Hugo Drax
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| James Bond character | |
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| Sir Hugo Drax | |
|---|---|
| Gender | Male |
| Affiliation | Self-employed |
| Portrayed by | Michael Lonsdale |
Sir Hugo Drax is a fictional character created by author Ian Fleming for the James Bond novel Moonraker. Fleming named him after his friend, Sir Reginald Drax.[1] For the film and novelization, Drax was largely transformed by screenwriter Christopher Wood. In the film, Drax is portrayed by French actor Michael Lonsdale.
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[edit] Novel biography
In the novel, Sir Hugo Drax is a famous English World War II hero and post-war millionaire. He has red hair and half of his face is badly scarred from a German attack during the War. The same incident left him with amnesia. Post-war, Drax made a fortune trading metals in Tangier, and was able to start up his company, "Drax Metals Ltd", which specializes and has a monopoly in the production of a metal called columbite. Drax is also the backer of the 'Moonraker' missile project being built to defend the UK against its Cold War enemies. Using the metal, columbite, it gives the missile's engine an extra layer of protection so it can burn hotter fuels which will expand its range of fire.
[edit] Scheme
As it turns out, Sir Hugo Drax is not who he seems; he was born Graf Hugo von der Drache. Because his mother was English he was educated in England until the age of 12. Afterwards he moved to Berlin and later Leipzig, where he continued and finished his education. After graduating, he joined the Nazi party and entered World War II as a soldier in the 150th Panzer Brigade, before becoming a Werwolf commando, operating behind Allied lines in the Low Countries. During a mission, he dressed as a British soldier so that he could sabotage and destroy a farmhouse that was holding a mixed liaison group of American and British servicemen, but something went wrong and he was caught in the explosion and nearly killed. He was then rescued by the British and nursed back to health under the guise that he was a "missing soldier" by the name of Hugo Drax.
Because Drax was a Nazi and had an insurmountable hatred for England, he started the 'Moonraker' missile project under the pretense that he would test fire the missile into the North Sea (missiles were the cutting-edge of technology in the 1950s). Instead of doing so, however, he set his target for London and armed the missile with an atomic bomb he received through support by the Soviets.
[edit] Prevention
James Bond, with the help of female Special Branch agent Gala Brand, sabotaged Drax's 'Moonraker' missile launch and changed the coordinates of the target back to the North Sea, where after the missile was launched Drax and his men had escaped so they could watch as London was destroyed. Instead, the Russian submarine Drax was on was blown entirely out of the water by the blast of the nuclear warhead.
[edit] Henchmen
- Willy Krebs - Drax's friend and later loyal servant, Krebs was the youngest Wehrwolf in Drax's unit and a specialist in torture.
- Dr. Walter - A German rocket scientist in Soviet employ, sent to aid Drax with the missile project and to deliver the atomic bomb.
[edit] Film biography
In the film adaptation, Hugo Drax is a French billionaire living in California in a château that was imported from France. He owns Drax Industries, which constructs space shuttles. In addition, Drax supposedly owns the Eiffel Tower, but apparently couldn't export it from France because they wouldn't issue him an export permit.
An example of the Drax character's ruthlessness as portrayed in the film is given by the manner in which he disposes of enemies. In one case, after discovering that his personal pilot Corinne Dufour had assisted Bond in discovering his plans, Drax fires her, but then proceeds to set his doberman pinschers on her, which chase her into a forest before presumably killing her.
Bond follows a trail around the world to investigate the theft of a space shuttle on loan to the UK by Hugo Drax (its engines were fired while it was riding on a 747), starting in California at Drax Industries, and following it to Italy, then to Brazil, then into space.
In a scheme similar to that of Karl Stromberg's plan, Drax sought to destroy the entire human race except for a small group of carefully selected humans, both male and female, that would leave Earth on six shuttles (the one just stolen from NASA to replace one that had faults) and have sanctuary on a space station in orbit over Earth. Using chemical weapons created by Drax's scientists, derived from the toxin of a rare South American plant, the Black Orchid, at an installation in Italy, he would wipe out the remainder of humanity. The biological agents were to be dispersed around the earth from a series of 50 strategically placed globes, each containing enough toxin to kill 100 million people. Only three globes had been launched when the station was destroyed, taking with it the threat from the other 47 globes.
After a period of time, when the chemical agents had become harmless, Drax and his master race would return to Earth to reinhabit the planet. These humans would supposedly live in harmony with one another under his command.
Bond obtained a sample of the chemical agent at the location in Italy, and analysis of it led him to a remote part of Brazil where he found Drax's shuttle-launch facility in an ancient civilization's shrine.
Bond and his companion, CIA agent Dr. Holly Goodhead, commandeer one of Drax's space shuttles and blast off to his orbiting space station. There with the help of Goodhead, Jaws, and a group of American space soldiers launched on a military-owned shuttle, Drax runs for the airlock and when he sees Bond run after him, he tries to barricade himself in but ends up running away. When Bond gets in, Drax faces Bond. Drax walks backwards to the airlock door and gets a laser gun. Bond slowly puts his hand up with the poison dart wrist watch. Drax is mortally wounded by the dart, escorted into an airlock by a polite Bond and ejected into space.
[edit] Henchmen
- Jaws
- Chang
[edit] Novelisation
In his novelization of the movie, screenwriter Christopher Wood describes Drax as red-haired and with a face scarred and botched by poor plastic surgery (from a time "before he could afford the best in the world"), much as originally envisioned by Fleming. Although Drax's nationality is not specified, Bond idly wonders to himself which side he fought on during World War II.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
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