Moonraker (1979)
Action, Adventure, Thriller, Science Fiction • 2h 6m
Overview
After Drax Industries' Moonraker space shuttle is hijacked, secret agent James Bond is assigned to investigate, traveling to California to meet the company's owner, the mysterious Hugo Drax. With the help of scientist Dr. Holly Goodhead, Bond soon uncovers Drax's nefarious plans for humanity, all the while fending off an old nemesis, Jaws, and venturing to Venice, Rio, the Amazon...and even outer space.
Director: Lewis Gilbert
Cast: Lois Chiles, Michael Lonsdale, Richard Kiel, Corinne Cléry, Bernard Lee, Geoffrey Keen, Desmond Llewelyn, Lois Maxwell, Toshirô Suga, Emily Bolton, Blanche Ravalec, Irka Bochenko, Mike Marshall, Leila Shenna, Anne Lonnberg, Jean-Pierre Castaldi, Walter Gotell, Douglas Lambert, Arthur Howard, Alfie Bass, Brian Keith, George Birt, Kim Fortune, Lizzie Warville, Guy Di Rigo, Chris Dillinger, Claude Carliez, Georges Beller, Denis Seurat, Chichinou Kaeppler, Christina Hui, Françoise Gayat, Nicaise Jean-Louis, Catherine Serre, Benoît Ferreux, Michael G. Wilson, Jenny Arasse, Michel Berreur, Albert R. Broccoli, Dana Broccoli, Carlos Kurt, Bob Simmons
Director: Terence Young
WB 4K Blu-ray, despite prevalent frozen grain
Director: Terence Young
WB 4K Blu-ray, despite prevalent frozen grain
Director: Lewis Gilbert
Director: Lewis Gilbert
Director: Guy Hamilton
Director: Guy Hamilton
Director: Terence Young
WB 4K Blu-ray despite frozen grain
Director: Terence Young
WB 4K Blu-ray despite frozen grain
WB 4K Blu-ray despite some frozen grain
WB 4K Blu-ray despite some frozen grain
Director: Guy Hamilton
Director: Guy Hamilton
Director: Martin Campbell
Director: Martin Campbell
Director: Sam Mendes
Director: Sam Mendes
Director: Cary Joji Fukunaga
US Universal 4K Blu-ray (for original forced subtitles font)
IMAX sequences have not been released on home video to date
Director: Cary Joji Fukunaga
US Universal 4K Blu-ray (for original forced subtitles font)
IMAX sequences have not been released on home video to date
Directors: Val Guest & Ken Hughes & John Huston & Joseph McGrath & Robert Parrish
Directors: Val Guest & Ken Hughes & John Huston & Joseph McGrath & Robert Parrish
Director: Martin Scorsese
Imprint Australia 4K Blu-ray has slightly better compression than Criterion 4K Blu-ray.
The master in DV looks all but identical to the Criterion’s HDR grade. Detail-wise, FiM’s encode looks like it uncovered a tiny bit of extra high-frequency information that got filtered on the Criterion. See nicolas review
1990 Criterion LaserDisc/1993 MGM LaserDisc/2002 R2 MGM DVD are the best. See blah-ray https://blah-ray.blogspot.com/2018/01/raging-bull-1980.html
Imprint Australia 4K Blu-ray has better audio than Criterion 4K Blu-ray, from nicolas:
I believe that what’s on Imprint’s 4K is one of the good mixes MGM and Criterion released during the LaserDisc days. Music is powerful and detailed, dialogues have excellent fidelity and ambient sounds have perceptible depth. I compared the "new" 2.0 with the anemic 5.1 as well as the Criterion 4K mix and could clearly hear the improvements.
Director: Martin Scorsese
Imprint Australia 4K Blu-ray has slightly better compression than Criterion 4K Blu-ray.
The master in DV looks all but identical to the Criterion’s HDR grade. Detail-wise, FiM’s encode looks like it uncovered a tiny bit of extra high-frequency information that got filtered on the Criterion. See nicolas review
1990 Criterion LaserDisc/1993 MGM LaserDisc/2002 R2 MGM DVD are the best. See blah-ray https://blah-ray.blogspot.com/2018/01/raging-bull-1980.html
Imprint Australia 4K Blu-ray has better audio than Criterion 4K Blu-ray, from nicolas:
I believe that what’s on Imprint’s 4K is one of the good mixes MGM and Criterion released during the LaserDisc days. Music is powerful and detailed, dialogues have excellent fidelity and ambient sounds have perceptible depth. I compared the "new" 2.0 with the anemic 5.1 as well as the Criterion 4K mix and could clearly hear the improvements.
Director: Chen Kaige
Director: Chen Kaige
Criterion Box Set
WB 4K Blu-ray (early pressing has errors of a shot, later pressings fixed)
Criterion Box Set
WB 4K Blu-ray (early pressing has errors of a shot, later pressings fixed)
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Official Bundersarchiv 720p HD Streaming which given its release in 2025, likely to be the same new restoration by MoMA https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/11559
Official Bundersarchiv 720p HD Streaming which given its release in 2025, likely to be the same new restoration by MoMA https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/11559
Director: John Ford
The audio on the Warner Archive Blu-ray is appalling. It starts to cutoff at around 6kHz to have nothing above 10kHz. The LaserDisc is much more full-frequency.
Director: John Ford
The audio on the Warner Archive Blu-ray is appalling. It starts to cutoff at around 6kHz to have nothing above 10kHz. The LaserDisc is much more full-frequency.
Director: John Woo
Director: John Woo
Director: Ken Hughes
MGM Blu-ray's stereo track.
MGM's 7.1 track is a remix with a few flaws and much worse fidelity. Capelight's stereo and 7.1 track are both from the remix.
The movie was originally premiered as a roadshow release, with a a 70mm 6-Track Stereo mix. This mix, unfortunately has not been released on home video.
The closest thing to that mix, is the stereo track included on the 2010 Blu-ray. It sounds great, with high fidelity and little filtering. It's lossy, but that doesn't matter very much.
Both the DVD 5.1 and the Blu-ray 7.1 tracks (identical on both discs) are a new remix, rather than a repackaging of the original mix. The 7.1 track sounds quite muffled, though not evenly so. The Capelight Blu-ray's lossless stereo track uses the same remix, but with higher fidelity than the surround tracks, sounding significantly less muffled. Compared to the original, this remix sounds wider and more "cleaned up". The remix contains a handful of errors, for example the intermission cue fades out, rather than ending correctly.
Comparison samples
Director: Ken Hughes
MGM Blu-ray's stereo track.
MGM's 7.1 track is a remix with a few flaws and much worse fidelity. Capelight's stereo and 7.1 track are both from the remix.
The movie was originally premiered as a roadshow release, with a a 70mm 6-Track Stereo mix. This mix, unfortunately has not been released on home video.
The closest thing to that mix, is the stereo track included on the 2010 Blu-ray. It sounds great, with high fidelity and little filtering. It's lossy, but that doesn't matter very much.
Both the DVD 5.1 and the Blu-ray 7.1 tracks (identical on both discs) are a new remix, rather than a repackaging of the original mix. The 7.1 track sounds quite muffled, though not evenly so. The Capelight Blu-ray's lossless stereo track uses the same remix, but with higher fidelity than the surround tracks, sounding significantly less muffled. Compared to the original, this remix sounds wider and more "cleaned up". The remix contains a handful of errors, for example the intermission cue fades out, rather than ending correctly.
Comparison samples
Director: David Lynch
Criterion 4K Blu-ray or Germany Plaion 4K Blu-ray - subtle difference in encoding to the Criterion in encoding, trading blows in different shots, with Plaion taking a slight edge with less highlight blocking
1993 MGM LaserDisc/2000 Region 1 MGM DVD
Criterion's 2.0 sounds muffled due to noise reduction and EQ.
Plaion's 2.0 lacks bass and has a very bright EQ, more resembling the 5.1 remix. Plaion’s 2.0 doesn't have any filtering unlike the Criterion, see https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=23831289&postcount=110
Director: David Lynch
Criterion 4K Blu-ray or Germany Plaion 4K Blu-ray - subtle difference in encoding to the Criterion in encoding, trading blows in different shots, with Plaion taking a slight edge with less highlight blocking
1993 MGM LaserDisc/2000 Region 1 MGM DVD
Criterion's 2.0 sounds muffled due to noise reduction and EQ.
Plaion's 2.0 lacks bass and has a very bright EQ, more resembling the 5.1 remix. Plaion’s 2.0 doesn't have any filtering unlike the Criterion, see https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=23831289&postcount=110
Director: Bob Clark
Director: Bob Clark
Edit History
5/4/2026
Best Video Release
To
4K Streaming SDR master seems to be from the same scan and looks like it has less tinkering than the Blu-ray
MGM Blu-ray is the best physical media release
Screencaps of the 4K SDR master: 007 on Home Media: Moonraker (1979)
11/25/2025
Format
Added
1080p Blu-ray
Added
1080p Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly Release
Added
MGM Blu-ray
Added
MGM Blu-ray
Best Video Release
Added
MGM Blu-ray despite Lowry master issues
Added
MGM Blu-ray despite Lowry master issues
Best Audio Release
Added
Dolby Stereo: 1990 MGM Laserdisc
Added
Dolby Stereo: 1990 MGM Laserdisc
Blu-ray.com
Added
https://www.blu-ray.com/Moonraker/19550/#Releases
Added
https://www.blu-ray.com/Moonraker/19550/#Releases
