Is a ship with a big, empty space for submarines structurally different from a ship with a big, empty space for oil? I don’t know if oil tankers ever sail empty.
I wonder about the thousands of shipyard workers who build a ship with a bow that opens, has locking cells to house submarine crews, and a command center capable of commanding missile launches, and don’t mention it to anybody.
I wonder if the front would fall off.
The big empty spaces are broken up into compartments and baffles that strengthen the ship but that would be in the way of submarines.
But, yeah, is there supervillain construction LLC that builds these things no questions asked?
There are real-world yachts with onboard submarines, as well as marine exploration ships with on-board submarines, so it’s possible to do.
Though what I wonder about is how you get the goons hired by the evil genius who are willing to kill people and risk their lives.
The Liparus (Stromberg’s tanker) has bulkheads and such, too. There’s the control room, the cells where the crews are kept, the armory, etc.; it’s not like it’s all empty space from bow to stern. I’m not a marine architect, but it doesn’t stretch my credibility that a ship like that could be structurally sound.
You could argue that the construction was carried out in a way that hid the true purpose of the ship, and that the bare minimum of workers were still around during the final fitting out process.
Moonraker is worse. There are scientists in Venice building satellites to dispense fatal nerve gas. I kinda wonder what was in it for them.
well, in the book Bond only enters in middle of story, not as his usual “official duty” appearance
Forget about building the huge supervillain lairs – that’s a “one time only” cost. As SNL once pointed out, who contracts for all those minions, houses them, provides food and medical service, etc.
I mean, you have to provide meals, or else every day at lunchtime you’re got hundreds of guys in matching jumpsuits wandering around the nearby Japanese fishing village and blabbing about their Secret Rocket Kidnapping Headquarters.
Ha, love it. You are right to point out the distinct lack of canteen facilities inside the volcano. Maybe they just had an airdrop of supplies by helicopter once a week.
I pointed that out to Mrs. Cardigan recently and her response was “Who? What?” Oddly, she’s sat right next to me watching multiple seasons of Monk and Silence of the Lambs. I am convinced some people focus a whole lot less of their attention on what’s occurring onscreen than others.
On the other hand, he’s Just That Good.
He IS an accomplished actor with some range. However, I think Mrs. Cardigan didn’t recall either of the characters by name that were mentioned.
On the other hand, I’m one of those PITA types who point out actors and their other roles — Sharona was in A League of Their Own — to which my wife says I’m tryina watch the movie.
Actually, this part doesn’t bother me. Compartmentalization. “Need to know”. They had basically no idea what they were making. They’re just reading a blueprint.
Unless the drafter titled the drawing “Worldwide Bioweapon Delivery System, Container for”. Then it’s on the glassworkers.
As for minion hordes, I am beginning to believe it’s a lot easier to staff your henchmen today than before. Too many out of work military trained Iraqi vets with no money and no prospects who would jump at the chance to bust some heads and get paid for it. Tell them they are “private security” instead of “evil henchmen” and tell them the SAS-types busting through the volcano door are really terrorists and you’re good to go.
I’m now imagining some sort of evil-henchman style LinkedIn, where nerfarious types can list their previous evil-mastermind employers and evil qualifications.
Just because we don’t see the cafeteria doesn’t mean there isn’t one. To the contrary, any competent architect of hidden volcano lairs is going to put food consumption and swirling, toxic rocket exhaust in separate rooms.
Bond only finds the hidden lair because he stumbles on a photo of a ship which has unloaded a lot of cargo overnight, and the area of coastline is identified by Tiger Tanaka’s staff. So we know that Blofeld had the ability to deliver large quantities of supplies to the volcano. It’s not beyond the realm of possibility that they’re getting deliveries of food as well as rocket food.
A more interesting question to me is motivation. When Tiger’s ninjas attack the lair, Blofeld has his own troops fighting them off. What’s in it for those guys? It’s one thing to hire mercenaries, But once they were clearly outnumbered, no amount of money is worth getting killed.
When one of the vials falls and breaks, they immediately start trying to escape. They had to have known that they were dealing with a highly toxic chemical of some sort.
I didn’t say that they didn’t have an internal cafeteria – I was pointing out precisely why they had to have one.
For some inexplicable reason I’ve been getting into Prince’s music a lot lately, and the deep dive into his albums has been really rewarding. However, I’d never seen the film Purple Rain in the forty years since its release, so I finally picked up the BluRay used, as it had a pile of bonus stuff. What a split personality movie. The musical scenes are truly spectacular: all the concert footage is phenomenal and you really understand why that record sold 25 million copies. Also, I’ve kinda got a crush on Wendy Melvoin now.
But everything else is painful. Besides the rank misogyny (at one point a woman is literally tossed in a trash dumpster for laughs) and the mugging that sometimes borders on minstrelry, virtually every spoken word is cliched placeholder dialogue. Not that the performers can do much with it, as nobody except the actor who plays Prince’s father seems to be an actual actor. And there’s pretty much no world-building: there’s no explanation for what anyone in the Minneapolis music scene does when they’re not performing at this one club. Can’t figure out how The Kid affords his fancy clothes, and his motorcycle, and his recording equipment, when he doesn’t seem to have an actual job, nor why his band sticks with him under his dictatorial control. It’s like it didn’t actually have a writer. I still love Prince’s music (despite how problematic he became once he converted) but ugh.
Oh yeah. I forgot. Moonraker isn’t high on my repeat watch list. 
OK I adjust my assumption: They knew what they were dealing with was deadly, but they didn’t know what it was for.
Which reminds me: the cleanup of the lab was just as silly as the pigeon double-take. Not only would it be hard if not impossible to do in the time available, why bother? So Bond looks delusional. But (in any other Bond film - can’t remember his reaction here) M knows he isn’t delusional, and M is the only one that matters.
If you’re interested in reading an exploration of these topics, then I recommend Starter Villain.
Evil, inc. is “an international corporation that serves the supervillain community”
Do they have a division that makes little miniature models of buildings?