Moonraker (1979) United Artists/Action-Adventure RT: 126 minutes Rated PG (violence, sexual situations) Director: Lewis Gilbert Screenplay: Christopher Wood Music: John Barry Cinematography: Jean Tournier Release date: June 26, 1979 (UK)/June 29, 1979 (US) Cast: Roger Moore, Lois Chiles, Michael Lonsdale, Richard Kiel, Corrine Clery, Emily Bolton, Geoffrey Keen, Toshiro Suga, Lois Maxwell, Irka Bochenko, Nicholas Arbez, Bernard Lee, Desmond Llewelyn, Blanche Ravalec, Anne Lonnberg, Michael Marshall, Jean Pierre Castaldi, Leila Shenna. Opening Song: “Moonraker (Where Are You?)” by Shirley Bassey Box Office: $70.3M (US)
Rating: *** ½
JAMES BOND…. IN SPACE!!!
It was bound to happen sooner or later what with the success of Star Wars. Somebody decided it would be a great idea to send 007 into outer space. So it is that Moonraker, the 11th movie in the series, was reconceived as a sci-fi-adventure bearing little resemblance to Ian Fleming’s 1954 novel which makes no mention of space.
Roger Moore (The Saint) reprises his role as Bond in Moonraker which pits the superspy against industrialist Hugo Drax (Lonsdale, The Day of the Jackal), a card-carrying megalomaniac intent on building a new world…. IN SPACE! It all starts with the midair hijacking of the American space shuttle Moonraker on loan to the UK. No evidence of the craft is found among the wreckage of the carrier that was transporting it. Naturally, the Americans are suspicious.
Bond is called in to investigate, but not before another run-in with metal-toothed adversary Jaws (Kiel, The Longest Yard) who unsuccessfully tries to kill the spy by throwing him out a plane without a parachute. Naturally, Bond survives to die another day.
MI6 head M (Lee) sends Bond to California to have a look at Drax Industries and its shady owner. He’s cordial to 007, inviting him to look around, but he’d rather not have a set of prying eyes sticking its nose in his business. He gives his servant/henchman Cheng (martial artists Suga) clear instructions: “Look after Mr. Bond. See that some harm comes to him.” As a result, Bond has an unfortunate incident with a centrifuge simulator. Fortunately, Dr. Holly Goodhead (Chiles, Death on the Nile), an astronaut scientist on loan from NASA, is there to save him from grievous harm.
Bond also receives assistance from Drax’s personal pilot Corrine Dufour (Clery, Story of O), a hottie who helps him gain access to a safe which contains evidence leading to a glass factory in Venice. When he gets there, he finds a secret laboratory producing a deadly nerve gas. He also encounters Goodhead poking around the place. Let’s just say she’s more than a hot scientist.
Wanting rid of 007 once and for all, Drax employs the services of Jaws to eliminate the problem. He might be big and scary, but he can’t kill Bond no matter what he tries. It’s like a Road Runner-Wile E. Coyote cartoon. All that’s missing are products from the ACME Company. At the same time, Bond can’t seem to kill Jaws. This guy survives everything. We get to see a softer side of the hired assassin when he finds love with a petite, bespectacled beauty (French actress Ravalec).
Let’s cut right to the point of Moonraker. Bond and Goodhead figure out what Drax is up to and follow him to a space station…. IN SPACE! That’s where things get really wild. The finale is a big laser battle between the forces of good and evil. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Since when is 007 a sci-fi hero? It’s so preposterous, I couldn’t help but enjoy the madness of it all. Director Lewis Gilbert (The Spy Who Loved Me) leans right into the sci-fi silliness with musical nods to 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977).
Lonsdale does not camp it up as Drax. He’s more of a low-key sinister sort who doesn’t reach the same glorious heights as Blofeld or Auric Goldfinger. He has his moments though. He gets off a few good villain lines like “At least I shall have the pleasure of putting you out of my misery.” during one of their face-offs. Chiles is a great Bond Girl. She definitely has one of the best names. I still snicker like an adolescent whenever I hear it. Clery, who isn’t in it nearly enough, is pretty good too. It’s interesting seeing her wear something other than animal skins like she did in the campy grade-Z classic Yor: The Hunter from the Future (1983). Sadly, this is the final appearance of Lee as M. He died before he could begin work on the next Bond adventure, 1981’s For Your Eyes Only.
There’s action aplenty in Moonraker like the chase scene in the canals of Venice involving motorized gondolas where the bad guys (including Jaws) throw knives and shoot at 007. Luckily, his gondola can turn into a hovercraft capable of land travel. It’s quite a sight watching him drive it through the streets much to the shock of all onlookers. There’s a motorboat chase along the Amazon River where Bond drives a boat specially designed by Q (Llewelyn). It can shoot mines and fire torpedoes. Mention must also be made of the famous cable car scene in Rio where Jaws attempts to kill Bond by biting through the cable. That’s the scene I remember from the commercial that summer.
I like Moonraker a lot. It’s fun even if the sci-fi aspect is not a perfect fit. It’s weird seeing James Bond in a Star Wars scenario. Normally, you think of him fighting Soviet spies and international criminal organizations, NOT a pale imitation of Darth Vader. You know what, WHO CARES? It’s still great fun. Moonraker perfectly illustrates 70s filmmaking when the best ideas were the ones fuelled by cocaine or other substances. I can’t say for sure if drugs factored into the making of this Bond movie, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they did. It’s the strangest of the Bond films, but entertaining nonetheless. I’d like to see it again…. IN SPACE!
