August 1, 2000
Space Cowboys is a 2000 American adventure drama film directed and produced by Clint Eastwood. It stars Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland, and James Garner as four aging former test pilots who are sent into space to repair an old Soviet satellite. It was theatrically released on August 4, 2000, received positive reviews from critics, and was a box-office success.
Storyline
In 1958, two U.S. Air Force pilots and aspiring astronauts William "Hawk" Hawkins and Frank Corvin are testing a modified Bell X-2 when Hawk decides to break speed and altitude records. The plane stalls and they are forced to eject, narrowly missing a Boeing B-50 Superfortress flying with navigator "Tank" Sullivan. On the ground, Frank punches Hawk, but their fight is broken up by flight engineer Jerry O'Neill. Their boss, Bob Gerson, chastises Hawk before taking them to a press conference, where he announces that the newly created NASA, rather than the USAF, will be conducting space flight tests.
In the present day, NASA is tasked with preventing a Soviet communications satellite, IKON, from decaying out of orbit and crashing to Earth because of the uplink loss. The satellite's archaic electronics are based on those of Skylab that Frank had developed. Bob, now a project manager at NASA, requests Frank's help. Frank still despises Bob, but agrees provided he has the help of "Team Daedalus" including Hawk, Tank, and Jerry. Bob plans to have younger astronauts shadow the four, so as to replace them before launch. When the press learn of Frank's team, the Vice President convinces Bob that they must be part of the mission for publicity. The old and young teams soon work together, with the older astronauts showing off skills learned without the aid of onboard computers.
The Space Shuttle Daedalus finds the satellite. It is not a communication satellite but in fact houses six nuclear missiles, relics from the Cold War and a violation of the Outer Space Treaty. Frank discovers that the satellite control system was stolen from Bob's files by the KGB, and without a control signal from the ground via the damaged uplink, the satellite's computers will consider that ground control was wiped out by a nuclear strike and launch the missiles in retaliation at predetermined targets that are now close to major cities. NASA and the crew plan to use the payload-assist rockets to push the satellite into deep space, and therefore prevent the nuclear launch. However, one of the younger astronauts, Ethan Glance, acting under Bob's original orders, tries to put the satellite into stable orbit himself. His unjustifiable hubris 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 into a faster decaying orbit, while Ethan is knocked out and dragged along with the satellite.
While Tank and Jerry tend to the other young astronaut Roger Hines, who suffered a concussion on the impact, Frank and Hawk space walk to the satellite in time to activate a booster rocket and slow the orbit's decay. While wasting time on the unredeemable Ethan, they realize that the only option is to have someone ride on the satellite as they fire the missiles' engines so that it escapes into deep space. Hawk, who was recently widowed and who has eight months to live from pancreatic cancer, sacrifices himself, hoping that he will be able to land on the Moon to fulfill his life's dream.
Frank, Tank, and Jerry now plan to bring the shuttle down over water since landing it would be difficult, but the shuttle comes in too fast. They safely bail out Roger and, for some reason, Ethan. Tank and Jerry then stay with Frank regardless of the risk. Frank recalls a maneuver Hawk had used before, purposely increasing the shuttle's angle in the flare to bring the aircraft near a stall, thus allowing the shuttle to drop its speed quickly and allowing him to land the shuttle safely.
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 not only landed there before he died, but survived long enough to lie against a rock formation, looking back at Earth.
Sound Effects Used
- Hollywoodedge, Bird Hawk Single Scre PE020801/Hawk Screech Single AT082901
- Hollywoodedge, Chimpanzee Screeche PE026201
- Hollywoodedge, Police Whooper Siren CT062101
- Hollywoodedge, Rapid Midrange Beeps PE190101
- Hollywoodedge, Whistling Wind Mediu PE032901/Wind Cold Whistle BT022801
- SKYWALKER, ELECTRICITY - ARTOO'S ELECTRIC ZAP
- SKYWALKER, ELECTRICITY - BIG VARIOUS SPARKINGS
- SKYWALKER, ELECTRICITY - PULSE SHRIEK 01 (Heard once in a low pitch)
- SKYWALKER, ELECTRICITY - SINGLE SPARK CHIRP 02
- SKYWALKER, EXPLOSION - CONCUSSIVE BLAST
- SKYWALKER HIGH-PITCHED POW SOUND
- SKYWALKER, METAL - LATCH CLANKING
- SKYWALKER, MUSIC - DOLBY SYNTH SAMPLE
- SKYWALKER, SCI-FI - EVE'S GUN TELEMETRY
- SKYWALKER, SCI-FI GUN - PADME'S BLASTER PISTOL
- SKYWALKER, TRANSFORM - PAIN AND PANIC TRANSFORMING
- SKYWALKER, WHOOSH - BIG WHOOSH ELEMENTS
- SoundDogs, Electric - Sparks & Hum - C U - Series Of Amazingly Creaky Sparks And Reverberant Decay
- Sound Ideas, BIRD, CROW - COMMON CROW: CALLS, ANIMAL
- Sound Ideas, FROG - EVENING FROG AMBIENCE: SMALL GROUP CROAKING, ANIMAL, AMPHIBIAN 02
- Sound Ideas, TELEPHONE, CELLULAR - CELLULAR FLIP PHONE: CLEAR BEEP 02
- Sound Ideas, TELEPHONE, ELECTRONIC - ELECTRONIC 2: RINGING, OFFICE