Space Cowboys



Space Cowboys is a 2000 American space drama film directed and produced by Clint Eastwood. It stars Eastwood, 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.

Plot
In 1958, two U.S. Air Force pilots and aspiring astronauts, William "Hawk" Hawkins (Tommy Lee Jones) and Frank Corvin (Clint Eastwood), are testing a modified X-plane when Hawk decides to try to break a height record. The plane stalls and they are forced to eject, narrowly missing a B-50 Superfortress piloted by navigator "Tank" Sullivan (James Garner) as they parachute to safety. On the ground, Frank punches Hawk for putting their lives at risk, but their fight is broken up by engineer Jerry O'Neill (Donald Sutherland). Their supervising officer, Bob Gerson (James Cromwell), chastises Hawk for his recklessness, before taking them to a press conference, where it is announced that the Air Force will no longer be involved in space flight tests as this has now been handed off to the newly created NASA, ending the four's dreams of reaching space.

In the present day, NASA is tasked to prevent a Soviet communications satellite, IKON, from decaying out of orbit and crashing to earth. The design of the satellite's electronics are archaic and based on those of Skylab that Frank had developed. Bob, now a project manager at NASA, sends astronaut Sara Holland (Marcia Gay Harden) to request Frank's help. Frank is initially hostile as he still despises Bob, but agrees to put aside his differences to help with the current situation. However, Frank insists that he have the help of his "Team Daedalus" including Hawk, Tank, and Jerry. Bob agrees to this, though discreetly plans to have younger astronauts shadow the four and learn from them so as to replace Frank's team before launch. When the press learn of Frank's team, however, the Vice President convinces Bob that Frank's team must be part of the mission for good publicity. The old and young teams, though initially competitive, soon work together, with the older astronauts showing off skills learned without the aid of a computer. As they train and undergo examinations, Hawk is found to have pancreatic cancer and given only eight months to live, but is still considered flight-worthy.

The launch is scheduled, and the space shuttle Daedalus successfully launches into orbit. They find the satellite but all agree it looks nothing like a communication satellite. They secure the satellite with the shuttle's loading arm and begin repairs, but soon find it houses six nuclear missiles, relics from the Cold War and a violation of the Outer Space Treaty. The mission is quickly put under secrecy. Frank discovers that the control system for the satellite originated from Bob's own files and was stolen by the KGB, and that the satellite's computers will launch the missiles at predetermined targets if the satellite falls out of orbit. NASA and the crew devise a plan to use the payload-assist rockets to push the satellite out of orbit and into deep space. However, as they prepare for this maneuver, one of the younger astronauts, Ethan Glance (Loren Dean), acting under Bob's original orders, tries to put the satellite into stable orbit himself, which is mistimed and sets off a chain reaction: the satellite collides with the shuttle, damaging most of the shuttle's computer systems and engines, destroying the solar panels on the satellite, and sending it faster into a decay orbit, while Ethan is knocked out and dragged along with the satellite.

While Tank and Jerry tend to the other young astronaut Roger Hines (Courtney B. Vance), who suffered a concussion on the impact, Frank and Hawk make a space walk and reach the satellite in time to activate a booster rocket and slow down the orbit. As they see to Ethan, the two realize that there is no way to restablize the orbit of the satellite without power, and the only option is to have someone ride on the satellite as they fire the missiles' engines so that it falls into deep space. Hawk quickly volunteers to sacrifice himself, hoping that he will be able to land himself on the moon to fulfill his life's dream. After helping Hawk to rig the satellite for launch, Frank takes Ethan back to the shuttle to be tended to. Frank, Tank, and Jerry say their goodbyes to Hawk as he engages the rockets, successfully propelling the missiles away from earth.

Frank, Tank, and Jerry now work to bring the shuttle back to earth, with the plan to achieve a low enough altitude to allow the shuttle to be evacuated over water since landing it would be difficult. Frank successfully pilots the shuttle to reenter orbit but with too fast a speed. After safely ejecting Ethan and Roger, Tank and Jerry stay with Frank regardless of the risk. Frank recalls a maneuver Hawk had used before, purposely stalling the shuttle to drop its speed quickly and allowing him to land the shuttle safely. The crew is welcomed back as heroes. Later, Frank talks with his wife Barbara and contemplates if Hawk made it to the Moon. The film ends with the Frank Sinatra song "Fly Me to the Moon", zooming in on the surface of the Moon showing that Hawk had indeed arrived, having died while peacefully watching the Earth.

Cast

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

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

The "1958" portrayals of the characters are filmed with younger actors dubbed by their older counterparts.

The original music score was composed by longtime Eastwood collaborator Lennie Niehaus.

Box office
The film grossed over $90 million in its United States release, more than Eastwood's two previous films&mdash;True Crime and Absolute Power&mdash;combined.

Critical response
Space Cowboys was well received by critics. Rotten Tomatoes gives it a score of 78% based on reviews from 119 critics.

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 &mdash; but with the structure come the traditional pleasures as well."

Accolades
At the 73rd Academy Awards ceremony, the film was nominated for Best Sound Editing.