10 Times James Bond Films Were Better Than The Books

9. Hugo Drax’s Plan For The Moonraker

Moonraker is one of, if not the, most divisive films in the entire Bond franchise, having been commissioned as the film to follow The Spy Who Loved Me (despite that film’s end credits saying that the next one would be For Your Eyes Only) solely to cash in on the Star Wars hype.

End result? Very outlandish, to put it mildly. But the thing is, maybe putting Bond in space was a good thing, even if it was a step too far.

The book Moonraker is one of the best in the series, with a story concerning a Nazi disguised as a British war hero seeking revenge for the Third Reich by plotting to nuke London. However, by 1979, the Second World War was very much in the rear view mirror, and the plot was far too basic for Bond at this point, especially as it was at its peak of Moore era camp. Audiences would have had lukewarm reactions at best to something so minimalist as stopping one rocket from being launched, so the film would need a spicier plot.

If Moonraker had been one of the earlier Connery films, then a more faithful adaptation of the book may have worked but instead, we have the romp that is the Moore film.