Space Cowboys
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| Space Cowboys | |
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 Space Cowboys movie poster |
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| 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 |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | August 4, 2000 |
| Running time | 130 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $65,000,000 |
| IMDb profile | |
Space Cowboys is a 2000 film by Clint Eastwood, released by Warner Bros., about four aged ex-astronauts who are sent into space to repair an old satellite.
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[edit] Plot Summary
An ancient Russian communications satellite is about to fall out of orbit, and NASA agrees to deal with it. The onboard systems are so archaic that nobody at NASA understands them, so they ask retired engineer Dr. Corvin (Clint Eastwood), who designed the original systems from which the satellite has been copied (actually stolen by the KGB), to help them, despite the longstanding animosity between the engineer and project director Bob Gersen (James Cromwell). A flashback reveals that 40 years ago, Corvin's trip into space was cancelled by Gerson (he was replaced by a chimp).
Corvin insists that there is not enough time to train anybody; he proposes going himself, and he will not go without his old team, O'Neill (Donald Sutherland), 'Hawk' Hawkings (Tommy Lee Jones), and Sullivan (James Garner) . With no choice, the director agrees. Gerson intends to string Corvin along until younger astronauts are up to speed on the system. But the press soon learns of the situation, and the four men become celebrities - even appearing on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. They become so popular that Gerson is forced to actually send them on the mission by the Vice President of the United States. 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 he won't be impaired, he is sent anyway.
The mission goes ahead with two crews, old and new. When they capture the satellite, they discover that it is not what they thought it was; instead, it is a dangerous relic of the Cold War, armed with nuclear missiles (something Gersen knew all along). It is decided to use the payload assist rockets the space shuttle Daedalus is carrying to push the satellite out of Earth orbit into deep space.
But then Ethan (Loren Dean), one of the young hotshot astronauts, follows Gersen's secret orders to try to move it into a stable orbit by himself. He accidentally activates the satellite, getting knocked out in the process. It collides with Daedalus, causing extensive damage, and then prepares to launch its missiles. Roger (Courtney B. Vance), the shuttle pilot, is seriously injured in the collision, leaving the four senior citizens 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 motors to push it away. There's only one hitch: somebody has to go along to manually launch the missiles at the right time to ensure they cannot hit the Earth. Hawk is the obvious choice, since he is the best pilot and is dying anyway. He aims for the Moon, his life's ambition.
Meanwhile, the rest of the crew is 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. (See Space Shuttle abort modes). Corvin has other ideas; he safely ejects the unconscious youngsters, but is unable to talk his old friends into doing the same. He then makes a perfect landing on the runway by the seat of his pants, despite all the damage.
The movie ends with Corvin and his wife Barbara (Barbara Babcock) looking at the Moon. She wonders if Hawk made it; he thinks he did. The final scene shows that Hawk actually managed to land on the Moon and, sitting against a boulder, gazed at the Earth until his air ran out.
[edit] Cast
- Clint Eastwood .... Dr. Frank Corvin
- Tommy Lee Jones .... Col. William 'Hawk' Hawkins
- Donald Sutherland .... Jerry O'Neill
- James Garner .... Reverend 'Tank' Sullivan
- James Cromwell .... Bob Gerson
- Marcia Gay Harden .... Sara Holland
- William Devane .... Eugene 'Gene' Davis
- Loren Dean .... Ethan Glance
- Courtney B. Vance .... Roger Hines
- Rade Serbedzija .... General Vostow
- Barbara Babcock .... Mrs. Barbara Corvin
- Blair Brown .... Dr. Anne Caruthers
- Jay Leno .... Himself
[edit] Trivia
- The space shuttle set was reused in 2005 for the British television series Space Cadets. It was made slightly larger than the real shuttle in order to accommodate Clint Eastwood's height.
- Eastwood, Jones, Sutherland, and Garner all appeared as their Space Cowboys characters on an actual episode of the Tonight Show with Jay Leno as part of the film.
- The movie featured a sanitized version of Alan Shepard's "prayer" that was recited by James Garner's character just before the shuttle launch. The original version of the "prayer" was "Please, dear God, don't let me fuck up."
- The "Space Cowboys" team are somewhat based on the test pilots of the 50's based at Edwards AFB, like Chuck Yeager and Scott Crossfield, which were anonymously flying test aircraft at great risk when the NASA Mercury Program took away their prestige. Two chimpanzees were in fact launched in Mercury capsules, one before Alan Shepard's flight and another before John Glenn's.
- If you look closely at Daedalus when it lands, you might notice that it is actually the Space Shuttle Columbia. But in a subsequent shot the name on the side of the shuttle then says Daedalus.
