DavidP on BudgetPixel

Spy Girl - 68/68 - Gala Brand, spy in Moonraker QT: Favourite James Bond book/film --------------------------------------------------------- Moonraker was one of my favourites - the book, not the film. I am a funny guy who sometimes gets a bee in his bonnet. One of those pet peeves is taken a film to trade on a name and then re-working the story so it is no longer really an adaptation of the book. By all means cast Roger Moore as an agent, write a story about space shuttles, have a climactic laser battle in space, but don't position it as Ian Flemning's James Bond in Moonraker. Phew, got that off my chest. --- Moonraker remains one of the most grounded and gripping entries in the original Bond canon. In Ian Fleming’s third novel, James Bond is tasked with investigating Sir Hugo Drax, a multimillionaire industrialist and national hero who is building the 'Moonraker'—a nuclear missile meant to be Britain’s ultimate deterrent against the Soviet Union.In reality, Drax is a former Nazi officer, Graf Hugo von der Drache, who has infiltrated British high society to exact a final, catastrophic revenge for Germany's defeat. His plan is to arm the Moonraker with a Soviet nuclear warhead and strike the heart of London during its "test" flight. Bond is aided by Gala Brand, a Special Branch agent working undercover as Drax's personal secretary. After Brand is captured discovering the plot, Bond is taken during a failed rescue attempt. In a brutal climax, Drax leaves them bound beneath the rocket’s exhaust to be incinerated at liftoff. They narrowly escape, sheltering in ventilation shafts where they survive a lethal blast of high-pressure steam intended to flush them out.While Drax flees via a Soviet submarine to witness the destruction, Bond and Brand use the correct coordinates she salvaged to reprogram the missile. In a final twist of poetic justice, the Moonraker hits its intended North Sea target—obliterating Drax and his crew as they attempt their getaway.

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