Space Cowboys (2000) | Sci-Fi Saturdays

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How is it that not one of these characters is called Maurice, the gangster of love?

Some people call them Space Cowboys, but others may just call them old men. The film takes a look at some of the realities of the space program, the aging process, and getting one more shot at a life-long dream.

First Impressions

After a black and white sequence of young, hot shot air force pilots who didn’t make it into the space program, the film switches to present day to find four “geriatric” men that are the only hope to take a space shuttle into orbit and stop a Russian satellite from crashing into the Earth. Cue the obligatory jokes about their age. On the shuttle they encounter some problems with the satellite, and it will be up to Clint Eastwood to get them down safely. At least that’s what the trailer for Space Cowboys seems to depict. Let’s light this candle!

Presented below is the trailer for the film.

The Fiction of The Film

In 1958, two pilots, Frank Corvin (Toby Stephens) and Hawk Hawkins (Eli Craig), eject from the X-2 experimental plane before it crashes. Frank becomes upset at Hawk for pushing the ship beyond its limits, and the two are forced to endure a press conference where Bob Gerson (Billie Worley) announces the formation of NASA and its first astronaut, a chimpanzee named Mary Ann. In the present day, the Russian communications satellite, Ikon, is failing and will crash to Earth in 30-40 days.

NASA project manager Bob Gerson (James Cromwell) and engineer Sara Holland (Marcia Gay Harden) are tasked with a mission to repair it in orbit. Frank Corvin (Clint Eastwood), now retired from service, is brought back in to help understand the schematics of the satellite. He resents Gerson for taking credit for his work, and will only help if the men from his Team Daedalus program in the 50s get the chance to take the space shuttle and perform the work themselves.  Gerson is angered but relents.

Frank gathers his team that includes Baptist preacher Tank Sullivan (James Garner), roller coaster designer Jerry O’Neill (Donald Sutherland), and of course Hawk Hawkins (Tommy Lee Jones). As long as the men pass physicals and train with the existing astronauts they are guaranteed a spot on the mission. However, Gerson plans to use Frank to train his men and then scrub him prior to the launch date. Frank has trouble being a team player, especially with his younger counterpart Ethan Glance (Loren Dean).

Frank discovers Gerson ruse, but by that time the PR from scrubbing him would be disastrous–as all the men are admired by the public. Hawk begins dating Sara, but soon finds out that he has pancreatic cancer, and can’t go. Frank goes to bat for him. Either they all go on the mission or none of them go. Hawk can’t believe that Frank and his friends would risk their one chance for space flight for him.

After a standard launch, the shuttle approaches Ikon which arms defenses when scanned by radar. The team realizes that the satellite has been reconfigured to carry six ICBM missiles with nuclear warheads. Frank aborts the mission, but Ethan chooses to disobey the order and attempts to complete the mission. He accidentally sends the satellite into a spin, knocking himself unconscious and crashing it into the shuttle. Roger Hines (Courtney B. Vance), the sixth member of the team is knocked unconscious as well.

Hawk says the only way for them to survive is for him to sacrifice himself and launch the satellite towards the moon, using the ICBM rockets. With time running out Frank agrees, and the two part as friends. With limited engines and major systems damage, the remaining team enters the atmosphere. They jettison Ethan and Roger with parachutes, but Tank and Jerry stay with Frank who makes a manual landing saving the ship and the rest of his team. The film ends with the sounds of Frank Sinatra’s “Fly Me To The Moon,” as the camera zeros in on the moon and the wreckage of Ikon; with Hawk’s limp form sitting on a rock watching the Earth rise.

“She’s only happy going fast. It’s not meant to sit. That’s a lousy way to die, just sitting around waiting….” – Hawk Hawkins

History in the Making

The title Space Cowboys seems like one that elicits a rip-roaring adventure, like some 60s or 70s action film It evokes an old West motif and a film like The Magnificent Seven, but in space. In reality the films’ reference to cowboys is that of an older generation of astronauts that play less by the rules, and more by the seat of their pants. It shows that this older generation of potential astronauts were making a lot of it up as they went along. In comparison, the current crop of astronauts are trained to follow orders and procedures strictly, which ends up causing some difficulties with the mission. The film shows that there needs to be a balance between these two mindsets, and generations.

Space Cowboys was the first (and only) sci-fi film directed by Clint Eastwood, which includes the 1982 extremely-near-sci-fi film Firefox. Eastwood’s films–whether directed or acted–usually revolve around real-world situations and characters. This film too revolves around real-world events up to a point, but then creates an alternate reality that necessitates these four older men saving the world from a daring space disaster. Promoted with a lighthearted and jokey attitude towards the age of these famous actors, the film does make plenty of jokes at their expense. Even in 2000, the average age of action heroes was probably in their late 30s, with actors like Schwarzenegger and Stallone aging into their 50s, and younger action-oriented actors (Tom Cruise, Jason Statham, Vin Diesel) taking their place.

The average real-life age of the characters in this film was 65 years old. James Garner was the oldest at 72, followed by Clint Eastwood at 70, Donald Sutherland at 65, and Tommy Lee Jones coming in at a youthful 53. However, Jones seemed older than his age, as he often played a more acerbic and cantankerous fellow. Perhaps the idea for this film came from the real-life mission of STS-95 in which former astronaut (and test pilot) John Glenn became the oldest person to fly in space at the age of 77. As with the film, Glenn submitted to the mandate that he pass the same physical examination the younger astronauts took. And on January 16, 1998, Glenn got his chance to return to space. Not for any recovery mission, but to perform photography and also take part in some experiments on the effect of the elderly in space. He gets a shout-out in the film, along with Neil Armstrong and Alan Shepard, as one of the pioneers of space flight–and also a joke regarding Frank’s age when he comments that he too should be able to go into space, since they already “sent up Glenn.”

Genre-fication

In the sliding-scale of science-fiction films, Space Cowboys definitely falls on the more realistic side. It is in the realm of hard sci-fi with films that depict actual science and rocketry conceits in a factual way. Only The Martian is probably a more accurate portrayal of NASA procedures and the effects of being in space, while a film like Interstellar focuses more on the speculative nature of the future of mankind. Calling Space Cowboys sci-fi might seem odd to many, as there’s nothing of the traditional tropes associated with the genre. Mission to Mars, reviewed the other week, had similar realistic elements to space travel, but included alien civilizations and faster-than-light travel, two things that Space Cowboys steers clear of.

So why include Space Cowboys in these articles and not other films like Firefox or Apollo 13? For one thing, which I think many may already guess, is a film like Apollo 13 is not really science-fiction. It’s at best a docudrama, which retells real-life events from April 1970 with a minimum of additional drama. For Firefox, it’s one of those films that creates futuristic/sci-fi elements in the real-world, but functions mainly as an espionage film. The Mission: Impossible franchise falls into this mold as well. The gadgets and tech seen in the films are advanced and beyond those currently available, but does not focus on them as integral to the plot.

As stated earlier, Space Cowboys is almost an alternate reality type of sci-fi film. It’s a world where Alan Shepard was the first American in space, John Glenn ​​was the first American to orbit the Earth, and Neil Armstrong was the first man to set foot on the moon. But there were also these four other potential astronauts, test pilots in Team Daedalus, one of whom worked on the Skylab station, that never made the space program, but still yearned to go into space. The “what if” of the film is that they are the exact people needed to fix the problem. It’s a take on Armageddon, in a way, where the characters of the film fit the exact needs of NASA to solve the problem. It just happens that it’s a decaying satellite that threatens the Earth, rather than a rogue asteroid.

Societal Commentary

The biggest asset of Space Cowboys is that it reminds audiences that older people can still lead an active and vibrant life. Most media depictions of older characters are lecherous, evil villains or doddering, kindly mentors. They are not action heroes. It was uncommon to see older actors in these types of roles. Just recall that one of the “old” people of the sci-fi film Cocoon was Wilford Brimley, aged 51. That’s the same age as Tom Cruise was when he was making Edge of Tomorrow, Jack Reacher and his Mission: Impossible films. Age is only a number, and one that doesn’t indicate merit, intelligence, or stamina any longer. Frank Corvin is depicted as still sexually active with his wife, while Jerry O’Neill is out riding roller coasters, and Hawk is doing zero-g stunts in his plane (as well as getting busy with a woman 13 years his junior)!

It is also a film that points out that experience is just as important as skill and book learning. The example the film uses depicts Hawk crashing the shuttle simulator in an attempt to fly by feel. This is something he is able to intuit as a former test pilot, presumably from the sheer number of hours in the cockpit. He asks to go again, this time with a computer failure–something that Ethan says never happens. He is able to make the decisions on the best way to land the shuttle without the guidance of a computer telling him when and how to fly. Later Ethan makes a mistake that puts the mission and astronauts lives at risk. In his cocky attempt to follow the mission plan, without thinking through new variables and unknown consequences, he ignites a booster that damages the shuttle. Frank tries to warn him against this, using his judgment and experience as a gauge for how things might go wrong.

The final aspect of aging that the film attempts to impart is in regard to death with dignity. Hawk finds out that he has inoperable pancreatic cancer. He survived watching his wife go through chemo and other treatments which didn’t change her outcome. He swears he will not go through that himself. Hawk’s sacrifice is a choice he makes in order to both save his friends (and the mission) but also meet his death on his own terms. Not only did he get to go to space, a life long dream for him, but he also manages to make it to the moon. It’s a little unclear if the shot of Hawk in the final moments is meant to be alive (I don’t think he actually survived the crash on the moon), but his body staring back at the Earth at least puts him at peace as a man who died doing what he loves.

The Science in The Fiction

Space Cowboys was made with the cooperation of NASA, being allowed to film at both the Johnson Space Center in Houston and the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. These locations add an air of authenticity to the film, pulling it closer to the science rather than the fiction. The opening scenes show the early precursors to astronauts as the test pilots fly experimental planes, just as with the scenes from The Right Stuff. Early aviators tested many of the elements that eventually went into the creation of the first manned flights to outer space and the moon. Gerson holds a press conference announcing the Air Force’s dissolution in testing, and the creation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, which actually took place in 1958. He introduces Mary Ann, a monkey that is to be one of the first astronauts. And while there was no primate named Mary Ann in the space program, apes and monkeys had been used for experimental purposes since Albert I, in 1948.

The film does a good job of depicting the reality of space, as best it can, in terms of accurate scientific laws. The g-forces of liftoff, coupled with the weightlessness of space are presented as have been seen in newsreels and films like The Right Stuff or Apollo 13. When the characters use their propulsion suits, or when an explosion happens, the conservation of momentum is applied in a realistic way. Later, as the shuttle re-enters the atmosphere, the characters are concerned about the trajectory angle, which if too steep will cause them to skip off the atmosphere like a stone on a pond. These moments make the film seem more grounded in our reality than a standard science-fiction film, yet still creating a sometimes thrilling adventure sequence.

The Final Frontier

The biggest flaw in the film is the lack of accountability for the antagonists in the film. Bob Gerson is a less than upstanding character, always taking credit for other people’s work, most notably Frank’s. He colluded with the Russian general, portrayed by “bad guy” character actor Rade Serbedzija, to keep the true nature of the satellite’s missile platform quiet in hopes that maybe no one will notice. This appears to be driven by the fact that the satellite is based on Frank’s designs for Skylab, which were stolen from Gerson’s desk (one interpretation of the film is that he sold the blueprints to the Russians). When the truth comes to light, Gerson publicly accuses the General of not being forthcoming about Ikon, allowing him to sidestep responsibility. It would have been nice to have at least one scene of the FBI coming to “talk” to Gerson at the end of the film.

Also, can we talk about how the name Daedalus is the worst moniker for a test pilot team. Readers of Greek mythology will remember that Daedalus was the father of Icarus whose wings melted from flying too close to the sun. This seems a little extreme, but he was also a skilled craftsman, who built the Labyrinth of Crete which housed the minotaur. So maybe his skills were not so poorly received. Space Cowboys is a film that works differently for audiences depending on their age. When the film came out, 23 years ago, I laughed at the possibility of such a story. How would it be possible for them to do the things that are needed in space? Clint Eastwood was, of course, cool even at the time with his gruff demeanor. But the film seemed a little preposterous. Watching the film now, there’s still that level of preposterousness, but it’s much easier to side with the betrayal that Eastwood’s character feels. Now, I’m with Clint when he tells Gerson off! I enjoy seeing strong portrayals of aged actors kicking ass and not putting up with BS. It reminds us that we all have a limited time on the planet, but we can all choose how to live our best lives and contribute to humanity, even after joining AARP.

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