In defense of Moonraker finale

yc95

Yeah, yeah, I know – I’m in the minority of a minority here. Even among those who (sheepishly) admit a fondness for Moonraker, most of them like it DESPITE the space battle at the end. Hardly anyone claims to LIKE the final laser shootout.

Well, I want to register a humble defense of the finale, and would love to hear from anyone who agrees (if you exist!).

Let me first say that I agree that “Bond in outer space” was a shameless and cheesy nod to the popularity of Star Wars and sci-fi in general in the late 1970s. For a Bond purist, I can see why this movie, and especially the ending, is a huge deviation and disappointment. No argument here.

However, if you take off your Bond lenses for just a minute, and imagine the ending standing on its own, as a 70s movie apart from the Bond franchise, I think you could argue that the final action sequence was unique even among science fiction films. We’ve seen battles in outer space a million times before and since, but they almost always involve ship-to-ship (or fighter-to-fighter) combat, not friggin’ “dismounted infantry” combat! Sure, it’s completely implausible, but the cinematic appeal of a zero-gravity, three-dimensional shootout between human beings and not machines is just too wild and crazy not to love… Maybe they didn’t pull it off well enough, but they did what they could with the effects of the time. (In fact, I kind of like the low tech approach!)

Most climactic movie battle sequences bore me to tears, but the Moonraker one has stuck with me. Maybe it’s just because I’m a product of the 70s and its Star Wars sensibilities, but I’d love to see someone try to pull off a similar action sequence with today’s technology.

What do you think???

Hardyboy

I must disagree. I think that, even if looked at as a '70s sci-fi film and not as a Bond film, the Moonraker finale smells of rip-off. While the effects are good (especially considering when the film was made), the laser battle seems lifted from the old "Space Invaders" game--and the NASA space-marines (or whatever they are) die about as realistically as those pixillated aliens. And, to rehash a point I made once before, Bond and Holly chasing down the orbs of death is more than a little similar to the attack on the Death Star. When Bond has to switch off his computer and manually destroy the orb, all that's missing is the ghostly voice of Alec Guiness intoning, "Use the Force, James!" Christopher Wood's novelization has a tense sequence where Bond has to don a space suit and go outside the station to turn off the station's "cloaking" device--it's a shame it wasn't in the film.

yc95

I agree that the destruction of the orbs was a direct rip-off. Very true.

And although you make comparisons between the laser fight and "Space Invaders," I really don't see how the pixels of an arcade game are the same thing as what was in Moonraker. Personally, I felt some real flesh-and-blood drama in the shootout that I DON'T feel in most movie shootouts. Maybe I wouldn't call it "realistic" in a art-imitating-science way, but it seemed to me that the deaths of the Space Marines were at least *compelling* in a sense. The vapor jets from the hits to their spacesuits, the muffled screams, the way their inertia causes them to hurtle into the void with no chance of being recovered... I mean, who goes into a battlefield with nowhere to hide or take cover, when your enemy might be in any direction around you, and the slightest rip to your suit means instant death? It's absolutely NUTS, which is exactly why I loved it!

actonsteve

I like it. I miss the old climactic battles. One army against another. We havent had one since TLD.

wakwak007

I liked the end fight scene as well. Of course better when I was twelve, when I saw this in the theatre than now. The scene just reminds me of the whole topic of Jaws and the film itself, in that Eon productions listen "to the masses" and made the film for its new demographics, which at that time was 12-13 years old. To all that complain of this movie, if MR wasn't made for its target audience, Bond may not have lived on as he had.;)

Loeffelholz

It was a 'kooky' finale---the 'Space Marines' versus Drax' forces, the laser 'zap! zap!' sounds...etc. Most distressing to me was the way in which the debris rains downward from the space station as it explodes (the minor issue of a lack of gravity)!

Still---in its defence---I'd say that it was very much 'of its era' In addition, it was hugely successful, so...good for them {[]

I'm actually all for Bond returning to space one day---and doing it right: Think 'Apollo 13' rather than 'Star Wars.' We spend at least a half hour of the film showing Bond undergoing serious and rigorous training...

I think the villain's final lair should be on the dark side of the moon B-)

This should be Craig's fifth or sixth (final) Bond film... :v

bigzilcho

Once you accept the premise that Bond HAS to go into space (this being the Star Wars era), then one must address the simple question of whether or not MR delivers a solid enough reason for such an endeavour.

IMO MR delivers it spectacularly! More than it has ever been given credit for.

007 in space? Madness, you say?

But of course! And therein lies the subtle genius of that finale.

Look at the caper. Drax's master plan. As far as`plans go...its a doozy. Global domination is not enough...this guy has delusions of godhood!

Blofeld was never that crazy! (Come to think of it...no one else has been THAT crazy. Christopher Walken included.)

Now, consider this, if you absolutely HAVE to get Bond into space I maintain that this is a totally viable plot.

The MR haters (and there are plenty) need to make the allowance that this a compromised movie. There IS no reason for Bond in space except for Star Wars. Period. But wait a minute.

The MR space finale has been tarred and feathered beyond reason. Take a step back and you realize what a staggering acheievement Ken Adam, Derek Meddings and the crew accomplished in 1979(!).

Quibble all you want about the fx, for 1979 its impressive stuff. And the space station is another Ken Adam masterpiece.

Jaws`in love? Terrible, you say?

Am I the only Bond-fan in the universe who believes that this is an absolutely ESSENTIAL scene in not only the movie...but the entire series?

I kid you not. If not for Jaws in love...the finale has no emotional resonance.

Yes, I know, that love-at-first-sight scene is not a good moment...but if you erase that scene and accept the fact that Jaws (or any henchman) would save a loved one from extinction then one can appreciate how glorious is the scene when Bond turns JAWS.

Jaws and Dolly are not up to Drax's perfect standards and, therefore, expendable. It takes Bond to wake Jaws up and it is a brilliant manuever...but more than that...it is the emotional core of the movie.

For you see even the henchman, the monster,has a soul and in the Bond universe, to acknowledge that an Oddjob could love ANYTHING is stepping outside the formula.

That close-up of Richard Kiel, when he looks helplessly at Dolly is, quite simply, one of the most touching moments in the series.

For you see, Bond and Holly would fit right in Drax's new world. Jaws? Expendable...just like 99.9% of us in the audience.

For a split-second in time...we are the henchman.

When Jaws disobeys Drax...there is a shudder in the henchman universe. An unprecendented event in the Bondian annals. The villian and his henchman in conflict? Unthinkable.

Humanize the henchman? Not my cup of tea either. I prefer my Red Grants to be ciphers.Like Jaws.

But MR forces the issue: even a henchman is human.And in that single moment of longing, Jaws is the face of humanity.

MR is the only Bond film to have a villian follow his megalomania to its logical exztreme. Drax is the only bad-guy in the asylum of Napoleons who believes he's God.

Can it be that the only possible caper for such a villian requires outer space?

Is it possible that MR is actually better BECAUSE Bond goes into space?

In its own crazy and glorious way MR gets better with age. Oh sure, the film will always be the low point for some fans. But that doesn't matter.

Bond had no business being in space, that's for sure...but he went.

And, with his usual style and panache, he conquered. Make no mistake about that.

Defend the MR finale? How about a show of hands who think the finale has been unfairly thrown into the trash-heap for way too long?



"Jaws, you obey ME!!!"

Napoleon Plural

That's a fine post, bigzilcho.

And yes, that's the odd thing about MR. It's a crazy movie, but the moments of drama for me work far better than in any of the PB films or the latest CR.

As for the finale, it reminds me of the tagline "Where other Bonds end, this one begins!" You see YOLT saw Bond almost go into space but that stalled. 12 years on, and he's there. It didn't seem so crazy back then imo, because in those days everything moved forward a lot, there was more progress. Now everything's gone retro.

Dan Same

bigzilcho wrote:

Once you accept the premise that Bond HAS to go into space...

Big, the finale of MR is justified if it leads to posts like this. {[]

I am not a big fan of the finale of MR, as it is extremely silly, but I do think it is fun and I much prefer it to finales like that of AVTAK, TLD and DAD. I have a kind of 'it is fun but' relationship to MR in that I think the film is quite enjoyable at times but I don't think it will ever contend for any of my best-of lists. I wish that Bond never had to go up into outer space, however that the fact that he did is not among my biggest Bond complaints. Speaking of which, some of the best Bondian dialogue ever IMO featued in MR's finale so it wasn't that bad at all.

Sir Hillary Bray

Dan Same wrote:

Speaking of which, some of the best Bondian dialogue ever IMO featued in MR's finale so it wasn't that bad at all.

Great point. You could write a short book filled only with Drax's one-liners and speeches. Better yet, Hallmark should start a new series of cards with phrases like "boundless munificence", "unloved seasons", "your seed, like yourselves", "tedious inevitability" and the like. They could call it "Addraxions" perhaps?

Sorry to drift off-topic. I prefer most of what precedes the space battle to the battle itself. At least they weren't stupid enough to have Bond fly the shuttle himself; he needed Holly to do it. I also agree with zilcho that the turning of Jaws is one of the more interesting points in the series -- the relationship between he and Drax is usually lost in the hubbub of the one between he and Dolly, which less interesting.

blueman

If I'm still paying attention at that point--and back when it came out, I was--I'm fine with the space shootout. What's always struck me about MR, especially the finale, is how much cheese they get away with inserting into a bigass Bond film conclusion. You'd think in zero-gravity space it would just drift away but no, it sticks like glue. MR is unique in Bondom, and likely always will be. Not just for the space thing, but the near-Austin Powers approach to Bond: toss in Mini Me and it's there, almost.

And the lazer battle was dandy. {[]

mhousty007

Bigzilcho, that is the most passionate defence of any Bond film I have ever heard! Moonraker was the perfect movie for its time and if you bear that in mind while you watch it, it is hugely enjoyable.

yc95

bigzilcho wrote:

But MR forces the issue: even a henchman is human.And in that single moment of longing, Jaws is the face of humanity.

Wow, what a great analysis! I always liked the implied condemnation of eugenics in the Jaws/Dolly scene in MR, but I never really thought of it that clearly before. Great post!!!

And I all wanted to do with this topic was make a case that the laser shootout was cool...:p

Steed

I was watching this film a few weeks ago. I feel that everything good about the film is cancelled out by something bad that follows it- mostly any scenes involving Jaws descend into moronic slapstick. I'm sorry to say, I find the space battle to be a big disappointment and deadly dull.:# I find the shorter scale action climax in FYEO to be more satisfying BECAUSE it's less extravagant and overblown.