James Bond Movie - Moonraker

Regulars

Character	Actor
James Bond	Roger Moore
M	Bernard Lee
Miss Moneypenny	Lois Maxwell
Q	Desmond Llewelyn

Plot

MI6 endures embarrassment as a Moonraker space shuttle on loan to them from Hugo Drax is stolen. Meanwhile, Bond is on a mission in Africa, on board a plane. Henchman Jaws surprises him, and pushes him out of the plane without a parachute. Jaws jumps out after him, and the two have an intense mid-air fight. Bond manages to steal Jaws' parachute and lands safely, leaving Jaws to crash land into a circus tent.

Bond is called back to MI6 and relays the story to Miss Moneypenny, who doesn't believe his flirtatious banter. M briefs him about the shuttle theft, and he's given some poison darts by Q. Bond then makes an official visit to Drax Industries to make an apology, but his real intention is to scope out the place.

Bond meets Hugo Drax and is invited to try a ride in a centrifuge chamber, with the help of Holly Goodhead, one of Drax's astronauts. Bond accepts, but is almost killed as Drax orders the speed of the centrifuge to be brought up to lethal levels. Using his concealed wrist dart gun given to him by Q, Bond manages to short circuit the machine and save his life.

The next morning Bond goes out shooting with Drax, and the two compete to show off their hunting skills. Bond misses some birds, to the delight of Drax, until it is revealed that he actually shot a sniper that Drax had placed to kill Bond. Unwilling to kill Bond in a mundane fashion, Drax lets him go.

Having stolen some plans including the name of a glass manufacturer, Bond tracks them down to Venice, meeting Holly Goodhead while there. While escaping some of Drax's henchmen, Bond stumbles upon a secret laboratory, and accidentally kills some scientists, with an accident involving a vial of invisible poison gas. Bond takes M down to the lab the next day, and to their embarrassment, the lab has been dismantled. All they find is Hugo Drax drinking a cup of tea.

Bond heads to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to follow another lead, again meeting Holly Goodhead, who he discovers works for the CIA. The two escape yet another death attempt by super-villain Jaws, but five minutes later they are captured again and brought to Drax's shuttle launch facility. Avoiding another interesting death attempt, the two manage to sneak on board one of the Moonraker shuttles and head into space.

It is revealed that Drax's plan is to take a selection of perfect human specimens to a radar jammed space station, and then kill everybody on Earth, to give the human race a fresh start. When Bond and Dr. Goodhead are discovered aboard the space station, Bond convinces Jaws that he and his short girlfriend will be killed, because they're not perfect specimens.

Having convinced Jaws to turn on Drax, the pair escape and manage to take down the radar jamming system, alerting MI6 and US intelligence of the space station's presence. The US sends several shuttles of their own to investigate, which ends up in a high-tech laser space battle. Bond manages to escape with the help of Jaws, and he and Holly steal a space shuttle to destroy the poison gas capsules before they enter Earth's atmosphere.

Music

Track #	Song	Author
1	Moonraker	Shirley Bassey
2	Space Laser Battle	John Barry
3	Miss Goodhead Meets Bond	John Barry
4	Cable Car And Snake Fight	John Barry
5	Bond Lured To Pyramid	John Barry
6	Flight Into Space	John Barry
7	Bond Arrives In Rio And Boat Chase	John Barry
8	Centrifuge And Corrine Put Down	John Barry
9	Bond Smells a Rat	John Barry
10	Moonraker	Shirley Bassey

Trivia

• Lois Chiles, who played Holly Goodhead, had turned down an offer to play Anya Amasova in The Spy Who Loved Me.
• Victor Tourjansky, who had been on the ski stunt team in The Spy Who Loved Me, and also had a small cameo as the "Man with Bottle", returned with the same credit in Moonraker. His finally appearance would be in For Your Eyes Only as "Man with Wine Glass".
• Game show host Bob Holness had voiced James Bond in 1956 in a South African radio adaption of Moonraker, and was technically the second actor to play James Bond.
• Moonraker is the third and final James Bond theme song sung by Shirley Bassey, who had previously recorded the themes for Goldfinger and Diamonds Are Forever.
• This is the final appearance of Bernard Lee as M. Lee died during the pre-production of For Your Eyes Only.

Box Office

Production Budget	$34 Million (~$106.1M with inflation)
Worldwide Gross	$210.3 Million (~$655.8M with inflation)

Crew

Director	Lewis Gilbert
Editor	John Glen
Producer	Albert R. "Cubby" Broccoli
	Michael G. Wilson
	William P. Cartlidge
Writers	Ian Fleming (Original novel)
	Christopher Wood (Screenplay)
Music	John Barry

Awards

• Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Effects, Visual Effects in 1980 for Derek Meddings, Paul Wilson and John Evans.
• Nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film, Best Special Effects and Best Supporting Actor for Richard Kiel.
• Won a Golden Screen award in 1980 for Moonraker.
• Nominated for a Golden Satellite Award for Best Classic DVD Release in 2004.