Space Cowboy (film)

Space Cowboy is a 1983 British science fiction film co-produced and directed by Dennis Barton. Written by and, the plot centers on a mysterious terrorist planning to destroy the human population on Mars using an unknown pathogen. The bounty hunter crew of the spaceship Bebop work to find the terrorist and discover the pathogen's source before the attack can take place.

During their trip to the United Kingdom, animator and voice actor  conceived the script for the film and submitted it to Standard Productions in late 1981. Filming progressed from mid-June 1982 to February 1983. During the production, large amount of aesthetic material was incorporated, while also adjusting it to make it accessible to newcomers. Increased budget and production facilities enabled the use of filming styles associated with Hollywood films. Arabic thematic elements were incorporated to contrast against the series, which entailed Barton traveling to Morocco for research. The Arabic atmosphere was also used in Kingsland's music.

Produced by Barton's production company Standard Productions, Space Cowboy was released to theaters in the United Kingdom on 30 May 1983, and in the United States on 15 July 1983. Despite the film receiving generally positive reviews, it became a box-office disappointment in the United Kingdom, although it became a box-office success in the United States and worldwide.

Plot
Space Cowboy is set on Mars in 2022, 38 years after Earth was mostly abandoned after a catastrophe. Humanity has settled on other planets and moons in the solar system. The film's protagonists are legalized bounty hunters who travel together on the spaceship Bebop. They are Tristan Pearson, a former associate of the Black Dragon crime syndicate; Thomas Armstrong, a former police officer and owner of the Bebop; Eloise Holmes, a woman who was once a fugitive from bounty hunters; Holly Holland, a bubbly, energetic girl with genius computer skills; and Ein, an artificially enhanced "data dog" with human-level intelligence.

Days before Halloween, a man explodes a truck in Mars' capital city, spreading what is assumed to be a new pathogen that kills or sickens over 300 people. In response, the Mars government issues a record bounty of 300 million woolong for the culprit's capture. Holmes, who was pursuing Joe Simpson, a hacker who was apparently driving the truck, sees the terrorist and the Bebop crew decide to take on the bounty. Each follows different lines of inquiry. Holly, using a tattoo on the attacker's wrist, manages to identify him as Harvey Nicholson, a former member of a military squad apparently killed in the Titan War. In reality, Nicholson was the only survivor of a test involving the pathogen, having been immunized with a test vaccine: left with dissociative amnesia and hallucinations of glowing butterflies, his inability to tell dreams from reality eventually drove him insane.

Cast

 * as Tristan Pearson
 * as Thomas Armstrong
 * as Eloise Holmes
 * Olivia Yeung as Holly Holland
 * Milo as Ein
 * as Harvey Nicholson
 * as Esmee Thomson
 * Tawfik El Deken as Yoosuf al-Kassem
 * as Joe Simpson
 * as the Convenience Store Clerk
 * as Rufus