Moonraker(1979)
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) Jun 29, 1979
James Bond investigates the mid-air theft of a space shuttle, and discovers a plot to commit global genocide.
Release Details
Original Release | Jun 29, 1979 | Moderate
Box Office Results
Results
$7,108,344
$70,308,099
$140,000,000
$210,308,099
Current Showtimes
orround
- Wed Sep 2
- Thu Sep 3
- Fri Sep 4
- Sat Sep 5
- Sun Sep 6
- Mon Sep 7
- Tue Sep 8
Technical Specifications
Aspect Ratio: 2.39 : 1
Other Details
Country of Origin: United Kingdom, France, United States
Language: English,Italian,Portuguese
Summaries
Plot Summary
- A Drax Industries Moonraker on loan to the United Kingdom is hijacked in midair while on a Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. The carrier is destroyed but no wreckage of the Shuttle is found. M (Bernard Lee) (This was Bernard Lee's final appearance as M), head of MI6, assigns James Bond (Roger Moore), Agent 007, to investigate. En route to England, Bond is attacked and pushed out of an airplane by the mercenary assassin Jaws (Richard Kiel) (whom he previously met in The Spy Who Loved Me). Bond survives by stealing a parachute from Jaws, whilst Jaws lands on a trapeze net within a circus tent. The Shuttle was built by Drax Corp & that's where Bond is asked to start investigating.At the Drax Industries space-plane-manufacturing complex in California, Bond meets the owner of the company, Hugo Drax (Michael Lonsdale), and his henchman Chang (Toshiro Suga). Bond also meets Dr. Holly Goodhead (Lois Chiles), an astronaut, and survives an assassination attempt while inside a centrifuge chamber. Drax's personal pilot, Corinne Dufour (Corinne Cléry), sleeps with Bond and then helps Bond find blueprints for a glass vial made in Venice; Drax discovers her involvement (via Chang) and has her killed by his pet dogs.Bond again encounters Goodhead in Venice and observes her snooping around a door near the glass factory. Then he is chased through the canals by Drax's henchmen. He returns to the factory at night to investigate, and discovers a secret biological laboratory, and learns that the glass vials are to hold a nerve gas deadly to humans, but harmless to plants and animals. Chang attacks Bond, but Bond hurls him through the stained glass clock-face of the Saint Mark's clock-tower, killing him; during the fight, Bond finds evidence that Drax is moving his operation to Rio De Janeiro. Rejoining Goodhead, he deduces that she is a CIA agent spying on Drax and sleeps with her. The next day Bond takes M to the lab & finds Drax alone & no sign of any lab. M is humiliated. Bond has saved one of the vials he found earlier, as the only evidence of the now-empty laboratory; he gives it to M for analysis, who permits him to go to Rio De Janeiro under the pretense of being on leave. Q (Desmond Llewelyn) & Miss Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell), M's secretary.Bond survives attacks by Jaws, whom Drax previously hired as Chang's replacement, during Rio Carnival and on the Sugarloaf Cable Car. After Jaws' cable car crashes, he is rescued from the rubble by Dolly (Blanche Ravalec), a young woman, and the two fall in love. Bond finds Holly tracking the local airfield with planes from Drax corp arriving & departing very frequently. Drax's forces capture Goodhead, but Bond escapes. Q finds that the fluid in the vial is a modified poison fatal only to humans, it is found in the Amazons. Bond travels the Amazon River and comes under attack from Drax's forces, before eventually locating his base. Captured by Jaws, Bond is taken to Drax and witnesses four Moonrakers lifting off. Drax explains that he stole back the loaned Shuttle because another in his fleet had developed a fault during assembly. Bond and Goodhead are caged by Jaws in a meeting room under the launch platform, and narrowly escape being burned alive by the exhausts of Moonraker 5, which is carrying Drax, and pose as pilots on Moonraker 6. The shuttles dock with a huge, city-like space station, hidden from radar by a cloaking device.Bond and Goodhead disable the radar jamming cloaking device; the United States sends a platoon of Marines aboard another shuttle to intercept the now-visible space station. Jaws captures Bond and Goodhead, to whom Drax reveals his plan to destroy human life by launching 50 globes that would dispense the nerve gas into Earth's atmosphere. Drax had transported several dozen genetically perfect young men and women of varying races to the space station in the shuttles. They would live there until Earth was safe again for human life; their descendants would be the seed for a "new master race". Bond sends a message to M & UK sends over a strike team to destroy the station.Bond persuades Jaws to switch his allegiance by getting Drax to admit that anyone not measuring up to his physical standards, including him and Dolly, would be exterminated. Jaws attacks Drax's guards, and a laser battle ensues between Drax's forces and Bond, Jaws, and the Marines (attacking on MMUs). The strike team arrives but Drax manages to launch 2 vial pods. Drax's forces are defeated as the station is destroyed, while Bond shoots and ejects Drax into space.Bond and Goodhead use Drax's laser-armed Moonraker 5 to destroy the three launched globes and return to Earth. It is revealed that Jaws and Dolly, who ejected themselves in one of Drax's escape pods, after toasting with a bottle of champagne, are being recovered by the Marines. Bond's superiors get a video feed of Moonraker 5 and are bemused to see Bond and Goodhead making love in zero gravity.
Storyline
- James Bond is back for another mission and this time, he is blasting off into space. A spaceship travelling through space is mysteriously hijacked and Bond must work quickly to find out who was behind it all. He starts with the rockets creators, Drax Industries and the man behind the organization, Hugo Drax. On his journey he ends up meeting Dr. Holly Goodhead and encounters the metal-toothed Jaws once again. — simon No one knows who is behind the audacious mid-air hijacking of the state-of-the-art Drax Industries Moonraker space shuttle: a spacecraft on loan from the U.S. government to Great Britain that has disappeared without a trace. To shed light on this critical case, British Agent 007 launches an investigation from sunny California and Drax's space research facility, unaware that his presence has already drawn unwanted attention. As the unstoppable adversary from The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) enters the equation, Bond teams up with NASA scientist Dr Holly Goodhead to ferret out the culprit in a time-sensitive quest for clues across the globe. However, humankind's future is hanging by a thread. Can James Bond thwart the criminal mastermind's evil plan before it is too late? — Nick Riganas A space shuttle called the Moonraker, built by Drax Industries, is on its way to the U.K. when it is hijacked in mid-air and the crew of the 747 carrying it is killed. Bond immediately is called into action, and starts the investigation with Hugo Drax. While at the Drax laboratories, Bond meets the brilliant and stunning Dr. Holly Goodhead, a N.A.S.A. astronaut and C.I.A. Agent who is investigating Drax for the U.S. Government. One of Drax's thugs, the sinister Chan, attempts to kill 007 at the lab, but when that fails, he follows Bond to Venice and tries again there. Bond and Goodhead follow Drax's trail to Brazil, where they once again run into the seven-foot Goliath Jaws, a towering giant with metal teeth. Escaping from him, they discover the existence of a huge space station undetected by U.S. or Soviet radar, and a horrible plot by Drax to employ nerve gas in a genocidal project. James and Holly must quickly find a way to stop Hugo Drax before his horrific plans can be put into effect. — Derek O'Cain A space shuttle is stolen enroute to London and M sends James Bond out to apologize to the shuttle creator, billionaire Hugo Drax. While visiting Drax's estate, several attempts are made on Bond's life, making Drax the number one suspect. Bond also meets Dr. Holly Goodhead, a N.A.S.A. scientist, who is also a C.I.A. Agent investigating Drax. Their investigations lead Bond to discover a plot to murder the world's population so that Drax can repopulate the planet in his image. The chase takes Bond all over the world, California, Brazil, the Amazon James, and, finally, to Drax's huge space-city over the Earth. Drax, meanwhile, has hired a old friend of Bond to take care of any problems, the steel-toothed killer Jaws. — Lee Horton
