A View to a Kill is a 1985 spy film, the fourteenth in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions, and the seventh and final appearance of Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Although the title is adapted from Ian Fleming's 1960 short story "From a View to a Kill", the film has an original screenplay. In A View to a Kill, Bond is pitted against Max Zorin (played by Christopher Walken), who plans to destroy California's Silicon Valley.
The film was produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, who also wrote the screenplay with Richard Maibaum. It was the third James Bond film to be directed by John Glen, and the last to feature Lois Maxwell as Miss Moneypenny.
Despite receiving negative reviews from critics, who criticised the ageing Moore's performance, and Moore's own dislike of the film, it was a commercial success. The Duran Duran theme song "A View to a Kill" performed well in the charts, becoming the only Bond theme song to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and earning a Golden Globe nomination for Best Song. The film was followed by The Living Daylights in 1987, with Timothy Dalton playing Bond.
Plot
MI6 agent James Bond is sent to Siberia to locate the body of 003 and recover a Soviet microchip. Q analyzes the microchip, establishing it to be a copy of one designed to withstand an electromagnetic pulse, made by government contractor Zorin Industries. Bond visits Ascot Racecourse to observe the company's owner, Max Zorin. Sir Godfrey Tibbett, a racehorse trainer and MI6 agent, believes Zorin's horses, which win consistently, are drugged, although tests proved negative. Through Tibbett, Bond meets French private detective Achille Aubergine, who informs Bond that Zorin is holding a horse sale later in the month. During their dinner at the Eiffel Tower, Aubergine is killed by Zorin's bodyguard May Day, who subsequently escapes.
Bond and Tibbett travel to Zorin's estate for the horse sale. Bond is puzzled by a woman who rebuffs him; he discovers Zorin has written her a cheque for $5 million. That night, Bond and Tibbett infiltrate Zorin's laboratory, where he is implanting adrenaline-releasing devices in his horses. Zorin identifies Bond as an agent, has May Day murder Tibbett, and attempts to have Bond killed. General Gogol of the KGB confronts Zorin for trying to kill Bond without permission, revealing that Zorin was initially trained and financed by the KGB, but has now gone rogue. Later, Zorin unveils his plan to destroy Silicon Valley to a group of investors, which will give him and the potential investors a monopoly over microchip manufacture.
Bond travels to San Francisco and meets CIA agent Chuck Lee, who tells him of medical experimentation that involved administering steroids to pregnant women - almost all aborted but the babies that survived were psychotic geniuses. This was performed by Dr. Carl Mortner, a Nazi scientist snatched at the end of World War II by the USSR - he is now Zorin's veterinarian and racehorse-breeding consultant. Bond surmises that Zorin was one of those babies.
Bond then investigates a nearby oil rig owned by Zorin, and while there finds KGB agent Pola Ivanova recording conversations and her partner placing explosives on the rig. Ivanova's partner Klottoff is caught and killed, but Ivanova and Bond escape. Later Ivanova takes the recording, but finds that Bond had switched tapes.
Bond tracks down State Geologist Stacey Sutton, the woman Zorin attempted to pay off, and discovers that Zorin is trying to buy her family oil business. The two travel to San Francisco City Hall to check Zorin's submitted plans. Having been alerted to their presence, Zorin kills the Chief Geologist, and sets fire to the building to frame Bond for the murder and kill him. Bond and Stacey flee from the police in a fire engine.
Infiltrating Zorin's mine, Bond and Stacey discover his plot to detonate explosives beneath the lakes along the Hayward and San Andreas faults, which will cause them to flood and submerge Silicon Valley. A larger bomb is also in the mine to destroy a "geological lock" that prevents the two faults from moving simultaneously. Once in place, Zorin and his security chief Scarpine flood the mine and kill the workers. Stacey escapes while Bond fights May Day; after realising Zorin abandoned her, she helps Bond remove the larger bomb, putting the device onto a handcar and riding it out of the mine, where it explodes and kills her.
Escaping in his airship with Scarpine and Mortner, Zorin abducts Stacey while Bond grabs hold of the airship's mooring rope. Zorin tries to knock him off, but Bond moors the airship to the framework of the Golden Gate Bridge. Stacey attacks Zorin to save Bond and, in the fracas, Mortner and Scarpine are temporarily knocked out. Stacey flees and joins Bond out on the bridge, but Zorin follows them out with an axe. The ensuing fight between Zorin and Bond culminates with Zorin falling to his death. Mortner attempts to kill Bond with dynamite but Bond cuts the airship free, causing Mortner to drop the dynamite in the cabin, blowing up the airship and killing himself and Scarpine. Later, Gogol awards Bond the Order of Lenin for foiling Zorin's scheme.
Cast
Roger Moore as James Bond, MI6 agent 007 Tanya Roberts as Stacey Sutton, the granddaughter of an oil tycoon whose company is taken over by Zorin. Grace Jones as May Day, Zorin's lover and chief henchwoman. Patrick Macnee as Sir Godfrey Tibbett, Bond's ally, a horse trainer who helps him infiltrate Zorin's chateau and stables. Christopher Walken as Max Zorin: a psychopathic industrialist, the product of a Nazi genetic experiment, who plans to destroy Silicon Valley to gain a monopoly in the microchip market. Patrick Bauchau as Scarpine, Zorin's murderous loyal associate. Willoughby Gray as Dr. Karl Mortner, formerly Hans Glaub, a Nazi scientist and father figure to Zorin (in the German release version, he is a Polish communist). David Yip as Chuck Lee, a CIA agent who assists Bond and Sutton in San Francisco. Desmond Llewelyn as Q, an MI6 officer in charge of the research and development branch. He supplies 007 with his equipment for his mission. Robert Brown as M, the head of MI6. Walter Gotell as General Anatoly Gogol, the head of the KGB. Lois Maxwell as Miss Moneypenny, M's secretary. Geoffrey Keen as Frederick Gray (credited as Minister of Defence), the British Minister of Defence. Manning Redwood as Bob Conley, Zorin's chief mining engineer who handles his oil interests on the East Bay. Alison Doody as Jenny Flex, one of May Day's assistants who is often seen with Pan Ho. Papillon Soo Soo as Pan Ho, one of May Day's assistants. Fiona Fullerton as Pola Ivanova, a KGB agent known to Bond, sent by Gogol to spy on Zorin. Jean Rougerie as Achille Aubergine, a French private detective. Mary Stävin as Kimberly Jones, an MI6 agent who assists Bond on his mission to Siberia.
Daniel Benzali also appears as Stacey's boss, Mr Howe. Bogdan Kominowski and Dolph Lundgren are Klotkoff and Venz, KGB henchman. Joe Flood portrayed the San Francisco police captain. Carole Ashby appeared as the butterfly act performer. Anthony Chinn was the Taiwanese tycoon. Maud Adams filmed a cameo as an extra in the background of a Fisherman's Wharf scene, making her third Bond film appearance.CommanderBond.net Maud Adams Found in "A View to a Kill", June 2004
Production Along with the other stories in Ian Fleming's 1960 anthology For Your Eyes Only, the original short story "From a View to a Kill" was originally envisioned as an episode of an abandoned 1958 CBS James Bond television series. A View to a Kill was produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson. Wilson also co-authored the screenplay along with Richard Maibaum. Broccoli initially wanted to rehire George MacDonald Fraser from Octopussy to co-write the screenplay but he was unavailable. Originally Maibaum's script included Zorin manipulating Halley's Comet into crashing into Silicon Valley, but Wilson insisted on a more realistic plot. At the end of Octopussy, the "James Bond Will Return" sequence listed the next film as "From a View to a Kill", the name of the original short story, but later the title was changed. When a company with a name similar to Zorin (the Zoran Corporation) was discovered in the United States, a disclaimer was added to the start of the film affirming that Zorin was not related to any real-life company. This is the first Bond film to have a disclaimer (The Living Daylights had a disclaimer about the use of the Red Cross).
Casting
Roger Moore had originally signed a three-film contract with Eon Productions, (Live and Let Die in 1973, The Man with the Golden Gun in 1974 and The Spy Who Loved Me in 1977) which was fulfilled. Moore's following three films (Moonraker in 1979, For Your Eyes Only in 1981 and Octopussy in 1983) were negotiated on a film-by-film basis. Uncertainty surrounding his involvement in Octopussy in 1983 led to other actors being considered to take over but Moore was convinced to come back as he was competing against Sean Connery in Never Say Never Again. Eon convinced Moore to do A View to a Kill but he announced in December 1985, 6 months after the release of A View to a Kill, that he would retire from the role after seven films.
Early publicity for the film in 1984 included an announcement that David Bowie would play Zorin. He initially accepted the role, but later decided against it, saying "I didn't want to spend five months watching my stunt double fall off cliffs." The role was then offered to Sting, who turned it down, and finally to Christopher Walken.
Priscilla Presley was originally going to be cast as Stacey Sutton, but she had to be replaced by Tanya Roberts because of her contract with Dallas. The original script had Barbara Bach reprising her role as Major Anya Amasova from 1977's The Spy Who Loved Me. However, Bach declined the role, and so an entirely new character, Pola Ivanova, was created, played by Fiona Fullerton.
Patrick Macnee, as Bond's ally Tibbett, became the fourth former star of The Avengers television series to appear in a Bond film (following Honor Blackman, Diana Rigg and Joanna Lumley); Macnee had also portrayed Dr. Watson to Roger Moore's title character for Sherlock Holmes in New York, nine years prior. David Yip's character Chuck Lee was originally scripted as Felix Leiter, but he was rewritten into a new Asian-American character in order to capitalize on the setting of San Francisco.
Dolph Lundgren has a brief appearance as one of General Gogol's KGB agents. Lundgren, who was dating Grace Jones at the time, was visiting her on set when one day an extra was missing, so the director John Glen then asked him if he wanted to attempt the role. Lundgren appears during the confrontation between Gogol and Zorin at the racetrack, standing several steps below Gogol.
Filming Production of the film began on 23 June 1984 in Iceland, where the second unit filmed the pre-title sequence. On 27 June 1984, several leftover canisters of petrol used during filming of Ridley Scott's Legend caused Pinewood Studios' 007 Stage to burn to the ground. The stage was rebuilt, and reopened in January 1985 (renamed as Albert R. Broccoli's 007 Stage) for filming of A View to a Kill. Work had continued on other stages at Pinewood when Roger Moore rejoined the main unit there on 1 August 1984. The crew then departed for shooting the horse-racing scenes at Royal Ascot Racecourse. The scene in which Bond and Sutton enter the mineshaft was then filmed in a waterlogged quarry near Staines-upon-Thames and the Amberley Chalk Pits Museum in West Sussex.