Which Science Fiction Films and TV Shows etc. inspired Moonraker '79?
Silhouette Man
The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,845MI6 Agent
I created this thread as I was interested to know which Science Fiction films or TV shows (and I suppose even novels and short stories too) in particular would members here consider to have influenced the outer space content in Moonraker (1979)?
We know that Cubby Broccoli famously called Moonraker "science fact" but the truth is that it was influenced by science fiction films.
Two of these such influences that I'm aware of are the Mothership theme from Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) being played as the code to Drax's Venetian laboratory and the fact that the Space Station in the film is like the Death Star being revealed in Star Wars: A New Hope (1977).
Obviously very little (shamefully!) came from the original Bond novel of the same name by Ian Fleming, apart from the villain name and rocket name and the scene where Bond and Dr Holly Goodhead are trapped below the thruster rockets of the Moonraker 5 Space Shuttle.
However I'm sure that there are many more that members here can come up with besides those!
We know that Cubby Broccoli famously called Moonraker "science fact" but the truth is that it was influenced by science fiction films.
Two of these such influences that I'm aware of are the Mothership theme from Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) being played as the code to Drax's Venetian laboratory and the fact that the Space Station in the film is like the Death Star being revealed in Star Wars: A New Hope (1977).
Obviously very little (shamefully!) came from the original Bond novel of the same name by Ian Fleming, apart from the villain name and rocket name and the scene where Bond and Dr Holly Goodhead are trapped below the thruster rockets of the Moonraker 5 Space Shuttle.
However I'm sure that there are many more that members here can come up with besides those!
"The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
Comments
In favour of MR. The space station ( For me at least) is very 2001. -{
It has been penciled in from time to time ( DAD, for example)
This true of the visual style of the Space Station, Globes and set pieces inside them. The Black Hole may have been a partial inspiration with some of the set design, and the laser bkast (pew-pew) battle too.
Also, compared to some special effects movies of the time, I think
Moonraker stands up very well. -{
Yes. The Black Hole came out 6 months after Moonraker, so Moonraker possibly influenced it. I agree that Moonraker stands up very well. Real sci-fi films like Star Trek TMP from the same year don't even look as good.
Moonraker was also an obvious retread of You Only Live Twice and The Spy Who Loved Me, in much the same way that Howard Hawks remade Rio Bravo twice more as El Dorado and Rio Lobo.
It also bears some resemblance to In Like Flint and The Ambushers. The "hovercraft" sequence is reminiscent of one in Murderer's Row, too.
Considering that 2001 was a British film, and Ken Adam was good mates with Kubrick - the connection here seems greater. I've not seen any other space films which replicate 2001 (barring elements of Interstellar and Gravity) around that time period as MR does.
The special effects in MR are not as amazing as 2001 - but they're pretty damn incredible.
"Better make that two."
Didn't Christopher Wood get accused at one point of nicking the whole orchid plot from some other low budget spy thriller?
I suppose the sci-fi element in the film owes something to 2001: Space Odyssey but then again Kubrick advised on the lighting for TSWLM set, so maybe he influenced that more. But the classy look of MR and the music owes a fair bit to the Kubrick film.
Guess as the whole space shuttle thing was new it didn't crib from too many others. Had shuttles ever featured in a movie before that? Or ever much since?
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Sadly NASA let the film crew down.
Correct, in the end up the first space shuttle wasn't in fact launched until 1981, some three years after Moonraker was released.
( As they did with the Moon landings )
Yes, indeed! Rank amateurs!
Coincidence?
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As mentioned in post 5 above, it's the 1966 "Kiss The Girls And Make Them Die" (English title) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060592/ which does have some fairly specific resemblances to MR (and a whole lot of dissimilarities, too!). Here's an article by The Cat discussing that very subject: http://jamesbond.ajb007.co.uk/mr66/
I THINK NOT!