Space Cowboys - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[jeffrey]

"Hawk" Hawkins (Tommy Lee Jones) is introduced feet-first, as the camera moves around the corner of the building, and he is seen seated in a reclining position. The movie ends with a nearly identical arrangement, where the camera pans around the corner of the wreckage on the Moon, and he is once again seen with his feet first then body reclining in death on the ground face up positioned towards the Earth.

[kyle]

The interview with Jay Leno was filmed in front of a real Tonight Show audience. Leno made monologue jokes about Viagra, Matlock (1986), and prostate problems. Leno ad-libbed with the actors like he would in a real interview.

[camila]

James Garner's character is named "Tank" Sullivan. Sixteen years earlier, Tank (1984) which also featured James Cromwell (who plays Bob Gerson here) in one of his earliest movie roles.

[oscar]

According to Editor Joel Cox, Clint Eastwood, a notoriously quick director, would routinely film as many as thirty-five to forty set-ups in a single day.

[victoria]

Clint Eastwood, James Garner, Tommy Lee Jones, and Donald Sutherland are all playing characters in the same age demographic. In actuality, only Eastwood and Garner are close in age, while Sutherland, and especially Jones, are too young to have been astronaut pilots in 1958, as mentioned in the script.

[tom]

A 1/22 scale miniature model of IKON was used for the space scenes, shot in front of a black tarp.

[maureen]

Warren Beatty was considered for the role of Frank Corvin.

[melinda]

Clint Eastwood pilots helicopters, but he's never had a desire to go into space. "To me, that's claustrophobic as hell."

[jesus]

In earlier scenes, the voices of Tommy Lee Jones, James Garner, Donald Sutherland, and Clint Eastwood were dubbed over the younger actors' real voices.

[chris]

James Garner and Tommy Lee Jones have played the role of Woodrow Call. Jones played the role in Lonesome Dove (1989) and Garner in the follow-up, Streets of Laredo (1995).

[cameron]

N.A.S.A. trainer Yvonne Cagle helped teach the actors how to use all of the training equipment. She recalled, "I learned a thing or two from them. They came prepared."

[manuel]

The original script called for the IKON orbital weapons platform to be a top secret N.A.S.A. project. N.A.S.A. refused to cooperate with the production, unless the script was changed to depict N.A.S.A. as having no involvement in placing weapons in orbit.

[eli]

The night scenes where "Hawk" Hawkins (Tommy Lee Jones) and Sara Holland (Marcia Gay Harden) are alone together was filmed in the University of Houston - Downtown campus satellite parking lot. Permission from the university was needed to film the night scenes. Clint Eastwood met with UHD President Dr. Maximillian Castillo in person in late 1998 before filming began.

[beth]

Clint Eastwood was initially just going to star in and produce this movie, not direct it. After potential directors thought filming space travel would be too difficult, he decided to do it himself.

[stephanie]

There seems to be a running gag going on with the word "Tank". James Garner played a character here called "Tank" Sullivan. Garner also played the lead role in Tank (1984). Clint Eastwood fought a character called "Tank Murdoch" in Every Which Way but Loose (1978) and Donald Sutherland played a Tank commander called "Oddball" in Kelly's Heroes (1970), a movie which also starred Clint Eastwood.