Moonraker reference guide

When a space shuttle on it's way to the U.K is hijacked in mid-air, Bond is immediately called into action. He starts at the laboratories of Drax Industries, makers of the shuttle, where he encounters a brillant NASA astronaut & CIA agent Dr Holly Goodhead. 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 & Goodhead follow Drax's trail to Brazil, where they once again run into the 7' Goliath Jaws, a towering giant with metal teeth. Escaping from him, they discover the existence of a huge space station undetected by US or Soviet radar, and a horrible plot by Drax to employ nerve gas in a genocidal project. Bond & Holly then engage in an epic battle miles above the Earth in a bid to stop Drax's evil plans before it's too late!

Quick facts

Produced by Albert R. Broccoli

Directed by Lewis Gilbert

Screenplay by Christopher Wood

World Premiere 26th June 1979 (London, England)

US Release Date 29th June 1979

Worldwide Box Office $202,700,000 US

Budget $34,000,000 US

Running Time 126 Minutes

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Locations

Yukon Territory, Canada; aboard an aircraft traveling from Africa to London; London; Los Angeles; Southern California; Venice; Rio de Janeiro; Rio Tapirapé, Brazil; outer space.

Bond, James Bond

Bond introduces himself in the usual way when he is looking for Dr. Holly Goodhead.

Behind the scenes

With a sizable budget of over $30 million (more than 30 times that of Dr. No), Moonraker actually became one of the most popular James Bond films ever, earning $203 million worldwide. This record would not be broken until Goldeneye that appeared at cinemas 16 years later.

When Jaws is seen to bite into the steel cable car wire, he is actually biting a custom made wire made out of liquorice.

One of Drax's beautiful women in the Temple was actually Melinda Maxwell, daughter of Lois Maxwell (Miss Moneypenny).

Michael G. Wilson appears in three cameo roles in Moonraker, most clearly as a NASA Technician where he tells a superior officer that Drax's space station is over two hundred meters in diameter.

Jaws speaks his only line heard in a Bond film when he proposes a toast with Dolly - "Well, here's to us".

A scene was actually cut out of the final film in which Drax gives a meeting in the chamber below Moonraker 5. This is the reason why the computers in the room fold into the floor for a shuttle launch.

The producer did not think that viewers would accept the relationship between Jaws and Dolly due to the height difference between them. It was only when Richard Kiel pointed out that his actual wife was the same height as Dolly that they changed their minds. §

Selected behind the scenes information courtesy IMDb.