One reason the "James Bond" films have been so successful and ultimately have been around for almost 60 years is their ability to adapt to current trends. For example, when real sci-fi hype swept through the cinema landscape with "Star Wars" in 1977, Bond producer Albert R. Broccoli decided with wise foresight: The next Bond film must be bigger than all the previous ones. 007 has to go into space.
No sooner said than done: In 1979, "Moonraker", the eleventh film in the series, was eagerly promoted with the fact that this time James Bond aka Roger Moore ended up in space. And indeed: In the last third of the film, Bond flies by space shuttle to the secret space station of the super villain Hugo Drax, who wants to destroy the world from there. The amazing thing: Even all these years later, the space scenes from "Moonraker" are still impressive. As is so often the case with Bond, this is thanks to a bunch of creative and clever special effects, which even included the use of guns.
Space shots are a Bond tradition
Although "Moonraker" once followed the "Star Wars" trend, the Bond series, strictly speaking, had its first encounters with space much earlier. In 1967, the fifth 007 film "You Only Live Twice" opened with a three-minute sequence in space. At that time, a US space capsule was swallowed up by a mysterious spaceship belonging to the terrorist organization SPECTER. The effects may seem spartan today, but back then they were the measure of all things: small spaceship models were filmed in front of a black sand, and all the individual components were then combined into one image. Bond proceeded in the same way four years later for "diamond fever", when space recordings were to show a killer satellite equipped with a laser beam.
Antiquated tricks were out of the question for "Moonraker". It was based on the impressive and revolutionary effects of "Star Wars" or "2001: A Space Odyssey", but developed its own techniques. That was also badly needed: In the film, heroes and villains use a space shuttle for the journey into space. However, these did not exist at that time, but were only in the development phase at NASA. So for "Moonraker" there were no visual references, no real technology, no documentary footage to orientate oneself on.
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007: Effects specialists fly space shuttles
In order to still stage captivating shots such as the launch and space flight of a space shuttle, special effects artist Derek Meddings built small model versions in which he placed magnesium flares that simulated the launch fire. Then the models were hung on wires and pulled up in a controlled manner in front of the camera. With mechanical miniature devices, even the rocket could be authentically blasted off the 'Space Shuttle'. In order for the shuttle to leave a real trail of smoke on the exhaust pipe in space, the simplest possible method was chosen: the shuttle model was filled with salt, which trickled out of the opening at the back. The tricks were so sensational and looked so real that "Moonraker" was nominated for an Oscar in the Effects category. Many of the additional camera tricks used by Meddings and director Lewis Gilbert (such as stitching together more than 48 individual shots in one shot) made film history. To this day, the launch of the space shuttle is considered the most realistic launch of a spacecraft ever seen in a movie.
But the set design was also a real hit: legendary Bond production designer Ken Adam built the interior of the secret space station in a real Parisian film studio. It still holds the record as the largest interior set ever built in France for a film. A scene in which the artificial gravity in the station is deactivated was extremely tricky. In order to simulate weightlessness for more than 60 extras, all the actors were hung on ultra-thin ropes several meters above the ground. It took more than two weeks until this worked so perfectly and it could actually be shot. Allegedly, "Star Wars" inventor George Lucas found out after the theatrical release of "Moonraker" exactly how the Bond makers managed these effects.
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Explosion in space: shotguns solved the problem
Of course you should also see the space station from the outside. So Derek Meddings built a model of the station several meters tall, a kind of sculpture that came to life with elaborate camera tricks. In order to put her in space believably, she was filmed against black backgrounds and very carefully and detailedly lit. The surrounding stars proved to be a real challenge: each star had to be set individually on the background. However, when a shuttle flew past a star, it was illuminated by the visually copied shuttle. So a sure instinct was required: each individual star had to be faded in and out with the utmost precision if the station or a shuttle were in the way. The effect artists worked on this Herculean task until shortly before the cinema release.
At the end, real weapons were even used. After all, in a Bond film, the villain's hideout has to explode at the end. The Bond makers wanted the big space station to blow up. But you couldn't get by with simple pyrotechnics: After all, there are no fireballs in the vacuum of space. Here, too, Meddings had an idea: he bought a couple of shotguns, gave them to the employees of the effects team - and in a cloak-and-dagger operation (and without the permission of the producer or the director) they shot the whole model in front of the camera with the large-calibre weapons . Fortunately, the recordings were a hit - otherwise there would certainly have been trouble for it.
With so much passion, commitment and creativity, it's no wonder, in retrospect, that "Moonraker" enthralled its audience in 1979. The huge film spectacle was so successful that it would take until 1995 before another Bond film could keep up with the success of "Moonraker". Albert R. Broccoli was often quoted as saying that with Bond "the sky is the last limit". The effects specialists from "Moonraker" proved: He was wrong. 007 knows no boundaries.
