Moonraker (film)

''Moonraker'' is a 1979 spy-fi film, the eleventh in the ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions, and the fourth to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. The third and final film in the series to be directed by Lewis Gilbert, it co-stars Lois Chiles, Michael Lonsdale, Corinne Cléry, and Richard Kiel. Bond investigates the theft of a Space Shuttle, leading him to Hugo Drax, the owner of the shuttle's manufacturing firm. Along with space scientist Dr. Holly Goodhead, Bond follows the trail from California to Venice, Rio de Janeiro, the Amazon rainforest, and finally into outer space to prevent a plot to wipe out the world population and to recreate humanity with a master race.

The story was intended by author Ian Fleming to become a film even before he completed the novel in 1954; he based it on a screenplay manuscript he had devised earlier. The film's producers had originally intended to make '' For Your Eyes Only'', but chose ''Moonraker'' owing to the rise of the science fiction genre in the wake of the ''Star Wars'' phenomenon. Budgetary issues led to the film being shot primarily in France; other locations included Italy, Brazil, Guatemala and the United States. The soundstages of Pinewood Studios in England, traditionally used for the series, were only used by the special effects team.

''Moonraker'' had a high production cost of $34 million, more than twice as much as '' The Spy Who Loved Me'' (1977), and it received mixed reviews. However, the film's visuals were praised, with Derek Meddings being nominated for the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, and it eventually became the highest-grossing film of the series at the time with $210.3 million worldwide, a record that stood until 1995's ''GoldenEye''.

This was Bernard Lee's final outing as M. Lee was scheduled to reprise his role in '' For Your Eyes Only'', but was admitted to hospital in November 1980, diagnosed with stomach cancer. He then died in January 1981 before any of M's scenes could be filmed.

Plot

A Drax Industries Moonraker Space Shuttle on loan to the United Kingdom is hijacked in midair while on a Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. The carrier is destroyed but no wreckage of the shuttle is found. M, head of MI6, assigns James Bond, Agent 007, to investigate. En route to England, Bond is attacked and pushed out of an aeroplane by the mercenary assassin Jaws. He survives by stealing a parachute from the pilot, while Jaws lands on a trapeze net within a circus tent. At the Drax Industries spaceplane-manufacturing complex in California, Bond meets the owner of the company, Hugo Drax, and his henchman Chang. Bond also meets Dr. Holly Goodhead, an astronaut, and survives an assassination attempt while inside a centrifuge chamber. Drax's personal pilot, Corinne Dufour, helps Bond find blueprints for a glass vial made in Venice; Drax discovers her involvement and has her killed by his pet dogs.

In Venice, Bond encounters Goodhead and observes her snooping around a door near the glass factory, then is chased through the canals by Drax's henchmen. He returns to the factory at night to investigate and discovers a secret biological laboratory, and learns that the glass vials are to hold a nerve gas deadly to humans, but harmless to plants and animals. Chang attacks Bond, but Bond hurls him through the stained glass clockface of the Saint Mark's clocktower, killing him; during the fight, Bond finds evidence that Drax is moving his operation to Rio de Janeiro. Rejoining Goodhead, he deduces that she is a CIA agent spying on Drax. Bond has saved one of the vials he found earlier, as the only evidence of the now-empty laboratory; he gives it to M for analysis, who permits him to go to Rio de Janeiro under the pretense of being on leave.

Bond survives attacks by Jaws, Chang's replacement, during Rio Carnival and on the Sugarloaf Cable Car. After Jaws' cable car crashes, he is rescued from the rubble by Dolly, a young woman, and the two fall in love. Drax's forces capture Goodhead, but Bond escapes; he learns that the toxin comes from a rare orchid indigenous to the Amazon jungle. Bond travels the Amazon River and comes under attack from Drax's forces, before eventually locating his base. Captured by Jaws, Bond is taken to Drax and witnesses four Moonrakers lifting off. Drax explains that he stole back the loaned Shuttle because another in his fleet had developed a fault during assembly. Bond and Goodhead are locked in a room under the launch platform, and narrowly escape being burned alive by the exhausts of ''Moonraker 5'', which is carrying Drax, and pose as pilots on ''Moonraker 6''. The shuttles dock with Drax's space station, hidden from radar by a cloaking device.

Bond and Goodhead disable the radar jamming cloaking device; the United States sends a platoon of Marines aboard another shuttle to intercept the now-visible space station. Jaws captures Bond and Goodhead, to whom Drax reveals his plan to destroy human life by launching 50 globes that would disperse the nerve gas into Earth's atmosphere. Drax had transported several dozen genetically perfect young men and women of varying races to the space station in the shuttles. They would live there until Earth was safe again for human life, their descendants a "new master race". Bond persuades Jaws to switch his allegiance by getting Drax to admit that anyone not measuring up to his physical standards, including him and Dolly, would be exterminated. Jaws attacks Drax's guards, and a laser battle ensues between Drax's forces and Bond, Jaws, and the Marines. Drax's forces are defeated as the station is destroyed, while Bond shoots and ejects Drax into space. Bond and Goodhead use Drax's laser-armed ''Moonraker 5'' to destroy the three launched globes and return to Earth. Jaws and Dolly, who ejected themselves in one of Drax's escape pods, are recovered by the Marines. Bond's superiors get a video feed of ''Moonraker 5'' and are bemused to see Bond and Goodhead making love in zero gravity.

Cast

* Roger Moore as James Bond 007, an MI6 agent assigned to look into the theft of a shuttle from the "Moonraker" space programme.
* Lois Chiles as Holly Goodhead, an astronaut scientist on loan from NASA working at Drax Industries. She is later revealed to be a CIA agent.
* Michael Lonsdale as Hugo Drax, an industrialist who plans to poison all humans on Earth, then repopulate the planet from his space station.
* Richard Kiel as Jaws, Drax's new henchman who replaces Chang at Drax Industries. He is known for his giant stature and possessing a set of strong steel teeth.
* Corinne Cléry as Corinne Dufour, Drax's personal pilot.
* Bernard Lee as M, the head of MI6. This was Bernard Lee's final appearance as M.
* Geoffrey Keen as Frederick Gray, the British Minister of Defence.
* Desmond Llewelyn as Q, MI6's "quartermaster" who supplies Bond with multipurpose vehicles and gadgets useful for the latter's mission.
* Lois Maxwell as Miss Moneypenny, M's secretary.
* Toshiro Suga as Chang (pronounced "cha"), Drax's first henchman.
* Emily Bolton as Manuela, 007's contact in Rio.
* Blanche Ravalec as Dolly, Jaws' girlfriend; never referred to by name.
* Irka Bochenko as Blonde Beauty, Drax's lead henchwoman.
* Michael Marshall as Colonel Scott, an American Space Marines commander.
* Leila Shenna as Hostess Private Jet, from the opening sequence.
* Anne Lonnberg as Museum Guide, and Drax's henchwoman.
* Jean-Pierre Castaldi as Pilot Private Jet, from the opening sequence.
* Walter Gotell as General Anatoly Gogol, the head of the KGB.
* Alfie Bass as Consumptive Italian.
* Claude Carliez as Gondolier.

Production

The end credits for the previous Bond film, ''The Spy Who Loved Me'', said, "James Bond will return in ''For Your Eyes Only''". However, following the box office success of the 1977 space-themed film ''Star Wars'', the producers chose the novel ''Moonraker'' as the basis for the next film. ''For Your Eyes Only'' was postponed and ended up following ''Moonraker'' in 1981.

Script

Ian Fleming had originally intended the novel, published in 1955, to be made into a film even before he began writing it. A part of the novel was thus based on an original idea for a screenplay which had been on his mind for years. Fleming first pitched the novel to Hungarian-British film producer Alexander Korda