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When first published in the United States, the original Moonraker novel carried the title, Too Hot to Handle.
In the book Bond is asked privately to come and observe Hugo Drax, who is winning money playing bridge at M's club, and who M suspects is cheating. Bond confirms him as a cheater, and manages to 'cheat the cheater', winning a large amount of money and infuriating Drax.
Drax is also the backer of the (fictional) 'Moonraker' missile being built to defend the UK. Partly because of the cheating episode, M then asks Bond to infiltrate Drax' missile-building organization on the coast of England. Bond uncovers a dreadful and fiendish plot which he foils with the assistance of a female (and, of course, attractive) Special BranchSpecial Branch is the arm of British Police forces that deals with national security matters. They acquire and develop intelligence to help protect the public from national security threats, especially terrorism and other extremist activity. Each police f agent.
In the 1979 movie, Drax' lair is relocated to outer spaceFor other meanings of the term space see space. Outer space (also called just space , as a name for a region, refers to the relatively empty parts of the Universe, outside the atmospheres of celestial bodies. The term outer space is used to distinguish it, although the plot remains equally fiendish. In the movie, Drax has converted a toxinA toxin is a substance that causes either permanent or reversible injury to the health of a living thing on contact or absorption, typically by interacting with biological macromolecules such as enzymes and receptors. The term is usually reserved for natu found in a species of orchid found in the Amazon RiverThe Amazon River (occasionally River Amazon Spanish: Rio Amazonas of South America is one of the two longest rivers on Earth, the Nile River of Africa being the other. It has by far the greatest total flow of any river, carrying approximately 56 times as basin, which in its natural state causes sterility, into a lethal nerve agent. He plans to destroy all human life (the toxin affects only humans) by launching a series of 50 globes containing the toxin from a space stationSpace stations A space station is a man-made structure that is designed for human beings to live on in outer space. A space station is distinguished from other manned spacecraft by its lack of major propulsion or landing facilities instead, other vehicles; the toxin would be dispersed when each globe broke up during reentry into Earth's atmosphere. Before launching the globes, Drax transported several hundred carefully selected young men and women to the space station. They would live there until Earth was safe again for human life; these people would be the seed for a Hitleresque master race.
Bond reaches the villainstereotypical villain, common in early 20th century silent films, wears formal black clothes, exquisitely neat facial hair, and a maniacal demeanour. A villain is a bad person, especially in fiction. Villains are the fictional characters, or perhaps ficti's orbital lair by means of the space shuttle (which was soon to be launched for real when the movie was released). Widely considered to be one of the most juvenile Bond movies, it is, unexpectedly, the first where Bond's female companion is on a more or less equal footing with him. The " Bond girl", Dr. Holly Goodhead (played by Lois Chiles), is a CIA agent who competently wards off bad guys and pilots the space shuttle.