20 Things You Didn’t Know About Moonraker (1979)
1. Outer Space Now Belongs To 007
Derek Meddings and his team received an Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects on Moonraker.
The miniature fleet of space shuttles featured in the film’s climax was filmed on the 007 Stage, as was the exterior of Drax's space station. Meddings and his colleagues fired shotguns at the miniature of the station to simulate its disintegration.
Meddings's team shot each aspect of the space scenes separately, rewinding the film in the camera - risking it breaking each time - until all aspects were captured (for example, a space shuttle, the Earth, and the Moon for just one shot). The film was wound back up to 48 times to incorporate the various aspects of each shot for the climactic space laser battle.
To represent the trail left by Drax’s deadly nerve gas globes speeding through space, a technician dropped dried crystalline salt onto a camera placed on the soundstage floor. Compressed air was blown across the camera lens to prevent the salt from damaging it or the film inside.
Taking audiences around the world one more time, Meddings re-used his model of the Earth from Moonraker on his last film, GoldenEye.
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