowboys is a 2000 science fiction film directed and produced by Clint Eastwood. Eastwood also stars in the film alongside Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland, and James Garner as four older "ex-test pilots" who are sent into space to repair an old Soviet satellite. The original music score was composed by Eastwood and Lennie Niehaus.

Plot

IKON, an obsolete Soviet communications satellite is about to fall out of orbit, and NASA are instructed, for political reasons, to capture it, rather than allow it to crash. The onboard systems do not respond, but are so archaic that nobody at NASA understands them. They ask retired United States Air Force pilot and electrical engineer Dr. Frank Corvin (Eastwood), who designed the original guidance systems from which the satellite has been copied, to help them, despite the longstanding animosity between the engineer and project director Bob Gerson (James Cromwell).

A flashback (the very beginning of the movie) reveals that 40 years ago (ie, in 1958), Corvin's prospects as an astronaut had been dashed with the formation of NASA, a civilian agency. Corvin and his three-man team had been replaced by a chimp, which was a shrewd move calculated by Gerson.

Meanwhile, in the present, NASA engineer Sara Holland (Marcia Gay Harden) argues with project manager Gerson regarding conflicting political and engineering concerns over the decaying satellite.

Corvin, initially unwilling to work with Gerson, insists that there is not enough time to train anybody. He proposes to go himself, and he will not go without his old team, 'Team Dædalus': Jerry O'Neill (Sutherland), a skirt-chasing and confident structural engineer who designs roller coasters since abandoning supersonic stealth aircraft; former Air Force pilot-turned crop duster and stubborn risk-taker William "Hawk" Hawkins (Jones); and former navigator "Tank" Sullivan (Garner), who is now a family man and Baptist minister. With no choice, the director agrees, intending to string Corvin along until younger astronauts are up to speed on the system.

The press soon learns of the situation and the four men become celebrities—even appearing on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. The publicity leads to the political head of NASA, the Vice President demanding that they be sent on the mission.

Competitive rivalry between the young astronauts and Team Dædalus continues, while Holland grows fond of Hawkins. During medical tests, Hawk is found to have terminal pancreatic cancer, and has only about eight months left to live. Due to the urgent nature of the mission and since his illness would not impair his effectiveness on the mission, he is deemed flightworthy and put on the mission.

The mission goes ahead with two crews, old and new, flying the space shuttle. They capture the satellite, but discover that it is not what they thought it was. It is in fact armed with six nuclear missiles (which are aimed at strategic American installations in large metropolitan areas,) a dangerous and still active relic of the Cold War and a clear Soviet violation of the Outer Space Treaty; the reason the Russians were so eager to repair it was that its return to Earth's atmosphere would cause it to launch the missiles. The team also learns that the system the satellite uses (from SkyLab) was stolen by the KGB from Gerson's personal files. The team decides to use the payload-assist rockets that the shuttle is carrying in order to push the satellite out of Earth orbit into deep space.

Ethan Glance (Loren Dean), one of the younger astronauts, follows Gerson's secret orders to try to move IKON into a stable orbit by himself. He connects the PAM rockets against Corvin's orders, accidentally activating the satellite, and is incapacitated in the process. It collides with the shuttle, causing extensive damage, and then prepares to launch its missiles. Roger Hines (Courtney B. Vance), the shuttle pilot, is seriously injured in the collision, leaving the four senior astronauts to handle the crisis.

Corvin and Hawkins first deactivate the satellite. They then discover that there are not enough undamaged rockets to stabilize its now rapidly-deteriorating orbit. With time running out, they improvise, deciding to use the satellite's own missiles' rockets to push it away. There is only one hitch: somebody has to go along to manually launch the missiles at the right time to ensure they do not enter an Earth-bound trajectory. Hawk makes the choice to complete the suicide run, reasoning that he is the best pilot of the group and is dying anyway. He aims for the Moon, his lifelong ambition.

Meanwhile, the rest of the crew on the shuttle are not out of danger. The shuttle's computers are not responding and most of the propulsion systems are damaged, with the only functional one leaking fuel. NASA controllers decide to have the crew bring the shuttle as low as possible, then abandon ship and let it crash into the Atlantic Ocean. Corvin performs a de-orbit burn successfully as the space shuttle rides the atmosphere, gaining heat and starting to break up. He makes it safely through, and flies to Florida, where he has Jerry see that the younger astronauts have safely parachuted out. Tank refuses to leave him on the shuttle, as does Jerry. Corvin, who trained to fly 'by the seat of his pants', eventually performs a perfect landing at the Kennedy Space Center, despite all the damage that the shuttle suffered, including a complete computer failure.

Corvin and his wife Barbara (Barbara Babcock) stand by a fountain at night, staring at the Moon, hoping that Hawk has made it there. The Moon's surface is shown, where Hawk's body is slouched against a rock in a sitting position, a trail of footprints leading from the crashed satellite, and the Earth reflected in his visor.

Cast

• Clint Eastwood as Colonel Frank Corvin, Ph.D., USAF (Ret.)
• Tommy Lee Jones as Colonel William "Hawk" Hawkins, USAF (Ret.)
• Donald Sutherland as Captain Jerry O'Neill, USAF (Ret.)
• James Garner as Captain the Reverend "Tank" Sullivan, USAF (Ret.)
• James Cromwell as Bob Gerson
• Marcia Gay Harden as Sara Holland
• William Devane as Eugene "Gene" Davis
• Loren Dean as Ethan Glance
• Courtney B. Vance as Roger Hines
• Rade Šerbedžija as General Vostow
• Barbara Babcock as Mrs. Barbara Corvin
• Blair Brown as Dr. Anne Caruthers
• Jay Leno as Himself
• Toby Stephens as Young Frank Corvin in 1958
• Eli Craig as Young "Hawk" Hawkins in 1958
• John Mallory Asher as Young Jerry O'Neill in 1958
• Matt McColm as Young "Tank" Sullivan in 1958
• Billie Worley as Young Bob Gerson in 1958
• Jon Hamm as Young Pilot
• Chris Wylde as Jason the birthday boy

Production

Filming started in July 1999 and lasted three months. Scenes were filmed on location at the Houston, Texas Johnson Space Center and the Cape Canaveral, Florida Kennedy Space Center. Interior shots of the flight simulator, shuttle, and mission control were filmed on sets at Warner Brothers.

Although the "young" portrayals of the characters in the flashback are made by different actors than those of their "older" counterparts, the voices are those of the "older" actors.

Reception

Space Cowboys was well received and holds a 79% rating at Rotten Tomatoes. On Metacritic the film has a 73 out of 100 indicating "Generally favorable reviews". The film received a moderately favorable review from Roger Ebert: "it's too secure within its traditional story structure to make much seem at risk — but with the structure come the traditional pleasures as well." The film grossed over $90 million in its United States release, more than Eastwood's two previous films—True Crime and Absolute Power—combined.

Bibliography

• Hughes, Howard (2009). Aim for the Heart. London: I.B. Tauris. ISBN 9781845119027. 

External links

• Space Cowboys at the Internet Movie Database
• Space Cowboys at AllRovi