Space Cowboys is a 2000 science fiction/adventure/comedy film directed 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
An obsolete Soviet 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 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 reveals that 40 years ago, Corvin's prospects as an astronaut were dashed with the formation of NASA, a civilian agency. Corvin and his three-man team were replaced by a chimp which was a shrewd move calculated by Gerson.
Corvin insists that there is not enough time to train anybody; he proposes going himself, and he will not go without his old team, team Daedalus: Jerry O'Neill (Sutherland), a skirt-chasing structural engineer who designs roller coasters; hot dog former Air Force pilot-turned crop duster 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. 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. 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 considered as flightworthy and put on the mission.
The mission goes ahead with two crews, old and new, flying the space shuttle Daedalus. 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. 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 Daedalus 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 Daedalus, 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 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 do not enter an Earth-bound trajectory. Hawk makes the choice to complete the suicide run, reasoning that since 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 Daedalus 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. (See Space Shuttle abort modes). Corvin performs a de-orbit burn successfully as the space shuttle rides the atmosphere, gaining heat and causing tension. 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 after sending out the "youngsters". Both Jerry and 'Tank" take on their old, test pilot roles, since Corvin can't make them get out of the shuttle. He eventually performs a perfect landing at the Kennedy Space Center, despite all the damage that Daedalus suffered, including a complete computer failure.
The movie ends with Corvin and his wife Barbara (Barbara Babcock) standing by a fountain at night, staring at the Moon, hoping that Hawk made it there. The camera then comes down to the Moon's surface, and zooms in on Hawk's body slouched against a rock in a sitting position, a trail of footprints leading from the crashed satellite, and the Earth reflected in his visor, as Frank Sinatra takes the movie out singing "Fly Me to the Moon".
Cast
Reception
Space Cowboys was well-received and holds a 79% rating at Rotten Tomatoes. 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.”[1]
References
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