`Moonraker` ranked in The Telegraph`s top 10 moon movies

22-Jul-2009 • Bond News

The exploration of space, culminating in the Apollo 11 moon landings on July 20th 1969, provided the raw material for a generation of science fiction film makers. To mark the moon landing anniversary, Telegraph.co.uk has compiled its top ten space movies.

1) Capricorn One (1978) Classic conspiracy theory movie, drawing on the urban myth that the Moon landings were faked. The first manned mission to Mars appears to be going well but it transpires that the space vehicle has a major defect which NASA just can't admit. Over the many months of the mission, the astronauts send broadcasts to Earth on their progress and all goes well until their space capsule burns up on re-entry. They soon realise that the only way for the hoax to be maintained is for them to die.
Features O.J Simpson who was later to 'star' in his own fact-is-stranger-than-fiction courtroom drama.

2) Moonraker (1979) James Bond (Roger Moore) returns for another mission, this time blasting off into space. A spaceship is mysteriously hi-jacked and Bond must work quickly to find out who was behind it all. On his journey he ends up meeting the improbably-named NASA scientist-cum-CIA agent Dr Holly Goodhead and encounters the metal-toothed Jaws once again.

3) 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) Stanley Kubrick's sci-fi masterpiece travels, via the dawn of time, to the Moon and on to Jupiter, as man wrestles with technology and the next stage of evolution.

4) Star Wars (1977-2005) the epic space opera franchise was initially conceived by George Lucas. As of 2008, the overall box office revenue generated by the six Star Wars films has totalled approximately $4.3 billion and the saga has had a significant impact on American life.
When Ronald Reagan proposed the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), a system of lasers and missiles meant to intercept incoming ICBMs, the plan was quickly labeled "Star Wars."This gained further resonance when Reagan described the Soviet Union as an Evil Empire.

5) Star Trek (1966-2009) The Star Trek fictional multiverse created by Gene Roddenberry is the setting of six television series, eleven feature films, one theme park, legions of obsessive fans and a place on the podium of popular culture.

6) The Clangers (1969) Legendary British children's animation series chronicled the melancholically funny lives of a flutey-voiced family of woollen, knitted aliens living below the surface of a knobbly little planet far out in space.

7) Alien (1979- 1997) In space no one can hear you scream. Following the Star Trek benchmark of challenging stereotypes, Ripley, a female warrior, does battle across the galaxies with one of cinema's most fearsome monsters.

8) Apollo 13 (1995) Based on the true story of the ill-fated 13th Apollo mission bound for the moon. It's 1970, and America have already achieved their lunar landing goal, so there's little interest in this "routine" flight until that is, things go very wrong.

9) Total Recall (1990) Based on a story by Philip K. Dick - the doyen of sci fi - Arnold Schwarzenegger gets to flex his muscles in space, leading the cosomic slug-fest which depicts the liberation struggle on Mars, amid an orgy of special efects.

10) Flash Gordon (1936) The original space hero offered escapism from the misery of the Depression for American film fans, back in a time when the evil Masters of the Universe had names like Ming the Merciless, as opposed to Goldman Sachs.