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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 Bond. The film was produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson.

The film is mostly an entirely new adventure using only Fleming's character Hugo Drax. The screenplay was written by Christopher Wood who had previously co-written and novelised the screenplay for the previous film, The Spy Who Loved Me. Likewise, Moonraker was novelised in 1979 by Christopher Wood.

The title comes from "moonraker", a synonym for moonsail, the highest sail carried by sailing ships. It is also a reference to the folk story about simple folk who see the moon's reflection in the water and try to catch it with their rakes.

The novel

The title, Moonraker, wasn't the first choice by Fleming. In fact Fleming first suggested "The Infernal Machine", and later "The Inhuman Element", or "Wide of the Mark". The publishers, however, favoured "The Moonraker Sense", "The Moonraker Plan", or "Bond & The Moonraker". Other titles that are known to have been suggested include: "Mondays are Hell", "Hell is Here", "The Moonraker", "The Moonraker Plot", "The Moonraker Secret", and "Too Hot to Handle". Ultimately, it was Fleming who settled on "Moonraker".

For an unknown reason, Moonrakers title for the first U.S. paperback publication by Permabooks in 1956 was changed to Too Hot to Handle'. One possible reason might have been to avoid confusion with the then-current stage play The Moonraker by Arthur Watkin (which was made into a film of the same title in 1958). Similar to Casino Royale, however, the novel was subtitled (Moonraker) on the cover. Too Hot To Handle is notable for being the only Fleming Bond novel that was "Americanized", exchanging British idioms for American ones such as "knave of hearts" for "jack of hearts", "lift" for "elevator", etc. The title was later changed back to Moonraker in 1960.

Plot summary

In the novel Bond is asked by M to observe Sir Hugo Drax, who is winning money playing bridge at M's club, Blades, and who M suspects of cheating. Although M claims to not really care, he is concerned why a multimillionaire and national hero such as Drax would resort to cheating at a card game. Bond later confirms Drax's deception, and manages to 'cheat the cheater' (with a little help from Benzedrine and champagne), winning £15,000 and infuriating Drax.

As it turns out, Drax is the backer of the 'Moonraker' missile project being built to defend the UK against its Cold War enemies (compare to the real life Blue Streak missile). The Moonraker rocket is essentially an upgraded V-2 rocket that can withstand hotter temperatures to its engine thanks to the use of columbite, on which Drax has a monopoly. Because the engine can withstand more heat the Moonraker therefore can use more powerful fuels which results in the rocket having a vast improvement in range. Partly due to the cheating episode, M asks Bond to infiltrate Drax's missile-building organization on the coast of England. Bond uncovers a dreadful and fiendish plot to destroy London, which he foils with the assistance of a female (and, of course, attractive) Special Branch agent, Gala Brand.

With the exception of the name "Moonraker" and the character of Sir Hugo Drax, little else from this book made it into the 1979 film, but some concepts that remained included the profession of the Bond girls, both undercover agents inside Drax's organization, and that a launch of a rocket plays a significant role in both the movie and book. The 2002 film, Die Another Day, however, used several concepts from this book including the Blades club, and at one point the character of Miranda Frost from the film was to have been named Gala Brand. The villain, Gustav Graves, is also based somewhat on Fleming's original concept of Hugo Drax.

Comic strip adaptation

Fleming's original novel was adapted as a daily comic strip which was published in the British Daily Express newspaper and syndicated around the world. The adaptation ran from March 30 to August 8, 1959. The adaptation was written by Henry Gammidge and illustrated by John McLusky. Titan Books reprinted the strip in 2005 as part of the Casino Royale anthology, which also includes Casino Royale and Live and Let Die.

The film

When the end credits rolled for the previous Bond film, The Spy Who Loved Me, it said: "James Bond will return in For Your Eyes Only," however, after the tremendous box office success of A New Hope in 1977, the producers decided they wanted to cash in on the subsequent science fiction craze and make a film where Bond would go to space. Moonraker was chosen as the basis for the film, although Fleming's novel has no science fiction aspects. For Your Eyes Only was subsequently delayed and ended up following Moonraker in 1981.

In the film Hugo Drax's lair is relocated to outer space, although the plot remains equally fiendish. The film is one of the most outlandish of the Bond films and attracted criticism from fans and film critics, such as Leonard Maltin who in his capsule review of the film for the 1983 edition of TV Movies stated that Bond "no longer resembles Fleming's character."

Plot summary

When a Moonraker space shuttle is stolen while in transport on the top of an airliner, James Bond is sent by M to investigate. The pre-title sequence involves both the incineration of the airliner during the theft of the Moonraker and Bond being pushed out of a different aeroplane in South Africa without a parachute by Jaws, a hired assassin first seen in The Spy Who Loved Me. After surviving, Bond returns to headquarters in London where he is briefed by M on the current crisis. Bond is told to investigate Sir Hugo Drax, whose firm is a supplier of space shuttles. Bond goes to see him at his mansion and industrial plant in California.

At Drax Industries Bond is greeted unwelcomely by Drax and his henchman, Chang, who immediately set out to ensure that "some harm comes to him". Bond also meets Dr. Holly Goodhead, a scientist working for Drax who sets him up in a centrifuge, during which Chang attempts to "harm" Bond by making it spin too fast. After surviving, Bond that night sneaks into Drax's study and finds blueprints for a glass vial being produced in Venice, Italy. The next morning Bond leaves Drax and California for Venice where he meets up with Dr. Goodhead again and learns that she is actually an agent of the CIA and spying on Drax whom they suspect as well. Bond also learns that the vials are being used to hold a toxic nerve agent that kills only humans, leaving all other living things unharmed. After learning this Bond is attacked once again by Chang, who is subsequently thrown out of a window during the fight. With this intelligence, Bond "pushes the panic button" forcing M and the Minister of Defence to personally come to Venice and see the nerve agent labs for themselves. Unfortunately for Bond, however, the labs have been converted into a drawing room. Upset with Bond's bungle, M sends Bond to Rio de Janeiro to investigate some of Drax's cargo only to learn that Chang has been replaced by Jaws. The two fight at a local warehouse owned by Drax and then again on top of a cable car, after which Dr. Goodhead is captured.

Bond then travels up the Amazon River looking for Drax's research facility, which he ultimately finds after encountering Jaws yet again in a death-defying speedboat race, and then a bout with Drax's pet boa. Captured, yet again, Bond and Dr. Goodhead are encaged underneath a Moonraker shuttle set for lift off. Fortunately Bond and Dr. Goodhead are able to escape with the help of Bond's watch. After doing so they pose as pilots then board one of Drax's shuttles on a preset flight to outer space.

Using a toxin found in a species of orchid located in the Amazon River basin, Drax plans to destroy all human life (the toxin affects only humans) by launching a series of 50 globes containing the toxin from a radar-concealed space station; the toxin would be dispersed when each globe broke up during re-entry into Earth's atmosphere. Before launching the globes, Drax also 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".

The space station manages to stay hidden from observers on Earth due to a radar jamming device, which Bond and Goodhead eventually disable. After they accomplish this, the Americans send a platoon of Marines aboard a military space shuttle for Drax's station. When they arrive, a Star Wars-style battle with lasers ensues. During the battle Drax is shot by Bond's wrist gun, pushed into an airlock, and then sucked out into space. Because of the battle, the space station takes heavy damage and begins to fall apart. Jaws, who became an ally of Bond's after it is pointed out that he and his girlfriend do not live up to Drax's standard for human "perfection", aids Bond by helping him and Dr. Goodhead escape the station in a space shuttle. At this point Jaws also speaks for the first time when he opens a champagne bottle and tells his girlfriend, "Well, here's to us."

Prior to the battle in space, Drax was able to launch three globes towards Earth. On their way back, Bond uses the space shuttle's lasers to destroy them, having to manually shoot the third. At the end of the film the Americans and British attempt to talk to Bond and Dr. Goodhead to congratulate them, but when visual connection is made, they see them making love under a sheet in zero gravity. The Minister of Defence rhetorically asks "My God, what's Bond doing?" and Q, who is looking at the radar screen but not at the picture of the two of them, says, "I think he's attempting reentry, sir."

Cast & characters

Crew

Soundtrack

Moonraker was the third of the three Bond films 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" (on track 7), the secondary Bond theme composed by Barry which was introduced in From Russia with Love.

Track listing
  1. Main Title - Moonraker by Shirley Bassey
  2. Space Laser Battle
  3. Miss Goodhead Meets Bond
  4. Cable Car and Snake Fight
  5. Bond Lured to Pyramid
  6. Flight into Space
  7. Bond Arrives in Rio and Boat Chase
  8. Centrifuge and Corrine Put Down
  9. Bond Smells a Rat
  10. End Title - Moonraker
In addition, a number of familiar pieces of music also appear within the film itself: Drax is playing piano (Frédéric Chopin's Prelude no. 15 in D-flat major (op. 28), Raindrop) when Bond arrives; a hunting horn is heard to play the distinctive first three notes of Richard Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathustra (op. 30) — forever associated with A Space Odyssey; the alien-contacting theme from Close Encounters of the Third Kind crops up as the key-code for a security door; and, when Bond appears on horseback in gaucho clothing, the soundtrack suddenly offers Elmer Bernstein's theme from The Magnificent Seven.

Vehicles & 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.

Bond's gadgets include a wrist gun that was given to him by Q-Branch. The gun could shoot armour-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. Bond uses the explosive charge to allow him and Dr. Goodhead to escape from the Moonraker launch platform. It is never adequately explained how Bond retains possession of these items (the watch-case bomb and the wrist gun) after having been captured and incarcerated by Drax ...

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.

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 handbag. Several other gadgets or "futuristic" devices were used throughout the film 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 in the Aztec Level, which was in many parts modelled after the launch site for Drax's rockets.

Locations

Film Locations

Shooting Locations

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).

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 re-emergence 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 noticeable 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.

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.

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. Although he was scheduled to appear in the next Bond film, he died during pre-production.
  • 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 A Space Odyssey (film), 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.
  • 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 Organisation for £10,000. Fleming eventually bought back the rights in 1959. The Rank Organization never did anything with it.
  • In 2004, reports surfaced of a rumoured, lost 1956 version of Moonraker by Orson Welles. Supposedly, this lost film recently was discovered as 40 minutes of raw footage with Dirk Bogarde as Bond, Welles as Drax, and Peter Lorre as Drax's henchman. However, the film soon was revealed as an April Fool's Day joke. See * for more information.
  • This is the second Bond film in a row to begin its opening sequence with Bond riding a parachute.
  • The title track was offered to Kate Bush before Shirley Bassey.

External links

1955 novels | 1979 films | James Bond films | James Bond books | British novels | Moonraker | Moonraker | Moonraker | Moonraker | מונרייקר | Moonraker | 007 ムーンレイカー | Moonraker | Attentat (bok)

 

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