When you watch a movie on either Amazon Prime or Netflix, the end credits feature another title in which whatever algorithm it employs thinks you would be interested.  I am less familiar with other streaming services, but it would not surprise me if they do the same.  As I completed Moonraker (1979) on Amazon Prime, it gave me The African Queen (1951).  If this does not sound odd, then you will have to read the rest of this review to have a more complete context.  For now, know that The African Queen is one of the most iconic pieces of cinema ever created, and Moonraker is . . . not.

Moonraker is the name of the spacecraft being transported by the Royal Air Force (RAF).  If you remember the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) old shuttles, then you know what the eponymous craft looks like because they are exactly the same.  Yet, as the plane to which the title vehicle is attached is approaching England, the shuttle is hijacked and the plane destroyed . . . and yet wreckage of the downed aircraft ends up in the Yukon?  Did the people making this movie not look at a map?  At any rate, you can see why this might be a problem for the governments involved.  In order to clear up the situation, the British government turns to military intelligence, section six (MI6) head M (Bernard Lee) to get his best operative to investigate the incident.  This is 007, James Bond (Roger Moore), but he is currently on a mission in Africa.  During it, he must jump from an airplane without a parachute when he is confronted by his old nemesis, the seemingly indestructible, hulking, metal-mouthed menace that is Jaws (Richard Kiel).  James steals a parachute from the pilot in mid-air, then shakes off Jaws . . . who survives a roughly ten-thousand-foot free fall without anything slowing his descent, landing on and destroying a circus tent in the process.  Okay. . . .  As for James’ new mission, his first destination is easy enough to determine: California and the headquarters of the maker of the Moonraker, the person behind it all being the massively wealthy Hugo Drax (Michael Lonsdale).  Aside from spending his riches on trying to conquer space, he has also brought an entire French chateau over from Europe to the United States where he trains his astronauts.  This is actually just an excuse to disguise the French shooting location as being in the American Southwest, but I digress.  As only James Bond can, after dodging a few of the usual attempts on his life, he breaks into Hugo’s safe and photographs sensitive documents that might explain why the billionaire would go to such lengths to take back his own technology.  This piece of evidence points him to Venice, where there is a glassmaking company that is a subsidiary of Drax Industries.  While digging further into the activities at this factory, James witnesses a pair of scientists accidentally break a glass vile he had just pocketed and asphyxiate on the resulting fumes.  Further, he notices NASA employee and Drax Industries liaison, Dr. Holly Goodhead (Lois Chiles) snooping around.  This tells him that she is more than her cover, and it turns out she works for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).  She is also beautiful, of course, and after his usual antics they agree to a tentative alliance.  Yet, when he attempts to show officials of the British government the laboratory in which he had found the gas, they instead stumble upon an annoyed Hugo.  M orders James to take a two week leave of absence, though this is code for the secret agent to keep pursuing Hugo.  Luckily, he has another lead, which are shipping containers found in one of Hugo’s enterprises originating in Rio de Janeiro.  Once there, James meets back up with Dr. Goodhead (ugh, these names!) and they continue pursuing Hugo’s activities while also being harangued by the unstoppable Jaws.  Yet, his murderous hand is momentarily stayed when he meets a woman, who also happens to work for Hugo.  All the same, Dr. Goodhead is captured and taken deep into the Amazon rain forest where Hugo has another base of operations.  MI6 is able to figure out its approximate location based on the analysis of the substance retrieved from the laboratory.  It is based on a rare orchid only found in the remote region of Brazil where the suspected hideout is located.  James travels there by boat, leading to yet another boat chase sequence.  This time Jaws is among those on James’ tail, and the tall fellow comes out unscathed after going over a several stories high waterfall.  When James is inevitably caught by Hugo, Dr. Goodhead and James are put underneath a space shuttle that is about to launch, but manage to escape.  In doing so, they board another spacecraft and hitch a ride up to Hugo’s previously unknown space station.  From here, Hugo plans to wipe out the entire human race, and replace the Earth’s population with his genetically superior, handpicked group of people.  After Dr. Goodhead and James disable the station’s cloaking device, its revelation brings the United States Marines (in space!).  Before help arrives, Hugo orders Jaws to throw Dr. Goodhead and James out of the airlock.  James appeals to Jaws’ humanity, suggesting that the henchman would not be of desirable stock for Hugo’s new humanity.  With one look from Jaws at his new sweetheart, he turns against Hugo and is now allied with James.  James manages to do to Hugo what Hugo wanted to see happen to James.  Unfortunately, in the space battle that erupts between the Marines and Hugo’s lackeys, the station begins to come apart.  Dr. Goodhead and James make it to a shuttle, but have to get help from Jaws to get unstuck from being docked to the station.  From there, it is on to lasering the pods meant to disperse the nerve gas designed for mankind’s demise.  Mission accomplished, the American and British governments patch into Dr. Goodhead and James on their spacecraft, catching them in zero gravity mid-coitus.

If you are wondering what happens to Jaws at the end of Moonraker, he and his girlfriend apparently make it safely back to Earth in the wreckage of the space station.  I have no idea what to make of him, or much of anything that happens in the film.  I get that it is the usual James Bond saving the world fare, but Jaws’ insertion and the other comedic moments are consistently out of place.  If it would keep an even tone, then you would have a solid film.  What is easier to understand are the Biblical parallels with Hugo’s plot.  When Dr. Goodhead and James are approaching the station in their stolen shuttle, they take notice of their cargo.  It consists of several pairs of couples.  Upon seeing them, James says that they are going into the ark two-by-two.  This is a reference to Noah’s Ark in Genesis, one of the most familiar sections of the Bible.  God tells Abraham that he is going to destroy men because of their wickedness, but that Noah and his family alone have found favor amongst all humans.  God then instructs Noah to construct what amounts to a large boat in which is to be stored examples of every land animal in Creation.  They did not need to worry about sea creatures because God was to visit a flood that would inundate the entire planet.  In the context of the film, Hugo would take the place of God and Noah, which is, obviously, absurd.  Then again, this is of all a piece with most of these movies.  No man, in spite of his wealth or supposed wisdom, has the right to commit genocide on such a scale.  God did what He did in Noah’s time because we had turned away en masse from Him.  While one could probably make the same argument for today’s society, and this is a serious matter, it is not up to us to determine when the reckoning comes for our sins.

Because of how silly is Moonraker, I cannot say it is a sin to watch it.  James’ womanizing is ever-present, though you do not see as much skin as in previous examples.  The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), for instance, actually had a moment of nudity in it.  With Moonraker, they just made so many strange decisions with its content that it forms the reason for why I do not recommend it.