Mission Summary

When the American space shuttle Moonraker is hijacked in mid-flight, James Bond (Moore) is called upon to investigate its disappearance. He starts by questioning the ship's manufacturer, Hugo Drax (Michael Lonsdale) in California. While touring the facility, he meets Dr. Holly Goodhead (Lois Chiles), a NASA engineer and CIA undercover operative also investigating Drax. Bond discovers mysterious blue prints that lead him to a glass shop in Venice, where he learns that Drax not only has stolen his own shuttle, but has plans to wipe out all life on earth using a deadly poison and replace humanity with his "super race." To do this, he creates an invisible space station to deploy the gas and provide sanctuary for his super humans. Bond and Goodhead have no choice but to travel into space to stop Drax.

Analysis

Rank: 19

This film shouldn't have even been made. Seriously. At the end of the previous film in the series, "The Spy Who Loved Me," the credits tagline declared: "James Bond will return in For Your Eyes Only" (see image at right). But another little film was released in the same year that did quite well. Perhaps you've heard of it: "Star Wars." Bond producers decided to cash in on the sci-fi craze and scraped "For Your Eyes Only" for "Moonraker." The result was a laughably improbable plot that is strikingly similar to "The Spy Who Loved Me" which creates a film that feels out of place in the series, despite doing extremely well at the box office in 1979.

I think I can boil the plot of this film down to one phrase: think Hitler in space. The idea of a sadistic person wanting to eradicate human life is nothing new to Bond films, especially since it is the exact same concept from the previous film, except taking place in space as opposed to at sea. One thing that bothered me was how Drax was able to build a space station without anyone on earth knowing about it. Didn't anyone question why a civilian would be making so many trips into space?

Most of the action scenes with Bond in this film rely heavily on gadgets. Now I love "Q" as much as any Bond fan, but when Bond can only get out of a difficult situation with a gadget is annoying and frustratingly convenient. Whether its the gondola in Venice that turns in to a car or a watch that contains plastic explosives, I want to see Bond use his cleverness to escape, not an impractical toy. The pre-title sequence, however, is one of the best, where Bond is pushed out of a plane without a parachute. The climax features a battle in space, with both sides using the infamous Moonraker laser gun. I'm sure at the time the special effects were stunning, but the notion of U.S. Marines being equipped with laser guns to battle the enemy in space seems ridiculous.

Moore had hit his stride around this time, and he helped create a Bond that was much lighter and much more smug than Connery's Bond. Despite having one of the more risqué names in the series, Goodhead isn't a very memorable character. She manages to stay one step ahead of Bond for most of the film, but is eventually putty in his hands in the second half. Drax is an especially lifeless character, despite one of the more ambitious plots. One of the most most recognized henchman makes the only return appearance in the series: Jaws (Richard Kiel). Somehow he manages to survive everything Bond throws at him throughout two films, but this time he assists Bond escaping the Drax space station for a rather lame reason. Finally, "Moonraker" marked the 11th and final appearance of Bernard Lee as "M," Bond superior officer at MI6. Lee was brilliant in his limited screen time over the years, as he managed to show indignation towards Bond with an underlying sense of respect toward his abilities. While Judi Dench does a fine job as "M," no one captured the essence of the character from Fleming like Lee did.

This movie was intended to be a cash-cow for the producers that took advantage of a periodic craze. But Bond films should be timeless and not set in a specific period in history. As a result, the film looks extremely dated today and not very enjoyable due to advances in space technology. The locations in the film make it visually appealing, while the dialogue makes you focus even more on it (one awful example: "Take me around the world one more time." -Goodhead after sleeping with Bond in space). The producers would have been wise to keep their promise and skip this movie and go straight to "For Your Eyes Only."