Moonraker is a 1979 James Bond film from EON Productions based on the Moonraker book by Ian Fleming starring Roger Moore. When the end credits rolled for the previous Bond film, The Spy Who Loved Me, it said: “James Bond will return in For Your Eyes Only,” however, after the tremendous box office success of Star Wars in 1977, the producers decided they wanted to cash in on the subsequent science fiction craze and make a film where Bond would go to space. Moonraker was chosen as the basis for the film, although Ian Fleming’s novel has no science fiction aspects. For Your Eyes Only was subsequently delayed and ended up following Moonraker in 1981.

Plot summary: A Drax Industries Moonraker space shuttle on loan to the United Kingdom is hijacked in mid-air, destroying the carrier plane. James Bond is recalled from Africa to investigate. En route in a small jet, on an unrelated case, Bond is attacked by the pilot and crew and is pushed out of the plane by the mercenary assassin Jaws, whom he has met before. Bond survives by stealing a parachute from the pilot in mid-air, while Jaws lands on a circus tent. Bond reports to MI6 headquarters in London, and is briefed by M and Q about the hijacking. He begins his investigation at the Drax Industries shuttle-manufacturing complex in southern California.

At Drax Industries, Bond is coldly greeted by the owner of the company, Sir Hugo Drax, and henchman Chang. Bond meets an astronaut, Dr Holly Goodhead, and survives an assassination attempt via a centrifuge chamber. Bond is later inadvertently aided by Drax’s personal pilot, Corinne Dufour, as he finds blueprints for a glass vial made in Venice. Bond then foils another attempt on his life, shooting a Drax sniper with a hunting shotgun. When Drax discovers that Dufour assisted Bond in his investigations, Drax fires her, then has his hunting dogs fatally maul her.

Bond again encounters Goodhead in Venice. He is chased through the canals by Drax’s henchmen but his gondola, with the ability to transform into a hovercraft, allows him to escape across the Piazza San Marco in a comic fashion. Bond discovers a secret biological laboratory; by accidentally poisoning the scientists there, he learns that the glass vials are to hold a deadly nerve gas. Chang battles Bond and is killed. During the fight, Bond sees evidence that Drax is moving his operation to Rio de Janeiro. Rejoining Goodhead, he deduces that she is a CIA agent spying on Drax. They promise to work together (and consummate their alliance), but quickly dispense with the truce. Bond has saved one of the vials he found earlier, as the only evidence of the now-empty laboratory, giving it to M for analysis, who permits him to go to Rio de Janeiro.

In Rio de Janeiro, Bond meets and seduces his Brazilian contact Manuela. Drax hires Jaws to finish Chang’s job of eliminating Bond. Bond meets Goodhead at the top of Sugarloaf, where they are attacked by Jaws on a cable car. After Jaws’ car crashes he is rescued by Dolly—a petite blonde girl with super strength—from the rubble, and the two fall in love. Bond and Goodhead are captured by henchmen, but Bond escapes.

Bond reports to a MI6 base in Brazil and learns that the toxin comes from a rare orchid indigenous to the upper catchments of the Amazon jungle. While deadly to humans, it is harmless to all other life. Bond travels the Amazon River looking for Drax’s research facility, and soon encounters Jaws and other henchmen again. Bond escapes from his boat just before it hits the Iguacu Falls, and finds Drax’s base. Captured by Jaws again, Bond is taken to Drax and witnesses four Moonrakers lifting off. Drax explains that he himself stole the Moonraker because another in the fleet had developed a fault during assembly. Bond is reunited with Goodhead; they escape and successfully pose as pilots on the sixth shuttle. The shuttles dock with Drax’s hidden space station.

Drax plans to destroy all human life by launching fifty globes containing the toxin into the Earth’s atmosphere. Before launching the globes, Drax also transported several dozen young men and women of varying races, which he regarded as genetically perfect, to the space station. They would live there until Earth was safe again for human life; their descendants would be the seed for a “new master race.” Bond persuades Jaws and Dolly to switch allegiance by getting Drax to admit that anyone not measuring up to his physical standards would be exterminated (Dolly’s glasses and Jaws’ metal teeth, as well as their odd heights, being traits that exclude them both) and Jaws start to brutalise Drax’ guards.

Bond and Goodhead disable the radar jammer hiding the station from Earth. The US sends a platoon of Marines in a military shuttle. A laser battle ensues in which Drax’s guards as well as his new master race die. During the battle, Bond pushes Drax into an airlock and ejects him into space.

The space station, heavily damaged in the battle, disintegrates. Jaws helps Bond and Goodhead escape in Drax’s space shuttle. In celebration, Jaws opens a champagne bottle and he and Dolly toast (in his only spoken line: “Well, here’s to us!”). They too escape the space station as their module breaks away before the station explodes. Before the battle Drax launched three of the globes towards Earth, which Goodhead and Bond destroy from their shuttle. The two make love in space (prompting the memorable line from Q: “I think he’s attempting re-entry, Sir!”). Goodhead has the penultimate line, with “James, take me around the world one more time.” to which Bond simply replies. “Why not?” Moonraker 5 then soars past the camera high above the Earth and out of view.

See also:

• Moonraker: Film - Cast
• Moonraker: Film - Crew
• Moonraker: Film - Goofups
• Moonraker: Film - Locations
• Moonraker: Film - Soundtrack
• Moonraker: Film - Trivia