While riding atop a 747 from Los Angeles to London, the Moonraker shuttlecraft is hijacked and flies away, leaving the carrying 747 to fall to the ground in a burning fireball. James Bond is tasked to find out why there is no trace of the shuttle in the wreckage, which landed in the Yukon. The standard route from Los Angeles to London does fly over Canada, but nowhere near the Yukon, which is up in the northwest corner, adjacent to Alaska. If the shuttle had flown over the pole, it might have crashed in the Yukon, but it would have been taking a route rather close to the Soviet Union, and the Cold War was still in full force at the time (1979). Bond traces the shuttles disappearance back to Hugo Drax, the billionaire inventor of the shuttle. He tracks down a lethal gas produced in one of Draxs laboratories, and it is determined that it originates from a rare orchid growing in the Amazon jungle in Brazil. Q issues Bond a boat that will get him to the location, but he is attacked by Jaws. Out of options, Bond deploys a hang glider escape device and flies away as his boat (and Jaws) go over the Foz do Iguaçu waterfall. One thing, though. The Foz do Iguaçu waterfall is in Brazil, but it is in Parana, not the Amazonas, which is a sizable distance away.
