Moonraker - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of Moonraker or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to Moonraker

[sophie]

Drax's Moonraker logo strongly resembles that of the Rockwell International corporation, the prime contractor for N.A.S.A.'s Space Shuttle orbiter (until 1996 when Boeing Integrated Defense Systems purchased the assets of Rockwell including North American Aircraft Operations (the initial contractor for the Space Shuttle prior to its acquisition by Rockwell in 1973). This can be seen on the Moonraker ships and on the crews' mission patches and workers' belt buckles.

[alyssa]

In March 2004, an Internet hoax stated rumors about a lost 1956 version of Moonraker by Orson Welles, and a James Bond website repeated it on April Fool's Day in 2004 as a hoax. Supposedly, this recently discovered "lost movie" was forty minutes of raw footage with Sir Dirk Bogarde as Bond, Welles as Drax, and Peter Lorre as Drax's henchman.

[chad]

Michael Lonsdale and Richard Kiel reprised their respective roles of Hugo Drax and Jaws in the video game 007 Legends (2012).

[tamara]

One of the Moonraker space shuttle models, used in filming, is currently on display in the Las Vegas Planet Hollywood restaurant.

[terry]

Toshirô Suga was recommended for the role of Chang by Executive Producer Michael G. Wilson, who was one of his pupils.

[ronnie]

Bond's wrist dart gun dates from The Wild Wild West (1965)'s sleeve derringer idea.

[brent]

For the funeral sequence, the Prop Department gathered wreaths from a real funeral nearby to dress it up a bit.

[wesley]

Sylvia Kristel reportedly auditioned for the role of Corinne Dufour.

[scarlett]

Ernst Stavro Blofeld is one of three recurring villains in the official James Bond film franchise. The other two, are henchmen Jaws (Richard Kiel), from The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and this movie, and Mr. White (Jesper Christiansen), from Spectre (2015), Casino Royale (2006), and Quantum of Solace (2008). Of these three recurring villains, two, Mr. White and Ernst Stavro Blofeld, appeared in one of the same movies, which was Spectre (2015). Of the three villains, only two, Jaws and Mr. White, are the ones who have always been portrayed by the same actor.

[lynn]

The space scenes were done by rewinding the camera after an element was shot, enabling other elements to be superimposed in the film stock, with the space battle needing up to forty rewinds to incorporate everything.

[javier]

The reason this movie has little in common with the novel, is that the book was deemed far too dated to be adapted in 1979.

[bessie]

Despite the previous movie telling us that James Bond will return in For Your Eyes Only, Producer Albert R. Broccoli chose this movie as the next installment, after the success of Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977).

[addison]

The final 007 movie that Richard Maibaum didn't write or co-write in his life. The other two were You Only Live Twice (1967) and Live and Let Die (1973).

[kyle]

Vehicles featured included: N.A.S.A. and Rockwell International Shuttle Spacecraft designed as six Moonraker Space Shuttles; a Venezian Gondola, that can turn into a hovercraft, known as the Hovercraft Gondola, or "Bondola"; Q's Hydrofoil Boat, a silver Glastron Carlson CV-23HT speedboat, with accessory hang glider, which is chased by three Glastron SSV-189 speedboats; a white MP Roadster; a Brazilian Chevrolet C-14 Rio Ambulance; a blue Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith II, which takes Bond to his Rio hotel; a Bell 206 JetRanger helicopter; a BONDinho Rio cable car; a Hispano-Suiza; various American Motors and Jeep vehicles (seen at the Drax estate which includes an AMC Concord, Jeep CJ, and Jeep Cherokee, the AMC and Jeep vehicles at the time of filming were distributed by Renault, who became the majority of American Motors until 1987, when the French company sold its shares to Chrysler, where the Jeep brand is now part of the Chrysler Corporation (F.C.A. Automobiles since 2014), and a Handley Page Jetstream Turboprop plane in the opening sequence.

[kristen]

Lois Chiles had trouble with her dialogue during the climax, so the Prop Department put a Martian doll outside the window of the space pod, washing it. After that, she relaxed and finished the scene.