Moonraker: An Unloved Season

[PoorAndin]

My favorite scene in Moonraker is the pre credits Skydive sequence. I dislike that the best scene comes before the opening credits and it's all downhill from there. I have for many years thought it would be great if the scene had come in the middle of the film and while doing this edit I think I have found a place to put it that makes narrative sense to me.
I also wanted to remove the 2 stupidest jump the shark moments from the film. Jaws having a girlfriend and the gondola-hovercraft in St. Marks square. To tone down some of the other silly gags, but to still keep the tone of Moonraker fun and lighthearted.

List of changes:

1. Replaced pre credits scenes with pre credits Skiing scene from A View To A Kill. The replaced scenes have been moved to later in the story.
2. Removed Beach Boys song with John Barry music and added some sound effects.
3. Replaced the start of the opening credits with a small part of A View To A Kills opening credits as Moonraker starts with circus images and images of Bond parachuting which are no longer relevant without those scenes preceding it.
4. Added credits for myself and for John Glen as the director of A View To A Kill.
5. Added title MOONRAKER AN UNLOVED SEASON
6. New title song "Bang a Gong" by T. Rex. The original tilte song is on an alternative audio track.
7. Space shuttle hijack has been moved to right after the opening credits.
8. Inserted a London MI6 exterior shot from A View To A Kill.
9. Bond now enters directly into Ms office. The Moneypenny scene and the scene where M asks Moneypenny if Bond is back from the African job are not in this cut.
10. Took out shots of Bond using a camera that has 007 written on it.
11. Trimmed comedic shots of gondolier sinking after his gondola is cut in half by a speed boat.
12. Gondola hovercraft in St.Mark's square has been cut. A new ending to the Venice gondola speed boat chase has been created using footage from the first scene where Bond is seen in Venice. Bond now pulls up to the dock, gets out, takes a look back at his pursuers and then casually walks away.
13. Jump scare in Goodheads hotel room has been removed.
14. Trimmed Jaws shocked reaction when his cable car is about to crash.
15. Removed Jaws girlfriend Dolly.
16. Removed a shot of ambulance passing a product placement sign.
17. Replaced the MAGNIFICENT SEVEN theme and replaced with a John Barry track from Thunderball. I was inspired by "The Moonraker Plot" by faneditor MusicEd921 which used the same track here. Added sound effects to this scene.
18. Moved skydiving sequence to after the monastary scene.
19. Added music track from On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
20. Removed shots of Jaws flapping his arms in skydiving scene.
21. Removed Jaws breaking speed boat steering wheel.
22. Removed various shots of Dolly on the space station. In shots where she still appears with Jaws I hope it comes across as she works for Drax and is assigned to give Jaws a guided tour similar to how Corinne Dufour gives Bond a tour of the Drax estate earlier.
23. Added a neck snapping sound effect when Jaws grabs one of Drax's guards by the face.
24. Removed Jaws reunion with Dolly. Repurposed some of the footage to show Jaws looking for the docking release system to help Bond.
25. Removed Bond saying “Don't worry they'll make it. It's only a 100 miles to Earth.”
26. Removed Nasa guy saying they picked up 2 survivors, a tall man and a short woman.

 

[TV's Frink]

@"PoorAndin" have you submitted this to The Academy yet?

 

[PoorAndin]

@"PoorAndin" have you submitted this to The Academy yet?

I sent a message to Dominic Cobb to say I wished to submit it. Sorry if that is not the right way to go about submitting to the Academy.

 

[TV's Frink]

Thread moved to ITW until it is accepted by The Academy.

I'm checking on the process now, stay tuned.

 

[TM2YC]

^ Zing! Too slow my friend. Thread moved to pending.

 

[PoorAndin]

I'm going to post some clips from my edit here.

Gondola hovercraft in St.Mark's square has been cut. A new ending to the Venice gondola speed boat chase has been created using footage from the first scene where Bond arrives in Venice. Bond now pulls up to the dock, gets out, takes a look back at his pursuers and then casually walks away.

 

[PoorAndin]

I have removed various shots of Dolly (Jaws's girlfriend) on the space station. 

I removed Jaws reunion with Dolly. Repurposed some of the footage to show Jaws looking for the docking release system to help Bond. I also removed Bond saying “Don't worry they'll make it. It's only a 100 miles to Earth.”

 

[PoorAndin]

I removed Jaws breaking speed boat steering wheel as his boat is about to go over the waterfall. Now he shoots at Bond as he is making his escape be handglider.

I replaced pre credits scenes with pre credits Skiing scene from A View To A Kill. The replaced scenes have been moved to later in the story.
The Beach Boys song "California Girls"  has been replaced with John Barry music and some sound effects have been added.

 

[PoorAndin]

A compilation of some other small edits:

 

[PoorAndin]

Transition edits into/out of the Skydive scence

 

[PoorAndin]

Here is a comparison video of the original and the edited version of this scene. I replaced the MAGNIFICENT SEVEN theme and replaced with a John Barry track from Thunderball. I was inspired by "The Moonraker Plot" by faneditor MusicEd921 which used the same track. I also added sound effects to this scene.

 

[PoorAndin]

Here's a "Before and After" clip of Bond meeting Q and M in Brazil. In the original cut when Q says "and I've got something to get him there, if 007 can look after it" the camera zooms in on the Tapirape region on the Brazil map and we cut to Bond in his speedboat. Looking at a map that is about 2500 km from Rio and in 2021 would take 32 hours by car on toll roads to reach and I dont think it is possible to get to Tapirape from Rio by boat. So in my cut when the camera zooms in on the map we see bond is taking a private jet to make the journey to Tapirape (scene moved from the precredits sequence). Jaws has laid a trap for him and after Bond parachutes to safety we cut to him on the speedboat looking for Draxs hideout. Presumably Q has had the boat sent out ahead of time so it is waiting for him when he arrives.

 

[PoorAndin]

Original vs Edit of Gondola Venice sequence:

Original vs Edit of Jump scare in Goodheads Venice hotel room:

Original vs Edit of scene after the opening credits:

 

[ArtisDead]

I consider Poor Andin's Moonraker An Unloved Season ready for approval. Many thanks to Bionicbob who provided an excellent commentary after previewing. Love the subtitles and the new intro! Good luck with your Star Wars edit!

 

[PoorAndin]

My Moonraker trailer.

 

[ArtisDead]

Now...that...is a bad ass trailer! Love that you used that song! I'm compelled to keep watching it! Love that song! Love the scene choices. Excellent work!

 

[spence]

Looks like a cool edit! It's always been one of my least favorite Bond movies, but I think these changes will go a long way toward toning it down while still keeping it fun.

 

[bionicbob]

My Moonraker trailer.

Now that is a very FUN trailer!! 😁

Really enjoyed it, though I think some of the audio levels could have been adjusted so one can hear the few lines of dialogue more clearly.

But the trailer fully succeeds in doing what needs to be done... making the viewer want to see more!

 

[LastSurvivor]

Having worked on my own Moonraker edit last year, it's interesting to see someone else take a different approach.

The trailer is fun, if a little long, but I do have to agree with @bionicbob that the sound levels could be better as the few times there is dialogue, the music remains too loud.

Still, look like an interesting edit. Good work.

 

[Dwight Fry]

I like it! And the song choice, while not having the "Bond sound", strangely works! I don't mind it being long, vintage trailers used to be way longer than current ones.

I do agree that the music levels should be lowered wherever there is dialogue, but otherwise it works!