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* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Hugo Drax's plan is circumvented, but there is still collateral damage in three-digit casualties and they're not all bad guys. James is surprised and disappointed to learn that Gala is already engaged.]]

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* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Hugo Drax's plan is circumvented, but there is still collateral damage in three-digit casualties and they're not all bad guys. James is surprised and disappointed to learn that Gala is already engaged.]]engaged]].



* BrokenPedestal: Bond saw Drax as a famed British war hero and admired him until finding out about his Nazi past and scheme to destroy England

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* BrokenPedestal: Bond saw Drax as a famed British war hero and admired him until finding [[spoiler:finding out about his Nazi past and scheme to destroy EnglandEngland]].



* ComplexityAddiction: Drax's entire plan of assembling an all-German team of scientists, using them to construct a highly experimental rocket missile and aiming it at London without arousing suspicion falls into this, especially considering the rocket could easily have malfunctioned and either exploded mid-air or landed off-course. Simply having a nuclear bomb smuggled into his Belgravia flat would have been less hassle. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] however as Drax is trying to create an epic masterpiece in humiliating Britain and simply letting off a nuke out of nowhere wouldn't be nearly as satisfying.

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* ComplexityAddiction: Drax's entire plan of assembling an all-German team of scientists, using them to construct a highly experimental rocket missile and aiming it at London without arousing suspicion falls into this, especially considering the rocket could easily have malfunctioned and either exploded mid-air or landed off-course. Simply having a nuclear bomb smuggled into his Belgravia flat would have been less hassle. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] however Justified]], however, as Drax is trying to create an epic masterpiece in humiliating Britain Britain, and simply letting off a nuke out of nowhere wouldn't be nearly as satisfying.



* CoolCar: Drax drives a Mercedes 300 S, which Bond describes as "ruthless and majestic". 007 himself owns a 1930 Bentley Coupé, in which he chases Drax towards the end of the book. It's also an automotive example of a NationalWeapon, as Drax drives in a German Mercedes while 007 drives in a British Bentley.

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* CoolCar: Drax drives a Mercedes 300 S, which Bond describes as "ruthless and majestic". majestic." 007 himself owns a 1930 Bentley Coupé, in which he chases Drax towards the end of the book. It's also an automotive example of a NationalWeapon, as Drax drives in a German Mercedes while 007 drives in a British Bentley.



* DamselInDistress: Gala Brand is a notable aversion; she proves to be as important to foiling Drax's plot as Bond ([[spoiler:it's actually her that discovers that the rocket is to be fired at London]]) and while she does get captured, Bond also does shortly afterwards.

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* CurbStompBattle: Bond's bridge game against Drax, thanks to slipping in a loaded deck. The chairman of Blades, upon seeing Bond's hand, declares the only possibility to be "sheer murder."
* DamselInDistress: Gala Brand is a notable aversion; she proves to be as important to foiling Drax's plot as Bond ([[spoiler:it's actually her ([[spoiler:she's the one that discovers that the rocket is to be fired at London]]) and while she does get captured, Bond also does shortly afterwards.



* EvilIsPetty: The first sign that Drax is a bad'un is when he cheats at cards even though the amounts involved are trivial to a man of his wealth. To him, the amounts are immaterial beside the fact that he just plain hates to be beaten. TO show how evil he is, he casually rams a passing Alfa Romeo off the road when it passes his car, with Bond watching in horror as the driver met a grisly end. Even worse, the driver was a ''19-year-old'' RAF pilot who was just taking his customized car out for a ride.

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* EvilIsPetty: The first sign that Drax is a bad'un is when he cheats at cards even though the amounts involved are trivial to a man of his wealth. To him, the amounts are immaterial beside the fact that he just plain hates to be beaten. TO To show how evil he is, he casually rams a passing Alfa Romeo off the road when it passes his car, with Bond watching in horror as the driver met meets a grisly end. Even worse, the driver was a ''19-year-old'' RAF pilot who was just taking his customized car out for a ride.



** Drax's speech before the launch is a masterpiece of ''double entendre''. It's full of completely sincere patriotic sentiment, but the British listeners never twig that Drax's references to "my country" actually mean [[spoiler:Germany]].
* ExplainExplainOhCrap: Gala does the internal monologue version of this trope as she does the math and figures out the new coordinates for the Moonraker will drop it in [[spoiler: the middle of London.]]

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** Drax's speech before the launch is a masterpiece of ''double entendre''.double entendre. It's full of completely sincere patriotic sentiment, but the British listeners never twig that Drax's references to "my country" actually mean [[spoiler:Germany]].
* ExplainExplainOhCrap: Gala does the internal monologue version of this trope as she does the math and figures out the new coordinates for the Moonraker will drop it in [[spoiler: the middle of London.]] London]].



* FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse: Bond gives a recount of Drax's life, specifically noting how being bullied because he sucked his thumb as a child, on top of the Nazi fanaticism he still adheres to, drove him to develop delusions of jealousy and revenge. Bond concludes with how it made him a paranoid monster.

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* FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse: Bond gives a recount recouning of Drax's life, specifically noting how being bullied because he sucked his thumb as a child, on top of the Nazi fanaticism he still adheres to, drove him to develop delusions of jealousy and revenge. Bond concludes with how it made him a paranoid monster.



* GratuitousGerman: A lot of dubious German is (naturally) used, as ex-Nazi villains play a prominent part. [[spoiler: Most memorably, Krebs and Drax's other henchmen will frequently address their boss as "''Herr Kapitän''," or "Captain." The problem is that Drax was an infantry captain in the ''Heer'' (army), and later ''Waffen-SS'' in his glory days, while ''Kapitän'' specifically denotes a ''naval'' captain in German. Better researched Nazis would have addressed Drax either as ''Herr Hauptmann'' (an army captain) or ''Hauptsturmführer'' (an SS captain).]]

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* GratuitousGerman: A lot of dubious German is (naturally) used, as ex-Nazi villains play a prominent part. [[spoiler: Most [[spoiler:Most memorably, Krebs and Drax's other henchmen will frequently address their boss as "''Herr Kapitän''," or "Captain." The problem is that Drax was an infantry captain in the ''Heer'' (army), and later ''Waffen-SS'' in his glory days, while ''Kapitän'' specifically denotes a ''naval'' captain in German. Better researched Nazis would have addressed Drax either as ''Herr Hauptmann'' (an army captain) or ''Hauptsturmführer'' (an SS captain).]]captain)]].



* ImpersonationExclusiveCharacter: [[spoiler:Hugo Drax is actually a Nazi saboteur whose real name is Graf Hugo von der Drache and masqueraded as a war hero for the past several years after he was "rescued" in his British military disguise, stole the identity of a missing soldier, and faked amnesia to justify not remembering his pre-WWII life. By ''sheer coincidence'', the "Drax" surname he adopted happens to be surprisingly close to his real one. The only thing known about the real Hugo Drax was that he was an orphan who was MIA during the war.]]

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* ImpersonationExclusiveCharacter: [[spoiler:Hugo Drax is actually a Nazi saboteur whose real name is Graf Hugo von der Drache and masqueraded as a war hero for the past several years after he was "rescued" in his British military disguise, stole the identity of a missing soldier, and faked amnesia to justify not remembering his pre-WWII life. By ''sheer coincidence'', the "Drax" surname he adopted happens to be surprisingly close to his real one. The only thing known about the real Hugo Drax was that he was an orphan who was MIA during the war.]]war]].



* KerbstompBattle: Bond's bridge game against Drax, thanks to slipping in a loaded deck. The chairman of Blades, upon seeing Bond's hand, declares the only possibility to be "sheer murder".



* MotiveRant: Drax gives Bond an epic one when he has him tied up and defenceless. Bond responds by taunting Drax into a VillainousBreakdown, which gives him the opportunity he needs to free himself and Gala.
* MsFanservice: Because Bond sees Gala's personnel file during his preparatory briefing, we have a unique clinical description of a Bond Girl's physical appearance. She has auburn hair, blue eyes, is 5'7" tall, weighs 9 stone (126 lb) and her measurements are 38-26-38. Plus, she has a mole on the upper curvature of her right breast. [[spoiler:Alas for him, she's engaged to someone else.]]

to:

* MotiveRant: Drax gives Bond an epic one when he has him tied up and defenceless.defenseless. Bond responds by taunting Drax into a VillainousBreakdown, which gives him the opportunity he needs to free himself and Gala.
* MsFanservice: Because Bond sees Gala's personnel file during his preparatory briefing, we have a unique uniquely clinical description of a Bond Girl's physical appearance. She has auburn hair, blue eyes, is 5'7" tall, weighs 9 stone (126 lb) and her measurements are 38-26-38. Plus, she has a mole on the upper curvature of her right breast. [[spoiler:Alas for him, she's engaged to someone else.]]else]].



-->"Your majesty, men and women of England", the voice was a velvet snarl. "I am about to change the course of England's history." A pause. "In a few minutes' time the lives of all of you will be altered, in some cases, ahem, drastically, by the, er, impact of the Moonraker. I am very proud and pleased that fate has singled me out, from amongst all my fellow countrymen, to fire this great arrow of vengeance into the skies and thus to proclaim for all time, and for all the world to witness, the might of my fatherland. I hope this occasion will be forever a warning that the fate of my country's enemies will be written in dust, in ashes, in tears and", a pause, "in blood. And now thank you all for listening and I sincerely hope that those of you who are able will repeat my words to your children, if you have any, tonight".

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-->"Your majesty, men and women of England", the voice was a velvet snarl. "I am about to change the course of England's history." A pause. "In a few minutes' time the lives of all of you will be altered, in some cases, ahem, drastically, by the, er, impact of the Moonraker. I am very proud and pleased that fate has singled me out, from amongst all my fellow countrymen, to fire this great arrow of vengeance into the skies and thus to proclaim for all time, and for all the world to witness, the might of my fatherland. I hope this occasion will be forever a warning that the fate of my country's enemies will be written in dust, in ashes, in tears and", and," a pause, "in blood. And now thank you all for listening and I sincerely hope that those of you who are able will repeat my words to your children, if you have any, tonight".



-->I loathe and despise you all. You swine! Useless, idle, decadent, fools, hiding behind your bloody white cliffs while other people fight your battles. Too weak to defend your colonies, toadying to America with your hats in your hands. Stinking snobs who'll do anything for money. Hah!

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-->I -->'''Drax:''' I loathe and despise you all. You swine! Useless, idle, decadent, fools, hiding behind your bloody white cliffs while other people fight your battles. Too weak to defend your colonies, toadying to America with your hats in your hands. Stinking snobs who'll do anything for money. Hah!



* RedRightHand: Aside from the singled out ones, Drax also has unnaturally long thumbs and badly splayed front teeth, the latter believed to be due to childhood thumb-sucking.

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* RedRightHand: Aside from the singled out singled-out ones, Drax also has unnaturally long thumbs and badly splayed badly-splayed front teeth, the latter believed to be due to childhood thumb-sucking.



* SmartPeoplePlayChess: M describes a character at Blades who's an absolute killer at the cards -- playing against other members of the club -- and "used to play chess for England".

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* SmartPeoplePlayChess: M describes a character at Blades who's an absolute killer at the cards -- playing against other members of the club -- and "used to play chess for England".England."



* TreacheryCoverUp: Bond's unofficial "mission" at Blades, as mentioned, is a small-scale version of this. A full-sized one is later initiated with [[spoiler:Hugo Drax's whole identity and plot to nuke London kept out of the press, so to not panic the public]].

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* TreacheryCoverUp: Bond's unofficial "mission" at Blades, as mentioned, is a small-scale version of this. A full-sized one is later initiated with [[spoiler:Hugo Drax's whole identity and plot to nuke London kept out of the press, so as to not panic the public]].



* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Drax's rags-to-riches story and generous philanthropy has earned him the acclaim of the British populace. Even Bond admires him before learning that he's a Nazi saboteur seeking revenge against England for the destruction of his people.

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* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Drax's rags-to-riches story and generous philanthropy has earned him the acclaim of the British populace. Even Bond admires him before learning that he's [[spoiler:]]he's a Nazi saboteur seeking revenge against England for the destruction of his people.
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All of which, along with the fact that the plot is built around a technology that was cutting-edge in 1955 but already behind the times when the film franchise started, goes some way toward explaining why the [[Film/{{Moonraker}} eleventh]] ''Film/JamesBond'' film has [[InNameOnly very little]] to do with the book, only sharing its title and the BigBad's name. Some elements from the book would eventually make its way into the seventeenth film in the series, ''Film/GoldenEye'', and others into the twentieth film, ''Film/DieAnotherDay''.

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All of which, along with the fact that the plot is built around a technology that was cutting-edge in 1955 but already behind the times when the film franchise started, goes some way toward explaining why the [[Film/{{Moonraker}} eleventh]] ''Film/JamesBond'' film has [[InNameOnly very little]] to do with the book, only sharing its title and the BigBad's name. Some elements from the book would eventually make its way into the seventeenth film in the series, ''Film/GoldenEye'', and others into the twentieth film, ''Film/DieAnotherDay''.
''Film/DieAnotherDay''. Speaking of which, Creator/TobyStephens voiced Bond in the RadioDrama adaptation of ''Moonraker'' on BBC Radio 4 in 2019.






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* {{Sadist}}: TortureTechnician Krebs is implied to be a sexual sadist. As he approaches Gala with a blowtorch, the narrative notes that his mouth is hanging open and he's breathing funny.
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* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: In the final scenes, Bond is covered with bandages. There's no mention of Gala being in an equivalent condition, even though they went through the same ordeal. (Justified, to an extent, as some of the time Bond was intentionally shielding her with his body.)
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* NonViolentInitialConfrontation: Bond and Drax first meet over a rigged game of bridge.
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* {{Sadist}}: TortureTechnician Krebs is implied to be a sexual sadist. As he approaches Gala with a blowtorch, the narrative notes that his mouth is hanging open and he's breathing funny.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None


* MsFanservice: Because Bond sees Gala's personnel file during his preparatory briefing, we have a unique clinical description of a Bond Girl's physical appearance. She has auburn hair, blue eyes, is 5'7" tall, weighs 9 stone (126 lb) and her measurements are 38-26-38. Plus, she has a mole on the upper curvature of her right breast. Alas for him, she's engaged to someone else.

to:

* MsFanservice: Because Bond sees Gala's personnel file during his preparatory briefing, we have a unique clinical description of a Bond Girl's physical appearance. She has auburn hair, blue eyes, is 5'7" tall, weighs 9 stone (126 lb) and her measurements are 38-26-38. Plus, she has a mole on the upper curvature of her right breast. Alas [[spoiler:Alas for him, she's engaged to someone else.]]

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* JackBauerInterrogationTechnique: Bond inflicts this on Krebs with a [[GrievousBottleyHarm mineral-water bottle]], but Krebs manages to escape before Bond can extract anything useful. Later, Drax plans a much nastier version for Bond and Gala, but Bond actually [[DefiedTrope defies]] it by telling Drax everything he wants to know (this causes Drax to become overconfident and leave them alive for an elaborate DeathTrap, instead of [[JustShootHim just shooting them]]).

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* JackBauerInterrogationTechnique: JackBauerInterrogationTechnique:
**
Bond inflicts this on Krebs with a [[GrievousBottleyHarm mineral-water bottle]], but Krebs manages to escape before Bond can extract anything useful. useful.
**
Later, Drax plans a much nastier version for Bond and Gala, but Bond actually [[DefiedTrope defies]] it by telling Drax everything he wants to know (this causes Drax to become overconfident and leave them alive for an elaborate DeathTrap, instead of [[JustShootHim just shooting them]]).

Added: 470

Changed: 252

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* EvilIsPetty: The first sign that Drax is a bad'un is when he cheats at cards even though the amounts involved are trivial to a man of his wealth. To him, the amounts are immaterial beside the fact that he just plain hates to be beaten. TO show how evil he is, he casually rams a passing Alfa Romeo off the road when it passes his car, with Bond watching in horror as the driver met a grisly end. Even worse, the driver was a ''19-year-old'' RAF pilot who took out his customized car for a ride.

to:

* EvilIsPetty: The first sign that Drax is a bad'un is when he cheats at cards even though the amounts involved are trivial to a man of his wealth. To him, the amounts are immaterial beside the fact that he just plain hates to be beaten. TO show how evil he is, he casually rams a passing Alfa Romeo off the road when it passes his car, with Bond watching in horror as the driver met a grisly end. Even worse, the driver was a ''19-year-old'' RAF pilot who took out was just taking his customized car out for a ride.



* ExactWords: When Drax asks Bond if he's read the files on his staff yet, Bond's response is "Didn't have the key to the filing cabinet" - technically correct, but neglecting to mention that he broke into the cabinet without needing the key.

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* ExactWords: ExactWords:
**
When Drax asks Bond if he's read the files on his staff yet, Bond's response is "Didn't have the key to the filing cabinet" - technically correct, but neglecting to mention that he broke into the cabinet without needing the key.key.
** Drax's speech before the launch is a masterpiece of ''double entendre''. It's full of completely sincere patriotic sentiment, but the British listeners never twig that Drax's references to "my country" actually mean [[spoiler:Germany]].

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