A Film at 45: Moonraker

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Listen up, Bond fans before you
climb aboard the Moonraker with our special guest

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Van Allen Plexico. We want to
let you know about the extended version of

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this episode that's available right now on
our Patreon and it's absolutely free. A

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Film at forty five's Moonraker, The
Plexico cut is packed with an extra forty

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two minutes that's more coverage of the
music, the stunts, the henchman,

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and the gadgets of James Bond,
as well as some other fun surprises,

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and again it's free. Go to
patreon dot com slash a Film by podcast

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and sign up as a free member
now, or download the Patreon app and

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start listening. Hello everyone, and
welcome back to nineteen seventy nine with a

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Film by Podcasts limited series A Film
at forty five. David Burns is on

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assignment this week. I'm Jeff Johnson
and I'm Sky Hoffman. As usual,

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we're dusting off the end of a
decade that changed cinema with a fresh look

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at modern classics and hidden gems that
we can't stop watching. In this episode,

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we're boldly going where no Bond has
gone before with Roger Morris, one

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of a kind space odyssey, Moonraker, my name is bon James Bond.

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Look after mister Bond, see that
some harm comes to him. Despite your

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efforts, my finely wrought dream approaches
its fulfillment. The human race as you

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know it will cease to exist.
Your dream, whatever sort of flight there

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it is, has n Strakes.
There's no way we could pilot this episode

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without a Bond expert on our crew, and Scott, I want you to

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look after this guest and see that
some harm comes to him. Van Allen

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Plexico. Van is a noted author
and the host of several podcasts, including

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on Her Majesty's Secret Podcast, and
we were very excited to have him with

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us. Van, Welcome to the
Welcome to the show. Thank you so

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much for having me aboard. It's
very very exciting. I'm really looking forward

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to talking about a bond that means
a lot to me. We'll see how

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in just a little bit. But
when did you first see Moonraker? I

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saw a Moonraker summer of nineteen seventy
nine in the theater in my little small

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town in Silicaga, Alabama, and
I was very very excited. I really

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enjoyed it. It was yet another
Roger Moore. So you kind of knew

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what to expect going in, but
I was not expecting what I got in

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that third act, and so I
was on the floor. I was amazed

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and gotta tell us quick story too
real quick you don't mind, is that

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I was still suffering the ill effects
of the previous movie from nineteen seventy seven,

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The Spy Who Loved Me. The
story I've told many times, but

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in case your listeners haven't heard,
it is our little theater in Silicaga,

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Alabama, middle of nowhere, you
know, forty miles out of the We

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didn't get movies very often. We
had to wait a long time to get

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them. You know, you may
have heard of the movie that came out

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about the same time as The Spy
Who Loved Me. I know this story,

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Star Wars. I wanted to see
Star Wars. My older brother wanted

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to see the James Bond movie because
he was older, and you know,

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he was into it more at that
point. And so we went down to

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Daytona, Florida for vacation and my
dad says, we're gonna go see one

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movie while we're here, and I'm
like, yes, we're gonna see Star

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Wars like We're gonna see the James
Bond movie, and I'm like, oh,

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and so I have irrationally hated the
spy who loved me ever since.

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So so Moonraker was just going to
be an improvement, no matter how bad

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it was, you know, in
that circumstance. Well, and it probably

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set us. It scratched a little
bit of that Star Wars edge. I'm

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sure, yeah, just a touch, Jeff, what about you? As

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I've said on some of our other
episodes, I clearly was a James Bond

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fan before I seen Moonraker. I
don't remember the first time I seen it,

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which I'm assuming was probably on TBA
watching it with my dad. However,

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I remember the first time I became
aware of Moonraker would have been probably

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like eighty three eighty four, when
I picked up a back issue of Cracked

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magazine they used to do the parodies
yep, and I was like, oh,

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they're doing a James Bond movie.
I'd never heard of Moon Raker,

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so you know, my first truly
my first experience was was reading the parody

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of Moonraker in Cracked magazine, which
I want to say is like I did

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some digging on this. I think
it's like issue one fifty five from like

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the nineteen eighty that's a deep series. Yeah, so yeah, collectors,

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I looked it up. It's like
you can go to EBA for like twenty

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five thirty bucks, so check it
out. Well, yeah, I mean

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kind of a similar thing with me, Like, you know, my my

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brother got me into sci fi with
Star Trek, Doctor Who, Star Wars.

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We shared all those kinds of things. But James Bond was always my

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dad's thing, except he would always
watch it on wherever it was on syndication,

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wherever it was playing, and inevitably
fall asleep in his recliner, so

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I'd essentially be watching it by myself. And this one, I remember a

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lot of the action sequences, but
I remember probably losing interest at that age,

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pretty young age, whenever they would
start dialoguing, or whenever he'd be

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amorously involved with a woman or anything
else like that, just coming back for

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the pew pew kind of moments.
So I kind of feel like this is

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the first time that I've genuinely sat
down and focused on Moonraker. But I'm

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also fascinated by the divisiveness of it, which we'll get into a little bit

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later. I personally love it.
So for any listener that has not seen

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Moonraker, how would you describe Moonraker
for someone? Industrialist Hugo Drax is planning

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to reshape humanity by wiping out most
of it with a deadly nerve gas and

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replacing them with those that he's deemed
perfect. At the core of his plans

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his fleet of Moonbaker space shuttles,
which he uses to take his perfect people

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to say the orbiting station where they'd
wait for the guest to clear. It's

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only Hope as Usual is James Bond, who's recruited by six to travel around

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the world, unravel the mystery of
a hijacked space shuttle, avoid the deadly

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bite of the iconic villainous assassin Jaws, and eventually stop Drags from killing everyone

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on Earth. It's a James Bond
classic that often divides audiences and critics,

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but it's undeniably one of the most
unusual and profitable entries in the franchise.

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So you talked about this debate amongst
Bond fans. Van What are your thoughts

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on why is this movie? Why
does Why is this Bond? Particularly why

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does it divide Bond fans the way
the way it does? Is this an

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underrated classic or is it? Is
it better left behind? This is absolutely

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an underrated classic. I think it's
probably the most underrated Bond movie. And

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I think there's reasons why it legitimately
can be kind of scorned a little bit,

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and there are reasons that it is
unfairly scorn. I think the reasons

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that are fair is that it continues
the kind of over the top silly comedy

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stuff that had been going on for
several movies at this point, and it

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kind of reaches new heights in this
movie. And that's fair. That's fair.

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But I would say that it's unfair
in that the same thing that people

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point to in Moonraker and say,
oh, that's horrible, they never say

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about Live and Let Die. They
never say about the Man with the Golden

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Gun, which were the two you
know in nineteen seventy three and nineteen seventy

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five. You know, everybody kind
of looks at the Spy who Loves Me

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in seventy seven, and they look
at on her for your eyes only in

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eighty one. This is in between. So basically Moonraker is sandwiched in between

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two that are more highly regarded.
And they always say this. They always

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say, oh, it's so,
it's unbelievable, it's ridiculous. It's Bond

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Star Wars. And I'm like,
look, if Bond got in an X

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wing, jumped into hyperspace and fought
Darth Vader, yes, I'd be right

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there with you. But instead he
flies in a vehicle that we don't even

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use anymore because it's too old.
It's like he flies in the famous exploding

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pickup trucks of outer space that we
built. We were building these vehicles while

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the movie was being made. Okay, the actual shuttle flew two years after

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this movie came out. Two years, not two hundred years, not off

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in the future, right, So
you know, and they go up to

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get this Earth orbit. Oh my
gosh, how unbelievable human beings in Earth

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orbit get out of here. I
don't get the problem. So I've never

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and you know, and again you
have the Moonraker shuttles, and you have

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the actual US Space Shuttle taking troops
in packs. We have those packs,

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the only thing in that entire We
have a space station, we have those

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exact shuttles, we have those flying
packs. The only thing in that entire

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battle that's not accurate technology wise are
the laser guns. That's it, right,

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So I don't I always thought that
was the coolest thing ever. That's

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one of my favorite scenes in any
Bond film is this awesome astronaut space battle.

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It's awesome and it's not unbelievable.
So that's the thing I've always had

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with it is it seems completely plausible
to me, and more plausible than a

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lot of the stuff. You know, nobody complains about the underwater city in

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the previous movie, and yet we
don't have an underwater city exactly. We've

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got a space station. We got
a space shuttle. Yep. So that's

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that would be my immediate probably more
than you wanted, but that would be

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I don't understand the divisiveness of this, of this particular Bond outing, because

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everything Van just spoke to He's absolutely
right. There's there's nothing completely absurd for

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for James Bond to be doing in
this movie. If anything's absurd, you

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know, Bonda and Van backed me
up here, doesn't doesn't Ean Flaming say

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that Bond at age forty five,
he should be he should be on a

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desk job right, he should be, he should be out out of the

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field. Roger Moore, this is
his fourth James Bond or yeah, it's

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his fourth James Bond film. He's
fifty two years old when he's when this

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one comes out, but he the
man is still doing an amazing job.

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Roger Moore was too old to be
an m I six before he filmed his

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first Bond movie. It's unbelievable to
say nothing of a view to a kill

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when he was almost sixty. Yeah, Scott, Yeah, you Scott,

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you had a first like this was
more or less the first time watching for

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you. Where do you stand on
this? On this take? You know,

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was this a divisive film for you? It really wasn't. I think

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I was expected because I had only
remembered scenes. Most of what I remembered

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from when I was a kid was
seeing like you know, Jaws's romance,

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romance, it was blooming with Dolly, right, it saw probably the space

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battle, but I mean any of
those elements. If people are having an

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issue with the space battle, and
to your point, the only unrealistic part

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of that are the lasers are the
only things that aren't possible. They even

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go into the physics of the space
station. Why when they stopped the spin

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of the station to cancel out the
artificial gravity, that seems like it's pretty

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deeply rooted in science. Fact,
you know, a clever way to do

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that. I saw the places where
people, you know, I've seen people

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talk about the double take pigeon and
things of that nature, and some of

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the places where it gets a little
bit maybe more juvenile. But think about

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how much of our generation has watched
this as more of a family experience,

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right It's kids going to see it
with parents. So I think there's leeway

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for that, for scenes like that, for a little bit of intentional comedy,

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for a little bit of things that
are have a bit of a wilder

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imagination to appeal to a broader audience. But there's never any part of it

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that doesn't seem like it's taking yourself
seriously. And to me, I think

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some of the most amazing things about
this movie or how it was actually made,

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specifically the stunt work, the special
effects. Considering what they had available

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in nineteen seventy nine, the things
they did in this were amazing. I

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know it's inspired by an Ian Fleming
novel of the same name, but it

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doesn't share a lot else, right, basically just Hugo Dracx's name and the

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core plot. Am I right?
Space track something that flies up off the

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ground. Yeah, that's pretty right, and Bond and a girl running around

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together trying to stop it. Yeah
right, naturally, Yeah, yeah,

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Well it's got a great screenplay by
Christopher Wood. Obviously, like you said,

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written to kind of capitalize on that
space craze sparked by Star Wars.

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It wasn't supposed to hit where it
did in the franchise. I think it

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was supposed to be for your eyes
only, correct, That was kind of

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announced the end of the last movie, and then they inserted this one,

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knowing how popular Star Wars was,
right, Yeah, Now, I what

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I what I understand is that CUBBC
Star Wars and just is over the moon

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for it pun intended, So we
rush, We rushed to Moonraker. He

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actually contacts ILM to do the effects
and they kind of they kind of over

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budget themse like they kind of price
themselves out because they're busy with other work

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they're getting ready for Empire. Allegedly, they they tell Kubby Brockley, we'll

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we'll do the effects for Moonraker.
It's it cost you two million dollars and

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we want two points on the movie, and to which he's like, absolutely

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not, We'll do it ourselves.
Is it Van? What do you know

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about the effects on this? I
don't know a lot about their connection with

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ILM. I know that that was
the time that ILM was really just getting

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up and going and starting to farm
out to other films and other studios.

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But yeah, they were about to
They were working on Empire for sure.

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The production thing, as far as
I'm concerned, it's interesting. I addressed

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the Dracts thing too, was that
this was the last of the ken Adam

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Bonds, and it really shows.
I think that if you look at all

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the Bonds from the very beginning nineteen
sixty two Doctor No. Up through Moonraker,

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they all share that ken Adam esthetic
of his big, spacious, bold

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design work. And if you look
at every Bond movie after this, they

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look completely different. They just don't
look like big sixties seventies Bond movies anymore.

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But I mean, the effects that
are in this movie are so different.

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Right, there's no other Bond movie
before it, and probably not after

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it, that did anything in terms
of like well, I mean the rocket

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in You Only Live Twice, the
Rocket that eight rockets, because obviously this

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is a remake of the previous movie, which was a remake of You Only

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Live Twice. Right, this is
the third movie out of time, so

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the third time in ten years.
If they did the same movie they just

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did, did one from Japan to
space, one underwater, and then one

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back in space again, but it's
the same movie. Yeah, So this

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is the only one though, other
than the Rocket in You Only Live Twice,

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where they really needed believable spacecraft taking
off and flying, and I mean

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in the space station, and I
mean they you know they did. I

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thought they did a perfectly, perfectly
fine job with it. I don't know

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that ILM in nineteen seventy eight when
they were filming this probably would they have

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done a better job than what we
got. I don't maybe, you know,

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I think the only thing that Mike
could have been better is like the

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fire effects out of the engines.
You know, movies struggled with that for

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ages until probably the eighties. Right, They always just kind of look like

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like a cigarette lighter upside down when
they were flying, rather than rather than

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the fire. You know, they
could have probably done that a little bit

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better. But I mean the scene
with the with the Moonraker in the opening

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blasting off and blowing up the seven
forty seven, that was great. It's

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00:16:30.080 --> 00:16:33.559
fantastic as far as I'm was saying. For nineteen seventy eight, seventy nine,

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that was spectacular. So they did
great well. So it's times when

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they have to work around certain limitations
and they find clever ways to do it.

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Like in the Inside of Moon Record
documentary, they talked about a certain

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scene where Bond and Holly are in
their Moon Raker going up into orbit and

223
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at a certain point there's not jet
blasts coming out of the rockets as much

224
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as it's of like the vapor trails
coming out from it. And they essentially

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turned a space shuttle into a salt
shaker, like they filled it full of

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salt and then just lifted it up
and let the salt drain out, and

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it made these perfect streams of what
looked like smoke. When I was watching

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it, it was hard not to
see the salt shaking out, but I

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could see how it was also plausible, like it looked perfect just the way

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it was, and it's just somebody
that had an idea to turn it into

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a salt shaker. Stuff like that
is absolutely fascinating. And thinking about what

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they had to work with in seventy
nine compared to what we're used to now

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is light years apart. Like I
said, the stunt work in this film

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off the charts. What do you
think, Scott, Yeah, absolutely,

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I mean, especially when you hear
some of the stories about what they had

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to go through. You know,
thinking about the aerial fight with Jaws is

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one that specifically stands out for me
hearing about how back then cameras were so

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incredibly heavy and to have the perspective
that they did, they'd literally have to

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be holding a camera as they're falling
out of the airplane. They took I

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think it was eighty eight jumps to
film that sequence and found it seems like

241
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by by chance, they were in
a pawn shop in Paris and found a

242
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plastic lens that they could use that
I think all the way about seven pounds

243
00:18:33.000 --> 00:18:37.319
that gave them just the right amount
of weight to be able to go up

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and make all these jumps and film
this big elaborate sequence. Now that's one

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where the you know, there's an
intentionally funny moment when Jaws is kind of

246
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falling there at the end and he
has no parachute, so he starts flapping

247
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his arms. Right about then is
when he got the most wily coyote for

248
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me. And it was hard to
shake that image of him by being a

249
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cross between None from Superman two and
Wildly Coyote. But it worked really well,

250
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and just knowing what they had to
go through to get that done,

251
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you got to respect it that.
And then when they go over the waterfall

252
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and he pulls the steering wheel off
the boat, those are probably as low

253
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his low point, kind of just
what you said, You're exactly right.

254
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They found that lens and then they
had to have a camera built that would

255
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use it. There was light enough, so they built the camera and then

256
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they they made five separate jumps every
day, and they did it in the

257
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United States because it was just the
weather was better and the laws were easier

258
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to get around than they were in
Europe. And they and he said that

259
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the stunt coordinator said that every day
they'd go to the he'd go to the

260
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airfield to get the get the get
the parachute guys out, and they were

261
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always asleep because they didn't have the
same work ethic as movie people. So

262
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you had to go wake them all
up, scream at him to go get

263
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on the plane, get their parachute
on. And I love the fact they

264
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had to put a special small parachute
on the one that they kind of swapped

265
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back and forth in air in case
somebody dropped it, because it could kill

266
00:20:03.279 --> 00:20:07.839
somebody. It had like an automatic
small parachute. And they said one time

267
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when they were filming, they dropped
it without the parachute and it came down

268
00:20:12.000 --> 00:20:15.279
like a rocket and hit the ground
and they had to stop everything and go

269
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find it because they didn't have a
backup, so they had to like crawl

270
00:20:18.880 --> 00:20:22.240
all over their woods looking for where
this parachute had come through this bundle of

271
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parachute to come down like a cannonball. So that was pretty good. But

272
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yeah, they that opening scene is
worth it though, because you get I

273
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mean, it's it's so cool,
because it's good enough just having Bond thrown

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out of an airplane without a parachute
and then having to like, you know,

275
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when I was a kid, I'm
like, he's dead. There's no

276
00:20:42.640 --> 00:20:45.200
you can't out of a p You're
dead. You can't jump out without a

277
00:20:45.240 --> 00:20:48.480
parachute and then he starts like angling
and I'm like, can you do that?

278
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Yeah, he catches the guy and
just when you think, oh,

279
00:20:52.279 --> 00:20:55.880
okay, I see where this is
going, then here comes Jaws out and

280
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you're like, oh no, So
I just that was a really well put

281
00:20:59.599 --> 00:21:02.079
to you know. I mean,
what they were trying to do was top

282
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the the previous movies opening credits where
they had bonded jumped off the cliff in

283
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like Austria or wherever the Alps and
had popped out the British flag parachute,

284
00:21:11.799 --> 00:21:15.759
which was awesome, right. Yes, they wanted to say we can even

285
00:21:15.759 --> 00:21:18.119
do better than that, and I
think they did this. This went on

286
00:21:18.240 --> 00:21:22.200
much longer and was much more involved. I thought when I was young,

287
00:21:22.279 --> 00:21:26.079
this was a very thrilling opening for
a James Bond film. Oh yeah,

288
00:21:26.480 --> 00:21:29.559
and I gotta wonder. I don't
know about you, guys, I'm wondering.

289
00:21:29.799 --> 00:21:33.400
Uh, it's a young Catherine Bigelow
watching this and going, I'm gonna

290
00:21:33.480 --> 00:21:38.720
use that at some point because I'm
watching this recently. Again, I couldn't

291
00:21:38.720 --> 00:21:42.359
wait to watch watch Point Break,
you know. And yeah, and if

292
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if, if Moon Breaker and Point
Break have taught me anything it's really that

293
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I should have no fear of jumping
out of an airplane without a parachute as

294
00:21:51.839 --> 00:21:55.680
long as there's someone below me that
I can I can angle myself to and

295
00:21:55.680 --> 00:22:00.519
and uh and connect with. I
don't know. It's a thrill sequence,

296
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absolutely, Scott. That tells me
I should never go skydiving with you.

297
00:22:03.839 --> 00:22:07.279
That's what I'm learning from that jet. At least I should be the one

298
00:22:07.319 --> 00:22:11.039
with the parachute. Well, yeah, as long as you got the parachute,

299
00:22:11.319 --> 00:22:14.240
we'll be fine, exactly. Yeah. I mean, we talk a

300
00:22:14.240 --> 00:22:18.519
lot on this series about how,
you know, seeing how it has an

301
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influence on future films, And I
think that sequence alone has to have influence

302
00:22:23.359 --> 00:22:27.200
on a lot of movies like Point
Break that use that same kind of sequence.

303
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And you know, I think anybody
on a stunt crew, or a

304
00:22:32.720 --> 00:22:37.200
camera crew for that matter, looking
back on what they did, knowing how

305
00:22:37.160 --> 00:22:41.359
difficult and complex it has to be, even nowadays, they're going to respect

306
00:22:41.400 --> 00:22:45.119
what's happening, especially van like you
said, considering if they're up there with

307
00:22:45.160 --> 00:22:52.079
a handmade custom camera. If that
falls, oh no, production's over right,

308
00:22:52.880 --> 00:22:57.039
Yeah, So yeah, I got
one other little story about the opening.

309
00:22:57.079 --> 00:23:00.559
If y'all want to hear it.
You may not even to use this,

310
00:23:00.680 --> 00:23:04.920
but I think it's it's really funny. So Bond escapes with a parachute

311
00:23:06.119 --> 00:23:08.240
and jaws hits the circus tent and
bounces off, and then it goes into

312
00:23:08.319 --> 00:23:14.079
the Maurice Bender opening credits. Originally
the script was that he crashes through the

313
00:23:14.079 --> 00:23:19.400
circus tent, catches the trapee,
swings all around. They couldn't do all

314
00:23:19.440 --> 00:23:22.279
that. That was never going to
work, so they just showed it.

315
00:23:22.359 --> 00:23:27.319
They just immediately transitioned from him hitting
the tent to the opening credits, and

316
00:23:29.079 --> 00:23:33.920
all of Maurice Bender's opening credits have
naked women dancing around with Bond, right,

317
00:23:33.000 --> 00:23:36.720
and the one hundred more they're filming
him. They had the naked women,

318
00:23:36.759 --> 00:23:40.680
they're filming them in silhouette. But
the problem was it was the late

319
00:23:40.759 --> 00:23:47.440
seventies and those ladies had not shaved
anything and did not want to shave anything,

320
00:23:47.799 --> 00:23:52.920
oh boy, And so when they
would turn sideways in silhouette, there

321
00:23:52.960 --> 00:23:56.680
was a problem, right, definitely
a problem. Yes, yes, So

322
00:23:56.759 --> 00:24:00.400
Maurice Bender says, well, what
are we going to do? He go

323
00:24:00.480 --> 00:24:03.759
a little old, kindly old man, right, he goes and gets some

324
00:24:03.880 --> 00:24:11.720
vasoline and he's there with these naked
women vacillining them down. Oh, when

325
00:24:11.880 --> 00:24:17.279
Cubby Broccoli walks in. Cubby Broccoli, the producer, the owner of the

326
00:24:17.279 --> 00:24:21.480
whole franchise, stands there staring at
him for a minute, and he goes,

327
00:24:22.359 --> 00:24:25.160
I'm the producer of this movie,
and I have no idea what I'm

328
00:24:25.160 --> 00:24:38.000
paying for here, Like what is
God? Yeah? Wow, Okay,

329
00:24:38.079 --> 00:24:47.119
I definitely think it's time for a
break. We are back with our special

330
00:24:47.119 --> 00:24:52.839
guest Van Allen Plexico going through the
lens for Moonraker Scott, do you want

331
00:24:52.839 --> 00:24:55.640
to talk a little bit about the
budget here? Well, I mean,

332
00:24:55.759 --> 00:24:59.720
you know, it's an undisputable fact
when we when we talk about the divisiveness

333
00:24:59.759 --> 00:25:03.920
of it. The only other thing
I wanted to bring up is just that

334
00:25:03.880 --> 00:25:08.759
this one took more than thirty four
million dollars to make, which was more

335
00:25:08.799 --> 00:25:15.000
than twice of the movie before.
But it was also the highest grossing Bond

336
00:25:15.079 --> 00:25:21.839
film with two hundred and ten million
in profits, which made it the highest

337
00:25:21.839 --> 00:25:29.759
grossing Bond film until GoldenEye in ninety
five, which is fascinating for something that

338
00:25:29.799 --> 00:25:34.559
people tend to you know, poke
fun at or whatever, but you can't

339
00:25:34.599 --> 00:25:41.440
deny the fact that people came to
it in droves and apparently they keep coming

340
00:25:41.519 --> 00:25:48.839
back. So and I'll address the
double taking pigeon in the room. Yes,

341
00:25:48.960 --> 00:25:56.079
he does probably represent the he or
she represents probably the high point or

342
00:25:56.160 --> 00:26:03.960
low point of silly inserts that don't
have to be there. But I would

343
00:26:03.960 --> 00:26:07.519
point out that there's also the Tarzan
yell in. I can't remember which one

344
00:26:07.559 --> 00:26:11.160
it is now, maybe this one, the one where he swings through the

345
00:26:11.240 --> 00:26:15.559
jungle. And there's also to me
much worse is the slide whistle when they're

346
00:26:15.559 --> 00:26:22.119
doing that when they're doing that incredible
boat jump that the Book of World Records

347
00:26:22.599 --> 00:26:26.319
where they jumped the boat and Live
and Let Die over the road spin at

348
00:26:26.359 --> 00:26:33.839
a three sixty and they they ruined
that beautiful scene with the boom noise,

349
00:26:34.680 --> 00:26:38.519
and it's like, and yet everybody
thinks Living Let Die is just the greatest

350
00:26:38.559 --> 00:26:41.240
thing ever and they have no problem
and they and they can't stand the double

351
00:26:41.279 --> 00:26:45.680
taking pigeon that's on the screen about
a second, Yeah, exactly, sitting

352
00:26:45.680 --> 00:26:51.119
on the wrong things, I think, Yes, man, I'm I'm kind

353
00:26:51.119 --> 00:26:52.839
of curious on your take on this. Sadly, this is this is the

354
00:26:52.920 --> 00:26:59.160
last time we see Bernard Lee play
the role of M. Your thoughts on

355
00:26:59.400 --> 00:27:03.559
his performance in this one or you
know, favorite favorite performances as M.

356
00:27:03.920 --> 00:27:07.680
Yeah, this is another thing.
I mean, it is like Moonraker.

357
00:27:07.920 --> 00:27:11.359
As the seventies come to a close, you lose Ken Adam and you lose

358
00:27:11.720 --> 00:27:15.759
Bernard Lee, two tremendous blows.
I mean we do get of course,

359
00:27:17.519 --> 00:27:22.039
you know, we eventually get Judy
Danch who I think is equal to Bernard

360
00:27:22.079 --> 00:27:25.799
Lee, but that takes a while. You got to go through, you

361
00:27:25.839 --> 00:27:27.599
know, all the eighties and half
of the nineties before you you know,

362
00:27:27.759 --> 00:27:33.599
be fifteen more years, sixteen more
years. But yeah, he was such

363
00:27:33.880 --> 00:27:40.559
an important part of the whole Bond
film universe. He was integral to it.

364
00:27:41.319 --> 00:27:45.599
And you know, nobody came close
to measuring up to him for sixteen

365
00:27:45.720 --> 00:27:48.920
years. And they you know,
they had like the Minister come on for

366
00:27:48.039 --> 00:27:52.400
one, and they brought in a
new m for a couple of movies,

367
00:27:52.440 --> 00:27:56.039
but it was just nobody had that
gravitize he was. You know, he

368
00:27:56.119 --> 00:27:59.279
really was like a father figure to
Bond. And you know he could be

369
00:27:59.319 --> 00:28:04.160
equally golding or encouraging. Right when
Bond was down, he he'd kind of

370
00:28:04.200 --> 00:28:07.279
do something to pick Bond up,
and when Bond got a little full of

371
00:28:07.319 --> 00:28:11.720
himself, he'd criticize him and bring
him down. And then of course that

372
00:28:11.720 --> 00:28:18.000
that my favorite Bond and m interaction
ever, and I think and you only

373
00:28:18.039 --> 00:28:22.000
lived twice or no, it was
after that because they because it was going

374
00:28:22.000 --> 00:28:26.359
to Japan. There was another one
somewhere in there where where Bond said something

375
00:28:26.359 --> 00:28:29.960
about it. And then there was
that time M and I were out late

376
00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:32.440
at night in Tokyo and he was
like, oh, let's change. The

377
00:28:32.519 --> 00:28:37.799
subject does not want that coming out. So but uh, yeah, Bernard

378
00:28:37.880 --> 00:28:41.880
Lee was a treasure and and it
really I think the movies will suffer for

379
00:28:42.000 --> 00:28:47.000
his loss for a little while.
Well, I think is what I think

380
00:28:47.079 --> 00:28:52.359
is really fascinating about his performance in
this one especially. I think, you

381
00:28:52.400 --> 00:28:55.319
know, I could be wrong,
but I think that is this the only

382
00:28:55.359 --> 00:28:59.839
time where M actually shares screen time
with the film's villain, like they were

383
00:28:59.839 --> 00:29:03.680
there face to face in the same
street. I scene, Oh, that's

384
00:29:03.799 --> 00:29:07.119
right, because he has that moment
where you know, Drax kind of pulls

385
00:29:07.359 --> 00:29:10.680
the wool over everyone's eyes when Bond, you know, kind of takes him

386
00:29:10.720 --> 00:29:15.440
to the lab. That's no longer
there and on behalf of Britain. I'm

387
00:29:15.519 --> 00:29:19.279
terribly sorry. It just then he's
pissed, like he's like he's like Bond

388
00:29:19.440 --> 00:29:25.119
is off the case, getting so
well. It's it's appropriate that they were

389
00:29:25.519 --> 00:29:29.000
together there because you mentioned the book
a minute ago, Scott, and I'll

390
00:29:29.039 --> 00:29:32.799
say a couple of things that in
the book, the premise of the novel,

391
00:29:32.839 --> 00:29:34.559
and again this is a book from
the fifties, so it's very different

392
00:29:34.599 --> 00:29:37.480
you know, early in the Space
Program at all. But in the book,

393
00:29:38.559 --> 00:29:42.960
Hugo Drax is British and he's I
guess he's British here too, but

394
00:29:44.000 --> 00:29:45.440
he seems more like a I don't
know what he's supposed to be in the

395
00:29:45.480 --> 00:29:49.000
movie, another one of these Belgians
that want to conquer the world like Blowfelt,

396
00:29:49.000 --> 00:29:52.200
I guess. But in the book
he's very British. He's a he's

397
00:29:52.200 --> 00:30:00.480
a card player and he plays cards
with him like every week. And it's

398
00:30:00.599 --> 00:30:07.039
during these card games that im I
think, gets some information that realizes I

399
00:30:07.079 --> 00:30:10.160
need to investigate what he's up to. And that's when he goes to Bond

400
00:30:10.200 --> 00:30:12.119
and says, I need you to
come and play cards with dracts and kind

401
00:30:12.119 --> 00:30:15.400
of figure out what's going on,
and that's where and that's where he's like

402
00:30:15.480 --> 00:30:18.039
it's kind of like Casino Royale where
they're like, all right, Bond,

403
00:30:18.039 --> 00:30:22.119
are you sure you're good enough to
sit in on a you know, maybe

404
00:30:22.119 --> 00:30:26.440
a poker or whatever they're playing with
with Drax and not making pool out of

405
00:30:26.480 --> 00:30:33.359
yourself. Yeah. So so yeah, that's that's so it's appropriate that if

406
00:30:33.359 --> 00:30:34.799
he's gonna meet it, if if
em is going to meet any Bond villain,

407
00:30:34.799 --> 00:30:38.279
it's appropriate would be Dracts because in
the book they are they start out

408
00:30:38.279 --> 00:30:44.559
as like poker buddies or whatever.
Yeah, Bon Bond is only as good

409
00:30:44.920 --> 00:30:48.480
as his villain. And I think
Michael Lonsdale's performance as you Go Dras It

410
00:30:48.599 --> 00:30:55.039
might be one of my favorite performances
for a Bond villain. He's he's incredible

411
00:30:55.079 --> 00:30:57.319
And and Scott, you know,
I know this is like, you know,

412
00:30:57.359 --> 00:31:02.759
you're kind of a first experience with
Drax. I watched it, you

413
00:31:02.799 --> 00:31:06.680
know, like I said recently,
rewatching this, when you look at his

414
00:31:06.759 --> 00:31:08.880
face, when you when you hear
the inflection of his voice, I'm almost

415
00:31:08.960 --> 00:31:15.039
asking myself like, is is this
Peter Diglitch's dad? Like that's what he

416
00:31:15.079 --> 00:31:21.079
reminds me of you know. And
meanwhile, like this guy has got an

417
00:31:21.160 --> 00:31:26.440
incredible setup, He's surrounded by beautiful
women. He just never seems happy though.

418
00:31:26.440 --> 00:31:30.200
I just don't get it. Man, what man, what is Hugo

419
00:31:30.319 --> 00:31:34.759
Drax's problem. I've always called him
the Perry Como of Bond Villains. He's

420
00:31:34.839 --> 00:31:37.440
like, you know, come up
with the singer that was renowned for just

421
00:31:37.480 --> 00:31:41.759
like laying back on the sofa almost
being asleep while he sings. You know.

422
00:31:41.279 --> 00:31:45.920
Drax just kind of drowses his way
through this movie. And when I

423
00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:48.279
was younger, I really did not
like Drags because I'm like, come on,

424
00:31:48.440 --> 00:31:52.359
do something at least, you know, even even Blowfell pulled a gun

425
00:31:52.400 --> 00:31:56.799
on Bond and you know, and
and well, I guess Drax does at

426
00:31:56.839 --> 00:31:59.599
the very end. He gets a
little active towards the end when he asked

427
00:31:59.640 --> 00:32:04.079
him. But Drax is just so
inactive. But as the years have gone

428
00:32:04.119 --> 00:32:07.839
by, I've come to appreciate Dracts
a lot more movie. Dracts a lot

429
00:32:07.920 --> 00:32:15.920
more in the sense that he he's
just he's so arrogant, he's so full

430
00:32:15.960 --> 00:32:22.079
of himself. Everything he the reason
he gets caught and loses is his own

431
00:32:22.160 --> 00:32:23.680
fault. Every bit of it is
his own fault. You know, if

432
00:32:23.720 --> 00:32:30.960
he hadn't stolen his own moonraker back
from the British, yes, by blowing

433
00:32:30.039 --> 00:32:34.720
up their plane, they never would
have known until it was too late,

434
00:32:35.440 --> 00:32:39.119
right. If he'd let Bond look
around and go, huh, nothing to

435
00:32:39.160 --> 00:32:43.440
see here in California and go back, Bond would have told him, yeah,

436
00:32:43.480 --> 00:32:46.680
I looked around this rocket facility and
I saw them building some moonrakers.

437
00:32:46.680 --> 00:32:52.480
I didn't see anything else. But
instead, much like Blofelds sending the helicopters

438
00:32:52.519 --> 00:32:55.440
to kill Bond when he was about
to turn around and say, I couldn't

439
00:32:55.480 --> 00:33:00.000
find anything, right, and you
only live twice, there's this long,

440
00:33:00.160 --> 00:33:05.119
proud tradition that the villain can't just
leave well Enough alone. They've got to

441
00:33:05.240 --> 00:33:09.359
double down on killing Bond, and
that always ruins him. You can't leave

442
00:33:09.359 --> 00:33:14.160
well enough alone Bond. Bond confronts
him like, why did you steal your

443
00:33:14.160 --> 00:33:22.880
own plane? I needed it?
Okay, okay. It's very interesting,

444
00:33:22.960 --> 00:33:27.240
Jeff that you mentioned the Peter Dinklish
reference, because that's what Jude asked me

445
00:33:27.559 --> 00:33:30.960
when we were watching Your kidding.
Yeah, I forget what role he recognized

446
00:33:30.000 --> 00:33:34.200
it, but he was like is
that And I was like, no,

447
00:33:34.400 --> 00:33:38.279
but very interesting to make that connection. I'm maybe he was upset because he

448
00:33:38.400 --> 00:33:42.480
had, you know this Noah's ark
he was trying to do with, you

449
00:33:42.480 --> 00:33:45.640
know, two by two couples that
were making out on moon Breaker as they

450
00:33:45.640 --> 00:33:50.160
were coming up to the shuttle.
He's all on his onesie just kind of

451
00:33:50.240 --> 00:33:55.720
like, oh, that's a good
point. Get somebody for myself. Yeah,

452
00:33:55.880 --> 00:34:00.720
you know, that's that's a good
point. Because the whole time I'm

453
00:34:00.720 --> 00:34:02.960
watching, I was like, well, who's who is his uh, who's

454
00:34:04.000 --> 00:34:07.440
his girl? You know, who's
who's his special person? You know?

455
00:34:07.440 --> 00:34:12.559
And say and say what you will
about Dracs, but the fact is he

456
00:34:12.679 --> 00:34:16.239
was a champion of diversity long before
we even talking about it. Anyway.

457
00:34:16.239 --> 00:34:20.039
He's got he's got a what Van
backed me up here, He's he's got

458
00:34:20.039 --> 00:34:22.679
a French helicopter pilot he does.
He's got he's got a j he's got

459
00:34:22.719 --> 00:34:27.360
a Japanese Yeah, well brutal,
brutal in for her, but but he's

460
00:34:27.360 --> 00:34:34.199
got a Japanese hitchman. He's got
an American scientist yep, who I missing?

461
00:34:34.639 --> 00:34:37.840
And the and the and the and
the perfect people that he's taking up

462
00:34:37.840 --> 00:34:39.719
to the station are all pretty diverse
too. I know there were a couple

463
00:34:40.360 --> 00:34:45.960
of black people. It's a melting
pot up on h on space station drags.

464
00:34:46.000 --> 00:34:50.719
It's it's a wild scene. Man. It did make me think,

465
00:34:51.400 --> 00:34:54.000
literally, I'm kind of pontificating about
this after watching the movie, Like,

466
00:34:54.719 --> 00:34:58.199
but I don't think he's thinking it
all the way through, Like, Oh,

467
00:34:58.239 --> 00:35:01.639
I've killed all the doctors that know
about these you know, uh,

468
00:35:02.039 --> 00:35:06.920
diseases that might be on the planet. I've gotten rid of the engineers that

469
00:35:06.960 --> 00:35:10.280
have all these other expertise. Like
that. Seemed like he was collecting a

470
00:35:10.280 --> 00:35:15.440
lot of pretty people. But I
don't know if he collected you know,

471
00:35:15.519 --> 00:35:20.199
if they're all I assume they're all
outstanding in their field. Well, he

472
00:35:20.480 --> 00:35:23.719
had talked about how he they had
all worked for him in various facilities,

473
00:35:23.760 --> 00:35:29.039
So yeah, I imagine all these
kids and barbies. They they're kind of

474
00:35:29.039 --> 00:35:35.519
like a Christmas Jones, you know, they're that was maybe doctor Goodhead was

475
00:35:35.559 --> 00:35:37.199
supposed to be his woman. Whether
she knew it or not, she was

476
00:35:37.239 --> 00:35:42.519
gonna find that out after the fact. Yeah, that's a good point.

477
00:35:42.559 --> 00:35:46.559
It appears that you and I are
the only two singles left. We could

478
00:35:47.199 --> 00:35:53.800
my palatial quarters now and our dogs. Then she pulls a con and she's

479
00:35:53.840 --> 00:35:59.840
like, where's the override? The
override, Scott, we can't talk Bond

480
00:35:59.840 --> 00:36:04.559
with about without music? You want
to you want to score this one?

481
00:36:05.400 --> 00:36:09.599
Yeah? So I know. This
was composed by John Berry, recorded in

482
00:36:09.719 --> 00:36:14.159
Paris, which is a turning point
in the franchise because it goes away from

483
00:36:14.559 --> 00:36:21.039
CTS Studios in London. It was
also a turning point in john Berry's technique,

484
00:36:21.519 --> 00:36:25.119
which before had a lot of reliance
on brass and now was going into,

485
00:36:25.199 --> 00:36:30.599
you know, more string kind of
focus. It seemed like it was

486
00:36:30.679 --> 00:36:37.280
all very appropriate for the scenes.
It was all very well orchestrated and fitting

487
00:36:37.039 --> 00:36:42.400
with with every scene that we got. The one thing that I thought was

488
00:36:42.400 --> 00:36:47.840
was interesting where I got more more
information was around the theme song by Shirley

489
00:36:47.880 --> 00:36:54.400
Bassi. I'm I saying that correct, the third of the Bond films that

490
00:36:54.440 --> 00:36:59.559
she had done a theme song for, after Goldfinger and Diamonds or Forever.

491
00:37:00.559 --> 00:37:07.480
Apparently this also was at one time
offered to Frank Sinatra Kate Bush, which

492
00:37:07.519 --> 00:37:14.480
is interesting. Wait, running up
that hill. Kate Bush apparently and Johnny

493
00:37:14.639 --> 00:37:19.679
had started a recording part of this
at a certain point, but ultimately had

494
00:37:19.679 --> 00:37:24.719
to back out and it went back
to Bassie. Now, then you mentioned,

495
00:37:24.960 --> 00:37:28.760
you know, the the elaborate scenes
in the beginning, those kind of

496
00:37:28.800 --> 00:37:36.679
intros. Apparently Kebby complained that the
title sequence cost more than the entire budget

497
00:37:36.760 --> 00:37:39.719
of Doctor No. Well, the
entire budget Doctor Now was a million dollars,

498
00:37:39.719 --> 00:37:44.239
so, right, so it's not
much of a stretch. Yeah,

499
00:37:44.920 --> 00:37:47.639
but No, I thought it was
very appropriate for the movie. I don't

500
00:37:47.679 --> 00:37:52.800
think it's one of my favorite theme
songs, but you know that that's all

501
00:37:52.840 --> 00:37:54.760
connected to you know, the ones
that I first see in the theater,

502
00:37:55.119 --> 00:37:59.119
and this wasn't one of them.
But what are your thoughts on the music?

503
00:38:00.079 --> 00:38:01.800
This is my number two theme song
after You Only Live Twice. I

504
00:38:01.920 --> 00:38:07.440
like this. I like the airy, spacious ones more than the ones you

505
00:38:07.440 --> 00:38:12.480
know, And so You Only Live
Twice and Moonraker right up there, they're

506
00:38:12.480 --> 00:38:16.280
the two I probably played the most. The interesting thing about this one too,

507
00:38:16.800 --> 00:38:21.280
is that, from what I understand, this is the only Bond score

508
00:38:21.320 --> 00:38:25.719
where the entire score was not preserved
properly, and so there has never been

509
00:38:27.079 --> 00:38:31.360
a release of the full complete score
of this movie. And there's like private

510
00:38:31.440 --> 00:38:37.199
organization, at least one out there
doing kind of the equivalent of a Kickstarter

511
00:38:37.320 --> 00:38:42.199
or whatever, trying to reassemble it
from whatever is available. So they've been

512
00:38:42.440 --> 00:38:45.400
I don't know that might have changed
in the last couple of years, but

513
00:38:45.440 --> 00:38:46.559
the last I heard about it two
or three years ago, when Alan and

514
00:38:46.559 --> 00:38:50.719
I did our most recent review of
it, was that they were trying to

515
00:38:50.760 --> 00:38:53.719
reassemble it and they were just having
a hard time because it's just not you

516
00:38:53.800 --> 00:38:58.480
know, good quality recordings of all
this music are just not available. Like

517
00:38:58.519 --> 00:39:00.639
you know, if you go to
You Only Live Twice, you can get

518
00:39:00.639 --> 00:39:04.559
like a double album of every bit
of music that was even composed for that

519
00:39:04.679 --> 00:39:07.320
movie. But for Moonraker, you're
doing good to get you know, snippets

520
00:39:07.320 --> 00:39:10.119
of what was on the screen.
So it's it's unfortunate because I really do

521
00:39:10.239 --> 00:39:14.320
like this one. Well, let's
take another break and when we come back,

522
00:39:14.400 --> 00:39:20.639
we'll get into the rewind. Welcome
back, Scott. Let's go to

523
00:39:20.679 --> 00:39:24.519
the rewind and talk about what keeps
us coming back to this movie. The

524
00:39:24.559 --> 00:39:29.360
one that I got the most out
of was the scene where we see the

525
00:39:29.400 --> 00:39:32.360
reveal of doctor good Head as a
CIA agent and we go through all of

526
00:39:32.400 --> 00:39:37.960
her gadgets, which it seems like
she's stacked a lot better than Bond was.

527
00:39:37.960 --> 00:39:42.639
Yes, and that's not the first
time. It wouldn't be the last

528
00:39:42.639 --> 00:39:45.320
time, right, Doctor, I
mean Agent Triple X in the previous movie,

529
00:39:45.960 --> 00:39:50.440
although she was Russian not American.
So in both cases it's the it's

530
00:39:50.480 --> 00:39:54.280
the superpower hanging out with the British
agent. In fact, in some ways

531
00:39:54.320 --> 00:39:58.880
Bond gets along better with the Soviet
agent than he does with the American agent,

532
00:40:00.199 --> 00:40:02.400
entertaining. Yeah. And then and
of course later on we get the

533
00:40:02.519 --> 00:40:07.639
we get the circle complete when we
get the Chinese agent with with Michelle Yoh,

534
00:40:07.760 --> 00:40:12.800
my favorite Bond girl. So so
I always enjoy when Bond has a

535
00:40:13.079 --> 00:40:15.960
Bond girl who's not just there to
scream and cry for help, but is

536
00:40:16.000 --> 00:40:22.119
also you know, a match for
him in every way and has her own

537
00:40:22.320 --> 00:40:24.400
brings her own hardware, you know, brings her own gadgets. That's really

538
00:40:24.440 --> 00:40:28.280
cool. So I like Doctor.
I didn't like her when I first saw

539
00:40:28.280 --> 00:40:30.960
the movie, because you know,
you you want you want the women to

540
00:40:31.000 --> 00:40:35.480
get along with with Roger Moore Bond. He's so charming, he's so funny

541
00:40:35.519 --> 00:40:37.239
and nice. Of course they're all
gonna love him, and any of them

542
00:40:37.239 --> 00:40:39.440
that show any resistance, you're like, hey, what's wrong with her?

543
00:40:39.559 --> 00:40:43.440
You know? But but again,
just like with Drax, as the years

544
00:40:43.480 --> 00:40:45.920
go by and you revisit it and
everything and you see it in perspective,

545
00:40:46.840 --> 00:40:52.000
my opinion of doctor Goodhead has has
increased over time. I like her a

546
00:40:52.000 --> 00:40:54.599
lot well. And she's the only
one who knows how to fly a moon

547
00:40:54.679 --> 00:40:59.039
raker. I mean, he would
have been she hadn't been a lot right.

548
00:40:59.199 --> 00:41:00.559
She's there with the check listening the
floating pen, like, right,

549
00:41:00.599 --> 00:41:02.119
this is what we have to do, and he's like, I know,

550
00:41:02.199 --> 00:41:06.760
I do. What's happening here?
Van? I love that you mentioned it's

551
00:41:06.800 --> 00:41:09.280
it's nice to see a bond girl
who's not screaming and carrying on throughout the

552
00:41:09.280 --> 00:41:15.719
whole movie, because ironically, you
know, when I think of Lewis Childs,

553
00:41:15.840 --> 00:41:17.960
you know, I should be thinking
about doctor Holly Goodhead, but I

554
00:41:17.960 --> 00:41:23.800
always think of her performance and Creep
Show too, when she played with Missus

555
00:41:23.840 --> 00:41:28.199
Lansing the you know, the hitch
hiker, you know, and she's screaming

556
00:41:28.239 --> 00:41:34.119
for like twenty straight minutes. Yeah
she is. She's an awesome Yeah she

557
00:41:34.199 --> 00:41:37.559
saved it up. Yeah yeah,
Van. If you remember when we did

558
00:41:37.559 --> 00:41:40.559
our we did our best of the
Bond Girls draft, you know, I

559
00:41:40.960 --> 00:41:45.000
remember, you know you mentioned Michelle
Yeao. Holly Goodhead was what was on

560
00:41:45.039 --> 00:41:47.840
my list. Yeah, she made
the cut for my team. So he's

561
00:41:47.880 --> 00:41:52.480
formidable. I got to point out
one of my favorite little fact toys.

562
00:41:52.519 --> 00:41:57.320
This is the only Bond movie where
Bond never fires a pistol. He fires

563
00:41:57.360 --> 00:42:01.280
a hunting rifle that kills the guy
in the true and then he uses his

564
00:42:01.280 --> 00:42:05.199
little watch. He has his watch
that shoots missiles the whole rest of the

565
00:42:05.199 --> 00:42:07.360
movie, so he never actually takes
out of hand, and ever he has

566
00:42:07.400 --> 00:42:09.800
a pistol. Really, I don't
think. Yeah, so we never see

567
00:42:09.800 --> 00:42:15.400
the Walter PPK right, mm hm
wow, I don't think he has it

568
00:42:15.440 --> 00:42:19.599
in the plane at the beginning.
He doesn't doesn't use it for sure.

569
00:42:20.199 --> 00:42:22.519
It's another Mandela effect. You just
assumed that Bond is going to shoot someone

570
00:42:23.199 --> 00:42:27.119
in every single movie. Yeah,
you're right, he does not see he

571
00:42:27.159 --> 00:42:30.960
doesn't. He doesn't shoot a single
guy. Yeah. That actually makes me

572
00:42:30.000 --> 00:42:35.679
think of the cable car scene.
I remember saying out loud because I knew

573
00:42:35.719 --> 00:42:37.280
what was going to happen, that
it was going to be a hand to

574
00:42:37.320 --> 00:42:40.719
hand fight between Jaws and Bond.
But at the moment where they had stopped

575
00:42:40.760 --> 00:42:45.760
his cable car, why didn't they
just take a rifle and shoot him like

576
00:42:45.760 --> 00:42:50.239
he's stuck in a cable car.
He's a sitting duck. But yeah,

577
00:42:50.400 --> 00:42:53.119
no, that's interesting. I didn't
even remember that. Yeah, speaking of

578
00:42:53.519 --> 00:42:59.840
Jaws and a couple of other things
about him, I love the fact that

579
00:43:00.360 --> 00:43:04.400
he's well you might say, why
would why would Drax have a henchman that

580
00:43:04.480 --> 00:43:07.840
he's not gonna think is perfect and
can go up on the space station and

581
00:43:07.920 --> 00:43:12.280
all. But remember Drax was a
replacement. He was brought in at the

582
00:43:12.320 --> 00:43:15.480
last minute because Bond killed the Asian
guy that he fought in Venice. And

583
00:43:15.519 --> 00:43:20.039
there's that. Great my one of
my favorite. Drax has a couple of

584
00:43:20.039 --> 00:43:22.960
great lines. You mentioned one when
you said look after you, you paraphrase

585
00:43:23.000 --> 00:43:25.880
look after mister Bond. See that
some harm comes to and that's a great

586
00:43:25.880 --> 00:43:30.679
line. Okay. Drax also tells
Bond, James, Bond, you appear

587
00:43:30.800 --> 00:43:35.039
with a tedious inevitability of an unloved
season, which is a great line.

588
00:43:35.360 --> 00:43:39.880
That's just so beautiful line for a
while. Yeah, but the but the

589
00:43:40.000 --> 00:43:43.960
Jaws one though, I was saying, is they kind of hired him as

590
00:43:43.960 --> 00:43:46.519
a temp right. They called up
the temp agency and said, do you

591
00:43:46.599 --> 00:43:51.639
have any super villain Injamin because he
says that I need a I need one

592
00:43:51.639 --> 00:43:53.079
in a hurry, and you don't
hear the other end of the conversation,

593
00:43:53.599 --> 00:43:57.519
and then Drax says, oh,
well, if you can get him,

594
00:43:59.039 --> 00:44:00.840
and then Jaws show up, You're
like, oh, he's recruiting from the

595
00:44:00.880 --> 00:44:06.360
other movie. Cool it. He
just called up wherever. You know,

596
00:44:06.440 --> 00:44:10.199
there's like a task master in the
in the James Bond universe that hires out

597
00:44:10.440 --> 00:44:15.519
flunkies, you know, yep,
dilute trust. And that's why Jaws was

598
00:44:15.599 --> 00:44:19.800
eligible. Was not eligible to be
a you know, go up to the

599
00:44:19.880 --> 00:44:24.840
sanctuary thing other than just for a
few jobs. But yeah, so he

600
00:44:24.920 --> 00:44:29.039
was. He was never really supposed
to supposed to be involved at all,

601
00:44:29.280 --> 00:44:31.679
and it but it gave them a
way to bring him in because again,

602
00:44:31.719 --> 00:44:34.760
you know, people wanted him to
be in this movie, and in fact,

603
00:44:34.760 --> 00:44:37.119
there was talk that he would have
been in the next one. But

604
00:44:37.039 --> 00:44:42.880
I'm glad they dialed it back because
obviously with the next one they were trying

605
00:44:42.880 --> 00:44:45.599
to get more grounded again and Jaws. Jaws at that point had become just

606
00:44:45.639 --> 00:44:51.000
a parody of himself. I'm afraid
so, Scott, Uh. I know

607
00:44:51.079 --> 00:44:53.039
this is a typically part of the
rewind, but I just got to ask

608
00:44:53.800 --> 00:44:59.239
you watch a movie like Moonraker,
and I kind of feel like this informed

609
00:44:59.599 --> 00:45:01.159
a lot of other movies where we
already mentioned point Break, like with the

610
00:45:01.559 --> 00:45:07.840
daring daring scene at the beginning with
the you know, bond jumping out and

611
00:45:07.679 --> 00:45:13.119
catching the guy without a parachute,
But any any other newer movies come to

612
00:45:13.119 --> 00:45:16.880
mind when you when you think of
Moon Breaker now, So for me,

613
00:45:17.119 --> 00:45:24.280
I would say Austin Powers. I
really wanted to watch an Austin Powers movie

614
00:45:24.599 --> 00:45:29.280
like The Spider Shagged Me with the
yes, I mean, well yeah,

615
00:45:29.320 --> 00:45:32.360
even though it's probably not my favorite
Austin Powers movie, at least one that's

616
00:45:32.400 --> 00:45:37.800
related to it, because you can
see where they're kind of taking the any

617
00:45:37.880 --> 00:45:42.360
kind of camp aspects of it to
the end degree. And I think that

618
00:45:42.440 --> 00:45:45.039
would, you know, especially if
you're watching with the younger audience, depending

619
00:45:45.039 --> 00:45:51.320
on how appropriate it might be,
it certainly would come up as a as

620
00:45:51.360 --> 00:45:54.440
a good chaser to to this one. In my opinion, Van, what

621
00:45:54.480 --> 00:45:59.119
do you think, yeah, the
only thing. I mean, I've waited

622
00:45:59.199 --> 00:46:02.800
for so long for another movie that
does a kind of a low orbit space

623
00:46:02.880 --> 00:46:07.239
battle, and they just there really
haven't been movies that have done anything like

624
00:46:07.239 --> 00:46:12.760
that. I think that probably the
closest we've gotten is For All Mankind on

625
00:46:12.840 --> 00:46:16.480
Apple Plus. But even that has
never given us anything quite like this.

626
00:46:16.599 --> 00:46:20.480
I mean, it's given us stuff
on the surface of the Moon or Mars,

627
00:46:20.639 --> 00:46:22.239
or like you know, on a
ship or something. But I just

628
00:46:22.960 --> 00:46:30.519
the big battle between the astronauts from
the US and the Drax astronauts that to

629
00:46:30.639 --> 00:46:34.039
me has never been They've never nobody's
ever even attempted to do that again.

630
00:46:34.960 --> 00:46:38.159
And I still, by the way, I still ask this question, where

631
00:46:38.159 --> 00:46:45.639
do these villains go to get henchmen
who are willing to die for their boss

632
00:46:45.679 --> 00:46:50.079
for their paycheck. They must have
like all of the lives tied up in

633
00:46:50.159 --> 00:46:54.599
the closet or something. I mean, because in the real world, when

634
00:46:54.679 --> 00:46:58.800
the when the military shows up,
those guys that all be like, oh,

635
00:46:58.800 --> 00:47:02.000
we're done, surrender, put me
in prison, dine out of space

636
00:47:02.079 --> 00:47:06.639
for that rich dude. No paycheck
is worth this. Take me to prison,

637
00:47:06.679 --> 00:47:08.719
guys. I mean there, so
I'm always impressed with the with the

638
00:47:08.760 --> 00:47:15.559
devotion of these guys. You know, I'm glad vance, I'm glad Van's

639
00:47:15.559 --> 00:47:20.719
here to offer a little gravitas to
some of these these questions because Scott,

640
00:47:20.719 --> 00:47:23.920
you you're talking Austin Powers. I
gotta be honest. When I was watching

641
00:47:23.960 --> 00:47:30.360
this, uh the other day,
there's that great moment where Drax when he

642
00:47:30.559 --> 00:47:37.119
when he when Bond first meets Drax, and he's got these just ferocious looking,

643
00:47:37.159 --> 00:47:44.119
insanely scary Doberman sitting there and he
tosses the meat and they don't move,

644
00:47:45.039 --> 00:47:47.119
and like minutes go by, and
then he just snaps his fingers and

645
00:47:47.159 --> 00:47:53.280
then and then they eat, right. I immediately thought of Last Action Hero

646
00:47:53.840 --> 00:47:59.639
when when Arnold knocks on the door
and the dogs show up and he's I

647
00:47:59.639 --> 00:48:05.639
snapped fingers and arterials arterial red will
be on the page. I was like,

648
00:48:06.360 --> 00:48:09.079
damn, Like everyone is going back
to the Moonraker when they if you

649
00:48:09.079 --> 00:48:12.320
want to spoof Jays Bond, you
want to talk James Bond, it was

650
00:48:12.320 --> 00:48:15.440
going to Moon Raker. It seems
like, so yeah, all right,

651
00:48:15.480 --> 00:48:16.920
Well, speaking of Jaws, I
know we talked about a couple of times,

652
00:48:16.960 --> 00:48:22.000
but Dave and I usually at some
point in the show, we talked

653
00:48:22.000 --> 00:48:24.519
about quotes from people who were close
to the movie, people who were involved

654
00:48:24.519 --> 00:48:29.960
with the movie. I found something
interesting from a two thousand and nine interview

655
00:48:29.960 --> 00:48:35.199
with denn A Geek about talking with
Richard Keel about being cast as Jaws and

656
00:48:35.239 --> 00:48:38.719
how seriously he was taking it.
So he says, when mister Brockley was

657
00:48:38.719 --> 00:48:43.960
describing the character, he said,
Richard, this character is gonna have heath

658
00:48:44.039 --> 00:48:46.519
like tools that might be like a
shark, but they're going to be made

659
00:48:46.559 --> 00:48:50.280
out of steel, and he kills
people with his teeth. For me,

660
00:48:50.320 --> 00:48:52.119
it was a put off. It
was a monster role. And then they

661
00:48:52.159 --> 00:48:55.840
had said they had interviewed David Prowse, who was already in the suit for

662
00:48:55.960 --> 00:48:59.960
Darth Vader, and it made me
feel like it was an acting role.

663
00:49:00.599 --> 00:49:02.599
A little voice inside me said,
Richard, how much do you love the

664
00:49:02.599 --> 00:49:07.199
Bond series? Make it work.
So I took a chance and said to

665
00:49:07.239 --> 00:49:09.239
Broccoli, whomever you cast, whether
it's me or somebody else, I think

666
00:49:09.239 --> 00:49:13.960
it needs to be an actor because
the character who kills people with his teeth

667
00:49:14.079 --> 00:49:16.599
could become over the top quite easily. If I were to play the role,

668
00:49:16.760 --> 00:49:21.320
I'd give him some human characteristics,
perseverance, frustration, those kinds of

669
00:49:21.320 --> 00:49:25.039
things. He liked that because he
took making the Bond films very seriously,

670
00:49:25.159 --> 00:49:28.880
and I think that he felt I
was taking it very seriously as well,

671
00:49:29.320 --> 00:49:30.440
and that I would add something to
the character. So he said, I

672
00:49:30.599 --> 00:49:34.599
like that. What are you doing
for dinner tonight? He invited me to

673
00:49:34.599 --> 00:49:37.440
meet his family and the writer who
was staying in his poolhouse, and that's

674
00:49:37.440 --> 00:49:43.960
how it came about. So very
interesting perspective that both Cubby and Keel took

675
00:49:44.159 --> 00:49:47.639
the character seriously. As much as
it was beloved by the younger audience,

676
00:49:49.360 --> 00:49:52.440
he wanted it to have something more. And I think that's kind of punctuated

677
00:49:52.440 --> 00:49:55.280
by the fact that we get I
don't remember Jaws having dialogue in the last

678
00:49:55.320 --> 00:49:59.440
movie, but the fact that he
just has a little bit of dialogue there

679
00:49:59.480 --> 00:50:02.519
at the end, I think really
helps to show that they wanted to do

680
00:50:02.599 --> 00:50:06.679
a bit of rounding out for this
character, and I was glad to see

681
00:50:06.679 --> 00:50:09.519
it. I met Richard Keel once
at a convention a few a few years

682
00:50:09.559 --> 00:50:14.000
a couple of years before he died, and and I wanted to go over

683
00:50:14.039 --> 00:50:16.239
and talk to him at length,
but I was still scared to death from

684
00:50:16.280 --> 00:50:21.519
seeing those two movies. When I
was down, You're like, hey,

685
00:50:21.559 --> 00:50:23.440
look it's Richard Keel sitting there.
He was in like a little head of

686
00:50:23.480 --> 00:50:27.519
little buggy he rode around in because
he couldn't really walk anymore. Yeah,

687
00:50:28.079 --> 00:50:31.199
so he was just kind of hunched
down in his little scooter at the table,

688
00:50:31.760 --> 00:50:36.119
and I'm I don't care he still
jaws. I'm like, nah,

689
00:50:36.239 --> 00:50:39.480
I'm not gonna go. He might
eat me. Yeah. He always had

690
00:50:39.519 --> 00:50:45.199
that till the end. Yeah,
exactly. Well, Jeff, we also

691
00:50:45.239 --> 00:50:51.599
talk about what if kind of scenarios
in the show. I didn't find many

692
00:50:51.760 --> 00:50:57.480
alternate casting choices. I know that
Jacqueline Smith was offered the role of Doctor

693
00:50:57.519 --> 00:51:01.159
Goodhead at one point, but I
was also interested to see that Steven Spielberg

694
00:51:01.599 --> 00:51:08.440
had a chance of directing this at
one point. My understanding is that he

695
00:51:08.639 --> 00:51:14.840
had been talking to Kubby about directing
a Bond film. Uh, and Van

696
00:51:14.960 --> 00:51:17.440
might be Van might need to correct
me here on what I know or what

697
00:51:17.480 --> 00:51:24.360
I've read, But apparently Kubby talks
to Spielberg about using the the Notes,

698
00:51:24.440 --> 00:51:30.519
the five Notes for close Encounters.
Yeah, but that great moment, yes,

699
00:51:30.000 --> 00:51:34.400
and that kind of started their whole
conversation about, yeah, let's maybe

700
00:51:34.440 --> 00:51:37.400
I'll do a Bond film, but
it's Lucas and Hawaii who says, well,

701
00:51:37.440 --> 00:51:44.119
I've got a Bond character. Mm, and uh, he's an archaeologist,

702
00:51:44.400 --> 00:51:47.559
and then we know the history there. He does Raiders instead of doing

703
00:51:47.599 --> 00:51:53.280
a Bond film. Yeah, well
that came that came full circle, right

704
00:51:53.320 --> 00:51:59.280
because then when Spielberg talked to Broccoli
about using the double oh seven theme music

705
00:51:59.440 --> 00:52:04.199
in the scene for the Goonies mm
hmm, Broccoli kind of apparently gave him

706
00:52:04.199 --> 00:52:06.679
a little bit of hassle, like
a tongue in cheek, kind of like,

707
00:52:06.880 --> 00:52:09.000
I don't know about that. That's
not that's not five notes, that's

708
00:52:09.039 --> 00:52:15.480
more right exactly exactly, But thankfully
he was able to use it. Van.

709
00:52:15.519 --> 00:52:17.239
Had you heard anything about any kind
of what if scenarios for this one?

710
00:52:17.679 --> 00:52:22.039
Well, Lois Childs was originally cast
as Agent Triple X for The Spy

711
00:52:22.119 --> 00:52:24.920
Who Loved Me, which would have
been an interesting if she played a Russian

712
00:52:25.000 --> 00:52:28.960
ends up playing an American. So
that's that's kind of odd. But I

713
00:52:28.960 --> 00:52:31.119
don't I don't know the story of
how she ended up dropping out and it

714
00:52:31.159 --> 00:52:35.599
went to Katherine back. Is it
Katherine Bock, I get the Box,

715
00:52:35.719 --> 00:52:37.920
Barbara, Barbara, Barbara Black,
Barbara, I get the Box mixed up?

716
00:52:38.239 --> 00:52:43.559
One one was in the General Lee
and one was in the Underwater uh

717
00:52:43.840 --> 00:52:45.960
lotus. They both had cool cars, so how can you keep him straight?

718
00:52:46.039 --> 00:52:51.639
Right? Was married to Ringo and
one could have dated her cousin.

719
00:52:52.360 --> 00:52:57.480
I guess the other one. And
we mentioned James Mason was the first choice

720
00:52:57.480 --> 00:53:01.920
for Drax, which I think is
fascinating. I think because James Mason,

721
00:53:01.960 --> 00:53:05.800
he he does get to be a
Bond villain at one point, kind of

722
00:53:05.840 --> 00:53:08.800
because he's the villain north by Northwest, which is all but a Bond movies.

723
00:53:08.840 --> 00:53:13.000
It's it's bonding that we bond,
right, Yeah, it's Kerry Grant

724
00:53:13.000 --> 00:53:15.480
doing bonding. Yeah, doing a
Bond that doesn't know what he's doing.

725
00:53:16.800 --> 00:53:22.239
The other thing that to me that's
kind of interesting about all this is that

726
00:53:22.920 --> 00:53:27.400
in a normal cycle, talk about
what could have happened and how it did

727
00:53:27.440 --> 00:53:32.920
happen. In a normal Bond movie
cycle, usually the new Bond actor starts

728
00:53:32.960 --> 00:53:43.199
in a more small espionage oriented story
and they kind of slowly build up to

729
00:53:43.280 --> 00:53:46.679
save the world from the supervillain plot. Right, there's an escalation and when

730
00:53:46.719 --> 00:53:51.280
they get to that one, they
usually would pull the plug. Wait a

731
00:53:51.320 --> 00:53:53.159
couple of years, bring in a
new bond and they start back over again.

732
00:53:53.639 --> 00:53:57.920
Roger Moore is like the only Bond
actor that gets two acts. He

733
00:53:57.960 --> 00:54:00.440
gets to do the whole thing twice
because he starts out and Live and Let

734
00:54:00.559 --> 00:54:07.280
Die and Work, which is about
drugs in the Caribbean basically, and works

735
00:54:07.280 --> 00:54:12.199
his way up to too Almost Save
the worlds right, well, it does

736
00:54:12.239 --> 00:54:15.159
save the world from too almost destroy
the entire world. That's as big as

737
00:54:15.199 --> 00:54:17.719
you can get, and you're like, okay. Moon Raker is the perfect

738
00:54:17.800 --> 00:54:22.000
movie for Roger Moore to bow out
because he's now done the seventies, he's

739
00:54:22.079 --> 00:54:24.519
climbed the ladder, he's reached that
point. Time to go and instead,

740
00:54:24.559 --> 00:54:34.480
and they do cycle back around to
For Your Eyes Only, and he just

741
00:54:34.960 --> 00:54:37.400
starts over again at the small level, because I mean, think about it.

742
00:54:37.679 --> 00:54:42.159
In nineteen seventy nine, he's trying
to prevent the entire world from being

743
00:54:42.440 --> 00:54:46.199
nerve gassed the entire world. In
nineteen eighty one, he's trying to recover

744
00:54:46.320 --> 00:54:52.519
a stolen coating machine. So you
know what I mean, it's quite right

745
00:54:52.599 --> 00:54:58.400
back down to the beginning. Again
the attack at Cirl a tack two Saints

746
00:54:58.400 --> 00:55:00.920
Cirl but he and he builds his
way back up to I guess if you

747
00:55:00.039 --> 00:55:05.199
do a kill with the killer blimp
and all that and then yeah, you

748
00:55:05.239 --> 00:55:12.599
know, the slowest blimp in history
that's creeping behind you. What of you

749
00:55:12.639 --> 00:55:19.119
to a kill? I gotta tell
you. I listen, I Scott,

750
00:55:20.559 --> 00:55:22.960
you know last time you guys,
uh, you did Rocky too. You

751
00:55:23.000 --> 00:55:28.639
invited me on. You know,
I'm a huge Rocky fan and as big

752
00:55:28.679 --> 00:55:31.039
a fan as I am of Rocky, I'm just as big a fan of

753
00:55:31.119 --> 00:55:37.440
James Bond. So you know I
was I was happy to uh to get

754
00:55:37.440 --> 00:55:40.440
the call to to come talk because
you know, and again another opportunity to

755
00:55:40.480 --> 00:55:45.719
talk with Van. Yeah we know. Van's done some awesome stuff with Docum

756
00:55:45.760 --> 00:55:50.920
based seventy seven. Uh. We
did the best of the Bond Girls episode

757
00:55:51.159 --> 00:55:53.519
with the show you Can't Be Serious
podcast. That was a blast. That

758
00:55:53.559 --> 00:55:58.639
was a good time. We had
Deaf Dave from the Apples and Oranges podcast

759
00:55:58.719 --> 00:56:01.880
with us. That was a really
fun one. But yeah, this has

760
00:56:01.920 --> 00:56:05.079
been this has been amazing. But
Scott, I gotta ask, like,

761
00:56:05.280 --> 00:56:07.079
you know, uh, because I've
got the I've got the last, the

762
00:56:07.199 --> 00:56:12.360
last big box set that they brought
out, I think when Specter was coming

763
00:56:12.400 --> 00:56:15.000
out. That's that's the blue rays
that I've got, you know, physical

764
00:56:15.039 --> 00:56:17.960
media. As Dayton Johnson would say, it is always better, Scott,

765
00:56:17.960 --> 00:56:22.480
where'd you see this one? Where'd
you catch it? So? Unfortunately I

766
00:56:22.519 --> 00:56:30.480
caught it on a DVD that for
some reason does not have English subtitles,

767
00:56:30.920 --> 00:56:36.119
And I remember having this the hardest
time getting the right volume on this thing,

768
00:56:36.239 --> 00:56:39.159
Like all the dialogue was whisper quiet, and all the action scenes were

769
00:56:39.320 --> 00:56:46.199
very, very loud. So I
would definitely recommend finding the blue ray.

770
00:56:46.360 --> 00:56:51.280
Absolutely, find something that can,
you know, sit in your collection,

771
00:56:51.400 --> 00:56:53.599
something you can hold on to,
but also something that gives you all those

772
00:56:53.639 --> 00:57:00.440
behind the scenes facts and documentaries,
because to me, it's you can't watch

773
00:57:00.480 --> 00:57:06.960
one without the other, then what
about you. I've got somewhere around here

774
00:57:07.039 --> 00:57:09.199
the Blu rays for some of these
movies. But I really, I mean,

775
00:57:09.360 --> 00:57:13.920
I've never felt the need to do
that, because I have when these

776
00:57:13.960 --> 00:57:16.519
came out around two thousand and five, two thousand and six ish, I

777
00:57:16.559 --> 00:57:22.960
got the four box sets or Gorgeous
and all four of these and I immediately

778
00:57:23.079 --> 00:57:29.159
transfer them all to the Plex server, so I can Apple TV and watch

779
00:57:29.159 --> 00:57:31.480
any of them anytime I want.
And I mean, yeah, the result

780
00:57:31.519 --> 00:57:35.280
it's not Blu Ray level, but
it's just so much easier. See,

781
00:57:35.320 --> 00:57:40.159
I dating and I don't always agree, and I'm a big fan of streaming

782
00:57:40.360 --> 00:57:45.960
and having stuff on a computer.
I don't like physical media. I don't

783
00:57:45.000 --> 00:57:47.880
mind having it back here stashed in
the basement, but I don't like it.

784
00:57:47.960 --> 00:57:52.880
I don't like using it, I
don't like watching it. So I'm

785
00:57:52.880 --> 00:57:54.679
not a big fan. So I
like having these on my computer and I

786
00:57:54.719 --> 00:57:59.599
can just pull them up on my
iPad, my TV, my phone whenever

787
00:57:59.639 --> 00:58:02.920
I want. So, yeah,
guys, I I obviously I'm the you,

788
00:58:04.320 --> 00:58:07.559
I'm the Yugo Dras of the group
because I'm I have the Blu Ray

789
00:58:07.960 --> 00:58:13.159
the set in its entirety. And
I'm complaining because I want a four K.

790
00:58:13.960 --> 00:58:16.639
Uh. I want these four K
That's that's why why don't we have

791
00:58:16.719 --> 00:58:22.000
them? Like? Where where are
the four K options? Because I say,

792
00:58:22.000 --> 00:58:23.639
what you will like, Yeah,
I mean the the Daniel Craig era

793
00:58:24.079 --> 00:58:29.000
like those. I mean, everything's
on it's digital, it's gorgeous, it's

794
00:58:29.079 --> 00:58:32.320
very clean. But I would love
to see four K restorations of the Sean

795
00:58:32.360 --> 00:58:37.559
Connery films and and the Roger Moore
films especially. You know, I don't

796
00:58:37.559 --> 00:58:40.480
know where it's at, but I'm
waiting. Yeah, that's a good point.

797
00:58:40.519 --> 00:58:43.800
I haven't thought about that, but
yeah, I'm surprised they haven't put

798
00:58:43.840 --> 00:58:50.679
out like a three hundred dollars boxed
metal four K everything. Yeah, the

799
00:58:50.719 --> 00:58:57.360
whole set. They'd have my money. Yeah, it's already bought. Well,

800
00:58:57.440 --> 00:59:00.119
Jeff, like you said, I'm
glad that you were able to to

801
00:59:00.199 --> 00:59:02.519
join us for this one, and
Van, I'm extraordinarily grateful that you were

802
00:59:02.559 --> 00:59:07.320
able to join for this episode.
I think we could not have done that

803
00:59:07.400 --> 00:59:09.599
without you, so thank you for
being with us. I'll admit I was

804
00:59:10.239 --> 00:59:16.719
intimidated to do this one because of
what you do with on Her Majesty's Secret

805
00:59:16.719 --> 00:59:21.519
podcast. I was like, this
guy's gonna take me to school, Like

806
00:59:21.800 --> 00:59:24.639
there's there's so much more that you've
got to know about this. I'm on

807
00:59:24.679 --> 00:59:29.199
there with Alan Porter. I just
try to struggle to keep up with him.

808
00:59:30.159 --> 00:59:34.119
I'm like tread and water with Alan, Like just saying if I can

809
00:59:34.360 --> 00:59:37.280
just just don't come off as the
dumb one is all I try to do

810
00:59:37.280 --> 00:59:39.360
on that, so exactly, well, where else can we find you?

811
00:59:39.400 --> 00:59:43.880
Tell us about some of your other
work. Yeah, so I have several

812
00:59:43.920 --> 00:59:47.360
podcasts on the White Rocket Entertainment Network. I have the obviously on Our Majesty's

813
00:59:47.320 --> 00:59:52.360
Secret Podcast, which I do some
shows with Alan Jared Albrick and a few

814
00:59:52.400 --> 00:59:57.159
other folks have done like the Rookie
Agents on there. We do a variety

815
00:59:57.159 --> 01:00:00.639
of them. We've reviewed every movie
including like the TV Show from the sixties

816
01:00:00.639 --> 01:00:06.920
and The Abominable Casino Royale with David
Niven and Woody and we've reviewed everything.

817
01:00:07.400 --> 01:00:09.559
Then we came back around and reviewed
like the first half of them over again,

818
01:00:09.639 --> 01:00:15.440
looking at like categories of rating,
the rating the bonds, raiding the

819
01:00:15.440 --> 01:00:19.440
gadget rating the girls right and all
that vehicles. So that's out there if

820
01:00:19.480 --> 01:00:22.039
you just look for on Her Majesty
Secret podcast. I've got the White Rocket

821
01:00:22.400 --> 01:00:27.400
Podcast where I just do generic,
random whatever strikes my fancy. Daton came

822
01:00:27.440 --> 01:00:30.159
on a few months ago and we
just talked about Judic Priest albums for an

823
01:00:30.159 --> 01:00:31.920
hour, which was awesome, just
whatever we feel like talking about, you

824
01:00:31.920 --> 01:00:36.159
know. And then I have the
White Rocket Babble on five review podcasts where

825
01:00:36.159 --> 01:00:38.039
Andy Fix and I have have been
going for the last three or four years

826
01:00:38.599 --> 01:00:43.079
through every episode of Babylon five and
breaking it down for about an hour and

827
01:00:43.119 --> 01:00:46.400
a half a week. So if
you like Babylon five or you want to

828
01:00:46.400 --> 01:00:50.159
get into it, check out the
White Rocket Battle and five review podcasts.

829
01:00:50.159 --> 01:00:53.119
And you know. Other than that, I got a bunch of books.

830
01:00:53.599 --> 01:00:58.000
Haven't done a Bond book yet,
ought to, but yeah, but there's

831
01:00:58.039 --> 01:01:01.599
there's two I wanted to ask you
about because I'm big fan of the The

832
01:01:01.639 --> 01:01:08.880
Modern I guess uh new trilogy that
sparked with Ocean's eleven. Yes, and

833
01:01:09.000 --> 01:01:14.440
you have a couple of heist novels, right, I do, Yeah,

834
01:01:14.599 --> 01:01:17.519
Vegas Heist and Miami Heist. Vegas
Heist is set in nineteen sixty five,

835
01:01:17.559 --> 01:01:22.119
Miami Heist in nineteen sixty six.
Allen and I are actually going to do

836
01:01:22.320 --> 01:01:27.480
a third book called Monaco Heist,
set at the nineteen sixty seven Monaco Grand

837
01:01:27.559 --> 01:01:30.239
Prix. We're nice and we borrow
from real life for every one of these.

838
01:01:30.280 --> 01:01:35.119
So there actually was an incident at
that race where two of the two

839
01:01:35.159 --> 01:01:37.599
of the cars and the race had
diamonds attached to the hood as a promotion,

840
01:01:37.920 --> 01:01:40.760
and at the end of the race
the diamonds were gone, so of

841
01:01:40.800 --> 01:01:45.559
course getting our heisters involved in that
when they're when they show up for the

842
01:01:45.639 --> 01:01:49.199
race. So yeah, the cool
the Vegas. The Vegas one is about

843
01:01:49.480 --> 01:01:53.079
these guys trying to rob uh Caesar's
Palace as it's about has never opened before

844
01:01:53.079 --> 01:01:57.000
it is about to open. They
find a way in, and then Miami

845
01:01:57.079 --> 01:02:01.039
Heist is a year later and they're
down in South Florida trying to get uh,

846
01:02:01.159 --> 01:02:04.960
get a hold of a bunch of
money hidden on an island off of

847
01:02:05.000 --> 01:02:07.920
the coast of Miami. That's cool. I have to check those out band

848
01:02:08.039 --> 01:02:14.480
for for all the listeners that share
your disdain for physical media. If if

849
01:02:14.519 --> 01:02:15.480
they're gonna, if they're gonna,
if they're gonna read a Van al of

850
01:02:15.480 --> 01:02:20.360
Plexico book? Uh, is there
is there best bet like Amazon? Or

851
01:02:20.400 --> 01:02:22.320
is there a is there a van
Allen like? Is there like a website

852
01:02:22.320 --> 01:02:25.440
that they could go to in order
the books? Yeah? You can find

853
01:02:25.480 --> 01:02:30.519
everything, the podcast, the books, everything at plexico dot net p l

854
01:02:30.599 --> 01:02:32.639
e x i c o w I
gues w w w dot p l e

855
01:02:32.800 --> 01:02:37.679
x c o dot net and that
has links to the podcasts, the books,

856
01:02:37.840 --> 01:02:43.760
to everything Alan did by the way, do have an amazing Bond book.

857
01:02:43.800 --> 01:02:45.920
He's done a couple now, but
he did the Bond Lexicon, he

858
01:02:45.920 --> 01:02:49.639
and his wife. So if you
look for the Bond Lexicon with Alan J.

859
01:02:49.800 --> 01:02:52.960
Porter, I mean, it's like
a dictionary or encyclopedia of everything Bond,

860
01:02:53.039 --> 01:02:57.360
from the movies, from the comics, from the books. It's all

861
01:02:57.400 --> 01:03:00.719
in there. It's this huge book
in my company publish a couple of years

862
01:03:00.719 --> 01:03:02.119
ago and it's been doing really well. But yeah, you can find all

863
01:03:02.199 --> 01:03:06.719
that if you go to ww dot
plexico dot net. And my books are

864
01:03:06.760 --> 01:03:10.320
on Audible, they're on Kindle,
they're in paperback, hardcover. Sure,

865
01:03:10.400 --> 01:03:15.920
whatever you want, we will get
that information in the show notes for sure.

866
01:03:15.320 --> 01:03:20.880
Yeah. Listeners, if you want
to leave a comment, discuss what's

867
01:03:20.960 --> 01:03:24.199
next, or even you've got suggestions, you can find us at a Film

868
01:03:24.239 --> 01:03:28.840
by podcast dot com. You can
reach out to us at a film by

869
01:03:28.960 --> 01:03:31.719
Podcast at gmail dot com. And
of course you can find us on social

870
01:03:31.719 --> 01:03:36.519
media. We're on Facebook, Twitter, x, all the social channels.

871
01:03:37.159 --> 01:03:40.920
Until our film reels start rolling again, go out watch something new, watch

872
01:03:42.000 --> 01:03:45.920
something different, and who knows what
you will discover next. Van. Thank

873
01:03:45.920 --> 01:03:51.039
you very much, Scott always a
pleasure. Likewise, thanks everybody,