20 Things You Didn’t Know About Moonraker (1979)
18. “Why Didn’t He Buy The Eiffel Tower As Well?” “He Did!”
Many ideas originally intended for Moonraker could not be incorporated into the finished movie.
Originally, a circus and twin knife-throwing assassins featured prominently in the plot. However, even though Jaws used a circus Big Top as an unconventional safety net in the pre-credits sequence, these ideas later appeared in Octopussy (1983).
Meanwhile, the Acrostar Bede BD-5J microjet featured in Octopussy was originally intended as Bond’s escape route from Drax’s Mayan temple lair. The scene was scrapped when the Angel Falls in Venezuela - over which it would have flown - dried up.
The filmmakers considered India and Nepal as filming locations, but the logistics of using them was impractical for a globe-trotting adventure. Instead, India became a primary location in the 13th Bond film.
Lastly, Double-0 Seven’s quip about Drax purchasing the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France had its roots in another discarded scene. Originally, James Bond pursued an assassin up Gustave Eiffel’s Parisian tower, which was later adapted for Sir Roger Moore’s final Bond film, A View to a Kill (1985).