One Of James Bond's Worst Movies Is Also A Prime Example Of The Mandela Effect

Whether you're a James Bond purist who likes to see the secret agent take his missions seriously or someone who has a soft spot for the series' campier elements, there's a lot to talk about regarding the legacy of "Moonraker" It's a bizarre entry in the franchise's legacy and the only one in which 007 goes to space. The Lewis Gilbert-directed film also happens to be the only Bond adventure to feature a returning evil henchman in Richard Kiel's Jaws.

The mute baddie with a mouth full of metal made his screen debut in 1975's "The Spy Who Loved Me." Since then, he's been rightfully remembered as one of the best Bond adversaries. Kiel's towering 7ft stature and that quietly sinister smile made the character such an imposing figure without saying a single word. He's also one of the only henchmen to have a redemptive arc in another film. How? It's through the power of love, of course.

After an altercation with Roger Moore's 007 in Rio de Janeiro, Jaws ends up crashing into a cable car station. A mute woman named Dolly (Blanche Ravalec) shows up to his aide and it's love at first sight. Cue the Tchaikovsky! Jaws exposes his metal grimace and the petite love interest smiles back, exposing her braces. Wait, isn't that what everyone else remembers? Well, it's not true. 

It appears the infamous meet cute has led to confusion among those who swore the henchman's sweetheart had her own mouth of metal. Some Bond fans have even claimed they can see Dolly's braces with older copies of the film, but all the evidence points to the contrary.

It's easy to see why this particular example of the Mandela effect — false memories that seem to be shared by a group of people — took hold considering it's the easiest joke you could make with why these two would fall for one another. One YouTuber, however, managed to pull a snippet from a 1979 review of "Moonraker" in the Los Angeles Times, in which film critic Vincent Canby wrote "it would be a relationship made in heaven if only she wore braces."

When a mass collective believes they saw something, it can be difficult to sway them otherwise. It also doesn't help when people's misremembering is legitimized in other forms, such as a 2006 Finnish credit card commercial. Kiel isn't playing Jaws here, signified by the actor's traditional smile. The actor's prominent height initially worries the blonde cashier, that is, until he politely asks if the store will accept his Sampo Mini Visa Card. As Kiel walks away to get some more items, she smiles back at him, revealing a set of braces!

But the issue is that if you scour just about any behind the scenes photograph of Ravalec dressed in-character on the set of "Moonraker," you'll see her pearly whites clear as day. So how did we get here? The braces conundrum is less an example of the Mandela effect and more a byproduct of the Kuleshov effect.

In the event you're unfamiliar with the term, the Kuleshov effect refers to an editing technique by Soviet filmmaker Lev Kuleshov. Viewers gleam more information, in addition to creating an emotional response, with two sequential shots rather than one. It's one of the standard practices of filmmaking and is featured in just about every movie you've ever seen in your life.

When applied to "Moonraker," you'd think the only thing that could soften the heart of this killing machine would be someone that shares a similar attribute. So when the blonde, pig-tailed woman only offers a gleaming white smile, it throws everything off. If this was a one-off joke, the braces make sense, but I actually think the misremembered moment goes beyond the "we both have metal in our mouths" gag.

Jaws ends up taking Dolly with him to Drax's space station lair later in the film. Bond cleverly plays on Jaws' emotions, as he gets the film's antagonist to admit that anyone not matching up to his perfect physical standards will ultimately be killed. Dolly doesn't have braces, but she does have metal glasses. The disturbing implication causes Jaws to switch sides and fight alongside 007 to save his love.

Considering Dolly's the reason why the henchman turns a new leaf in the end, their meet cute makes actually makes for a sweet, if very corny moment. Everyone else naturally reacts to Jaws in terror at the revelation of his teeth, but Dolly reacts with a genuine smile. It doesn't really make sense for the film's producers to use the leaps in technology to change it years later. It mostly just sounds like a case of audiences putting their own interpretation before what's actually presented to them.