History Headscratchers / Moonraker

** Who says those guards weren't to his genetic standards? Maybe a few of them were lacking in the apearance department (I don't remember their faces), but as soldiers, and ones Drax trusted to protect his utopia, they had to be pretty physically capable.

*** The mooks are likely astronauts who joined him in the space station, and they were obviously hiding in there only after Drax found out about the flaw (or more likely, after the Moonraker was arranged to be shipped. As to the timetable thing- yes, he ''did'' have one. He would have needed one because the longer he put it off, the greater the chance either his secret launching pad, his space station, or worst of all his WeaponOfMassDestruction would be found out, not to mention his whole plan involved gathering the best of humanity at their physical peak, so the longer he waited the more likely they would succumb to age or injury, not to mention anyone involved might get cold feet and rat the whole thing out. Above all there is his controlling nature, which means faced with the choice of seizing control of the situation or accepting the hand fate dealt him, he'd go with the former. The "attracting suspicion" argument has the same flaw as the "how much did this cost" argument- its a moot point, when within days he expects to succeed in his plan to wipe out mankind. And he's too smug and elitist to even contemplate the possibility that he might not succeed.

** Two reasons:

*** If you're going to ''end human civilization'', do you ''care'' about your unpaid credit card bills? Drax can spend himself bankrupt ten times over if he wants to; its not like his creditors are ever going to collect, and once everybody but the Ark contingent is dead he has the entire wealth of the planet to loot.

* Drax's evil scheme could have been pulled off without the use of spaceships. Firstly, it would have been much cheaper to build his Ark underground, environmentally sealed, than to build a space station in orbit. Secondly, Drax could have used aircraft to deliver the toxin. Why? Because he runs an '''''aero'''''''space'' company, and he had a radar jamming system for his space station. And even if it couldn't be fitted on a plane, stealth wasn't a complete unknown back then. Putting stuff into space is insanely expensive, up to $10,000 to put ''one kilogram'' into orbit, which is why you didn't take your last holiday at Utopia Planetia, Mars. But I guess this was all discarded in favour of footage of space shuttles docking, undocking, and performing course corrections.

*** Insane, but also a genius. The cost of transporting a mansion from France to the US is infinitely smaller than the cost of putting a giant space station in orbit, building half a dozen space shuttles to supply it, and, say, getting enough people and supplies up there to repopulate the planet. And what about when they have to land? There are only a few airports in the world that have a runway long enough to accommodate a space shuttle, and there would have to be people on the ground waiting for their arrival. So why not have ''everyone'' on the ground? Drax could have built a secret city underneath the Amazon and just used the shuttles to distribute the virus (meaning Bond would have to go up and shoot them down). It's just a blatant cash-in on StarWars, and by God it shows.

** The entire reason parachutes are strapped to your back and around your legs is because there is a HUGE jerk when the parachute deploys. Jaws simply wasn't able to keep hold of Bond from the force of the deployment.

* The mid-air parachute sequence. Why did Bond feel that he couldn't even at least attempt to save the guy's life who he stole the parachute from. He was pretty nuetralized. Why would Jaws suddenly fall off Bond once the rip cord was released?

* So in ''Moonraker'', lasers are small and lethal enough to be used as an infantry and anti-air (anti-space?) weapon. We also have shuttles that can be launched in under an hour, and marines trained in space-borne operations. Why didn't this show up anywhere else in the franchise?

* The falling out the airplane stunt early in film.... completely ridiculous and totally unnecessary. It looks as if it was added in post-production because the rest of the film was so terrible.

* At the beginning of the movie the Moonraker shuttle is being flown from the U.S. to England. After the Moonraker is hijacked, the jet carrying it crashes in the Yukon. Problem: the Yukon is the westernmost part of Canada, just east of Alaska. How exactly did a plane traveling from the U.S. to England end up there? Even assuming the flight started in California where the Moonraker was built, there's no reason for it to ever be over the Yukon.

** Doberman could easily catch her especially given their trained to hunt and the camera cut away before we see what exactly happens to her

*

*** Thus, judged by the standards of its time, the movie wasn't ''quite'' as silly as it seems today. For example, it would be perfectly reasonable to expect a shuttle to be launched within 2-4 days in an emergency situation. And it might be feasible for a sufficiently wealthy person to purchase a space shuttle (or 12, which is what Drax did -- he only stole the shuttle that started the whole movie because one was damaged / destroyed or lost [don't remember which]). And constructing an elaborate space station is much more reasonable at $175 / pound to LEO.

** In case if that would happen. It's like ask "Why school need fire alarm, If school might not burn?"

* The 747 crashes because the Moonraker launches off its back by firing its main engines. Leaving aside the minor quibble that the Shuttle's main engines are fuelled from the big External Tank (I suppose Drax could somehow have arranged to have a fuel supply aboard) it's clear that having the engines fire while being carried is A Very Bad Thing and not meant to happen, ever. So why is there an indicator announcing just that in the 747 cockpit?

* When Chang attacks Bond in the glass museum, he uses a bokken, a wooden training sword. Why not use a katana? It would be more effective in killing and wouldn't get broken if his target got his hands on a metal weapon like a sword.

* When Chang attacks Bond in the glass museum, he uses a bokken, a wooden training sword. Why not use a katana? It would be more effective in killing.

** For that matter, why didn't Drax have a breeding partner? Did he not consider himself a "perfect" specimen, or was he just planning on doing a lot of bed hopping? Or was he the first gay Bond villain, albeit a deeply closeted one? Did it bother him that his future Master Race wouldn't actually be descended from him?

* If Drax hadn't killed her, would Corinne have been part of his Master Race? She was beautiful and she worked for him, and those are apparently the only requirements.
** Further, is it just barely possible that she was supposed to be his mate? It would explain why he kills her in such a horrific way, and it would explain why he doesn't have a mate on the space station at the end.
** For that matter, why doesn't Drax have a partner? Does he not consider himself a "perfect" specimen, or was he planning on doing a lot of bed hopping? Or is he the first gay Bond villain, albeit a deeply closeted one?

** That, or standard cult brainwashing. If they thought they were at their version of the rapture, you think scientologists or members of the WBC would care much about their non-cult family members?

* In the book there's really no need for Drax to [[spoiler:develop the Moonraker and launch his nuclear warhead on London]] when he can just drive it there. M even [[LampshadeHanging lampahades]] this in the last chapter.

** Probably. I imagine you don't end up working as a foot soldier in the private army of a guy who plans to blow up the entire world and repopulate it while ruling over everything as a god-emperor without ''some'' tendencies towards sociopathy.

** Probably. I imagine you don't end up working as a foot soldier in the private army of a guy who plans to blow up the entire world without ''some'' tendencies towards sociopathy.

** Probably. I imagine you don't end up working as a henchman to a guy who plans to blow up the entire world without ''some'' tendencies towards sociopathy.

* [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes Do none of Drax's guards have families?]] Friends? Lovers? A favorite bartender? I'm reminded of ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'' where Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch were fine with terrorism but drew the line at [[EvenEvilHasStandards destroying the world]]. Does Drax employ psychological screening to find the most sociopathic henchmen possible?

** [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes Do none of Drax's guards have families?]] Friends? Lovers? A favorite bartender? I'm reminded of ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'' where Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch were fine with terrorism but drew the line at [[EvenEvilHasStandards destroying the world]]. Does Drax employ psychological screening to find the most sociopathic henchmen possible?

* Why did Drax steal a shuttle instead of simply extending his timetable? He's managed to build a fleet of private shuttles. He's managed to build a huge space station. He did that completely undetected even though it would require years worth of trips back and forth for the construction. Why risk something as public as the theft of a multi-billion dollar spacecraft when there was no time crunch to his plan?

** He was a good guy when he decided to help James Bond save his girlfriend and the rest of the world. It's called a HeelFaceTurn- he doesn't ''have'' to be a decent human being, but that doesn't mean he isn't doing the right thing.