Hugo Drax

Lore & Background

In the 1955 novel Moonraker, Sir Hugo Drax is an English World War II soldier, believed to have been working in Liverpool harbour before the war, who became a 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. He is 6 ft (183 cm) tall. After the war, Drax made a fortune from trading metals in Tangier and was able to start up his company, Drax Metals Ltd, which specialises and has a monopoly in the production of the metal ore columbite. Drax is also the backer of the Moonraker missile project being built to defend the United Kingdom against its Cold War enemies. The novel reveals that Drax was born in Germany as Graf Hugo von der Drache. Because his mother was English, Von der Drache 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 the Wehrmacht as a soldier in the Panzer Brigade 150. At the outset of World War II he took part in the Blitzkrieg campaigns in Belgium and France, before becoming a Skorzeny Werwolf commando. After the Ardennes offensive he stayed behind Allied lines when their forces crossed the Rhine and started operating in the Low Countries with his commando group. During a mission, he dressed as a British soldier so that he could sabotage and destroy a farmhouse holding a mixed liaison group of American and British servicemen, but he ended up at the same farm after being attacked by his own fighter because he was wearing a British uniform. While he was still conscious, he managed to destroy his motorbike and documents. Later he was found and brought to the farm, so he was caught in the explosion and nearly killed. He was then rescued by the British and nursed back to health, faking amnesia and claiming to be a 'missing soldier' by the name of Hugo Drax. After receiving his medical discharge from the British Army, he killed a Jewish businessman in London, robbed him of £15,000, and escaped to Tangier to start his company. Drax sets up the Moonraker missile project under the pretence of test-firing it into the North Sea. His workers are former Nazis, including most of the members of his old commando unit, and his true aim is to establish German superiority over England. To that end, he has the miss

In Their Own Story

The control room hummed with the low thrum of machinery. Hugo Drax adjusted his spectacles, studying the holographic display of the GoldenEye satellite. His hands trembled slightly—not from fear, but from the weight of what he had done. The door hissed open, and a man in a dark suit stepped in. 'Comrade Drax,' James Bond said, leveling his Walther PPK. 'Your resignation has been accepted.' Drax opened his mouth to speak, but the shot silenced him forever. The satellite's blue glow flickered, then steadied, as if indifferent to the death of its creator.

Reader's Guide

Hugo Drax appears as a playable character in GoldenEye 007 for the Nintendo Wii and GoldenEye 007: Reloaded for unspecified platforms.

Did You Know?

• In the novel, Drax was born in Germany as Graf Hugo von der Drache and later faked amnesia to assume the identity of Hugo Drax.
• The novel Moonraker reveals that Drax had been an operative of the Soviet counter-intelligence agency SMERSH.
• In the film, Drax is a French-German billionaire who plans to destroy humanity and repopulate Earth with a selected master race.
• Fleming named the character after an acquaintance Admiral Sir Reginald Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax.