The “Wrong” Bond Goes To Outer Space!
As I re-watch and review every single James Bond film in order, there is so much to unpack here – the 11th installment in the series!
First, as is a tradition for the series, the end of Bond #10 “The Spy Who Loved Me” had this graphic tease for the next 007 adventure to come:
Um….Why Doesn’t That Say “Moonraker?”
That’s right: they teased the wrong film to come!
So how could they make that mistake?
Blame this guy!
Yep, the Producers saw how massively popular “Star Wars” was and so they shifted gears to send Bond into outer space – and that’s exactly how they promoted the movie!
“Outer Space Now Belongs To 007!”
Yes, Bond was back in an “out of this world” way! After the massive success of “The Spy Who Loved Me”, the Producers pulled out all the stops to ensure Roger Moore’s reign as 007 was just getting good!
As with “Spy”, this movie is expansive, big and bold, filmed on three continents, in four studios, and across seven countries!
Check out the trailer for “Moonraker”:
Here’s the plot in a nutshell: the “Moonraker” space shuttle travelling through space is mysteriously hijacked and Bond must work quickly to find out who was behind it. He starts with the rockets creators, Drax Industries and the man behind the organization, Hugo Drax.
Lois Chiles is the film’s “Bond Girl”, Dr. Holly Goodhead, who knows all about spaceships – so they work together to find out who is behind the hijacking.
And, in a first for the series, the Producers brought back one of the most popular “bad guys” in the series history – Jaws!
Richard Kiel’s metal-mouth villain in “Spy” was so successful they made sure to leave this death at the end of that film unclear – and when he pops up for the first time in the movie here, audiences cheered their approval!
The film opens with the Moonraker shuttle being hijacked by bad guys, while Bond begins the film in the process of seducing a woman – of course – before discovering her plan to kill him – and finding himself thrown out of a plane with no parachute – oh but Jaws has one and the aerial battle is on!
Except for a few brief close-ups, the entire sequence of Bond, Jaws and the pilot fighting for a single parachute, was shot in free fall. The seven-pound camera for these sequences was mounted on the helmet of another skydiver, and a few shots are of the cameraman’s own arms and legs!
It’s another terrific opening sequence – with a dynamite battle in mid-air between 007 and Jaws, leading into the film’s credits sequence:
A funny note here: Producer Broccoli complained that this title sequence cost more than the entire budget of the first Bond film “Dr. NO!”
The title song was sung by Dame Shirley Bassey, her third outing for the Bond film franchise. The other two were Goldfinger (1964) and Diamonds Are Forever (1971). She is the only singer to perform more than one Bond theme!
We catch up Bond back at HQ, where we get the usual flirtatious interaction with Moneypenny, funny banter with Q, and we also see M – for the last time.
It was Actor Bernard Lee’s final appearance as M. He died after the film was completed.
The great Actress Corinne Clery shows up as a helicopter pilot for Drax, played by Michael Lonsdale. She takes Bond to see the megalomaniac…after they meet, Drax says to his henchmen:
“Look after Mr. Bond…see that some harm comes to him!”
Which of course they try to do as Bond goes into a flight simulator – he’s told that a 70 – year old can take 3 G’s, to which he replies:
“That’s the problem. there’s never a 70 – year old around when you need one!”
All of the usual elements for the series are now in place: Bond sleeps with Clery, he kills someone trying to kill him, there are a number of clever quips, and after finding out his pilot slept with 007, Drax has her eaten by dogs…you know, the usual!
Look, they were on a roll. Roger Moore was now totally comfortable in the role of 007: he once said that Connery was a”killer” Bond, while he was a “lover.” the film is breezy fun with numerous signature set pieces.
There is a lot of action, with set pieces on the Venice canals with a gondola chase, plus a terrific ninja battle inside a museum with lots and lots of crashing things all around.
That said, there is an iconic battle mid-film that happens between Bond and Jaws on a moving tram high above Rio!
During the cable car fight, high above Rio de Janeiro, a real cliffhanger moment occurred when the stuntman slipped, and was hanging on for dear life, while the camera kept rolling! All ended well and the action sequence is terrific!
Moore was late to the Rio location, as he was recovering from kidney stones. And here’s what happened: as soon as he arrived, he literally walked off the plane, went into make-up and hair, went back onto the plane, and was then filmed arriving as James Bond!
And here’s some great trivia on Richard Kiel thanks to IMDB.com:
Jaws was supposed to be Bond’s arch nemesis, until Director Lewis Gilbert saw all the fan mail he was getting, asking why Jaws couldn’t be a “goodie” instead of a “baddie.”
So, after the Rio action sequence ends, Jaws is befriended by a young pig-tailed woman, and it’s clear he falls in love!
As I said, this is another big and bold globe-trotting adventure, so Bond ends up on the Amazon for a huge battle with a python, while Drax says cooly:
“Mr. Bond, you defy all my attempts for an amusing death for you.”
As I said, they rushed this film ahead of the planned entry due to the wild success of “Star Wars” – and the climactic battle does indeed take place in outer space, as Bond sneaks about the latest space shuttle to stop Drax from hijacking another space capsule and setting off a world war – Lois is of course with him and look who else is there:
That’s Jaws joining forces with Bond – he and his pig-tailed girlfriend are also aboard – and the audiences loved it!
The outer space sets are massive and the battles are as well – with a lot of “laser” battles looking to replicate “Star Wars:
“Moonraker” is a lot of fun, Moore is at his best, and it ends with everyone one earth trying to reach him and Holly Goodhead, who are of course in the space station making love…”he’s attempting re-entry” is the line that sends the movie off on a “well you know it’s a Bond film what did you expect” note!
“Moonraker” cost $30 million to make, nearly as much as the first 8 Bond films combined! That didn’t matter: the film became the highest-grossing Bond film for the next 16 years!
So Roger Moore was on a roll – 2 massive hits in a row – and both films shook off the disastrous “Man With The Golden Gun” – 007 was ruling the box office and fans were loving the result – even if I am beginning to see a slide into a predictable rhythm…we’ll see what’s next with “For Your Eyes Only”, which is indeed the next Bond on order!
As I said, Roger Moore hit his stride in the previous entry:
Bond had been broken, and boy did they fix it! See my review here, and find out why Stanley Kubrick was part of the crew who made it!
If you’ve been reading along, you know I had some harsh words for this 007 outing – you can read the review here to see why:
It could have derailed the series, or certainly Roger Moore’s future as 007, but they came back strong – not so for the “one and done 007″:
Even though it is now considered one of the greatest Bond films of all, George Lazenby only played the role once – click here to see why:
The “one and done 007” George Lazenby film was one of the best Bonds of all time, and it all happened because Sean Connery left the series!
“You Only Live Twice” was the end of Connery until “Diamonds” – here’s my review of that film and details of “The Rock’s” connection to 007!
You can see all of the reviews for every Bond film by going to my front page.
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Categories: 70's Cinema, 70's Music, Action Films, British Cinema, Cult Movies, Film Fight Club, Movies, Pop Culture, Talent/Celebrities
johnrieber 
HI John, another great review. I remember Moonraker. It wasn’t my favourite but it was certainly memorable.
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I had a Bond fan chastise me for giving it a positive review but as I keep telling everyone, I am putting them in the context of their time and at this time the big, goofy fun on display was a hugely popular pop culture confection and I gave it credit for doing it well. Thanks as always for sharing!
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highlight was the stuntman who slipped and was hanging and they kept filming. fun frolic, this one!
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Yes, someone chastised me for giving it a good review but I said I was reviewing these films win context of the times and this went out and was big bold dumb fun and if you want to knock it there was probably no reason to have ever gone to see it because it delivered what it promised!
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exactly!
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Another great Bond review, John! I’d forgotten that Star Wars success changed the planned Bond movie. This one was good!
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I had someone disagree with me hard on this one – but I’m trying to put the films into the perspective of their time, and they were firing on all cylinders here…easy to digest pop culture fun! Thanks for the comment!
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The perspective of time makes a huge difference. You can’t comment on older films with today’s eyes.
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Good review…I did not know that it was the highest grossing film….thanx for the review. chuq
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