Space Cowboys (2000)

Director:

Clint Eastwood

Writers (WGA):

Ken Kaufman (written by) &
Howard Klausner (written by)

Release Date:

4 August 2000 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Comedy | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

Boys will be boys.

Plot:

When a retired engineer is called upon to rescue a failing satellite, he insists that his equally old teammates accompany him into space.

Plot Keywords:

Satellite | Space | NASA | Roller Coaster | Space Shuttle

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 4 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

Clint Eastwood	...	Frank Corvin
Tommy Lee Jones	...	Hawk Hawkins
Donald Sutherland	...	Jerry O'Neill
James Garner	...	Tank Sullivan
James Cromwell	...	Bob Gerson
Marcia Gay Harden	...	Sara Holland
William Devane	...	Eugene Davis
Loren Dean	...	Ethan Glance
Courtney B. Vance	...	Roger Hines
Barbara Babcock	...	Barbara Corvin
Rade Serbedzija	...	General Vostov
Blair Brown	...	Dr. Anne Caruthers
Jay Leno	...	Himself
Nils Allen Stewart	...	Tiny
Deborah Jolly	...	Cocktail Waitress

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for some language.

Runtime:

130 min

Country:

USA | Australia

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Iceland:L | USA:PG-13 (certificate #37575) | Argentina:Atp | Australia:PG | Brazil:Livre | Chile:TE | Denmark:11 | Finland:K-12/9 | France:U | Germany:12 (bw) | Hong Kong:IIA | Netherlands:AL | New Zealand:PG | Norway:11 | Portugal:M/12 | Spain:T | Sweden:11 | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | UK:PG | South Korea:12 | Singapore:PG | Philippines:G

Filming Locations:

Agua Dulce, California, USA

Company:

Clipsal Films

Trivia:

Chosen by "Les Cahiers du cinéma" (France) as one of the 10 best pictures of 2000 (#09)

Goofs:

Factual errors: In the first space walk, Hawk is in free fall (i.e., "floating" in space) when he grabs a large lever and pulls it to open the hatch of the Soviet satellite. Unless he was attached to something massive when he did that, he would have rotated opposite the direction of the lever's rotation. Instead the lever moves but he doesn't. U.S. astronauts are equipped with special tools designed to account for the free fall environment. (The term "floating" is not strictly correct because it is not a fluid's buoyancy that permits astronauts to move freely in orbit. It is because they and the objects near them are constantly falling towards earth but their tangential speed is high enough to keep them in orbit.)

Quotes:

Jason: [to his girlfriend, after his plane ride] I love you, and I love being on the ground.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Making 'Blood Work' (2002) (V)

Soundtrack:

HIT THE ROAD, JACK

You are never too old to have fun

What movie with Clint Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones. James Garner, James Cromwell, Donald Sutherland, and Marcia Gay Harden wouldn't be worth a look. This one has it all, but mostly laughs. This Clint Eastwood produced and directed movie is great simply because the cast doesn't appear to take it seriously. They are just having fun. And special effects? They are better here than other movies like Armageddon and Deep Impact.

If you like movies where people are considered outdated or replaceable and prove the experts wrong, then this is the one. I watch it and keep getting reminded about all those COBOL experts who were back making the big bucks just prior to the millennium change.