The film then jumps thirty years and brings you to present time. Trouble makes its way back to these men when a satellite makes an unscheduled decent out of orbit due to electrical failure. To make matters worse, these old-timers from pre-NASA are the only ones still alive that are familiar with the obsolete electrical systems. NASA determines the only one that can fix it is the man who created it: Frank Corvin (played by Clint Eastwood). NASA's project head just happens to be the very same man who fired them thirty years earlier. Not good situations considering that Corvin and Gerson have never gotten along, even during the rocket experiments. You might say that they are archenemies. The natural conclusion here, of course, is that Gerson has no other choice but to contact Corvin. Once he reaches an agreement with Corvin, all the men come back to finally make their first mission into space.
I will not take any more of your time summarizing. The point to all of that is to illustrate that the plot is simple, yet effective. There are a lot of seemingly obvious turns and twists in the plot. I would stop short of calling it predictable. The ending to the film is unexpected. The humor and camaraderie carries the film at first, finishing with suspense and drama to pull you in. Do not think for one second that the story is slow-paced. The plot builds slowly, and if you pay attention, you will pick up the clues. As I mentioned however, the humor keeps up the pace during this time.
Over all, it is a fast paced comedy with plenty of action. Man can these guys move too. With the magic of Hollywood, these senior actors get to do things they ordinarily would not. Where this element comes into play is during the strenuous physical exams. You get to see just enough to give you a sense of what they are going through, but not enough to see how they actually do it. In this respect, you must use theatrical convention to believe what is happening to the characters.
Despite any flaws, I rather enjoyed the movie. It was such a pleasure seeing these men come together as a team. As far as movie quality is concerned, it may lack for some folks. With a rising and falling plot, the climax and resulting dénouement can occur at any point in a story. Some plots start with the climax and work their way back. Others have a perfectly symmetrical structure in that the peak comes right in the middle. For the story in this film, you see the climax quite late in the film. Because I noticed the carefully laid clues, that did not bother me. Additionally, the physical duress of these older men may be a bit of a stretch for some. My recommendation to you is to watch the film only if you truly enjoy what these four artistic veterans bring to the art of acting. In other words, any fan of these actors can appreciate their work in this film.
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