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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 and a Paris location is where the similarity between short story and film end, making this the third completely original Bond film after The Spy Who Loved Me and Octopussy. The film does however take an idea from the James Bond novel Diamonds Are Forever, in which horse races are being fixed, and a similarity between the plot and those of earlier Bond film Goldfinger and Superman was observed by critics. 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 by Fleming 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".
Plot summarySpoiler 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 Bond has returned to England, Q has the microchip analysed and informs M, Bond, and the Minister of Defence that the microchip's design is an exact match of a microchip made by "Zorin Industries." 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 French private detective named Aubergine to discuss how Zorin's horse won the race, however, during their dinner at the Eiffel Tower, Aubergine is killed by May Day, but not before Bond learns that Zorin is holding an annual horse sale later in the month.
In Zorin's airship, the billionaire industrialist unveils to a group of investors his plan to destroy Silicon Valley in an operation he dubs "Main Strike" in order to gain complete control of the microchip market. However, one of the investors wants nothing to do with the scheme and demands to leave; he is promptly dropped out of the airship by a secret chute and plunges to his death. Bond later learns that Zorin is a psychopath, the product of Nazi medical experimentation during World War II, and he 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. Bond soon discovers state geologist Stacey Sutton, whom Zorin has double-crossed, and the two team up. Bond and Sutton then survive a fire started by Zorin in San Francisco City Hall and escape in a stolen fire truck after Zorin kills a city official then frames Bond for the murder. Bond and Sutton then sneak into Zorin's mine where he plots to blow up the "geological lock" to start the massive earthquake. Zorin floods the mine with the first set of explosives, the action almost killing Bond and Zorin's henchwoman May Day, while Sutton escapes the mine. As a result of being betrayed, May Day helps Bond remove the bigger bomb that would destroy the lock, and put the bomb on a handcar to send it out of the mine on a railroad line. However, the brakes on the car malfunction. May Day stays on the car and holds the brakes open. Doing so eventually costs her her life, but saves Silicon Valley. In the final battle, 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 on the Golden Gate Bridge. Zorin's ally Scarpine is knocked out by Stacey Sutton (who escapes to the Bridge) and is helpless for most of the fight. Zorin and Bond then fight upon the bridge resulting with Zorin falling to his death in San Francisco Bay. Scarpine then regains consciousness and his ally Mortner tries to toss dynamite out of the gondola but fails and is blown to smithereens as Bond cuts the rope of the blimp to let it rise and burn. In a final scene Q's surveillance robot, with Q at the controls, sneaks into Stacy's house and spots Bond and Stacy in the shower. When contacted by M about Bond's whereabouts, Q quips "He's cleaning up a few things," before the robot's view is obscured by a well-thrown nightdress. Cast & charactersImage:007ViewtokillMortner.jpg Willoughby Gray as Nazi experimentor Dr. Carl Mortner
This film is not only Roger Moore's swansong, but Lois Maxwell's as well. Maud Adams is often said to be visible as an extra in one of the San Francisco scenes; in the DVD documentary Inside A View to a Kill, Adams explains that she was visiting her friend Roger Moore on location and ended up in the crowd, but admits she is unable to actually see herself in the film; director John Glen, in the same documentary, confirms that Adams appears as an extra, but does not specify where she is visible. Adams, as a result, appears in three Bond films playing different characters, having previously played Andrea Anders in The Man with the Golden Gun in 1974 and the title role in Octopussy in 1983. Notably, Christopher Walken is the first Bond villain actor, and the only chief villain, to have won an Academy Award (Benicio del Toro was only a henchman to the chief villain in Licence to Kill). 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). Early publicity for A View To A Kill in 1984 included an announcement that David Bowie would play Max Zorin. A statement from Albert Broccoli went on record as saying "David would make the perfect villain. We plan to exploit his unique physical oddity - his different-coloured and different-sized eyes." Bowie replied that his appearance in the movie was "absolutely out of the question...I think for an actor it's probably an interesting thing to do, but I think that for somebody from rock it's more of a clown performance. And I didn't want to spend five months watching my stunt double fall off mountains." Many years later, Bowie said that "it was simply a terrible script and I saw little reason for spending so long on something that bad, that workmanlike. And I told them so. I don't think anyone had turned down a major role in a Bond before. It really didn't go down to well at all. They were very tetchy about it." The role of Zorin was offered to Sting and then to Christopher Walken.[1] Dolph Lundgren, best known for his role as Sylvester Stallone's boxing rival Ivan Drago in Rocky IV, has a brief cameo as one of General Gogol's KGB henchman. Grace Jones, who was dating Lundgren at the time, had asked the film's producers to find a small part for Lundgren. Lundgren appears during the confrontation between Gogol and Zorin at the racetrack; Lundgren is seen standing several steps below Gogol. during this scene, May Day lifts another of Gogol's henchman up over her head. Lundgren's character draws his gun. May Day then throws the other henchman into a wall. Sir Godfrey TibbettSir Godfrey Tibbett was played by Roger Moore's friend, British actor Patrick Macnee, who had formerly played secret agent John Steed in The Avengers. An expert on horses from "our department", as M puts it, Tibbett is asked by M to accompany Bond to a thoroughbred horse auction Max Zorin's stables. Despite being technically senior to Bond, Sir Godfrey assumes the role of chauffeur to Bond's "James St. John Smythe", an aristocratic entrepreneur. When Bond's real identity is uncovered, May Day strangles Tibbet in his Rolls Royce while it is in a car wash. Crew
SoundtrackImage:007AVTAKsoundtrack.jpg 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. In 1986 John Barry and Duran Duran were nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song for A View to a Kill. The song was the last track that the original five members of Duran Duran recorded together until 2001, and the only Bond movie theme to reach #1 on the US pop music charts. 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; it has been suggested that this teaser sequence helped initiate interest in snowboarding.[2] Track listing
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
LocationsFilm locationsImage:Chateau de Chantilly garden.jpg Zorin's chateau in Chantilly, France
Shooting locations
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". In July 2006 the stage burned down a second time. In Paris, it was planned that two stunt men, B.J. Worth and Don Caldvedt, would help film two takes of a parachute drop off a (clearly visible) platform that extended from a top edge of the Eiffel Tower. 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 authorization from the City of Paris. He was subsequently sacked by the production team for jeopardizing the continuation of filming in the city. Production notes
ReceptionA View To A Kill is usually mentioned along with The Man With the Golden Gun and Moonraker as one of the poorest entries in the Bond series. Though totaling a box office take of $152.4 million worldwide, the US box office was $50.3 million with US admissions of only 14.1 million - over seven million down from Octopussy (1983). The contemporary criticism centered on the aging Roger Moore (56 when shooting, 57 at completion); in fact many reviews in tabloid newspapers joked that Bond's next gadget from "Q" should be a Zimmer Frame (walker). Roger Moore remarks in his solo commentary (2006 Ultimate DVD Edition) that he regards A View to A Kill as his least favorite Bond film he featured in, citing an increase in violence as a significant reason. Also reflecting on the issue of his age, “Looking back I realized I did look as old as I felt”. In other interviews, Moore stated he felt somewhat embarrassed, since he found out during production that he was older than Tanya Roberts's mother. As with its predecessor Octopussy, this film is often cited as the reason why the creators decided to take the series, revived two years later with Timothy Dalton as Bond, in a darker, more morally ambiguous direction. The plotline was also criticized for being almost identical to that of Goldfinger. 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). Also 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. Additionally, both Zorin and Goldfinger are being bankrolled by the Communists: in the former case, Zorin is an ex-KGB agent, while the dirty bomb intended to irradiate Fort Knox is supplied by the Chinese. Regardless, there are others who disagree that View was one of the worst Bond movies.[3][4]
Series continuity
Video gamesA 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 and 2000 video games GoldenEye 007 and The World is Not Enough for the Nintendo 64. Mayday is also available as a A.I. bot in the 2002 video game, Nightfire.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. In GoldenEye: Rogue Agent, A multiplayer level is the summit of the Golden Gate Bridge, Including a trapdoor deathtrap, and the Zorin blimp, which would fire on players when activated. Players are also able to climb on the large suspension cables, but only for a short distance before slipping and falling to their deaths. References
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