Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2018 March 11

= March 11 =

Moonraker -- Fleming borrowing from Verdi?
In Ian Fleming's Moonraker, when Hugo Drax places James Bond and Gala Brandt (aka Holly Goodhead) under the rocket to burn up, did Fleming borrow this scene from the last scene of Giuseppe Verdi's opera Aida (where Radames is buried alive under the temple, and Aida willingly joins him there to die with him)? Or did he come up with it all by himself? 2601:646:8E01:7E0B:71B8:6856:E929:5E71 (talk) 10:09, 11 March 2018 (UTC)
 * If you can't find it on a forum somewhere, you'll probably have to ask him. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 16:54, 11 March 2018 (UTC)
 * Which may be hard, given Ian Fleming died over fifty years ago. That said, Aida is one of the best-known operas in the world, so it's likely he was familiar with the story. --Xuxl (talk) 20:50, 11 March 2018 (UTC)
 * The theme of an escape from certain death is very ancient - probably going back to the Odyssey and Odysseus' escape from Polyphemus. A good 19th century example, predating Aida, would be The Count of Monte Christo. Every Bond book I recall reading, and every film I have seen, contains at least one scene where Bond's life is in danger, but he somehow escapes - usually due to the stupidity of his captors who never realise that they should put a bullet through his head rather than doing something fiendish which will take time and allow him the chance to get away. When Moonraker was written rockets were new and exciting - it undoubtedly made a good plot line. Wymspen (talk) 10:43, 12 March 2018 (UTC)
 * Although what the OP describes is not an escape from certain death, but Bond's lover (at the time) joining him in a situation where the two face an almost certain demise, in order to be together in death. I presume they escape (if not, Moonraker would have been the final Bond film) but the trope being discussed is someone joining a lover in a doomed situation in order not to survive without him/her. --Xuxl (talk) 15:52, 12 March 2018 (UTC)
 * There is nothing voluntary about it (at least not in the book - I can't recall the detail from the film), so if that is the key point then there is no real similarity with Aida at all. Wymspen (talk) 17:00, 12 March 2018 (UTC)