Bondathon: Moonraker

Moonraker is probably the most divisive film in the Bond series. Some see it as the series at its worst because the adventure took Bond into space, whilst others see it as a silly, fun time.

Bond is assigned the mission to find out what happened to a space shuttle that been stolen when on route to the UK. Bond’s mission puts him in conflict with the billionaire Hugo Drax (Michael Lonsdale) who has an insane plan to eradicate humanity.

Moonraker is an example of one of the worst Bond series’ traits, following cinematic trends. The highest-grossing film of 1977 was the first Star Wars movie and it led to many copycats. EON Productions got in on the act by sending MI6’s best into space. But is sending Bond into space that ridiculous when villains have had a launch site within a volcano (You Only Live Twice), use a diamond-powered space laser (Diamonds Are Forever), or had an undersea base (The Spy Who Loved Me)? By this point, the Bond franchise was seen as over-the-top escapism and films like You Only Live Twice and The Spy Who Loved Me are well regarded. Bond nearly did go into space in You Only Live Twice.

Moonraker was pretty much a remake of The Spy Who Loved Me. The setup was the same – a large, valuable vehicle gets stolen by a mad industrialist, the villain wants to destroy humanity whilst he hides in his lair, and Bond gets paired up with a badass lady spy. Moonraker showed the fine line The Spy Who Loved Me had to walk because that film was a fun, OTT adventure that avoided being a self-parody.

The 1979 film had a lot more comedy than its predecessor. It started in the pre-title sequence where Jaws’ parachute fails, and he tries to flap his arms like he was a Looney Tunes character. The most infamous section in the film was the chase on Venice’s canals. This sequence saw civilian reactions like a smoker seeing a coffin floating in the water, a man looking at his wine bottle, and the notorious double-take pigeon. This was the film where Bond drove around the Piazza San Marco in a motorised gondola. The other infamous scene was when Dolly (Blanche Ravalec) recused Jaws in Brazil. This was the film that turned Jaws from a threatening henchman to a joke. All this made it seem like Moonraker was directed by Guy Hamilton.

Some of the jokes do land. One of the best was when Bond moved a valuable vase and it sets off the alarm. There was also fun when Bond shoots a would-be assassin when out hunting.

There was plenty of good stuff in the film. There was a terrifically dark moment when Drax killed his pilot (Corinne Cléry) by hunting her down with his dogs. This was an action that Ramsey Bolton would perform to his victims in Game of Thrones. On a technical level, the film was great. It opened with a space shuttle destroying a plane and one of the great Bond stunts where Bond fights a man in freefall to steal his parachute. There were plenty of fights and chase scenes when Bond was in Venice and Brazil and due to the high budget, the special effects were top rate. The space battle between Drax’s forces and the US Space Marines could have been one of the greatest moments in a sci-fi movie from this period. The filmmakers put a lot into the space sequences and the film had a level of spectacle, compared to films like Diamonds Are Forever and The Man With the Golden Gun.

Ken Adam and his team clearly got to have fun with some of the lavish sets, especially for Drax’s space station. John Barry provided one of his best scores for the franchise.

One area where Moonraker beats The Spy Who Loved Me comfortably was the villain. Moonraker introduced Drax early and Bond met him early. It set up the conflict and personal animosity between the two. Lonsdale had a dry delivery, so his lines just oozed out. He was wonderful because he had terrific lines like ‘Look after Mr. Bond. See that some harm comes to him’ and ‘Mr. Bond, you defy my attempts to plan an amusing death for you.’ Whilst he seemed to be more frustrated with Bond, Lonsdale’s cool made Drax a more menacing figure, especially when he killed his pilot. He was a memorable villain in the franchise.

Lois Chides played the main Bond girl, Holly Goodhead. The character’s name made her sound like a porn star but she was an entertaining Bond girl. She took no nonsense from Bond who was shocked to find out the scientist was a woman. She made for a great foil for Bond’s sexism. Goodhead was also ready to fight during the climax. After the Hamilton era it was great to see some tough, competent Bond girls.

To fans of the more grounded style of Bond films Moonraker is pure Kryptonite because of the far-fetched premise and over-reliance on sci-fi. It did suffer from the attempts at comedy that gave the Moore era a bad name. But there were still plenty of positives from the film due to the action and stunts, the special effects, and Lonsdale’s performance.