Space Cowboys uses common perceptions of the aged in our favor, either celebrating the wisdom of experience or finding humor in Jerry's enduring sexual potency and the fact that many of the crew's contemporaries are dead. They also realize the potential offered by the geriatric angle.
Next comes training sessions, bonding against the odds and, finally, the mission.Įastwood and screenwriters Ken Kaufman and Howard Klausner know the routine. First, the ringleader must visit each partner individually, learning their new quirks or rehashing old grudges. Space Cowboys follows the pattern of every buddy-mission movie from Ocean's 11 to The Longest Yard. They are, as a USA Today headline about their assignment declares, the Ripe Stuff. Donald Sutherland plays Jerry O'Neill, a pony-tailed ladies' man, and James Garner is 'Tank' Sullivan, an easy-going navigator. 'Hawk' Hawkins (Tommy Lee Jones) is a cantankerous Texan and Frank's friendly rival.
Frank must round up his former team of rocket jockeys to stage a repair mission. Now, that satellite is expected to crash to Earth. He stayed around long enough to design a guidance system for Skylab, technology that somehow became incorporated in a Russian satellite. Eastwood has dibs on the lead role of Frank Corvin, a retired Air Force test pilot bypassed in 1958 by America's fledgling space program in favor of a chimpanzee.
