A View to a Kill

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A View to a Kill, released in 1985, is the fourteenth entry in the James Bond series of films made by EON Productions, and the last to star Roger Moore as British Secret Service Agent, Commander James Bond. It was produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson. Wilson also co-authored the screenplay along with veteran screenwriter Richard Maibaum.

The title itself is adapted from Ian Fleming's short story "From a View to a Kill", contained in the For Your Eyes Only collection of short stories released in 1960; however the title is where the similarity between short story and the film end, making this the second completely original Bond film after The Spy Who Loved Me. At the end of Octopussy during the famed "James Bond Will Return" sequence, it listed the next film as "From a View to a Kill", the name of the original short story; however, the title was later changed a few months before filming for unknown reasons. The original title "From a View to a Kill" was taken from a version of the words to a traditional hunting song "D'ye ken John Peel?": "From a find to a check, from a check to a view,/From a view to a kill in the morning".

Contents

1 Plot summary
2 Cast & characters
3 Crew
4 Soundtrack

4.1 Track listing

5 Vehicles & gadgets
6 Locations

6.1 Film locations
6.2 Shooting locations

7 Trivia
8 Video games
9 References
10 External links

Plot summary

[Spoiler warningSpoiler warning]: Plot and/or ending details follow.

In the pre-title sequence, James Bond is sent to Siberia to track down 003 and recover a microchip. Upon doing so 007 is ambushed by Soviet troops and is forced to flee. After returning to England and having the microchip analysed by Q-Branch, Q informs M, Bond, and the Minister of Defence that the microchip's design is an exact match of a microchip made by "Zorin Technologies."

Along with Miss Moneypenny, the group then venture to the Ascot Racecourse to observe the company's owner, Max Zorin. While at the track, Zorin's horse miraculously wins the race; Sir Godfrey Tibbett, a horse trainer, believes Zorin's horse was using some sort of drug, although Zorin's horse when screened prior to the race came back negative. Through Tibbett, Bond meets with a man named Dr. Aubergine to discuss how Zorin's horse won the race, however, during their dinner at the Eiffel Tower, Dr. Aubergine is killed by May Day, but not before Bond learns that Zorin is holding an annual horse sale later in the month.

Bond and Tibbett travel to Chantilly, France where Bond poses as St. John Smythe, a horse dealer. Bond and Tibbett locate and break into Zorin's secret labs where Tibbett learns that Zorin is using microchips in his horses to release a drug in the horse when prompted by a switch hidden in Zorin's cane. Afterwards Bond and Tibbett are discovered and are forced to flee. Tibbett is later killed by May Day and an attempt to drown Bond in a lake while unconscious inside a car fails.

In Zorin's airship, the billionaire industrialist unveils his plan to destroy Silicon Valley in an operation he dubs "Main Strike" in order to gain complete control of the microchip market. Bond later learns that Zorin is a psychopath, the product of Nazi medical experimentation during World War II who was later trained by the KGB. To succeed, Zorin plans to detonate explosives beneath the lakes along the Hayward Fault and the San Andreas Fault causing them to flood. A bigger bomb is also on site in the mine to destroy a "geological lock" that is in place to prevent the two faults from moving at the same time. Once the "geological lock" is destroyed, it would supposedly cause a massive double earthquake.

Zorin's plan goes wrong after he floods the mine with the first set of explosives, the action almost killing Bond and his henchwoman May Day. As a result May Day aids Bond at attempting to remove the bigger bomb that would destroy the lock. Doing so eventually costs her her life.

In the finale, Bond manages to grab a rope attached to Zorin's airship as he was leaving the mine. During the flight Bond gets the rope tangled in the Golden Gate Bridge. Zorin and Bond then fight upon the bridge resulting with Zorin falling to his death in San Francisco Bay.

Cast & characters

James Bond — Roger Moore
M — Robert Brown
Q — Desmond Llewelyn
Miss Moneypenny — Lois Maxwell
Max Zorin — Christopher Walken
Stacey Sutton — Tanya Roberts
May Day — Grace Jones
Fredrick Gray (Minister of Defence) — Geoffrey Keen
General Gogol — Walter Gotell
Sir Godfrey Tibbett — Patrick Macnee
Scarpine — Patrick Bauchau
Chuck Lee — David Yip
Pola Ivanova — Fiona Fullerton
Bob Conley — Manning Redwood
Dr. Carl Mortner — Willoughby Gray
Jenny Flex — Alison Doody
Pan Ho — Papillon Soo Soo

Crew

Directed by: John Glen
Produced by: Albert R. Broccoli, Michael G. Wilson
Screenplay by: Michael G. Wilson, Richard Maibaum
Composed by: John Barry
Production design by: Peter Lamont

Soundtrack

Original A View to a Kill soundtrack cover

The theme tune "A View to a Kill", performed by Duran Duran, was written by Duran Duran and John Barry and peaked at #1 and #2 in the US and UK charts respectively. Although the movie underperformed commercially, "A View to a Kill" is considered the most successful Bond theme to date. The song was the last track that the original five members of Duran Duran recorded together until 2001.

During the opening teaser, a cover version of the 1965 Beach Boys song California Girls, performed by Gidea Park (a tribute band), is used during a chase in which Bond snowboards.

Track listing

Main Title - A View to a Kill — Duran Duran
Snow Job
May Day Jumps
Bond Meets Stacey (A View to a Kill)
Pegasus' Stable
Tibbett Gets Washed Out
Airship to Silicon Valley
He's Dangerous
Bond Underwater
Wine With Stacey (A View to a Kill)
Bond Escapes Roller
Destroy Silicon Valley
May Day Bombs Out
Golden Gate Fight
End Title - A View to a Kill — Duran Duran

In addition, the film features classical music in the form of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, which is performed during the reception that 007 attends undercover at Zorin's stud in France.

Vehicles & gadgets

Main articles: List of James Bond vehicles and List of James Bond gadgets

Iceberg Submarine — Bond escapes from a mission in Siberia by getting into a boat built to look like an iceberg.
Camera Ring — Bond wears a ring given to him by Q-Branch that acts a camera.
Polarized glasses — A pair of glasses with a variable polarization filter which enables Bond to see though a window despite daylight glare.
Cheque-Book Imprint/Photocopier — Fortuitously shaped copying device which exactly fits over Zorin's cheque book allowing Bond to make a copy of the last cheque written.
1984 Renault 11 TXE — Bond steals this from a Parisian taxi driver to chase May Day after she killed a French secret agent, the car ends up being decapitated, and then chopped in half after going through a typical James Bond chase sequence.

Locations

Film locations

Shooting locations

Pinewood Studios / Albert R. Broccoli's 007 Stage
Iceland
Switzerland
France
* Eiffel Tower, Paris
* Jules Verne Restaurant, Eiffel Tower
* Château de Chantilly
San Francisco, California — United States
* Fisherman's Wharf
* Golden Gate Bridge
England
* Ascot Racecourse
* Amberley Working Museum

Trivia

A View To A Kill is widely regarded as one of the poorest entries in the Bond series. The criticism centred on the ageing Roger Moore (56 when shooting, 57 at completion); in fact many tabloid newspapers joked that Bond's next gadget from "Q" should be a Zimmer Frame (walker). The plotline was also criticised for being almost identical to that of Goldfinger; similar elements include:
*In Goldfinger, the villain's scheme is to irradiate the entire US gold reserve, making it worthless, causing financial meltdown in the West plus Auric Goldfinger's personal gold stocks will increase in value tenfold; correspondingly in A View To A Kill, Max Zorin intends to destroy Silicon Valley by triggering a massive earthquake, thus leaving his company with a monopoly on the microchip market (also similar to the plot of the 1978 film [[Superman: The Movie]]).
*As in Goldfinger, one of the business partners in the scam gets cold feet and would rather take the money and run. While Mr. Solo was assassinated by Oddjob and his body disposed of in a car crusher, in A View To A Kill, the dissenter in the ranks is dropped from Zorin's airship and into San Francisco Bay.
*Both Zorin and Goldfinger are being bankrolled by the Communists: in the former case, Zorin is an ex-KGB agent, while the atom bomb intended to destroy Fort Knox is supplied by the Chinese.
This film is not only Roger Moore's swansong, but Lois Maxwell's as well. Maud Adams also has a cameo, taking her total of Bond appearances to three.
Leftover canisters of gasoline used during filming of Ridley Scott's Legend caused Pinewood Studios' "007 Stage" to be burnt to the ground in 1984. Albert R. Broccoli, the producer of the James Bond films, had the studio rebuilt in 4 months time so that filming could commence on A View to a Kill. The soundstage was renamed "Albert R. Broccoli's 007 Stage".
Christopher Walken is the first Bond villain actor, and the only chief villain, to have won an Academy Award. (Benicio del Toro was a henchman to the chief villain in Licence to Kill.)
David Bowie was allegedly the producers' first choice to play Zorin.
When a company with a name similar to Zorin was discovered in the United States, a disclaimer was added to the start of the film affirming that the evil Zorin was not related to any real-life company. This is the only Bond film to have a disclaimer at the start of the film (Licence to Kill had a disclaimer in the end credits about the dangers of smoking).
Part of the film takes place on the Eiffel Tower. In an earlier Bond film, Moonraker, it was mentioned that the tower was purchased by the villain of that movie, Hugo Drax, but he was refused an export permit for the structure.
It has been suggested that the film's teaser sequence helped initiate interest in snowboarding.
The Rolls-Royce driven by Patrick Macnee in the film belonged to producer Albert R. Broccoli.
It was planned that two stuntmen, B.J. Worth and Don Caldvedt, would both parachute off the top of the Eiffel Tower so that two takes of the scene could be filmed. However, sufficient footage was obtained from Worth's jump, so Caldvedt was told he would not be performing his own jump. Caldvedt, unhappy at not being able to perform the jump, parachuted off the tower without authorisation from the City of Paris. He was sacked by the production team for jeopardising the continuation of filming in the city.
The parachute jump from the top of the Eiffel Tower was made from a platform which extended from the edge of the tower. The platform is clearly visible in the film.
Though Patrick Macnee plays only a small part in the film, he received his own "starring" credit; that is, his name is the only name to appear on screen at the time.
In the mine scene towards the end of the film, Grace Jones' screams when sparks fly around her are genuine. The sparks were created to mimic the effect of electrical cables in and near the water, but Jones was not told about them.
Nikolai Diavolo, a villain played by Willem Dafoe in the 2004 video game Everything or Nothing, claimed Max Zorin was his mentor. In the game, one of Diavolo's objectives is to kill Bond in revenge for Zorin's death.
At the conclusion of the end credits, it says the traditional "James Bond will return" but not the title of the next film as had been tradition since From Russia with Love, nor has the title of the next film been announced in the end credits of any Bond film since.
The theme song, recorded by Duran Duran, was the only Bond movie theme to reach #1 on the US pop music charts.
Christopher Walken had been a long-time fan of the James Bond series, and said that one of his inspirations as an actor was the character of Red Grant (played by Robert Shaw) in From Russia With Love (1963).

Video games

A View to a Kill was also made into two video games in 1985.

The first, titled A View to a Kill, was published by Domark. It is available on ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, and MSX.

The second, titled James Bond 007: A View to a Kill was a text-based video game for DOS and Apple II computers. It was developed by Angelsoft, Inc. and published by Mindscape Inc.

Related to the film, the character Mayday was a playable multiplayer character in the 1997 video game GoldenEye 007 for the Nintendo 64. Later, Nikolai Diavolo, a character played by Willem Dafoe in the 2004 game [[James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing]], claimed Max Zorin was his mentor and friend.

References

External links

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