James Bond: Moonraker (1979)

After THE SPY WHO LOVED ME turned out to be not only a box office hit but a revalidation of Roger Moore as the James Bond of the 1970s as well, it was decided to make the next film even bigger and more spectacular.

In the meantime, however, a man named George Lucas had released a film called STAR WARS, while his friend Steven Spielberg had struck it big with CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, about a visitation from outer space. So someone at Broccoli’s HQ apparently suggested: why not have Bond go out into space?


Of all of the Fleming novels MOONRAKER comes closest to having something to do with rockets (and possibly space) but of course, for the 1970s the novel was far too outdated. So, like with SPY, a totally new story was concocted, in which Bond investigates the theft of a MOONRAKER SPACE SHUTTLE. He goes to exotic locales, meets up with gorgeous ladies to face off a global threat but if all we encounter is JAWS (from Spy, now employed by the current villain of the week), the drama in the film sort of goes out of the window.


And as the Gondola chase in Venice, Italy shows in this film, there is a definite sense of overkill here as to the humour. This does affect the dramatic storyline somewhat but all in all, the film does present a very nice balance of suspense with wit, as well as a nice balance of the visual highlights of the movie.

The movie starts out with a spectacular sequence in which Bond is thrown from a plane without a parachute. He manages to get his hands on a parachute but then sees JAWS come after him. The sequence ends in humour, before Bond is briefed about the baddie of the week, Sir Hugo Drax, an aristocrat who wants to create a whole new human order by destroying human life first and then repopulating the earth. (Gee, where did I hear that one before?) This sets off a series of events both humorous and exciting on different locales before we end up in a magnificent space station of Mr Drax himself.


And wouldn’t you know? The Marines show up to engage in a spectacular laser battle, while Bond wrecks the space station, kills Drax and stops his plan to kill all human life on earth. You might understand that the film at times strains credibility beyond the breaking point, but one cannot miss the fact that it does so entertainingly. When Jaws for instance sees there will be no place for him and his lady love on Drax’s new world order, he simply switches sides and helps Bond out. Forget logic !

Ken Adam’s space station is a sight to behold. Beautifully designed and constructed, it turns out however that space stations without force fields (like the ones they use as shields in Star Trek) are incredibly fragile and it is no big deal at all to blow it to kingdom come. The presence of John Barry no longer presents the usual jazzy Bond sound. No, it plays slow, lush themes heavily orchestrated for strings, percussion and brass with one of Barry’s biggest orchestras this side of Dances With Wolves. Barry delivers a gorgeous score and a great Shirley Bassey song, even if it was originally intended for Johnny Mathis.



All in all the film is very entertaining and Moore is wholly at ease in this somewhat ludicrous tale. But is Bond going into space like this not a little bit too far fetched? Yes it is, but MOONRAKER still scored big at the box office. Well, why not, it’s just very amusing bullshit!?!