Moonraker (1979)

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Bond: “Bollinger? If it’s ’69, you were expecting me.”

Overview: Hugo Drax plans to initiate a global holocaust from his space station, and then repopulate Earth with a master race of “Up With People” veterans. Just in the nick of time, 007 sends the villain’s scheme crashing to Earth. Despite its over-the-top humor, this is in many ways the first “modern” James Bond film.

What does Bond drink?

  • In the airplane during the precredits sequence, a bottle of champagne in an ice bucket and two half-empty glasses can be seen on a table to the right of Bond. There is also a tray with two glasses across from 007, near a silver caddy holding bottles of liquor and wine.
  • As Holly Goodhead walks to the balcony in her hotel room, we see a bottle of champagne on ice and two glasses on a table. A little later, when Bond is examining her CIA gadgets, Holly asks “James, why don’t you pour yourself a drink, huh?” He looks approvingly at the bottle and remarks, “Bollinger? If it’s ’69, you were expecting me.” We never see the bottle opened.
  • In the president’s suite at his hotel in Rio de Janeiro, Manuela stands behind an elaborate bar, wielding a large silver shaker. Bond asks, “Do you come with the suite?” She replies, “It depends who’s renting it.” As Manuela pours his drink into a highball glass (along with some ice from the shaker) she says, “Vodka martini, shaken, not stirred.” Bond accepts the drink and takes a sip.

Other people’s drinks:

  • He’s ba-ack. When Bond drives his hovercraft gondola through a Venice plaza, we see a variety of reaction shots. In one of them, Victor Tourjansky (the man from the beach in The Spy Who Loved Me) is seen at a table with a bottle of red wine and a glass. As he watches the craft pass by, he lets go of his glass, grabs the bottle, looks at it, and then looks back at Bond. A few shots later, a waiter pours a bottle of beer on a man’s head (instead of in a glass) as he is distracted by the gondola. By the way, Tourjansky will reprise his role as “the man who looks incredulously at his wine bottle” a third time.
  • As General Gogol talks on the phone with the U.S. Space Command, the woman in his bed raises a glass of vodka or champagne as the scene ends.
  • Bond does not get the last drink at the end of the film. Jaws and Dolly find a bottle of Bollinger and two flutes in the wreckage of the space station. He pops it with his teeth, spits the cork out, and fills the glasses. As they clink flutes, Jaws says “Well, here’s to us,” as Dolly looks up at him lovingly. They both drink. This is the only line of dialogue spoken by the character in his two films.

Memorable quotes:

Bond: “Dinner this evening?”
Holly: “This evening I’m giving my address.”
Bond: “Then can you think of a reason why we don’t have a drink afterwards?”
Holly: “Not immediately, but I’m sure I shall.”

Product placement: Moonraker is the first Bond film with in-your-face product placement. 7 UP, a mixer, gets some serious screen real estate. A bottle of Bollinger Champagne plays a prominent role in one scene, and the company receives its first mention in the closing credits, a tradition that continues to this day.

By the book: Based on Moonraker (1955).

Total: Three. Two glasses of champagne, and a vodka martini.


Original material © 2001 The Minister of Martinis
theminister@atomicmartinis.com
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