In Moonraker, why doesn't Drax kill Bond on the shooting range?
Railer 505
Albany, NYPosts: 61MI6 Agent
In the scene where Drax tells Bond "such good sport" - Bond averts being killed by seeing the sniper in the tree, shooting at him, and removing the threat. But wouldn't you think if Drax was trying to kill him they would have all taken their bird-hunting shotguns and did away with Bond once the sniper failed to shoot him? I guess by then they were more interested in killing Dufour by "terminating her employment."
Comments
Getting back to Moonraker, I'm thinking that at that scene in the movie Drax felt that Dufour was more of a threat than Bond having showed him the safe.
This is the stage of the movie where the villain is still maintaining a vestige of civility and good breeding, esp as Drax is loosely based on Fleming's villain, where he is all about ingratiating himself in English society (arguable, as Drax in the film sends up such English fripperies with his reference to cucumber sandwiches).
So it's all about making Bond's death look like an accident during a pheasant shoot. Your alternative just wouldn't be plausible, to have Bond's body riddled with bullets when it is sent back to MI6. Of course, yes, as they're all brainwashed they could still just do it again and have Bond shot, but it would be messy. And this is Moonraker, one of the more farfetched 'don't ask' movies...
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Its best not to overthink these things. - Trust me, I studied them for two years!
Napolian P, I agree with you. For all its outside the box elements, Michel Lonsdale's potrayal of Drax is great because he subtly takes the best aspects fo the novelised character put into the script, and then gives him subtlty, which acts as a foil to the sheer overscale of the rest of the film. - I say this with mild irrony, - Moonraker is one of my favorite films, and Drax my favorite male Bond Villain!
Although, I can certainly understand emotions taking over in such as stressful situation.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
I thought the same thing, though its certainly imaginable that she didn't think in such a tense situation... plus she would have had to start it up and get it to speed and im sure the dogs would have caught up to her by then.
I would not agree that Sanchez's death in LTK is one such moment. Sanchez didn't conveniently pause to admire the scene before killing Bond, nor did he devise an elaborate plot to kill him when he could have simply shot him dead. Sanchez moves relatively slowly because he's carrying a machete and he can barely stand on his two feet. The extra delay is created by the way the scene is shot; it shows us Sanchez advancing with the machete, then cuts to Bond, then back to Sanchez on fire. Given all that, I thought the exchange between Bond and Sanchez was perfectly credible.
Because I receive hits by counteractive mental Flemingistic forces too. ;%
I agree that the film Drax subtly adds in Fleming's characterization to great effect. Lonsdale and Moore both give great dramatic performances that aren't dulled by all the inane surroundings. The beginning of the film is actually quite credible and down to earth-and that line on the range is just sooo good. You can just see the sardonic gleam in Moore's eyes when he says: "Did I?". That is definitely a Connery Bond moment-IN MOONRAKER! HAH!
Added to this is how often Bond is assisted by some special Q-branch gadgetry so conveniently suited to the occasion. As if Q had the power to see into the future and know in advance exactly what 007 will need on this particular mission.
That's what makes movies of any sort so wonderful and fun. They may not necessarily make complete logical sense, but that's what makes them good stories.
I have wondered this, Drax had the opportunity to kill Bond then and there, maybe he didn´t realise what a thorn in the side Bond is
Plus, Dalton's Bond looks even more out of it than Sanchez, so I'm sure there was a slight false sense of security that Bond didn't have any more tricks up his sleeve, so Sanchez could afford the extra few seconds to know why Bond did what he did. We only know as an audience that Bond still has the upper hand because we see him take out the lighter.
Sanchez is still probably my favorite villain death payoff, though I have to give props to Brosnan, the final showdown between himself and 006 is also pretty damn good.
As for Drax, it just would have been too high-profile for him to do it right then and there. MI-6 would have been suspicious if Bond had been killed in a "Hunting accident", but a shot from a distance would be a little more explainable as an accident then if Drax had unloaded on him at point blank range.
Right! All Drax really needed was sharks with friggin laser beams attached to their heads! Too bad all he had was ill-tempered sea bass.