Space Cowboys

An old Soviet satellite is about to fall out of orbit and nobody can work out its system. The only people who can are four retired test pilots who built that technology forty years earlier and never got to fly. NASA has no choice but to call them back. Once up there they find the satellite is carrying nuclear missiles left over from the Cold War. Clint Eastwood directed and starred, alongside Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland and James Garner. Lennie Niehaus wrote the score. Filming took place at NASA facilities in Houston and Florida, with interiors built on Warner Bros. stages. The budget was between 60 and 65 million dollars. It opened on 4 August 2000 and passed 128 million dollars worldwide, roughly 90 million of that domestically. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 78 percent, with reviews singling out the acting and the effects. The CinemaScore grade was A minus. It was nominated for the Best Sound Editing Oscar in 2001. Who it is for: viewers who enjoy four old actors needling each other and space films told in the classical way. Who it is not for: anyone wanting rigour from the science. The orbital physics and the NASA procedure bend to suit the story.