The Sci-Fi Movie Harrison Ford Didn’t Understand (But Starred In Anyway)

Actor Harrison Ford has been pretty picky about his roles over the years, carefully choosing roles that suit his cocky charm, but he hasn’t always made perfect choices. While the actor has dozens of truly great movies under his belt, he also has a few stinkers, like historical submarine thriller “K-19: The Widowmaker” and utopia-building drama “The Mosquito Coast,” though Ford has rather thoroughly defended both. There’s one box office bomb that he hasn’t been as effusive about, however, in large part because he was admittedly never on the film’s wavelength. 

The 2011 sci-fi action western “Cowboys & Aliens” had all of the ingredients for major blockbuster box office success. Based on Scott Mitchell Rosenberg’s 2006 Platinum Studios graphic novel of the same name, “Cowboys & Aliens” was directed by Jon Favreau, fresh off the success of the first two “Iron Man” films. It starred Harrison Ford, Daniel Craig, Olivia Wilde, Paul Dano, Walton Goggins, Keith Carradine, and Clancy Brown, making it a wild smorgasbord of fantastic acting talent. Unfortunately, it was a colossal financial flop, earning $174.8 million at the global box office, only about $11 million more than its $163 million budget. While some critics (including Roger Ebert!) praised the film’s central performances, Ford and Craig just couldn’t save the movie from its convoluted script or its baffling tonal shifts, and in the end, “Cowboys & Aliens” was relegated to the cinematic trash pile. In interviews discussing the film, Ford shared that he didn’t really understand it at all, and honestly? I can kind of relate. 

It was easy to be skeptical about “Cowboys & Aliens” when it was first announced because its two genres seemed too disparate, but as production began and folks got their first looks at Ford and Craig in period garb, it seemed like it just might work. Favreau had shown that he could blend sci-fi action and comedy quite well with the “Iron Man” movies, and the cast was pretty perfectly assembled. The biggest problem was the screenplay, which had undergone several rewrites with numerous screenwriters, eventually ending up with a script credited to Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, and Damon Lindelof. (Kurtzman and Orci were frequently credited as a writing duo, working together on films like “The Island” and the 2009 “Star Trek” reboot, while Lindelof is best known as the creator of “Lost” and co-wrote “Star Trek: Into Darkness” with Kurtzman, Orci, and J.J. Abrams.) 

In an interview with Cinema Blend, Ford explained that he was initially baffled by the script and wanted to stop after reading the first 30 pages but his agent pushed him to keep going:

“It was ambitious, I thought. I said, ‘Why don’t I go talk to Jon?’ and then I met with Jon Favreau. I was impressed by what he had to say and his collegial spirit. I met the writers and they made it clear that it was still a work in progress. I met Daniel [Craig], who was very generous about sharing a bit more space for the character. Then I began to see an opportunity to play a different kind of character than I’m used to. To enjoy the pleasures of having a character where you don’t have to have anybody like you. It’s a chance to really attempt to bring in some texture to the piece. I had a great time. So I said, ‘I’m in. This should be fun.’ And it was.”

Ford has very rarely played villains over his long career, and his role in “Cowboys & Aliens” was definitely in line with traditional Western movie villains, so it’s good that he had fun breaking bad. It’s just a shame that it wasn’t really much fun for audiences.

While mixing all of these great actors with both cowboys and aliens seemed like a potentially great idea, the final result was frustratingly muddled, and Ford probably should have ignored his agent’s persistence. There were just too many cooks in the kitchen, with the much-adjusted screenplay, heavy-hitter producers giving big notes (like Steven Spielberg pitching the main antagonist), and what seems like a loose attitude toward the general vision for the film given Ford’s “very much a work-in-progress” comments. What could have been a wildly fun mix of genres instead is a story that gets bogged down in plot instead of giving its characters any development, which is a shame, because Ford and Craig are at least trying to make it work. Dano is good as Ford’s character’s son, though it would have been interesting to see a young Glen Powell in the role, as he also auditioned (while channeling his inner Ben Foster). Then again, that might be too much chiseled jaw for one movie, major Hollywood blockbuster or not.

Thankfully, the experience didn’t sour Ford on taking chances with genre cinema, and he’ll be appearing as President William “Thunderbolt” Ross in Marvel’s “Captain America: Brave New World,” bringing his special brand of movie-star charisma to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Ford is one of the all-time greats even when his movies don’t meet expectations, and it will be great to see what he does in the superhero realm. At the very least, I hope he has fun.