Moonraker

Moonraker is the third James Bond novel written by Ian Fleming. It was published in 1955. In 1956, Bob Holness provided the voice of Bond in a South African radio adaptation. Fleming's novel was later adapted again as the eleventh film in the official James Bond series of films by EON Productions in 1979 and the fourth to star Roger Moore as the British Secret Service Agent, Commander James Bond. The film was produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson.

The film

Plot summary

In the 1979 movie, Hugo Drax's lair is relocated to outer space, although the plot remains equally fiendish. In the movie, Drax has converted a toxin found in a species of orchid found in the Amazon River basin, which in its natural state causes sterility, into a lethal nerve agent. He plans to destroy all human life (the toxin affects only humans) by launching a series of 50 globes containing the toxin from a space station; the toxin would be dispersed when each globe broke up during reentry into Earth's atmosphere. Before launching the globes, Drax transported several hundred carefully selected young men and women to the space station. They would live there until Earth was safe again for human life; these people would be the seed for a "new master race".

Related Topics:
Hugo Drax - Outer space - Toxin - Orchid - Amazon River - Space station

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Bond reaches the villain's orbital lair by means of the space shuttle (which was soon to be launched for real when the movie was released). Widely considered to be one of the most juvenile Bond movies, it is also one of the first where Bond's female companion is on a more or less equal footing with him. The "Bond girl", Dr. Holly Goodhead (played by Lois Chiles), is a CIA agent who competently wards off bad guys and pilots the space shuttle.

Related Topics:
Villain - Space shuttle - Bond girl - Lois Chiles - CIA

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Cast & characters

• James Bond - Roger Moore
• M - Bernard Lee
• Miss Moneypenny - Lois Maxwell
• Q - Desmond Llewelyn
• Jaws - Richard Kiel
• Sir Hugo Drax - Michael Lonsdale
• Dr. Holly Goodhead - Lois Chiles
• Corinne Dufour - Corinne Clery
• Minister of Defence (Frederick Gray) - Geoffrey Keen
• Manuela - Emily Bolton
• Dolly (Jaws's Girlfriend) - Blanche Ravalec

Crew

• Directed by: Lewis Gilbert
• Produced by: Albert R. Broccoli, William P. Cartlidge, Michael G. Wilson
• Screenplay by: Christopher Wood
• Composed by: John Barry
• Cinematography by: Jean Tournier
• Film editor and second unit director: John Glen
• Production design by: Ken Adam
• Visual effects art director: Peter Lamont

Soundtrack

Moonraker was the third of the three Bond movies for which the theme song was performed by Shirley Bassey. The soundtrack was composed by John Barry. Moonraker uses for the first time since Diamonds Are Forever a piece of music called "007", the secondary Bond theme composed by Barry which was introduced in From Russia With Love. The soundtrack also references the theme from The Spy Who Loved Me.

Related Topics:
Shirley Bassey - John Barry - Diamonds Are Forever - From Russia With Love - The Spy Who Loved Me

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Track listing

• Main Title - Moonraker by Shirley Bassey
• Space Laser Battle
• Miss Goodhead Meets Bond
• Cable Car and Snake Fight
• Bond Lured to Pyramid
• Flight into Space
• Bond Arrives in Rio and Boat Chase
• Centrifuge and Corrine Put Down
• Bond Smells a Rat
• End Title - Moonraker

Vehicles and gadgets

Moonraker was criticized for an overabundance of gadgets to a degree many fans considered excessive. This film ultimately led to the more realistic For Your Eyes Only, which had Bond rely less on gadgets and more on his talents and instincts rather than a gadget supplied by Q-Branch to get him out of whatever trouble he was in.

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Bond's gadgets include a wrist gun that was given to him by Q-Branch. The gun could shoot armor-piercing or envenomed darts, the former being used to disable a high g-force simulator (centrifuge) that was used by Drax to kill him before their first meeting. A dart of the latter kind is used by Bond to kill Drax. Bond was also armed with a ballpoint pen that was equipped with a hypodermic needle that allowed Bond to eliminate a boa constrictor in a pool while in Drax's jungle hideout. Additionally Bond had a mini camera that was imprinted with "007" as well as a cigarette case safecracker, which contained a device that used x-rays to reveal the tumblers on a safe's combination lock. Finally, Bond had a watch branded by Seiko. The watch face could open up for a small explosive charge connected to a wire, which allowed for the quick removal of an entry obstacle.

Related Topics:
G-force - Centrifuge - Ballpoint pen - Boa constrictor - Seiko

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There were two vehicles in Moonraker, the first being a gondola made by Q-Branch that could transform into a hovercraft and move on land. Bond uses this to escape from his pursuers while in Venice. Later Bond acquires what is known as "Q's Hydrofoil Boat". This boat is used by Bond to escape from Jaws while searching for the Moonraker spacecraft launching facility. It came with all the usual Q refinements as well as a hang-glider.

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The Bond girl, Dr. Holly Goodhead, is shown to also have been equipped with several gadgets of her own, including the aforementioned needle pen, a flame-throwing perfume bottle, and a radio transmitter concealed in her purse. Several other gadgets or "futuristic" devices were used throughout the movie including the "Moonraker laser", which is a laser gun that could be used to shoot in space. The gun was carried over and used in the video game, GoldenEye 007 for the multiplayer portion of the game.

Related Topics:
Bond girl - Video game - GoldenEye 007 - Multiplayer

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Locations

Film Locations

• Kennedy Space Center, Florida
• London, England
• Los Angeles, California
• Palmdale, California
• Venice, Italy
• Iguaçu Falls — Brazil
• Rio de Janeiro
• Outer Space

Shooting Locations

• Pinewood Studios
• Studios De Boulogne Paris Studios - Cinema Eclair Studios — Paris, France
• Venice, Italy
• Brazil
• Guatemala

Novelisation

The screenplay of Moonraker differed enough from Ian Fleming's novel that EON Productions and Glidrose Publications authorized the film's screenwriter, Christopher Wood to write his second novelisation based upon the film (his first, 'James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me', was based upon a script written by himself and Richard Maibaum for the film The Spy Who Loved Me, and released in 1977).

Related Topics:
EON Productions - Glidrose Publications - Screenwriter - Christopher Wood - Novelisation - Richard Maibaum - The Spy Who Loved Me - 1977

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The book was retitled James Bond and Moonraker to avoid confusion with Fleming's novel and released in 1979. With James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me there were many differences with the film including the villain's name, the reemergence of the Soviet spy agency SMERSH and the possible death of Stromberg's henchman, Jaws; however, in James Bond and Moonraker Wood writes a straight novelisation of the screenplay most likely due to the fact that he wrote the script completely, while The Spy Who Loved Me went through multiple drafts even before Wood was brought in. One noticable difference between the novelisation and the screenplay for Moonraker, is that Jaws does not gain a girlfriend and stays true to Wood's description as being a mute.

Related Topics:
1979 - Soviet - SMERSH - Jaws - Mute

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Glidrose Productions chose not to commission novelisations of the next few Bond films; the next film to be novelised would be Licence to Kill 10 years later.

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Trivia

• The Jaws character (played by Richard Kiel) makes a return, although in Moonraker the role is played more for laughs than as the killing machine that he was in The Spy Who Loved Me (see Jaws (James Bond) for more information on the character changes).
• Executive Producer Michael G. Wilson continues a tradition in the Bond films he started in the film Goldfinger where he has a small cameo role. He appears twice in Moonraker, firstly as a tourist outside the Venini Glass shop in Venice, then at the end of the film as a technician in the NASA control room.
• Bernard Lee makes his final appearance as 'M'. The actor was in ill health at the time of filming and the production afforded him a touching scene in which he gives some final guidance to Bond.
• Tom Mankiewicz had written a screenplay of Moonraker that was eventually discarded. Some scenes from his script were later used in subsequent films, including the Acrostar Jet sequence used in the teaser for Octopussy, and the Eiffel Tower scene in A View to a Kill.
• Lois Chiles had been first approached by the producers for the role of Anya in The Spy Who Loved Me but had turned down the role as she had planned to leave the acting profession at that time.
• As the first truly science fictional Bond film, Moonraker pays homage to two SF classics. When Bond arrives at Drax's pheasant shoot, a man plays the first three notes of "Also sprach Zarathustra", the famous theme from ', on a bugle. Later, when Bond observes a Drax scientist entering an access code into a keypad, the tones heard coming from the keypad form the famous five-note "alien message" theme from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. In another film reference, the song "Nobody Does it Better" - the theme from the previous Bond film - The Spy Who Loved Me, is also reprised on the soundtrack when Bond arrives at Drax's mansion in California.
• Moonraker was at one point considered to be the Bond film to follow On Her Majesty's Secret Service
• In 1955 the film rights to Moonraker were initially sold to the Rank Organization for £10,000. Fleming eventually bought back the rights in 1959. The Rank Organization never did anything with it.
• A hoax was perpetrated in 2004, featuring a rumoured, lost 1956 version of Moonraker by Orson Welles. Supposedly, this lost film recently was discovered as 40 minutes of raw footage. However, the film soon was revealed as a hoax. See http://www.commanderbond.net/Public/Stories/2323-1.shtml for more information.

Influence

The film inspires part of the plot of Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.

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